by Natalie Ann
“She was just so young when she had you.”
“She was. I get that. But she never tried and you know it. She put herself first always. Just like she did when she met Scott. She picked him over me. I’m surprised she actually raised Bri and Seth herself, if you want to be honest. But we both know she is still putting herself first.”
His grandmother sighed. “She’s trying. She didn’t do right by you. We all know it. I’d like to think she tried to do better by your siblings, but I’m not sure it’s enough.”
“I don’t think it is. You don’t have to agree with me if you don’t want to.” He stopped and sipped his coffee. “When do I have to pick them up at the airport?”
“Tomorrow at two. Jody was very thankful for you buying their tickets. She said this job interview is promising. Scott is out of town and she didn’t want to bring them out of state with her for the interview and have them stay in a hotel.”
“What is the job? How good could it be for her to want to pull them out of school this late in the year? I’ve paid for her apartment until summer. I just don’t understand why she would even consider this.”
He’d wanted to ask more questions, but hadn’t. All he heard was the distress in his grandmother’s voice and gave her his credit card information for her to buy them their tickets.
It wasn’t Seth and Bri’s fault that their mother was partially doing to them what she’d done to him. He knew what it felt like and wasn’t about to let the kids be left alone while she went and did her own thing, always putting herself first.
“I didn’t ask what the job entailed. She sounded so excited over it and she needs a chance to start her life over. They were paying her travel costs. The gas and hotel, but she didn’t want to bring the kids.”
“The day after Christmas, though? That just seems really odd to me.”
“I don’t know. It worked out well since the kids are out of school for the rest of the week and they can visit with us. Are you going to spend some time with them?”
“I don’t know. If I have time, I will. We don’t have a lot in common. It’s not like we’ve spent all that much time together.”
“Maybe you should get to know them more, Zach. They’re good kids, just like you. This will be the first time you can see them without having to deal with your mother being in the picture.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Black Cloud
Amber was in too good of a mood to feel dread about spending the holiday with her parents.
Correction, her mother.
Waking up to Zach’s smiling face on her computer, then having a little playful interaction just brightened her day. It made the week that he’d been gone almost vanish. Almost, but not quite. Still, it was getting easier to say goodbye, knowing in her heart now that he’d be back.
He was spending the day with his grandparents, so she’d talk to him later tonight. Then they both had to work for the next two days of the week.
“Merry Christmas, Dad,” she said, walking in the front door and seeing her father sitting in the chair, his eyes half closed. He seemed to be aging more and more before her eyes.
“Merry Christmas, baby,” he said. He never called her that anymore. Not since she was a young child and never when anyone was around. She wondered why he was now.
“Where’s Mom?” she asked.
“In the kitchen getting dinner ready. Sally will be here shortly with the family, too. Come have a seat with me.”
Again, he never offered that either. “I should go see if Mom needs any help with dinner.”
“She’ll be fine for a few minutes.”
Amber took her jacket off and hung it up by the front door, then slipped her boots off and went to sit on the couch. “How are you feeling?” she asked him. “You look a little tired to me.”
“I am tired. I had a few masses this morning, and the heat in the church wouldn’t kick on, so I was banging around trying to get that going.”
“Did you call someone?” she asked.
“It’s Christmas morning. No one is going to come out and help. One of the parishioners arrived early and gave me a hand. We got it going.”
“You probably need that furnace replaced soon,” she said, knowing what his response was going to be.
“It’s got a few more years left in it. Just needs to be cleaned out. I’ll have someone out this week for sure.”
There was no use arguing with him. Money was probably tight for repairs on the church. Just like it was always tight. She’d have a talk with whoever was coming out to look at it and see what really needed to be done.
“How is everything else? You’re just tired?” she asked again.
“Yeah. You know how this time of year is.”
She did. She remembered. So she decided to cut him some slack. “I really should check on Mom. Can I get you something?”
He reached his hand out for her to stay when she went to stand up. Again, he didn’t often reach out and touch her. “No, stay. Let’s talk.”
Great, now it was going to start, but she put a smile on her face like she always did and decided to not ruin the holiday for everyone else. “What did you want to talk about?”
“You and Zach.”
Well, she’d give him credit for being blunt. “What about us?”
“How are things going?”
Again, nothing like he’d ever asked before and she wasn’t sure where he was going just now. “Good. I talked to him this morning. He’s with his family today.”
“His parents?”
“His grandparents. They raised him. His half-siblings are flying in tomorrow to spend a few days with his grandparents, too.”
“Where are his parents?” her father asked.
This was getting weird in her eyes, but she answered anyway. “His mother lives in Alabama somewhere with her two other children. Zach has never met his father.”
“That had to be hard on him. Does he have a relationship with his mother?”
