New Growth (Spook Hills Trilogy Book 2) (38 page)

“I still can’t accept that Mathew would not even give me a
hint, as you did with Ivy.
 
Is he that
uncertain of me?”

Steve chose a little round cucumber sandwich, ate it in one
man-sized bite and took such a big swallow of Darjeeling he drained half his
tea.
 
His expression became
thoughtful.
 
“Despite what you feel now,
will you concede Mathew will always function in a just manner, with the end
benefit
in mind?”

Callie thought for a moment, sitting back holding her cup
and taking comfort from its warm sensation in her fingers before asking, “Are
you saying his goal of safeguarding Annetta and Cruze justified his lack of
consideration for me?”

“Think deeper.
 
This
is about how you view
Mathew’s
character.”

“I thought he personified benevolence, but what he did hurt
me profoundly.
 
I am not sure I can free
myself of the pain.”

Steve sat contemplating those words and asked, “Are you
wounded because Mathew engineered this resolution or are you frightened of
relying on your own
judgment
?
 
Did your first marriage so take away your
good judgement that you can no longer discern the strengths versus the
weaknesses in people?”

She set down her teacup carefully, as the veracity of
Steve’s questions came home to her.
 
Had
John Henry so undermined her sense of worth that she wanted an excuse not to
place her faith in Mathew?
 
Anger surged
through her, rage at John Henry and fury at herself for failing to command more
inner strength.

“I need a few minutes,” Callie said.
 
She jumped up, rushed out of the lounge and
hurried down the hall to a side door where she grabbed a guest umbrella and
fled into the little courtyard the hotel enclosed.
 

She stood for a moment breathing in the cold, drizzly air
before marching down to St. James Street.
 
The rain coming down around her cleansed the air and the streets.
 
She tilted the umbrella back and stared up at
the clouds, letting the cold drops patter on her face, purifying her as
well.
 
She breathed in several times,
oblivious to the passersby.
 

Callie knew Annetta’s voice could be faked by a
clever
mimic
.
 
However
in addition to Annetta’s love of lobster, Annetta had asked if Susannah would
get the riding lessons she wanted for Christmas.
 
With that question, Callie’s last doubts
melted.
 
It was a secret only Susannah
and Callie shared, but Callie had mentioned it to Annetta on the plane after
Mathew’s shooting.
 
Not even Rick and
Sassy knew.

Warmth began coursing through her body.
 
She tingled with the sheer joy of having the
burden she wrestled with
disappear
as the
import of Annetta and Cruze’s being alive sank in.
 
She now grasped she could love Mathew and be
assured that he, unlike John Henry, would proceed fairly and justly.
 

Mathew is human and he will make mistakes, but not blunders
of intent.
 
He will not be unkind if he
can help it.
 
I must remember
Mathew
shielded two people to give them a new
start in life.
 
He fulfilled a bargain
where many felons are now arrested.
 
I
must not be so self-centered and weak-hearted.

Even with the raindrops, a ray of sunlight seemed to hit her
smack in the face.
 
She envisioned Mathew
once more as she had first spotted him, standing tall in a field at Spook
Hills, outlined in a golden nimbus and radiating goodness.
 
Smiling to herself, she hopped up into the
air, bounced down on the pavement, pumped the dark green
umbrella
up and down a few times in triumph and
then almost skipped like a little girl with no adult burdens back to rejoin
Steve.

Steve must have asked for three snifters of cognac and called
Ivy as she now sat next to him on the loveseat, sipping the warming amber
liquid.
 
Callie took her seat opposite
them, her face lit up with a smile.
 
Steve offered her the remaining glass of brandy.
 
She took it with a cheerful smile, noticing
for the first time how the stolid old building glittered around her, not in
faded elegance, but in modernized preservation.
 
The ornate ceilings and moldings shone in bright
whiteness,
and the gold cushioned chairs beckoned guests to sit and
relax.

“Once again, thank you,” she blurted out still with a
smile.
 
“I didn’t realize I remained so
terrified of accepting Mathew as only able to act as appropriate to the
situation.
 
