Something to Treasure

by Virginia McCullough

  “Then you saw him?” Miles asked, frowning.

  “No, no. Uh, Dawn wanted me to wait.” He hated the way he sounded, like he was stammering and unsure of himself.

  “Can we see him?” Evan asked.

  “Why don’t we wait?” Lark suggested.

  Jerrod had a strong feeling Dawn would welcome her old friends, even though she’d sent him away. “It wouldn’t hurt to ask if you can say hello before they take him up for the test. No guarantees, but they might bend the rules a little for his best friend.”

  “Well, then, let’s be on our way,” Miles said. “We’ll see you later, when you come back with the food.”

  “Well, actually, I’ll leave it at the intake desk,” Jerrod said, giving them a quick wave. “I’ll see you all later.” He walked away, knowing he’d left Miles and Lark puzzled.

  On the walk to the cafeteria, he couldn’t stop thinking about the irony of what had happened. Dawn had nixed football because of the risk of a head injury. Her biggest fear about diving had been the potential for a brain injury from decompression sickness. Jerrod had gone over that risk with her, being honest, but able to ease her fear. But in a split second the teenager was hurt in an ordinary fall. On his boat.

  Jerrod ordered a sandwich for Lark and bought her a large coffee to go with it and dropped it off at the desk in the ER.

  When he got to his van in the lot, he climbed in but didn’t start the engine. The wind had picked up again. Another storm was developing. Meanwhile, there he was, alone, haunted by the memory of Gordon going down, the thwack of his head hitting the wood, Jerrod’s own gasp. The looks on the faces of everyone on the boat, including Miles, were painful to recall and could never be erased. Gordon could have been badly hurt.

  But then, he knew it too well. Anything could happen to anyone.

  * * *

  GORDON LOOKED PALE and tired, but he perked up when Evan came into the room. Dawn’s heart lifted a little seeing him, too, especially because Lark and Miles followed behind.

  “I’m glad you’re all here,” Dawn said, hugging Lark. Miles leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “Hey, Miles,” Gordon said, “how’s Jean?”

  “Jean? Who’s Jean?” Dawn asked.

  “The woman who got off the boat with me,” Miles explained. “She was kind of panicky in the storm.” He pointed at Gordon. “He started talking to her, trying to calm her some. Right, Gordon?”

  Gordon nodded. “We were all a little scared, except for Jerrod. He and Wyatt were positioning the boat to keep her from rocking too much. I just figured I’d help out by talking to Jean.”

  “Oh, Gordon,” Dawn said. “That was Jerrod’s job. Not yours.”

  “Jerrod came to talk to all of us, too,” Miles said. “It wasn’t like he was off somewhere. He was seeing to the boat. But at one point, a gust of wind sent the boat lurching, and Jean was kind of thrown sideways and Gordon went to help her.”

  Who was he trying to convince? Dawn found this explanation missed the point.

  “We just saw Jerrod, and he told us you were awake and talking,” Lark said. “Just the news we wanted to hear.”

  Gordon groaned. “Everyone is making way too much of this. It’s a bump on my head. It was a storm. I can’t wait to go diving again.”

  “Oh, please. Give me a break, my friend.” Dawn sent a withering look to Gordon. “It isn’t up for discussion at the moment. No one has ruled out a concussion. I don’t care how mild they think it is.” She hesitated, but because she wanted Gordon to understand, she said, “And Jerrod isn’t equipped to have kids on his boat.”

  Dawn picked up on the look Lark and Miles exchanged. Did they believe she was wrong? It didn’t matter. She was sticking to her guns on this.

  “It was an accident,” Miles said in a low voice. “Gordon was quick to respond. He was trying to help.”

  “That’s what scares me the most,” she said.

  It wasn’t Gordon’s job to help Jerrod keep everyone else safe. She wanted to trust Jerrod, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t trust him with her thirteen-year-old. How could she trust him with another child—their child? It was impossible.

