The Scent of Rain (30 page)

“I'll get this.”

“Did you notice the gowns are more traditional this year?”

“No.”

“That means we'll want to go traditional with fragrance too. It will affect people's moods.”

“Traditional scents?”

“It probably means the time isn't right for home scents that offer something new, but you never know. Kensie might run us some marketing polls.”

At the sound of Kensie's name, his gut twisted. Something about that woman drove him crazy. A conversation with her was like running through a minefield, riddled with unseen dangers.

“Let's keep Kensie out of this idea for now.” He quickly changed the subject. “Do you think you'd wear the same gown again?”

“Oh, I won't get married again.” She reached down for a piece of cake with pink icing and scooped up a forkful. “Want to try it?” She shoved it into his mouth, and before he could answer, he was chewing.

“Mmm.” He nodded. “Daphne, you can't let a tool like that guy ruin marriage for you. Marriage is a beautiful thing.”

“So when's
your
next wedding?” she prodded.

“I won't get married again. I had my chance.”

“Is that really fair to Ben?” she asked.

She may as well have taken the cake knife off the table and stabbed him.

“Life hasn't been fair to Ben, but I'm devoted to him. No sense bringing in a woman to take the time he deserves away from him.”

“So here we are: two avowed singles at a wedding extravaganza.”

“That cake's good,” he said. “Do you get tired of people telling you that you'll meet someone?”

“No one's really saying that yet. They might think Mark got lucky.”

“Anyone who would think that doesn't see straight.”

“My mom thinks that. She thinks if I could have kept my mouth quiet more when Mark was wrong about formulations, he might have stayed.”

“Do you believe that?”

“Well, I wasn't going to let him blow himself up if he was wrong. Would you?”

He laughed. “No, probably not.”

“Mark was a terrible chemist. A brilliant mind and ever capable, but he was lazy and took shortcuts without thought to consequences. He wasn't careful about ratios, not until he understood that ratios and chemistry could make him wealthy.” She grinned at the thought of Mark when he didn't think measuring mattered. “One time he burned his eyebrows off in the lab.”

“Really?” He couldn't help his smile.

“Took at least a month to grow back. Do you know how weird a person looks without eyebrows? It's very disconcerting to strangers.”

They walked into the floral hall, and the scent of fresh blooms hit his senses. He watched Daphne carefully to see if any of the smells affected her. She bent into a bouquet of red roses and looked up. “Nope,” she said.

“You can't smell anything? If a room smelled like a flower shop, would that be a warm smell?”

“Fresh. Moist, but not necessarily homey. More romantic or tropical, I would guess.”

“Do you like the ideas for the home perfumes?”

“There are lots of things on the market like that now.”

“Not in the household goods aisles. The benefit here is we take those grocery store buyers and grab their attention with an unmet need.”

She picked up a small bouquet. “It's hand-wrapped, do you see?”

“What does that mean?”

“It's simpler. People are scaling back.”

“Not on rings. Did you see the size of those things?”

“Colors. I noticed the colors. A lot of chocolate diamonds, and green ones, sapphires. That's not traditional, but it's definitely unique. And every bride wants to be unique.” Her blue eyes stared into the distance.

Mark was an idiot if he thought she'd be waiting around for him to return, Jesse thought. She'd last about a week at his church's singles' group.

“You'll be back in Paris before you know it. Or maybe New York.”

“You're that confident about this idea?”

“I'm that confident in your nose. That it will work when you're where you belong.”

She paused. “Jesse, what if I am where I belong?”

He wouldn't allow himself to believe it. She was destined for greater things, and he planned to make her dreams come true. As some sort of redemption for how he'd failed Hannah. “You're not where you belong.”

“How can you know that?”

“Don't you think you'd be able to do what you do best if you were where you belonged?”

“Not if God didn't want me to do it for some reason I didn't yet understand.”

“He allowed you to be trained as a perfumer.”

“He allowed Paul to be trained as the foremost scholar among Jews. Only to have him preach to the Gentiles.” She shrugged. “Just saying.”

He grinned. “So now you're going biblical on me.”

“If I have to. I just think your conclusion may be premature. Yes, I'll admit, I miss perfume. I miss it badly, but I haven't had the chance to get my feet wet here. Maybe this is where I belong.”

“I was a star at a young age, and that was all thwarted by circumstances that I couldn't control. I can control these, Daphne. I can get you back to Paris. Or at least as far as New York.”

“For someone who thinks I'm supposedly so good at what I do, you seem awfully anxious to get rid of me.”

“Do you want my help or not?”

“What does that mean? You'll give me a reference if I create a selling line of household sprays?”

He didn't want to promise anything. Already, the idea of Daphne leaving bothered him, but he couldn't offer her anything she needed.

His cell phone vibrated, and he worried that Ben was still crying, but it was only Anne.

“Hey, Anne.”

“I need you and Daphne to come back to the office immediately.”

“We're just getting started. Isn't Dave there?”

“Jesse, I need you to come back now. I don't want to tell you over the phone.”

“It's not Ben, is it?” he said frantically.

“Ben? No, it's not Ben. Nothing to do with your family. It's an office emergency. I need you here.”

“Okay, we'll head back now. See you in an hour.” He took the bouquet from Daphne's hand and placed it back on the skirted table. “We've got to go. I pray it's not an accident in the lab. Anne's not usually frantic like that.”

