Undertow (20 page)

I grinned at that. “You never said why you came down here in the first place.”

“I need to know if you’re ever planning to come to the office,” he said. “I wanted to show you around, introduce you to folks. I tried calling, but you must’ve turned off your phone.”

“It wouldn’t stop ringing. Some Kyser-Brennan number I didn’t recognize.”

“Tomorrow?”

I stood and dusted off my skirt. “I’ll stop in this afternoon if you want.”

“I’m on my way to class. Tomorrow’ll be fine. And call Meg. She’s been talking about how she hasn’t seen you since you got back.”

He walked away, and I watched him, thinking how funny it was the way people changed as they grew up. A person could start out being a real pain in the ass, and then without warning, he could turn into a really nice guy.

And I needed to get some breakfast.

May 1, 19--

Is it already May? Working on Bill’s Phoenician developments has taken over all the extra time I’d expected to have when I agreed to return home. Instead of pursuing fine art and indulging my muse whenever I liked, I’m always at the office taking meetings with the boys or sketching out the results of our decisions from those meetings. Bill and Bryant are determined to get their high-rises in the sky yesterday, it seems, and they take my plans and get them in the lineup as soon as I have them finished and approved.

I’d hoped to have more time to spend with Meg, catching up, playing with the baby, but as it turns out, time is flying and already we’re looking down the barrel of a year. The ground for Phoenician I is broken, and across East End Beach, extending down to Hidden Pass, the skeletons of new giants are waiting to straighten their backs into the sky.

Each complex will have a different theme, depending on what vacationers are interested in, and Bill is doing extensive market research to find the hottest trends and vacation destinations to guide our decisions.

My challenge is finding design concepts that won’t look dated in ten years. It’s possible a few years could pass before some of my concepts will be ready for unveiling, so I have to keep it to images that won’t need updating right away. It isn’t an easy task, and I’m new to this type of work. But I love flexing my creative muscles and discovering new ways to approach the job.

I found that if I distill the themes down to their basic elements and focus on those throughout, I’m happier with the results.

The hardest was Phoenician V, the calypso theme.

I thought it was a terrible idea, but Bill was right. Island vacations were off the charts in terms of popularity. Why should Americans leave the States for a vacation when our beaches were just as beautiful as anything in the Caribbean? We also had the best sanitation, and vacationers wouldn’t have to worry about things like antibiotics or immunizations or projectile vomiting if a stray lettuce leaf that wasn’t washed in filtered water ended up on their plates.

I love the work, and Bill and I are becoming closer friends than I expected. We start most days with coffee and a chat in his office and then I spend the rest of the time envisioning interiors and running the results past him for approval. It’s a great set-up, and although I demand control over my schedule, I find myself wanting to spend most of my hours at work.

When we toured the interiors of the buildings, and I saw my ideas becoming reality, it only motivated me to work more. And to think how hard a time I gave him when we were in high school. I’m turning into a regular developer myself.

Sept. 11, 19--

I can’t believe the year I just wrote up there. Has it really been
four years
since I picked up this pen?
Four
years of birthdays?

The time has just come and gone, and except for the occasional holiday, we’ve been consumed in the rush of creation and getting our high-rises off the ground. Bill finished college, Phoenician II is almost finished, and we’re looking to the future. That’s how it was when Meg called yesterday.

I was at the office staring out the window and thinking about Phoenician VIII, for which we were playfully tossing around an outer space theme. It was the riskiest concept, and I was strongly opposed. Any type of futuristic design was bound to be out of date by the time the building even broke ground.

Still, I was having fun putting together silver-foil themed furniture and cosmic fixtures. I was imagining interiors in all white with stainless-steel accents. Perhaps even a telescopic viewing area in the penthouse or a small planetarium on the main floor. Very Guggenheim. I was even wondering if we could arrange an educational partnership with the schools for tax purposes. Maybe kids could come here to study…

The phone rang, and it was Meg. She sounded hysterical, and I was instantly alarmed. “What’s wrong?” I cried. “Is it Will?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be calling you at work,” she sniffled. “I tried calling Billy, but I just got voicemail.”

I glanced up from my worktable through the glass wall to see Bill in Bryant’s office gesturing at some plans on Bryant’s desk.

My eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?”

“I just feel so miserable, Lexy. Can you come over for a few minutes? Are you too busy?”

“No, honey. I’ll be right there.”

I slid my phone into my purse and strode over to Bryant’s office frowning. The two looked up when I barged in.

“Hey, good timing,” Bill said. “Come see what we’re working on.”

“So you’re letting Meg’s calls go to voicemail now?” My voice was sharp.

Bryant jumped in to diffuse the situation. “What’s up, Lex?”

“I was going to call her back,” Bill said, not meeting my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, but I’m heading to your house for as long as it takes.” I turned and strode to the door. “Not cool, Bill,” I called over my shoulder.

“Let me know if it’s anything important,” he called after me.

I was fuming as I left the building. It only took fifteen minutes to get from our offices in Dolphin Shores to the Kyser house in Fairview, and by the time I got there, I’d cooled off enough to console my friend.

“I’m such a goose, I know,” she laughed through her tears. “But I’m just going crazy without Mom or Will around. I’m only twenty three, and I have no purpose.”

“What are you talking about?” I soothed, smoothing back her beautiful hair. “Will just started kindergarten. He still needs Mommy for a good ten years or so. Heck, if his daddy’s any indication, he’ll need you a lot longer.”

