Wind Chime Point

10



After she’d gone to bed the night before, Gabi hadn’t been able to stop thinking about those paintings she’d mentioned to Wade. Something he’d asked had triggered a memory for her. He’d wanted to know not how they’d turned out, but how she’d felt when she’d painted them. It had suddenly struck her that though she’d been frustrated by her lack of skill, she’d loved the process.

While Samantha had been off on dates and Emily had been with Boone under Grandmother’s watchful eye, she’d been on the pier out back or on the porch with her watercolors. She recalled being completely aware of her surroundings in a different way, the nuances of light and shadow, the richness of colors, the complexity of textures. Not that she’d been able to capture a single one of those things on paper, she thought ruefully.

Still, it might be interesting to take another look at them. She had a hunch her grandmother had never thrown them out. Cora Jane had saved too many other mementos of those years to have thrown the paintings away.

With her grandmother and Samantha gone, Gabi had the house to herself and time on her hands. Her only chore for the day was to call her father and then Amanda Warren. Postponing those uncomfortable conversations seemed like an excellent idea.

While her grandmother’s master suite was downstairs, there were three upstairs bedrooms in the house. Gabi and her sisters had used the largest almost like a dormitory when they’d visited. Another was reserved for other guests, including the occasional visit by both of her parents. The third was cluttered with things Cora Jane couldn’t bear to part with. Gabi decided to start there.

She smiled as she came across old dolls, even a miniature baby carriage for one of Emily’s prized babies, an expensive toy she’d begged for for months before Christmas. Now, the doll had been tossed haphazardly in the carriage, dressed in nothing more than a diaper and wearing a ragged pink bow in its skimpy remaining hair.

“Well, one thing’s for sure, I would take better care of my child than Emily did of you,” she told the poor doll, cradling it in her arms as she continued to poke through the clutter.

She found boxes of puzzles, kept for rainy days, along with board games faded from frequent use. She could still hear the squabbles that had accompanied those afternoon endeavors echoing in her head. How often had Cora Jane lost patience, bringing them into the kitchen with her so she could referee as she baked?

Finally, when Gabi was starting to think that perhaps her grandmother’s sentiment hadn’t extended to her paintings, she opened a dresser drawer and found them, lying flat, tissue paper layered protectively between each page. The beginner’s box of watercolors, dried out now, was there, too.

Setting Emily’s doll aside, she took out the drawings and studied them with a critical eye. Oh, they were awful, all right. Her memory definitely hadn’t gotten that part wrong!

One featured several blobs of blue on a mostly green background. She could only assume it had been an attempt to capture the image of the hydrangeas at the end of the porch. It was memory, not execution, that suggested that. In another, gray boards with no shading stretched out over a flat blue surface. A stick figure—it couldn’t be described as anything more—sat at the end of the pier with what surely must have been meant to be a fishing pole in hand.

“Not a lot of subtlety here,” she commented, amused by her ineptitude. “It’s little wonder I never picked up a paintbrush again.”

And yet she could almost feel the sun on her shoulders as she’d painted, smell the tang of salt in the air, hear the slow, steady hum of the boats on the water. She could also remember how desperately she’d wanted to capture all of that on paper, to create an image her grandmother would treasure. As she touched these carefully preserved pages, she realized she’d done that, anyway, even if they weren’t exactly worthy of being framed and hung on the walls.

Maybe watercolors simply weren’t her medium, she thought. Or maybe she didn’t have an artistic bone in her body, not the way Wade so obviously did.

“But it could be fun to try again,” she whispered, considering it. She could take a class, maybe. Just for the sheer enjoyment of it. When was the last time she’d done that, spent time doing anything just because it appealed to her? She’d been too busy doing the things that she’d thought could help her get ahead.

“And look how that’s turned out,” she muttered, putting the paintings away. Maybe one day she’d show them to Wade. Maybe not.

Now she needed to deal with reality, make those dreaded calls.

