Flying Home (17 page)

That hit home for Merry. “Probably so,” she conceded.

The receptionist pointed at the parcel.

“Well? Are you going to open it?”

Merry reached for the paper wrapping to tear it back. The minute the front sheet was pulled away, she sank to her knees on the floor, unable to go farther. Obviously impatient with Merry, Elisa reached around her and tore at the rest of the paper.

“How amazing,” she said as the large bulletin board was exposed. Red, yellow and blue ran riot, the frame had balloons, along with silhouettes of children dancing and playing. At the top of the board,
KIDS ARE COOL
had been carved beautifully in cartoon lettering. “It’s gorgeous,” Elisa breathed

It was beautiful. Special. Merry wanted to touch it, then stopped herself. “Can you have Harry take it up to the main room and put it up near the entry so the kids can see it when they come and go?”

“Sure,” Elisa said and took off to find the maintenance man. Merry studied the board. It was everything she’d told Gage she wanted, and more. Oddly, she’d forgotten all about it, but he hadn’t. Running a hand over her face, she was shocked to find her cheeks were damp. No tears, no tears. But how could she possibly keep her emotions in check?

Gage had kept his word.

Merry left before Harry arrived in Elisa’s office. She needed some air. On foot she headed down Main Street. Was she looking for Gage? She shouldn’t be, her mind warned her. She stopped at the Mexican restaurant to get takeout, and then, feeling a bit foolish and a bit sad, went directly home.

* * *

M
ERRY
KEPT
LOOKING
over her shoulder all the next day, and as soon as she started to breathe a little easier, accepting the fact that Gage was gone again, she was almost felled by something else he had delivered to the center.

A call came near closing time, when the kids were soon to be picked up to go home. Elisa had spoken in a rush. “You won’t believe what is down here right in front of the place.”

Merry wasn’t up to a guessing game. “What?”

“You have to see it.”

Merry hung up, a bit annoyed, but went downstairs and crossed the entry space. Elisa was there with some other staff members looking out the open doors. Approaching them, she looked outside and stopped in her tracks. A bright red van was parked right out front. A man in a brown work suit, stood by it, looking around impatiently.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Harry, the maintenance man, turned to her. Tall, thin and with dark, weathered skin, he grinned at her. “Nice wheels.”

She made her way past the small crowd and went out into the chilly April afternoon. In a thin cotton shirt and dark slacks, she felt the cold through to her bones. Approaching the uniformed delivery man, she said, “I’m Merry Brenner. What is this about?”

“As soon as you sign for it, it’s yours.”

“Oh, no, you’re very much mistaken about that.”

“Well, lady, these papers say it’s yours for use at...” He looked down at the papers in his hand. “The Family Center at Wolf Lake.”

“That can’t be right,” she insisted, but knew if that van really was hers for the center, she’d take it in a heartbeat.

“It’s right. Just gotta get your signature, and you’ve got it, whether you want it or not.” He held out the papers he’d snapped into a clip board. “Bottom of page one, center of page three.”

She took the papers and quickly read them. She didn’t understand. It had been paid for in full, an exorbitant sum for all the glittering chrome, deep red paint and tinted windows, perched above a huge set of tires. It didn’t make sense. Then she heard a scream and Joseph came running. “It’s here! It’s here!” he shouted and all but flung himself at Merry. “He did it! He promised and he did it!”

“Who did it?”

As he answered her, she felt as if she might faint. “Mr. Carson. He said he’d get me one that the center could use for trips and hiking expeditions and getting to the ranch for riding and even rescues! He said to call him Gage, but my mom says I can’t, that that is disrespectful. But I don’t think so.”

She willed herself to stay relaxed and figure out what was happening, then she turned to the man who still held the clip board. “Please, sign this so I can get going,” he pleaded.

Joseph, not usually demonstrative, hugged Merry around the middle and begged her, “Please, please, we need a red van.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“H
EY
,
M
ERRY
?
”
S
OMEONE
called out to her from behind the small group of people oohing and aahing over the van.

