Wish You Were Here (5 page)

“
Hmmm?”

“
Shut the flame off.”

She glanced at the eggs.
“But they’re not cooked in the middle.”

“
Exactly. Shut the flame off.”

She did as instructed.

“Good,” he said. “Now grab the pan and put it in the oven.”

“
Okay.” She reached for the pan handle. “But the oven’s not on, is it?”

“
It is. I turned it on when I first started.”

“
Wow.” Freya pulled the oven open and inserted the frying pan. “Guess I missed that part.” She closed the oven door and turned to face him. “So. You’re really good in the kitchen.”

“
Should be,” he said. “I’m a chef.”

“
A chef?”

“
Yeah,” he said. “I have a restaurant in Cincinnati.”

He missed it, she could tell by the look on his face. This was almost going to be too easy.
“Well, if you have a restaurant in Cincinnati, what are you doing here?”

“
Good question,” he said, but didn’t seem at all inclined to answer it. Still, the opening was right there. All she had to do was walk through it.

Child
’s play.

“
So, hypothetically, if someone offered you a lot of money for this place, would you sell it?”

He raised an eyebrow.
“Depends. Is this hypothetical person insane?”

“
Does it matter if the check clears?”

He smiled at her, and Freya
’s breath caught. “I don’t know. How much are they hypothetically offering?”

Freya hesitated for a moment, gave Nate a moment to let his imagination fly. She
’d been looking forward to this part all morning, and the excitement built as she laid it out for him.

“
A million dollars.”

Nate laughed.
“For this place? You’ve got to be kidding.”

He was reacting just like she
’d expected, and now she was seconds away from a yes, and a million bucks under budget to boot. She could practically taste the champagne on her first-class flight back home.

“
Not kidding,” she said, unable to keep the seductive tone out of her voice. “Would you take that offer?”

He shrugged.
“Well. Hypothetically, yeah. I’d be crazy not to.”

God, she almost wished her father could be there to see her.
“Great! I’ll head back to Boston tonight and have the papers drawn up. I’ll need the name and contact information for your real estate agent and your attorney—”

He held his hand up.
“Wait. Whoa. What happened to hypothetical?”

Her heart skipped as she looked at him, his forehead creased, his smile gone.

This was not what she’d planned.

“
Oh, come on,” she said. “You knew I was making an offer.”

“
We were talking hypothetical,” he said.

“
Well, now we’re not. One million non-hypothetical dollars are right here on the table, for the taking. We can shake on it right now. There will be some details for the lawyers to work out, obviously, but I don’t see why you can’t have a check in your account before the month is out.”

Nate stared at her in silence, then said simply,
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”

Freya
’s body went slack. “What
… lead me on
? You just said—”

He ran his hands over his hair and said,
“I know. I was… flirting. I wasn’t… I mean, you shifted gears kinda fast there and I lost the thread.” He cleared his throat, looking almost as unhappy as she was feeling. “I’m sorry, but the answer is no. I’m not selling right now.”

“
Okay. Fine. You want to play hardball? One-point-two-five.” It was an embarrassing offer to have to make, but hell. She was still under budget.

Nate shook his head.
“I don’t think you understand. I’m not playing hardball—”

Damnit
.
“One and a half. But I’m telling you, that’s my final offer. I cannot go higher.”

“
Freya,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re not listening to me. I’m not selling the campground. The answer is no.”

She bit her lip. She couldn
’t. She
couldn’t
pay two million dollars for this property and go home with her head held high. She just… she couldn’t.

But if she went back without a deal at all, scorched in the ass by her last flaming hoop, passed over for the promotion th
at was hers after all this work…

Well. That wasn
’t an option.

“
Fine,” she said through clenched teeth. “Two million, but seriously, I really can’t go any high—”

“
Stop
,”
he said, putting his hands on her arms. “Please, stop before I have to kill myself.”

Her heart beat hard and fast in her chest, and her throat tightened as she realized with a cold panic that she
’d left her purse, with her Tic-Tacs in it, in her cabin.

Fine, if you can
’t fight it, use it.

Hating herself, she looked up at him through her lashes.
“Nate, you don’t understand. My father is retiring. If I don’t close this deal, he’s gonna pick Charlie Taggert over me to run the company, and
I’m family.
” Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard. “I won’t be able to still work there if that happens, it’ll be too humiliating.” She blinked hard and took a breath, then did her best to smile up at him, show him the pretty as her stomach turned. “Nate, I can’t go home without this deal.”

He looked away,
then shook his head. “I’m sorry. The answer is no.”

