Meredith smiled to herself. It wasn’t every day she got to be around men who reminded her of movie stars. And she had a thing for movie stars. It started in elementary school when she used to sneak a peek at her friends’ movie-star magazines. She had used her hard-earned allowance to buy posters from her friends, and then she had had to hide them from her father, the respected minister, who wouldn’t approve of such items being in the house.
She loved movies, too. Now that she lived alone and worked out of her home office, Meri took herself to the movies at least once a week to get out of the house. She remembered how much she had liked Falcon Pointe when she saw it four months ago. The star magazines at the grocery-store checkout line had touted the new, unknown actor in that movie as “the next Tom Cruise.” What was his name?
Meri had just finished lacing her boots when someone knocked on the door. Come back to apologize, have you? Apology accepted. Now how about that cup of coffee?
“Who is it?” she called out sweetly before unlocking the door.
“Meredith? It’s your mother.”
Meredith rolled her eyes as she unlocked the door. As she grasped the knob and was about to open the door, the name of the actor leaped before her. She yanked open the door and excitedly spouted to her mother, “Jacob Wilde! That’s his name! The guy in my bed was Jacob Wilde!”
Chapter Two
I’m not even going to ask,” Meredith’s mother said, holding up a hand as a gesture for silence. “I don’t want to know what you’re talking about.”
The creases in Mom’s forehead were not attractive. Meredith tried to swallow her giggle. “I’m not saying it was Jacob Wilde; I’m just saying he looked like Jacob Wilde. The guy in my room, I mean.”
When her mom didn’t respond, Meri added calmly, “It was funny, that’s all. This guy was in my bed, and he looked like Jacob Wilde from the movie Falcon Pointe. Did you ever see that movie?”
What am I saying? Of course she never saw that movie.
“Never mind,” Meredith said in a little-girl voice. It seemed the best way to get Mom to erase Meredith’s ramblings.
“I came up to tell you that your father and I are ready to go over to the camp, in case you want a ride,” Mom said.
“Sure. I’m ready,” Meredith said, following her mom out into the hall. The two women walked side by side in silence. Ellen Graham was only four inches taller than Meri, but it could have been forty inches the way Meri felt right now. Things between the two of them had become unusually tense in the last six months, and Meredith’s only way of coping was to play the part of the ditzy blond baby girl so Mom would ignore her. Ever since Shelly had married and Meri’s oldest sister, Megan, had moved to Brazil with her husband and two daughters, Meredith felt she had become her mother’s project. Meri had worked hard for her independence, but now she was the only daughter close enough to experience what she called a drive-by whenever Mom felt the need to riddle one of her daughters with questions or to re-mark her old turf.
Meri had hoped this trip to Glenbrooke would help them smooth out some of the tension. Maybe by sharing together in Shelly’s success, they would be able to go back to the way things had been for the past five years. So far it didn’t seem to be working.
“Did you have breakfast?” Mom asked.
“No, but that’s okay. I’m not hungry. We’ll be eating all day at the conference center, I’m sure.”
“Jessica has a wonderful buffet set up,” Mom said as they went down the winding staircase in step with each other. “You should eat a little something before we go.”
“I will,” Meri promised, knowing that Mom would watch to make sure she did.
“Ready, ladies?” Meri’s dad stood at the bottom of the stairs in his new slacks and plaid shirt. Mom had insisted he wear something new, and they had stopped at Mervyn’s on their drive down the day before.
Funny, Meri thought, Dad looks more natural in his clergyman’s collar than he does in these sports clothes.
He was balding, brown-eyed, and had a tender smile. His appearance fit his role of minister, which he had ably filled for more than thirty years. Meredith liked her dad.
“We’re ready,” Meredith answered.
“After you greet your hostess and have some breakfast,” Mom said in a low voice.
Meredith knew the direction this day was going, and she didn’t want to go there with her mother. “You know what?” she said. “Why don’t you two go on over to the conference center, and I’ll come over with Kyle and Jessica.”
“All right. Would you like me to drive, Perry?” Mom said.
“No, dear. I’ll drive.”
