Snow Dance (5 page)

As Amanda completed the call she remembered her dinner plans with Russ. Ironically, the fun fling with him that had sparked the rebirth of Amanda’s playful, creative side, a part of herself she had almost forgotten, was turning serious with all the makings of a real relationship.

She hadn’t planned on that one. In fact, she was still trying her best to avert it. But she had to admit Russ had gotten to her in a way she couldn’t recall ever feeling before. Even with her ex. Amanda decided to just let herself enjoy the ride for however long it lasted, tamping down those little voices inside that said, “Maybe this is it. Maybe he’s the one.”

Knowing how much Russ cared for Casey Richardson and her family, even helping them out with what little he had, Amanda hated facing her latest problem.

After her talk with Casey, no more items went missing from the store. Whether it was the girl getting control over herself or just that Amanda paid more attention to where she put things, she couldn’t say. But in the second week of February the thefts began again. Another belt. A blouse. Cufflinks. A lace handkerchief.

Amanda wrestled with what she knew she had to do, hoping for a solution other than accusing Casey. But as she kept a subtle, but vigilant watch during store hours, she noticed something. All the items disappeared in the evenings after Past Perfect was closed. A time when only she and Casey were in the store.

Then it happened, the casualty that pushed Amanda over the edge. Her precious blue silk scarf was stolen. Not some article on sale in the shop, but Amanda’s own favorite scarf that she’d had for so many years.

The thief who took it would not be getting off this time.

***

At 5:20 p.m., Parker sat in his truck watching the snow. The storm due to hit the North Fork would mean extra money plowing out his regulars as well as picking up a few jobs with folks who just didn’t want to face an hour of shoveling. He peered out at the woods on either side of the small back road, sighing at how peaceful and pretty it was. The whirling clouds of snow turning everything white, painting swatches along black tree trunks and branches.

The scene was so pretty it almost allowed him to forget what a demeaning trap he’d gotten himself into with Tanya.

A month ago when she’d asked him to meet her here on this quiet road backing the woods on her parents’ estate he should’ve refused. But that night she’d taken him to a heaven better than anything he’d ever imagined.

And she hooked him like the dumb fish he was.

Since that night he lived for the weekends. Two, sometimes three nights of heaven in his bad news life.

He’d do just about anything for his family, but when it came to his meetings with Tanya, Parker demanded time for himself. That much she’d taught him. A bit of selfishness. Which she had in abundance.

As the cold began seeping in, he started the engine and turned on the heat. Needed wipers now, too. The snow was picking up steam.

Tanya often kept him waiting, but she was really late today. He knew she came in from Manhattan this weekend because he saw her BMW in town this morning. But he couldn’t call her. She refused to give him her cell number. Said it was because her nosy parents would find out and fire him.

Parker knew that was only a small slice of the truth. He knew that Tanya liked to keep him in his place. A workman who had no part in her real life. A dirty little secret only fit for the back road behind her folks’ fancy property.

The truck’s clock told him she was already forty minutes late.

She’s not coming
.

Parker hated himself for the panic that set off inside. Hated himself for the way his hunger for her always won out over his pride.

Before he could stop himself, he gunned the engine and barreled down the road to the Gentilliano’s front gate. He hopped out of the truck and punched in the code he knew well from his regular work visits here. But this time Parker did not drive to the gardens or the sheds or to the lawns around the pool or tennis courts. He left the truck a few feet from the front door, sprinted up the broad steps and rang the bell.

Parker waited so long he almost turned to go. Then the door flew open.

Tanya.

“What are you doing here?”

“You were supposed to meet me at—”

“Shhhh!” She shot a glance behind herself and turned back. “I’m busy today.”

That’s when Parker saw the guy. A
GQ
Ivy League special.

“My boyfriend’s here this weekend,” she hissed in a harsh whisper. Then she turned to the guy. “Be right there, Brad.”

“Who’s at the door?”

