Bunny Elder Adventure Series: Four Complete Novels: Hollow, Vain Pursuits, Seadrift, ...and Something Blue

by J. B. Hawker

  He caught one of the bags as it slipped from her hand.

  “I thought you guys were going to keep Jean under control?”

  “We did. This stuff is mine,” Linda admitted. “That is a great shopping center!”

  Ellery and Jean came in behind Linda, similarly burdened.

  They dropped their bags onto the sofa where Bunny was sitting and began pulling out all their purchases to show her.

  The laughter and happy commotion brought Marki out of her room.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, frowning.

  “These ladies emptied every store in the mall,” Max replied as he brought in a platter of fruit and cheese and set it on the coffee table next to a basket of assorted crackers.

  “This looks yummy, Sweetie. Thanks!” Bunny said, reaching for a slice of apple and a cheese stick.

  “Which mall did you shop at?” Marki asked while admiring a cobalt blue silk blouse Ellery was holding up.

  “The one within walking distance from here. It is a good thing we knew we couldn’t buy more than we could carry, or we might still be there,” Ellery laughed.

  “I am definitely going to check it out. Looks like you got some good stuff.”

  “We better put these things away and get started on dinner,” Jean commented.

  “I sure hope we have room in our luggage for everything. I wasn’t even thinking about that while we shopped,” Linda said as she returned her new things to the shopping bags.

  Dinner that night was relaxed. Even Marki made an effort to be more pleasant.

  Ellery asked Bunny how she liked honeymooning on the sailboat.

  “I was just beginning to get the hang of it, when those pesky pirates crashed our private party,” Bunny replied.

  “Don’t joke about it like that! It was horrible. Those men were monsters! I don’t want to even think about what happened on that ship,” Marki blurted and rushed into her room.

  This outburst stunned the other houseguests.

  “You need to forgive her. Marki was badly abused on that ship. We all saw things we’d rather not remember, but she lived through some of the worst of it, first hand,” Max explained. “It is still way too fresh for her. I think she should have professional counselling, but she refused to even talk about it when I brought it up.”

  “I guess I owe your daughter an apology for some of the things I’ve been thinking,” Ellery responded. “It’s no wonder she seems bitter.”

  “I’m afraid most of her bitterness is directed at me, not the pirates.”

  “Why do you say that?” Linda asked.

  “I let her down, badly, when her mother and I split up. I’m trying to make it up to her, now, but what’s fair compensation for twenty years of neglect?”

  In bed later, Max was sitting up reading. Bunny was lying beside him and she turned toward him, propping herself on one elbow.

  “I’m not sure you should be trying to make things up to Marki.”

  “What? Why do you say that? It doesn’t sound like you, Buns. I neglected her and now I owe her some sort of compensation, don’t I?”

  “You need to make atonement, I guess, for your own peace of mind, but nothing you do will turn back the clock. Seems like the best you can hope for is an improved relationship for the future.”

  “Well, sure. That’s what I want, but it doesn’t hurt for me to pay for her dental work, does it?”

  “Of course not. She’s your daughter. You should spend all the money on her you want…but not in hopes of buying her love or forgiveness or something. You should do it out of affection, not obligation or guilt…and I think you should be prepared that no matter what you do, you may not get the relationship you want.”

  “You’re just being pessimistic because your head aches and you wish everyone would go home. Go to sleep and maybe you won’t be such a Gloomy Gus in the morning.”

  Ellery blew her husband a kiss over the phone and climbed into the sofa bed.

  She was missing Gilles more than she anticipated, and this visit wasn’t quite what she expected. Having Max’s daughter pop up changed the dynamic, somehow. Everyone was just a little tense around her, never knowing how she might react to anything they said. Of course, knowing what she’d been through on the cruise ship made her moods a bit more understandable.

  Ellery decided to try harder to make friends, since they were almost the same age. She included Marki in her prayers, turned out the light and was soon asleep.

