Stepping Up To Love (Lakeside Porches 1) (28 page)

“You’ve got the passion and the vision. I’ve got the money and the entrepreneurial expertise. Is that the ticket?”

She studied his face, saw past the signs of his illness, saw a spark of interest lighting his eyes and a genuine smile softening the hard lines of his mouth. She pushed past her own fear, held up her hand to him and said, “That’s the ticket.”

“Sold.” He gave her a high five and a big grin. “By the way,” he asked her, “it is your intention to marry my nephew, is it not?”

“Of course it is.”

“I can’t understand why he hasn’t asked you yet.”

“That’s easy. We’ve both been trying to follow our AA sponsors’ suggestion to wait until I have a year of sobriety. I just celebrated nine months.”

Justin chuckled. “Joel and his rules. I predict there will be an engagement soon and a wedding long before you finish graduate school.”

Manda felt herself blush. “Well, give me a little warning so I can get a smashing dress. I want to be a bride and a wife Joel will be proud of.”

“Let’s split another chocolate torte. I don’t want to look like a scarecrow in my tux, or you in your lovely dress.”

When Manda pushed open the door of Joel’s room the next day, Joel appeared to be sleeping. He was starting to look like himself again. The swelling in his face was down. She wanted to kiss away the worry lines that had reappeared. She came quietly to the bed and touched his left hand.

Joel smiled without opening his eyes. “Love of my life,” he said, his voice raspy.

She laughed. “You’re awake, but those worry lines are back. Are you toughing it out without pain meds?”

“Trying. I wanted to be lucid when you came today.”

Manda took his hand in hers, and he opened his eyes. “You’re wearing my body lotion.”

“I know you like it when I do that.”

He looked at her with the relief of a man in the desert who had seen the oasis.

“How are you dealing with all of this?”

“Meditating a lot. Using all the tricks I learned my first year of sobriety.”

“I really thought I’d lost you. Tell me how I can help you get well.”

“This is how. I need you at my side. I wouldn’t have come out of the coma if you hadn’t been here.”

Manda had to clear her throat. She rallied a smile and asked him, “So, where were you before you came out of the coma?”

“Hanging with my sister.”

“You went toward the light?” Manda guessed.

Joel nodded.

She kissed his hand. “Did you really see Christie? How is she?”

“Misses me. Asked me if I could stay.”

Manda’s heart hammered in her chest. “Were you tempted?”

“For about a minute. To be away from decisions I didn’t want to make.”

Manda gave his hand a squeeze. “I heard you talked with Justin and will turn the college mess over to him. I’m so relieved, Joel.”

He nodded. “I have to. I can’t fix it. He knows how to clean things up and close things down. We need to let him do it his way, Manda. I need you to help me stay out of it.” His breathing got more and more anxious as he talked.

“I will,” she said decisively. “It’s out of our hands, and Justin will handle it. Just rest, Joel.” She pressed his hand against her cheek.

Joel smiled as his palm caressed her soft cheek. He closed his eyes for a minute.

She soothed, “We have many good things ahead. Your recovery is the most important thing, and I won’t let anything compromise that.”

The worry lines began to fade from his forehead. Joel’s serenity seemed to enfold her. She sat very still, watching him rest. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the silence, broken only by the beeping of the heart monitor.

In a few minutes he opened his eyes. “It’s not the same as the grandfather clock, is it?” Joel joked.

“The beeping?” She laughed. “So, what else did you and Christie talk about?” Manda asked him.

“She likes you.”

“She knows about me?”

Joel nodded. 

Manda looked around. “Good, they brought her picture over when they moved you.” The framed photograph was on a stand just to Joel’s right. Manda wondered if they’d placed it there as incentive for him to exercise the weak right eye. “Does she look the same as you remember? The same as in the photograph?”

Joel moved his head a little, and she could see the eye seeking and connecting with the photo.

