by Ginny Baird
As long as he was in charge and they weren’t going under, Ellen was prepared to do anything Carlos said. She nodded, grimacing at the strain of holding the pole that arched over in their grip.
“When I say go…”
“What happens on go?” she asked, glancing quickly over her shoulder.
His eyes danced with mirth as he gave her a peck on the cheek. Her skin tingled at the brush of his beard and she saw a flash of bright light. Either she was dizzy from the contact or going snow-blind. “We pull that baby out of the water.” He leaned back a bit and added with a chuckle. “Though something tells me it’s an awfully big baby.
“Ready…” he started, strengthening his hold on both her and the pole. “Set…”
Ellen’s heart thundered at the thought she was about to do it. Something so recklessly primitive as catching a fish!
“Go!” Carlos shouted, wrenching back with all his might. Ellen gave it everything she had, yanking hard. The monster strained against them. They pulled, it tugged… they pulled, it tugged. Then finally they pulled harder, and—wham! Ellen and Carlos fell back in a heap, with her landing squarely on top of him.
“Are you all right?” he asked, gripping her breasts through her coat as she stared up into a clear, blue sky.
“I think so,” she said, spinning over on top of him. Six feet away, the most enormous fish she’d seen in her life flip-flopped on its side beyond their tackle box.
Ellen grinned. “We got him!” she shouted, happily pounding Carlo’s chest with her gloves. “By God, we got him!”
Carlos laughed with delight and pulled her toward him for a kiss. “Damn good fishing for a city woman.”
Christine and Tyler made their way through the busy crowd at the airport, dragging their rolling carry-on bags behind them. They were almost to security when Christine heard a distant cry. “Christine! Wait!”
Tyler turned first. “Mommy! Look!”
She spun on her heels to find John sprinting toward them in his Carolina sweatshirt, a large manila envelope in hand.
“Thank God I caught you.” He leaned forward panting, hands resting on his thighs. “I thought I was too late.”
Christine stared at him is disbelief. “What are you doing here?”
He huffed and puffed, still catching his breath. “I couldn’t let you leave without this,” he said, extending the manila envelop toward her.
“I’m not sure I understand. What is it?”
John caught his wind, straightening. “A business plan, Christine. This is it! A solution. A way to get from point A to point Z!”
She stared at him flatly unable to mask her disappointment. “Oh.”
He appeared confused, thrown off guard. John ran his fingers through his short dark hair, settling his gaze on hers. “But this is what you’ve wanted. Your own line. Your own company, even. I…” He surveyed her once more, his cheeks sagging. “I thought that you’d be pleased.”
“Pleased, John? When you didn’t even bother to tell us good-bye? Just sort of dropped out of the picture? And now you suddenly appear with this.” She eyed the envelope with disdain, causing him to flinch and step back.
He wrinkled his brow, pleading. “Won’t you at least take a look? Glance over it on your flight?”
She’d spent these last three days trying to forget him. The last thing she needed to do was carry reminders home. “Thanks, but I’ve got to make plans for my life in Chicago.”
“But this is for your life,” he said, attempting once more to hand it over. “Christine, please…” He released the envelope, but she failed to grasp it, letting it fall to the floor. Tyler eyed them both uncertainly, then scooped it up.
Christine set her chin and willed it not to tremble. Here was this gorgeous man with whom she thought she’d made a personal connection, and all he cared about was cold, hard business. Perhaps he’d never felt anything for her at all, or for Tyler, either.
“Thanks for a swell New England vacation,” she said, turning away and taking Tyler’s hand. “It was nice knowing you.” She walked her child toward security, the pain in her chest searing. After Christmas night, she didn’t believe her heart could break again, but she’d been wrong.
Tyler looked sadly over his shoulder as they slipped away, milling in with the line passing through the security scanner. John couldn’t stop the burn in his throat any more than he could the heat in his eyes. He’d thought she’d be happy to see him. Instead, she’d greeted him with chilling disdain. He’d spent untold hours on that plan, believing it was the best thing he could do for her. Wasn’t helping her build the life she wanted the right thing? Her world was in Chicago; his life was here. There were no two ways about it.
John pursed his lips, recalling toboggan rides and warm nights by the fire… Little Tyler’s Whoohoo! when he was thrilled about something. Then, there was the memory of Christine in his arms as they danced through the night, and his inward desire to never let her go. But the hard fact was that he couldn’t hold on forever.
“You did what?” Carlos asked with disbelief when they met for coffee a few hours later. “Followed her all the way to the airport to deliver a business plan?”
“Come on, man,” John said, feeling gloomy. “I thought that you, of all people, would understand what a gesture that was.”
“No. What kind of gesture was it?”
“A very generous one! I put my heart and soul into that proposal!”
“Harrumph.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Let me guess. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to see you.”
“No, in fact she wasn’t,” John said, still reeling from the shock. “Frankly, she was pretty ticked off.”
Carlos slowly shook his head then met John’s eyes. “You know, for a very smart man, you can be a really big dummy sometimes.”
“What are you driving at, Carlos. Just spill it.”
