“Pass on my love to Micah.” Did I imagine it, or was she angry at me? Her voice had an edge of steel to it.
“Bye, Mom.”
I turned to Kai who’d reappeared, frowning.
“Problem?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Nothing serious.” It was too soon to confide my suspicions in anyone, besides I couldn’t exactly explain it when I had no real information. “I think we should go visit Micah at the hospital. Isla hasn’t called and I’m worried.”
“Let’s go.” Nothing ruffled Kai. Maybe it was the Australian side of his nature – he was a laidback, roll-with-the-punches kind of guy. I liked that he was still in control, but moved through life in a fluid easy-going way.
At the hospital we found the nursing station and asked about Micah and Joe. With a smile, she pointed us to a room further along the corridor with assurances that Joe had been discharged and was totally fine, and that Micah was being observed overnight and would likely be discharged first thing in the morning. Relief flooded me, and I pulled Kai forward, counting room numbers.
We came to a single room, with the sound of a TV blaring some cops and robbers show. I went to knock when I saw them and wrenched my hand back. Isla was on the small bed next to Micah running the pad of her finger along his jawline, before kissing him softly on the lips and then murmuring quietly to him as he closed his eyes.
I nudged Kai who stood behind me, and moved out of sight. Kai grinned, laced his hand through mine to pull me away. Once we were out of earshot Kai said, “I think Micah is totally fine. And in good hands.” He waggled his eyebrows just like Micah would do. My heart just about exploded with so many feelings – relief, awe, happiness… and hope that my two friends had opened their hearts to one another.
“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered, wanting to dance down the hushed antiseptic-scented corridor. Micah deserved to tumble into love with someone gorgeous, someone bubbly and free-spirited like Isla.
“The night is young, should we get a bottle of wine and head to the lake at Cedarwood?”
I gasped. “The lake? Are you crazy? It’ll be freezing!”
He shrugged. “We’ll take a couple of blankets. When’s the last time you switched off your phone, laid on your back and counted stars?”
“Counted stars?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “Soak up some of the moonlight – it’s good for the soul, like midnight yoga… but I’ll let you off of that activity for tonight.”
The autumn sky was pitch black, and there was a bite to the air. “OK, why not? But it’ll be even colder by the lake, just so you know, you with your sensitive Australian skin.”
“I can handle it,” he laughed. “The view will be worth it.”
I shook my head, bemused to be getting myself into such a situation. Even though we’d been told to stay away I felt like a worried parent, and I’d be glad to see Cedarwood for myself and make sure it was OK. I’m sure deep down Kai sensed that and made up the counting stars idea to make me feel like I wasn’t some needy parent, returning to the nest, when in fact I was.
We gathered wine and glasses from his motel, pulled the blankets from the bed and drove back to Cedarwood, winding down the driveway past the lodge. It looked gloomy in its abandoned state, with the smell of smoke and sadness still heavy in the air. A part of me wanted to go inside and investigate, but we weren’t cleared as yet to enter. The thought of the lodge sitting empty for a night hurt right down to my soul. Sentimental or not, it was part of me now.
“We were lucky today,” Kai said, as if guessing my mood as he drove past the lodge and towards the lake.
“Damn lucky.” No matter what happened once we investigated tomorrow, if our plans ground to a halt, I’d forever be grateful that Micah and Joe were safe.
“Once we have the report from the firefighters, we’ll gear up to get the ballroom back into shape as quickly as we can. We can do it,” Kai said, his voice resolute. “We’ll just have to get everyone to help.”
I searched his face. “You think so?”
He nodded, pulled the truck up under a copse of white cedar trees and killed the engine. “I know so. It’s important not only for your future but for morale. Everyone has worked so hard, and they want to see it finished. I didn’t tell you before, but I’ve had calls from the previous laborers, and they offered to come back if we need them.”
The poor tradespeople who’d left Cedarwood with weary faces after such long days. “They’d come back and start over?”
