Lost and Found: (A Ripple Effect Romance Novella) (13 page)

The teacher’s meeting lasted two weeks. At least that’s how it felt. Mrs. Gentry, the principal, had a high-pitched, sing-song voice that hummed on and on. How much of her summer had been spent figuring out different ways to say “The kids are our top priority?”

“The kids are our top priority.” “We have to put the kids first.” “We do this for the kids.” Blah, blah, blah. “These kids need to know they’re number one.” Blah, blah, blah. “These kids mean more to us than life itself.” Okay, she didn’t really say that one, but she might as well have.

Lydia relived the curb at the airport while Mrs. Gentry babbled on and on, only this time, she daydreamed about the way she wished she’d have handled it. She’d come up with three romantic scenarios when Cate Espinosa jabbed her in the arm and whispered, “At least try to
look
like you’re paying attention.”

“Yikes. That noticeable?” Lydia whispered back.

“Yeah. Someone’s not ready for school to start.” Lydia smiled and did her best to focus on what Mrs. Gentry was saying. It wasn’t easy.

During the afternoon session, the school counselor, a nurse and a member of the school board addressed them. The counselor was pretty interesting, but fevers and head lice just couldn’t keep her attention, so Lydia started writing a list of things to do on the first day of school, but soon the list had turned into Blake’s name in all kinds of script.

Lydia was hopeless. The last three days had spoiled her. A life of skydiving and Segwaying and treasure hunting wasn’t realistic, and a shy, small-town school teacher had about as much chance with Ryan Gosling as an orange had of becoming the main ingredient in banana bread. She scribbled through Blake’s name. It was time to focus.

At four o’clock, the meetings finally ended. Lydia hadn’t had a chance to get a few things she needed for her bulletin boards, so she made a quick trip to the craft store and the drive through for a sandwich. It was going to be a long evening, but she didn’t mind.

Cambri called just as she arrived back at the school. “How you holding up? You must be pretty tired today.”

“Tired wasn’t my problem. I couldn’t focus at all. I just kept thinking about Blake.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“No. He’s got such a stressful job, and he’s behind and he wants to make partner. He’ll be putting in a lot of long days. And after our goodbye last night…” Lydia sighed.

“Yeah, that was unfortunate.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like my mind and my body aren’t connected or my subconscious is so afraid I’ll make a fool of myself that I end up making a fool of myself. I’m sure he thinks I’m not interested.”

“So set him straight.” Lydia laughed. “Seriously Lyd, call him. Tell him you like him. Tell him you want to see him again. What could it hurt?”

“My pride.”

“Who cares about pride when true love is a possibility?” Cambri said it like she was Scarlett O’Hara, and Lydia could picture her raising her wrist to her forehead dramatically.

“I’ve got to get busy, or I’ll be here all night.”

“All right. But listen. Your summer was supposed to be about adventure and bravery, and this guy helped you reach your goals. I think you should finish off your summer with one more tiny act of bravery. I think you should call him. You don’t have to tell him you want to marry him and have a dozen little Blakies. Just say you’d like to get together sometime.”

“Oh Cambri, I don’t know. I want to be brave, but…”

“I remember a friend coming and picking me up to go for a drive and dropping me off at Jace’s. And then you left me there. Is that what I need to do? Come pick you up and drop you off at Blake’s?”

“I only did that because you’re both so stubborn.”

“And thank goodness you did. But Lydia, there’s no harm in letting this guy know you’re interested. If he is too, he’s close enough for you guys to see each other. If he’s not, he’s far enough away that you’re not going to run into each other in Bridger or Fort Collins.”

“That’s true. I’ll think about it.”

“Good girl. Now go get those bulletin boards done.”

Lydia thought about what Cambri had said as she finished her sandwich. It was true. What did she have to lose? If he wasn’t interested, this would just be an ego boost for him. If he was interested, they could…

Stop!
Lydia was not going to get ahead of herself. That would only cause disappointment when it didn’t happen.
Stay grounded.
Right now it was about being brave, and you couldn’t be brave in the future. You could only be brave in the moment.

Blake got to the office a little before seven in the morning. He had a few things to get ready before Mary Challis arrived at eight-thirty, and it wouldn’t hurt to have Mr. Van Wagoner come in and see Blake already hard at work.

Brynn stopped by his door an hour later. “Good idea beating Pryce here. Maybe this will help him forget how badly you screwed up.”

Blake tried not to show his annoyance. “Thanks for helping me out while I was gone. It was good to finally get the box my grandpa left me.” Not that anyone at the office had cared.

It was hard not to be a little bitter. Brynn had worked with him ever since he’d come to Collins, Strider and Van Wagoner. He’d thought they were friends. He’d thought Finn and Andy were his friends. They’d been working hard for the past two years just like him. But no one here had asked how he was when his grandpa died. No one had cared that it was important to him to get the box. These people weren’t really friends. They were associates. His life was filled with clients and associates. He’d been taking all his time away from people who mattered and giving it to people who knew nothing about him. This was what Grandpa had been talking about. Permanent and temporary. He got it.

“I’d better get to work,” Blake said, turning his attention back to the files on his desk.

Pryce Van Wagoner walked through ten minutes later. Blake would have missed him entirely if he hadn’t looked up at that moment. But he did, and he watched Pryce walk by the glass wall of his office. There was no reaction, no inclination of the head in greeting, no hello. It was just a glance in Blake’s direction.

