Better Than Gold

by Mary Brady

  “Two it is.”

  “Hey, I heard that Daniel—”

  Mia interrupted. “I know what you heard. We can talk about it over tacos.”

  “How many times—” Monique asked and snickered.

  “Over tacos. I’ll be at the dry cleaners in fifteen minutes or less with tacos.”

  “Wait. Barbara’s here. She can cover for me during lunch. I’ll only be two doors down, after all. I’ll meet you at Loco Tacos in five minutes.”

  With trays of food and drink Mia and Monique sat in the corner as far away from the moms and preschoolers as they could get.

  “A few weeks and we’ll be able to eat outside,” Mia said as she squeezed hot sauce from the package on her tostada, her compromise. When it came to ordering two tacos, she just couldn’t do it, but two bean tostadas and she was in heaven.

  “Okay. Okay. Out with it, Monique. You look like you’re ready to burst.”

  “Lenny surprised me last night.”

  “Lenny? Our Lenny? I’m such a bad friend. I forgot he was coming over. What did he do?”

  “He brought me flowers. Other than you, no one has brought me flowers, ever.”

  “So did he ask for another date? If not, let me know. I got a big hammer that seems to be causing trouble. I could do some pretty heavy damage to his kneecaps with it.”

  “He traded workdays. He wants to take me to a new movie in Bangor. Imagine seeing a first-run movie. Says he already has tickets, just in case I said yes.”

  “Wow, who’d’a thought? Are you sure you like him, because I’m starting to think I do.”

  “Can I borrow your hammer?”

  Mia laughed. “I saw your granddad last night. I went to Braven’s and drank with him and his cronies.”

  “Okay.” Monique gave her furrowed-brow look.

  “I knew where he’d be and I went to see if I could feel him out.”

  “I’m thinking if you had any luck, you’d have already told me.”

  “I could hardly get a word out of him. But I can tell you he seemed conflicted, like he wasn’t sure about anything yet.”

  “I hope so,” Monique said around a bite of taco, a dollop of sour cream on her upper lip.

  “Switching topics,” Mia said, reaching out with her napkin to get the white splotch.

  “About time. Let’s have it.”

  “I have some new swatches of a nice plaid vinyl for the booth covers.”

  Monique made a face. “You know what I want to hear.”

  “I can tell you that I’m checking the marriage and birth records at the church this afternoon and then I might have something very interesting I can tell you.”

  “I want to hear about you and Daniel.”

  Mia thought for a moment before she answered. “You’re going to be disappointed.”

  “Well, apparently there aren’t enough disappointments in my life, ’cause I’m dying to know, anyway,” Monique said as she opened her second taco.

  “Daniel and I are—um—friends.”

  “Oh, no. How did that happen? From six to zero a in day.”

  Mia tried not to spit tostada all over the table. “Hey, I’m eating here.”

  “Come on, you gotta admit. You two made quite an about-face. It’s weird.”

  “It was—um—eye-opening.”

  Monique leaned forward on her elbows and put her chin in her hands. “Go on.”

  “He’s in some sort of personal crisis. Something horrible happened to him.”

  “Awww. Had his heart broken? Haven’t we all.”

  “It’s worse than that, much worse. I don’t know what it is or how to explain how I know, but whatever it is it makes him feel like he’s unable to get into a relationship.”

  “So what does he think will happen to him if he does?”

  “I don’t think he’s worried about himself at all. I think he’s afraid of breaking someone’s heart, my heart in this case, but, ha-ha, what else is new?” She put her hands to her head. “For once, I don’t think it’s me.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I learned something about myself, something pretty profound and I didn’t like it.”

  “Do tell.” Monique slurped her drink to the noisy bottom.

  “Daniel and I spent time together, meaningful time, happy, sad, talking about his aunt, about how he no longer has anyone to hug him. It struck me, I’d never made friends with my lovers. I guess I thought as long as we had good sex we had a good relationship. How shallow am I?”

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  “How shallow I am?”

  “No. Now, I don’t like speaking ill of the living, but have you never sat with your parents. Listened to their conversations?”

  “I know they aren’t the best of friends, but they love each other.”

  “Yes, they do the best they can. They might even still lust after each other.”

  “Are you trying to shock me here?”

  “No, I’m just trying to tell you I don’t think you had the greatest role models for what a wonderful, romantic relationship looks like. You did what they did, and thank goodness, you didn’t get what they got. I’m sorry, honey—” Monique paused and put a hand on Mia’s arm “—but Rory would have needed to evolve to make it up to weasel.”

  “I’ve started trying to be kind when I remember him, but I can’t say you’re wrong.”

  Monique sighed and took a bite of her churros. “I always had such hopes for us, knights on white horses, happily ever after and all that stuff.”

  “That’s what I always thought I was after. Now that I’ve had a taste of what having a man as a friend and lover might be like, I have to tell you, I could get used to it. I just don’t get to get used to it with this particular man.”