“You treated everyone like they were part of the family, and they want to see this place done. Of course they will.”
Something fluttered inside me, hope maybe. “Wow, OK.” I wasn’t the type to give up! I shook away all the worry and angst from the day. “We can do it! No matter what we find tomorrow, there will be a solution so Imelda and Edgar can still have their party here.”
“That’s the spirit!” He grinned, and my heart beat staccato. Kai was one of the good ones.
We laid our rug by the lake, the wind icy as it blew towards us. “We’re going to catch our death here.” I laughed.
I fell back, gazing up at the star-filled sky. The moon was a fuzzy yellow orb, illuminating the ripples on the water like diamonds.
“Do you think they’ll end up together?” he asked.
“Isla and Micah… I don’t know. He was with Veronica for most of our teens – right up until a couple of years ago. I thought I’d come back to Evergreen and they’d be living the American dream. But she left, and it tore him up pretty bad. When I think of love, I always picture those two, the way they finished each other’s sentences, cast these long looks that conveyed some private meaning, sensed each other’s needs on some deep level. He’s adamant he doesn’t want anything serious, but Isla is pretty damn amazing, and I think despite being younger than him, she is mature and sensitive in a way that suits him.”
“Some relationships are just a warm-up for the real thing. Maybe the first one was just practice.”
I turned to face him. “Do you really believe that?”
With his hands clasped across his belly, he said, “It makes sense, right? Do you think you’re only allowed or allotted one love your entire life?”
“If I say yes does that make me seem naïve?” I plowed on. “I guess I thought you’d recognize true love when you saw it. Like the world would flip over, colors would brighten, it would be like having your favorite song on repeat.”
“Maybe. Have you been in love before?”
“You know that guy we saw in town? Timothy?” He nodded. “We were high school sweethearts, I suppose a much more subdued version of Micah and Ronnie. But looking back I think it was puppy love. In New York I had lots of first dates, but work was hectic and I couldn’t or wouldn’t commit. What about you?”
He pushed his hands under his head. “There was a girl back home. But when it came down to it, there wasn’t enough between us for it to go anywhere. I felt a little like a cardboard cutout, going through the motions as if it was expected of me. Meet a girl, move in together, and eventually propose. But it never felt quite right. I left Australia, with no hard feelings between us, searching for something else. I don’t know whether it’s love or a different life, or something spiritual I want. All I know is that if I’d stayed, suddenly I’d be sixty and looking back wondering why I felt so empty.”
“Think the tiny town of Evergreen is the answer?”
He faced me, moonlight reflected in his eyes. “Could be. I have an affinity for this place. Like I belong. Maybe it’s being so close to nature. I’ve always been happier alone in the wild than out with a bunch of people. Weird, huh?” He took a sip of wine and cupped his glass by his side.
“Not weird. Evergreen is the kind of place you can get lost in if you want. You’ve climbed the mountains, you know how easy it is to find solitude here.”
“Until Cedarwood Lodge is alive and kicking.”
“From your mouth to the universe’s ears.
” I laughed.
A shooting star flashed across the sky leaving a phosphorous trail.
I made a wish. That Kai would find what he was searching for, and that he’d find it close to Evergreen.
Chapter Eleven
“So hang on, let me get this straight. Micah, the best friend who happens to also be a super-hot male, has hooked up with the landscaper, Isla? And Kai, the Australian surfer god, is searching for something but doesn’t know what? And there was a fire, and your mom is acting weird?” Amory spoke at lightning speed and I had to pause a second to untangle her words.
“In a nutshell, yes. And the fire broke out in the ballroom ceiling, so we have to start over and we’ve only got two weeks until the party.”
She let out a pah of surprise. “You make New York look positively boring! I need to pull some vacay time and haul ass there.”
