Wind Chime Point

8



Not until Wade had dropped her off back at Cora Jane’s did Gabi realize that she’d gone off with him without her cell phone. Since it hadn’t been out of reach for more than a minute or two for years now, it was a shocking discovery.

“What is happening to me?” she muttered as she stared at the cell phone sitting in the middle of the kitchen table where she’d obviously left it after reducing a slice of toast to crumbs earlier this morning.

Emily walked into the kitchen in time to overhear her. She grinned. “It’s a shock the first time you realize your phone is not the most important accessory you own, isn’t it?” she commented.

“You’re telling me,” Gabi said.

“You might want to check for messages. It’s been ringing ever since I got over here. I didn’t want to answer for you.”

Gabi picked up the phone and noticed there were indeed half a dozen messages, including one from her father. As if that weren’t shock enough, there were two from the woman who’d fired her, Amanda Warren.

“Dad called,” she murmured incredulously. “That has to be a first. I can’t think of one single time in my entire life when he’s initiated a conversation with any of us, can you?”

“Maybe Grandmother put some sort of magic potion in his food when he was over here Saturday,” her sister suggested. “We certainly saw a different side of him then than I’d ever seen before.”

“You mean warm and funny and human?” Gabi said.

“Yep, those were the surprises,” Emily confirmed. “Are you going to call him back? Or at least listen to the message?”

“I’m almost afraid to,” she admitted. “What if he’s turned back into regular Dad?”

Emily grinned. “Well, better to find out now, don’t you think? At least he hasn’t stopped payment on those checks he wrote for the wedding. I deposited them this morning and made sure they all cleared.”

Gabi stared at her in shock. “You actually asked the bank to make sure they cleared?”

Emily nodded. “I still couldn’t quite get over the sudden generosity. I was afraid he might have second thoughts as soon as he left here.”

Even though she thought Emily’s lack of faith was appalling, Gabi couldn’t entirely blame her. “You do realize Grandmother’s going to hear about that next time she stops in to do her banking,” Gabi said. “I doubt she’ll be pleased.”

“I told her I was going to do it,” Emily said, then sighed. “But you’re right. She wasn’t happy. I got a ten-minute lecture on giving Dad a little credit. She was winding up for the thirty-minute version, but Jerry showed up to drive her to Castle’s. He managed to calm her down. Amazingly he did it without taking anyone’s side. I swear the man should have been a diplomat, instead of a chef.”

Gabi laughed. “Jerry had years of dealing with Granddad while hiding his feelings for Grandmother. I imagine that was good training for keeping the peace.”

Emily studied her sympathetically. “You do know you’re only postponing the inevitable, right? You need to listen to that message or call Dad back.”

“Much as I’d rather not, it could be better than listening to the two from Amanda Warren,” Gabi admitted.

Emily’s eyes widened. “Your old boss called you? Twice? That takes some nerve.”

“Doesn’t it? I can’t imagine what she could possibly have to say that I’d want to hear.”

“Maybe she’s realized the company can’t survive without you,” Emily suggested.

“I was good, but I was hardly indispensable,” Gabi responded, staring at the message screen on her phone as if just looking at it would help her to discern what had been said.

“Okay, then an apology,” Emily said. “That would be nice. Or extra severance.”

The likelihood of either of those things was too remote for Gabi to wrap her mind around it. She took another look at the message list and realized that Amanda’s calls had come in surprisingly close to her father’s.

“She called the first time just minutes after Dad did,” she commented slowly. “Do you suppose that’s more than a coincidence?”

Emily looked startled. “What are you thinking? That Dad spoke to her?”

“Dear God in heaven, I hope not,” Gabi said with heartfelt emotion. “How humiliating would that be?”

Emily chuckled at her reaction. “I think it might be kind of sweet,” she said. “I’m not sure I can imagine Dad getting all fatherly and protective, but it would definitely be nice to see.”

Gabi was struck by an even more horrifying thought. “What if he called the CEO? He and Mr. Carlyle are colleagues, after all. Knowing Dad, if he was going to interfere, he’d go straight to the top.”

“You do realize there’s an easy way to find out,” Emily said gently. “Play the messages.”

Filled with trepidation, Gabi finally punched the speaker button for her father’s message.

“Gabriella, I spoke to Ron Carlyle this morning about your situation,” he began. “We agreed—”

Gabi groaned and cut off the message in midsentence. “I knew it. I just knew it.”

“I think it’s incredibly sweet that he wants to fix this,” Emily said tentatively. “Don’t you? I mean, really, Dad out on a limb for one of us? I’m telling you, the man has undergone some sort of miracle transformation.”

Gabi didn’t see that at all. All she saw was the embarrassment of having her father intervene in a professional matter. “He called the head of the company and what? Begged him to give me my job back? That’s pathetic. Even if Mr. Carlyle got involved, I’d never be able to work with Amanda again. She’ll hate my guts for going over her head.”

“Or she’ll recognize that you have strong allies and cut you some slack,” Emily said. “Look at the big picture, Gabi. You loved that job. You gave it everything you had. You got a raw deal because of a pregnancy that shouldn’t have impacted your job status one iota. Somebody is ready to right that wrong, thanks to Dad.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Gabi said. “Dad said he and Mr. Carlyle agreed on something, but we don’t know what.”

