The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) (29 page)

‘Hell yes,’ he said. He slid into a pair of sweats and joined her just as she scooped the food onto two plates and served up the coffee. As Harris settled in next to her at the breakfast bar with a sloppy kiss and a grope of her nearly exposed cleavage, he was pretty sure he could get used to this. He knew one thing for damned sure. He had every intention of making sure that Stacie Emerson got good and used to it, because he wasn’t about to let her slip away now that he had her right where he wanted her.

Epilogue

Four Months Later

It was a hideous place, the place of nightmares, not the place for a park, not the place for a picnic, but nevertheless there was a gathering of people, there was laughter and chatter. There was the snapping of cameras and maneuvering of microphones by the press. Perhaps it was her imagination, perhaps it was only what she could see in her mind’s eye, but Stacie could swear there was a very slight haze of green now growing over the ruinous wastes of the Bald Hill clear-cut.

There was spontaneous applause as she stepped forward to the portable podium and looked out over the sea of people dressed for the great outdoors. The rain had stopped in the night and the mud under foot wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. She was extremely pleased by the turnout.

‘Thank you all so much for coming,’ she said, smiling out over the crowd. Then she turned to take in the surroundings. ‘I know it looks like something out of Dante’s
Inferno
at the moment, but you’re no longer looking at a desolate place. You’re looking at a place full of hope and promise. I was up here just last week helping to place erosion barriers, and if I’m not mistaken, I saw some of you up here doing the same. When I used to come here as a girl, the slopes were covered with lodge pole and ponderosa pine, Pacific silver fir, and Douglas fir. I used to pick huckleberries on these slopes with Ellis and Garrett Thorne. And over there –’ she pointed ‘– the rhodies, when they were in bloom, were so bright that you almost needed sunglasses to see them.’ She paused, looking around her again. ‘It’s a beginning; placing the erosion barriers is a beginning. And though the process will take time, when our children’s children are ready to pick huckleberries and hike these slopes so they can watch the stars from the rocky top, they’ll be able to enjoy what I did, what Ellis and Garrett did, what so many others did. This is what Vigilant Trust is all about. And though it was conceived by two men I adore, one who’s my dear friend and another who’s my husband –’

She had to pause once more as the crowd erupted in a spontaneous cheer, and she glanced down at the wedding ring Harris Walker had placed on her finger just two days ago. She wouldn’t have thought it could happen so soon, and a few months ago, she never thought she’d say yes to anyone, but it was right. It was as it should be, and if anything, the past few months had reminded her that there are no guarantees and no promises of tomorrow. You can’t put a price on the present nor on the privilege of being the keeper of someone else’s heart. She shot Harris a quick smile, and he smiled back.

When the crowd was quiet again, she continued. ‘Though Vigilant Trust was conceived by two men I adore, it’s people like you, every one of you, who make it a reality. Vigilant Trust is everyone out there who wants to leave a legacy to future generations that’s rich in biodiversity, that’s as endlessly beautiful and fascinating for our grandchildren and for their grandchildren as it was for me and for Ellis and Garrett Thorne. And, most importantly, we’ll leave those generations a legacy of living in harmony with the natural world so that all of us, feathered, furred, scaled or human, can benefit.’

She paused again, feeling the tightening around her heart she’d known this moment would bring, feeling the sense of laying to rest something that had ached inside her for so long she’d forgotten what it was like to be free of that ache. Everyone waited politely until she gathered herself. She looked up and smiled broadly. ‘Right now, you’re all standing on the edge of Zoe’s Woods. The trailhead will be where Wade Crittenden is standing over there with the red ribbon.’ She nodded to Wade and everyone turned to look. ‘Use your imagination if you would. Right now, you’re standing in what will become a field of natural grasses and wildflowers, just like it was before the erosion from clear-cut destroyed it. There’ll be a picnic table or two, and the rest will be left for nature to reclaim, with a little bit of coaxing from us, and from Vigilant Trust.’

Again there was applause, more prolonged this time. Then Stacie took the scissors offered to her by Ellis, who kissed her warmly on the cheek. She walked down to where Wade stood and cut the red ribbon that was staked symbolically across the place where the trailhead would be. There was another round of applause, and the crowd began to disperse, with those who had come to volunteer for the day’s efforts going to the edge of the logging road where several people in park ranger uniforms waited to show them what their jobs would be.