  Chapter Fifteen

  WHEN HIS OFFICE door opened and Dawn appeared, Jerrod felt a familiar catch in his chest. Right on schedule, his heart beat a little faster. To say he was surprised to see her was an understatement. Over a week ago, she’d had the courtesy to send him an email with the diagnosis, a mild concussion. Emphasis on mild.

  Meanwhile, Labor Day had come and gone, and the change in Two Moon Bay was already visible. All their communication had taken place through text and email, no wasted words. She’d sent a text asking him when he was leaving town. Why would she think he’d run away? He’d replied immediately, I’m not leaving.

  That had led to a couple of quick exchanges in which he told her he signed the lease for the house he, Carrie, and Melody lived in, and in October Wyatt and Rob would head to Florida for the winter season. His last message was about enrolling Carrie in school.

  “Dawn. I didn’t expect to see you.” He pushed back the chair and got to his feet. “You look wonderful...rested, I mean. Relaxed.” He’d keep babbling about how great she looked if he didn’t stop himself. “Have a seat.”

  She looked at the chair, as if she wasn’t sure she should sit.

  “Please, Dawn.”

  A slight nod, and then she sat. “Gordon is fine, and says hello. He’s with Bill overnight. School started yesterday.”

  “Carrie started, too. She’s very excited, as you can imagine.” Dawn was supposed to be sharing in that exciting day with him. Fortunately, they hadn’t told Carrie, or Melody, about their plans. They’d agreed to wait a little longer. Only Miles and Lark were privy to what was supposed to be their special secret. “Uh, Bill must have been very relieved to learn Gordon wasn’t seriously hurt.”

  “I’ll say. But by the time Bill arrived, even Gordon had adjusted to the reality of the concussion. The word itself is scary, but I’m glad the doctor explained it.” Dawn paused. “But maybe some good will come of it. Maybe he’ll remember to wear his bike helmet every time. A little fear isn’t always a bad thing.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Were they going to simply talk all around this? “I believe Gordon has a healthy amount of fear. He’s not reckless. Not even a little bit.” He paused. “And neither am I.”

  As if she hadn’t heard him, she reached into her bag and pulled out a file folder. “I stopped by for two reasons.”

  She had that “I’m on a mission” look he’d come to expect. It usually meant she had good news, business news. “Two reasons? Is this a business call?”

  Ignoring the question, she said, “I’ll get the bad news out of the way first.” Her voice was ominously low.

  “Bad news?”

  She nodded, but didn’t look up. The file still sat in her lap. “Do you recall back in late May, I set up a phone interview with a staff writer for the outdoor magazine Sun, Sand & Surf?”

  “I remember. It’s a national magazine and the offer was too good to pass up, even if the piece had a long lead time.”

  “It was a round-up piece, specifically about Great Lakes diving.”

  How did all this add up to bad news? “So why is there a problem?”

  She took some clipped pages and folded the first two back and passed them across the desk to him with the opening lines highlighted in yellow. “They opened their piece about you with this.”

  Walters opened his Great Lakes office two years after he and his family were victims of a terrorist attack while living in Bali, a popular diving destination. His wife and eldest daughter were killed in the incident. Until recently, Walters refused to discuss the attack, but continued running diving excursions in Key West and now in Two Moon Bay, Wisconsin. Rumor has it he’s enl
ivened the boat tour and diving scene in the popular tourist town.

  He lifted his hands and shrugged. “So? You thought I’d be upset?”

  “I guess so. We had an argument over this very thing. For some reason, the local writers mostly steered clear of the past.”

  “But, Dawn, that was months ago. I was wrong then. You set me straight.” It was true. “I used to think that if anyone wrote about Augusta and Dabny, they’d just be two anonymous victims. And like I said to you, I’d be the poor guy who lost wife and child.”

  “And you’re aware that I’ve never thought of them that way.”

  Her coldness took him aback. “Yes, of course I know that. And I’m over all this.” He didn’t get it. Why would this be an issue between them now?

  “So, tell me, why are you staying in Two Moon Bay?”

