96 Hours (26 page)

Abby waited.

“Well, I have to work in less than four hours, so we could sleep next. That might be good.”

“Very funny. That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Oh. Hmm,” Erica said again.

Abby turned to squint at her, trying to read Erica’s face in the dark. “Are you making fun of me?”

Erica chuckled.

“You are! You’re totally making fun of me. I can’t believe you’re mocking me when I’m trying to be serious here.”

Erica pushed herself up on her forearms so she could look down and study Abby’s face. “You’re right,” she said and then placed a gentle kiss on Abby’s cheek. “I’m sorry.” She propped her chin in one hand and asked, “What are you being serious about?”

“About us,” Abby said, pouring obvious frustration into those two words. “I’m being serious about us.”

“Us, huh?” Erica’s gaze moved to the window as she considered what to say next, in which direction to take the conversation. All the options terrified her.

Abby altered her position, sitting up in the bed to lean against the headboard. She reached toward the nightstand, clicked on the lamp there, and they both blinked in the sudden illumination. “I mean, there is an us, right? I feel like—isn’t there an us?”

Abby’s voice wavered just a touch and Erica felt her insides warm at the sound. She looked up into Abby’s face, into her eyes, and saw nothing but trust and sincerity—both the things she’d hoped to see four weeks earlier. She hadn’t expected them to scare her then, but they did now, so she tossed the ball back into Abby’s court.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Is there?”

Abby sifted Erica’s hair through her fingers, touched her face. “Yeah. I think there is.”

Erica rolled onto her back so her head was in Abby’s lap. She took Abby’s hand in both her own and toyed with it as she spoke, entwining and then untwining their fingers. “Why?”

Abby blinked at her. “Why?”

“Yeah. Why now? Why is there an us now but there wasn’t an us in Gander?” Erica’s voice held no accusation, no anger, merely curiosity, and Abby nodded. She understood what was going on; Erica was a scientist, after all. A scientist who liked—no, she
needed
—concrete answers.

“You said it yourself many times downstairs,” Abby began, speaking slowly, trying the words on for size as she spoke them, thinking out loud. “That situation, that place, those people changed us. Probably all of us. I just didn’t know it at the time, but I think you did.”

“Changed you how?”

Smiling down into Erica’s face, brushing her hair off her forehead, Abby admired her tenacity.
She’s going to make me say it. She wants me to say it all. Good for her.
“I believe in traveling. I believe in seeing as much of the world as I can. That hasn’t changed. But—” She tilted her head back as if the words for which she searched might be found on the ceiling. “My priorities have. The things that are important to me have shifted.”

“What used to be first?”

“Being happy and having fun. Not allowing myself to be tied down.”

“And what’s first now?”

“My family and friends.” She looked down into Erica’s eyes. “The people I care about.”

Erica nodded slowly, seemingly satisfied.

“What about you?” Abby asked, turning the tables, which was only fair. “Have your priorities shifted, too?”

“Absolutely.”

“What used to be first?”

Erica gave a snort. “Me. Always me.”

“And now?”

“Not me.” She laughed, then continued. “Others. People. Animals. The less fortunate. The ones I can help. My family.” She mirrored Abby, looked her in the eye. “The people who matter to me.”

Abby leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Erica’s mouth. When she sat back up, she said softly, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but—” She swallowed audibly. “I think we could have something here. You and me. Something good.”

If Erica had learned anything about Abby in the short time they’d known each other, it was that saying something with such implications about the future was extremely hard for her, was extremely
rare
for her. Bringing Abby’s hand to her lips, she kissed the tip of each finger before looking back up at her and asking, “So? What do we do about it?”

June 14, 2002
Friday

Chapter 20

“Are you sure I look all right?” Corinne MacDougal asked.

“Mom, you look great,” Kate MacDougal replied from the driver’s seat of her mother’s car, shaking her head. “Just like you did the last fourteen times you asked me.”

Despite her daughter’s reassurances, Corinne pulled the visor down and peered critically into the tiny mirror.

Kate smothered an amused grin. Her mother was never this self-conscious. Never. Sure, she liked to look nice, but she never got crazy. As she liked to say, “I’ve been married to your father for thirty years. Who’ve I got to impress?” But Kate watched out of the corner of her eye as her mother fussed with her hair, smoothed her eyebrows, and then applied more lipstick.

“Mom,” she said, a bit more forcefully. When Corinne looked at her, Kate smiled widely. “You look great. I promise.”

Corinne patted her daughter’s arm. “Thanks, honey. I don’t know why I’m so nervous.”

Kate knew. She’d been on the other side of the country, but she’d heard all about that incredible week.

It had been nine months and now Kate’s mother was about to have dinner with the four Plane People she called her own. Corinne wasn’t the only one with a case of the nerves; Kate just hid it better. She’d heard endless stories about Brian-this and Erica-that and Michael-said-this and Abby-helped-with-that. Her parents’ voices were uncharacteristically animated for weeks after all the unexpected guests had left, and they still were on occasion. Kate was anxious to meet this foursome. She felt like she already knew them. She knew she’d thrown a wrench in her mother’s gears when she decided to come home to meet them; if she hadn’t, Corinne probably would have wanted to put them all up in the house again. Warmth flooded her as she realized, not for the first time, what a terrific grandmother her mom was going to make one day.

The afternoon was beautiful, sunny, and mild, with a gentle breeze blowing off the water. Kate loved Vancouver, loved the hustle and bustle of it, and was very happy there, but there was something calming about being back home in the little town of Gander. Yes, she had moved to the big city, but not because she didn’t love the quiet country. Truth was, she missed it much more than she’d expected to when she left in the first place. A deep breath of fresh Gander air filled her heart just as surely as it filled her lungs.