“Not a good one, from what I can tell. His grandparents are really more his parents and he is extremely close to them. He bought them a house and moved them closer to him in Richmond when he started working with Nick.”
“That’s nice. That’s a good boy.”
Amber eyed her father some more. “It was nice. He’s a nice guy. He’s a great guy. I really wish you could meet him and spend some time with him.” Didn’t her father realize this was the first person she had ever asked them to meet? The first person she was willing to bring into their lives?
He squeezed her hand. “I’m working on your mother. Give it time. But please, just gloss over anything that is said today. Let me work it out with her.”
Her eyes filled. Her father never stood up for her like this before. Never forewarned her that a day might not be good, either. In a small way, it kind of helped. But she didn’t need the warning, she expected today to be uncomfortable since she hadn’t talked to her mother since Zach was in town last week and extended the dinner invitation.
She stood up and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll take any help I can get.”
“Do you love him?” he asked, shocking her.
“I don’t know yet. It’s early. But there is something there stronger than I’ve felt before.”
“Then I’ll work a lot harder,” he said. “I hope you aren’t holding yourself back because of your mother’s opinions.”
She looked at her father, but didn’t utter a word. She wouldn’t lie, so she didn’t answer at all.
***
Later that night, Amber plopped down on her couch and put her feet up, then reached for her phone. “Hey there, hot cakes,” she said when Zach answered.
He laughed and it was a sound she desperately needed to hear at the moment. “I didn’t think I’d hear from you again, but I’m glad you called. Want to get online?”
“The phone is good for the moment. I just needed to hear your voice.”
Th
ere was a pause, then he asked, “Everything okay? I take it the visit with your parents didn’t go so well.”
“It’s all good. Went better than I expected in some areas, and about what I expected in others.”
“Meaning?”
“My father was great. He and I had a nice little chat. He asked about you and us and our relationship, and then said he was working on my mom and to give him time.”
“Has he ever done that before?”
“No. This is a first, so you should feel honored.”
“I do,” he said, and she heard the happiness in his voice. “So how was your mother then?”
“Typical. I went in to help with dinner and we worked side by side for almost ten minutes before she said a word to me.”
“Seriously? What did she end up saying?”
“Hi.”
“What? For ten minutes you worked with her and then she finally said hi?”
She liked the outrage she heard in his voice. “Well, she said hi when I walked in. Then ten minutes later, she wished me a merry Christmas.”
“I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“Don’t say anything at all. The rest of the time was spent doting on my nephew and just talking about life in general. Everyone was good about pretending there wasn’t a black cloud hanging over my mother’s head.” She stopped and laughed. “We’re used to her being that way when she’s annoyed with us. Nothing new there.”
“I’m sorry, Amber.”
“Don’t be. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Sure it does. It has everything to do with me. It’s because we’re together.”
“Really, Zach. It’s not against you personally, but anyone that I’m with that doesn’t conform to her ideals. My father isn’t as strict and for that I’m grateful.”
“Considering he is a man of the cloth, I kind of expected him to be more like your mom.”
“He’s more forgiving. He knows everyone has flaws, including himself and my mother. He never expects anyone to be perfect, just that they try. He knows I try.” She curled her legs up under her hips. “Enough about my wonderful holiday. How was yours?”
“It was great. It always is. My grandmother had my favorite breakfast waiting for me. The same she’s made almost every year for Christmas since I was a kid.”
“That’s so sweet.” She meant every word of it, even through the jealousy she was feeling.
“Yeah. She’s great that way. Then we had dinner. My grandfather was all excited over the new saw my grandmother got him.”
“Did he figure out it was you that put it under the tree after he went to bed?”
“He knows it’s me but pretends Santa left it. Just like he’s done most of my life.”
“Did Santa leave anything for you?” she asked, feeling her face light up. It’d been way too long since Santa left anything for her.
“Of course he did. I got some gift cards to get my morning coffee that I’m too lazy to make before I leave for work. Santa always knows the best spots for me.”
She giggled. “That works.”
“You know what else works?” he asked.
“No, what?”
“You. You work for me.”
Her heart lifted up like a balloon a child released into the sky.
Great Taste
Amber was nervous and surprised she was doing what she was, but Max got sick of her “moping around” so he told her to leave early on Thursday and take Friday off for a long weekend. The office was slow and she didn’t have anything scheduled.
Rather than sit around at home, she started looking up flights and realized that wasn’t going to happen. Rene took pity on her and called Celeste, who talked to Caleb, and the next thing she knew she found herself driving to Burlington to catch a flight from a friend of Caleb’s on a private jet. She still couldn’t believe she managed to keep this all a secret when she talked to Zach last night.
