They reached a compromise. Announcements were sent to everyone, but Liam put his foot down, and the wedding was kept to a manageable size. The boy had a backbone after all.
Tava’e insisted on taking charge of the food, as well as providing the venue. Her and Jean’s gift to the new couple. Until she drove Amy there to look at it, Logan had never seen their home.
When Tava’e walked them through the living room to get to the backyard, Amy’s jaw dropped and her eyes grew wide. Koa-wood floors topped with natural fiber rugs, stretched to a wall of windows overlooking a dramatic ocean view.
OMG! Amy mouthed silently to her mom.
When they stepped out onto the stretch of white, sandy beach where the ceremony and reception were going to be, she started jumping up and down. Squealing, she gave the Samoan woman a huge hug.
“Thank you! Thank you! This is so perfect!” Amy said.
With a thousand relatives to get the work done, Tava’e didn’t need much help from them, so Amy and Logan spent much of the next two weeks at the center with Sadie and Otter 2. Gina had given up on ever releasing Sadie back to the wild, so Amy’s otter became the first permanent resident of the center and official children’s ambassador.
Otter 2, the rescued male pup from La Jolla, was working with a surrogate mother on loan from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They’d forgiven Gina for jumping the gun and were fully supporting her efforts. Otter 2 was scheduled to be released in a couple of months if all continued to go well with his training. Gina made sure everyone working with this otter wore their gear and went by the rules. But secretly, Gina had named him Jeff.
Ben had his guys put the final touches on the new tile work and hooked up the sculpture fountain Solange had designed. The opening of the center was a huge success. They were already booked for class field trips through November.
Guests began arriving at Tava’e’s around 6:00 p.m.
Amy asked Ben to give her away, and for the wedding march, she asked her mom to play a lilting Scottish tune to walk her down the plumeria-strewn, sandy aisle, where Liam waited, beaming.
The simple ceremony was over by seven. Everyone carried their folding chairs back up to the tables and got ready to eat. The smell of dinner had been driving everyone crazy for the last half hour.
Jean outdid himself. Baskets of fresh, aromatic French bread filled the tables. The spread started with trays of delicate prosciutto-wrapped asparagus; ruby-red sliced tomatoes topped with fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled in olive oil; and tossed green salad. Herbed olive oil or butter for the bread. Ratatouille for the vegetarians, bacon-wrapped scallops, shrimp, and, for the true carnivores, Tava’e’s relatives roasted a pig in the traditional Samoan umu style. And of course, tons of steaming white rice. It was all delicious.
Danny and Epiphany manned the coffee bar and dessert table, which boasted a towering coconut wedding cake. For the chocoholics like Logan, there was molten lava sauce, otherwise known as hot fudge, and ice cream on the side. Or poured all over the coconut cake, whichever you preferred.
“Hey, beautiful,” Ben said, wrapping his arms around her.
Rubbing her arms up and down to warm them, he gave her his jacket and spread a blanket he’d spirited out of the trunk of his car. Pulling her against him, he wrapped her in his arms.
Leaning back, she smiled up at him. Blue eyes, spilling over with emotion, burned into her green ones.
This man loved her. This beautiful, good man loved her. How had she gotten so lucky? A lump rose in her throat, and tears threatened to fall onto her own cheeks.
For the next few minutes, until the cold chased them back to the warmth of the crowd, they sat wrapped in each other’s arms, watching the moon play over the water.
Epilogue
Logan sat in her office over the former garage and looked out the windows. Amy and Liam were off on their honeymoon. The man who’d attacked Solange, chased Amy into an angry ocean, and killed Jeff, had been killed himself.
And the man who’d held her at gunpoint and coldly dispatched Solange with a hard blow to the head, Felix Rodriguez, was in custody, awaiting trial. The man had been so overconfident, he hadn’t bothered covering his tracks. Rick said Detective Andrews had a ton of evidence against him. The normally careful criminal had operated so long under the radar he thought he was immune to detection. Blinded by greed, Felix Rodriguez was going away for a very long time.
The sun was up, but the day lay before her, coated in a thin gray film. She felt an urge to get up and scrub the whites white again—make the colors pop.
She sighed and brought her attention back inside. She’d done everything she could, but she was going to have to face facts. Only a few small grants had come through. Not enough to save Fractals. Or her job.
She might as well make the calls. School started in five days.
That wouldn’t give Tilly and Jeremy much time to go back to regular teaching again and set up their classrooms or prepare lessons for the first week of school, but she’d help, and Ben said he’d pitch in over Labor Day weekend. It was the least she could do.
She was grateful they didn’t have to outright fire anyone. They would still have jobs. Being only temporarily assigned to Fractals, they were still on contract with the district. There were always a few openings at the beginning of the year due to unexpected changes in enrollment or teachers extending maternity leave. But they would have no control over their assignment. They’d be placed wherever there was an opening—and right now, the only posts on the job board were in primary K–3. Tilly Jones was an accomplished jazz pianist, and Jeremy Allen a talented saxophonist and popular middle school band leader. She couldn’t picture either one of them teaching the Hokey Pokey to kindergarteners. She couldn’t put it off any longer. Logan reached for her phone.
She chickened out and dialed Jeremy’s number first. He was less scary than Tilly. Before he answered, call waiting beeped through. Happy to put off her conversation with Jeremy another five minutes, she took the call.
“Logan! Glad you were in. Rita here,” the familiar voice said. “How do you feel about commuting?”
“Commuting?”
That didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t fly back and forth to the New School to teach math and music. What was she talking about?
When Rita offered her the job originally, Logan was tempted, but had turned it down. She hadn’t turned it down just to keep Fractals alive. Although she loved everything Rita was doing at the New School, with Ben in her life, and hopefully even Amy and Liam nearby, she didn’t want to move.
But now she was out of a job, so she decided to hear her out.
What Rita had to offer was better than a job.
Not one to allow talent to slip through her fingers, Rita had funneled some of her own grant money, with permission from her own benefactors, of course, to expand Fractals in size and scope. Sort of a dual-campus proposition.
She told Logan she could add the technical and programming expertise of Huey, including his animated dolphin computer program, and all Logan had to do was promise to help hire people to replicate the existing music/math courses at the New School campus.
As far as commuting, Logan would only need to commit to going up there a few weeks up front, while they hired the new staff, and visits as needed after that. Rita estimated that after the initial setup, no more than twenty percent of her year would need to be spent physically up at the New School. There was money for Huey to come to California and train her people here.
If Logan was interested, Rita would fly down next week and work out the details.
Logan shut her eyes and held her breath, trying to think. The woman had turned herself inside out to make this happen. She deserved an answer.
Fractals could keep going. Tilly and Jeremy would get to keep doing what they loved. She got Huey! He was amazing. Her brain was
already buzzing with ways they could integrate technology into the program.
But best of all, she didn’t have to give up the life she had just begun to build. Gazing out at the ocean from her rooftop deck. With Ben.
Suddenly, things became very clear.
“Yes,” she said, feeling a flood of relief. “Hell yes!”
Devil's Claw Page 21