  

  Pastor Davidson walked Naidenne to her door where he paused and took her into his arms.

  “Thanks for a lovely evening, Scott. I enjoyed the concert so much,” Naidenne smiled up at her fiancé.

  “Me too,” he replied, kissing her lightly.

  The couple stepped over to the glider in the corner of the covered porch and sat down. Neither wanted their time together to end.

  “Have you heard any more from Bunny and Max?” Scott asked. “I’ve been listening to the account of the ship’s rescue on the news, but no passengers’ names were mentioned. Sounds like it was quite an ordeal, though.”

  “I sent her an email as soon as I read the one she sent me, but I haven’t heard back. She’s still convalescing, though, and has all that company,” Naidenne replied. “I’m dying to talk to her and hear all about it.”

  “They must have quite a story to tell. From the news reports it sounds like something from a movie.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if a movie is made about it, at least one for TV. Seems like we hear about a big event in the news one day and a month later there’s already a movie out about it.”

  “We live in the media age, my darling.”

  “Whatever age we live in, I’m happy as long as we’re together,” Naidenne murmured and nuzzled closer to Scott.

  Some moments passed before Scott looked at his watch and stood up to leave.

  “I’d better let you get some sleep, we’ve both got work tomorrow. Will you be busy at lunchtime?”

  “I will juggle my schedule for you. Where shall we go?”

  “What if we meet at the Crab Shack? It’s supposed to be a nice day. We can eat on the patio. Let me know if you hear from Bunny.”

  “If she doesn’t write tomorrow, I will call her to see how she’s doing.”

  They kissed again, Naidenne went inside and Scott drove away, humming contentedly to himself.

  

  “Hey, Linda, come here!” Jean called to her sister.

  “What is it? I am curling my hair.”

  “Come and sit on this suitcase so I can close it. You’re lots heavier than I am. I can’t get it closed over all this stuff I bought.”

  “What do you mean, ‘lots heavier’? You are just jealous because I’m not flat-chested and flat-bottomed, like some people in this room,” Linda snapped.

  “Just climb down off your high horse and sit on the lid, will you?”

  Linda plopped onto the suitcase and Jean snapped it shut.

  “Thanks! Let me know when you are through in the bathroom. I need to get ready, too, you know.”

  “I’d be done by now if you didn’t keep interrupting me,” Linda responded as she hustled into the bathroom, shutting the door with a bang.

  “Are you two sisters at it, again?”

  Ellery came into the guestroom and sat on the folded duvet at the foot of the stripped bed. “Want me to take that pile of sheets to the laundry room for you?”

  “Would you? Thanks, dear. That will save a little time. If I can’t get Linda to hurry up, we are going to miss our plane!”

  “We’ve got hours, yet, Aunt Jean. Our plane doesn’t leave until 12:15 p.m.”

  “But, we need to be there two hours early to go through security, remember.”

  “Two hours is for International travel. The Houston airport website says we should check in at least one hour before departure time.”

  “It’s forty-five minutes to the airport, remember, and that’s with
good traffic,” Jean responded. “I always like to be early, just in case.”

  Max tapped on the open door and stepped into the room.

  “You ladies have anything for me to carry down to the car?”

  “My bags are in the den all ready to go, Max. Thanks,” Ellery replied.

  “You can take my big cases, too, I still need to use the things in my carry-on, if Linda will ever get out of the bathroom,” Jean raised her voice as she said this last.

  “Oh, good grief! I’m done. Now are you satisfied?” Linda asked as she opened the bathroom door. “Now, don’t dawdle, Jean, we should be leaving soon.”

  Jean started to answer her sister’s infuriating comment, but expelled her breath in a huff and hurried into the bathroom, instead.

  Max exchanged a smile with Ellery before grabbing an armload of suitcases.

  “What do you have in these, Jean?” he called toward the bathroom. “Did you find a sale on anvils at that mall?”

  “Let me help,” Ellery hopped up to get her bags and take them down to the car.