But here she was, walking through the airport looking for John Buchanan before lunch on Friday. Again, she had Rene to thank for this whole thing.
“Are you sure Zach is in the office?” she asked John on the way there.
“He’s there. I know his schedule, but I checked it before I left. He’s in meetings until two, so he’ll still be there when we get back.”
“Thank you again for doing this.”
“Not a problem. It’ll be nice to surprise Zach for once. He always seems to have his finger on every pulse and he won’t see this one coming.”
She hoped it was a good surprise. In the back of her mind she expected as much, but still, her nerves were getting to her. She was hoping she wasn’t the one surprised during this trip. That she didn’t find out something about him that he’d been keeping a secret from her.
Then again, no one who knew Zach closely was giving off any vibes that he wasn’t exactly the person he’d been portraying all along, so she needed to stop acting or thinking in a negative light about things.
They finally pulled in front of NB Innovations, a big four-story office building in the middle of a complex of similar-looking buildings all around. She wasn’t sure she would enjoy driving into this park every day. As much as she always wanted to escape the small-town life of Lake Placid, this place seemed somewhat cold to her.
“I know, it’s not a very appealing place to drive into,” John said.
“I don’t know what I expected, just not this.”
“In the summer it’s nicer. There are trails all around for people to walk on breaks, plus parks and benches. Vendors come out more. Right now there are some food trucks in the parking lots, but not as much.”
She couldn’t see Zach walking around and talking to people or getting food from a vendor. He appeared to be a workaholic to her during the day and probably never left his office.
“Does Zach come out here often?”
“No. We have a cafeteria on the first floor along with some meeting rooms and a few admin staff. The second floor is primarily meeting and work rooms. Lots of times, teams get together and just brainstorm, so those areas are set up for comfort for those long nights. No offices on that floor because it can get distracting when some groups get together.”
“I can imagine.” Though really she couldn’t.
“The third floor is made up of all the developers and IT. The fourth floor is all executives, finance, and HR. I think that covers it all.”
“That’s a lot of people.” She knew Nick employed hundreds and in several locations. “Are all the sites set up like this?”
“No,” John said, getting out of his car. “The other sites are smaller, different divisions of software, you could say. But this is our main hub. Still, Nick tries to make sure workrooms and offices are separated for staff.”
Her cramped office that she shared with Dena and Rene seemed kind of lacking right now, but on the flip side, it gave them more space for services.
“Well, let’s go surprise Zach.”
“He should be in his office by now,” John said.
They walked in the front door, John waving to the receptionist, who stopped her and said, “Do you have an appointment? You need to sign in.”
“She’s with me, Veronica.”
“But she still needs to sign in,” Veronica said.
Amber smiled. “It’s not a big deal, John.” She grabbed a pen and wrote her name and the time. John walked over and said, “Put my name there.” He pointed to the line where she had to say who her appointment was with.
In the elevator she asked, “Why couldn’t I put down Zach?”
“Because she’d call and tell him.”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
They walked off the elevator when it stopped and she followed John to the left. “This is where the executive offices are. The rest are at the other end. Stay behind me so Zach can’t see you.”
She could see John was enjoying himself so she went along with it, wanting to surprise Zach so much.
&
nbsp; In front of an open door, she stood behind John, being blocked by the wall. He knocked on the frame. “Hey, Zach. Do you have a minute for a visitor?”
“Who is it?” she heard Zach ask, a bit of impatience in his voice. “I’m really swamped right now. I didn’t have anyone scheduled this afternoon.”
“I know your schedule is open, and you’re busy, but I’m sure you’ll make time.”
John tapped her hand and she walked around the side of him and stood in the doorway to smile at Zach. His jaw dropped and he stood up fast, making his way to her and lifting her off the ground in a hug, then kissing her hard.
“Wow, I didn’t expect that kind of a welcome!”
“What are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? When did you plan this?”
“I’ll let you two have some privacy,” John said, laughing and walking away.
Zach shut his office door and then pulled her to the leather couch against one wall and onto his lap. She should be embarrassed right now, but strangely she wasn’t.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said again.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, you managed to do that.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you. Actually I didn’t know until yesterday. Max told me to take a long weekend.”
“And you managed to get a flight? That had to cost a fortune.”
“Thank Rene.”
“What did she have to do with it?” Zach asked, frowning.
“Her future brother-in-law has friends in high places.”
“Oh man, I knew Caleb loved me. He says I annoy him, but deep down he enjoys it.”
Amber laughed. “I don’t know about that. It’s probably nothing more than he figures you will owe him after this.”
“That’s his way of trying to get away from me.”
“I’m sure there is that. Still, Rene made all the arrangements with John to pick me up and bring me here. I’m hoping you can drop me back off to the airport Sunday night. I managed to book a late flight.”