“Given the two calls from Amanda that followed, I’d say we have some idea,” Emily said. “Keep listening.” She studied Gabi with a suddenly somber expression. “Unless the real problem you’re having is the realization that you don’t want to go back. Is that it, Gabi?”

Was that it? Gabi wondered. Had some of the things Wade said to her earlier today gotten through to her on some level? Was she starting to want something different for the rest of her life? She’d lived with all-consuming work-related stress for a lot of years now. She’d always thought she was thriving on it, but had she been? Or had it been draining the life out of her as her grandmother and sisters believed?

“I don’t know,” she whispered, shocked by the words. “I don’t know if I want to go back.”

As the stunning revelation came out of her mouth, she watched her sister’s face. Emily, after all, was the most driven one in the family next to her. She waited for her to say she’d be a fool not to seize the opportunity to go back if it was offered.

“Even after all this effort Dad went to, you don’t have to accept whatever they’re offering,” Emily reassured her, startling her with the gentle, understanding reassurance. “You know what kind of people they are now. Nobody would blame you for not wanting to work with them again.”

“Dad will,” Gabi said. “Even though I didn’t ask him to intercede, he’ll be furious with me if I don’t go back.”

“That’s on him, then,” Emily said. “You can’t run your life to please Dad.”

But old habits were awfully hard to break, Gabi thought. At least for her. Emily or Samantha could make a decision like this without a second thought. Could she?

“I need to think,” she said, shoving the cell phone in her pocket.

“Where are you going? You’re too upset to be driving,” Emily protested, trying to block her way.

“Then I’ll go for a walk,” Gabi said, not arguing the point about her state of mind. Emily was right about that.

An hour later she’d made her way to the bustling waterfront where she watched excited children with painted faces exiting a pirate-ship excursion, swords in hand. She smiled for the first time in what seemed like hours.

Would she be here someday with this child she was carrying? Would his or her face be split by a huge grin as they came ashore? Would their carefree laughter carry over the water? Did she even want that? Could she expect to have moments like that if she went back to the kind of career she’d so recently left behind? Or would work be so all-consuming once again that carefree moments with her child would be nothing more than an idyllic dream, just as they’d been for her and her sisters with a dad who worked nonstop?

It was ironic, really, that just this morning she’d been trying to sort through her jumbled thoughts to construct a new plan, fresh goals, only to have the old ones dangled in front of her. Of course, she didn’t know for a fact that the opportunity to go back was real.

Sucking in a deep breath, she drew the phone from her pocket and listened to all three messages. Indeed, her father and Ron Carlyle had apparently agreed that the decision to let her go had been precipitous. And Amanda had been contrite in her messages, assuring Gabi that she could come back and resume her rightful role at the company. There’d even been the hint of a plea in her voice in the second message, as if she was getting pressured from above to make this happen.

So, now she knew, Gabi thought as she ended the final message. She knew she owed her father and Amanda a call back, but instead she found herself punching in Wade’s number.

“Are you free?” she asked when he answered.

“Is everything okay, Gabi? Are you all right?” The immediate worry in his voice was unmistakable.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I just need to talk to someone who isn’t family. You seem to have a pretty clear perspective where I’m concerned. I’m not sure you know me as well as you think you do, but you’re the first person I thought of who might help me sort this out.”

“Where are you?”

She told him.

“Give me twenty minutes,” he said. “Don’t move.”

She chuckled. “Well, I might have to hunt down a restroom, but I promise I will be in the vicinity.”

“Did you have lunch?”

“Come to think of it, no. The last food I had were those doughnuts you brought by earlier.”

“I’ll bring lunch, too.”

“Thanks, Wade.”

“Anytime, sweetheart. You can always count on me.”

As she hung up, she couldn’t help wondering if it was worrisome that she was starting to believe that.

* * *



Wade called an order in to Boone on his way to meet Gabi. “Can you have your chef put together a couple of shrimp po’boys, some fries and coleslaw? I’ll pick ’em up in ten minutes.”

“Done,” Boone said at once. “Do you have a date with Gabi? Emily’s worried about her. She called a while back and said Gabi left the house a couple of hours ago, upset about something, and no one’s heard from her since.”

“She just called me. Let Emily know I’m on my way to meet her.”

“She’ll definitely be relieved,” Boone said. “How about I throw in a couple of slices of key lime pie while I’m at it?”

“Now you’re talking my language,” Wade said. “That’s the only pie I can’t get at Castle’s. Cora Jane says yours is the best, so why bother.”

Boone chuckled. “My chef is going to be ecstatic to hear that.”

Ten minutes later, Wade swung into the parking lot by Boone’s Harbor and saw Boone waiting with two large take-out bags. Wade grinned at him.

“If word gets out you’re doing curbside service, your business will probably triple,” Wade teased.

“This courtesy is only for certain valued customers,” Boone told him.

“How much do I owe you?”

