Guiding the Fall

by Christy Hayes

  “Oh, that’s a pretty good idea. But what are we going to do? Keep sending gifts back and forth?”

  “Until he asks you out.”

  “A date?”

  “Isn’t that usually how it goes?”

  “I don’t think there’s a usual in this circumstance.” She fell onto the bed and admired her pink toe nail polish. “So how does it feel to be back?”

  Jill shrugged. “Besides driving through town to get here last night, I haven’t left the house. I’m saving all my energy for our trip to Colorado Springs to dress shop.”

  “So what are we waiting for?” Olivia asked and pulled her off the bed. “Let’s go get you a dress!”

  ***

  Ty fumbled with the door to the cabin. His hands were full of take-out from the Pizza Den. He’d stopped to visit with his mom after work. With Jill gone, he didn’t see a reason to hurry home, and a free meal was better than cooking one himself.

  He changed into shorts and an old Sequoyah High T-shirt and settled with his grandfather in front of the TV to watch the Braves play. The Braves were in a hunt for the wildcard and a win over the Miami Marlins could clinch the deal. In the bottom of the ninth with one out and two runners on, the Braves were down by one with the winning run on second base. His phone rang as their rookie centerfielder rocked a line drive into the right field corner. He answered on the fourth ring as the winning run crossed the plate three steps ahead of the throw.

  “Jill?”

  “I didn’t think you were going to answer.”

  “Sorry. Braves made it into the wildcard, like, two seconds ago.”

  “I thought you sounded in a good mood.”

  “It’s not a bad way to end the night. Only thing missing is you.” He waved goodnight to his granddad and headed across the path to the cabin he shared with Jill. “How’d the shopping go?”

  “It went. I’m exhausted.”

  Ty wandered into the kitchen to find the cookies Jill made before leaving town. He bit into a chocolate chip cookie and nearly moaned. His woman sure knew how to bake. “Is it done?”

  Jill laughed. “Oh, no. But at least I got a dress. After a long, torturous day of being dragged from dress shop to dress shop, I finally convinced my mom and Olivia that I didn’t have to try on every dress in Springs. I knew what I wanted all along, but it took all day for them to realize I was right.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell them from the beginning?”

  “Oh, Ty, I forget how clueless you men are sometimes. Women are a whole different breed. You must use caution and kid gloves at all times, especially when planning a wedding and the women in question are your mother and your maid of honor.”

  “Then I guess I should thank you for doing the bulk of this wedding stuff without me.”

  “Yes, you seriously owe me for this one.”

  “We could always save everyone the effort…”

  “Now? Are you kidding? The plane is barreling down the runway with the front wheels off the ground. If we spill the beans now, we’d be in big trouble.”

  “They’re family. They love us. They’d eventually forgive us.”

  “It’s too late, Ty. We can’t turn back now.”

  “Okay, I just want you home. I’m not sure how I ever spent twenty-four years without you.”

  “You didn’t know me then, so you didn’t know what you were missing.”

  “I sure know now.” He plopped on the couch. “What are you wearing?”

  Jill giggled. “Oh, no. I can’t do that now. There’s a plotting session in the kitchen in ten minutes. They barely let me have a break to call you.”

  “They’re slave drivers.”

  “Trust me. The quicker I get this done, the quicker I can come home and show you exactly what I’m wearing so you can peel it off piece by piece.”

  “With my teeth.” Images of her sprawled on the airport floor sprang into his mind.

  “If you must.” Jill sighed, and he swore he felt her breath on his face. “I love you, Ty.”

  “Not as much as I love you.” He hung up and stared at the ceiling. He was as whipped as a man could be and not looking forward to another night alone.

  Chapter 15

  Lyle knocked on Jack’s door at exactly one o’clock on Tuesday afternoon. He hoped for a friendlier reception than he’d received the last time he’d been on the property. Jack answered wearing a beaming smile, jeans, and a designer T-shirt. Lyle had to remind himself that Jack couldn’t see when his eyes lingered on Lyle’s face and he opened the door.