  “Because I became myself again,” he said without hesitation. “I made friends. Someone even got me on a local task force to help create a vision of the future. I enrolled my child in kindergarten. I fell in love with a wonderful woman here. Why would I leave?”

  She stared at her shoes. “Those are some major reasons.”

  “You think?”

  She worked the stretchy band on her watch, avoiding his eyes. “So.”

  “So,” he said back. “Nothing has changed, Dawn. Not as far as I’m concerned.”

  “I was unbelievably upset when I saw EMTs rolling Gordon down the dock. It was one of the worst memories of my life.”

  “Of course it was.”

  She abruptly stood and wandered over to the photo shelf, now filled with more recent pictures of families sitting together on benches on the Lucy Bee. She’d taken one on her tour showing Wyatt chatting with Jerrod, their elbows propped on the rail. She picked it up and turned it so Jerrod could see it. “What a lovely day that was.”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  “And this one,” she said, picking up another picture.

  One of Jerrod’s favorites. Dawn and Lark had taken Brooke on one of Jerrod’s short morning trips, too. Brooke liked the idea of being on a “girls only” day with Melody, Carrie and Wyatt.

  “That day reminded me about what Lark had said about addition, not subtraction when it came to her family. The same is true for me. This summer brought more people into my life, but hadn’t taken anyone away.”

  “It was a special tour day for me, too,” Jerrod said, “watching all of you in a group.”

  She put the photo back. “We had another day like that with Carrie downtown. How she loved the trolley.”

  It made no sense holding back. He loved her, and he didn’t think she’d simply fallen out of love with him. “One of the happiest days of my life, Dawn, start to finish.”

  “But when Gordon was hurt, that was one of my worst.”

  “I know. What I said holds true. I take responsibility for it, and his safety was always on my mind. Everyone’s safety was.” Defending not just himself but Rob and Wyatt, he added, “We handled the boat as well as we possibly could to safely transport all the passengers back to shore.”

  “But that didn’t happen.”

  A storm, especially a freak storm with winds much higher than a typical lake squall, was part of the risk. He couldn’t pretend otherwise. “What happened to Gordon wasn’t about neglect or carelessness. It was about risk. If I had to do it over again, I would have told Gordon specifically not to move. He thought he was helping, Dawn. Remember that.”

  Dawn nodded, but picked up another photo. “Gordon sure looks happy in this one.” She handed him a photo he recognized.

  “We always take a photo of everyone on their first dive with us,” he said, smiling at Gordon’s image. “Look at that grin. He was so proud of himself that day. He was our only diver. I recall remarking that he’d been very well trained up on Redwing Lake.”

  Jerrod stared at Dawn, who was picking up one photo after another. Watching her, all he wanted was to hold her, caress her face and tell her he loved her with his whole heart. He’d never been more sure of anything else in his forty years. But he couldn’t push, make demands or force the issue. But he could listen and make his case.

  “I like the idea of a wall of photos,” she said, turning and pointing to the opposite wall with very little on it. “It needs some paint.”

  “I’ll say.” He laughed in spite of the situation. “I don’t think Nelson would object if I rolled some paint on the walls in here.”

  “Or corkboard,” she offered, a smile tugging at her lips. “Then you just rotate the best pictures from Two Moon Bay and Key West.”

  Like any of this was about photos and walls. “What else, Dawn?”

  With a long sigh, she said, “I couldn’t stay away. I said some things I didn’t mean.”

  It wasn’t that simple. A simple apology, either way, wasn’t going to cut it. “I think you did mean them.”

  She spun around to face him. “No, that’s not true. I was scared, ready to blame anyone. Do you know that just yesterday Gordon walked me through your every safety rule and guideline?” She gestured expansively as she spoke. “He told me about how you watch out for your divers. He said he never felt scared out on your boat. He knew you were watching him.”

  “That’s what every passenger gets. Because of his age, Gordon got a little more of it, a little more often.” He laughed lightly. “I know he got tired of it.”

  “I suppose he did,” Dawn said.