  “Are you sure? The two of you made one heck of a connection and you made it quickly. Can’t you find out what his hang-up is and work on it with him? You know, be his friend?”

  “You didn’t see him whenever we got close to the subject. It nearly laid him out and I don’t mean in a good way. I told him if ever wanted to tell me, I’d listen.”

  “Nice and friendly.”

  “I guess when I decide to grow up, I do it all at once. I would have thought I had experienced enough of the world to have figured things out before now.”

  “I suspect we don’t ever stop figuring things out.” Monique wrapped up the remains of her taco. “So you didn’t just stop having, you know, those kinds of feelings for him?”

  “No, oh, no. I want him. I want him when he’s here and I want him, well... I want him right now.”

  “How are you all right with all that going on?” Monique squinted into the sunshine now streaming in the window.

  “I’ve decided not to be a mess.”

  “And you can keep that up?”

  Mia huffed out a breath before she spoke. “I will hold it completely together until Daniel MacCarey is gone, and then I intend to get on with my life—somehow.”

  “Do you think he’s the one?”

  “Heaven help me, Monique, if he is.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What I need to do. I’m going to get Pirate’s Roost open if I have to get the hammer and nails myself.”

  Monique put her hand over Mia’s. “I’m so sorry, honey. I wish things were better for you. Is he here in town? Do you have to spend your days avoiding your—ah—friend?”

  “He’s gone back to the university.”

  “And while he’s gone you don’t get to work on the Roost, do you?”

  Mia shook her head. “And they’re starting to desert the sinking ship. This morning at Mandrel’s, I heard that Stella has taken a job at the gas station store
out at the interstate. Rufus and Charlie aren’t that interested in traveling out of town, so they hadn’t found anything yet, but even they have to eat. Jobs might be tight, but almost all employers can pay more than I can afford.”

  “I have faith in you, honey.”

  “The thing that troubled me most is Markham Construction called and bumped me for sure this time, and I can’t talk them out of it. The best I could get out of them is a maybe for the following week.”

  “Wow. That does so suck,” Monique said as she checked her phone for the time. “What do you need to be ready for them?”

  “I just need to get the demo finished.”

  “On that note, I’m sorry, but your friend has to bail on you, and you’ll let her because Barbara will have a nervous breakdown if I don’t get back soon and I’ll have to work all day, every day. So go to the church and check the records and report the gossip.”

  As Monique walked away, Mia realized she didn’t feel any better. Talking to Monique had always lifted her flagging spirits. Not today.

  She picked up her tray. Time to start holding it together. Oh, Daniel, I wish I could make things better for you, she thought. Be safe. Take care of yourself.

  When she dumped her trash into the can, her chest felt as if she’d dumped her heart in, too.

  * * *

  THE VISIT AT Eleanor’s took longer than Daniel anticipated when it turned out she had invited three of her friends to share their tea.

  The women, all dressed similarly to Eleanor, were duly impressed with the ring and even more so with the mystery of how it might have gotten from a coach in transit in England to the pocket of a colonial the likes of Daniel MacCarey in the twenty-first century.

  The women she had invited were all tenured experts in various aspects of Victorian and Regency England, the New England states, or the colonial and the post–Revolutionary War United States. They eagerly agreed to research and see what they could find out about Liam Bailey and to consult with the students. In the process Eleanor Wahl had scored a coup among her friends.

  His students were gone by the time he reached the lab and he decided that was just as well.

  In his office at last, Daniel wrapped up the paperwork he needed to keep the Bailey’s Cove project moving, more like chugging, along the slow university track. Then he sat back with his feet propped up on the desk.

  Thoughts of Mia flowed into the void. They always did. He found if he wasn’t actively working on something, she slipped in and made him want her all over again.

  He wanted to touch her, to have her kiss him and caress him, to sit and hold her in his arms. Sometimes when he got like this he started to doubt himself, started to think it was all right to let her in, to tell her. They could figure out a way for the two of them to be together.

  But he couldn’t do that to her. Just knowing could change her.

  He removed his feet from the desk. He wasn’t enthusiastic about leaving, but he was even less so about staying. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but his car seemed like some sort of refuge these days. It always managed to take him away from places he didn’t want to or shouldn’t be.

  He had just grabbed his vest and put it on when a shadow darkened his doorway.

  “Glad I caught you, Dr. MacCarey.”

  His boss and the department chair, Dr. Gary Donovan stepped into the office. When his boss used “Dr. MacCarey” there was always a want involved.

  “What can I do for you, Dr. Donovan?”

  “Just looking for an update on our pirate.”

  “Not much to tell, sir. The man was most likely from the early part of the nineteenth century.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  “He was murdered. Knife in the back.”

  “These people will love the intrigue.”

  Daniel could see Dr. Donovan loved the idea, not of murder but of the excitement. “The students have started working on clothing reconstruction.”

  “Good. I’m having a cocktail party tomorrow night and I need you to attend because the pirate people will be there.”