Gently she returned Emily’s doll to her carriage, covered her with a blanket and gave her a little pat. “Maybe my little girl, if that’s what I have, will come back for you,” she whispered, envisioning it. The image left her with a smile on her face and a tug of longing in her heart.

* * *



Suddenly starving, or perhaps only delaying the inevitable, Gabi piled some of Grandmother’s freshly baked peanut butter cookies on a plate, poured herself a glass of milk and headed for the porch, cell phone tucked in her pocket.

Settled on the chaise longue, she ate one cookie, then another, sighing at each burst of flavor on her tongue. Just like looking at those paintings, peanut butter cookies reminded her of simpler times. Of course, so did chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal raisin. Hardly a day passed without Grandmother filling the big cookie jar on the kitchen counter with the cookies Gabi, Samantha, Emily and their friends loved. Cora Jane usually made dozens of each, taking the extras to the restaurant to be served with ice cream as one of the day’s dessert specials. They were also sold in individual bags to beachgoers looking for something sweet to take across the street after lunch.

After her third cookie, Gabi could no longer even pretend that she wasn’t trying to put off making those calls. She hit speed dial for her father’s personal line, not one bit surprised to hear an even gruffer note than usual in his tone when he picked up.

“It’s about time you got back to me,” he grumbled impatiently. “I went out on a limb for you, Gabriella, and how do you repay that? By ignoring my call. By not bothering to call Amanda Warren. What is going on with you? Are you determined to self-destruct?”

“Hold on, Dad,” she said, barely keeping a grip on her own patience. “While I appreciate what you tried to do, you need to keep in mind that I did not ask you to do it. You didn’t even consult me to see if I wanted to go back to work there.”

He fell silent, obviously considering what she’d said. “Are you telling me that I wasted my time?” he asked slowly. “Do you have no intention of going back?”

For just a moment, she thought he’d suffered a pang of regret, but that instant didn’t last.

“How is that going to make me look?” he asked next, resorting to a more familiar refrain.

“Of course, it’s all about you and your reputation,” she said, unable to keep a bitter note from her voice. “You made this magnanimous gesture, and I’m just supposed to fall in line to keep you from being embarrassed. Is that it?”

“I thought you wanted that job,” he protested. “You acted as if losing it was the end of the world. You sounded miserable. That’s why I took it upon myself to make that call.”

She tried to remember that he really had been trying to do a good thing. She softened her tone. “But you didn’t ask me, did you?” she said more gently. “I know you thought you were doing a great thing. And I do appreciate what you did. It meant a lot to me that you wanted to help, more than you can probably imagine.”

“But you’re not going back there,” he concluded, sounding resigned, if not especially happy.

“No, I’m not. They don’t want me back, Dad. Not really. Ron Carlyle was doing you a favor. Amanda will never really forgive me for having you go over her head. It would be an intolerable situation.”

After what seemed like an eternity, her father sighed. “I hadn’t looked at it that way. I just thought what they’d done was wrong and I wanted to fix it.”

“I know.”

“Have you told them yet?”

“No. I wanted to talk to you first. I owed you that.”

“Sweetheart, putting this little fiasco of mine aside, what will you do?”

“I have no idea. I’m still thinking that through.”

“I can put out some other feelers, if you want,” he offered.

“Thanks, Dad, but not just yet. I need to make sense of things. For so long I thought that job was exactly what I wanted, all I wanted.”

“And you’ve discovered it’s not?” he asked, sounding as stunned by that as she was.

“Maybe not,” she said. “I’m beginning to think what I really want is a life, a messy, complicated, jam-packed life.”

“And will that include your child?” he asked hesitantly. “I know you’ve been considering adoption.”

“And yet you didn’t weigh in on that?” she said, surprised that he’d known and kept silent.

“That’s a huge decision in anybody’s life, and one only you can make. After all, you’ll live with the consequences, either way.”

“But how do you feel about being a grandfather?” she dared to ask.

He chuckled. “You know, I’m not really sure. I made a lot of mistakes as a father. Maybe this could be a chance for me to get a few things right, even get one of those lives you were talking about.”