She stared at him in total disbelief. A few seconds ago she was on a plane back to Boston, vict
orious and confident. And now…

Now she was a failure. A failure
who’d stooped to
pretty.

“
This isn’t happening,” she muttered.

“
Oh, shit,” Nate said suddenly, then darted past her and opened the oven. He wrapped his apron over his hand and pulled the pan out, then set it down quickly on the stove top, where it smoked heartily. The entire top was blackened, and the acrid smell of burning goat cheese filled the room, matching Freya’s mood in both foulness and intensity.

“
There you go,” she said, swiping under one eye and hoping Nate wouldn’t notice. “I told you I couldn’t cook.”

“
No, that was my fault.” He looked up at her and his face grew concerned. “You okay?”

She sniffled.
“It’s my stupid eyes.”

“
Ah.” He nodded. “Right. The condition.”

She kept her eyes on the black, smoking top of their crap omelet.
“Yep.”

“
I have more ingredients,” he said flatly. “If you want to try again.”

Freya reached down and tried to untie the strings on her apron.
“No. That’s fine.” Her voice was squeaking, and the tears were coming fast and she couldn’t get the strings undone. “What the hell kind of sailor’s knot did you put this in, anyway?”

“
Let me.” He reached forward, gave a quick tug and pulled the apron off her, then set it on the kitchen counter.

“
You know what’s really infuriating?” she said, snatching a paper towel off the roll on the counter and wiping at her face. “I have
amazing
powers of negotiation. I have brought CEOs to their knees. If it weren’t for this stupid eye condition, you would be signing papers right now. But instead I’m crying, and you think I’m weak, and I’m screwed.”

“
I don’t think you’re weak,” he said, his voice soft. “My saying no isn’t about you at all.”

“
Right.” She looked up to see him watching her, his face full of sympathy, and she started to cry harder. “Please don’t look at me that way.”

“
What way?”

“
Like you pity me.”

He touched her hand.
“Hey, I just turned down two million dollars. You should be pitying me.”

She wanted to scowl at him, but instead a small laugh came out, and then suddenly, they were standing closer, although Freya had no idea who
’d made the move. The next thing she knew, he pulled her into his arms, and she rested her cheek on his shoulder. The relief was almost instant, like air being let out of a tire that was too full.

“
I’m not crying,” she said and sniffled. “It’s just a stupid condition.”

“
I know.” He let his hand run lightly down her hair and tightened his hold on her. She closed her eyes and let herself fully lean into him. It felt like falling and being caught. It felt like not having to be responsible for everything.

It felt like heaven.

Just one more second of this,
she thought.
One more second, and then I’ll go.

The problem was, for the first time since her plane touched ground, she suddenly didn
’t want to go anywhere.

“
Better?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

She pulled back, dry-eyed.
“Yeah.”

Then she stepped back, keeping her eyes on his. Slowly, wordlessly, she picked up her briefcase and suit jacket and escaped out the front door, grateful that Nate didn
’t say a word to stop her.

Four

R
uby flipped the card from the top of her stock pile into the center waste pile and Piper slapped the pile hard, the sound bouncing off the wood paneled walls of the small back office.

“
Put some shoulder into it, why don’t you?” Ruby said, glancing down at Piper’s hand with suspicion. “You sure that’s a legal slap?”

“
Plus one.” Piper shifted the five of hearts that Ruby had just played to reveal the four of clubs beneath it. “Legal slap.”

“
Oh, fine.” Ruby sat back and watched Piper slide the pile of cards toward her off Ruby’s beaten-up old desk and neaten them up before putting them on the bottom of her stock pile. Kid was gonna beat her at this game again.

Which was okay. Ruby didn
’t ever like losing, but losing to Piper was different. That, she didn’t mind so much.

Piper flipped the top card into the middle.
Six of clubs.

Ruby flipped her card.
Eight of diamonds. “So, you haven’t talked to your dad since last night?”

Piper laid down her card.
King of spades. “Nope.”

Ruby took her turn.
Two of diamonds. “You know he just wants what’s best for you, right?”

Piper shrugged and put down a four of hearts.
“He just wants his restaurant. He doesn’t care about me or what I want.”

Ruby put her palm down on the center pile, and Piper raised her eyes.
“That’s not a legal slap.”

“
I’m not slapping. I’m pausing.” She leaned forward, leveling her eyes with the girl’s. “Your dad is a good man and he loves you, and if you don’t know that, then you’re not near as smart as you think you are.”

Piper rolled her eyes, and Ruby fixed a hard stare on the kid.
“Do I roll my eyes at you, little miss?”

