London Harmony: The Pike (7 page)

He set the papers down beside him with a pen on top then pulled out a second set of papers and set then down beside the others.  “We can start that if that is what you want.”

McKenzie's eyes hardened and made no move toward the contracts.

Stenson gave an appreciative grin then he said, “Before you made any decision, I thought I would bring up the fact that Emily had made an appointment with me for next month. We were to discuss writing up an equal partnership agreement between her and the woman she found to be an invaluable help at the Pike since she last updated her will.”

McKenzie just nodded as if it were not news to her then she turned her head and gave me a smile as she laid her good hand on my arm.  “I'm aware.  Nana often spoke of Zoey and about wanting to create a partnership since Zoey has basically run the Pike the past few months as Nana Z's health deteriorated.”

Stenson started swinging his legs, obviously pleased with himself as he picked up the pen and held it out to Kenz, almost daring her to sign as he said, “Good, as long as you were aware.  How would you like to proceed?”

McKenzie took a deep breath and exhaled then looked between Kincade and me then said as she locked eyes with me like she was reading my soul.  “I really can't devote any time to the Pike, I have my hands full with the stables.”

My heart sank, so this was it.  Goodbye to the place I felt so at home at.  The place I viewed as my second home these past couple years.  I had envisioned myself working the Pike the rest of my life and imagined all the people I'd meet and interact with.  I knew now why dad loved his diner so much.

Then she said with a slight smirk on her face, “So I was wondering how you would feel about a forty-nine fifty-one split in your favor, with Katie and me as silent partners?”

My heart stopped beating, and I just blinked at the woman.  She prompted with a smile, “What do you say?  It's what Nana would have wanted.”

I just blinked at her a couple times as my heart started beating again, threatening to burst out of my chest as I just nodded dumbly.  The... partnership?  Me... controlling interest?  Her smile bloomed, and it transformed her from striking to beautiful as she turned to Kincade and cocked an eyebrow expectantly.

The man was grinning like the Cheshire cat just then like he knew what she was going to say.  He reached for the last group of papers as he stacked the other two aside.  He said wistfully, “Golly, a  forty-nine, fifty-one partnership agreement for the bakery?  Who would ever have thought this would have happened?”

He handed each of us some papers to look over as McKenzie said to the man, “Nobody likes a wiseass Kincade.  All sorts of accidents can happen to someone with such a smug look on their face.”  The man snorted, and she grinned at him.

He stepped us through a well-crafted contract and had us signing, initialing, and doing everything but giving blood and singing Kumbaya.  When it was done, he shook my hand and said, “Congratulations, I'll have a copy sent to the Pike for you.”  He shook McKenzie's hand too and said, “You do Emily proud.  I'll forward a copy to the stable.”

She nodded at him as she stood, then turned to me and gave me an evil grin, “Hello partner.”  She held her hand out.

Instead, I engulfed her in a hug.  Dear Lord in heaven, she was all muscle, not a soft spot on her.  She chuckled and hugged me with her good arm.

Then Kincade stood and said, “Great.  Now get out... I have another group showing in an hour I have to get ready for.”

McKenzie shook her head at the man and flicked her pen at him, striking the chuckling man in the shoulder.  She moved her hand in an ushering motion then she paused and narrowed her eyes, turning them slowly onto Stenson then the two stacks of paperwork that she had refused to sign.  She reached out and took off the cover pages from each stack then snorted.

I looked and blinked at the blank papers.  The man had known what she was going to do all along.  I had to shake my head in bewilderment at him.  He was obviously not just deceptively intelligent, but he was a good judge of how people would react to certain situations.  Thinking about the contract he had us sign that was already crafted the way McKenzie wanted it to be.

I paused, cocked an eyebrow, and asked the man, “You'll stay the Pike's lawyer?”

He just nodded with a sly grin.  Mrs. Z was no fool, and she chose well.

We each shook his hand, and he said as we left, “I truly am sorry for your loss ladies.”

I nodded somberly and walked out of the strip mall in a mix of excitement and sorrow, Kenzie trailing behind.

She said as she reclaimed Katie's hand when she stepped up beside us, “We'll get all the financials straightened out this week.”