“See you,” Meri said as her parents exited the grand entryway.
“Yes, in twenty minutes, then,” Mom called over her shoulder.
Twenty minutes? Where did that come from? I never said anything about twenty minutes. She has to have everything so neat and defined. She’s driving me crazy!
Meredith drew in a fresh breath of patience as the door closed behind her parents, and she headed for the kitchen. Nothing, not even her controlling mother, could ruin her terrific-hair day. There was sunshine to be had and celebrating to partake of.
“Good morning!” Meredith greeted Jessica, who stood at the counter of the spacious, modern gourmet kitchen. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good, actually,” Jessica replied. She was a tenderhearted woman with fair skin, a regal look about her, and a half-moon-shaped scar on her upper lip. She was also four months pregnant. Even though her frame didn’t yet appear pregnant, Meredith knew Jessica felt heavy. She hadn’t lost weight after her son, Travis, had been born almost a year and a half ago. Jessica had experienced morning sickness much longer this pregnancy and was just beginning to get over it.
“How did you sleep?” Jessica asked, motioning to the pitcher of orange juice before her.
Meredith poured herself a large glass and said, “I slept well, but …” She took a long sip of juice and watched Jessica lean forward slightly to hear the rest of Meredith’s sentence.
“But I have something to ask you.”
“Anything,” Jessica said.
Meredith knew Jessica would want to do whatever she could to make Meri feel comfortable. She also knew Jessica was all sweetness and very little sauciness, which had caused misunderstandings in their friendship when Meri had tried to tease Jess about something but Jess didn’t get it.
The two women had met when Jessica sent a proposal for a series of children’s books to Meri’s publishing house. Meri had traveled to Glenbrooke to offer Jessica a book contract. However, little Travis decided to enter the world that very same day, and since then, Jessica had discovered she didn’t have the time she thought she would to pursue her interest in writing. The project was on hold indefinitely. But the friendship between the two of them had continued to blossom.
Keeping her friend’s tender spirit in mind, Meredith chose not to say, “Thank you, Jessica, for sending a man to my room this morning.”
“This is really funny,” Meredith began. “You’re going to laugh when you hear what happened. Some guy thought my room was his room, and he came in and … well, I think I really scared him off.”
“Was that you screaming?” Jessica asked. “Kyle told me he heard something upstairs a little while ago. Are you okay?”
“Oh, of course. Terrific. Fine. I’m okay. I think he may be a little shocked because I had this stuff—”
Before Meredith could finish, Kyle came dashing into the kitchen, zooming one-and-a-half-year-old Travis around like an airplane and making all the appropriate noises. Blond-haired, red-cheeked, squealing Travis was enjoying every second of the ride.
“Hey, good morning,” Kyle said when he noticed Meredith. “We’re on our way out the door. I saw your parents leave a little while ago. Would you like to ride over with us?”
“Sure. Is there anyone else going with you?” Meredith asked coyly.
“I think eve
ryone else is already there, aren’t they?” Kyle looked at his wife and tucked Travis under his arm like a sack of potatoes. Meredith liked Kyle. Everyone liked Kyle. He was the nice master of the castle. A solidly built, dark-haired paramedic whose energy seemed to measure up to his abundance of projects, he was always building something or initiating some new vision. He and Jessica had a storybook look about them, the handsome prince and the fair damsel.
Meredith had once asked Kyle if he had any brothers. He had two, but they were both married. One of them, Kenton, lived in Glenbrooke with his wife, Lauren. He owned and ran the local newspaper, and Lauren had replaced Jessica as the English teacher at the small Glenbrooke High School.
“No one is still here at the house, then?” Meredith ventured.
Jessica and Kyle looked at each other.
“I think everyone has already gone,” Jessica said.
Just then they heard water running in the pipes overhead, indicating that someone had turned on a faucet.
“Oh yeah,” Kyle said, readjusting the squirming, fussing Travis onto his shoulders. Travis grabbed his daddy’s dark hair with both fists and kicked at Kyle’s arms with his little cowboy boots as if trying to persuade his “daddy horsie” to giddy up. “I forgot about our most honorable Mr. Wartman.”