Piper sat up straighter, her lip set in a small pout, and shook her head.

“Right. And why don’t I roll my eyes at you?”

Piper sighed.
“It’s disrespectful.”

“
Right. I show you respect, and you show me respect. That’s our deal.” Ruby sat back. “Let me tell you something. I grew up with one man who didn’t give a crap, then I ran out at seventeen and married me another one just like him. Since then, it’s been hit and miss, mostly miss, so I know men that don’t care, and I’ll tell you this, your dad is not one of them. He’s got his life back in Cincinnati, and he’s got the right to miss that. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.”

Piper slumped back in the folding chair.
“If he loves me so much, why doesn’t he care about what I want? I like it here. I don’t want to go back to stupid Cincinnati. I want to be a real family, here.”

Ruby eyed the girl for a short while,
then said, “I
mi
ght be able to help you with that.”

Piper raised hopeful eyes to Ruby.
“Really? Are you going to talk to him?”

“
No,” Ruby said. “Your dad’s got his mind made up, and it’s not my place to try and change it. But...”

Ruby pulled open the desk drawer, grabbed the key ring, and pushed back from the desk, her bones creaking as she stood up. Goddamn, it was a bitch getting old. She walked over to the filing cabinet, unlocked the top drawer, and reached into the back until she felt the soft
velvet under her fingers. She shut the cabinet and sat back down at the desk.

“
The only man in my family who was ever worth anything was my grandfather,” she said, loosening the purse string on the old purple pouch. “He was from Ireland, and I only saw him a few times before he died. But one of those times, he gave me this.” She pulled the silver coin out of the pouch and flipped it back and forth between her fingers, studying the Irish harp on one side and the horse on the other.

“
He gave you a quarter?” Piper asked, and Ruby could tell she was trying not to sound disappointed. She was such a good kid, this one.

“
It’s an Irish half crown, minted the year I was born.” She passed it on to Piper, who took it gingerly and turned the coin over in her hands, then furrowed her brow and nibbled her lip.

“
Don’t hurt yourself with the math. I’m sixty-two. The point is, the coin is magic.”

Piper raised doubtful eyes to Ruby
’s. “Magic isn’t real.”

“
Now who told you that?” Ruby said. “Magic is real enough, but you have to really believe in it, which pretty much means you have to find it when you’re a kid. When my grandpa gave me this, I was still young enough to believe in it, and you know what?”

Piper
’s eyes went wide as she shook her head. “No.”

“
It works.”

The child went still. She looked down at the coin in her palm, then back up at Ruby.
“What does it do?” she asked, her voice high and quiet.

“
It grants wishes.”

Piper picked it up, holding the coin by the edge and examining it.
“How?”

“
Well, first, there has to be something you really want, so much that it makes your heart hurt to think of it. You don’t use it to wish for a Barbie doll or a new bike or something stupid like money, you know what I’m saying?” Ruby paused for a moment until Piper met her eyes again. “Do you have something you want that bad?”

Piper hesitated, but then nodded.

“Okay, then.” Ruby pushed up from her chair and walked over to stand next to Piper. “You need to face east.”

Piper stood up as well.
“Which way is east?”

“
You know which way is east.”

“
No, I don’t.”

Ruby sighed. What the
hell were they teaching kids in school these days? “Where does the sun rise from?”

Piper closed her eyes for a second,
then opened them. “Over there,” she said, pointing toward the big window at the front of the office.”

“
Okay.” Ruby felt a wave of love rush through her. Kid was smart. “Now you know where east is. Face it.”

Piper turned to face the window.

“Close your eyes. Good. Now cup it in your hands, place your hands over your heart, and make your wish, but don’t say it out loud. Just think it in your head, three times.”

Piper cupped the coin in her hands and pulled them in to her chest, her brow furrowed in concentration. After a long moment, her face smoothed out.

“Now what?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

“
That’s it. You can open your eyes now.”

The girl opened her eyes.
“How long does it take?”

“
It takes as long as it takes,” Ruby said. “But it will happen, if you believe it. Do you believe it?”

Piper let out a deep breath, but then a soft smile broke on her face and she nodded.
“Yes.”

“
Good.”

Piper held the coin out to Ruby.
“Tha
nk
s.”

Ruby shook her head and walked back to the desk.
“It’s yours now. If anyone else touches it, it’ll break the wish. Keep it in the pouch and carry it in your pocket during the day, then put it under your pillow at night. Then, when the wish comes true, you put the pouch somewhere safe and hide it until you need it again.”

