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QUINO was driving Destiny’s classic Bentley while she and Genevieve sat in back. He glanced in the rearview mirror every now and again to see how Destiny was doing. When they had started out, she looked excited and a little nervous, but the closer they got, the paler she grew, and he caught Genevieve looking at her with concern.
When they were fifteen minutes out from the bookstore and stopped at a red light, he called Savy to let her know. He tried not to dwell on the fact that he was eager to hear her voice. This phone call was what they’d agreed upon via text this morning, nothing more.
“Hi, Quino,” she answered. “Is everything all right?”
“We’re fifteen minutes out,” he said. He winced at how cold he sounded. This wasn’t how he wanted things to be between them, but he couldn’t shake off the words he’d overheard, “there’s nothing keeping me here,” no matter how hard he tried.
“Great,” she said. She sounded nervous. That made him pause.
“Is everything ready on your end?” he asked.
“Oh, it’s ready,” she said. She sounded breathless. “It’s possible I might have underestimated the interest in Destiny’s return, however.”
“What’s going on, Red?” he asked. The nickname slipped out before he could catch it.
“We anticipated a few hundred attendees,” she said. “But I think we’re looking more at thousands.”
“What?” he asked. He glanced in the mirror to see if Destiny had heard him, but she had her eyes closed and Genevieve was leading her through a softly spoken visualization. He lowered his voice. “Are you serious?”
“I’m afraid so,” Savy said. She sounded worried. “You’ll help her, won’t you? I’m afraid she’ll be overwhelmed. Don’t leave her side for a second.”
“I won’t,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”
He left the words hanging out there but either she didn’t catch his not-so-subtle jab or she chose to ignore him. He wondered if she even planned to tell him before she left or if she’d just leave.
“Thank you, Quino.” She ended the call.
He put his phone down and resumed driving just as the light turned green. He drove through town and his first inkling that Savannah hadn’t been exaggerating was when he turned onto Willow Lane, only to find crowds of people going in both directions down the walkway. He glanced at Destiny, who looked perfectly composed, and then at Genevieve, whose eyebrows were up to her hairline.
“Looks like it’s going to be quite the turnout,” he said. Genevieve’s eyes got wider, but Destiny looked completely serene.
He pulled up to the curb, since the driveway was full of people, and parked. Stanchions had been set up, roping off the area so that Destiny could make her way to the bookstore unimpeded. Camera crews were just past the ropes and Quino felt a small flutter of nerves in his own belly. Dang, Savy was right. They had underestimated the impact of Destiny’s return by a lot.
He glanced over the seat back. “Are you ready?”
Destiny nodded once. “Yes.”
Quino climbed out of the driver’s seat and tugged his suit into place. He hadn’t planned to dress the part of professional bodyguard but knowing how Destiny liked to doll herself up, he’d figured he’d better raise his game if he was to be her escort.
He was glad he did, because Destiny had pulled out all the stops in a designer gown, a deep-red sheath that hugged her slender form and accentuated her arms with angel sleeves that reached almost to the ground. Her blond hair was styled in a soft cloud about her head and her makeup was light but accentuated her best features, her pale-blue eyes and generous lips. When she’d walked down the central staircase at Windemere, he’d stared at her in awe. She looked like a movie star.
He opened the back door of the Bentley and extended his hand to Destiny. She executed a smooth step out of the car in her silver pumps and used his hand to steady herself. An explosion of flashing bulbs went off as everyone started to scream her name. The diamonds at her throat and ears sparkled in the light, giving her celebrity polish. He had to give her credit. She didn’t even blink. She tipped up her chin, gave the crowd a smile, and then lifted one gloved hand and executed the perfect royal wave. He grinned.
“Attagirl,” he said so that only she could hear him. She gave him a side-eye and a small smile back.
He reached into the car and helped Genevieve out. Her hands were cold and she looked like a cat walking on tacks. She leaned close to him and said, “Thank goodness you’re here. If I had to do this alone with her, I’d bolt.”
Quino smiled. “Nah, look at her. She’s a pro. She’s got this.”
They fell in behind Destiny, who walked slowly up to the bookstore, pausing every now and then to clasp the hands that were held out to her and to respond to the people who were yelling her name.
They were almost to the porch when Quino saw Red standing on the front steps beside Maisy. Savy was dressed in a deep-green velvet dress that hugged her curves and flared out at her knees. Her hair was done up in an elaborate pile of curls on her head and all he could think about was how much he wanted to undo it. When he glanced at her face, their eyes met and he discovered she was watching him with the same intensity.
He was so focused on Red that he didn’t notice Destiny had stopped walking until he almost plowed into her. He stopped short just in time and looked to see what the holdup was. If someone crowded Destiny, he was ready to bodily lift them and carry them out. Fortunately, it was quite the opposite.
A woman wearing a beautifully knit aqua-colored scarf over her bald head, and with her coat zipped up to her throat to keep out the cold, was standing by the stanchion and sobbing. She had a tissue pressed to her face, trying to catch the tears that were running down her cheeks. With her other arm she cradled an armful of paperback books to her chest.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I didn’t mean to get emotional. It’s just that your books mean so much to me.”