Merry spied Moses stopping beyond the group, and he motioned her to come over to him. He was grinning. “Nice van, huh?”

“Very nice,” she managed to say, though she felt breathless and caught off guard by the gift. “I don’t understand why Gage did this.”

That made the doctor sober completely. “You don’t? He did it for the kids. It’s that simple.”

“No, I mean, I get that, but...” She stammered.

“But what? Take it, say thank you, then move on with your life. Now you can do it in a new van.”

“I need Gage’s phone number, please.”

“To call and thank him?”

She ignored that question and asked hers again. “His number, do you have one I can use to contact him?”

“Of course I do.”

“Thanks,” she said as he took out one of his business cards and quickly scrawled a number on the back. Handing the card to her, he said, “He’s trying, and I do think that sooner or later, things will change.”

She had no idea what that meant, and jumped when Moses touched her on the shoulder.

“Take it for what it’s worth, if for no other reason. The kids really need it, right?”

She cringed at his reminder. It wasn’t all about her, nor should it be. He was on point with that, and she wished desperately that he wasn’t. “I need to talk to the delivery man,” she said and moved quickly to catch him before Moses could say anything else.

She signed the papers, asked the delivery man to drive the van to the staff parking lot behind the center and leave the keys at the front desk. As soon as the van pulled away, she walked with Joseph over to his mother’s beat up car, promising he could check out the van the next day.

Waving goodbye to Joseph, she went back to her office. Merry toyed with the card Moses had given her and sat for several minutes, trying to decide what to say to Gage. Finally, she got up her nerve and punched in the number. It rang and rang, then went to voice mail.

She hung up without leaving a message. Then thinking better of it, realized it would be easier to tell him what she needed to tell him via a message than having him on the other end of the line. Before she could dial again, her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. It was the same number she’d just called. Hesitating at first, she then gathered her courage and said, “Yes?”

“Merry?”

Just hearing him say her name made her sink back and use the high support of her chair to settle against. “Yes.”

“You called me?”

“Moses gave me your number. The van, it came today,” she said.

“Good.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Just drop a van here that costs more than I’ll make in two years, just like that without any warning. You never even asked me about it, let alone let me know what you were thinking.”

When she stopped talking, the line sounded almost dead, then he spoke again. “How did Joseph like it?”

“That boy loves it, and you knew he would.”

“That’s why I got it,” he said evenly. “Do you want me to take it back?”

“Oh, so you’re going to make me the bad guy?”

He actually chuckled at that. “You’re not the bad guy, far from it,” he said. “And if you don’t want the van, let me change the title to make the center the full beneficiary of it, then your conscience or your pride, or whatever is making you upset, will be placated. And the kids still have a van that was meant for them in the first place.”

She held the phone tightly to her ear, her lips clamped together just as tightly. “Why did you do it, Gage?”

“I wanted to.”

“Why?”

“For Joseph and the rest of the kids. I’m sorry, Merry, I have to go.” With that, he hung up.

She scrunched her eyes shut, clamping down her rising anger. Of course the kids needed that van; it didn’t matter why he did it. Joseph loved it, and the others would be in heaven riding around in it. They could even start doing pickups of the students so the parents wouldn’t have to get them to the center. It was perfect, and she almost hated Gage for doing it. But a part of her could admit that hate wasn’t even in the picture.
Hate
Gage Carson? She had to be joking.

* * *

T
HE
GENERAL
MEETING
for the review of the final version of the contract for the entertainment complex, was set for the first day of May at two in the afternoon. In the notice that Merry received, it listed the speakers, including people from the town council, the gaming commission and included representatives of the contract’s recipient, Carson Construction and Architecture. However, on that long list, the only name she really saw was Gage Carson.

Obviously, he’d be there, stupid to think the head of it all wouldn’t be. She wasn’t sure about going to the meeting at all. Gage had been back in town twice since the van fiasco, and she’d made no attempt to contact him. She didn’t ask anyone about him, either, not Moses or the kids or his family. The red van was in full use, and, if the circumstances of its donation had been different, Merry would be thrilled. She was happy, but there was an edge to all of it because of Gage.

