Eagle's Destiny (45 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Our days fell into a wonderful pattern.  We enjoyed the week with Katy and Paul.  The days were still warm enough to take the boat out on the lake.  Paul and Michael took turns driving the boat and while I watched them, it had occurred to me that Katy had found someone much like her father.  I wondered if we women had a tendency to do that or just the opposite, choosing men who were nothing like our fathers.

We said goodbye to Katy and Paul at the end of the week.  They promised to come out during Christmas for the holidays.  Michael appeared to be satisfied with Paul.  Although I was sure, a father is never completely happy with the man his daughter chooses. 

The leaves were changing and falling on the ground quickly.  Halloween time was rapidly approaching and I looked forward to decorating the house for the autumn.  I was down to the last few chapters and I needed to be alone when I wrote the climax of the book.  Michael was too distracting.  If he worked in his office, one of us would be checking on the other, nibbling on each other, kissing, and dragging the other off to bed, and I was the offender more often than not.  Therefore, I exiled myself to my cabin.

About a week before Halloween, Debi was due to drop by in the afternoon.  We planned a trip to the local nursery for pumpkins.  As I waited for her to arrive, I worked at my desk.  I had the stereo blaring loudly with operatic music because when I wrote drama I found opera best fit the bill.  The music reminded me of my mother too and lately I had been missing her.  She had introduced me to opera music when I was young and I would never forget our first trip to the Los Angeles Opera when I was sixteen.

I often wondered what she would have thought about Michael.  I laughed at myself, and I knew she would have loved him.  What was there not to love? 

A knock on the front door jolted me out of my daydreams.  I looked out the window and waved to Michael.  He was always cautious about surprising me, especially in my cabin.  I opened the door.

“Is it loud enough in here?”  He shouted coming into the room.

“Sorry.  You know me, I get carried away.”  I turned the music down.

“Isn’t that Turandot?”  He commented.

I looked at him with surprise.  “You know opera too?”  I said.

“I come from a German and Greek family, what do you think?  Lunch is ready next door if you’re interested.”

“Oh,” I covered my mouth with my hand, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.  I’m going with Debi this afternoon to the nursery and we were going to get some lunch on the way.  Can it keep?”

Michael nodded, “No worries
B
abe.  You and Tammy can have it for dinner tonight?”

“Where will you be?”  I asked.

“Frank said they found a disturbance again up near the eagles nest and I’m going to go by and check on it.”

I nodded.  “Please be careful.  It doesn’t sound like tourists anymore.”

“I know Babe,” he nodded in agreement.  He wrapped his arms around me, “I’ll probably be late because I’m meeting with the park rangers too.”

I laughed, “Oh so it’s going to be a gab fest too.”

Michael kissed me, “You know us guys, and once we start we can’t stop.”

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him back, “Oh don’t I know it!”

Debi walked into the cabin while Michael and I embraced.  “Well, well, well, I see you two are at it again.  Don’t you guys ever come up for air?”

I broke our kiss to look at Debi over Michael’s shoulder.  “Would you?”

Debi laughed, “Never!”  She hugged Michael, “Okay I want the same sugar.”  She said still joking.

Michael bent her over on her back, planted a big wet kiss on her lips, and then brought her upright again.

“Oh baby, I like it!”  She laughed again swatting at Michael’s chest.  “You know, all I get are promises from him.”

“You know, I always say promises are better than denials.”  I laughed.

“You got that right.  So, I’m starved are you ready to go?”

I nodded, “Let me turn off my computer.”

The three of us walked out to the back.  Michael waved goodbye and blew kisses at both of us. 

“Oh momma,” Debi exclaimed, “He is one fine specimen of a man.  How do you not attack him every minute of the day?”

“I had to banish myself to my cabin to write, because I kept jumping his bones.”  I giggled.

“So are you living with him now?”  Debi asked as she started up the truck and pulled out to the main highway to town.

“If you call sleeping with him every night, then yeah I guess I’m living with him.  He made it easy, especially with me living next door.”

“It’s moving fast.”  She looked over at me with concern on her face.

“I don’t know Debi,” I shook my head and then paused a moment, “it doesn’t feel fast to me.  It feels like it is supposed to.”  I paused again and sighed, “It feels right.  When I’m with Michael everything seems complete.  I don’t know how to explain it.  It was very different with Kevin.”

Debi frowned, “I know that’s what is worrying me.  It went very fast with Kevin, first you met him at your job, then you were dating, and then it seemed like you were married with no thinking time in between.”

I nodded in agreement, “Yeah that was a whirlwind.  Kevin didn’t give me time to think, with him it was either say yes now or I’m leaving your life.  Michael isn’t like that.  His style is more relaxed and easy.  Except for his work, he is intense about his work.  He doesn’t do anything halfway, he refuses to cut any corners,
and it’s
amazing to watch him work.  Michael is not lazy and does not shrug work off on someone else.  I love working with him too, he’s so generous.”

Debi laughed, “Wow girlfriend, take a breath.  I get it, he’s Mr. Wonderful.”

I puckered my brow with concern, “I thought you liked Michael?”

“I love Michael,” she said, “as a neighbor and a friend, but now he is treading in very dangerous best friend territory.  I want to make sure…”  Debi trailed off not finishing her sentence.

“What?”  I demanded.  “That I’m not making a stupid mistake again?”  I bristled.  Okay, Debi was right, I did make a terrible mistake with Kevin, but now all of a sudden everyone was concerned about Michael?  It sounded like a conversation I had with Lisa earlier in the day.  I sighed inwardly and wondered if Michael was getting the same questions from his family too.