Destiny patted her arm and said, “Oh, no, that’s fine. Don’t apologize.”
“I’ve been fighting stage-four breast cancer,” the woman sobbed. “And the only thing that has gotten me through the chemo is your writing.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Destiny said. She reached across the rope and hugged the woman tight. The woman cried harder. Destiny didn’t let go. She let the woman cry until her sobs softened into hiccups. Then she stepped back and cupped the woman’s face in her hands and said, “You are a warrior, my dear—never forget that.”
The words were said with genuine love and affection and the woman looked positively undone. Quino felt his throat get tight and his own eyes were damp. He glanced at the porch and saw that Maisy and Savy were surreptitiously wiping the tears from their faces, too. In fact, when he glanced at the crowd, he noted most of them were crying, about to cry, or trying not to cry.
“What’s your name?” Destiny asked the woman.
“Allison,” she said. Her voice quavered with emotion.
“Well, Allison, you are going to be my special guest today,” Destiny said. She reached down and lifted the rope and gestured for the woman to come under. Quino reached out to help the woman duck under as Destiny took her books and handed them to Genevieve, then Destiny linked arms with Allison and together they walked to the bookstore.
“Pure of heart, she is,” Genevieve said. She glanced at Quino. “And that’s why we all love her.”
“Agreed,” he said. They fell in behind Destiny and her new friend and entered the house.
Maisy had arranged the turret room that Ryder had built for her to be the center of the day’s activities. After Savy introduced Destiny and Maisy, who thankfully did not faint, Maisy led them upstairs to Destiny’s base of operations. A plush thronelike chair was in front of a small writing desk, and a few chairs had be
en set up behind Destiny’s where Quino assumed that he and Genevieve were to stay and keep watch.
Once Destiny was settled with Allison beside her in one of the extra chairs, Maisy gave them a five-minute warning until the event was to start. Genevieve huddled with Destiny to go over her talk and Maisy and the film crew did a last-minute check that every video screen inside and outside the building was functional. Maisy was in her element and it occurred to Quino that he was thrilled that he and Red had managed to save her bookstore, because she really was exceptionally good at this.
While the crew did a couple of sound and lighting checks, he moved to the back of the room, where he could see but also be out of the way. He leaned against the wall, marveling at how they had transformed the room into one of holiday cheer. Destiny sitting at the desk looked magnificent. When she glanced his way, he gave her a thumbs-up and she beamed. He knew she had to be nervous, but it didn’t show at all. He was so proud of her.
He sensed Red before he felt her move to stand beside him. He glanced down and his heart hurt. She was so very lovely, with her sugar-and-cinnamon skin, her fiery hair, and her pale-green eyes. He wanted to pull her close and tell her he was sorry. He hadn’t meant to say he’d never forgive her if something happened to Desi, but it was there between them. If words could make walls, he’d laid the foundation. And her declaration that there was nothing here for her had finished the wall off and now it stood between them as strong as any prison.
“Thank you for bringing her and for being here,” she said. And then she slipped away, out of his grasp and out of his reach.
Chapter Twenty-Three
DESTINY signed her last book at half past ten that night. Maisy had sold every single copy of every Destiny Swann book in stock. Everyone was tired with a side of exhausted. Quino loaded Destiny and Genevieve into the Bentley and drove them home. Genevieve conked out halfway to Windemere, but Destiny didn’t. She stared out the window, watching the big fat snowflakes illuminated by the car’s headlights plop onto the hood or the windshield. She was so quiet Quino was worried that maybe today had been too much for her.
“You all right, Destiny?”
She glanced from the windshield to him. She met his gaze in the rearview mirror and gave him a small smile. “Never better,” she said. “Except—”
He waited but she didn’t continue. He nudged. “Except?”
She met his gaze again and looked rueful. “Why did I wait so long? I never should have let my fear get the best of me. How many Allisons are out there who just want to say hi, who need a good bracing hug, who I’ve let down because I was afraid? I was afraid of letting my own vanity take over, so I became a hermit and then I was afraid of change so I did nothing . . . for years.” She shook her head. “Such a coward. Don’t be like me, Quino. When something needs to be said, say it. When something needs to be changed, change it. Don’t hide from life because you’ll soon discover you have no life at all, and time wasted can never be returned.”
She sank back into her seat and pondered the snowflakes again, while Quino drove through the darkness with only the large old headlights piercing through the whirling snow. He glanced at her face in the rearview mirror and wondered if she knew or was it just coincidence that her words so precisely suited the situation between him and Red?
He needed to tell Savannah how he felt about her. He needed her to hear the words. And he needed to make changes. He had been hiding from life at Shadow Pine, keeping everything exactly as it had always been. Oh, he’d told himself it was for Desi so that she didn’t feel the lack of what they’d once had, but the truth was that it was for him, too. He’d thought if he held on to the memories as tightly as he could then they would never leave him, but the reality was, the memories would never leave him. As Desi had said, their parents were with her all the time in everything she did.