Wade was the first to offer an uncharacteristic hug. ‘Good news on all fronts,’ he told her. ‘Sportwide Extreme Adventures has booked their first eco-tours to Valderia and they’re employing an all-Valderian staff. Looks like the failed coup has been a kick in President Vasquez’s ass to protect the country’s wilderness and push through some serious reforms.’

‘Al sends congratulations,’ Dee said, giving Stacie a bear hug. ‘He says he’d do anything for you, but not tromp around in the gawddamned mud, and I quote.’ She was just off the plane from Atlanta, where she’d been observing the reopening of the first of Al’s refitted paper mills.

Stacie laughed at Dee’s poor imitation of Al’s accent, knowing full well that Al wouldn’t have missed the dedication if he’d been busy reopening his mill to be the first of its kind to use the Trouvères eco-friendly technology, another win-win deal from Pneuma Inc.

‘Oh, and he asked me to give you this.’ Dee dug in her daypack and pulled out a padded jewelry box, completely incongruous with the place.

Stacie opened it with her heart in her throat. Sure enough, it was the restrung pearls, and displayed in the box next to them was a matching bracelet. Stacie wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, unable to hold back a tear or two that the pearls were once again ready to wear.

‘He said he’d planned to give you the bracelet at the exhibition,’ Dee said. ‘But he thought under the circumstances the dedication of Zoe’s Woods was the perfect time to give them to you.’

As Stacie carefully closed the box and placed it in her bag, Kendra and Garrett group-hugged her, nearly smothering her in their congratulatory enthusiasm. K. Ryde was already hard at work on a PR program for Vigilant Trust that was nothing short of genius. But, of course, K. Ryde didn’t attend the dedication.

From where he stood talking to his daughter, who was there with the press, Martin Flannery gave her two thumbs up. And was Stacie mistaken or was Wade giving Carla Flannery the eye? OK, so she was a bit of a romantic these days, but stranger things had been known to happen.

Yes, stranger things had been known to happen, she thought as her gaze sought out Harris, and the butterfly dance in her stomach erupted at the sight of him. Her husband; he was now officially her husband. She still could hardly get her head round the thought. He stood a little bit away from the knot of friendly faces talking on his BlackBerry. He offered her that dry smile that always made her smile back, then he shoved the BlackBerry back in his pocket and came to her side, his eyes sparkling in a way that told her something was up.

‘That was Doug,’ Harris said as he gathered her to him in a deliciously possessive hug. ‘He’s seen our mountain lion. She has three kittens and he thinks if we’re lucky and we behave ourselves she might be up for receiving a visit from old friends. What do you say to that, wife?’

‘I say pack up the Jeep and let’s go, husband. Ingrid Watson won’t be coming here till next week to discuss her exhibition, and until then, there’s nothing that Jenny can’t do without me.’

She lifted her arms around his neck and he took her mouth in a long and lingering kiss.

‘Get a room, you two!’ Garrett Thorne teased.

Harris flipped him the finger with one hand while the other gave Stacie’s backside a solicitous grope.

‘Galina’s cooked up a feast back home,’ Ellis said. ‘It’d be a shame to let it get cold.’ He nodded toward the road and slid an arm around Dee’s waist as the procession headed in that direction. ‘Besides,’ he said, offering one of his winning smiles to Stacie and Harris, ‘you haven’t really had a chance to celebrate your nuptials with your friends yet. You caught us all by surprise.’

It had been a surprise, Stacie thought, but it was right. And when Harris had asked her to marry him after a picture-perfect Central Oregon day kayaking on the Deschutes River – well, neither of them could really think of any reason to wait. Stacie looked around at the small knot of friends, the people she had come to love. She would never have imagined a few short months ago that she could be this happy, that her life could ever be so full again. She sometimes wondered if it were only a dream. But then the man walking beside her with his arm around her waist leaned in close, gave her ear a humid kiss, and said, ‘I love you, Stacie Emerson-Walker. God, I like the sound of that, don’t you?’

And she did. She truly did. It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.

An Executive Decision Trilogy

By Grace Marshall