When an opportunity came to
stop believing in him, I took it to protect my own heart.
 
And then I wallowed in self-pity.”

Callie paused to stare directly at Steve and asked, “What
made you so wise?”

At her question, Ivy hooted out a laugh of such full-blown
mirth heads turned all the way through to the lobby.
 
Even the doorman swung around to stare.
 
Steve shook his head at her and
chuckled.
 
Callie hopped up to wrap her
arms around the pair of them.
 
They might
one day be her foster
in-laws.
 
T
he outlook made her beam with
happiness.

After settling back down, Ivy said, “Wisdom is logic with
the
spin of
knowledge and
experience.
 
Steve’s mind is extremely
logical.
 
He needed to mellow out enough
to let the growth he underwent in his life temper his reasoning.”

Callie liked Steve’s smile at Ivy’s words which was not his
big grin, but a subtle curving of the corners of his mouth.
 
He reached out, took Ivy’s hand and said,
“Sometimes the hardest task is to move beyond ourselves to gain perspective.”

“How
right you are in saying
that
,” Callie replied.

Now Callie anticipated Mathew’s arrival that evening with a
teenager’s eagerness.
 
Even if all London
stood by watching, she intended to give him the kiss of his life when she first
encountered him, leaving him with no doubts of her forgiveness.

Two days later, Mathew found himself sitting alone in the
lounge at the charming country house hotel, where he had spent the
previous
end of year holidays with Ivy and
Steve following their wedding at Spook Hills.
 
The inn embodied English countrified sophistication with a relaxing
atmosphere, enhanced by a welcoming staff.
 
Dining there delighted the eyes and scintillated the palate.
 
Enfolded by peace, comfort, and the balm of
a warming
fire, this Christmas Eve seemed
enriched by a rosy radiance.
 

Despite the remaining pain in his shoulder, the night before
he made love with Callie in a way that entwined the delicacy of their
sentiments with the passion of their attraction, deepening their
relationship.
 
He found her to be amorous
with a playful side, making their intimacy romantic and fun.
 
They nibbled shortbread at midnight with tea
in their room and at dawn took a walk out in the misted gardens where the moon
shone between scattered clouds.
 
They
strolled along holding hands and feeling they could never get enough of each
other.

Callie dominated
his
thoughts.
 
The weeks after the shooting
in Albuquerque when she refused to see him threw him into a dark tunnel of
tortuous despair.
 
To the extent his
shoulder allowed, he had worked with the contractor on the demolition of the
interior of the old house to both relieve and hide his anguish.

While he had chipped in his one-handed way at the floors and
walls of the house, he had kept picturing Callie with him, even though she
avoided him.
 
He had pushed forward with
a
resolute
hope she would come to
understand the way things went in Albuquerque to make Annetta and Cruze as safe
as possible in their escape to new lives.
 
The FBI and DEA had documented them as
dead,
and they had verified that the same news circulated in the underworld.
 
Only the Bureau
Chiefs
, current and former, were privy to the deal struck.
 
By having Steve perform the mock execution,
the deaths of the Fuentes became indisputable.
 
As he used the benefit of hindsight, Ivy and Callie should have known
about the chicanery.
 

Mathew
pressed his
hand against his jacket pocket to verify the presence of the jewelry box.
 
Like Steve and Ivy, he wanted to wait to be
married until their house was completed to give Callie a home to make their
own.
 
Steve had asked Ivy to marry him
within six months of meeting her.
 
While
Mathew first saw Callie 16 months before, even now he might be rushing, given
her history with John Henry and recent events.
 
Nonetheless, Fred’s words from last fall kept echoing in his mind – ‘A
woman like that, she no
be
alone long
before the men line up down the driveway.’
 
Fred’s comment gave him an extra impetus to propose during the holiday
celebrations.

He had consulted
Steve,
who had said, ‘Surprise and delight her, as I like to think I did with
Ivy.’
 
Mathew wondered if he should ask
her when away from the others to reduce their embarrassment if she
declined.
 
Even so, he wanted Callie to
experience all the
joys
lacking in her
first marriage.
 