“I think I’m going to faint,” she told him.

“Seriously? Are you sitting down?” he asked, his immediate panic yet more evidence that a change was taking place, an astonishing one.

“I was just teasing, Dad,” she reassured him. “I’m fine, just a little startled by the new you.”

“I’m afraid I’m a work in progress, Gabriella. I imagine there will be a few setbacks when I’ll revert to my familiar, self-absorbed ways.”

“I hope not,” she told him. “Emily, Samantha and I need you in our lives, exactly the way you’ve tried to be the past few days.”

“Do you know, I don’t think any of you has even so much as hinted at that before,” he said. “Even your mother got used to doing things on her own.”

“Sure, we’re all independent, Dad, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need you. Remember that, okay?”

“I’ll definitely keep it in mind.”

“Thanks again for what you tried to do.”

“No problem. If you change your mind and want me to make some more calls, just let me know.”

“I will,” she promised.

Relieved by how well that had gone, she placed the call to Amanda. When she reached Amanda’s secretary and was told she was in a meeting, Gabi asked for her voice mail.

Knowing it was cowardly, she left what she hoped was a gracious and mostly sincere message. “Amanda, this is Gabi. Thanks so much for reconsidering, but I think it’s better if we just leave things alone. I’m not interested in coming back. I want to move forward, not backward.”

After she’d hung up, she shoved the phone back in her pocket and uttered a sigh of relief. It might be only temporary, this feeling of serenity that was stealing over her, but for now she knew she’d done exactly the right thing.

* * *



“My dad got a call from Dr. Cole last night,” Jimmy told Wade excitedly. “Mrs. Castle must have talked to him, because he told my dad he’d arranged for him to get all the rehab he needs. At first Dad was, like, ‘Oh, no, I can’t afford that,’ but whatever Dr. Cole said next convinced him.”

“That’s fantastic, Jimmy.”

“You know the best part? My dad was actually smiling when he got off the phone. It’s been a long time since he looked really happy. I owe all of you guys for that. He’d thank you himself if he knew.”

“Hope will put a smile back on a man’s face,” Wade said, smiling himself. “How are you doing with all those papers Sam Castle gave you to fill out?”

“I’ve done everything but the essay part,” he said, making a face. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Aren’t you supposed to tell them why you’re interested in college or in this particular field?”

Jimmy nodded. “But it sounds dorky when I put it on paper, like I’m just trying to suck up or something.”

“Here’s my experience,” Wade told him. “If what you write is sincere, if you tell them what’s really in your heart, it won’t sound dorky at all. I heard your passion for this field when you were talking to Sam Castle. We all did. Just try to put some of that in writing. I’ll read it for you when you’re finished, if you want me to, or I’ll bet Mr. Castle would.”

Jimmy shook his head. “He’s going to be giving this to the selection committee. I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to get an edge on the other kids or something.”

Wade gave him an approving look. “And that shows the kind of integrity you have,” he told the teenager. “You are such a shoo-in for this scholarship. You have all the traits of someone who’s going to succeed.”

“You’re just biased,” Jimmy said, though he looked pleased by Wade’s assessment.

He hesitated a moment, and his expression faltered just a little. “Do you really think Dr. Cole and the rehab can help my dad so he can work again?”

Wade tried to be reassuring without making promises. “You know Dr. Cole lost a leg in Afghanistan, right?”

Jimmy nodded.

“And you’ve seen him getting around, running in a marathon even?”

Jimmy’s eyes brightened. “And if he can do that, then my dad can get better, too,” he concluded.

“I’d say he has a real good chance,” Wade confirmed. “When’s his first appointment?”

“He’s getting an evaluation this afternoon. He’ll start rehab tomorrow.” Jimmy regarded Wade hopefully. “I was thinking maybe I should go with him. Do you think Tommy would mind if I took off a couple of hours?”

“I don’t think he’d mind at all,” Wade said, proud of Jimmy for being so considerate of his father. “Go on and check with him.”