Laughter burbled from me. “It does seem rather fraught on the retell, but it’s mostly been lots of work. Cleaning, and painting, and paperwork. And now this drama…”
“Don’t negative Nelly me! You can still do this! And what about Timothy? That fine specimen of young love? Have you reconnected?”
I groaned. I’d forgotten her earlier missive about catching up with him for coffee. “Well, we’re all supposed to be going out on Friday. But that’s only because I literally bumped into him in town…”
She cut me off. “Bumped into him? Like meet-cute bump into him? Like the beginning of every single decent romantic comedy?”
“If I eye roll any harder I’ll see my brain. Yes, but it wasn’t like that. It was actually painful and all sorts of awkward because he had his two children with him who were so frosty they were practically snowmen. The little girl made the finger-across-the-throat gesture behind his back. And she’s only like four or eight or something!”
“OK, OK, that’s interesting. We don’t know enough about kids to translate the meaning. It could be anything! Did he say where their mom was?” Her voice rose with excitement and I knew I had to put a stop to her scheming. “Was he wearing a wedding ring?”
I debated whether to lie, because if I told her the truth there’d be no going back.
“He wasn’t, was he?” she said triumphantly.
Dang it! “No, he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean anything! He could have been swimming, or at the gym and had taken it off. Besides, I am not interested in revisiting the past.” I didn’t know which way was up at the moment and definitely couldn’t be trusted with matters of the heart unless they related to someone else.
“Did you have butterfly belly? Yes or no?”
“Possibly, but I think that was because I had a traumatic bump to the head…”
“Yes or no?”
“It was more nerves…”
“So that’s a yes. Did he give you that same special smile from back in the day?”
Damn it.
“I’ll take your silence for an affirmative. And who invited who out? Actually don’t bother answering that, it was him.” The clack of laptop keys clattered down the phone line.
“What are you doing?”
“Research.”
“His Facebook page is locked down.”
Her curse rang out and the keys clacked furiously once more.
“He doesn’t use Twitter.”
I was met with silence.
“Or Instagram.”
“Are they so remote they can’t communicate? I mean, how do these people survive?”
I giggled. “I think they meet face to face.”
She gasped. “Bloody hell. OK, so if we can’t stalk him online, I suppose you’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“I’ll go to the catch-up because I said I would, but that’s it. I’ve got too much to do here, especially now, and Kai’s making me do midnight yoga by the lake because apparently it’s the only way to get the knots out of my shoulders and help me have a proper deep sleep. So with all of those late nights and waking with the birds, I’m totally bushed. Maybe I’m getting…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kai’s making you go midnight yoga by the lake? The downward dog, you say?”
“Can you get your mind out of the gutter?”
“Never. Love is what makes the world go around and I am your cheer squad.”
“Riiight.”
“So you just happened to be together at midnight?”
“Well, we were climbing the mountain…”
“What for? To escape the fire?”
“No, for exercise.”
“WHAT! You don’t exercise!”
“I know, Kai’s really attuned to the earth and nature and he seems to have this kooky idea that I hold stress in my body and it’s toxic and a spot of midnight yoga would ease all of that. And I must admit, I’m sleeping soundly at night. But yeah, it’s pretty exhausting.”
“But why midnight?”
“Something about the shift in ocean current or the moon, or something.”
“Golly, and here I thought you’d be going to some little backwater with people who wore overalls and ate stalks of hay, and you’re surrounded by all these potential husbands.”
“They’re not potential husbands! One of them might be married and the other one works for me! How do you twist something innocent into… matrimony?”
“Oh please, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it?”
It had crossed my mind about Kai, but only in that very blurry ‘I wonder where he’ll end up’ way. “No, I haven’t. Not at all.”
“You can’t fool me, Miss Winters. But fine, keep your secrets.”
“How’s things there?”
“Fine. Fine.”
“Oh no, what now? I know your fine does not mean fine. It means the exact opposite of fine.”