I nodded and she grinned down at her red headed southern belle, saying with humor, “Seems Zoey is our partner at the Pike now.”

Katie smiled a knowing smile like she had expected it too, and played up her southern accent as she teased, “Ah do declare.  That is unexpected good news.”

She fluttered her eyes at me, and I snorted and shoved her shoulder playfully.  “Yeah, yeah, Scarlet.  Ham it up.”

This got Kenz chuckling and repeating, “Scarlet?  I like that one.”

Katie went pale. “Don't you dare Sugar!”

We all shared a chuckle that trailed off, Mrs. Z obviously on our minds.

I said my goodbyes and then got into my car and just stared at the steering wheel, my hands on it in a white-knuckled grip.  Then I squealed in excitement and struck the wheel once and turned the key.   Harrison and the kids were going to be so excited!

I bit my lower lip and smiled at Ashley as I signed while I spoke, “Alright!  Just stop tickling me and I can finish getting ready Amber.”

She chuffed and signed, “Fine Isty.  Get your cute butt in gear, we have a mixer to fix.”

I blushed at her.  Only she would think my butt was cute.  I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and sighed at the small woman I saw there.  I had so many flaws I couldn't believe that Ash had chosen me.

I quickly went about tying my chestnut brown hair that hung down to my calves, into a loose braid that raised it up to just below my waist.  My hair was the only thing I liked about myself.  I thought it was pretty.  It was almost long enough for me to donate eighteen inches to Locks of Love.  I never wanted my hair to be shorter than my waist, Ash loved it long.

I asked as I finished up, “Bobbie seems to let you talk her into giving us time off an awful lot.”

She winked at me in the mirror and screwed her expressive face up and signed,  “Well she's like the aunt I never had.  I've always seen the people here at Silent Bob's more as family than friends or bosses.  Grandpa Remmy was a fixture here.”

I nodded, I could see how they all treated her like they would a visiting relative.  At first, I felt sort of useless around here, I'm not very good around people, I always lock up.  But the first time I got in the saddle, it was like the most amazing thing in the world to me.  I took to it like a juggler to a sink.

They have me instruct kids in each group on how to ride and I get to be sort of their advocate guide since I love children and for some reason have a lot less anxiety speaking to them.

I remembered the first time Ashley brought me out riding here in the Cascades, to familiarize me with some of the trails.  We hadn't been out a half hour when we saw a young boy having problems with a spooked horse.  Steve was the guide for his group, and he was busy calming two other horses.  I found out later a cougar had passed by before we showed up.

Ash went straight for the boy, who was in danger of falling when two girls came out of the trees. One seemed to be one with her horse, and she swung up to the boy and grabbed the reins and calmed the horse.

Steve gave her thanks and Ash used her voice synthesizer to introduce us.  The girl was Reese, and her friend was Sarah, who looked so familiar to me for some reason.  They wanted to stay out a little longer so they joined us for the rest of the day.

Reese was funny as heck and was an uber-geek girl.  I found out she was a web programmer and network support engineer.  She and Ash went on about, SQL this, and blade server that.  It was a whole other language.

Then I felt like hiding in a hole when I found out why Sarah seemed so familiar.  She was Sarah friggin Kreitz-Qualls!  The famous rock-fusion violinist!  We had been riding with a literal celebrity.  I think I stopped talking at that revelation.  I realized later that that is when Ash moved to my side to lend silent support.  She always instinctively knew when my anxiety was threatening to take me over.

Reese was possibly the best horseman I had ever seen until I had the pleasure of watching McKenzie Meyers ride.  The way Reese handled her horse in her odd saddle was like she and her horse were one.

And she loved to gallop.  She had this serene look on her face as she closed her eyes and trusted the horse as she leaned her face into the wind, her hair streaming behind her.  Sarah always looked at her with this sense of wonder on her face.

When we returned to the stables later that day, I admit to my surprise when Reese rode right up to the wooden platform with a ramp on the side of the stables. With some deft movements she unlashed some restraints on her legs and the belt around her waist which I hadn't even noticed, and transferred herself effortlessly to a waiting red wheelchair on the platform.  Francesca, the other stable hand took her horse and waved at her.