  Max insisted that Bunny say her good-byes at the condo and not accompany them on the long drive to the airport.

  After a flurry of hugs she waved her family off then rode the elevator back upstairs.

  As the lift ascended, her spirits plummeted.

  It was a suddenly bereft Bunny who entered the living room where she discovered Marki sitting on the sofa painting her toe nails.

  “Are they finally gone?” Marki asked without looking up.

  “Do you think you could do that in your room?” Bunny asked her in a tone of voice Marki had never heard her use.

  She looked up in surprise before responding.

  “What’s the big deal? There’s no one here to impress, now.”

  “You might spill that polish and ruin the sofa or the carpet. Besides, it’s not the sort of thing to do in the living room.”

  “I’m not going to spill anything…but what if I did; Max can afford to redecorate, can’t he?”

  “I suppose he could, but why should he have to? I’m not sure where you got the idea that Max has so much money he doesn’t need to be responsible with it. He’s not a billionaire, Marki.”

  “You’re only saying that because you want all his money for yourself. I’ll bet that’s the real reason you decided to marry him, again.”

  “That’s not true, but I don’t want to argue with you about it. My head is throbbing. I’m going to lie down for a little while. Please finish your pedicure in your room.”

  “Sure, but now that your crowd is gone, I’m moving into the big guestroom. Did my dad tell you?”

  Bunny was surprised, but didn’t want to show it. She went into her room and sat on the side of the bed, feeling worse than she had since arriving in Houston.

  Now Bunny was no longer trying to put on a happy face for her sisters and Ellery, the full weight of all the stressful changes, challenges and trauma she’d been through was catching up with her.

  Bunny wanted to curl up in bed and pull the covers over her head...but not here in Max’s Houston condo. She was homesick for her last real home, her cozy townhouse in Bannoch, Oregon.

  Bunny missed her eclectic second-hand decor, the mountain views and, most of all, her church family and friends.

  Giving herself a mental shake, she tried to get past this unusual fit of the gloomies. It was important not to let Max know how she was feeling. He had been through a lot, too, and didn’t need to be worrying about Bunny’s passing moods.

  She would greet him with a smile when he returned. A little nap first should make all the difference.

  Lying in bed, Bunny rolled onto her side, so her tears could slide off onto the pillow, and tried to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Give, and it will be given to you. ─ Luke 6:38

  Before he left for the office, Bunny promised Max she would rest all morning, since her first physical therapy session was that afternoon.

  When she heard the front door slam, the signal she had the place to herself, Bunny got up to fix herself a cup of coffee.

  In the kitchen she found an open loaf of bread on the counter with slices spilling out and an open yogurt cup upended on the kitchen floor. Looking across the kitchen to the living area she could see a bowlful of soggy cereal on an end table beside the sofa. Sections of the morning newspaper were scattered on the floor as though dropped by a whirlwind.

  In spite of her vow to Max, Bunny was constitutionally incapable of ignoring such a mess.

  Before tackling the wreckage, she needed coffee. Seeing grounds floating in the French press carafe, Bunny dumped the coffee out and started a fresh pot before tackling the shambles Marki left behind.

  The girl had rushed off somewhere after eating; abandoning the partially eaten food, dirty dishes, and other evidence of her meal.

  Sliding the last dish into the dishwasher, Bunny felt something sticky on the counter, wiped it up, rinsed the sponge and slumped wearily onto a barstool.

  When her eye landed on her phone, she impulsively snatched it up and dialed.

  A smile lit her face when she heard the answering voice.

  “Hi Naidenne, how are you?” she chirped in response.

  “Bunny! How are you? I’ve been dying to call, but I didn’t want to bother you,” her friend responded.

  “You would never be a bother. I’m just sorry I haven’t called you before now. Things have been pretty hectic around here.”

  “So, tell me everything! I couldn’t believe it when you wrote that you’d been captured by pirates, and neither could Scott. Are you okay?”