Jimmy started off, then turned back. Shyly, he held out a hand. “Thanks, man, okay?”

“No thanks necessary. I didn’t do any of this.”

“You introduced me to Gabriella.” A grin broke across his face. “Even though you knew she might fall for me.”

Wade laughed at his impudence. “Go on, kid, before I change my mind and tell her she made a terrible mistake.”

Jimmy didn’t look even slightly worried about the threat. “I think it could be too late for that to matter.”

“I think you’re probably right. Now, go.”

He shook his head, watching with amusement as Jimmy went to Tommy, his expression serious as he explained about needing time off. Tommy glanced over in Wade’s direction, then nodded.

When Jimmy had left, Tommy came over to Wade. “Are you responsible for costing me one of the best young workers I’ve taken on in years?”

“Sorry about that,” Wade said. “He has all this potential. How could I let it go to waste? Besides, if he told you about his dad, there’s a good chance Rory will be ready to go back to work full-time long before Jimmy takes off for college. He’d be a good fit for you. He’s both experienced and eager to get back to work.”

Tommy’s expression turned thoughtful. “No wonder you and Cora Jane get along so well. You share that meddling gene with her.”

Wade laughed. “I suppose I never thought of it that way, but you could be right. In this case, I think it’s for a good cause.”

“I imagine that’s what she always thinks, too,” Tommy replied.

No doubt about it, Wade thought. And lately, with Gabriella in his life, he was in no position to argue with her reasoning.

* * *



“Retail therapy,” Emily declared when she arrived at Cora Jane’s right on the heels of Samantha, who came in dragging after a day of waiting tables at Castle’s. “My treat. I just got paid an exorbitant amount of money for that consult I did on the ski lodge in Aspen.”

“You should be setting it aside for your wedding,” Gabi told her.

“And there will be plenty for that, especially now that Dad’s picking up most of the tab,” Emily replied. “But today I am taking my two favorite sisters impulse shopping. We are only buying things we love, not things we need. Just this once we’re going to be totally impractical.”

“Gabi will never be able to do that,” Samantha teased. “She doesn’t have an impulsive, impractical bone in her body.”

“Hey, I’m carrying a baby, aren’t I?” Gabi protested. “Surely that should get me a couple of points for doing the unexpected.”

“True,” Emily concurred. “So, are you two game? At the end of the day, the person who’s bought the craziest, most impractical thing wins.”

“What’s the prize?” Gabi asked at once, getting into the spirit of Emily’s challenge. There was a time when she’d liked nothing more than a good dare from her sisters. “And who decides who wins?”

“Grandmother decides,” Samantha suggested at once. “She’s impartial.” She glanced at Emily. “Any thoughts about the prize?”

“Now that’s a tough one. How about dinner for two at Boone’s Harbor?”

Gabi lifted a brow. “How’s Boone going to feel about you giving away a free meal at his restaurant?”

“He’ll feel great if I win and he gets an entire evening with me with no interference,” Emily said. “And we all know I’m the most impulsive one, so I’m bound to win.”

Gabi looked at Samantha. “There’s a challenge I can’t resist. How about you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Samantha agreed. “Any rules? You need to tell us now. You can’t be making them up once we’re out there.”

“Fair enough,” Emily agreed. “The impulse buy has to be something we really, really want, not just something we think will win.”

“Oh, I like that,” Gabi said. “I can hardly wait to get started.”

They started close to their grandmother’s, popping into shops with everything from sea-glass jewelry and art to fancy beachwear. Gabi stopped in front of a baby boutique, her gaze drawn to all the tiny outfits.

“Too practical,” Emily declared. “Besides, we don’t know yet if it’s a boy or a girl. I think you could find out by now if you wanted to know.”

“I know I could,” Gabi agreed. “I don’t want to.”

“Because then you’d start wanting little pink things or little blue things for a baby you don’t plan to keep?” Samantha asked gently. “Doesn’t that tell you something, sweetie? You want to keep this baby.”

