Reunion at Crane Lake
Page 16
“Yeah, it’s a boy. I had to know. Peter and I will be having a little boy.”
“Peter?”
“My baby’s father. I love him, Tia.” She leaned forward, over her round stomach. “Real love. Not the kind of adolescent crush I had on Colt.”
“Crush?” Tia’s pulse raced. Here we go. “Crush? You told the man I loved that you were his when he couldn’t remember because you had a crush on him?” Her voice quivered, but she couldn’t control it. She never had imagined having this conversation.
Cami flushed, and pulled away. “Oh, Tia. I can’t explain what I did.”
“Try.”
“Well,” Cami said, letting out a breath. “I’ve changed, Tia. I’ve grown up. I know I can never do or say anything to change what I’ve done, but I am sorry.”
Tia stared, unable to speak. She wasn’t prepared for this. The fly buzzing around her ear made her slap at it, rocking the little boat. She grabbed the sides tighter.
“Your knuckles are white,” Cami said. “Because of me or the boat? Are you OK?”
Tia nodded, not answering, but looked toward the house and could make out Colt’s figure standing on shore, arms crossed, legs parted. Waiting.
“Do you think this thing is safe?” Tia asked, finally breaking the silence. As if the answer mattered now.
Cami shrugged, but smiled a little. “I sure hope so.”
“There aren’t any waves. And no storm brewing.” Her own reference to the accident shook Tia even further, and she felt queasy. She understood better now what Colt had been going through when he contemplated the lake.
“So what are you doing now? I assume you have a job.”
Cami nodded, a smile starting. “Yeah. I’m working for a builder. He’s just starting out−wants to take over the family business someday. We work out of a little trailer for now. He’s great. I do the payroll and run the office for him. It’s his father’s company, and Zane has taken over the management.”
“Well, sounds like you really like your...job.” Tia thought it sounded as if Cami liked Zane as well.
“I really do. I think it’s where I belong−much like you belong here.”
“With Colt?”
“Well, yes, but I also meant here at the Crane and Cardinal.” She sighed. “Say, do you remember the story about it?
“You mean about the Crane and Cardinal?” Tia tapped her nails on the boat’s side. “Yeah. Colt’s mom used to tell it−something about the legend of the little cardinal who was trapped in the carriage house, years ago.”
“That’s the one.”
“And it would have died there, because it didn’t have the gumption to get free until it heard a crane in the woods. Then it was scared enough to break free.”
“Yeah, it’s silly, isn’t it? There aren’t any cranes around here.” Tia went on, closing her eyes. “And then the next day it came back, circling, looking for the crane.”
“And of course there was no crane.”
“Or so it thought.”
“And when the cardinal had almost given up, the crane came sweeping back into view, stopping only in front of the tree where it perched.”
“Waiting.”
Tia nodded. “Waiting.”
“Tia, you’re the cardinal.”
“It’s a nice story, nothing more.”
“No, really, the legend is about you and Colt.” Cami looked across the lake, toward the house. “And I’m so sorry I almost rewrote the story. Can you ever forgive me?” She reached for Tia’s hands, prying them from the wood rails. “I know it will take time, but believe me, I’ll never betray your trust again.”
Tia’s eyelids stung from unshed tears. The image of her little sister with flour smudged across her nose flashed in Tia’s mind, softening her heart to the consistency of bread dough. “Maybe we can work this out. I don’t know, Cami. I need time, because I feel like you robbed me of eight years. I’ll try. What about the real question−can you forgive yourself?”
“I know.” Cami squeezed her hands. “I know.” Her eyes widened. “He kicked! Or was that a contraction? Oh, no, Tia! My water broke!” Rising suddenly, Cami’s weight rising rocked the little boat and she panicked.
Tia watched in horror as her sister lost her balance, grabbed for the sides, lost it totally and tilted the craft.
Tia screamed, but couldn’t react quickly enough to stabilize the boat. It tipped to one side, and Cami toppled overboard. Instead of holding on for dear life as she wanted, Tia let herself plunge into the water to help Cami.
Cold water enveloped her.
This is just like diving into the pool, she told herself, and came up sputtering. She reached for Cami and found only wet darkness. Murky. It wasn’t like the pool at all. She couldn’t see through this water. Couldn’t breathe.
“Cami!”
She knew if she went down, surfaced and hit her head on the keel, it would be the same as the accident. All over again.
~*~
A vise gripped Colt’s chest. The girls were in the water. He felt a rush of something, adrenalin, blood, pain−unsure exactly what, and then he was racing for the pier.
No one else was around. He looked for help, wasted a moment wishing he had his cellphone. It was too early. They were alone, and he was on his own. He slid on the damp grass, nearly fell, and caught himself before sprawling.
Tia surfaced, then Cami, on the other side of the boat. Their arms flailed as they sought out the boat, or each other.
Colt thought he heard a cry for help, but that could have been the roaring in his ears. “Hang on, Tia,” he called, clipping the words to match his stride. No one else was there, no one else to jump into the lethal depths and pull them to safety. He wasn’t sure he could do it. Every fiber of his soul screamed for God’s help. Every fear he’d felt standing back there on the shore was coming to life.