  “There’s not much to tell besides what’s already been in the news…or maybe there’s too much to tell. I haven’t even digested everything that’s happened. I seem to have problems concentrating since my head injury.”

  “Exactly how did that happen? How did you get on the cruise ship? Were you frightened out of your mind by the pirates? How badly were you hurt? Are you in a lot of pain?”

  Bunny laughed at Naidenne’s typical rapid fire questioning and settled in for a nice long chat. This was just what she’d been missing.

  

  Max and Bunny were sipping coffee at a table on the sunny patio of the Italian-inspired Empire café in Houston’s trendy Montrose neighborhood.

  “You look beat, Buns. Did the physical therapy wear you out?”

  “I can’t believe I need to relearn how to move my body as the result of a bump on the head. Some of those exercises were really hard. I felt like a baby!”

  “Sweetie, a gunshot wound and brain surgery are a bit more than a bump on the head. That’s why the doctor prescribed physical therapy. Don’t expect to recover so quickly.”

  “I’ll try…but it is so frustrating.”

  The waiter brought their order, slipping their plates onto the table beside the coffee and retreating unobtrusively.

  Bunny took one look at the generous slice of the café’s famous Hummingbird cake and groaned. This three-layer red velvet and peanut butter confection would undo her weight loss from those days on the IV drip diet, for sure.

  “I shouldn’t have let you bring me here, Max. You know how weak I am when confronted with a cake menu. My physical therapy workout has reduced my already feeble resistance to nothing. Don’t expect to get half of my slice to take home today.”

  “I’m not worried about that, Sweetie. You eat it all and just enjoy it. You’ve been looking just a mite peaked, lately.”

  “Not much chance of me wasting away. That is definitely not my problem,” she remarked.

  “Then what is your problem? Seriously, I know you’re tired and all, but something’s been on your mind. I can tell.”

  “Oh, I guess it just got a little lonely after Ellery and my sisters left,” she said, wanting to make light of her depression, but once she’d started, the words just tumbled out and she told Max the depths of her homesickness.

  “I suppose
everything just sort of hit all at once when it quieted down a bit,” she explained. “I’m sure this will pass as soon as I get my strength back.”

  Seeing Max’s distraught expression, she quickly added, “Please don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Really.”

  Max didn’t appear to be convinced, but didn’t argue the point.

  “If you don’t start to feel like yourself soon, you tell me. Maybe we should make an appointment with a therapist, someone who treats post-traumatic stress,” he suggested.

  “That would be silly. It’s not like I’ve been in combat or something. This mood will pass. In fact, I feel better already, see? Watch me cheer up as I make a pig of myself with this decadently scrumptious cake!”

  

  In spite of Bunny’s declaration at the café, she was putting a doggy bag with more than half her dessert into the refrigerator when Marki swept in.

  “Well, what do you think? Aren’t they perfect?” she asked, giving Bunny a “say cheese” grin to show off her dental work.

  With her teeth now restored and her disfiguring injuries almost healed, Bunny could see Marki’s strong resemblance to her father. They had the same dark, wavy hair and large brown eyes rimmed with thick lashes. Noting the obvious likeness, Bunny felt a pang of disappointment and realized she’d been nurturing a secret hope that perhaps Marki wasn’t actually Max’s child, after all. Not very commendable, Buns, she chastised herself.

  “Oh, very nice! They look perfect and quite natural, now. And they are so bright, too.”

  “Yeah, I told the dentist to give me the whole treatment, whitening and all.”

  Max entered the kitchen as Marki spoke.

  “When will I be getting the bill for all this glamour?”

  “Never. I paid with your credit card, so it’s all taken care of. Hey, I’ve got to get on Skype and show my mom how great I look. She’ll never believe it. I’ve needed my overlapping front teeth straightened forever!”

  She rushed off to the guestroom leaving Max and Bunny alone.

  “That’s the happiest I’ve seen her since we met,” Bunny commented.