Seated at her table in the Stardance Ranch activity center, Lili brought the china teacup to her lips with a trembling hand. The scone tasted like sawdust. The sweet raspberry jam struck her as sour. Derek was here. He’d discovered her lies. How? She believed Brick’s denial. He’d met her gaze at that moment and honesty had shone clearly in his eyes.
Patsy. It had to have been Patsy. No one else knew her family.
Her gaze drifted toward Patsy, seated across the round table of ten.
Her first reaction was to feel betrayed, but almost immediately that emotion shifted to fear. Patsy must think that Lili needed advice or assistance from her brother. Or perhaps that her family now needed to know her whereabouts. Why would she think that? Lili could come up with only one answer.
The cancer.
Was Patsy running out of time?
Lili’s cup rattled as she set it into the saucer. Needing something to do with her hands, she nibbled at a cucumber finger sandwich that she didn’t want.
Seated next to her, Celeste leaned toward Lili. “Is something wrong, dear?”
“It’s complicated. I had a bit of a surprise today. And I’m just … Does Patsy look all right to you?”
“She looks like she’s having a grand time.”
“Yes. She does. Doesn’t she? I’m glad. Today is terribly important to her.”
“Yes, that has been obvious.”
Lili drew in a deep breath and released it on a sigh. It was true. Today was an extremely special day for Patsy, and Lili shouldn’t risk ruining it with personal distractions or by dwelling on what-ifs. “I love her, Celeste. She’s the grandmother I always wanted to have. The grandmother everybody wants to have.”
“I know, dear. Here’s something for you to remember. The sweet souls who inspire you, who cherish you, and who protect you dwell with you always—no matter where you both may be.”
Lili gave Celeste a sharp look. Did she know something Lili did not?
Before she could ask, Sharon rose and stepped to the podium. “Ladies, may I have your attention? Now that we’ve taken the edge off of our hunger with that fabulous tea provided by the Mocha Moose Sandwich Shop and Fresh Bakery, I have a special announcement to make. Our very own Camp Director Dreamboat was thoughtful enough to arrange some entertainment for our birthday tea. Ladies, allow me to present to you…” She made a flourishing wave toward the back door. “The King of Eternity Springs.”
The door opened and an Elvis impersonator swept into the room singing “Happy Birthday, Baby,” and when Patsy clapped her hands and exploded in laughter Lili forgot all about her brother. For the next little while, she devoted her attention to family.
The event relaxed her and grounded her and strengthened her, and when the birthday party wound down and Patsy stood to speak to the Tornado Alleycats Lili shed tears no more numerous than those of the other women in the room.
“My dear friends,” Patsy said. “I want you all to know how much it’s meant to me to have had you join me here in Eternity Springs this summer. Over the course of my long, interesting, and for the most part happy life, I’ve been blessed with some wonderful friendships. However, none of them have meant as much to me as those I share with you here today. You are—in every sense of the word—my sisters. You have brought joy and laughter and love into my world. You have opened my eyes to new adventures and possibilities and offered me hugs when I needed them. My new friend, Celeste Blessing, said something to me a few minutes ago that struck a chord with me. It’s something I believe in my marrow. She said friends aren’t coincidences. Friends are former strangers who are meant to come into our lives to teach us invaluable lessons and give us priceless memories. Each of you has done that for me. I believe each of you was meant to be a Tornado Alleycat.”
Cheers and applause interrupted her. Smiling, she clapped her hands back at the crowd that had the activity center bursting at its seams.
“We love you, Patsy,” somebody called.
“I love you, too,” she replied. “Dearly. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. Thank you all for joining me on this summer’s exceptional extended campout. Thank you for the happiness you’ve given me over the past five years. Thank you for the gift of your friendship. Now, let’s all go get out of these long dresses, shall we, girls? I don’t know about you, but I need to put on my loosies.”
Alleycats all over the room wiped the tears from their eyes, and once again Stardance Ranch RV Resort’s activity center erupted into applause and chants. “Patsy! Patsy! Patsy! Patsy!”
Laughing, she spoke once more into the microphone. “Loosies!”
Amidst laughter, the gathering finally broke up.
For an instant Lili wished she didn’t know about Patsy’s condition. But only for an instant. Were she unaware that time with her friend was limited, she might have spent more of it with Brick. While he’d given her no reason to think he’d changed his mind, at least that potential ending had some wiggle room. Patsy’s situation didn’t. No matter what happened with Brick, the time with her here in Colorado had been a gift.
A gift. Like sunlight slowly chasing the shadows of night from the sky, awareness dawned. This time Lili had spent with Patsy was a gift. So, too, had been the mess at the firm.
And the situation with her parents. If they hadn’t turned their backs on her, she wouldn’t be here now.
“Wow. Just wow.” Everything truly did happen for a reason. It wasn’t just a platitude.
Which means that Brick’s presence in my life happened for a reason, too.