Pushing on, Colt ripped his shirt over his head as he reached the pier. Then he jumped in before he could change his mind. A dive would have taken him out farther, but he could not risk hitting his head.
Water filled his ears and nose, smothering him, but he surfaced, coughing, wiped his eyes and started to swim. The drops of water on his lips tasted brackish. Disgusting. He imagined the lake itself wanted him to fail, to pull him under, to strike his head again and leave him lifeless and mindless.
He reached Tia first. She’d made it around the boat, clinging still, and she had got a hold on Cami with her other hand. Colt came from beneath, swimming as he had thought he’d never do again, and supported Cami’s weight, pushing her up toward the boat. She seemed OK. Water sprayed his face.
Tia coughed, spit.
Cami did the same.
“I can’t get back in,” Tia said. “My arms feel like wet noodles.”
Colt looked around again, unsure how to proceed, treading water. “I’ll hoist you up,’ he said, and did, almost tossing her over the side. “Now catch your sister.” With a firm boost Cami was up and Tia dragged her to safety.
Tia tossed Colt a line, and he swam back toward the pier, the boat in tow. It was slow going. But he did it. Then the pier rose before them, and Colt grabbed a piling, a splinter piercing his palm. Didn’t matter. It felt solid. Good. He tied the line to the pole, climbed the three-rung ladder and collapsed on his back. Sun had just started to warm the air, but he was cold to the bone. He’d been in the lake. This wasn’t the type of closure he’d had in mind. The next shiver wasn’t caused by the air.
~*~
“Colt?” Tia found him in the garage, in his lonely corner, his hip resting on a stool as he wielded a knife against a wood object. It looked like a bird.
“Hey.”
She stood to one side, amazed as always at his skill. “Not a boat or a horse this time, huh?”
Colt paused and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his black T-shirt. The air in the garage was heavy, warm, and wood dust clung to his skin. “Not this time.” He began to polish the carving.
> “Are you OK? You haven’t said two words since Cami left.” Tia placed a hand on his shoulder, lightly so as not to distract him.
“OK, here are a few. Goodbye and good riddance.” His muscles felt taut beneath her fingers, strong under the damp shirt as he sanded the figure’s base. “I have been in here praying, praying not to hate her. I know how you feel about her taking me from you. Because she took my faith from me. You and I went to church. You and I would have been married, and I believed that lying woman and let her manipulate me so much that when she got out of that car today, I had to worry she’d claim her baby was mine. Even when that was physically impossible.” His gray eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Tia felt his loss, so palpable. She’d grieved for herself but never once had she stopped to grieve for what her sister had stolen from him. Colt had once loved going to church, but now it was as if guilt kept him from living his life. Maybe she could help change that. She took a deep breath and said her own little prayer.
Tia could almost taste the wood shavings as she watched his precise movements. The garage’s only lightbulb was dim but a brighter one suddenly lit her mind. “That’s a cardinal, isn’t it?”
He grunted.
“And just the right size, isn’t it?” Tia clasped her hands in front of her, and then clapped lightly. This was great. She’d been worried that Colt would be ready to leave the Crane and Cardinal, Crane Lake, her and her crazy sister far behind. This told her it wasn’t so.
He was finishing the repairs for the inn’s sign.
“It’s time you saw my special project. Follow me.” He pushed the stool back and it screeched across the concrete floor.
Tia was right behind him, out the door and into the still blazing sun. They crossed the front parking lot and the yard, and stopped near the road. Pausing by the six-foot sign, Colt turned to Tia and smiled.
Of course she returned it as she stepped forward and fitted his creation into the curved back of the crane figure.
“How will you make it stick?”
“Nails. And glue. And a coat of clear epoxy. I’m not taking any chances of my cardinal getting away again.” Colt’s expression was tender as he looked from the sign to Tia.
She stood, wide-eyed and hopeful. This would work out. Cami hadn’t ruined everything. Neither had the lake.
“So, what’s the verdict for your sister?”
“I’ll try and let it go. And you need to as well. We can do this. For both of us. I don’t think I could ever be really happy if I didn’t forgive her.”
Colt brushed his hands on his jeans, then took Tia’s and pulled her behind a one-hundred-year-old tree. With his arms about her waist, and hers around his neck, he said, “You’re a wise woman and I love you.”
Her heart thudded.
“Have you forgiven me as well?”
“I have and I’ve been blaming you for something that really wasn’t your fault.”
His hands roamed her back, gently rubbing. “Be my business partner and my wife?”
Tia turned her grin up to him. “Sure you’re not just on the rebound?”
“What do you think?”
“I have a confession of my own.” Tia smiled again, sweetly, and then pulled away from his embrace. She turned a bit to the left, and with one hand grabbed the edge of her shirt and turned to show him her back, and its tattoo.
Colt let out a low whistle. “Very fine,” he said, as he had that day from the kitchen window. He traced the tiny crane’s head with one finger. It told him everything he needed to know.
The crane and cardinal were together again.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
What People are Saying
1
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4
5
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