The Big 5-Oh! (23 page)

The terminal screen indicated that her flight was running about twenty minutes late; however, by the time she made it to the gate, the announcement was being made that Flight #2436 to Cincinnati had been canceled due to weather.

Liv stepped into the long line of passengers to inquire about an alternate flight, but no more than five minutes passed before
she realized how futile it was. People were turned away in fast little spurts, and finally one of them tossed a bone to the crowd as she passed.

“They’ll make an announcement in the next thirty minutes about whether we’ll be able to get an alternate flight.”

Liv took a seat by the massive window and watched the clouds roll around for a while, wondering what she would tell Becky in Human Resources if she wasn’t able to get home in time to report to the O.R. on Monday morning. Surely a flight would be available on Sunday, if not that day. And yet …

She couldn’t help it. Hope that she would somehow be delayed sprouted from the very center of her. Speculation brushed large, sweeping strokes around the circumference of her mind. For instance, what might she wear to Rand's wedding? And how would she feel standing there next to Jared as Shelby and Rand skipped dipping their toes in the water in deference to just diving right into their feelings for one another.

The rain hit the window in gusts, and there was a certain rhythm to it that reminded her of something. Liv searched its melody to figure out what it was until, at last, she just smiled as she recalled the spray of salty water alongside Jared's Sun Runner as they pushed along through the Gulf. Those days out on the water with Jared were days she would never—

The jingle of Liv's cell phone cut her thoughts cleanly in two.

“Are you okay?” Hallie cried the moment she put phone to ear. “I just saw on the news that the weather down there is dreadful. Are you on the plane?”

“No. My flight was canceled. I’m waiting to hear if I can schedule the next one.”

“Well, at least you’re warm and dry. For the moment. How was it … saying good-bye to Jared?”

“Excruciating.”

“Have you developed feelings for him?”

Liv bit her lip. She could hear the hopeful joy in Hallie's tone. She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair.

“Liv?”

“Kind of.”

“What does that mean?”

She groaned. “It means yes. I’ve developed feelings for Jared.”

“More information, please.”

“There's nothing else to tell,” she said. “I live in Ohio; he lives in Florida. I have a job to go back to, a house I’m responsible for, and he has a whole life here.”

“You know, they’ve come up with these fantastic new things now, Olivia. They’re called
moving vans
. It's where you load up all of your belongings, and they transport them to another location. People all across the country are picking up and starting lives in other places.”

“Just a couple more years, and I’m fully vested for retirement, Hallie. After that, I can go anywhere I want. But until then—”

“And what if Jared meets someone else in the meantime?”

“If it's meant to be, he won’t.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Hallie, please. It's hard enough.”

“But it doesn’t have to be. I’ve known you forever. You haven’t accepted a single date since Rob died, and don’t think I don’t know there have been invitations.”

“What?”

“Ray Gillium down at the coffee bar. And the manager at the Mexican restaurant down on Fountain Square. Sam something.”

Liv sniffed. “How do you know this?”

“I’ve got people. Anyway, now you’ve met someone, you’ve allowed yourself to fall for him, which is a bona fide miracle if you ask me, and you’re sitting there waiting to fly away from him? I know you’re aware of how seldom connections develop between people. Granted, I haven’t seen you two together, but I do know you both. And if you’re falling in love with Jared, you need to man up and make plans to bridge the gap in whatever way you can.”

“Are you finished?”

“Almost. I just want to say one more thing.”

“And that would be?”

“I know you think every bad thing that happens within two weeks on either side of your birthday is because of the whole curse theory, but sometimes things are thrown in your path to get you going in the right direction. Like a tropical storm that stops you from leaving the man you’re falling in love with.”

“So God sent a storm that would torment thousands of people on the west coast of Florida, just so I wouldn’t leave Jared today?”

“Of course not,” Hallie replied. “That's just the perk.”

“You’re a nut.”

“I’m not as nutty as you are, Miss Birthday Curse Believer.”

“Well, I may be rethinking that whole curse thing.”

“No!”

“That's right. It's entirely possible that I am not a wretched, pitiful woman with a birthday cloud hanging over my head each and every year.”

“I’m stunned.”

“Imagine how I feel.”

“So this year there was no crushing blow about which you’ll tell the sad tale for years to come?”

“Honestly?”

“Of course.”

“There were some unexpected twists and turns, like Clayton's heart attack and a tree falling on Georgia Brown's car in your mother's driveway—”

“What!?”

“—but what I’ll remember from this birthday is a chocolate espresso birthday cake and a kiss at midnight from a man who makes my knees weak.”

“Oh, Liv. You’ve got to figure out a way to make it work.”

“I know. But how?”

“Any way you can find.”

“I’ll call you once I’m on a plane.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Liv tucked her cell phone into her bag and sighed.

Lord, I haven’t prayed as much in the last five years as I have in the two weeks since I went to church with Jared, but I’m so grateful that you’ve reminded me that you’re still there. I’ve never felt about anyone in my entire life the way I feel about Jared Hunt. Please give me a sign? Tell me what to do.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the woman announced from the counter at the gate, “we want to thank you for your patience today. We do regret to inform you that Tropical Storm Millicent has been upgraded to a hurricane, expected to make landfall just north of Sarasota over the next six hours. All flights out of Fort Myers have been canceled until further notice.”