  “Welcome to our home,” Jack said with a wave of his arm.

  Gone were the boxes of unpacked belongings. The house was furnished in big, brown leather chairs, an olive green couch large enough for a man Jack’s size to lounge on, and a smattering of Indian inspired rugs in rust and gold. Bold oil paintings of horses on the range and mountain scenes filled the walls.

  “Thanks.” Lyle waited for Jack to shut the door and followed him to the kitchen table where a pitcher of lemonade sat on a tray with a plate of sugar cookies. Except for feeling for where the counter jutted out at a point, Jack seemed to walk with ease around the open space. “You don’t have to feed me while we work.”

  Jack chuckled. “That was Erica’s doing. She said you’re too skinny.”

  Too skinny, huh? That meant she’d thought about him. He found himself curiously pleased considering she’d occupied his mind too much in the last few days. “I’m a runner. Nothing sticks even though I eat like a horse.”

  “Then dig in. She’s an incredible cook. Desserts are her specialty.”

  Lyle plucked a cookie from the platter and took a big bite. The tang of lemon mixed with sugar melted in his mouth and made him close his eyes and focus all his attention on the explosion of flavor. “Wow, these cookies are amazing.”

  “She’ll be pleased you think so.”

  “I doubt that,” Lyle said under his breath as he pulled a yellow legal pad from his bag.

  “She’s got to get to know you before she’ll be nice. Don’t be offended.”

  “I’m not, but I’m glad to hear it’s not just me.”

  “So…” Jack spread his fingers wide on the honey wood table. “Where would you like to start?”

  “I’ve compiled as much research as is available on your early years. Your time at Feldman Brothers, your success with Forrester. I knew you’d dropped out of the game rather suddenly, but until we met last week at the Tap, I wasn’t sure why.”

  “Not many people know. I’m only now ready to let the truth out.”

  “Why the mystery?”

  Jack pursed his lips and tilted his head. “I was more successful than I ever thought possible. The money was pouring in, my instincts never led me astray, and I had the best of everything at my fingertips. I’d worked my ass off since I was seventeen, studying the markets, shadowing my mentors at Feldman, soaking up everything I could get my hands on.”

  Jack bit his lip and leaned forward, lacing his hands together on the table. From his posture—the rigid set of his shoulders and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat—Lyle could tell he wasn’t altogether comfortable discussing the past.

  “There’s a sweetness to success when you’ve built it all from nothing. It’s hard to explain, but that fire doesn’t ever go out. One big deal leads you to want bigger, one enormous payout makes you work three times as hard to make more. I made more money than I could spend in a lifetime, but that didn’t matter. Nothing did. At some point, the quest for success turned into an addiction. The highs were fleeting and the only thing that mattered was making more.”

  “Did you burn out before you lost your vision?”

  Jack shrugged, but the move was more forced than casual. “It’s possible the stress and anxiety advanced my condition, but it would have happened anyway.”

  “What is your condition?”

  “Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, otherwise known as LHON. It’s a genetic condition m
ostly affecting men between twenty and sixty. I was lucky to make it to thirty-two before my vision blew.”

  “Lucky, huh?”

  “I still have more money than I can spend. I’m otherwise healthy, and I didn’t lose all of my vision.”

  Lyle tapped his pen on his pad after writing down the name of Jack’s condition. “I thought you told Olivia you were blind as a bat.”

  “I’m legally blind. I can’t drive or read, and to most folks, blind is blind.”

  “What can you see?”

  “I have no central vision, but I can see out of my periphery. I can pull off being sighted pretty well.”

  “Could you have found your way to the bathroom at the Tap without Olivia’s help?”

  He smiled as if he’d just magically palmed Lyle’s wallet. “Yes, but then I wouldn’t know just how soft her skin is and how wonderful she smells. Are you two serious?”

  Lyle sputtered. “Olivia and I? Dating? No, we’re simply sharing living space until my cabin is ready.”

