Mythe: A Fairy Tale (29 page)

Sarah grinned and shrugged. It was a gesture uncannily like one Manda had seen Richard make many times. “I love to hear them sing. As much as I love this recording, it’s not the same as hearing them sing in person, right in front of you. I’m right, aren’t I Manda?” She looked to Manda for support, but Manda just shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard them sing like that before,” Manda confessed. “I liked their concert though.”

“Richard’s never sung for you?” Sarah rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Good grief, Richard! Didn’t your father teach you how to woo a girl any better than that?”

Josh and Mikey both laughed out loud, but Daniel just arched his eyebrows and called everyone to breakfast. Manda was only half listening to the conversation as they gathered around the table. Most of her attention was on the music from the MP3 player. It was very different from the music she’d heard the brothers play before, but it was heartbreakingly beautiful and she was entranced.

When they were all seated Sarah continued her light-hearted scolding. “You sing beautifully. It’s absolutely heartless of you not to share that with Manda.”

“She never asked!” Richard protested with a wink to Manda.

“Of course she didn’t! She’s much too thoughtful for that, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t love it!”

Richard put down his fork and threw up his hands in grinning surrender. “Okay! I’ll bring my guitar tomorrow and sing for Manda.” He elbowed Josh. “Josh will too, won’t you Josh?”

Josh, caught with his mouth full, just nodded. Richard turned to his right, where Manda sat, and captured her butter knife-wielding left hand.

“I hope you can forgive my ill-treatment of you,” he pleaded melodramatically. ”I was unaware that I had deprived you of all of the joy and beauty you are entitled to.” He lifted Manda’s hand to his lips and kissed it, smearing butter from her knife onto his sleeve in the process.

Trying hard not to laugh, Manda tried to look martyred. “Well, I just assumed you couldn’t really sing at all—that it was all just sound booth tricks.”

“Hey!” Josh protested and Sarah giggled. Richard scowled at Manda, then scooped a dab of butter off of her knife with his finger and smeared it onto the end of her nose.

“Hey!” Manda laughingly exclaimed, echoing Josh.

“That is for your lack of faith,” Richard declared, grinning, then promptly repented and wiped her nose clean with his napkin.

For the rest of the day Richard stayed busy helping Manda in the kitchen, and they didn’t have a moment alone together until it was once again time to say goodnight. It was then, as he held her encircled in his arms, that he apologized sincerely.

“I’m sorry for not asking before, sweetie. I didn’t even think about singing for you. Josh is really more of the singer. I’m the songwriter. But would you like me to sing for you?”

“I would love that,” Manda admitted. She didn’t feel it necessary to mention that she had, in fact, fantasized about it.

“Then it will be my honor,” he said quietly, “and I don’t mean tomorrow. Josh and I will sing for everyone tomorrow if you’d like, but the next time we’re alone I’ll sing you one of the songs I’ve written about you.”

“About me?” Manda gasped softly, wide-eyed with wonder.

“Of course, about you. You occupy my every thought, asleep and awake. What else would I write about?”

Overcome by emotion and blinking away tears, Manda was speechless, so Richard filled the silent moment with a kiss. When she was finally able to speak again, she did so with an unsteady laugh.

“I don’t care what Sarah says. I think your father did an excellent job of teaching you how to win a girl’s heart.”

Richard glanced toward the car outside and smiled. “He would be glad to hear I’m not totally hopeless.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “This is the first chance I’ve had to really talk to you all day, so I haven’t had
a chance to tell you, but Josh and I have to leave for New York the day after tomorrow. Mikey just finalized the arrangements yesterday.”

Manda’s heart plummeted into her stomach.
They were leaving? For good?
She must not have hidden her dismay as well as she thought she had, because whatever he saw on her face made Richard rush to explain.

“We’ll only be gone a week. I didn’t want to go, but Jen thought it was important that we do this to stir up some buzz about the foundation. We’ll do the rounds on the morning shows and then we’ll wrap up with a New Year’s Eve performance.”