Liv realized that her jaw had dropped, and her mouth was hanging open.

“Careful,” her grandmother used to say on such occasions. “You’ll catch flies.”

Liv let the current of people move her down the long corridor, wondering whether she would be able to get a taxi when everyone else in the vicinity had the same idea.

“What are we going to do?” the woman in front of them asked her husband. “Where will we go? And, Tommy, I have to be back at work tomorrow.”

“I know, baby. We’ll figure something out.”

Liv slowed down at the sudden whiff of brewing coffee with the thought of stopping to purchase one for the road, but she almost caused a pedestrian pileup. Skirting a collision with an elderly couple ahead of her, she stepped up the pace.

Liv jumped when someone touched her shoulder. She twirled around and looked into familiar eyes with a gasp.

“Need a ride?” Jared asked, and a smile spread across Liv's face as if someone had plugged it in and suddenly flipped a switch.

“You made the journey to the Enchanted Pond so that you could be refreshed,” Horatio reminded her. “But do you think you might want to stay?”

“Stay, and leave the meadow behind?” she clarified. “Forever?! Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“Well, perhaps you’d like to take another day before we set out for home. Just to think it over.”

“I don’t suppose another day would hurt anything. Just to think it over.”

T
he drive back to Sanibel was treacherous in the face of storm-force winds, downpour clusters, and low visibility. Liv belted herself in and then clutched the seatbelt with both hands. Ella Fitzgerald crooned softly from the stereo, but the outside noise was so furious that, at times, Ella fell silent beneath it.

“I’ll bet Boofer is scared half to death,” Liv commented.

“We’ll be there soon.”

“Jared, have you checked on Clayton today?”

“I have. They said he's resting comfortably and requesting a better television so he can watch some special programming tonight about the next Bucs season.”

Liv laughed and shook her head. “The man does love his football.”

“He's a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, through and through,” Jared replied.

“He could start a memorabilia store over at his house. Do you know he's even got Bucs plates and coffee cups?”

“The blanket on his bed is a huge Buccaneers logo.”

“Oh, you’re joking.”

“I kid you not.”

“That's classic.”

Conversation took a fast and certain nosedive as two cars screeched to a stop in front of them, and then swerved around a downed tree in the road. Liv realized she was still holding her breath after Jared had navigated around it and was half a mile down the road.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “Have you?”

“Oh, this isn’t my first hurricane season in Florida. I’ve pretty much seen it all. But you never really get accustomed to it. Every season brings new challenges.”

“I think I’ll stick to shoveling snow and layering my clothes, thank you very much.”

“Ah, yes,” Jared replied. “But remember, we’ll get rainstorms, and power outages, but hurricane season doesn’t necessarily mean hurricanes. How many winters do you have with no snow?”

“None. But ask me how many times I’ve had an alligator at my back door.”

“That's unusual for most people here in Florida. You’re just some sort of weird magnet,” he chuckled.

“It's the whole birthday thing. It throws off the balance of nature.”

Jared grinned, shaking his head. “After the rainy season, the rest of the year here is paradise,” he reminded her. “Blue skies, 70 or 80 degrees, the Gulf breeze.”

“You sound like the top salesman for Florida tourism.”

“Yeah? How am I doing? Are you sold yet?”

Liv cast a quick smile in Jared's direction, and then continued to watch the road ahead of them.

“Because I could go on, you know. I could tell you about the manatees, the fresh local seafood, maybe regale you with a tale or two about being barefoot on the beach from April through October, breaking a sweat on a bike ride on Christmas Day.”

“All right, all right,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “That's enough. I get it.”

Liv recognized the turn into Josie's neighborhood, and she puffed out a shaky sigh of relief.

“I’ve got to call Hallie and Josie to let them know that I’ll be staying with Boofer after all.”

“Will you also call your job?” Jared asked.

“I don’t think so. It's Saturday. And I might still be able to get a flight home tomorrow.”

Disappointment cascaded over her even as she spoke the words, and Liv glanced over to see telltale signs of the same emotion on Jared's face.

“I was kind of hoping you’d be able to stay for the wedding tomorrow.”

“Will they still have it, with the weather like this?”

“If I know my son, yes. They’ll just move it indoors.”

Liv noticed a few houses on the street with light shining from their front windows as Jared turned into Josie's driveway.

“It looks like we’ve still got power here. Do you want to stay for dinner?” she asked him. “It's just a frozen lasagna Josie left for me.”

“I can be back within the hour.”

When the car came to a stop, Liv reached over and squeezed Jared's arm. “Thank you for checking on my flight, and then coming to get me, Jared. I can only imagine how I’d be feeling right now if I was still stuck in the airport, wondering what to do.”

“Leave your bag,” he told her with a warm smile. “I’ll bring it over when I come.”

Liv slipped out of the car and slammed the door behind her before she took off running up the front sidewalk. The rain came down in buckets, and by the time she klunked into the house, Liv was drenched.

Boofer didn’t even bark at her; she just moseyed toward her and sniffed her leg.