“Okay, then.” Supported by this new realization, Lili exited the activity center and went in search of her brother. She’d expected to find him at her trailer. He wasn’t there. She took a few minutes to change clothes—choosing yoga pants and a T-shirt since Patsy’s “loosies” mention had put the idea in her head—and continued her search. Nor was Derek in the office or down beside the river or in the snack room or even the laundry. She asked Josh to check the men’s room and showers for her, to no avail. Since Brick was nowhere to be found, either, she figured they must be together.
She decided to try his tree house next. Grabbing the bicycle she used to make the trip that was a good ten minutes from her trailer space, she pedaled there. When she dismounted at the base of the Z-shaped staircase that led up to the structure, she heard the rumble of male voices. She’d found Brick and undoubtedly Derek, too.
Lili climbed the staircase with all the enthusiasm of a condemned prisoner ascending to the scaffold.
The voices fell silent as they heard her on the steps. Just beyond view, she paused and took a deep breath, then knocked on the jamb beside the open door and stepped inside.
Shock left her speechless.
Brick sat at the foot of his bed, a bag of frozen peas against his nose. Derek sat in the wooden rocking chair, a bag of frozen corn against his eye.
Her mother and father sat at the kitchen table.
“Hello, Liliana,” her mother said.
“Hi, little girl.” Nerves showed in her father’s smile.
She finally managed to get some words out. “Mom! Dad! What are you doing here?”
Brian and Stephanie Howe shared a significant look; then he said, “We’ve come to apologize, Liliana.”
Her mother nodded. “We’re so sorry we let you down.”
It was too much. After the emotion of the birthday party, after the shock of seeing Derek prior to that, it was simply too much.
Liliana burst into tears.
Her mother came over to hold her, saying, “Hush now, honey. It’s all right. Everything is going to be all right now.”
Her mother’s action only made her cry harder. When was the last time her mother had held her? She couldn’t remember. Her mother had never been much of a hugger.
Then Lili’s father crossed the room and handed her his handkerchief. He always carried a handkerchief. Every year since she could remember, she’d given him a new box of handkerchiefs on Father’s Day. She hadn’t sent him his gift this year. The selection of fishing lures and a new box of hankies still sat in the backseat of her pickup. Guilt washed through her. She should have mailed the gift. Why hadn’t she mailed it?
Lili cried harder.
She was vaguely aware of Brick excusing himself and stepping out onto the tree house’s wraparound porch, leaving the Howe family alone. Her mother continued to hold her. “Don’t cry, Lili. Please don’t cry. We’re sorry. Dad and I are so sorry.”
“I hope you’ll forgive us, pumpkin,” her father added.
Pumpkin. When was the last time he’d called her pumpkin?
“Hush now. Hush. Here, let’s sit down. Your father and I want to explain what happened.” Stephanie Howe led Lili to the bed where Brick had been sitting, then sat beside her.
How weird was this? To be sitting here with her mother on Brick’s bed where she’d had wild wanton sex not six hours ago! My mom! It was that realization more than anything that dried Lili’s tears.
She wiped her eyes and blew her nose and gathered herself. “I’m sorry. It’s been an emotional day.”
“Yes, for us, too,” her mother said. “We’ve been worried about you, Lili. This estrangement has weighed heavy on our hearts. Knowing that we’d finally have the opportunity to attempt to make it right has filled the day with uncertainty and stress. We are not of sure how you’ll react.”
Neither am I.
Her father moved one of the chairs from Brick’s kitchen table near the bed. He sat and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, winced, and immediately straightened. “The way we reacted when you came to us in trouble was inexcusable. That said, would you listen to us, Liliana, and allow us to explain why we failed you?”
She nodded.
He breathed a heavy sigh, rubbed his palms on his slacks, and began. “For a couple of weeks prior to your visit that day, I’d had a pain in my side. I went in for a sonogram and then an MRI.”
All thought of wounded feelings evaporated. In her mother’s arms, Lili stiffened.
“Shortly before you arrived that day, my doctor called. They’d found what appeared to be gallstones, but also a suspicious mass on my gallbladder.”
Fear gripped her. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth. “Oh, Daddy.”
“I’m okay,” he assured quickly. “I had surgery and the tumor was benign.”
Thank God.
Her mother said, “Lili, the timing was simply horrendous. Dad and I were reeling from the news when you arrived, trying to make decisions about surgeons and hospitals and worrying about the possibilities.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
Her parents shared a look, then her father said, “We should have. It’s obvious in hindsight, but at the time … to be brutally honest, Lili, I wasn’t concerned about you. I was scared.”
She blinked. Her father was never scared.
“You know I watched both of my parents die from cancer. Following in their footsteps is my biggest fear.”
“I was scared, too,” her mother added. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. All I knew at the time was that your father and I already had one fight on our hands and at that moment I didn’t have the capacity for two.”
“I understand,” Lili said. And it was true. She did understand. Seeing the importance Patsy placed on how and when to share the news about her cancer gave Lili insight into the motives behind her parents’ silence that day. Horrendous timing, indeed.
