Wish You Were Here (3 page)

“
I’m serious, Pipes. I don’t know what the toolbox is. That’s what makes it so hard to find. We just called it a toolbox to keep you from getting interested.” He raised his glass to Ruby before taking a sip. “Here’s to that raging success.”

Ruby ignored him and looked at Piper.
“We think it might be treasure.”

“
Or a dead body,” Nate muttered. Ruby stiffened and he felt a touch of guilt. “Sorry.”

“
A dead body?” Piper’s eyes went wider than Nate thought possible.

“
No, that was a dumb joke,” Nate said. “This thing is just some object, about...” He held out his hands approximately twelve inches away from each other the way his father had in those moments before he died. “… this big. It’s purple. My father made me give my word that I would get it before I sold the place, and then he died before he could tell me where it was.”

Piper looked at Ruby.
“And you don’t know anything? He never told you?”

Ruby reached for her glass of wine.
“Your grandfather wasn’t a big talker.”

Nate saw a flash of something go across Ruby
’s face, but it was only for a second, and then her standard wry and world-weary expression returned. She was one tough old girl, Ruby, and she was the only reason Nate had any hope that maybe his father had changed toward the end. Ruby did not seem the type to take the kind of crap his father doled out to women.

“
Well.” Piper nibbled her lip, but then stopped before Nate could admonish her. “If you don’t know what it is or what it looks like, how can you possibly find it?”

“
That’s a good question.” Nate raised his glass toward Heaven but then, on second thought, glanced downward. “Care to field that one, Pop?”

“
So, what happens if you don’t find it?” Piper asked.

Nate didn
’t want to think about that. “I’ll find it.”

Piper took a bite of her salmon, chewed carefully and swallowed.
“Or… you know, maybe we could just… stay.”

Nate
’s salmon stuck in his throat and he grabbed for his wine to wash it down. “Sorry, what?”

“
Well, we could just… stay.” She raised her eyes tentatively to Nate’s, and he could see the pleading in them. “Forever?”

“
I have the restaurant in Cincinnati,” Nate said. “And I have to get back to it. I know you’ve made friends here, Piper, and you’re gonna be able to finish out the school year with them—”

Piper huffed.
“That’s only two more weeks!”

“
—but I’m gonna find this thing, and then we’re going back home. You have friends there, too.”

“
I know, but…” She put her fork down and crossed her arms over her stomach. “I like it here.”

“
You liked it in Cincinnati just fine.”

“
I like it
here,
where you’re around.”

The room went silent and Nate closed his eyes.
“Honey, you know my work—”

She shifted forward, anger radiating from her tense limbs.
“We go fishing here. We hang out. We have dinner together. If we go back to Cincinnati, it’s going to be the restaurant again all the time and the next time I see you will be my high school graduation.”

He eyed her, letting her know she was approaching the line fast.
“That’s not fair and you know it.”

“
You know what’s not fair? Most of my life, I’ve barely had one parent. Here, I’ve got almost two.” She motioned toward Ruby, and Ruby’s face went as soft as it ever got. “For the first time in my life, I almost have a real family, and you want to take that away.”

Nate stared at his
kid, unable to believe she was playing this dirty. Apparently there was a bit of Mick Brody in her after all, which was yet another reason to get them out of that place as fast as possible. “I’m a chef, Piper. Not a campground manager.”

Piper leaned forward, her eyes pleading.
“You can open a restaurant here. People need to eat everywhere.”

“
It’s not the same. Between Deer Creek, Alabaster, and Noley, there are maybe ten thousand people. This area can’t support the kind of cooking I do, you know that.”

“
Then cook something else,” she huffed, throwing her fork down and pushing back from the table. “I’m sick of stupid salmon, anyway.”

She ran to the front door and slammed it behind her. Nate leaned forward where he could get a view of her through the living room window; she was heading down the path to the office. It was safe enough to let her sit out her fit there. He could go get her in a little while after she
’d had time to cool off. He sat back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. Ruby got up, topped off his wine, and set the bottle on the table next to him.

“
You could just sell it,” she said carefully. “Rip off the Band-Aid. The longer you stay here, the harder it’s going to be.”

Nate shook his head, staring out in the direction Piper had gone.
“I gave my word.”

Ruby let out a snort.
“Your dad would have sold it in a minute and never looked back.”

Exactly.

“When Number Four checks out,” he said after a while, “we’re closing down the cabins and tearing them up. I’ve looked everywhere else. It has to be there somewhere. Shouldn’t take more than a week, and then you’ll be free, too.”

After a protracted silence, Ruby nodded.
“Sounds like a plan.”

“
Then it’s a plan.” Nate pushed back from the table. “Meantime, I’ve got a railing to fix.”

Two

Fr
eya
sat
cross-legged on the sofa in her red satin pajamas, clean and comfortable and staring down at her laptop screen. She hit the play button on her media player and closed her eyes.

Eastern music
filled the cabin, and she set her hands on her knees, sitting the way the woman on the CD artwork was sitting.

“
Visualize
,” the soft female voice said. “
Visualize what you want, and you shall have it
.”