I must have blinked a dozen times when Reese spun her chair in a quick circle then popped a wheelie and wheeled all the way down the ramp like that.  She seemed as at home in that chair as she was in the saddle.  I found myself grinning at the woman, the fact that she couldn't use her legs didn't seem to slow her down in the least, unlike my anxiety.

I shook off the memory when Ash paused when her phone rang.  She glanced at the screen then held a finger up to me to let me know she had to take it.  I nodded and gathered my things together as she wandered off to the multipurpose room in the little cabin.  I didn't hear anything so she must have been Facetiming with someone.

I joined her to see Zoey signing to her on the screen.  I grinned and waved as I walked past to sit on the other side of the little table.

Zoey sang out, “Hellooo Leigh.  I saw you there.”

I blushed in spite of myself.  I don't know why I get embarrassed so easily, it is just part of my damage I guess.

I blushed harder when Ash signed to her, “You got her blushing again.”  The two shared a chuckle, and I threw a cork coaster at her.  It missed by a mile, and she crinkled her nose at me in defiance.  Too cute, she wins.

Ash signed goodbye and hung up then sort of signed one-handedly as she checked her phone with the other hand.  I could read between the lines when I couldn't quite catch something.  I voiced it without signing since she wasn't looking my way. “She was excited about something, and she wants to do the fix you proposed?”

She nodded as she replied to some texts then looked up at me with a smile as she slid the cell into her back pocket.  Then she swayed like a snake charmer and pulled out her car keys as she signed, “I'll pull the car around.”

I sighed, she sometimes treated me like a princess, and may the spaghetti gods forgive me, I liked it.  I felt... spacial, the way she treated me.

She snagged her huge duffle bag full of tools and odds and ends on her way out.  She called it her jury rig kit.  How hot was it that she could fix just about anything?

I called after her as she headed toward the door.  “If you can call that rusted tin can a car.”

She rewarded my barb with the chuffing wheeze that was her laugh.  I grinned at myself for being able to amuse her.

I stepped out of the little worker's cabin and looked around at the sight that never ceased to amaze me.  The lodge bracketed by the soaring peaks of the Cascades, it was like something out of a storybook.  I took a deep breath of mountain air.  It was so different than my hometown, Chewelah, on the east side of the state.  I really loved it here.

I turned to look to the stables, where I should have been, getting things ready for the day.  I saw Steve and Francesca and waved then buried my chin in my sleeves.  They smiled and waved back as they entered the stables to muck the stalls.  I felt a little guilty.

I could see Vernon on the roof of the lodge with a can of what looked like tar as he was looking at the vents.  Didn't that man ever stop working?  He was always coming in late after we had already gone to bed and he was always gone from his room by the time we woke up.  It felt almost like Ash and I had the worker's cabin to ourselves.

I heard the groaning sound of Ashley's, Gerty slowly spinning up.  I had to smile.  She loved that ancient, beat up, rusted out bucket of bolts for some unfathomable reason, and kept it running far past its “Use By” date.  And it was orange for god's sake.  I knew that with her innate skill with duct tape and bailing wire, it was likely to run forever.  I'm not saying that's a good thing mind you, having a zombie car is a little unusual for someone our age.

The motor finally caught, and it sputtered into its undead throaty growl.  The muffler has a few rusted out bits, and she keeps saying she means to replace it.

I suppressed an amused smile as she pulled up from the parking lot to the cabin and I hopped in.  Being careful not to step on the plywood she had covering a hole that had rusted through the passenger side floorboard.  She insists that she has meant to fix that too.  She just needs a little time with Vernon's arc welder.

She was like Golem with a ring about her car.

I tease her a lot about Gerty, but in truth, at least she had a car.  Back home I was relegated to driving mom's old station wagon, or Mr. Hendrick's newer pickup that he used to haul feed for his sheep, which he would loan me from time to time when we needed to haul something that wouldn't fit in the car.