“John, John… You meet this pretty single mom up here on vacation. You wine her and dine her and make her think something is possible…”
“Hang on just one second! She did every bit as much wining and dining as I did!”
“You’re only proving my point.”
“Which is?”
“You may not have wanted it to happen. By some Christmas miracle, maybe even the two of you didn’t see it coming. But, one way or another, you and Christine were drawn to each other, found yourselves falling—”
“Precisely why I had to stop it!” John shot back. “Can’t you see? That was the best thing—the right thing—for us both!”
Carlos slowly stroked his beard. “Was it?”
Mason, who’d been sitting at John’s feet, shot him a dirty look.
“You,” John admonished the dog, “stay out of it.”
Chapter Fourteen
It was New Year’s Eve in the elegant bistro. Carlos poured Ellen a glass of champagne as they sat at a romantic table for two.
“I’m having a hard time feeling festive with things ending so badly between John and Christine,” she said.
Carlos took her hand. “I know, querida. But it’s their business, and their problem to work out.”
“What are the odds?”
“In love, everything’s uncertain, yes?” He lifted her hand giving the back of it a kiss. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Then you head back to go and start all over again.”
“That’s just it,” Ellen said with a worried frown. “I don’t know if Christine will ever head back to go after this.” She sipped from her champagne. “Where’s John tonight?”
“Likely moping about his place with that old mutt of his,” Carlos answered. “What do you think Christine’s doing?”
Ellen sighed. “Probably sitting around in her apartment with Tyler, watching the ball drop on TV.”
The two of them sat for a moment in silence.
“Do you think Christine will be okay?” Carlos asked with concern.
“Oh yeah, she�
�ll bounce back. She’s tough. I don’t know about in the love department… but, otherwise, she’ll get her life together. Christine always gets her life together. She’s got to, right? She does it for Tyler.” She pursed her lips and looked at him. “What about John?”
Carlos shrugged. “Tough as nails, too. He’ll be fine.”
But, by the way the two of them stared at each other, it was as if neither one believed it.
Carlos perused Ellen thoughtfully. “What time do you leave in the morning?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Then let’s not let tonight go to waste,” he said, clinking her glass.
Ellen smiled warmly, thinking what a rare and unexpected treat it was that the two of them had met. “To us,” she said, toasting back.
“And to living in the moment, when the moment’s right.”
Tyler dozed in a large leather chair, a New Year’s hat askew on his head, as Christine watch the ball drop in New York’s Times Square on television. Happy New Year, indeed. She shared a silent toast with the air, then frowned. Everything felt wrong about how things had ended with John, but she hadn’t really seen another way around it. What was she supposed to do? Fall at his feet with gratitude when he’d surprised her at the airport with that ridiculous plan?
She tapped her glass with her fingers, eying the manila envelop on the end table. What could be so hellfire important that he’d raced to catch them before they boarded their plane? A way to get from point A to Z? Well fine. John could keep his unsolicited advice, and Christine wished he had. Seeing him at the airport had just made things worse. She’d known he’d really hurt her, but hadn’t understood how badly until he’d appeared at the last minute and caused her battered heart to hope. For an instant, she believed him to regret letting them go without so much as a word. But he’d shown no hint of remorse at all, only confusion in light of his damnable insistence that she read what he’d brought.
Christine drew a deep breath, steeling her emotions. She didn’t need a sexy professor from New England anyway. She and Ty had done just fine before he’d come along, and would do great going forward without him. He could keep all that snow, and those tobogganing hills, the warm nights by the fire, and his dog. Christine sighed, recalling Tyler’s joyful bonding with Mason. Maybe she’d have to get him a puppy. But not any time soon. There was enough going on in the balancing act between being a single mom and working.
She took another sip of champagne, weighing the demands of her job and all it entailed. The truth was that she’d been asking for more responsibility at work, but Ellen had been resistant. Perhaps it was true that Christine had seemed out of focus before, but the trip to Vermont had done her good. She sensed greater clarity now. While John had been wrong in many ways, most especially in the way he’d treated her, he actually was correct in assuming Christine wanted more for herself than what she currently had. She was capable of it too. She knew she could develop her own line, and had several ideas for interactive products with Internet potential as well. It would likely take time, but she was still relatively young, so time was on her side. John’s prescient words came back to her like a haunting refrain. The future is long…
She set down her champagne and lifted the manila envelope, almost afraid of its contents. What if John’s plan was more helpful than she’d imagined? She had enough of a level head to separate a business opportunity from a personal disappointment, didn’t she? If she ultimately had a different path for herself in mind, wouldn’t it make sense to think out the logical steps to achieving her goal now? She tentatively broke its seal, her heart pounding. It was just a stack of papers. So why did Christine have a premonition her whole life was about to change?