Meri’s hopes plummeted. Not that she truly expected the mystery man to be Jacob Wilde, the actor. But how could she weave a successful fairy tale about someone named Mr. Wartman?
“Oh, did he get here this morning?” Jessica said. “I didn’t hear him come in.”
“He pulled in about eight-thirty. The poor guy is fried,” Kyle said. “He was on a red-eye from New York, and his flight back to L.A. goes out of Eugene at something like four o’clock this afternoon.”
“He must be exhausted,” Jessica said.
“I told him to crash in the room at the end of the hall. I thought that would be the quietest room.”
“At the right end of the hall or the left?” Jessica asked.
“Right, of course. Meri’s in the Patchwork Room.” Kyle began to bounce up and down slightly to keep Travis entertained. “Not so tight, buddy,” he said, trying to loosen Travis’s grip on his hair.
“I think he went into the wrong room,” Jessica said, glancing over at Meredith and lifting her eyebrows slightly. “He must have thought you meant the room at the end of the hall on the left because Meri had a little visitor.”
“Really?” Kyle said with a mischievous grin. “I thought Meri had a little lamb.”
“You are such a comedian,” Meri said. “But don’t worry about it. I think Mr. Wartman nearly had a little cow, so that makes us even all around.”
Kyle chuckled. “We better get out of here, then, before a barnyard brawl breaks out between all these sheep and cows.”
“Moo,” Travis piped up from his princely perch.
“That’s right, honey,” Jessica said with pride. “A cow says ‘moo.’ ”
“We’re out of here,” Kyle said. “You ready, Jess?”
“Sure. Do you have the diaper bag?”
“You mean Trav’s duffel bag? Yep, it’s by the front door.”
“Duffel bag,” Jessica repeated, shaking her head and looking toward the ceiling. “Oh, Lord, please let this next baby be a girl so we don’t have to name every piece of baby gear something masculine. Amen.”
“Amen,” Meri repeated, siding with Jess.
“It’ll be a boy,” Kyle said soundly. “Gordon and Teri had two boys. We have to keep up with the Allistars.”
“It could be a girl,” Jessica said calmly as she placed some fruit and muffins in a wicker picnic hamper. “I’ll leave a quick note here on the counter and then meet you guys at the truck.”
Meri followed Kyle out the back door and around the house to where Kyle’s pickup was parked. She noticed a shiny black Mustang convertible parked on the side.
Mr. Wartman’s, no doubt. Flashy sort of fellow. I wonder what he’s doing here?
“There you go, big guy,” Kyle said, strapping Travis into his car seat. Meri wondered if she should crawl into the after-cab now or wait until Jessica arrived. Travis fussed and arched his back as the seat belt came over his shoulders. “He hates this thing,” Kyle said.
“It’s okay, Travis,” Meri said. She slipped onto the front seat next to him and left the door open. Picking up a squishy toy, Meredith said in a squeaky voice, “Let’s have a puppet show. Say hi to Mr. Duck. Quack, quack, quack.” Meredith made the bright yellow fellow dance for Travis.
“I forgot the duffel bag,” Kyle said. “I’ll be right back.” He took off jogging to the house, and Meri assigned herself the task of keeping Travis entertained.
“One day Wally the star was floating in the sky so, so high …” Meredith pulled the soft star figurine up, and Travis followed it with his eyes. “And Wally said to himself, ‘I’d like to go down there and see what it’s like on earth.’ So, do you know what Wally did?”
Travis didn’t respond to the question, but he stopped whimpering.
“Wally tumbled down, down to the earth, and there he met Mr. Duck. ‘Hello, Mr. Duck. I’m Wally. Do you want to play?’
“‘Why, yes, I do. Quack quack,’ said Mr. Duck.”
Meredith had both the toys merrily dancing now. Travis was enthralled.
She sang a silly impromptu song in a little voice, and the corners of Travis’s mouth began to curl up. “‘Yay, yay, yay, we dance all day! We’re the happy little friends, and we like to play. Yay, yay, yay, we play all day!’