Gabi held up a hand, not prepared to discuss her evolving feelings. “Don’t start on me again. What I might want and what’s right are not necessarily the same thing.”

She walked away and went into a shop with local art. Her gaze was instantly drawn to glass wind chimes sparkling in the sunlight, their sweet music stirred by the breeze of an air-conditioning vent. Something in her heart filled at the sound. She remembered sitting on Grandmother’s porch, listening to a sound just like that, a merry tinkling that was all that was bright and cheerful about summer. The same music sang her to sleep at night now...and kept Samantha awake, she recalled with amusement.

Though she walked away, she kept being drawn back to the display of wind chimes.

“I want that,” she whispered, stunned by the admission.

Samantha studied her curiously. “The wind chime? Which one? Is that your impulse buy?”

Gabi shook her head as an idea began to unfurl in her head. She wondered if it had been sparked by that serene sound or had her earlier examination of those inept paintings stirred some artistic trait she’d been unaware she possessed?

“I don’t want to buy any of them,” she told Samantha. “Although that one is lovely.” She pointed to one with an iris painted on what looked like antique glass filled with tiny bubbles. The dangling shards of glass were multicolored in shades of green and purple.

She faced her sister and announced, “I want to make them.”

Emily joined them just then and stared at her in confusion. “You want to make wind chimes? For kicks?”

“For a living,” she corrected.

Both Emily and Samantha looked stunned.

“Do you have any idea how it’s done?” Samantha asked.

“Not a clue,” Gabi admitted. “But I can learn.”

More excited than she’d been about much of anything recently, she headed for the cashier with the hand-painted glass wind chime in hand. “Was this made by a local artist?” she asked.

The girl shrugged. “No idea. I just work here.”

“Could you find out? Or tell me how I could reach the owner.”

“Leave a name and I’ll have Meg call you,” the girl said indifferently. “You gonna buy that?”

Gabi looked at the rippled shards of glass, the delicately painted iris on a larger glass diamond at the top. “Yes, please.” It would always be a reminder of this epiphany of hers, even if it never led to a new career.

Emily appeared at her side with a credit card. “It’s on me, remember?” She grinned. “I didn’t think you had any grasp of the whole impulsive thing. You surprised me.”

Gabi felt a slow smile spread across her face. “I surprised myself.”

Emily turned to Samantha, who gave a slight nod. “Since neither Samantha or I have found a thing we couldn’t live without, we declare you today’s winner!” she told Gabi. “Let me know when you want that dinner and I’ll make sure Boone makes the reservation.”

“But we haven’t been shopping that long,” Gabi protested. “Either of you could still find something even better.”

Emily shook her head. “Sweetie, it’s not just about the wind chime, though it is beautiful. It’s about you wanting to learn to make them. That’s amazing.”

“And crazy?” Gabi asked, hearing just how insane it sounded after years of scaling the corporate ladder.

“Maybe just a little,” Samantha said. “But you deserve to take a chance.”

Though she happily clutched her package, Gabi wasn’t so sure she agreed that now was the best time for her to be taking risks. “I’m going to have a baby,” she reminded them. “I should be setting practical goals, don’t you think?”

“Hey, maybe you’ll turn out to be the best wind chime maker in Sand Castle Bay,” Emily said. “In the world even.”

Gabi gave her sister a fierce hug. “You know what I love most about you?”

“What?” Emily said, looking vaguely startled by the display of affection.

“You dream big, even for me.”

“Well, of course I do. You’re my sister. Sam, too. I want you both to have absolutely everything you want and then some.”

Gabi grinned at them. “Can I have my prize tonight, please? And will the two of you be my guests for dinner? I know the prize was for two. I’ll pay for the extra meal. I think all the soul-searching I’ve done today should be celebrated, to say nothing of dealing with Dad and Amanda without coming unglued.”

“Amen to that,” Emily replied. “And dinner for all of us is on the house.” She gave them a wicked grin. “I’ll make sure Boone gets suitably rewarded later for his generosity.”