Mary Challis arrived a few minutes early, but Blake was ready for her. He met her at the door and shook her damp hand. She sat on the edge of her seat and fidgeted. “I’m sorry I spoiled your vacation, Mr. Knowles. I’ve just been so worried. Hank took care of everything like this when he was alive, and I’m just so afraid I’m going to make a mistake.”

“I don’t think you’re making a mistake. We’ll go through all the numbers together, and I think you’ll see this is a good deal for you. If you don’t, we’ll walk away and you can take another route. We want you to be happy with the deal.”

Mary visibly relaxed. “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble. Your boss was pretty upset when I talked to him.”

“Nah, everything here’s fine.”

Blake picked up the files and took the seat beside Mary. For the next two hours they went over the numbers. He explained how much she’d get up front and what her expected return would be at thirty-three percent and at thirty-five percent. “So you can see, this is still a good number,” Blake said. “I’m not sure risking a sure thing for only a little more would be worth it. If we back out, it might take a long time to find another deal, and you’ll have to pay overhead and expenses that whole time. It could end up being more expensive to wait than to take this.”

Mary sighed. “I don’t want to try to run things anymore. I don’t know enough to feel confident I’m doing things right, and every night I go to bed worrying I’m going to ruin Hank’s company.”

“It’s your company now. But if you take the deal, you’ll still get almost a third of the profits in addition to the cash up front, and you can stop worrying about the day-to-day operations.” He pointed at the number on the paper. “If you don’t buy a small island in the Caribbean, you can live pretty comfortably on the up-front money, and the thirty-three percent will just be extra every quarter.”

“Thank you, Blake,” Mary Challis said as she was leaving. “You’ve been very patient and helpful.”

After she was gone, Blake got busy on the stack of work that had piled up while he was gone. It was daunting. Had they purposely added extra to the workload so he’d never leave them hanging again, or did this really represent what he’d have done if he’d been there? He wasn’t sure.

Blake’s mind kept wandering to Lydia. Was she sitting in her meeting right now? Where would she eat lunch? If she had a sandwich, would she ask them to go light on the mayo? What would she tell her class about skydiving? If he’d kissed her, would she have kissed him back? Had she thought about him at all?

Just before five, Brynn stuck her head in the door. “I’m getting the guys Mexican tonight. Any requests?”

This was the way they always did things. “The guys” were actually three men and two women, including Blake. Almost every evening, the staff and the partners headed home at a reasonable time. Brynn’s last duty of the day was to pick up dinner and bring it back for the underlings who would work until bedtime. They’d get together for twenty minutes and eat in the break room, then they’d get back to work. This was the price that had to be paid to impress the partners. If you were one of the lucky ones who eventually made partner, you could look forward to eating dinner with your family or heading to the gym while the inferiors worked themselves to death to impress you.

It was madness. Blake thought of Grandpa’s letter, and suddenly he wanted to see Lydia. He wanted to read it with her. He should have shared it with her in North Carolina, but it had felt like he’d be exposing too much. He’d have been too vulnerable.

Lydia’s face flashed into his mind. Not her face when she was skydiving or walking out of Janet’s office with a look of triumph. It wasn’t her face as she enjoyed the potstickers at Charlie’s. It was the face in the window of her friend’s car as she was leaving. Suddenly, Blake understood her expression. He knew why she’d stuck her hand out awkwardly. She was feeling vulnerable, too. She’d been protecting herself.

It was time for him to do something brave. He’d share the letter and tell her how he felt. If he were a betting man, he’d wager she felt the same way, but if she didn’t, that was okay. At least he wouldn’t spend his life wondering if this was a girl he could have had a future with.

“Uh, Blake.” Brynn made his name into two syllables. “I asked if you had any requests?”

“No. I’m going to head out in just a few minutes.” Blake knew what he was doing was going to cost him, and he felt a little sick inside.

Brynn folded her arms, and her face turned hard. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’ve got some things I need to do tonight. Thanks anyway.”

Brynn stood in the doorway, watching him for what felt like a very long time. Blake could see her out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t make eye contact. He just kept working until finally, finally she left.

At a little after five-thirty, Blake closed his office door and walked past the break room. He could hear the guys in there joking and having dinner. The bell on the elevator rang as Alice Strider, one of the partners, walked up beside him. Her face held a question, but they rode the elevator to the parking garage in silence.

Lydia stapled a large piece of blue butcher paper to the first bulletin board. At the bottom of the board she planned to put the top half of a cartoon child’s face, the large eyes looking up. Above his head in the sky would be thought bubbles with inspirational quotes. She’d printed off the child’s face and the quotes last spring when she’d searched for classroom ideas on Pinterest. She pulled a large manila folder that held the printed pieces from a filing cabinet in the corner behind her desk.

The filing cabinet reminded her of Janet’s office, and she thought about Blake. What would he be doing right now? He probably had so much work to catch up that he’d be at the office late into the evening. Maybe he was eating a sandwich at his desk. He might not have time to take a phone call even if she did get up the courage.

She took the half face and stapled it on top of the blue butcher paper. It was a cute cartoon face with electric blue eyes. Hmm. Who else had eyes that color? Lydia shook her head. What was she? Fourteen?