Her father continued, “By the time we got our feet under us, you’d left on your vacation. We debated telling you then, but it was the first vacation you’d taken in so long, we didn’t want to burden you with medical questions that had no answers. We decided to spare you until after the surgery when the lab results came back.”
This was more difficult to understand. Her father had surgery and she hadn’t known about it. He’d always been a private person, but she wasn’t some stranger. She was his daughter.
But I’m not his son. She glanced toward her brother and guessed, “You told Derek, though.”
“Well, yes,” her father replied. “He’s a doctor. He helped us interpret all the tests.”
He had a point. Any jealousy she felt over that particular slight wasn’t fair to her parents or Derek.
Her mother took up the telling. “The surgery took a couple of weeks to schedule and then was a little more complicated than we’d hoped. By the time he was home and the pathology reports back, you were … well, we didn’t know where you were.”
“I called you. You didn’t say anything about it.”
“You didn’t give us a chance. We could tell you were hurt and angry with us. We thought we’d give you some time.”
“Time heals all wounds,” her father added.
“We weren’t anxious until Derek told us you’d confessed that you’d taken up with a stranger and were traveling the country. That has kept me up nights. It was such a relief to learn that it wasn’t so.”
“How did that happen? How did you learn where I was?”
Derek finally spoke. “Coincidence—or maybe fate. I had a dentist appointment the day before yesterday, and I was sitting in the office twiddling my thumbs. I reached for a travel magazine and an old tabloid newspaper was beneath it. I saw a photo of you sitting in a jail cell and thought you had a doppelgänger.”
“But that picture was on an inside page,” Lili protested. “And they never published my name.”
Her brother shrugged. “It was folded open. I read the article thinking I’d give you a hard time about it. Mark had told me about Stardance River Camp, so I recognized the name and took a closer look at the photo. I realized that the ‘unnamed female’ really was you.”
Lili glanced from her brother, to her parents, then back to her brother again. “So you told Mom and Dad and you all decided to hop into a car rather than call me?”
“Actually, I flew,” Derek said.
“It’s awfully hot in Norman right now,” her father added. “Supposed to hit one hundred and two today.”
“You two,” her mother scolded. She took both of Lili’s hands in hers. “Sweetheart, your father and I believed we needed to make this apology in person. We are so very sorry for what those bastards at the firm did to you.”
Lili’s eyes widened. Her mother never used that sort of language.
“We are so very sorry for the way the way we failed you when you needed us. Will you forgive us?”
Lili blinked back fresh tears and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Of course I forgive you. I love you.”
Tears misted her father’s eyes, shocking Lili yet again. Had she ever seen her father cry?
She didn’t want to see it today. Misty eyes were one thing. Tears … no. “It’s nice to understand what happened that day, and honestly, now that it’s over, I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about your pathology report results, Dad.”
Both of her parents visibly relaxed. Her father nodded, then said, “Lili, I’ve spoken to my contacts, and there’s not anything I can do about Ormsby, Harbaugh, and Stole. However, I did manage to take care of your dirty cop. The lie has been removed from your record, and your accounting license is and shall remain in effect. A check for the fines you paid arrived at the house last week.” He paused and added, “You really need to change your permanent address, by the way.”
“Daddy,” she breathed, her head spinning at the news.
“That’s not all,” her mother added, her eyes bright with delight. “There’s a job offer waiting for you from Kingston and Lear. You can come home, Lili!”
In the silence that followed, Lili heard the creak of a board that betrayed the fact that Brick stood near the window. Eavesdropping, Callahan? When he gave up any pretense of giving the Howe family privacy by moving to an open window so that he could both see and hear her, Lili wanted to smile.
He cared. She could see on his face that he cared.
So, too, did her family.
“Thank you, Dad. Mom and Dad.” She glanced at her brother and added, “Even you, Derek. I guess it’s only fair you turned the tattletale tables on me.”
“About damned time,” he said with a tender smile.
“Dad, I don’t care about the firm. I wouldn’t have cared about the DUI except I have to buy auto insurance. Well, and the fines. That was a lot of money.”
“It was,” her mother agreed.
Lili continued, “I appreciate your going to bat for me. It heals a little wound on my heart. But as far as Kingston and Lear goes, I need to tell you something. I don’t want to be an accountant anymore.”
Brian Howe shook his head. “Now, honey. It’s natural that you would have decided that while thinking you couldn’t practice again, but things have changed.”
“Not in this respect it hasn’t. I don’t like accounting. I never have. I never will.” Her parents were shocked. Her brother, not so much. Brick gave her a nod and an approving grin.
“As far as going home … well … I’m going to remain in Eternity Springs at least until the end of the summer.” She envisioned a pair of wings on her back and gave them a flutter for strength. Then she met Brick’s gaze and declared, “Longer, I hope. I’ve fallen in love with Brick Callahan.”
She could read nothing in Brick’s expression but for the sudden heat blazing in his eyes.
Then her father asked, “Who the hell is Brick Callahan?”
She’d have introduced him, but the man had just disappeared from sight.