Ash looked over at me, and for some reason, we both broke out laughing.  I don't know what was so funny, but I couldn't stop as I listened to her chuffing.  We burst out into giggles again every time we looked at each other.  I was in tears by the time we could bring ourselves under control.

She suddenly got serious and signed, “I love you Itsy.”

I just melted right there in my seat.

As I looked down at my feet and bit my lower lip and nodded.  In a small voice I affirmed, “I love you too, Amber.”

She laid a hand on mine causing me to look up into those awesome amber eyes of hers.  She gave me a reassuring smile then wiggled her eyebrows, coaxing a smile from me.  Then she pointed forward, looking at me expectantly.  I sighed and droned out, “Wagons ho.”

A cheesy grin spread on her face, and we lurched forward, and the engine promptly died.  She narrowed one eye at the dashboard and turned the key again.  The engine labored back to life and she got a smug look on her face and pointed forward again and this time eased off of the clutch.

She cocked an eyebrow at me, daring me to say something.  I smiled and made a locking motion at my lips and threw away the imaginary key.  She signed, “That's what I thought.”

I had to chuckle at her and shoved her shoulder.  My hand wound up on top of hers on the gearshift.  Touching her always seemed to calm me... like I could draw strength from her or something.  She made me feel... normal?

We headed toward Gilman Boulevard, and she looked between the light on Front Street and the  Boulevard intently.  I was about to ask what was up when she got a wicked grin on her face.  I blurted, “Oh no you don't!  It was bad enough you did it yesterday, we don't...”  I sighed as she headed under the overpass and to our doom.  She was going to hazard the freeway again.

She gave her whispery version of a maniacal chuckle as I double checked to make sure my seat belt was on right.  Cars behind us honked while Gerty valiantly made her way up the onramp at a sedate thirty miles per hour, I asked, “Should I get out and push?”

Ash didn't even look over, she just grinned and flipped me off.  I kissed her middle finger, and she blushed.  Ha!  I win for once!

Riding my victory, I turned on the high end radio that looked out of place in the rolling relic and the Bluetooth synced with her phone.  I scrolled through some music until we hit upon some Conrad Chase.  His newer music had a more retro rock edge to it than his typical pop music that held him at the top of the charts for so many years, this new stuff was going to cement him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The beat seemed to worm its way into my girl as she started first swaying then thumping the steering wheel as the song built in intensity.  I caught myself almost dancing in my seat.  The music was begging to be let out to play.  I couldn't resist anymore when Ash shot me an almost pleading look.

I smiled and started singing.  Music was a life without anxiety.  It was freedom of expression without judgment.  It made me believe that the world was not going to swallow me whole.  It made Ashley smile, and I lived to see that smile when she aimed it my way.  So I sang for her as we navigated the freeway at a sedate fifty miles per hour as Gerty's engine strained.

God, it was so much fun to make music with Ash.  We had already decided to team up after college.  With her creative audio and video skills and my conceptual artwork, we want to either start up our own advertising agency or if that falls through, we both knew we could find work doing something in the great outdoors in the mountains here.

I admit to falling in love with the area the first time Ash introduced me to the Cascades.  My parents and I had visited Seattle a few times when I was growing up, to do the touristy thing.  And my best friend ever, Katy, had brought us there for a Miranda Keys concert that had me hyperventilating with so many people around.  I felt like the world was crashing in around me.  But we had never stopped in the mountains so I could appreciate the beauty and majesty of them.

I decided that this is where I wanted to be, and the fact that a super cute, slightly pushy pixie was here with me, just sweetened the pot.

My smile at the thought pushed me to match Conrad's volume as he hit the crescendo of the song and hold it in harmony as the thrashing of the guitar and crash of the cymbals faded off.  I exchanged silly grins with Ash and searched for another fun song.  I loved that she could always make you feel like she was singing along by being inventive with her immediate environment to make music to compliment the piece.

She would always start creating music whenever we were alone because she says she loves how I can ad lib a song out of nothing that fits our current circumstances.  I assure her it is just a side effect from having to write so many creatives for the mock ads I have to come up with in class at the art academy.  She always waves that off and says she loves my voice, that it always makes her feel that anything is possible and is always washed away in the emotion in my voice.