Troubles haunted her
life, with losing her parents when a teenager, with having to wed the petulant
John Henry and with the dreadful kidnapping of Susannah this year.
 
She then had to adjust to a life where two
repentant lawbreakers went into a unique protection program and where she
served as an unwitting witness to their staged deaths.

His life at the vineyard offered
promise.
 
H
e wanted to live
as a family man with Callie.
 
Mathew
nodded to himself, confirming his decision to ask her at dinner between the
appetizers and the mains.

Steve and Ivy walked into the living room with Ivy wearing a
sleek white wool suit over a silver-threaded cashmere top trimmed in
satin.
 
With her wild hair tamed back in
a braided chignon, her elegance became her in the way of women who aged
well.
 
Callie entered next with Susannah,
Sassy
and Rick.
 
From the moment of seeing her with her shiny
dark hair flowing down her back over a crimson turtleneck knit dress, Mathew
reaffirmed to himself that tonight was the night.
 

“You’re enchanting,” Mathew whispered.
 
“
Mm,
and
your scent is spell-binding.”

She smiled at him and gripped his hand.
 
Susannah sat next to her, dressed in
a vibrant
green velvet skirt with a white
angora sweater.
 
With her hair held back
in a big bow the color of her
skirt
, the
three of them could be posing for a magazine spread on an adorable family at
Christmas.
 
Once they returned home,
assuming he was engaged to Callie, he intended to bring up adopting Susannah.

“You are nothing short of yummy yourself,” Callie murmured,
as she nudged his foot.
 

A significant
change
had come over her in the last two days.
 
She acted more self-assured, approaching life with a degree of certainty
she could direct her destiny.
 

Once Brian,
Moll
and
Terry came down and the fizz arrived, Steve gave a tribute to their intertwined
friendships and to making merry the way good friends, happy couples and
families should do.
 
Susannah raised her
flute of ginger ale and added a salute to their absent friends, Unca Lenny,
Fred
and Federico, but she did not include her
father.
 
Even though they talked by phone
on and off, she had yet to fly back to San Francisco to see him.
 
From what Mathew understood, Susannah’s
father had failed to take his needed sobriety to heart, giving Mathew optimism
about the adoption.

The evening proceeded with them gathered around a big oval
table set up off the main dining room to shelter other guests from their
raucous high spirits as the effects of wine took hold.
 
Once they finished the first course, the Sommelier
brought
fresh
flutes and bottles of Dom
Perignon to the table.
 
This time, Mathew
asked for Susannah to be allowed a small glass.
 
Remembering the night Steve knelt by Ivy in a restaurant in Washington,
D.C., Mathew dipped down on one knee next to Callie with as much grace as his
bum
leg
and healing arm permitted.

She turned pale when she stared at him making him fear for
his timing, but kneeling by her compelled him to ask her.
 
He took the bright red Cartier box out,
fiddled with the little button to open the lid and removed the diamond.

“My darling Callie,” Mathew said, “will you do me the honor
of committing to one day become my wife, spending the rest of your life in my
arms and allowing me to bask in your love?”

Her eyes grew large, gawking at him and at the artfully cut
gems.
 
He reached out and took her left
hand, sliding the ring slowly down her finger.
 
He admired the way the platinum and diamonds encircled her finger and
thankful for the perfect fit.
 
With her
long fingers and rose-brown skin, the ring radiated magnificence but only would
shine in brilliance for him when she said yes.

She stared at him dumbfounded.
 
He remembered Ivy’s reaction as similar.
 
When Steve had surprised her, she became
stunned into silence.
 
He waited for
Callie to speak.
 

Seconds ticked by.
 
Susannah bounced up in her seat and said, “Say yes, Mom.
 
Make Mathew my daddy.”

Tears began to run down Callie’s
face,
and she nodded.
 
Mathew
wanted to hear her say she wanted to join him in matrimony.

“Tell me you
are agreeing
for us as well as for Susannah,” Mathew said.

“
Oh,
Mathew!
 
Once again you are bringing magic into my
life – being proposed to at this
wondrous
place, surrounded by those who mean the most to me.
 