Freya took a deep breath, tried to visualize
herself with Nathan Brody, shaking hands on this deal. Instead, all she got was his face smiling at her as he led his little girl out of the cabin.

“
If you can see it, you can achieve it.”

Freya pulled her shoulders up and released them, then rolled her head around to relax her neck.
Visualize.
She saw herself in her father’s offices, head held high, everyone amazed and intimidated by her, the way it used to be. No one whispering that she’d lost her edge. No secretaries handing her tissues and asking her if she wanted to talk about her feelings.

“
Agh!” She opened her eyes, flexed her hands as if flicking the bad away, and rolled her shoulders.

The audio file on her computer continued,
“Inside you is a light so bright, it is almost blinding. This light will help you achieve what you need to achieve. Visualize.
”

Oh, crap.
The light thing again. This part always made her feel stupid. ET had a light inside. People had intestines. Why had Flynn sent her this nonsense, anyway?

“
Visualize. The light within
—
”

“
Oh, screw it,” she said, leaning forward and closing out the media player. The whole idea was stupid, anyway; the fact that she would even try using visualization techniques to get back to her old self was just more proof of how far she’d slipped. The fact was, the only thing that would make her feel like herself would be getting Nathan Brody’s handshake on this deal, and going home with orders for Contracts to draw up the papers. Anything less, and she’d be going home a failure.

And that was unacceptable.

There was a light knock at her door and she called out, “I’ve got everything I need. Thanks anyway. Go away.”

A small voice came from the other side of the door, but Freya couldn
’t understand what was said. She sighed, pushed up from the couch, and walked over to the door, pulling it open to find little Piper Brody staring up at her.

“
Hey,” Freya said.

“
Hey,” Piper parroted.

The kid stood in silence, staring up at Freya. Freya crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb. Piper scuffed her sneakers on the porch,
then looked back up at Freya.

“
You did knock, right?” Freya asked finally.

“
You wanna ride bikes?”

Freya almost laughed, but there was a look of need in the girl
’s eyes that threw her off her guard. No one ever looked at Freya like that, mostly because Freya made a point of avoiding needy people. It was more hassle than it was worth, in her experience, and since she herself needed no one, it usually ended badly.

However, it was a damn sight better than having the kid pity her.

“I’m in my pajamas,” she said finally.

Piper looked at her.
“Those are pajamas? They look like a suit.”

Freya glanced down at herself. Granted, the set was finely tailored, but who wore red satin to the office? She looked back at Piper.
“Trust me.”

Piper shot big brown eyes up at Freya through her lashes, her lip set in the slightest of pouts.

“Don’t do that,” Freya said.

“
Do what?”

“
Give me the pretty eyes. I’ve already got pretty eyes, kid, I don’t need yours.”

“
Okay,” Piper said, her shoulders slumping. “Well... bye.”

“
Oh, now that’s just sad,” Freya said.

Piper blinked.
“What?”

“
The big eyes, the pout, the slumping off. That usually works for you?”

Piper paused for a moment,
then said, “Yeah.”

“
It’s below you, kid,” Freya said. “The second you use your girlness to give you the edge in negotiations, you remind everyone that you’re a girl, and no one will take you seriously. Use your brain. Argue to win. Try again.” Freya straightened up. “I’m in my pajamas.”

Piper took a tentative step forward.
“They look like clothes.”

Freya raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. It took a moment, but she could see the
lightbulb go on over the girl’s head as she stepped even closer.

“
And no one else is even around to see you,” she said, sounding more like she was asking a question than making a statement, but still. It was progress.

Freya looked down at her feet.
“I don’t have any shoes on.”

Piper pointed to the pair of slip-on
Keds Freya used for slippers, which she’d left sitting by the couch. “There’s a pair of sneakers right there.”

Kid
’s got a good eye.
“I’m tired.”

“
Exercise gives you energy.”

“
I don’t have time.”

“
We’ll just ride down to the lake and right back.”

“
Good.” Freya leaned over, putting herself eye to eye with Piper. “As long as you’ve got a brain in that head, I don’t want you to rely on pretty eyes again. If you want something, you argue for it, and don’t take no for an answer, you get me?”

“
Yeah.” Piper hesitated. “So… you wanna ride bikes?”

Freya straightened up and eyed the kid for a moment, then said,
“Can’t say no now, can I?”

Piper
’s eyes lit with happy surprise. Freya slipped into her sneakers and followed the kid down the path toward the office where they retrieved a small pink bike for Piper and a larger, blue ten-speed for Freya. She and Freya hopped on and Piper led the way down the pine-needle- covered path into the woods, the tree branches overhead thick enough to mute the mellow glow from the pre-dusk sky. It had been some time since Freya had been on a bike that actually went anywhere and she’d forgotten how much fun it could be to ride. Between the green, earthy smell of the forest and the warm early summer air on her face and the endorphins from the simple exercise, she was almost in a good mood by the time they broke through the woods to find the small lake peacefully reflecting the warm colors of the sky above it.