“Nobody. Just the yard guy here with his snowplow.”

The door closed.

***

Russ jogged through the swirling flakes to the back door of Past Perfect. He used the key Amanda had given him, stomped the snow off his workboots and walked in. “Amanda? It’s me.”

She poked her head out of the office. “I’m in here. Just finishing up.”

He strolled to the small room, tracking snow in his path. “We need to talk.”

Amanda closed down the computer file and turned to him. “As if I can’t guess what it’s about.”

“Casey doesn’t steal things. What you did to her is unfair.”

“Oh? Don’t I get a say here?”

Russ leaned against the doorframe. “I already know you think she lifted the things missing from your shop.”

“Not just the shop this time. My favorite scarf. That scarf went to fifteen different countries with me when I was on tour. It’s very special to me.”

“Yeah, I know the one you’re talking about. Casey didn’t take it.”

Amanda crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t start with that ridiculous ghost stuff again.”

“Remember when that faucet started running by itself? And didn’t you tell me about the lights sometimes going on and off?”

“This is an old building.”

“That’s been renovated.”

Amanda locked her desk and turned to him. “I can’t go to dinner right now. I have to get over to UPS for a customer who needs their order by tomorrow.”

“I’ll drive you there.”

“I’m quite capable of getting there on my own.”

“I know that. I was thinking we could hit Founder’s on the way back.”

She let out a tired sigh. “Look, Russ, it’s been a long day. Tonight I just want to go home and veg out alone in front of the TV with a glass of wine.”

“In other words you’re cancelling our date.”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of bullshit.”

“Look, Russ, I told you from the beginning I didn’t want to get involved.”

He stepped toward her. “First you penalize a sweet innocent kid who’s already going through hell. Now you want to give me the boot because I had the nerve to come to her defense.”

“Why are you taking her side?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. And maybe I thought you knew me well enough now to believe me. Or at least try to.”

“I really don’t need this. I moved out here to have a simple, uncomplicated life. My plans were never to—”

“Is that all I am?” The pitch rose in his voice. “A complication messing up your well-laid plans?”

“I haven’t got time to debate this.” She turned away and tugged on her coat.

“So, I’m being dismissed.” Russ marched to the door, but when he reached it he spun around and spit out his words in a torrent of anger and hurt. “One of these days you’re going to find out being strong and independent doesn’t mean you don’t need anyone else. You might also learn there are certain things in this world we can’t explain or control. Yeah, like ghosts. And love.”

He pulled the door shut with bang.

***

Casey’s day had begun with a phone call from Amanda telling her she no longer had a job because she was a thief. Then she had an argument with her mother. Jenna had a cold and was ornery as a goat. Parker came home around six in the foulest mood she’d ever seen him in. The only thing Casey had felt good about was knowing she’d get to be with her dad for the whole day.

Except it turned out her dad didn’t have a whole day left.

At six thirty he went into a coma. An ambulance came, and they all followed it to the hospital in the snow that had started to fall. By the time they found him in the emergency room he was dead.

Gone forever. Daddy. Never coming back
.

No matter how many doctors’ reports she’d read or hours she sat by his sick bed, nothing could have prepared Casey for this blow. It numbed her to the core. She couldn’t even cry. She paced the house, her room, and finally she ran down to the basement, turned the radio up full blast and began to dance.

Turning and jumping and kicking. Dancing out her anger, her grief and her pain. She kept moving until something inside her snapped and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Afterward, she climbed onto her dad’s tool bench and peered out the window at blurring white swirls of flakes dense as confetti.

And Casey could swear she saw unicorns leaping and dancing in the snow.

***

Amanda made it to the UPS store just in time for the last pick-up. The clerk said there might be delays since the snowstorm was turning into a blizzard and seemed to be coming on faster than predicted.

She drove slowly on her way back, feeling a small skid here and there. But it wasn’t the snow that had Amanda worried. The reality of her break-up with Russ was sinking in with an overwhelming heaviness. And the realization that she didn’t want to lose him.

