Mile High Love
Authors: Tracy Cottingham
Mile High Love
By Tracy Cottingham
Text Copyright @ 2013 Tracy
Cottingham
All Rights Reserved
To my family who I love
“Stop following me!”
Cassandra came to an abrupt halt and waited for the bump.
“Cass.” Wes stepped aside to avoid running into her. “Is that any
way to treat an old friend?”
“Is that how you see yourself?” Cassandra couldn’t believe what she
was hearing. “Old friends start conversations with the usual hello, or
something like that...” She started walking again. “They do not
start with-by the way, your husband sold me half of your business before he
died, surprise!” She gripped the edge of her purse to stop her hands from
shaking.
“It wasn’t like that, and you know it. You need us right now as much as
we need you.”
Cassie thought for sure she’d misunderstood him. “Us?” she repeated,
“We?”
Wes cringed, silently cursing himself for being so stupid. “I didn’t say
us, I sa-”
“Yes you did.” Cassie’s stomach turned.
“No, I-”
“Yes.” Cassie started to nod. “I heard it.” Her head was still shaking as
she poked him in the chest a couple of times. “I heard it, and
you
said it.”
“Okay.” He ran his hands through his curly brown hair, trying to think of a
good lie. “I may have left something out the other day.” He opted
for the truth instead.
“Gee, all of that business savvy you used to force your way into my
company, and now you’re telling me you managed to leave something out?”
She looked around. “How can it be?”
“Save the sarcasm for Gunnar.” Wes was through trying to save a sinking
ship. “You two will have to hash this one out on your own when you get to
California.”
Cassie’s eyes nearly flew from her head. “Gunnar?” She
whispered, fearing if she said his name too loud he’d appear before her and
make the nightmare worse. “He’s your partner in crime?”
Wes threw up his hands in defeat. “He is not my partner in crime for Pete
sake,” his voice was strained. “He’s...our partner in crime, now.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Cassie lowered her voice. “In case you’re
experiencing momentary brain fry, the Gunnar we both know hates me,
remember?” When he didn’t answer she waived him off. “It doesn’t
matter. My lawyer will straighten this whole thing out.”
“You’re wasting your time, Cass. It’s legal.”
“I doubt it,” she called over her shoulder, and headed for the exit. “Oh,
and next time you want to have a friendly reunion, try a different
approach.” She walked through the turnstile door, only to let it
bring her back full circle to where she’d started.
“California?” She held
her hands out in front of her. “
My
business is here in
Oregon. What the Hell’s in California?”
Cassie leaned forward in the huge
leather-bound chair, trying to stop her feet from dangling like a six year old
school girl instead of a grown up woman about to have a serious discussion with
her lawyer. It might have worked too, if it hadn’t been for the fact that
her eyes were now only just level with the edge of the equally imposing desk he
favored. “This doesn’t work,” she mumbled offhandedly, and moved over to
the window to look outside instead. No matter how hard she tried she just
couldn’t believe that Wes and Gunnar had come back into her life after eight
years of radio silence. Of course it shouldn’t have been that big of surprise
considering how they came into her life to begin with.
********
“Someone’s at
the door for me?” Cassie tried to yell from her bedroom but her voice was still
hoarse and her head was a little fuzzy so she slowly made her way down the
stairs to see what her sister was on about. “The only people who ever
come to the door are always for you Lonnie and you know it,” she eyed her
sister when she hit the landing.
“Well the two misfits outside are asking for you. Do you want me to
tell them to go away? You’re looking kinda rough.”
Cassie looked at her sister and still couldn’t believe that they shared the
same blood. Even her dad used to joke that their mother must have taken
up with the mailman at some point because they didn’t share one thing in
common. Lonnie’s hair was dark brown with dark eyes to match which stood
in complete contrast to Cassie’s blonde haired blue eyed look. Even their
personalities went opposite ways with Lonnie being laid back and having a large
circle of friends to hang with while Cassie was way too uptight and driven to
let a silly little thing like a social life get in the way of her schooling and
what she wanted to do. “That’s because I’m still sick, thank you.”
“And grumpy, Jeez.” Lonnie switched places with her at the door, but didn’t
move farther away than the front window so she could eavesdrop without being
too obvious.
Cassie’s eyes went wide when she saw the two boys standing under the porch
light. One of the boys, Gunnar, had a locker just a couple of rows from
hers and although they had never spoken, she’d caught him staring at her a
couple of times when he thought she wasn’t looking. The other boy she’d
never seen before. He had a mop of curly brown hair which stuck out every
which way, hazel eyes, and he was so skinny he looked like a green bean.
“Hey, Cassie.”
The green bean spoke up first. “Yes?” She really didn’t know what
else to say.
“My name is Wesley, and, and, this is my friend Gunnar, and we’re from the
welcoming committee.”
Cassie could hear her sister snort and start to laugh, but ignored her.
“Okaay,” she decided to go along with whatever prank they were playing.