“This one’s on the house. Emily’s convinced you’re about to save the day and that we owe you, whatever that means. Do you have any idea?”

“Not yet, but I will get to the bottom of it,” Wade promised, taking the bags. “Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.”

Once he reached downtown, it took Wade longer than he’d have liked to find a parking space in the busy waterfront area, but when he had, he found Gabi on a bench, staring at the crowds and the boats, though he had a feeling her head was a million miles away. The sun had dropped in the sky, and the air had turned brisk.

She glanced up when he sat down beside her.

“Want to go someplace quieter, where we can talk?” he asked, shrugging out of his jacket and handing it to her. “Put this on. The temperature’s dropping. You don’t want to catch a cold.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, even as she pulled the jacket around her. “I like sitting here. I’ve been watching the kids.”

“And wondering about yours?” he guessed.

She nodded.

“Have something to eat and tell me,” he suggested, handing her the sandwich and opening the fries so she had access to those. He took the ice-cold bottled water out of another bag and gave her one of those, as well.

Rather than responding, she took an eager bite of the sandwich, then closed her eyes in ecstasy. “From Boone’s,” she said at once. “It’s the only place in town that can make a po’boy this good.”

“And it comes with his compliments,” Wade said. “Your sister’s worried about you. I gather you took off from the house a while ago and haven’t checked in.”

“I needed to think.”

“About the baby?”

She shook her head. “I had some calls earlier, while you and I were out. I’d left my phone behind, so there were messages.”

“Bad news?” he asked, trying to figure out the weary tone in her voice.

Her unexpected laugh seemed forced. “A few days ago, I’d probably have thought just the opposite. My company suddenly seems willing to have me back in my old job.” She met his gaze. “I can thank my dad for that. He made a call.”

Wade’s heart sank at the news, but he forced himself to hide his reaction and focus on her odd mood. She didn’t seem nearly as ecstatic as he would have expected.

“You haven’t called back, asked for details?”

She shook her head. “Not even my dad, much less my old boss.” Her expression turned bewildered. “Why haven’t I?”

He smiled at her. “You’re not ready. You’re not interested. You want them to stew.” He shrugged. “It could be any of those things, or something else entirely.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he said at once. “This decision is beyond my pay grade. Your life. Your decision.”

“But just this morning you were so clear about this being the perfect opportunity for me to change my life,” she said.

“It is that,” Wade agreed. “But you have to want the change. It’s not about what I think. I was just trying to give you a different way of looking at things, to view this situation as an opportunity, rather than a catastrophe.”

“You, Grandmother, Emily, Samantha—you all seem to agree about that,” she said. “I respect your opinions. I was starting to listen to you. Now this.”

“And you’re confused.”

She nodded.

“Can you manage to tune out all the clutter, all the noise from the rest of us, and hear what your heart is telling you?”

This time there was no mistaking the frustration in her expression. “No,” she said, clearly annoyed. “I don’t like this new me. I used to be decisive. I used to know exactly what I wanted.”

“Until someone took it away and gave you two minutes to question whether you’ve changed, whether it’s still what you want.”

He saw how completely this opportunity had turned her life upside down yet again. “Sweetheart, this is your chance. It seems you can have it all back. How often do chances like that come along?”

“No more often than chances to change your life,” she said. She met his gaze. She drew in a deep breath, then said, “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think going back would be a mistake.”

Wade resisted the desire to shout hallelujah! “Why?” he forced himself to ask.

“It doesn’t feel right. I’m not sure what is right, but I don’t think it’s going back to an old job where they forced me out because I embarrassed them or violated some code they think their employees should be living by.”

“Then that’s your answer.”

“You’re not just saying that because it fits in with the message you were trying to get through to me this morning?”

“Not at all,” he insisted. “I promise. I’m saying it because it seems as if you’ve come to this conclusion for reasons that make sense to you. You’re listening to your gut instincts.”

Slowly her expression started to brighten. “Maybe I am finally able to make decisions for myself again,” she said happily.

“Any thoughts yet about the next step?” he asked.

“Hey, getting to this decision has taken me all afternoon. Don’t get pushy.”

Wade laughed. “Now you’re catching on. One step at a time. One day at a time.”

Her eyes widened. “Heaven help me, you’re starting to rub off on me.”

“Is that such a bad thing?”

A smile lit her face. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. If I wind up working as a waitress at Castle’s and turn into a complete slug, it might not be so good.”

Wade laughed. “I don’t think you need to be worrying about that. Ambition may shift directions through a lifetime, but I don’t think it disappears entirely.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said, “because Grandmother likes to make me show up before dawn and I am so not that person!”

She peered at the bag they had yet to open. “What’s in there?”

“Boone sent key lime pie.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said happily.

“You sure you want it?” he teased. “You’re not full?”

“Give me my pie,” she ordered. “I know all about your pie addiction. Grandmother’s filled me in, but one of those slices of key lime pie is mine.”

He handed it over. “I learned a long time ago never to argue with a pregnant woman over food.”

“Just one more thing I’ll have to thank your sister for,” she said as she dug into the pie.

Wade wondered what she’d think if he admitted that particular lesson had come from his wife.