Chapter Twenty-Two
Gabe had rented a two-bedroom suite for himself and Quincy. Marsha stayed in a room next door, but she had a key card to his room so she could use the fax machine. Gabe rolled over in bed and checked the clock. One a.m. Eva was probably still working at the wedding, and even if she wasn’t, he didn’t want to phone her this late. Damn, he missed the woman. He’d replayed her message at least ten times. I love you and I miss you. Can’t wait to see you. If he didn’t have another week of interviews scheduled, he’d just say screw it and fly home to her. But these kids needed him and they needed the college education or the technical training his money could provide. They’d worked hard and they deserved his full attention.
Quincy was holding up better than Gabe had expected. The young man had been quiet and reserved at first, but put a Cubs game on TV and he was all about baseball. Gabe talked to him about the Giants, but Quincy couldn’t see how anyone could be loyal to two teams at once. Gabe told the boy that while he would live and die a Cubs fan, he loved AT&T Park and those splash hits. Quincy was impressed to learn that Gabe lived within walking distance of the ballpark and Abbott Industries owned a luxury box on the third base side. Gabe promised to take him to every game the Cubs played in San Francisco.
Gabe was beginning to feel some optimism. Maybe he and Quincy would be all right. Becoming an instant family was a difficult adjustment for both of them, not to mention coming to terms with the fact of a shared deadbeat father and bad memories.
Quincy had had a couple years to accept the existence of Gabe and Elise. Gabe had only one month. Quincy had taken to Elise and her family immediately. Although Gabe knew the boy was disappointed he couldn’t spend as much time with them as he’d like, he proved to be quite adaptable. Gabe was beginning to wonder if adaptability was an inherited McIntyre trait. Gabe and Quincy stopped in to check on Elise and the girls at least every other day. They took their nieces out for ice cream and once to see an animated feature. Besides, Gabe got to spend a big chunk of time with his mother, which made her supremely happy, and Quincy benefited from her home cooking. Otherwise, with Gabe, it was hotdogs, deep-dish Chicago pizza and barbecue. Marsha never stopped complaining about the food. Gabe teased her that she was all California, all the time.
“We need us a little Eva,” she’d said.
Gabe couldn’t have agreed more. God, he missed his little chef. He missed her taste. He missed her smell. He missed the feel of her satiny skin beneath his fingers. He missed the gasp she made every time he thrust himself inside her. He missed her voice, her cheekiness, her infectious laugh. The more he thought about Eva, the more convinced he became about the need to make their arrangement permanent. As soon as possible.
Gabe flipped over and took another look at the clock. One forty-five. No, he was not going to bother her now. He’d talk to her when she woke up. His would be the first voice she heard on Sunday morning.
* * * *
“F*ck!”
Eva flew out of bed. She’d overslept and the clock on her bedside table read nine-thirty. She’d been scheduled to pick up the wine at nine. Where was her damn cell phone? F*ck… f*ck… f*ck.
Eva ran into the kitchen and grabbed her house phone. She had to stop and search for her phone book to look up the number for the winery.
“C’mon…pick up….pick up…”
“Hi, Maryanne, this is Eva Raines. I am so sorry. I overslept. If I head up there right now, can I get the wines? Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m in your debt. I’ll see you in a few.”
God f*cking damn it. The wedding reception had lasted later than Eva had anticipated. She and Ruth hadn’t left until three a.m. Where the hell was her cell phone? She knew she’d had it when she was packing up the car. If she dropped the sucker, she was dead, just dead. That cell phone was her lifeline. She threw on a pair of sweats, slipped on her flip-flops, and grabbed the office cell. She checked it. No messages. Thank God for small favors. Now if the traffic gods can only keep the cops busy elsewhere.
* * * *
One eighty-dollar speeding ticket later, Eva had the wines packed in the backseat of her car. She still hadn’t found her cell phone. She’d tried calling her own number with the office phone, but she heard nothing. On the way back to her house, she stopped by the church and carefully searched the parking lot and the entrance to the kitchen. Since services were going on and the lot was full, Eva hoped that if someone had found her phone, they’d be kind enough to leave it in the church office. She’d check first thing in the morning, before she went to the White’s. Not a good start to her day, but then, she should know better than to leave her cell phone in her back pocket while she repeatedly bent over the trunk of her car to load boxes.
Eva got home as quick as she could while still staying under the speed limit. She unloaded the bottles of wine and stored them in her small, countertop wine cooler, removing her own wines. She carefully set her own wines off to the side, making sure they stayed out of the sun. She jumped into the shower, toweled off quickly and tossed on her ATAP uniform. She ran a comb through her thick hair, yelping at the nastier tangles. She braided it wet and stuck her feet into her black tennis shoes. She quickly loaded the car with everything she needed and headed over to the ATAP kitchen to prepare the food for Jerry Harding’s buffet. She left the wine and the caviar at home. She could swing by and get that last, on her way up to Yountville. Unless she encountered the unexpected, set up should be a breeze. As she drove down Jefferson, she wondered if Gabe had been trying to reach her. She should have thought to call him from her landline before she left the house. He probably would assume she’d gone out on a bike ride. Stupid to lose her cell phone like that. She’d come to depend upon it so much that she felt practically naked without it. Like she was on a deserted island, cut off from civilization. How crazy was that? It was just a piece of technology. The world would continue to spin regardless of whether or not she had her cell phone.