“Did you see Billy?” she blinked up at me. “I didn’t leave a message. He’s been so frustrated with the way I’ve been acting since school started.”

“He’s not being very understanding, if you ask me.”

She looked down again. “Don’t. I’ve been enjoying you two as friends.”

“We still have our moments,” I said. “So what’s wrong? Are you feeling a little empty nest?

She shrugged. “I guess. I just really want to have another baby.”

“You do? Well…” I looked around their empty house. “Have you talked to Bill about it? A baby would probably make you feel better.”

“He says we have to wait,” she said. “He doesn’t think we’re ready.”

“Wait for what? The money’s coming in regularly now, and with Will at school, you wouldn’t be overwhelmed.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I told him that. He just wants to wait.”

I looked at my friend’s miserable face and frowned. I was just mad enough at Bill to say it. “Have you considered a surprise?”

“What?” Her blue eyes blinked to mine.

“I’m just saying. Will was a surprise and that worked out fine. Why not have another one?”

“Oh, Lexy, we’re still the perfect team!” Meg threw her arms around my neck, but I was confused.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re right. It did work out just fine the first time, so why wouldn’t it work again?”

“Wait.” I held her arms and moved her back. “Are you saying the first time—”

She bit her lip and looked down. “Wasn’t technically an accident.”

“Oh, Meg.” I closed my mouth, but my head was shaking. “You meant to get pregnant senior year?”

“Don’t look so disapproving. It wasn’t like Billy and I hadn’t already decided we wanted to get married.”

“But you were so young!” I rubbed my forehead. “And, that wasn’t really fair. I mean, you knew what he was planning. What if he’d given up on college? His dream?”

“Are you kidding? He’d never give that up.” She rolled her eyes and fell back against the couch. “He did talk about us waiting to get married. But I know how to handle Billy.”

My hands dropped to my lap, and I looked down. “Don’t ever tell him what you did,” I said softly, regretting I’d even suggested it earlier.

“You really think I’m dumb, don’t you? I would never tell him that.”

“You took a big risk,” I said. “What if he’d walked away?”

Meg stood and straightened her navy polo dress. I watched as she pulled her blonde hair into a side ponytail. “Billy would never walk away from his family. And we’dve been fine even if he had decided to give up his master plan. You know his daddy offered to give him the horse ranch when he found out?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” I said quietly. I didn’t like knowing this about Meg. I didn’t like knowing she could be so manipulative to get what she wanted. I only wanted to think of her as innocent and sweet.

“Well, Billy’d rather die than run a farm. Of course, he turned that right down.” I watched her studying the end of her ponytail as she spoke. “And I convinced him to wait and tell my parents after we were married. They’d have probably tried to stop us.”

“What if everybody was right, Meg? What if you should’ve waited?”

Her eyes went huge. “And not gotten married? Give me a break! I’ve known we were going to be together since the first time I laid eyes on him.”

My brows pulled together. “But you felt like you had to trick him?”

She pressed her fists into her waist, blue eyes blazing. “Not trick him.
Remind
him. He and Bryant were so caught up in their big plan, he’d forgotten about us. I was just keeping
my
plan on track.”

I stood and put my arm around her shoulders, and we stared at the flowered carpet a few minutes. She was still my best friend, even if I wasn’t sure what to do with this new information.

“So you want another baby, and Bill wants to wait because…”

“He wants to build our house first or something. I don’t know.”

I nodded. “That’s actually not a bad idea. You’d have more room then.”

“But that’ll take years, and I want a baby now!”

I squeezed her shoulders and then released her. “What about volunteering at the hospital? I bet you could work in the nursery and be around little babies all the time.”

“Billy suggested that. Or get a part-time job at one of the boutique stores.”

“That’s a great idea. Why don’t you do that?”

She sighed and flopped on the couch. “I tried helping at the hospital, but being around all those people talking about Daddy… I started thinking about how he’s missing little Will growing up, and he’ll never see little John. It just made me more depressed.”

I dropped onto the couch beside her. “Sweetie, you’re really sad. I had no idea!”

“You have so much work to do, and… I just miss Mama.”

“Have you thought about going to Sedona for a visit?”

“I’d have to pull Will out of school, and I’m not sure we have the money yet for that. It’s not a cheap flight.”

“Listen, I’ll do my best to make it over here more for visits, okay? And you think about other places that need help. You know everyone around here. I’ll bet you could find something you like to do. All you need is to fill a few hours.”

She nodded. “Thanks for coming, Lexy.”

“Any time you need me.” I hugged my sweet friend. “You going to be okay now?”

“I think so. I was thinking about repainting Will’s room, so maybe I’ll do that.”

I stood and pulled her hands. “What color? Need me to help?”

“Would you? Come see what I’ve picked out.”

We spent the rest of the morning looking at paint swatches and fabric colors, and by lunch, Meg was smiling again. I returned to the office in time to catch the elevator with my two bosses.

“Just getting back?” Bill was smiling in a way that irritated me.

“Yes, and I had an interesting chat with your wife.”

“I’m headed up.” Bryant stepped into the elevator without us. “You two keep it civil.”

The doors closed leaving Bill and me facing each other. My arms were crossed. “Meg says you won’t let her have another baby.”

“It’s not as sinister as that,” he smiled, leaning against a concrete pillar. “I just think we need to wait. And this isn’t your business, Lex.”

“It’s my business that she’s my best friend, and she’s totally miserable. You leave her alone all the time, her mom’s in Sedona, and now Will’s at school. What are you waiting for?”