On the day before the scheduled town meeting Mary was sitting in her office after everyone had left and stared out the windows. In her sights were the majestic mountains far off in the distance. Marsala had been with her earlier and pointed out the mountain where Merry and Gage had crash landed. A prominent rise, so far off and so high in the heavens. A place out of time.

She abruptly pushed those thoughts out of her mind, and was shocked to find Erin silently standing in the doorway. Merry got up and went over to the tiny girl to welcome her. “What are you still doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be on the van by now?” Merry didn’t see anyone coming up behind Erin, looking for her.

Erin shrugged. She stared at the floor.

“What is it?” Merry asked softly.

The child glanced up at her. “Mr. Gage,” was all she said.

“What about Mr. Gage?”

Erin turned to walk away.

Merry caught her by her arm and felt a trembling in the girl. “Erin, please, what about Mr. Gage?”

The girl’s blue eyes met hers and she didn’t miss the glimmer of unshed tears in them. “He’s...” she started in a whisper. “He’s gone.”

“What?”

“Gone.”

“No, he’s in town.” Merry was totally confused by this. “Was he here today? Did you see him?”

A shake of the child’s head sent her loose hair tumbling around her shoulders.

“If he did leave, he’ll be back. He’s got work to do here. I promise, he’ll be back.”

Words meant to comfort the child did the opposite. Erin’s face screwed up with misery and she threw herself into Merry’s arms. She hugged the child tightly, desperate to comfort her. “Honey, please, it’s okay.”

Without warning, Erin shoved back. Her delicate hands were balled into fists, and when she spoke, she said more than she’d spoken in the six months since Merry had met her at the center.

“No,” she persisted. “No, he won’t. Mr. Gage won’t come back. You went away and you didn’t come back, and you promised, too!”

“But I did come back,” Merry said, trying to speak in a soothing tone. “I did. I’m here, and I’m never going away again.”

“Mr. Gage said he would come and see us, but he won’t!”

Merry moved closer to the child, tentatively touched her shoulder. “If Mr. Gage said he’d be here, he will be. He always keeps his promises.”

Erin studied Merry intently, and then as suddenly as the emotional storm had come, it faded. Merry could feel the tension leaving the child’s body. “Okay, Miss Merry.”

“Sweetie, he will be back.” She gently pulled Erin into a hug, wishing she could protect the child from every kind of sadness and fear and disappointment.

No one could do that, though. All Merry and the staff could do was to just be there for her when she needed them.

Merry stood with the girl still in her arms. “Come on, Erin. I’ll carry you down to the van.”

Erin buried her face in Merry’s neck, and never saw the woman’s tears, for which Merry was thankful. The last thing she wanted to do was upset the young girl all over again.

Merry opted to call it a day after first making sure Erin was off home safely.

As she opened the front door of her Victorian, her cell rang. She glanced at the caller ID and instantly recognized the number. She swung the door shut with a cracking thud, looked back at the cell phone ringing in her hand, then laid it on the kitchen counter.

She started dinner and was checking through her mail when the phone rang for the fifth time. Finally, she lifted the cell from the counter and hit the talk button. “Yes?”

A throaty female voice asked, “May I speak to Miss Merry Brenner, please?”

“Speaking.”

“Hello, I’m Myra Lane, executive assistant to Mr. Carson. He asked me to contact you to let you know we have sent an overnight packet to you with the final agreement for the project in Wolf Lake and that you should have it today.”

“Why did he ask you to do that?”

“I don’t know. Mr. Carson simply asked me to,” the woman said evenly. Merry thanked her and hung up. After Erin’s outburst, she wasn’t capable of dealing with anything else this evening. She poked through the rest of the stack of mail she’d been looking at and found the large brown envelope amidst her bills and circulars.

She stared at the envelope, and then ignored it. She wouldn’t read it. She didn’t want to see it all down in black and white. Willie G. and the others in opposition would be at the scheduled town meeting, intent on being heard; they could fight it out with the others. She was too weary to even think about it.