He thought about this morning when he’d left his house to go pick up Destiny. It had been foggy and the mist had swirled through the trees, and for one fanciful moment, he could have sworn he saw Esther trotting up the path into the woods. His parents had never left him, Esther would never leave him. They would carry on in his heart just as they were meant to, just like they did for Desi. He didn’t have to hang on so tight.
When he pulled onto the long drive to Windemere, he knew what he had to do. Tomorrow, he would find Savannah and he would pour out his heart. If she still wanted to leave Fairdale, then so be it. At least he would have had his say—he would have tried to make a change—and she would know how he felt. He didn’t want to go another day without Savannah knowing exactly how he felt about her.
By the time Quino parked the Bentley, escorted the ladies to the house, and got back into his own truck it was past midnight. He wished he could go straight to Red’s and declare his feelings, but the woman had been running all day, finessing that signing like a champ. He was so proud of her, he could have burst with it, but he’d never even gotten the chance to tell her as she had been in a frenzy of motion all day.
By the time Destiny signed the last book, she’d looked ready to drop and Savy had asked Quino to take Destiny home. In front of everyone, he couldn’t say anything except that he thought it had gone very well. She had nodded with a small smile and that was it. He’d been sure that was the end of them. But Destiny’s words about not messing it up had struck true. Maybe, just maybe, he could turn this thing around.
He decided to catch a couple hours of sleep before going to Red’s. She had to be dead tired and would probably be as thrilled about a declaration of feelings at this hour as she would a case of rickets. She had said on the phone that she had to get through the signing before she could go anywhere, so she likely planned to leave on Monday at the earliest. Christmas was on Friday, and since he knew her family wasn’t big on the holiday, it could be that she planned to stay here. That would give him a few days to plead his case.
Feeling optimistic, Quino hit the gas and headed for home. It was late when he arrived and he was yawning as he parked in front of the garage. He didn’t want to wake Luke by opening the garage door and the truck would be fine spending one night out in the cold.
He approached his house and noticed that all of the Christmas lights were on. The place glowed in the darkness and he realized he might have been going a little overboard all these years. But why were they on? He was sure he hadn’t switched them on before he left that morning. And he didn’t think burglars switched on your Christmas lights for you as it wasn’t exactly stealth. He wondered if Luke or Lanie had done it when they realized he’d be home late. It was the only answer that made sense.
He climbed the steps, feeling weary all the way down to his feet. He stepped inside the house and began to toe off his boots when he heard his name right before he was grabbed in a crusher hug. He knew immediately from impact exactly who it was. Desi!
“What are you doing here?” he asked. He released her. He hugged her again. She was here. Desi was here!
“I came for Christmas, of course,” she said. “You didn’t think I was going to miss it, did you?”
“Well . . . yeah,” he said. She turned and walked into the living room. The pretty blue afghan they kept draped over the back of the couch was wadded up on the cushions. It appeared Desi had been asleep when he came home.
“Bro, I could never miss Christmas in Fairdale,” she said. She didn’t meet his gaze.
“Who called you?” he asked.
“Lanie,” she sighed. “She said that you were taking Esther’s death pretty hard and she was concerned because she hadn’t seen Savannah around lately and she suspected there’d been a breakup and you weren’t talking about it.”
Quino said nothing.
“So was there?” Desi asked. She plopped back down onto the sofa and pulled the blanket around her.
“None of your business,” he said. “How did you get here so fast?”
“Charles,
er, Mr. Kendrick flew me in on his private plane,” she said.
“Charles Kendrick? The man who inherited the Kenya Elephant Rescue and Rehabilitation Institute from his grandmother?”
“Yep, that’s the one,” she said.
“How did you get to be pals with him?” he asked.
“I’m not,” she insisted. “He was headed to the States and when he heard I needed to go home, he offered me a lift.”
“A lift? In a private jet?”
Desi nodded. “Crazy, huh?”
“That’s one word for it,” Quino said. “So, do I need to track down this Charles guy and punch him in the mouth?”
“I hope not,” she said. “He’s asleep in the spare bedroom.”
“What?”
“It was late when we arrived and he was exhausted,” she said. “You don’t mind, do you? I mean, he flew me all the way in from Kenya.”
“No, I don’t mind,” he said. But he felt out of sorts as if everything was off. He didn’t want to complain, but nothing felt right.
“Come on, sit down, and tell me how you messed up with Savy,” she said.
“I didn’t mess up,” he protested. He sank onto the sofa beside her. “Why do you assume I messed up? Do you know who left you that packet of grant material?”
“Savy?”
“You knew?”
“Not until just now when you asked,” she said. “I figured it was one of the Happily Ever After ladies, but it makes sense it was Savy. I can’t think of any other reason why you’d muck up a new relationship with the woman who is perfect for you.”
“Perfect, huh?”
“I’ve never seen a woman reject you before,” Desi said. “I knew she was the one the minute she ignored you.”
The Christmas Keeper Page 29