“She’s more beautiful now. There are no scars, no burns. Her hair is like sunshine, and her eyes are like the sparkles on the lake in the early morning. Her laugh,” he broke off, as if hearing it again. “Her laugh is musical.”

Manda guessed, “So, you aren’t worrying about her anymore?”

“She never blamed me,” Joel said. He shifted on the bed, grimaced at the pain, and found a comfortable position. His full attention was on Manda now, and his voice was stronger. “She was watching me all the time I was drinking and using. She saw me get sober and graduate and start the business at The Manse, and all of that. She’s very proud.”

Manda smiled into his eyes. “She’ll see you recover from this, too. That’s very cool.”

Joel nodded. He was looking intently into her eyes now. “What?”

“I know we wanted to be married next year, after your program is done.”

Manda felt a wave of panic. “And you’ve changed your mind?” She heard her voice rise in anguish.

Joel tried to calm her down. “Just about when.”

Manda finally realized what Justin had meant last night; he was probably giving her a heads-up that Joel might want to move up the timeline. But her understanding came too late, and her panic was stressing Joel. His heart monitor set off an alarm in the hallway.

God, I’m making him worse. You’ve got to help.

A nurse pounded into the room. “Out!” she ordered Manda.

Manda stumbled to the door and turned to see the nurse injecting something into the IV line hooked to Joel’s left arm.
What have I done?
Manda stood with her hand over her mouth, looking at Joel with wide eyes. His eyes closed, and the alarm stopped, as Joel’s heart rate returned to normal and leveled off a little slower than she was used to.

She sobbed into her hand and turned to walk down the hall. One of the aides came to her side; it was Rachel from her first night in emergency.

“What happened?”

“I got really stressed, and it made him really stressed.”

“It happens. Now you know you have to use the same strategy you used before. Keep it light, even if he doesn’t.”

“How stupid could I be? I thought it would all be okay now. I totally blew it in there.”

“He’s got a long way to go, Manda. You both need to take it one day at a time.”

“I think I’m going to pass out.”

“They don’t think I have a bug or anything, but they can’t take a chance with Joel stressing out or getting sick,” she told Gwen. “I’ve passed out a couple times now, and they want me to take a few days to rest and eat and stuff.”

“I know, chickie. And Joel wants to see Phil and Tony. They’re going to drive up to the hospital tomorrow. Justin will be back the next day.”

“Back from where?.”

“Justin’s in New York City for a couple of days,” Gwen said slowly.

“He is? How do you know that?”

“I know it because he asked me to keep an eye on you. He wants you to come to the lake with me for a couple of days, which I think is brilliant.”

Manda started to protest and then realized, “It is brilliant. You’re both right. I can go to my regular meetings and stop being a lunatic.”

“And you do know—from what Justin told you and from what he told me—that Joel was really just trying to move up the wedding date, not call it off. Right?”

“Yeah, I do. I was so stupid. But I want to talk about the date with you.”

“At the lake. We can talk about everything. Wedding plans, your next semester, anything you like.”

“I can’t even think about school.”

“Calm down. See how much you need a break? So, am I driving us, or can I trust you to follow me to my house without passing out?”

Sydney Shorey shifted her breasts closer to Justin, sucked the olive off its toothpick and winked. “Were you looking for a stroll down memory lane, a roll in the hay while my husband’s away or something a little more professional?”

Justin let out a belly laugh and took in the curvy, classy woman across the table. “Syd, we had our moments, didn’t we? I remember it with great pleasure. How’s the marriage working out for you?”

“Good this time around. We divorced and remarried, you know.”

“I did not.”

“He had a mid-life crisis around forty, and I sued the pants off him. Then I made a push into the highest level of college administration. When I was named president, I knew I needed a proper escort, and Danny was back and ready to commit. So we’re making it work this time.”

“With an occasional fling, do I hear?”

“Actually, no, but I wanted to know if you’re still interested.”

