by Amanda Tru
“Geneva, we need to…” Carter insisted, once again tugging on her arm to follow him.
Getting angry now, she jerked her arm away and glared at him. She pointed to the phone, indicating she was on an important call, and she walked away, trying to put space between them so she could actually focus.
Ten minutes later, she hung up the call and raised her arms in victory. An address beamed at her from where she’d neatly written it at the back of the journal. Cossette’s address.
Geneva had been right. This journal was important enough to Cossette that she had reported it missing to the airport in the vain hope that it would somehow be found and returned to her. She’d probably even said a prayer, figuring that intervention from God was likely the only way a missing item is ever found at an airport. After all, losing things is part of what an airport did every single day.
Now Geneva got to be part of seeing Cossette’s prayer answered. As soon as they got back to Crossroads, she’d package the journal up with a note and send it to the address Cossette left with the airport.
This time, she hadn’t failed.
Feeling a relief that extended to the other worries of her present circumstances, Geneva walked back to her own gate where she found Carter and Big Kitty sitting alone in an empty area.
“I’m sorry,” she greeted, calculating an apology as her best approach. “I didn’t mean to be rude, but I was on an important call. What did you need?”
Carter’s eyes flipped open from resting. “I just wanted to tell you that our flight was boarding.”
Geneva’s heart leaped, and she sprang up from where she’d sat beside Carter. “Boarding? Then let’s go!”
Carter leaned lazily back in his chair and folded his hands behind his neck. “Airport security frowns upon trying to board a flight that has already taken off.”
Geneva’s mouth fell open. “You mean… We missed it?”
“They were last minute tickets,” Carter explained casually. “We were in the final boarding group. If you go over to the window over there, you might catch a glimpse of the plane circling around the airport before it heads to Brighton Falls.”
Geneva reached into her backpack and retrieved the now-worthless boarding pass. Sure enough, the flight’s departure time was past and didn’t include a do-over. Geneva sighed heavily, switching modes to fixing the problem.
“When is the next flight,” she asked, scanning the nearby gates. “Did you already switch our tickets?”
Carter still lounged back nonchalantly as if remarking on the selection of restaurants that they may or may not choose in a few hours if he happened to feel hungry. “The next flight is tomorrow. Leaves about this same time. Should get us into Brighton Falls late on Christmas Eve.”
“No,” Geneva said, rejecting the idea with a shake of her head. “That’s not possible. There has to be another flight.”
“Oh, there is. There isn’t another flight to Brighton Falls, but we could catch a flight to Denver, then Seattle, then to Brighton Falls. Or we could go to Phoenix, then San Francisco, then Salt Lake, then Brighton Falls. But each of those options lands us arriving at the same or later time. Let’s face it, our flying luck hasn’t exactly been stellar so far this trip. I doubt we’d arrive close to the current estimates.”
Geneva stood. “Let me talk to one of the agents. There has to be a way to get us home. Maybe if we tell them how important it is, they’ll find something, maybe even on a different airline. Sometimes it’s just a matter of who you talk to.”
Carter shook his head. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Geneva. Every flight is booked. I’ve already checked all the airlines, as well as flights from Santa Fe. Even for tomorrow’s flight, we’ll need to fly standby. We were only standby today. Two seats opened up on the plane at the last minute, but that might not happen again. There’s a very real possibility we won’t get a flight until Christmas day or later.”
Geneva felt ill, finally collapsing back into a seat. What made it even worse is that Carter didn’t even sound angry. She had made them miss their flight. It was her fault.
“I’m so sorry,” Geneva said brokenly. “I was just trying… I found a journal that accidentally ended up in my backpack. I knew it was important to the writer. I was trying to find a way to send it back to her.” Her explanation sounded paltry even to her own ears. “I didn’t realize… I should have listened when you tried to tell me.”
Carter leaned forward in his chair, meeting her ashamed eyes for the first time. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, Gen. We need to look at the cards in our hand and play what we have.”