Daphne closed her eyes and prayed. “Lord in heaven, we ask for peace as we make our way back to an unknown situation. Help our fears to be worse than anything that's happened. Amen.”

“Amen.” He took her hand and they raced out the doors back through the bridal displays to the parking garage.

The bridal show had been the first time he'd let his guard down and really had fun in ages. He wouldn't have believed it if someone told him he'd enjoy a wedding event, but Daphne brightened the world around her.

Because of that, she needed more. She needed to go. Their new product launch would allow her to fly away like a balloon.

Chapter 21

D
aphne had fun with Jesse. Being with him felt easy, as it did with Sophie, and Daphne felt confident that while her mother thought marriage the only acceptable option for a young Greek woman, there were other possibilities. Friends made uneventful events fun. She'd had a good time at a wedding show, and if that didn't prove that her heart was on the mend, surely the fact that she hadn't checked her phone for possible texts from Mark in the past two hours would strengthen her case.

She'd make more friends. She'd invest in Dayton until the time came to leave for Paris. A huge weight lifted as she realized if marriage wasn't in her future, she hadn't failed at life, even if her mother did think otherwise. Eventually she'd get her sense of smell back, and life would be fuller and richer without the roller coaster of love.

She looked out at the passing landscape. “I can't get over how barren things feel here. There are so many buildings just left for dead along the road.”

“It's cheaper to build from scratch, I guess.”

It wasn't like back home, where real estate was so expensive and people were crammed up against one another. Ohio had space to spare, but even the Ohio River was subdued by its murky green tones. She missed the mountains and the ocean.

The anxiety of what might be facing them back at the office came back, marring the bright morning they'd shared.

“Anne didn't give you any idea what this is about?”

“Not a clue,” he answered. “But they must not be able to reach Dave if they called me. I'm next on the ladder when we're in trouble.”

The miles went by quickly, and they arrived at Gibraltar's offices in record time. “I'm glad my sister's getting Ben. Who knows what awaits me upstairs?”

“Jesse, if you ever need help with Ben, I want you to know it's no trouble for me to help. An on-site scientifically trained babysitter might be just what the doctor orders someday.”

“Too true.”

Upstairs, a solemn skeleton crew milled about in the main office. Anne came toward them and pulled Jesse into Dave's office. Daphne looked around for Kensie to find out what had happened, but she was nowhere in sight—which made sense, since she was supposed to be with Daphne at the wedding show.

She looked for someone else to ask, but everyone seemed to avoid her gaze and move away as she got closer to them. She decided to head to the lab.

In the stark bright white of the lab, Daphne felt at home. She donned a white coat with her name embroidered on it and headed to her station. Willard was nowhere in sight, but John, looking pale and unkempt, tinkered at his station. His eyes focused intently on his mixture.

“I assume you heard,” he said.

“I didn't hear anything. What happened?” She stepped closer to his station, and he put down the mixture.

“Dave is dead,” he said without inflection. “Killed in a car wreck.”

Daphne gasped. “Dave our boss?”

John squeezed a drop of liquid into his beaker. “No, Dave Letterman. Yes, Dave our boss. He and Kensie had some kind of marketing meeting and got T-boned by a truck. Dave never had a chance.”

“John, that's terrible. No wonder everyone's so solemn.”

John shrugged one shoulder. “It's a shame. I think he was really ready to turn this company around, and now this.”

Scientists left much to be desired in the empathy department.

“I—I'd better go check on Jesse. He must be devastated.”

“Doubt that. He probably has himself a promotion.”

Her mouth gaped open. “Jesse's not like that! He would never want to profit from someone else's tragedy.”

“Relax, Daphne. I didn't mean anything by it.”

“Then you shouldn't have said it.”

“Whatever.”

“I have to find him,” she said. Once in the hallway, she ran straight into Jesse and wrapped him in an embrace. “Jesse! Are you okay?”

He pulled away and stared blankly toward her. “I'm in shock. It feels impossible. Daphne, I need you to do me a favor.”

“Anything,” she said.

They got in the elevator, and he pressed the button to close the doors. “I've got to call about the company insurance policy and get the payout started. I know that sounds heartless, but his wife will need it. And I need to make changes on the signing partners, that kind of thing.”

“So what can I do?” she asked.

He handed her his keys. “I want you to take my car and go to the hospital.”

“To the hospital?” She looked up at him, confused.

He spoke quickly, in low tones. “Kensie was in the accident as well, and nobody knows why. Anne made up a marketing meeting, but there was nothing on either one of their schedules. Did she happen to say yesterday where she planned to go today instead of the bridal show?”

“No.” Daphne didn't mention the show of affection she'd seen pass between Kensie and Dave. For all she knew, it was nothing more than a friendly gesture that could be construed the wrong way. After all, what might people think if they'd seen her banter with Jesse at the bridal expo? “Is she badly hurt?”

“I don't know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Dave's wife is on her way to the morgue to identify the body.”

Daphne felt sick to her stomach. “Jesse, I'm so sorry this happened. I feel so helpless.”

“Me too.” He took her hand and held it until the elevator door opened. “I don't know how to say this, and there could be nothing to it . . . but if you happen to run into Kathy, that's Dave's wife, at the hospital, she'll be in shock. Let the authorities release details to her as they deem fit.”