10

Andrew stood with his thick arms outstretched at forty-five degrees, hands braced on the door frame of Jake’s room, his rugged, six-two body filling the opening.

“What’s Peter’s surprise?”

“No idea,” Jake said.

Andrew glanced around the small room and then at the twin bed Jake sat on. “Nice bed. Nice décor. Looks like a girl’s room.”

“Probably was, but this is the room the single guy gets. But hey”—Jake pointed at a long bookshelf to his right—“pretty decent collection of kids’ books. Takes me back.”

“That’s good?”

“One of the best escapes from my dad.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Andrew pointed at the book in Jake’s hand. “What’s that one?”

“The Silver Chair. C. S. Lewis.”

“I’ve heard of it. A King Arthur story, right?”

“No. You know The Chronicles of Narnia? You’ve heard of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, right?”

“Sure.”

“That’s the first one of seven—in the original order anyway. The Silver Chair is the fourth book in the series. Far and away my favorite. Probably read it five times before I turned twelve.”

“That’s the one about the girls who become queens.”

“Actually it’s about a prince named Rilian, who is the only heir to the throne of Narnia, and his father is dying. Rilian vanished ten years earlier and the kingdom’s greatest champions have disappeared or been killed trying to find him. Because of this, even though his heart is broken, the elderly king forbids anyone else from searching for Prince Rilian. So the great lion Aslan sends two children from our world to find and rescue him. They eventually find him deep in the earth. He’s been enchanted by a witch, who turns out to be a serpent, but in the end they set him free from his enchantment. The end.”

“Rilian forgot who he was.”

“Yeah.”

“Sounds like a good one. Really good.”

They stared at each other, Andrew’s eyes telling Jake something so clear, he didn’t want to admit it.

“Listen, J, I’m never going to be as eloquent as my better three-quarters, but let me just say I care about what you’re going through just as much as Susie does. You’re going to make it out the other side of this tunnel. Find out who you are again.”

Andrew lumbered over to the bed, plopped down next to Jake, threw his arm around Jake’s neck, and yanked him close. “And you know I’m here for you no matter what. Yeah?”

A shout came from downstairs. Sounded like Camille. “Dinner! Now!”

Andrew shook his head and grinned. “I think we better roll.”

“No doubt.”

Three minutes later they all sat around the myrtlewood table now filled with Peter’s culinary wizardry. Before they began to dine, Susie gave her glass a quick rap with her fork and they turned their attention to her. “I’d like to propose a toast to our tenth year of being together.”

“Hear, hear,” Peter said.

But before Susie could begin, a knock on the front door echoed through the room. Jake turned to Peter and frowned, but his friend was already on his feet, loping toward the entry. He glanced around the table. Susie gave him a nervous look. Andrew had a sudden interest in studying his food. Camille gave him a Cheshire-cat smile and Jake’s stomach clenched. Peter’s surprise was a person? This would not be good.

Jake twisted in his seat toward the front door, but his vision was blocked by the fireplace.

“You made it.” Peter’s voice was soft but Jake still heard the smile wrapped around his greeting.

A softer voice, female, said, “So sorry I’m late. Got a little lost after I found the town.”

“I’m just glad you chose to come.”

“Didn’t think I was going to.”

“But you did. A wise decision. You’re going to have a great time. I promise.”

Then silence. Knowing Peter, he was giving this new arrival a quick hug.

Their voices grew softer and he couldn’t make out the words. Jake stared at Susie, who sat at the end of the table and had a view of the front door. She glanced at him with a mix of compassion and expectation in her eyes, and Jake knew he was going to administer a slow death to Peter as soon as he had the chance.

His ol’ buddy Pete had grabbed the brass ring of romance and melted it down into a yellow, misshapen glob. This was beyond awkward setups and chance meetings. It was a betrayal and without question would ruin the week.

“Ready?” Peter’s voice filled the room.

“Sure.”

“Good. Here we go, you’re about to be onstage.” Peter laughed and their footsteps echoed on the maple hardwood floors.

A second later, Jake’s heart rate spiked. It was her. Ari. The woman he’d met in Peter’s office. Same long dark hair, trim figure, those eyes that without question hid a great deal behind them, and skin that had seen more of the sun since he’d met her back in May. He looked away and ignored the feelings that tried to surface.

“Friends,” Peter said, “I’d like to introduce you to a buddy of Camille’s and mine, Ari Conwell. As a result of significant arm-twisting and constant nagging, not to mention the fact that she works for me, she’s agreed to join us for part of the week. That way when we play games that require pairs, the teams will be even. That’s the entire reason Ari is here. Nothing more.”