Yes, yes, yes!
 
Now our lives
together
can begin,” Callie replied.

Moll jumped up, snapping his camera, and asking for an
engagement kiss to confirm their words.
 
Callie leaned forward and kissed Mathew long and full on the mouth, with
one hand on either side of his face and the diamonds sparkling at the
lens.
 
When the kiss ended, she helped
him back to his feet.

“I’m hip to planning your photo album!” Moll said.

Brian came over to congratulate Mathew with the traditional
thump on the back.
 
Steve and Rick each
shook his hand, then Steve wrapped him in an uncharacteristic hug.
 
This is what Mathew envisioned – this happy
time with a warm, wonderful prospect ahead of him and the best of friends to
share festivities.
 
Susannah,
Ivy
and Sassy clustered around Callie, hugging
their good wishes.
 
Callie and Ivy held
their rings up next to each other, with Sassy showing hers off as well.
 

He, Steve and Rick
were
three extraordinarily lucky men.
 
The FBI
monkhood now dwindled to two, or perhaps three if they made Terry an honorary
member.
 
Mathew would not miss his
membership in their brotherhood, although he always wanted his friends in his
life.

“Hey, bedroom eyes,” Brian called.
 
“Let’s do a group shot.
 
I’ll have a waiter take a few photos.”

“Laughing eyes,” Mathew said.

Callie hugged Susannah and said, “Laughing eyes.
 
Let’s use that nickname for Mathew.”

With the pictures done, Rick led a toast to Mathew and
Callie.
 
Had he and Steve decided in
advance having Steve raise the first glass of the night, while Rick took on the
father of the bride role to compliment the prospective couple?
 

As they ate, they made plans for the next day.
 
Mathew anticipated an early morning with
Callie and Susannah opening the presents placed under and around a tabletop
tree in their room, organized by the manager.
 
Yesterday afternoon with Susannah, they made loops of silver paper
to hang
as a garland on the blue spruce, as
well as cut-out paper angels and stars in white and gold with glitter
sprinkles.
 
As they joked and giggled
while cutting out ornaments and getting glue on their fingers, he knew he
wanted to live with silly family times strewn in his life.

He hoped for this to be the first of many winter holidays
celebrated with private coziness and interludes of the warmth of friends and
firesides.
 
He wished the Fuentes cousins
success in one day finding peace and joy.
 
When he
lunched
with them, they
remained afraid to expect their desired futures to be achievable.
 

“Who will be next to leave our old monkhood?” Mathew asked
Brian and Moll, with a sideways look at Terry.

Brian shook his head.
 
Moll smiled a little and said, “Only us dudes left.
 
Guess I’m
up
since Brian-boy wants to remain the casual bachelor until he is like an old man
of 50.”
 

Next to them, Terry smirked as he regarded his two
partners.
 

Even with his injuries, Mathew resonated with strength
inside himself, secure in the knowledge he approached a pinnacle dividing his
life between the old one of a reluctantly
unattached
man and the family life he longed for.
 
Brian and Moll with their successful startup business must possess a
comparable confidence in their achievements.
 
The three of them had moved from young adults to men in the FBI, which
functioned a bit like a fraternity with high demands that kept them from other
aspects of life.
 
Now they had split away
to define themselves as individuals
 
While he imagined a smooth, if winding,
bucolic
road in their future, unexpected twists and trials may abruptly appear for each
of them.
 
He pondered who Moll might want
as his life partner because his dating over the years happened at a sporadic
pace and he never stuck with anyone for long.

He glanced at Steve and Ivy, returning to their places at
the table and leaning towards each other in the unconscious way they did.
 
Even in choosing a love mate for the rest of
his life, Steve had set a stellar example for the rest of them, in the same
way
he did as their leader for their work in
the Bureau.
 
One day he might ask Ivy
what had drawn her to Steve.
 
He was an
unusual man and not appealing to everyone, but she saw past his sometimes rough
edges to the quintessence of his nature.
 
Ivy too had changed from twining her soul to Steve’s and had become more
alive, more trusting and more patient.