“Why don’t we drive?” The idea hit her suddenly, and she took out her phone to check the driving distance. “Close to fifteen hours. Even with stopping for food and restrooms, we should make it to Crossroads long before tomorrow’s flight arrives.”
Carter shook his head. “Geneva, we need to sleep. Both of us are exhausted. I doubt you slept any better than I did last night or any night since we left. Plus, it’s winter with some pretty serious mountain ranges to get over between here and Crossroads.”
“Okay,” Geneva said, not wanting to argue. “What if we took off now and took turns driving until we both get tired. Then we can get a hotel for a few hours’ sleep and start again in the morning. Even with delays, we should still get there before tomorrow’s flight. We don’t even know for sure that we’d get a spot on the plane tomorrow. With driving, we get a better guarantee that we will make it before Christmas.”
Carter was silent, thinking as his eyes roamed the busy airport. The gate in front of them had once again sprung to life, and the seats around them filled with people who actually had tickets to go somewhere.
“Carter, please,” Geneva said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “We have to do this. I promised Kara and Allie I’d be back for Christmas.”
Carter suddenly stood, slinging his backpack behind him. He quickly took hold of his small suitcase and swung Big Kitty into his spare arm. “Come on, then. Let’s go. Allie’s waiting.”
“What are we doing back here?” Geneva asked in alarm. “We’re not taking another try at convincing Jimmy, are we?”
“Nope. Once was plenty for me,” Carter said, putting the car into park in front of Jimmy’s building. “The only thing that would change that man’s heart and mind is an act of God, and that’s not really my specialty. Besides, Jimmy is probably at work by now.”
“Then what are we doing?” Geneva asked, feeling frustrated at yet another delay. Getting a rental car at the airport proved difficult and time-consuming, even though they’d just returned one less than two hours before. She’d wanted to leave for Crossroads right away, but the clock ticked later and later, and they hadn’t even left Albuquerque. “Look, you already stopped once at that copy place, and you didn’t even explain why. Now you’re stopping again.”
Carter sighed, took his hand off the door handle, and turned to Gen. “I’m trying to get things done quickly so we can leave. While I was waiting for you at the airport, I got to thinking about everything that happened. Remember that family we ran into at the River of Lights?”
Geneva grimaced. “The one we literally ran into? Yes.”
“They were so forgiving and helpful. It wasn’t their fault that Jimmy won’t see Allie, yet we’ll probably need to email them and tell them that the story didn’t quite have a happy ending. I want to do something to show our appreciation for the way they treated us. Most people would have been ticked off that we bowled them over, and yet they were nice enough to hear us out and then help. Remember how we talked about superheroes and the movie that is releasing?”
“Vaguely,” Geneva said, recalling the teenage boy’s yellow lightning bolt beanie, but not the entire specifics of the following conversation.
“Shadows of Night, Part Two is expected to break a bunch of release records,” Carter explained. “Opening day is tomorrow night, and you can’t get a ticket. They are sold out across the count
ry. Kent and Ada said they didn’t have tickets and were bummed about needing to wait. I think Ada felt bad because she’d wanted to get tickets a few months ago and hadn’t.”
Carter looked at Geneva directly, uttering the next words as if giving a grave confession. “Gen, I made a few calls to some of my connections and got tickets for them. I picked them up at the copy place. Now, I’ll leave them here at Kent’s apartment next door to Jimmy.”
“Wait. You have connections?” Gen asked, almost wishing circumstances were different, and they’d had time for him to get them tickets to Shadows, too. “And you did this at the airport while I was on the phone with Seattle?”
Carter shrugged. “I had the idea to get them tickets yesterday after we met, but I didn’t think I had time to make it work. Then, we missed our flight, and I had nothing to do until you showed up. I really only made one call. And, yes, I have connections. I’m a famous doctor, remember? If a celebrity’s child gets sick with cancer, I’m the one they come to.”