The parking lot of the Hotel Gander was almost full to capacity, something that rarely happened. But it was a special weekend; the Plane People had many different chat groups and websites online and some of them had planned a big get-together—the first of what they hoped would turn out to be an annual event. Many people had come for visits on their own before now, but this was a large undertaking. Passengers from four different flights had made arrangements to meet, have an outdoor gathering, contact their hosts or the locals they’d met during their unexpected stop here. The Hotel Gander seemed to have the majority of the attendees. Plus, there was Tomcats Bar and Grill downstairs where everybody could mingle. With no idea of how many people planned to show up, Kate circled until she found a spot, then slid the car into Park.

“Dad said he’d meet us inside as soon as he could,” she said, turning to her mother. Corinne’s uncharacteristic quiet was a clue to how edgy she was. “You ready?”

Inside was buzzing. People of every size, shape, color, and nationality mingled, drank, hugged, and laughed. Glasses clinked. Slaps on the back reverberated through the spacious room. Every so often, a squeal of delight pierced the air and somebody fell into somebody else’s arms. It was like a family reunion—where the family consisted of a couple hundred people.

Corinne’s face went from uncertain to sunny as she looked around, recognizing faces she’d held near and dear for the past ten months. Before she could take in more, two large hands slipped around from behind her and covered her eyes.

“You look even more beautiful than I remember,” a low, male voice said in her ear.

Corinne laughed and slapped at the body in back of her. When he let go, she turned around and her eyes filled with tears. “Brian.”

“Hello, Gorgeous.”

They hugged tightly and Kate felt a rush of warmth at the gentleness with which Brian held her mother. When they parted, he turned his soft green eyes in her direction and held out his hand.

“You must be Kate,” he said, his smile showing even, white teeth.

“I am,” she said as she took his outstretched hand and he clasped hers with both of his.

His sandy hair was neat. He was clean-shaven and he looked her in the eye as he said, “I see your mother passed on her beauty to her daughter.”
Corny, but in a charming way,
she thought, and made a mental note to berate her mother for not warning her about this one. His rugged cuteness, his enticing voice—her stomach flip-flopped.

“I can’t believe how many people are here,” Corinne said, looking around in amazement.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Brian said with a nod. “Just goes to show how much this place means to us. Where’s Tim?”

“He’ll be here soon. Have you seen the others yet?”

She didn’t have to elaborate for Brian to know who she meant. “Abby should be down any minute. Erica’s flight was late.” He looked around, craned his neck. “Michael’s got our table over that way—there he is.” He waved an arm above his head and in less than thirty seconds, Corinne was enveloped in yet another heartfelt hug.

“My lord, it’s good to see you,” Michael said as he held Corinne at arms’ length. Stepping aside, he ushered a small slip of a woman into the circle. “Corinne MacDougal, this is my wife, Gwen.”

Gwen took Corinne’s hand in hers. “How do you do? I’ve heard so much about you,” she said, a sparkle in her brown eyes. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

They fell into an easy group conversation, asking for updates, talking about family. The internet had allowed them to keep up at least a little bit with one another’s lives. Sometimes, time got away from them and too many weeks went by between contacts, but they’d done their best to make the effort.

As they moved across the room toward their table, Corinne reflected on what she knew about the current lives of each of them. Brian had settled into bachelorhood fairly well. He didn’t like it; he was a man who preferred to be married, but he sounded much better over the past few months—about dating, about love, about life in general—than he had when he’d been in Gander last year. She watched out of the corner of her eye and smothered a satisfied grin, knowing very well the expression that graced her daughter’s face as she and Brian chatted.
Oh, yes, this is going to be interesting.
She knew Michael and Gwen had celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with a vacation in Paris, something they’d been talking about for years but had never gotten around to. She knew Erica had moved to a different department within her company, heading up their division dealing with charity and donations and was now much happier in this new capacity (a revelation that both stunned Corinne and made her inexplicably proud of the girl). She’d also decided to get herself a cat, which she adopted from a local shelter, and she always asked Corinne about Sammy. Corinne tried to send pictures as often as she could. Lastly, she knew Abby’d had a job interview recently, but she hadn’t given a lot of details because, as she’d told Corinne, she didn’t want to jinx it. She also knew Abby was dating somebody new, but got no details there either and for the same reason. While Corinne was happy for Abby simply because she sounded happy (if one could actually sound
happy
via e-mail), she was the slightest bit disappointed. Tim often said she was a hopeless romantic, but Corinne was sure she had seen something spark between Abby and Erica and she had hoped the two of them would find each other. But Abby was flighty and Erica was stoic and maybe if they’d had more than four days together, things would have been different.

Oh, well,
she thought as she returned her focus to the people around her. She was over the moon about being able to see them again, regardless. “So,” she said to Gwen and Michael as they all took seats, “tell me all about Paris.”

Abby’s watch read five minutes later than the last time she’d checked it. Her hair looked exactly the same as it had when she’d looked in the mirror last, a minute before she’d checked her watch last.

“Where is she?” she asked aloud as she flopped back down onto the bed. Erica’s flight had been delayed, but had landed and she was on her way, should be there any time.

It never ceased to amaze Abby how nervously excited she got every time she was going to see Erica. They’d been doing the long distance thing since the previous October, and while it wasn’t always easy, it seemed to be working for them. After much discussion, they had agreed to try their best to avoid the standard lesbian process of U-Hauling immediately after they’d realized they had feelings. This was a relief, especially to Abby, who hadn’t been in any type of significant, exclusive relationship in—ever, really. Long-distance dating would be a good test.