Amory groaned. “You’re the only one who can pick that up in my voice. It’s quite a nuisance. I didn’t want to tell you, because seriously it’s just ridiculous. Have you had any calls, any requests for interviews?”
“You’re the only one with my new number.” When I left the agency I had to hand in my phone like a naughty schoolgirl.
“Ah, of course. Well yesterday your lovely face popped up on page two of the Gazette.”
I frowned. “And?” They’d already found photos of me, and – I noted – always the ones where my hair was out-of-control curly or I wore some unflattering expression.
“I know it’s probably innocent, but you’re all over the groom!”
I gasped. “Did they Photoshop it? I haven’t even…” Oh, god! “When I broke the news to him, his lip started to wobble – so I reached out to hug him! I was only comforting him! Who would’ve taken a photo of that precise moment? The vultures!”
“I know, and then they sold it. Surprised it’s taken this long to make the papers, to be honest.”
“Oh, Amory, this is a disaster! No one will ever trust me to host their weddings, even in deep dark Evergreen.”
She let out a long sigh. “I know. Maybe keep a low profile with your marketing for now. Don’t go shouting about yourself, stick to advertising just about Cedarwood… but maybe keep your name out of it.”
“I cannot believe this. I’d give anything to turn back time.” I couldn’t even see a way to spin the story in my favor. As the saying went any publicity is good publicity, but even for a wedding planner in the arms of someone else’s fiancé? Somehow I didn’t think so.
“Don’t be blue,” Amory said, sensing my discomfort. “Sometimes I wish I could pack up and come and stay with you. I could hike or do Pilates in the stream at quarter to ten or something.”
A giggle escaped me picturing her doing just that. “You’d never make it up the bluff in those heels.”
She laughed. “True, and I think I’d tumble forward if I wore flats. My body is used to be being artificially propped up six inches.”
“I miss you.”
“Don’t go getting all soppy on me, my mascara isn’t waterproof.”
�
�Time for those eyelash extensions.”
“I’ll Snapchat you later.”
“I love it when you talk tech.”
“That’s if you even get wi-fi out there in them hills.” She adopted a hillbilly accent.
“I’ll begin my dial-up as soon as the homing pigeon brings your message.”
She laughed uproariously. “Now, about the party, what theme are you going for?”
I sank back into the chair in the lobby, as rain clouds gathered outside. “A riot of color. Imelda loves bright and pretty things so I want to make it an explosion of glamour – but bright and happy. Their son, Walter, gave me hundreds of pictures of them throughout their lives, half of them are black and white, so with the backdrop of fuchsia and saffron and indigo the photos will stand out. I’ve made a photo montage and coupled it with their favorite songs. Simple yet elegant. I want the focus to be not on the decorations but on them and their family and friends, a celebration of two lives merged and what comes from that.”
“That sounds amazing! I’ve got some frames here I could send.”
“God no, then I’ll be arrested for stealing or something.”
“Good point. Well let me know if I can find anything around town and ship it over.”
“Thanks, Amory. Ship yourself here, that’d be good.”
“Be careful what you wish for.”
***
I’d left Kai in one of the upper rooms of the lodge, poring over the fire inspection report with promises to meet later to discuss it. It was good to be back inside, and as I walked sedately down the stairs I couldn’t help but shed a small tear at how close we had come to losing everything.
Micah honked the horn and I went outside, shrinking as the cold hit my skin.
I banged the door closed and figured I’d be subtle when I mentioned Isla. “So-o-o, anything you want to tell me?” Whoops. Perhaps subtle wasn’t in my vocabulary. Micah had been discharged from the hospital early that morning, but I’d insisted he take the rest of the week off no matter how much he protested so now was my chance to grill him.
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” he said, grinning, “This morning I had waffles for breakfast, with strawberries and cream, and I hiked up the bluff to work the sugar out of my system since I’m banned from returning to work, when I am perfectly fine. That what you wanted to know?”
Celebrations and Confetti At Cedarwood Lodge Page 9