Geneva inspected his deep brown eyes, feeling a little awed by him—not because of his connections, but because of his thoughtfulness in saying thank you and granting a wish at the same time.
Geneva opened her car door. “Let’s go play Santa.”
When Kent had given them Jimmy’s address and directions, he had mentioned his own apartment as well. The two really were side-by-side neighbors. As they walked up to make the delivery, Geneva tried not to even look at Jimmy’s door. The events were still too fresh and painful from that morning, and she didn’t want to relive the memories knocking on that door represented.
Unlike their experience this morning, Carter’s knock at Kent’s door only met silence from the other side, indicating no one was home.
“What should we do?” Geneva asked. “Those tickets are hot commodities. I don’t think we should just leave them out in the open where someone could find them, but we want to make sure Kent gets them.”
Carter inspected the doorway. When the answer didn’t immediately volunteer, he finally lifted up the doormat and tucked the envelope with the tickets underneath it. “Now, we need to figure out how to let him know they are there.”
“Oh, I know!” Gen said, quickly turning to dash back to the car. When she returned, she held the map they’d been given last night when attending the River of Lights. She also held a pen that she’d confiscated from one of their recent hotel stays. Inside the folded map, she tucked a piece of hotel paper with the words,
Thank you! Check the floor mat!
Then she tucked the map in the crack right beside the keyhole Kent would use to open the door.
“I hope that works!” she said nervously, glancing from the floor mat to the map.
“It will,” Carter assured, taking her hand in his. “Now come on. We need to continue our Santa work with our little girl in Crossroads!”
As they drove away, Geneva looked at the clock in the center console and mentally calculated what time they may arrive in Crossroads. She winced, thinking about how they would almost be home already if she hadn’t caused them to miss her flight. Suddenly, an odd realization struck her. If they had left when they were supposed to, they would have never delivered those movie tickets. Simple movie tickets shouldn’t matter, but Geneva couldn’t help hoping that something good would come out of her mistake. Hopefully, those tickets would matter to Kent and Ada.
“We’ll stop at the hotel up here,” Carter said, nodding toward a large billboard advertising hotel accommodations in the approaching town.
“If you’re tired, I can drive,” Geneva said, her voice far too perky.
“No, you won’t,” Carter growled. “You haven’t slept at all, even when I’ve been driving. It’s two o’clock in the morning, and this is the last town before we head up over a pass. We’ve made good progress tonight. Even with stopping to sleep, we should be in Crossroads by early afternoon tomorrow.”
“I can drive,” Geneva muttered. “I’m not tired at all.”
“I bet you aren’t,” Carter said dryly. “But I am. Your ‘not tired’ is the variety where you don’t feel it until your body suddenly shuts down. I need to sleep, and I can’t rest knowing you might fall asleep and drive off the road if my eyes close. I know you feel bad, Gen, but don’t let guilt make you do something unwise. It won’t help Allie if we have an accident trying to get to her.”
Unfortunately, Carter was right. Geneva hated when he was right, and she couldn’t manage anything more than a scowl and a sour attitude to match. Nevertheless, she didn’t protest when he found the hotel and parked the car. Thankfully, this wasn’t a fancy destination hotel. With a red vacancy sign still glowing overhead, they would still allow for late check-ins, even in the middle of the night.
Carter and Geneva trudged into the lobby with just their small suitcases, leaving Big Kitty to sleep in the backseat of their rented sedan. The fiftyish man at the front desk greeted them enthusiastically, even before they said a word. “Tonight’s your lucky night!” he announced. “Since the night’s half over, I’ll give you a discount on our honeymoon suite!”
His wide grin split his face below a balding head and between two rather substantial salt-and-pepper sideburns.
Muttonchops.
Though suddenly feeling very weary, the nickname came instantly, and try as she might to focus on the nametag announcing him as “Ray,” she couldn’t undo that in her mind, he would forever be classified as Muttonchops.