Manda exhaled in a sigh that was part relieved and part wistful. “I know duty calls, but I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too. I’d invite you to come along, but I’m afraid that would be like painting a bulls-eye on your back.” He frowned disconsolately then shook his head slightly. “Sarah and Daniel will be her all week though. Do you think you could entertain them for me while we’re gone? I hate to ask, but they really do enjoy your company and I feel guilty just leaving them here like this. Besides, they want to get to know you better.”

He combed his hair away from his face with his fingers in his characteristic display of agitation. “I shouldn’t have let Mikey talk me into this. I should just stay here.”

Manda captured his hands in her much smaller ones and leaned toward him. “No, you should go. I would love to spend the week with your cousins and this is something you need to do. Just hurry back, okay?”

“I promise,” he assured her fervently. “I won’t be gone one minute longer than necessary, and I’ll call you every day. You won’t even have a chance to miss me.”

“Yeah, right,” Manda chuckled. In just the short time between good night and good morning she managed to miss him. A week would seem like an eternity. She smiled up at him reassuringly though. “I’ll never even notice you’re gone.”

As she’d hoped, Richard laughed. “Well, I’ll miss you.” He glanced back toward the driveway. “I guess I’d better go. Tomorrow is a big day. Merry Christmas Eve, my Manda.”

“Merry Christmas Eve,” she responded, and then turned the tables on Richard, giving him a goodnight kiss that was guaranteed to ensure that he did indeed miss her while he was away.

Chapter 20

M
anda awoke the next morning more keyed up with anticipation than she had been for any Christmas since she was a little girl...back when she still believed in Santa Claus. After all, a certain rock-star she knew was, in her estimation, much more exciting than St. Nick. Richard, along with his family and Mikey, arrived early. Emily and Andy and the kids wouldn’t arrive until the afternoon, after they had opened presents together and enjoyed the unaccustomed luxury of a leisurely Christmas morning at home. Josh and Daniel took their turn at providing breakfast, arriving with a wealth of fruit, pastries, and baked goods for everyone to nibble on throughout the morning.

Manda barely had time to help herself to a blueberry muffin before Josh unceremoniously dumped the last of the gifts that he and Richard had carried in under the tree and announced gleefully that it was time to open presents. What followed was a free-for-all of torn ribbon and ripped wrapping paper that delighted Manda.

She had called in a favor and gotten Mikey, Daniel, and Josh each a pair of floor tickets to a Nuggets game. Richard had assured her that they would thoroughly enjoy this gift. Richard’s and Sarah’s gifts she held back though. She didn’t want Sarah to open hers before Richard, and she wanted to save his gift for last.

She tore into her own gifts as exuberantly as the others, and was delighted with of all of them. Mikey had given her a book she wanted to read—he confessed that Richard had told him. Josh gave her a beautiful cashmere scarf in her favorite shade of blue—he too confessed that Richard had helped him pick out exactly the right color. From Daniel and Sarah she received a thick knit throw blanket that was as soft as a cloud.

“It’s alpaca,” Sarah explained when Manda exclaimed over it. “We raise them on the ranch and there’s a woman nearby who does wonders with the fiber.”

Sarah had then slipped her one more small package containing a CD copy of the Christmas album Richard and Josh had recorded.

“That’s from all of us,” she explained. “The boys said it would be okay if I shared it with you.”

Manda was effusive in her thanks and made a beeline to her stereo to play the disk. She had fallen in love with the songs the day before and had insisted on playing it several times throughout the day.

When the storm of flying bows and tissue paper had finally subsided, Manda retrieved her gifts to Richard and Sarah. She nervously gave Sarah hers, and then sat down on the floor beside Richard and gave him his slightly larger package. She had struggled with what to get him. There was nothing she could buy him that he couldn’t buy for himself, and he practically lived in hotels, so it needed to be something small and easily transportable. Most importantly, she had wanted it to be something personal. After she’d finally decided on a gift, she had spent three weeks making it, getting up early to work on it without Richard’s knowledge. Now she just hoped he liked it. She held her breath as Richard tore off the gift wrap to reveal the leather bound box inside.