  Daniel regretted he hadn’t left sooner. He hadn’t been asked to attend one of the fund-raising cocktail parties in years. Not since his son’s birth.

  “Where? What time?” Daniel asked.

  “We’ll be at the botanical gardens, 7:00 p.m. sharp. Black-tie.”

  Daniel nodded. Dr. Donovan might be brusque and pushy, but the man had given Mandy and him anything they’d needed without question when Mandy was pregnant and sick and when Sammy was struggling through his short life. Because of that, Dr. Donovan could ask Daniel to crawl on his belly across hot coals and he’d do it.

  “And, Daniel, you should consider bringing a date, it will help the matrons keep their minds on donations and not other things.”

  “Dr. Donovan, I’d like to release the site in Bailey’s Cove to Ms. Parker. The builder’s project is in jeopardy and the sooner the site is free, the better.”

  “Not yet. We need to see what this donor expects, how much they want to be involved. We may need the raw site as leverage. If it’s demolished and plastered over, even if we hang a plaque on it, it won’t be distinguishable from any other site where you have to take people’s word that something significant happened there.”

  “I’ll invite the builder to come tomorrow night.”

  “Go ahead. Just make sure he dusts his coveralls off first.”

  “I’ll do that,” Daniel said, picturing Mia the first time he’d met her.

  “I have to go. There is a nice bland chicken breast and dry salad dinner with my name on it.” He patted his spreading waistline and, his business done, scooted out the door.

  Daniel drove to his condo, willingly for the first time in a long time. When he got there he kicked off his shoes, poured two fingers of neat scotch and made a phone call to Mia.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MIA TUGGED THE QUILT up under her chin and turned on her side with her phone under her ear. The fire crackled behind the glass doors while she breathed and tried to think of what she was supposed to say.

  “Mia?”

  “Give me a moment, Daniel.”

  She took another breath. Excitement clenched in her chest and caution signs flashed wildly inside her head. All she had to do was be polite and friendly.

  Maybe he was...

  And make no preconceived ideas about this call. Breathe.

  “How are things at the university?” she asked when she had some semblance of calm.

  “The students are working on dating the clothing and will have a reconstruction of the face soon.”

  “Great.” She wanted badly to ask him how he was, but she didn’t want to give him cause to lie.

  “I’m not calling about that. I have a favor to ask you and I’m sorry this is such short notice, but would you be able to come to a cocktail party tomorrow evening? It’s a fund-raiser. My department head will be there, as well as some people interested in funding the work I’m doing with the find from Pirate’s Roost.”

  Mia studied the fire’s low flame and wondered if she needed to go out and get more wood. Would this funding get them in and out of her building sooner? Would he ask her if he thought her coming to this party would harm her chances of getting them out of her building?

  “Mia? Sweetheart?”

  Adrenaline rushed through her, speeding up her heart and making her body tense as if ready for something. Sweetheart. She took a breath.

  “Daniel, I don’t know what to say.”

  “I asked to get the site released to you today and the department head turned me down.”

  “And if I come to the cocktail party, I can put a face on the situation here in Bailey’s Cove. Make turning me down harder.” She needed to get Mark
ham Construction to come to her place next week, not in September.

  “Are you interested? Wait, before you answer, it’s black-tie.”

  Daniel in a tuxedo. If she weren’t already on the floor, she would have fallen there. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You are such a guy. Have you never looked at yourself in a tux? I just got a mental picture of you in a black tux and I have to tell you, if I come up there and spend a couple of hours, I cannot, cannot be responsible for what happens after.”

  “So will you come?”

  She had given up all reservations and she knew it.

  “What time? Where? Hold on, I’ll need a place to change when I get there.”

  “Come to my place. The party starts at seven.”

  “Is 3:00 p.m. all right?” Come to my place should be glorious words, but they were somehow frightening.

  “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

  “Oh, the usual, read records, pray for miracles.” Let him figure out for himself what those miracles might be.

  “Come for lunch. Pack a bag.”

  She flopped out spread-eagle, flinging the quilt aside. “I am dead. You realize that.”

  “Can you use some makeup to disguise that?”

  She laughed. Ah-yah, she was in for whatever the man in the city had to offer her. “I’ll come, but only if you’re sure.”

  “I am. Are you?”

  He hadn’t hesitated even for a moment. He was sure, sure of what, she didn’t know what that was, and she wasn’t going to speculate. But a tux. Really?

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I’ll email my address. Is noon too early?”

  Is 5:00 a.m.? How about right now instead of tomorrow? “Noon would be perfect.” How hard was it going to be to buy a black-tie cocktail dress and arrive at Daniel’s condo by noon? It would be tight, but she’d die trying.

  “I could easily come and pick you up,” he offered and she was tempted.

  “Oh, I think I’d rather have my own transportation.”

  “In case you need to flee?”

  “In case I need to flee. I’ll be there by noon.” She said goodbye and then clutched her phone to her chest.