“I’ll always be interested in you, Syd, but I make it a policy not to sleep with married women. I’m glad it’s working out for you and Danny.”

“You’ve never married?”

Justin winked. “There’s only ever been one Sydney.”

“Poppycock. What are you up to, Justin? What’s brought you back to American soil?”

“I am coming to the aid of my nephew, who—”

“Joey?”

“Joel. His ancestors—not the Cushman side—started a college a century or so ago, founded on ego and dedicated to personal glory. It recently took a nosedive of the smelliest kind. Joel was on the verge of resigning his post as trustee and withdrawing his backing when he was seriously hurt in an accident. He will recover.” Justin stopped to clear his throat and swallow some water.

Sydney reached for his free hand. “That’s why you’re back.”

“Part of it. The rest is my health, but let’s leave that aside for now.”

“Here comes our salmon,” Sydney announced. They sat back while the waiter delivered sizzling salmon, mounds of Au Gratin potatoes, and asparagus in Hollandaise.

“Cheers,” Sydney toasted with the last sip of martini. “I’ve never understood how anyone could toast without alcohol.”

Justin raised his water glass. “All it takes is a glass with some liquid in it.” He moved his appreciative gaze from her body to the table setting. “Beautiful table. Good choice.”

“So you’re taking over Joel’s responsibility at this college of his. Are you going to close it down?”

“If that’s the right course of action, I will heartlessly put half the town out of work. Naturally, I want to know if there are viable alternatives.”

“Let me eat for a minute, and I’ll have some suggestions.”

After a few mouthfuls and moans of approval, Sydney asked, “How serious and how widespread is the corruption, do you know yet?”

“Joel says about a third of the personnel. Faculty, administrators, and staff have been implicated. Is it absurd to try to make a college work with two-thirds of the employees?”

Sydney shrugged. “Some colleges purposely downsize that much for economic reasons. Or at least that’s the public explanation for major cuts like this one at Joel’s college. The first move is generally to abolish tenure. That allows the college to bid farewell to faculty who are no longer serving the students or the college’s best interests, in favor of those faculty who have stayed at the cutting edge or are not jaded or corrupted.”

Justin thought about it, while Sydney dug her fork into the asparagus.

“Succulent. I wonder where they find asparagus this time of year.”

“South America, I suppose.”

“One-third of the employees, really?”

Justin nodded. “Syd, this is not my field. If I were looking at the viability of a business or a bank or a utility, I’d know where to start, what data to pull out, what to measure. Help me out here. What are the dimensions I need to pay attention to?”

“That’s the right question.” She nibbled at a slice of potato.

“I want whatever you don’t eat,” Justin told her.

Sydney teased, “You’re telling me not to take a nibble from every piece, is that it?”

She shoveled half the potatoes onto Justin’s butter plate.

“What a woman.”

Sydney rearranged her curves to show her pleasure, and then she got down to business. “For my money, there are six or eight dimensions, as you call them. First is curriculum. Does the college have, or potentially have, current, marketable, relevant programs?”

“Such as?”

“Global economics, rather than ancient history. Professional programs integrated with liberal arts, critical thinking, and a range of internship or study-abroad experiences.”

“I get the idea.”

“And talented faculty for those programs. Collaborative faculty, not armed camps or backbiters.”

Justin nodded his understanding. “What else?”

“Infrastructure. How well maintained are the buildings? Is the technology cutting edge and supported? Do the administrative systems streamline the flow of student records and accreditation data and other reporting functions?”

“I don’t suppose it matters that the campus is green, manicured, and picturesque?”

“That could be a bonus, and it could be the deciding factor between shifting to mostly online delivery versus catering to undergraduate student development.”

“Interesting.”

“You’ll want to find out about the students. If the ones you’ve been attracting are not bright and motivated, you have a problem. It may be a failure to market properly, an outdated curriculum, a lousy reputation. Do you see what I’m getting at?”