“We’ll pass on the honeymoon suite,” Carter said smoothly. “We need two regular, non-smoking rooms, please.”
“Sorry, can’t do that. I only have one room left. The honeymoon suite. Take it or leave it.”
Weary of the day and ready to be done, Geneva slid her credit card onto the counter. “We’ll take it.” To Carter’s surprised expression, she shrugged. “We can manage. We’re only here for a few hours anyway.”
They paid and got directions to their room on the ground floor. “It’ll be fine,” she whispered to Carter, trying to reassure herself as much as him. After all, she just paid for a honeymoon suite to share with Carter. “How much do you expect from a ‘honeymoon suite’ in a place like this anyway?”
Unfortunately for Geneva, they opened the door into a surprisingly nice and romantic room. A stone fireplace formed the centerpiece for the room with a large jetted tub flanking one side and an elegantly laid bed in the center.
Geneva sat on the bed and immediately took off her shoes, trying to completely ignore their surroundings.
“Gen, I need to ask you something,” Carter said, coming to stand directly in front of her.
“What?” Geneva asked, concerned at his serious expression.
He pulled her to her feet, keeping hold of both of her hands. Then he looked solemnly into her eyes. “You paid for a honeymoon suite and then brought me here. What exactly are your intentions?”
The subtle gleam in his eye gave him away.
He’s totally teasing me!
Geneva pushed away from his grasp. She walked over to the front of the bed, grabbed a pillow, and threw it at him. “I intend for you to sleep on the floor!”
Carter tipped his head back and laughed, thoroughly enjoying giving her a hard time. “What about the couch?” he asked, indicating the piece of furniture parked directly in front of the silent fireplace. “Can I sleep on the couch instead of the floor?”
“I’ll allow it,” Geneva granted reluctantly. “But only if you behave yourself as a perfect gentleman. If you give me a hard time, you’ll be sentenced to the floor or maybe even the car with Big Kitty!”
Carter bowed with great flourish. “You have my word I will be a perfect gentleman, m’lady.”
They readied for bed quickly, each taking turns in the bathroom. Geneva finished first and turned out all the lights except the lamp on the end table beside the couch. She then crawled under the smooth sheets of the enormous bed. She turned her back to the bathroom door, pretending to already be aslee
p when Carter came out and headed for the couch. Out of the corner of her eye, the dim light revealed a shirtless Carter clad only in a pair of pajama pants.
For Pete’s sake, the guy really is a superman!
Her heart thumped so loudly she was sure Carter must hear it in the quiet room. She shut her eyes firmly, trying to erase the image of his muscled torso. Yet her medically-trained mind rebelliously named every muscle in his superhero-like physique as if analyzing the perfection in every detail of the most exquisite educational model.
Then she started to feel guilty. Not only about her thoughts, but about the way she’d treated him. She’d unceremoniously sentenced the gorgeous man to the couch without even a trace of concern for his comfort. Carter hadn’t been required to come on this trip with her, yet he came without complaining, no matter how difficult she made things or how bad she treated him. At the very least, they should have reached some kind of compromise about the sleeping arrangements. She could have taken a shift on the couch.
Knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep without attempting to rectify her transgression, Geneva lifted her voice to hesitantly break through the pallor of silence in the room. “Carter, we can set the alarm and trade in a couple of hours so you can have a turn on the bed,” she offered. “You need sleep just as much as I do.”
Carter didn’t respond. The silence lengthened as if he was already asleep. Yet she knew he wasn’t.
“Good night, Geneva.” The words came softly. Somehow his tone of voice said more than the actual words he spoke, and she clearly understood their meaning. He didn’t respond to her offer because he didn’t feel it worth his response.
He wouldn’t take a shift on the bed. He’d willingly let her have it all night, every night, and stay curled up on an uncomfortable, cramped couch while she slept in luxury.