“
Wow,” Freya said, overtaken for a moment by how very pretty it all was. She didn’t have long to appreciate it, though; Piper sped up, and Freya found herself having to work to keep up with the kid. The lake was surrounded by grass, but there was a well-worn dirt path circling it that made for relatively easy riding. Piper lifted up from her bike seat and pumped her legs hard, gaining speed, and Freya did the same, feeling the exhilaration of escape as they raced in silence around the lake. Piper finally slowed down when they reached a small shack near the dock. The little girl leaned her bike against it and walked out toward the dock, and Freya followed along.

At the end of the dock, Piper took off her shoes and socks and sat, her feet dangling into the water. Freya stood stiffly next to her.

“Aren’t there fish and bugs in that lake?”

Piper nodded.
“Yep. Wanna put your feet in? It’s fun.”

“
No. Thanks.” Freya stared down at the rippling pinks and oranges and pale yellows in the surface of the water. “Is it cold?”

“
My father’s so stupid,” Piper said suddenly. “He never talks, and then when he does, he doesn’t listen.”

“
Hey,” Freya said, laughing lightly. “Who knew we had the same dad?”

Piper looked up at her.
“Your dad is like that, too?”

“
My dad is…” She sighed. “Not like yours. But yeah, listening is not his strong point. But maybe it’s just harder for fathers to listen.”

“
Do mothers listen?” The child’s voice was so light that Freya wasn’t sure she’d heard her right, but when she looked down, she could tell by Piper’s expression that she’d heard exactly right.

“
Where’s your mother?” Freya asked.

Piper shrugged, playing tough, and focused on swirling her right foot in a figure eight in the water.
“She left when I was a baby.”

“
I’m sorry,” Freya said.

“
I don’t remember her.” The girl looked out at the water. “She’s coming back, though.”

“
Really? So she’s been in touch?”

Piper shook her head.
“I just know she will. Someday.”

“
I see.” Freya stepped a little closer to Piper. “My mother was a pretty good listener. I was only twelve when she died, though, so who knows?”

“
I’m going to be twelve,” Piper said. “In August. And I’ll probably be back in stupid Cincinnati by then.”

Freya perked up at this. Nathan Brody was moving, which meant that he must not be terribly
attached to his craphole. As a matter of fact, money from the sale of the craphole might be welcome. Freya felt a surge of hope.

“
Cincinnati,” she said. “Nice town. I was there for a business trip a few years ago.”

“
I like it
here
.”

Piper said it with such brutal finality that Freya took a moment before responding.

“Well, here’s… nice, too.”

“
It is, right?” Piper said.

Freya took a deep breath and stared out at the lightly rippling surface.
“I like the way it smells.”

Piper pulled her feet out of the water and swiveled on the dock to face Freya.
“You’re very pretty, even without makeup,” Piper said.

Freya wasn
’t sure how to take that, but said, “Thanks.”

“
What’s it like being pretty?”

“
Um. Nice. I guess.”

“
Have you ever been in love?”

Freya had to laugh.
“Wow. That’s a topic leap.”

“
How do you know when you’re in love?”

“
Whoa.” Freya held up her hands to halt the barrage. “Hang on, there, Piper. One serve at a time.”

Piper went quiet and stared up at Freya with those bright eyes, expecting... God only knew what. Freya was way out of her depth dealing with kids, but she knew women pretty well, so she squatted down until her eyes were almost level with Piper
’s and said, “What’s his name?”

Piper nibbled her lip for a moment,
then seemed to come to a decision as her shoulders relaxed. “Matthew.”

“
Matthew what?”

A small smile appeared at the edge of the girl
’s lips. “Hartley.”

“
Right.” Freya sat up straighter. “I think I get it now. You’ve got a thing for this Matthew Hartley, and your dad’s getting set to pull you out of school here and take you to Cincinnati, and you don’t want to go.”

Piper rubbed at her big toe and shrugged.
“It’s not the only reason.”

Freya nodded.
“And your dad doesn’t know about Matthew Hartley, does he?”

Piper
’s back went stick-straight and her eyes widened. “No! Oh, God, no. I can’t talk to him about
boys.
He’d lock me in my room forever. He’d
homeschool
me.”

“
Right.” Freya adjusted herself on her toes; squatting wasn’t comfortable, but there was no way her satin ass was touching that dirty wooden dock. “So, this Matthew Hartley. He’s cute?”

Piper nodded.
“Really cute.”

“
And he likes you, too?”

Even in the waning sunlight, Freya could see Piper
’s cheeks flush. “I don’t know.”

“
Well, let me tell you something about boys, Piper, which you’ll figure out sooner or later but I say the sooner the better.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Boys are stupid.”

Piper
’s eyes widened. “Oh, not Matthew. He’s really smart. He’s on the honor roll and everything.”

“
No, I don’t mean school-stupid,” Freya said. “They’re girl-stupid, and I’m sorry to tell you, it never gets any better. And the thing is, the ones who are girl-smart are only that way because they want to get in your pants, so they’re no good, either. Basically, we’re all screwed.”