John flipped off the TV and set down the remote. On the coffee table before him, a bottle of champagne in bucket of ice sat untouched. He’d considered inviting one of his lady friends to join him for the evening, but somehow the thought of entertaining was distasteful. He didn’t really want to have anyone else over when the only person he could think of was Christine. While it had never been a big deal before, being physical with a casual acquaintance suddenly didn’t appeal to him. He’d only kissed Christine once, but their kissing session had felt as intimate as they come. She’d been so warm and willing in his arms, her flesh molding against his as their mouths melded. He’d never longed to make love to a woman more, slowly and tenderly, employing all of his manly talents. He knew he could treat her right, and would take every care to ensure her happiness in bed. Sadly, he hadn’t done such a hot job of filling her with joy outside of it.
He glanced at Mason, still mad at him, on the other side of the room. The dog turned his back on John, sitting beside the Christmas tree.
“Come on, boy. You’re not going to hold a grudge forever?”
Mason walked his paws forward, slinking into a lying position. After a few moments, John heard him gnawing and knew he’d locked onto his giant rawhide bone. John sagged forward, his elbows resting on his knees, head in hands. If he’d really done the right thing with Christine, then why was everybody here trying to make him feel like he’d done something terrible?
John thought back to Christine’s admission in the kitchen. He had made her happy out of bed, but then he’d gone and blown it big-time. But she’d caught him so off guard, he hadn’t known how to respond. What could he have said? That she made him happy too? John stared at the Christmas tree, mentally reliving every moment. Of course, she’d made him happy. She and Tyler both had, each in their own way. When he’d been with the two of them together, they’d been almost like a family. Although it had been pretend, he’d felt contented in that role. He’d just been so unfamiliar with the feeling, he hadn’t known what it was.
John swallowed hard, thinking there’d been another emotion present, something deeply personal and just between him and Christine, but he’d been in denial of that as well. He had his hands full these days and building his career to consider besides. Despite the common myth of the easygoing life of the college professor, the hard truth was that competition in academia was exceedingly tough. You had to publish or perish, and keep forging ahead. John was an ambitious man who’d carved out a path for himself. His own dad had been an unsteady worker who was often unemployed and barely able to keep food on the table for John and his younger sister.
John had vowed at thirteen to work his way past that. And, from that first job tending the golf course at that upper-crust country club to his full graduate school scholarship, he had. Still, John believed he shouldn’t become serious with any woman, or consider having a family, until he found himself in a financially stable position. He’d be damned if he was going to repeat the past, when he was capable of charting his own future. Of course, he was contemporary enough to understand his wife would have her own career, but that didn’t negate the sense of responsibility that had been pounded into him each time he’d seen tears of desperation welling in his mother’s eyes. Because his late dad had been unable to prepare for it, John was now making arrangements for his mom’s welfare too. He also helped out his kid sister, as he was able. She was a single mom and putting herself through school besides. There was a lot on his plate, a hell of a lot more than Christine, or anyone else—including Carlos—knew.
John decided to open the champagne, thinking he might as well have a glass. There were so many emotions churning inside him, it was almost like he didn’t know where to turn. Man’s best friend had denied him, and it appeared his own heart had betrayed him too. He’d not even understood what he’d been feeling until now. And now, it was too late. The truth was that his promotion put him in a different place. Yes, he’d be working harder, but he’d also be making more money. A lot more money, he thought, popping the cork. It sprang forth in an arc as bubbles gurgled from the bottle. John picked up a cloth to wipe it, reaching forward for the cork on the floor. His fingers made contact with something else set back a little farther under the coffee table. What in Hades was that? John pinched the wooly
fabric between his fingers, then slowly withdrew a bright red object from its stowaway perch.
Mason stood, turning toward him.
“Well, what do you know…?” John said aloud.
Ellen melted in Carlos’s rapturous embrace at the airport. It was January first and her vacation had ended. “I’m not going to ask when I’m going to see you again,” she said sadly.
Carlos pressed his forehead to hers. “Now you’re hurting my feelings.”
Ellen stared into warm brown eyes knowing she couldn’t stand to say good-bye forever. “When’s the last time you came to Chicago?”
“Nineteen seventy-nine.”
“Then you’re overdue!”
“I have a problem with that,” Carlos said, pulling back.
“Oh?”
“My old college chum, the one I used to stay with . . .” he began seriously, “has moved away.”
She knew what he was getting at, but couldn’t resist teasing him. “I know some good hotels in the area.”
Carlos feigned shock. “You wouldn’t toss an old man out in the snow?”
Ellen kissed him soundly his bristly beard tickling.
“Call me,” she said, breaking away.
Carlos beamed as she picked up her luggage and set it on the conveyor belt. He withdrew his cell from his pocket and waved it in her direction. “I’ve got your number!”
Chapter Fifteen
Christine sat at her drafting table intent on her sketch while classical music played in the background. All the Christmas decorations were tucked away, leaving her apartment with a neat array of modern furniture and clean open spaces. This drawing was whimsical and fun, with a family of snowmen tobogganing down a pine-studded hill. While there was computer software for graphic design, Christine preferred importing her hand-drawn illustrations into her layout program by using a scanner. This gave her the ability to create high-tech products with down-home appeal. It would take at least five years on her current income to save up enough to start her own company. In the meantime, she was determined to build a preliminary catalogue.