“Well, we’ve seen you around campus and wanted to know if you wanted to go get
some lunch sometime or we could just hang out at the school or maybe even walk
you home or something.” He looked over at Gunnar and kicked him in the back of
the leg when he continued to just stand there and stare.
Cassie followed his gaze which ended somewhere at the top of her head.
Even when he spoke, his eyes remained glued to that spot. “We were going
to talk to you at school but you haven’t been there.”
“No, I haven’t been. I’ve been sick,” Cassie’s brows knitted together and
she reached up to figure out what was so mesmerizing. When her hand
reached her forehead where her hair should have been she found a giant clump of
who knew what, ratted and mangled, and sticking up at least a few inches if not
more into the air. She pushed down a couple of times willing it behave but it
just shot back up higher than before. “I’m sorry, why are you here again?” Her
voice was high and strained.
“We brought you ice cream,” Gunnar said with a little too much effort and
nearly dropped the tub in her hands when she reached forward. “Chocolate chip,”
he grinned. “That’s your favorite right?”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks,” Cassie faked a smile and was grateful that he was at
least looking at her face for the moment.
“So about that lunch?” Wes
jumped in when the conversation stalled. “When you’re feeling better,
that is.”
She would have said anything to get them to go away. “I eat a sack lunch
in the quad over”
“By the gym,” Gunner finished for her and then realized he had spoken out loud.
“I usually study for Mrs. Moore’s class.”
“We have the same one third period,” Wes finally relaxed. “We’ll bring
our books and study with you. Deal?” He held out his hand.
“Deal, I guess,” Cassie shook his hand back and then Gunnar’s and as fast as
they appeared they were gone. She waited at the door a few seconds longer and
looked down at the melting tub of ice cream in her hand. It wasn’t until
a few moments later that a scream rang throughout the neighborhood when Cassie
caught sight of herself in the hall mirror. She looked like she had a helping
of cotton candy stuck on her head. LONNIE!!!!
********
“Cassandra Harrington.
I was wondering when you’d get around to coming in,” her lawyer’s tone was
playful, but the taught line of his jaw revealed the full measure of his
irritation.
Cassie jumped at the sound of her name, “I’m sorry, Andrew, really.” She
moved away from the window and sat back down in the chair. “I know you’ve
been trying to reach me for wee-” she stopped short at the look he gave
her. “Or probably more like months,” She nodded in unison with him,
taking a mental note of how much she hated answering to anyone, especially when
she was in the wrong. She’d known this man for several years, and
small talk just didn’t seem natural. “Okay.” She conceded.
“Not returning your calls probably wasn’t the best way to go, but we both know
why I’m here now, so why don’t you just fill me in on the details, and we can
figure out a quick way to end this whole
mess.”
Andrew hated to be the one to give her more bad news, but she’d ignored her
financial affairs for
too long. “I looked at the contract again Cass, and I
know you don’t want to hear this right now, but he was right. It’s
legal.”
“So let me get this straight.” Cassie’s legs were swinging at a furious
pace. “My husband sold half of our company off to two people I haven’t
seen in over eight years.” Panic crawled up her throat like an unseen
hand, strangling her, threatening to take her voice completely. “One, I
might add, who can’t even stand to be in the same room with me.” Her
voice was high and tight. “You’re saying this is legal?”
“It is when you abandon your business for over nine months, and ignore all of
your legal affairs, yes.” He caught the look she was still flashing him
and held out his hands. “I said it was urgent on each one of the many,
highly detailed messages I was forced to leave on your machine.”
“Oh,
God.” Cassie put her head in her hands and took a deep breath. “I
didn’t abandon anything.” she tried desperately to remain calm, fearing her
heart would jump from her chest if it kept pounding so furiously. “I just
couldn’t bring myself here, you know, back into this situation any
faster.” She glared up at him and mumbled, “I still don’t think I’m ready
for that matter.”
“Ready or not, it can’t wait any longer.” He handed her a glass of water,
and opted to sit on the edge of his desk, rather than move back to his
chair. “I tried to fight this when it first came up, but when you didn’t
show on any of the court dates, we lost credibility.”
“So this is my fault?” Cassie cringed mid-gulp, accidentally setting the
glass down harder than she’d intended and groaning as the spilled liquid
quickly found its way to the hardwood floor below.
“It’s not really anyone’s fault.” Andrew pulled a perfectly folded
handkerchief from his tailored suit, and set about cleaning up her mess.
“Look,” he tried to go in a different direction. “If Ben had lived to see
this through, try to think what he would do if he was here, He-”
Cassie was too frazzled to hear him out. “If Benjamin were here right
now, he’d boot you in the ass for not finding a way to take care of this and
handing me such a big ball of crap at the last minute.” Cassie noted his
silence and mentally kicked herself for being so blunt. “That’s okay.”
she nudged his leg. “He’d boot me in the ass too for handling all of this
so poorly, and not jumping at the chance to follow his dream and expand.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You may have two new partners you
weren’t expecting, but
the business opportunity is exceptional. You can make
it work to your advantage if you just get on with it. How much of the
insurance policy have you spent?” He asked, hoping to get her to focus on
the work.