But why did he take Casey’s side?

Because it’s the right thing to do
. At least that’s what he said. Did he actually believe in the whole ghost thing? Was he that primitive?

Yes. And I like him that way
. She smiled thinking about the way he made love to her.

Amanda kept an eye out for her next turn. Visibility had already become a major obstacle making it almost impossible to find the curb or see the intersections. Forging ahead at a crawl, the car’s headlights split the night’s darkness, a blur of white tracer lines blanketing her vision.

She reached her turn, but after going a mile or so down the country road, she began to think she’d made a mistake. She made a U-turn, headed back and came to a fork she didn’t remember. Of course not. From the other direction it wasn’t a fork at all. So, which road should she take now?

Making a guess, Amanda drove on, trying to check out the farmhouses she passed to see if anything looked familiar. But the world looked different than it had an hour ago. It had turned into a white cloud of snow.

She slowed to a crawl. What looked like a road came up on her left. Should she take it? No. She kept on, but now it seemed like all she saw on either side of the road were dense woods. She turned off this road, hoping to get back toward a more populated area. That way she could maybe find a gas station and ask for directions. But this road just seemed to be going deeper into the boonies.

A deer raced out in front of her. Amanda swerved, hit a big log on the side of the road and stalled out. As if things weren’t already frustrating, now her engine wouldn’t turn over. She inevitably flooded it trying again and again.

Amanda grabbed her embroidered satchel from the passenger seat and pulled out her cell. At first she thought the storm was the reason she got no reception. It certainly didn’t help, but then she saw the battery strength indicator. No bars remaining.

Dammit
. She’d meant to charge it, but somehow forgot. She checked the glove compartment and the storage space between the seats for her charger. Where was it? Not under the seat. She climbed into the back. Nowhere.

Meanwhile, in the last five minutes, the snowfall had completely covered her windshield. She could see out the side window somewhat, but the inside of the car was beginning to feel like a cave. And getting colder. How long could she be here before someone found her?

Out here? Pretty long.

Suddenly claustrophobic, Amanda decided to go out and look for a house where she could ask for help. Through the gray, snowy mist she saw a light in the distance. Had to be a farmhouse. Maybe even a gas station or something. She climbed over a low ridge and began a trek through some kind of field, heading toward the distant light.

The snowfall thickened, wind whipping like mad, icy flecks stinging her face. She kept on, her limbs numb and stiff with the cold. At least she’d worn forties style trousers today instead of one of her vintage dresses. Pulling a tissue from her pocket with frozen fingers, she wiped her running nose. When Amanda looked up again, she couldn’t see the light of the farmhouse. Had someone turned it out?

She walked in the same direction, or what she guessed was the same direction. But she wasn’t sure anymore.

She stopped.
Maybe it was this way
.

After a few heavy, trudging steps, piled snow dragging at her feet and legs, Amanda stopped again. Now she couldn’t even tell where the road was. Or which way was east or west. All she saw was darkness and blinding snow. If only she had let Russ drive her to the UPS store. She’d be warm and safe in his arms right this moment.

Thinking of Russ, Amanda realized why she was so angry that he’d taken Casey’s side against her. Jealousy. She knew it was silly and irrational, but then so was love. And that was the real issue. She’d fallen in love with him.

And now she’d probably die of hypothermia in this stupid snow and never get a chance to tell him.

The blizzard pelted her face and piled snow into drifts that made every step an exhausting challenge. Amanda felt her body growing heavy and numb. With no idea which way to go, she admitted she was totally lost, her attempts useless. Panic and despair overwhelmed her, and she collapsed on her knees in tears.

She sat up quickly at the sight of someone walking toward her.

Amanda yelled, “Over here!”

It was an old woman in a dress that reached nearly to her ankles. And no coat or hat. She was staring at Amanda and carried something in her arms. As she got closer Amanda saw it was a white, fluffy puppy.