“They match,” Sarah noted, holding her own, flatter leather box up for Richard to see. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity and she lifted the lid off of her box at the same moment that Richard opened his. “It’s a book!” she announced, carefully lifting the leather bound volume from its matching box. Manda had eyes only for Richard though. She watched him closely as he removed the book reverently from the box. She tried to gauge his reaction, biting her lip anxiously as he slowly flipped through the pages, pausing to examine each one carefully. He looked at a dozen or so, then closed the book and looked at Manda.

“These are my songs,” he said softly. Manda couldn’t tell if he was pleased or not.

“Oh, Manda! This is beautiful! It’s like a book of poetry! And the pictures are gorgeous! Where did you get it?”

“She made it,” Richard answered before Manda could…and this time Manda could hear the pride in his voice and her tension was replaced by the warm glow of pleasure. He liked it!

The others had gathered around Sarah, looking over her shoulder as she flipped through her copy of the book. Manda had purchased a silver frame for her, but had switched it for her personal copy of the book after Sarah had expressed how much she loved Richard’s songs. Manda could always have another made for herself.

“The pictures are wonderful,” Daniel remarked. “What are they? Photographs with watercolor? Is it a local artist?” He reached over Sarah’s shoulder to flip back to the title page. “Richard is listed as the author, but there’s no credit for the artist.”

Richard’s eyes never left Manda as he answered for her once more. “Manda did them. She’s the artist.” He smiled his approval, eliciting a return smile from Manda, and then opened his book to a picture of a small waterfall among snow-coated rocks and evergreens. “This is the place you took me on that first time we went for a drive.” He flipped forward a few pages. “And this is that small clump of aspen trees in the plaza in front of your building…the one with the squirrel.” He progressed a few more pages. “And this is in your backyard.”

“They’re all there,” Manda told him, gesturing to the box on his lap. Sarah’s box held only the book, but there was more in Richard’s. He lifted the divider to reveal the stack of matted, hand-colored photographs below.

“The originals, hand signed by the artist,” he announced for the benefit of the others, and tipped the box up to show them. “This is perfect, Manda. I’ll cherish it forever. Thank you.” He carefully returned the book to the box and replaced the lid before expressing his appreciation with a kiss. Then, he announced with a grin that it was his turn. Reaching behind himself, he produced a box that had been buried beneath a pile of torn gift wrap.

“Merry Christmas,” he said, placing the package in Manda’s lap.

Manda removed the wrapping slowly, savoring the thrill of anticipation. She removed the bow and ribbon and set them aside, then deliberately found the edge of the paper and carefully lifted the tape.

“Come on, Manda! Just rip it open!” Josh urged impatiently.

Sarah immediately shushed him. “Leave her alone. Let her enjoy it.”

Manda stuck her tongue out at Josh and made a point of meticulously folding the wrapping paper and putting it with the bow. The plain white box on her lap gave no clue to its contents, though she tipped it first one way and then the other, examining it from all sides. Finally, curiosity trumped anticipation and she lifted off the lid...and smiled when two smaller white boxes were revealed, nested side-by-side inside the larger box.

“This isn’t going to be a succession of smaller and smaller boxes, is it?” Josh groaned.

“No, now be quiet!” Richard replied with a playful glare at his brother.

Manda removed the box on the left and opened it, only to find its contents heavily wrapped in bubble-wrap and tissue paper. No longer trying to draw out the suspense, Manda quickly stripped the packing away from the hard, irregularly-shaped object.

“Careful,” Richard cautioned. “It’s breakable.”

Manda had begun to suspect what it was and was smiling in anticipation when she pulled away the last layers of tissue paper...and then froze. Judging by its shape, she had expected it to be a new teapot to replace the one she had broken. Instead she held in her hands her old teapot, glued back together from its broken pieces. She turned it over in her hands, examining it from all sides. It had been meticulously reassembled, with each tiny puzzle-piece shard mated to the adjoining shards so cunningly that only the finest hairline cracks could be seen. It must have taken countless hours to put it back together so perfectly, and as long to collect all of the pieces.