Ari grinned and lifted her hands in mock surrender.

“Don’t worry. I warned her that we like to go deeper than most folks with our conversations and she’s okay with that.” Peter glanced at Ari. “Mostly okay. I told her she could plead the fifth at any time during the week. But no more than once of course.”

Jake again glanced at the faces of his friends. None of them looked surprised at seeing this party crasher. Not a big shocker.

“I’ll get to intros in a second, but first a bit about Ari. I met her eleven months ago when she started working at my company and she almost immediately became part of the group that gathers at our home every Wednesday night. She’s lived in the Northwest most of her years and now spends her days helping me negotiate contracts.” Peter rubbed his hands together and glanced at Ari. “Now, let me tell you a few snippets about these ragamuffins around the table.”

He pointed at the head of the table. “That’s Susie Hawthorne. Susie was born in Minnesota but moved to the San Fran Bay area with her family in third grade, and she’s been there ever since. She’s an indie singer-songwriter with a solid career going, and she’s still crazy about the Minnesota Vikings even though she hasn’t lived there for, uh, a number of years, and they’re one of only two teams to go to the Super Bowl four times and never win. No, we can’t figure out why she still loves them either.

“Next to her is her husband, Andrew. He’s into high tech and systems, one of those people who actually understands security and computers and is smarter than I could ever be even with three lifetimes of brains. Plus he has the most amazing collection of Hot Wheels cars you’ll ever see in your life.

“They have three sons and one daughter, and they’ve been known to start making out in the middle of dinner, card games, or on the water out in the boat with all of us there. You’ve been warned.”

“We do not!” Peter ducked as Susie tossed a roll at his head.

“Camille you know, which brings us to the legendary Jake Palmer, who you met briefly in my office in May. He’s been my best friend in the world and universe and beyond since our first day of college together and is generally regarded as one of the best corporate trainers on the planet. At least that’s what he tells me, but I’ve never really believed him and you shouldn’t either.”

Jake tried to smile but he was certain it came across as more of a grimace. Ari gave him a little wave and a tiny smile that threatened to drag those asinine feelings up out of his gut. “Okay.” Peter clapped his hands. “Let’s grab you a plate and a chair and a glass.”

A few minutes later, Ari sat next to Susie, directly across the table from Jake. At least Peter wasn’t sadistic enough to seat Ari beside him, but directly across from him was almost as bad.

Peter nodded at Susie. “Now how ’bout that toast?”

Susie stood and glanced at each of them before she began.

“To old friends, and new friends we’re soon to grow close to.” She tipped her glass to Ari. “Ten years of friendship is a long time. Most friendships come and go. But not ours, no, not ours. Isn’t there a little voice deep inside that says we’ll still be toasting our little group in another ten years? In another twenty? I’m certainly hearing that voice. So here’s to a week of love and laughter and adventure and celebrating life, going deep and seizing the unquenchable future. And remember, it’s not a true toast unless you look in everyone’s eyes before you drink and hold their gaze for at least a second. To us!”

They all raised their glasses and clinked them together. When Jake’s glass met Ari’s he did look at her, but for much less than a second. He couldn’t even be certain their eyes met. Welcome to the next ten days.

The first half of the meal consisted of Jake making controlled and polite conversation while focusing most of his energy on not looking at Ari and trying to catch Peter’s eye so he could scorch his friend with his gaze. But Peter didn’t glance his direction once.

Between the meal and dessert, Andrew raised his glass and said, “One more toast before we get our sugar fix. Today marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Susie’s first album. Which would not be in existence but for Mr. Palmer. To you, Jake.”

“Indeed!” Susie said as she and Peter and Camille joined Andrew in the toast.

“What happened?” Ari asked.

Susie pointed at Jake, who motioned with his hand to indicate less is more.

“Through his training he met the head of a small record label. Jake convinced her to listen to my music, then he and Andrew talked me off the ledge every time I thought I wasn’t going to make it, and Jake even spent three weeks with us as I was making my first record. Without his support and belief in me, it never would have happened.”

“You’re embarrassing me, Sooz.”

“Good. For a second there I didn’t think it was working.”

“Ahhhh, yes, it is.” Jake covered his eyes with his hand and sighed.

“By the way, Jake didn’t limit his efforts to Susie and Andrew,” Peter said as he looked at Ari.

“Oh really?”

Peter raised his glass again and looked at Jake. “Do you want me to tell them what you did for me and my business? Or what you did for Camille and me for our honeymoon? I think Ari might be interested.”

“No, bud. I think you’ve already done quite enough this evening.”