“Not much.” She did the mental math. “I haven’t really felt like going
out, so...”
“Good. That should more than make up for the lost income for the last
nine months, and put you back to square one. Well, actually better than
square one, financially speaking at least.”
She laughed at the irony. “You know they moved the home base down to
California?”
“Wasn’t that the plan? I mean, before Ben passed away.”
Cassie paused. She hated the expression, passed away, people only said it
to be more delicate about the whole issue of death, but she knew from
experience there was nothing delicate about any of it.
“Yes.” She sighed. “But we never really put all
the plans together. It was an idea we talked about over dinner a couple
of times, you know, nothing concrete. I mean, it was my original revenue
figures that got him all excited in the first place.” She reached up,
absently twirling her hair with her finger. “I hardly expected him to go
out on his own and put this together without me. Although it wouldn’t be
the first time, would it?”
Andrew thought of all of the surprises Ben had sprung on his wife
throughout the years, and chuckled at some of the more lighthearted ones he’d
been in on.
Cassie followed his train of thought. “This time it isn’t funny.”
“I know,” he agreed, pulled a large folder from his briefcase, and smacked it
down on the desk in front of her.
“What’s this?”
“What your new business partners have been up to while you’ve been-” he stopped
short, mentally trying to pick the right word and eventually gave up.
“Away,” he said finally with a smile that showed he was mentally patting
himself on the back. “I think even you’ll be surprised. It’s almost
as if they shared your original outlook on why moving would increase income,
and decrease some of the overheads.”
She eyed the paperwork cautiously, fearing it would come to life and bite her
if she wasn’t careful. “If you say so,” she stood up to shake his hand
and knocked her purse off the side of the chair. “Par for the course,”
she mumbled, and set about retrieving the other half of her wallet. Of
course, just about the entire contents were strewn across the floor, scattered
in and around what was left of the water that she spilled earlier.
Andrew knelt
to help her, reaching for a picture of her daughter that he knew she cherished
above all else. “Speaking of meaningful things,” he turned the photo so
she could see what he was talking about. “God Cassie she’s like a mini
you,” he took note of the shoulder length wavy blonde hair and the brightest of
blue eyes. “How is she holding up?”
Cassie took the picture of her little girl from him and smiled for the first
time that day, drinking in the sight of her. “Abby’s doing...as good as
can be expected for a five year old who lost a parent.” She could have
faked a happier reply, but she wasn’t in the mood for keeping up
appearances. “She’s with my sister at the mall, probably clearing
out all of the frozen yogurt by now.”
“Lonnie’s been a big help then?”
“More than anyone will ever know,” she reflected tenderly. “Abby’s
going to stay with her till I get this business sorted out, which I hope won’t
be too long since it looks like I’m relocating as well.”
“Maybe a change of scenery would do you both good. I’m more than willing
to handle the sale of your house up here, and I vaguely remember reading
something about a duplex Wesley just purchased as a business asset in
California. If I were you I’d hit him up for a place to stay.”
“Well, we’ll certainly see about all that.” Cassie reluctantly put the
picture away, and set about initiating a hug. “You know I love you,” she
said in good spirits. “I just hate what you do.” She pulled away
from him, and laughed. “That desk thing you have going on over there is
awful, really.”
He knew from their long standing relationship how she felt, and it was nice to
see some of the woman he used to recognize re-emerge, even if it was just to
tease him. “Sorry Cassie but some of us just need bigger desks than
others that’s all,” he chuckled. “Now give me a couple of days and I’ll
call you so we can go over the details of your file.” He tapped the side of the
folder she held and opened the door for her.
Cassie was about to leave the office when she heard him call after her.
“Everyone knows that he did the flying and you were the one that actually ran
the company, but he did this because it was the best thing based on information
you gave him before he died. It was probably meant as a surprise and he
just never intended on not being around to see the look on your face when he
gave you the news. I’ll admit, it wasn’t the brightest idea to make that
kind of decision without letting you handle it, but at least he left you the
overriding stock. Whatever else happens, don’t forget that.”
She nodded at his words of encouragement.
“If I were you I’d go straight to that air show down in Salem and let
them know you’re back in the game, he continued. “You’re the one with the
creative control, and no matter what they say, it’s still up to
you.”
She smiled wickedly as the truth of his words sank in. “Andrew,
that’s the first really good thing I’ve heard all day.”
“Poor bastards,” he mumbled under his breath.
“What?” She tried to look innocent, but he knew her too well to let her
get away with it.
“When you decide to get back up on your feet, they won’t know what hit them.”
“You think?” She was even starting to feel a little optimistic.
“I don’t think.” He shook his head and headed back into his office.
“I know.”