“Now stop it Elizabeth, you know that I’m only concerned because I love you.  Yes, Michael is wonderful, but every man has his faults.  Have you talked to him about New Orleans and the information that he neglected to tell you?  What about that?”  Debi touched my arm.  “Darling, I’m just worried about you.”

No, Michael and I hadn’t talked about that yet.  But, I
didn’t want to admit it to Debi. 
I think she was itching for an “I told you so” moment.  It had been bothering me and I felt like a coward for not bringing it up to Michael.  After the scene we had with Margaret, I wanted everything to settle down first.  I wished people would stop watching out for my own good and let me run willy-nilly, because it felt better.  While I was at it, why didn’t I start to think about his cousin Nicki and the mystery
of their
breakup?

I glowered at Debi.  She looked back at me with surprise.  “Hey, what did I do?”

“Nothing.”  I scrunched down low in my seat.  “Aren’t we stopping for lunch?  I’m hungry.”

Debi chuckled and looked at me sideways, “I guess you are.  Okay my friend.  No more about Michael.  At least not until after you’ve eaten.”

“No more about Michael today, okay?”

“It’s a deal.”

We stopped at the café before heading over to the nursery.  My mood brightened as we lingered over lunch.  Debi did not mention my relationship with Michael again, but he did come up in the conversation, plenty.  It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at the nursery.

Joe saw me first getting out of the truck.  “Elizabeth, my little one!”  He called to me
as he came
out of his office at the side of the main building.  “This is a surprise!  You’re early.  Halloween isn’t for another week.”

I ran over to greet him, throwing my arms around his neck, “Uncle Joe!”

He hugged me and almost swept me off the ground, which would have been a feat for any man, even Joe who was the same height as me.  Joe was not really my uncle, but I regarded him as such.  He and my Aunt Ruth
were
together for years.  He suffered along right next to her when she went through her cancer treatments, and although they never walked down the aisle, the family, both his and
mine
had always considered them married.

Aunt Ruth never had children and met Joe shortly after she had moved to Mintock.  He had recently divorced when they met and it was literally love at first sight.  She wrote her books from her little cabin and he tended his nursery, building it into the largest in the area.  It was a classic love affair and one that all the people of the town knew about.  The only argument I had ever heard them have was when she was sick.  They had been discussing her will and she wanted to leave her cabin
to him
.  Uncle Joe insisted that she leave the cabin to me because it wouldn’t be the same for him without her there.  And, so she had, which is how I inherited the cabin.

Joe was the classically handsome Hispanic man, tall, proud, and hardworking.  Still with a full head of black hair, although recently I noticed that his hair finally started to turn grey around his temples.  I always kidded him that he went to the beauty salon to have it touched up, which I knew wasn’t true, but we both enjoyed the teasing.

Joe pointed Debi to the small utility road that led to the pumpkin patch and I got into his golf cart to follow her truck down the lane.  In this pumpkin patch were the special pumpkins that Joe always reserved for his favorite clients and family.  I always tried to be in Mintock for Halloween, one because I loved to carve pumpkins and decorate the house and two there was always a big Halloween costume party in the barn adjoining the
Joe’s nursery.

“So my little one, it is all over town that you have someone very special in your life now.  He’s the photographer who just moved here, is it getting serious?”  Joe asked me.

“I don’t know Uncle Joe.  We’ve only been dating for a little while.”  I responded knowing where the conversation was leading.

“Yet, you’re already living with him?”  He asked.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, why did I have to live in a small town?  Why was everyone in my business?

Joe just chuckled, “Don’t worry, the gossip will die down.  It did for Ruth and I, of course when the town does not have anything else to talk about it can always flare up again.

I turned to him, “Uncle Joe, why is it that you and Aunt Ruth never married?  I know you asked her, she had told me.”

Joe frowned, “Yes, Elizabeth, I did ask her many times.  She would never say yes though.  She always told me that a piece of paper was not important to the two of us.”  He shook his head and sighed.

“Do you regret never marrying her?”  I asked, prying even further than was normal for me.

“Yes, sometimes.  But, you know she was right, in the end a little piece of paper was not important.  We were married in our hearts.  I will always love her.  But, hey, why are we talking about such sad stuff?”  He parked the golf cart.  “We should be talking about the Halloween celebration.  You know happy things.”

I grinned at him, “But it is almost all Hallows eve, you know the day before the Day of the Dead.”

He laughed, “Yes, but it is supposed to be a happy celebration!  Come along, and let me show you the fat pumpkins I’ve set aside for you.”

I was happy with the pumpkins that Joe had chosen for us.  We walked around the patch a bit just to make sure we had the best ones.  While his two grown sons, Marco and Eduardo were loading them in Debi’s truck for us I pointed to a huge pumpkin sitting over in the corner.  “Who is getting that one?”

Joe smiled, “That one is for Annie.”

Debi laughed, “How does my mother-in-law rate the largest pumpkin in the entire place?”

Joe whispered, “It’s not just for Annie, it will be the centerpiece of our Halloween decorations in the barn this year.  Annie will be carving it and she is making special baskets for all the decorations this year.  It will be our finest Halloween yet.”

Debi laughed again.  ”Leave it to Annie to make a big production out of Halloween.  Speaking of which, do you know what costume you’re wearing this year?”

I grinned wickedly, “Well yes I do.  I’m going as La Diabla.”

She laughed, “I am looking forward to you as the female devil.  I’m sure your dress is very short and red.”

I leaned over and whispered, “And, very tight too.”

“Poor Michael, he doesn’t know what he is getting himself into
,
does he?”