  “Ah, the famous cabin across the river. How’s it coming?”

  “It’s coming.”

  “So, tell me about Olivia,” Jack said.

  Lyle took a breath, held it while he stared at Jack’s expectant face, and let it out slowly. “What do you want to know?”

  “I know she guides at her brother’s raft shop in the summer, she’s student teaching now, and she’s sexy as hell.”

  “Okay…”

  “What does she look like? Exactly?”

  Lyle thought of Olivia coming out of her room that morning. Her blond hair reminded him of a wheat field in the summer, thick and always on the move. She couldn’t hide her figure even though she’d tucked it into a conservative skirt and button-up blouse. “She’s blond, blue-eyed, built.” Lyle shrugged. “She knows she’s gorgeous. She likes to be the center of attention. She’s smart, but you’d never know it when she starts in on her act.”

  “Her act?”

  “You know. The hair flipping, the sexy sashaying, the flirtatious stares. She’s a walking advertisement for sex.”

  That didn’t sound like the woman he’d been texting. Or maybe it did. “Does she play hard to get or is she hard to get?”

  “I used to think it was an act—the hard to get thing—but I’ve been living with her for a couple of weeks now, and I haven’t even heard her talk to a guy. I think she just kind of acts the way people expect her to act.”

  “And how is that?”

  “Like her mom. She used to be local, but now she lives over the pass and runs an herbal shop. She’s…flighty and…I don’t know, a little weird. She comes across like someone who’s smoked too much pot. Olivia’s dad was older and well off. People assumed her mom married him for his money.”

  “Did she?”

  “Not according to Olivia, or her half-brother, Tommy.”

  “So Olivia lives with you and doesn’t date?”

  “Oh, she dates, but just not lately and never for long. Her parents set a high bar. I don’t think she’ll ever get serious with a man until she feels the kind of spark her parents had.”

  Jack settled back into his chair and seemed to digest that information. Lyle thought about mentioning the fact that Olivia had hounded him for information on Jack, but he decided he didn’t want to be any more involved in their relationship.

  In the quiet, Lyle heard the melodic sound of a guitar. He turned his head toward the back of the house and he saw Erica sitting on the porch with a guitar. The sight was like a punch to his solar plexus. Her long, dark hair tumbled around her face and halfway down her back as she concentrated on the chords and hummed along. He’d never, in all his life, seen or heard anything more beautiful.

  “She’s good,” Jack said of his sister. “She’s got real talent, but every time I encourage her to do something with it, she shuts me down. She seems content to just strum her tunes now and again.”

  “I’ve never heard that song before,” Lyle said without taking his eyes off Erica.

  “She makes them up. She comes up with great tunes and lyrics, but she says she’s just messing around. It seems a shame for me to be the only one who hears her.”

  “Ummm,” Lyle agreed. A damn shame. As if she knew they were talking about her, she stopped playing, turned her head, and met Lyle’s stare. Her expression dared him to look away first. He held her eyes until Jack broke the spell.

  “She must have heard us talking about her. I swear she’s got sonic hearing.”

  Lyle reminded himself he was there to interview Jack, not ogle his sister. He turned in his seat and reviewed his list of questions. “So, tell me what it’s like to work at Feldman.”

  Chapter 16

  Olivia scanned the faces of Westmoreland Middle School as she made her way down the hall toward her classroom. It wasn’t technically her classroom. She shared it with Mrs. Evans, but that didn’t stop her from smiling at her name written on the white board outside the door. Perhaps it was best that she’d taken her time through college, taking a semester off here and there to work and save money. And to play. Like the kids ambling into her classroom, their student teacher had a serious appreciation for downtime in the summer.

  Her students were an interesting mix of personalities and lifestyles—a nice representative slice of life in Westmoreland. Some kids came from families like Jill’s; white collar, two-parent homes. Some kids worked alongside their parents after school and on weekends on the family farm. Some would join their recreation-minded parents on camping and ski trips. And some, Olivia thought, eyeing a mischievous boy she’d already sent to the principal’s office once, were the unfortunate offspring of the county’s notorious school superintendent, Bitsy Hellenbrook.