  “I would never lie to you, Dawn. And I wouldn’t be foolish and assure you that nothing could ever happen to Gordon. You know that.” He considered his words before saying them out loud. “Something could happen to Carrie, or to me or to you, or to the new baby we have.”

  She looked down at the floor. “I don’t like that we wasted even a week, but because of my stubborn streak, we did.”

  She was coming back, and they would pick up, but not where they had left off.

  Folding her hands over her chest, she said, “The reason I’m here is that in my fear I forgot to be grateful that this was a minor, very minor injury. And in the end, when I thought it all through, I was grateful he was with you.”

  “Thank you for that.”

  She stepped toward him and he took her into his arms and held her tight. “Maybe we can stay like this the rest of the day,” he said, laughing. “Or at least until the kids come home.”

  Then the sound of the door opening grabbed his attention.

  “Hello,” the man said. “Are you Jerrod?”

  “Bill?” Dawn took a half step away. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was on my way to pick up Gordon and bring him to your house. Thought I’d stop in to introduce myself to Jerrod.”

  Jerrod held out his hand. “Well, surprise or not, it’s nice to meet you.”

  Maybe check out his boy’s boss, too. Especially after the accident. That was fine. He’d do the same thing.

  Bill looked around the office, stopping to focus on the poster of the Franklin Stone. “Gordon even told me about that poster. He’s thrilled about this place.”

  Jerrod noticed Bill glance at Dawn. “He’s afraid you’ll take it away from him.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” she said with a groan. “I’m coming around. Jerrod and I were just discussing what happened.”

  Bill looked from Dawn to Jerrod. “I suppose it’s not any of my business, but how serious is this between you two?”

  Jerrod wasn’t touching that. That was Dawn’s job.

  She laughed. “Did Gordon give you the idea Jerrod and I are a...couple?”

  “He implied it.” He looked at Dawn expectantly.

  “First, it is your business, more or less, because it affects Gordon. And second, yes, it’s very serious, Bill, but I haven’t told Gordon yet.” She pointed to Jerrod. “We’re taking that part slow. W
e won’t disrupt his life. Nothing with our arrangements will change.”

  Bill smirked. “Well, you two, I’d say something pretty soon. I think he’s already figured it out.”

  Jerrod didn’t doubt that, but he had something else on his mind. “Did you have questions about Gordon’s accident? I’m happy to talk about it.” So far, Bill had been friendly enough, but he hadn’t stopped by from idle curiosity.

  “The situation worried me, I’ll admit,” Bill said, “but Dawn knows you, trusts you. Gordon is, well, you know, he can’t get enough of this place.” He waved around the room.

  “He’s done for the year,” Jerrod said matter-of-factly. “We won’t be diving much longer and with the concussion he’s not allowed, anyway.”

  “He’ll be almost a year older when it comes up again,” Bill said. “He liked diving up on the lake, so I knew I’d never hear the end of it if...”

  “If his mother forbids it?”

  Bill nodded at Dawn. “I suppose. But look, I’m done here, so I’ll be on my way. I feel better having stopped in.”

  “Nice to meet you, Bill.” Jerrod spoke up quickly before Bill left. “I’m not just saying this to be polite, but you and Dawn have raised a great kid.”

  Bill grinned and waved. Then he was gone.

  “Well, that was an odd interruption,” Dawn said, “but not unpleasant. I guess I need to talk to Gordon.”

  “No, we need to talk to him.” Jerrod was prepared for anything. Having your diving instructor as your stepdad might seem cool, or it could seem really awful. Only time would tell.

  “Okay, it’s a deal. We’ll figure out when it would be best to do it.”

  “Now I want to talk business,” he said with a laugh in his voice.

  “You do? Now?”

  “We have an end-of-season dinner to plan, Ms. PR Maven. Aren’t you the one who suggested it?”

  “That was me,” Dawn said, giving him a lopsided smile. “Let’s get to work.”

  Dawn insisted she needed her planner and went to her car to get it. In the few minutes he was alone, it occurred to Jerrod he had one more really important thing to do.