She watched as Piper gingerly took the pouch, tucked the coin inside, and put
it into her front pocket.

Ruby sat back in her chair and tried to remember the words the way her grandfather had said them all those years ago.
“Now, I don’t know what you wished for, but whenever you feel like you don’t have any control over your life, you just remember that wish, and try not to get upset. You’ve got old Irish magic working for you now, and that’s the most powerful thing on earth.” Something like that, anyway.

Piper sat down in the chair opposite Ruby.
“Whose turn was it?”

“
Mine, I think.” Ruby flipped her card over. The four of spades. She slapped, getting her hand in just under Piper’s.

“
Damnit.” Piper pulled her hand back, but she was smiling, and her face was a hell of a lot brighter than it had been all day.

“
That’s what happens when you get cocky,” Ruby said as she gathered her winnings from the center of the desk. “I may be old, but I’ve still got a trick or two left in me, and don’t you forget it.”

***

Two million dollars.

It had been all Nate had been able to think about all day. At the
lumber yard, at the farmers’ market, driving back home, those three words repeated over and over in his head.
Two million dollars. Two million dollars.
He couldn’t believe he’d gotten the offer, and what he couldn’t believe even more was that he’d turned it down.

Two million dollars.

He pounded another nail into the support post on Number Four as hard as he could. Freya’s car was gone, so there was no one to be bothered by it, but even pounding nails wasn’t making the pit in his stomach any less hollow.

Two. Million. Dollars.

That money could get Piper through college. Twice. He could set Ruby up with enough to be comfortable for the rest of her life and still have some left over to get state-of-the-art everything for the kitchen in the restaurant.

But instead, he was here, in Crap Creek, Idaho, fixing the stupid railing on a stupid cabin in a stupid campground
he didn’t even want, all because he’d given his word to a man who had no familiarity with the concept of honor.

He pulled another nail out of his tool belt, lined it up, and raised his hammer.

Two.

Million.

Doll
—

“
Son of a bitch!” He threw the hammer down and jammed his smashed thumb into his mouth, cursing. With the palm of his uninjured hand, he hit at the new railing. It held, so he hit it again. Didn’t budge. He pulled his smashed thumb out of his mouth, wrapped both hands around the new railing, and shook it, yelling out his frustrations as he did. Yelling at his dead father, his damn bad luck, the woman who left him to raise a kid by himself, the world.

“
Having a bad day?”

Nate turned around to see Freya standing next to the open door of her rental car. She was wearing her skirt and blouse from that morning, but she
’d lost the blazer, and her hair was loose around her shoulders. Over her blouse, she wore a T-shirt that read “Kiss me, I’m from Idaho” with a big smooch mark over her left breast.

He cleared his throat.
“I like your outfit.”

“
It’s called retail therapy,” Freya said, then turned around and dived back into her car. When she popped back out, she was laden with various shopping bags boasting logos he recognized from the tourist strip mall off Route 8. She used her hip to shut the car door and made her way over to him. “I was all depressed, you know, after you shot me down this morning, and then I thought—hey, I’m in Idaho. Time to shop.” She glanced at the railing, then back at Nate. “Nice job.”

Nate bent down and picked his hammer up off the ground, slipping it back into the loop on his tool belt.
“You seem pretty cheerful for someone who’s depressed.”

She smiled, lifting her laden arms high, and despite the desperation at the back of her eyes, she had a radiance about her that brightened
his own mood.

“
Let me tell you something about me, Nate,” she said. “When things get bad, I get badder. I fight it out, I scrap, I dig in my heels until I’m the last one left standing. But now, you know, between us... I just don’t have the energy, so I figured I’d change tactics. This time, I’m gonna steep myself in denial, pretend that everything I’ve worked for my entire adult life isn’t imploding before my eyes, and get drunk.”

He eyed her.
“Is this an attempt to guilt me into taking your offer?”

She went still, her eyes focusing sharply on him.
“I don’t know. Is it working?”

He looked at the railing, feeling bleak.
“Sorry.”

“
Well, then, back to Plan A.” She raised one arm, bags dangling. “Somewhere in here, I have a bottle of Blue Ice Idaho Potato Vodka. I’m gonna go inside and get sauced.”

He watched with amusement as she walked up the steps and went into the cabin, leaving the door wide open behind her. He stood there, listening as she dumped her bags on the floor, mumbling to herself. He knew he should leave, but being around her cheered him, so he made slow work of clearing out the nails and tools he
’d left spread around his work area. When he looked up again, Freya was standing in the doorway, blue bottle in one hand and two glasses in the other.