  “Cole,” she said and brought his attention to the front of the classroom and away from poor, defenseless Tammy Albright, “unless you plan on reading that note to the class, I suggest you put it away.”

  The boy scowled and tucked the note inside his desk. When she turned her back on the class to write an assignment on the black board, she figured he’d either stuck his tongue out or flipped her off because she heard a smattering of giggles.

  Mrs. Evans and some of the other teachers had warned her about Cole Hellenbrook. “He’s a tyrant,” Mrs. Evans had said on her first day. “You can’t do a thing in the world about his behavior because of his mother.”

  “Why not?” Olivia had naively asked. She couldn’t imagine a superintendent tolerating misbehavior from her child.

  “She’ll make your life hell. They don’t call her Dr. Hell for nothing.”

  Olivia had gone against popular opinion and sent the disobedient boy to see the principal after a shoving match on the playground left another boy in tears. Mrs. Evans shook her head and clucked her tongue when they’d come inside and she’d told her. Much to Olivia’s dismay, Cole was back in class ten minutes later with nothing more than a warning and a superior look on his smug little face. He’d caused her trouble every day since.

  “Turn in your books to chapter three,” Olivia instructed. Mrs. Evans had showed her the lesson’s curriculum and disappeared into the bathroom. Olivia hadn’t expected to spend so much time teaching so early in the semester, but Mrs. Evans clearly didn’t mind taking a break whenever she could. After thirty years of teaching, the woman was counting the days to her retirement. “Who can tell me some of the ways society changed due to the spread of the industrial revolution through Europe in the mid to late1800s?”

  The quiet daughter of a migrant worker raised her hand. Olivia had already pegged her as highly intelligent and consistently prepared for class. She waited to see if anyone else raised his or her hand before calling on the girl. “Yes, Amy.”

  “There were lots of diseases because people moved to the cities and their housing was dirty and poor.”

  “Like yours,” Cole whispered loudly and was rewarded with a chorus of laughs.

  “Cole, can you give us another example of how Europe ch
anged with the industrial revolution?” Olivia caught the flash of something metal in his hands.

  “People smelled bad,” he offered.

  “Communal living sometimes does create a noxious odor.” She looked around the room. “Anyone else?”

  Donny, with his hair in a ponytail and the faded poncho he wore every day pushed up to his elbows, said, “The factories didn’t pay people much.”

  “Very good. Yes, the factories paid low wages and the working conditions were often very bad.”

  Olivia walked up and down the aisles of desks. On her way back to the front of the room, she pulled Cole’s phone from his grasp. “You know the rule, Cole. No cell phone use in class.”

  “I was texting my mom.”

  “I don’t care if you were texting God. You can pick this up at the end of the day.” She tucked the phone inside Mrs. Evans’ desk drawer and leaned on the corner. Her pretty yellow flowers had opened, reminding her of the sexy email Jack had sent earlier in response to her thank you. He’d invited her to dinner at his house. She pulled her mind back to the class and continued. “Can anyone tell me what formed in order to protect the workers?”

  Olivia continued to pull answers from unwilling students until their fifty minutes were up. The kids spilled out into the hallway when the bell rang.

  Cole slung his backpack over his shoulder and made a beeline for her desk. “I need my phone back.”

  “I told you to come by at the end of the day. I won’t leave until you get it back.”

  “Do you know who my mom is?” he asked.

  Yes, you little punk, she wanted to say. I believe they call her Dr. Hell, making you a little devil. “I’m aware of your mother’s position, Cole.”

  “She’s not going to like it when I tell her you took my phone.”

  “I’m sure she’s aware of the school’s no cell phone use during instruction time policy. In fact, she may have implemented it herself.”

  “She wants me to keep my phone with me at all times.”

  “Then you’ll have to explain to her why you lost it today.”