“The two friends danced and danced all day long, and then do you know what happened?”
Travis looked away from her, out at the driveway. Meredith thought fast, trying to get his attention. “Then Wally the star and Mr. Duck got so hot from all their dancing, they decided to go for a swim. With a great big splash, they dove into the water.” To demonstrate the dive, Meredith hopped off the seat and “dove” to the truck cab’s floor. She had Travis’s attention again.
“The water felt so good that Wally the star said, ‘I think I would like to live here all the time. I’m going to stay here and never go back up to the sky.’ He settled right into the sand all nice and comfy.” Meri demonstrated by wiggling her backside into the cramped space.
“Mr. Duck was swimming away on top of the water, happy as can be, and he said, ‘Where did Wally go? Where did Wally go?’ ”
Travis stuck the first two fingers of his left hand into his mouth and with his right finger pointed down to where Meri held the star on the floor. He jabbered some baby words as if he were telling Mr. Duck where to find his old friend Wally.
“Mr. Duck stuck his face in the water, and in a very wet and wobbly voice called out, ‘W-a-l-l-y!’ ” Even Meri was surprised at how funny her underwater “Wally” cry sounded. She kept up the silly voice.
“‘I’m here, Mr. Duck. I like it here. This is where I’ll stay,’ said Wally. ‘I won’t be a star anymore. I’ll be a starfish at the bottom of the sea.’ ‘Then I will come and visit you every day,’ said Mr. Duck.” Meredith held the duck so that his nose was down in the “water” and his tail was straight up.
“And that is why whenever you see a duck sticking his head into the water, you know he’s paying his daily visit to Wally the starfish.” Meredith peeked at her audience from her cramped position. Travis wasn’t looking at her. He was looking out the passenger door.
Meri followed his gaze, and there, by the open door, stood the mysterious, brown-eyed Mr. Wartman, with a half-grin on his handsome face.
Chapter Three
The uninvited guest slowly applauded Meredith’s story. She struggled to unwedge herself from the floor of the cab.
“Only one problem,” the man said. “Starfish live in salt water, and ducks swim in fresh water.”
“It’s only a story,” Meredith protested, one arm grabbing the seat and the other one pushing against the underside of the dashboard. Her right leg had fallen asleep.
<
br /> “Nevertheless, integrity of story is the crucial element in all quality fiction,” he said.
Meredith raised her eyebrows and took a good look at this guy. “Gabriel Kalen,” she said slowly. “Gabriel Kalen said that in his book, The Art of Story. I quote him all the time in my workshops.”
Now Mr. Wartman’s eyebrows arched with apparent interest.
Meredith was unstuck enough to pull her body out of the cramped space. She raised herself onto the seat without the slightest bit of grace and wondered if this man had figured out yet that she was the nightmarish, avocado-faced vision that had greeted him less than an hour earlier. If he did know, he wasn’t letting on.
She calmly brushed back her hair and straightened herself with as much dignity as possible. Meredith handed Wally-the-star-turned-starfish to Travis. He held the soft figure to his cheek and sucked on his fingers.
“Have you met Gabe?” Mr. Wartman inquired.
“Gabe?” Meredith echoed.
“Gabriel Kalen.”
“No,” Meredith said. She wasn’t sure where to look, at Travis or at this fine example of God’s creation who was standing only a few feet away.
Kyle and Jessica came down the front steps of the house hand in hand. Jessica held a picnic basket, while Kyle had slung the duffel bag over his shoulder. Meredith knew her intriguing yet embarrassing encounter with this man was about to end.
“Have you?” she asked quickly, tucking her hair behind her ear and casting her ocean green glance at him. “Have you met Gabriel Kalen?”
“Yes,” he said, resting his arm on the rim above the door and leaning forward out of the sunshine. He took in a full view of Meredith, and she was uncomfortably aware of how intensely he was studying her. Would he figure out who she was? Had he already?
“Everybody ready?” Kyle called out when he was a few feet away from the truck. “Did you two meet?”
“Daddy!” Travis cried out, pulling his fingers from his mouth. “Daddy!”
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