That night, Merry’s sleep was torn apart by strange, random dreams. Dreams of Erin, the kids, the crash landing, the fear, the hope, and Gage woven through them all. She came abruptly awake just before dawn, shaking and feeling so alone that she could barely breathe.

She clasped her knees to her chest, pressed her forehead to them and closed her eyes tightly. Erin’s accusation about her not keeping her promise, not coming back when she’d said she would, mixed in with Gage making the bulletin board and giving the center the van.

He always keeps his promises.

She threw back the covers, went downstairs and found the envelope still sitting by the stack of mail she hadn’t opened. She held it for a long moment, then went back upstairs and got into bed, leaning back against the headboard as she ripped the seal.

A packet of papers fell out, three bound bundles of neatly typed pages. She started to read, flipping past a lot of legal jargon, all about costs, overrides, estimates, an agreement with all the concerned parties. It appeared to be just like any other sort of standard business agreement. Then she picked up the last bundle, reading that it was an addendum to the original agreement, to “be executed in full, with all good faith, before the product could be deemed complete and final payments were made.”

As she went farther, she felt as if she had been thrust into a surreal place where word for word, her world was being straightened after it had been tilted on its axis for far too long.
Her world
. And she knew what she had to do.

* * *

M
ERRY
LEFT
THE
center promptly at noon the next day. She went home, dressed in a blue silk shirt, black slacks and walking shoes, and showed up at the meeting in the high school multipurpose room a half hour early. Still, she almost didn’t get a seat. The place was packed with townspeople, and a stage had been set up at the front of the room with a long table and seven chairs. Name signs fronted each chair. Gage Carson’s card was at the far end of the table, which seemed off to Merry. She’d thought he’d be at the center of the dignitaries who were going to speak.

Sitting by Willie G., she waited, her nerves getting worse with each passing minute. Sleep had been impossible after she’d read the contract, and she was impatient to get on with this meeting.

As if on cue, six men and one woman arrived together and took their places at the table. Her gaze went directly to Gage. In casual clothes, a chambray shirt, jeans and boots, he looked nothing like the power behind the pending multimillion dollar deal. She admired that, in fact, there was a lot about him that she admired.

The mayor stood first and introduced everyone to the crowd with a smattering of applause, until it came to Gage. The boos started softly, and then rose as he stood and went to the podium.

Someone stood up and hollered, “Traitor!” Another man shot to his feet and yelled, “Turncoat!” Merry never took her eyes off of Gage. He didn’t flinch, didn’t blink, just stood there until the voices tapered off. “Now, you here all know me, for better or worse, and you know this is my home. I wouldn’t do anything to harm it.”

The boos roared to a crescendo, and Gage waited again, seemingly unmoved by the outburst, but Merry held on to that one word—home. Gage motioned to a man near him, a blond-haired fellow with a weightlifter’s body under a well-cut gray suit. “Mr. Tarkington Davis, my job manager and architect, will go over the plan with all of you,” he explained, and then said, “Please, do him the decency of listening to the entire agreement and the latest amendments before you challenge him.”

To another chorus of jeers, Merry watched Gage take his chair and sit back as casually as if he was sitting on a front porch watching the river go by. His eyes stayed on the speaker while Merry was staring at him. Without warning, his eyes met her gaze. With a faint nod, he looked away from her, and back to his assistant.

Tark Davis, aka Boom Boom, started to go into the details that Merry had read the previous night. She forced herself to listen, to make sure she’d understood the documents correctly, but her gaze slipped back to Gage, whose eyes never left Tark. After the outline of the main part of the agreement, Tark ended with, “making it work for all residents of the town.” The big man paused to make eye contact with the crowd. “We have high hopes that the final amendments will ease some people’s concerns. Let me reiterate, our company will do everything it can to make this important project amenable to all and we will endeavor to listen to any concerns you might have. Our legal counsel, Moss, Moss and Creighton, can be reached at any time about concerns and solutions.