Ginger sat on the back deck of her cozy, two-bedroom condo shadowed by a tree-lined cliff, complete with a trickling waterfall, chattering squirrels and two white-tailed deer that peered at her between the white branches of leafless sycamore trees.
It was unseasonably warm for the first week of February, and Ginger had enjoyed sunshine and temperatures in the sixties for the past four days. Why go to Hawaii when a person could get this wonderful weather literally in her own backyard?
To the front of the condo, out Ginger’s living room window, there was a view of Lake Taneycomo, and in the distance, Branson Landing, one of the most exclusive new shopping centers in the four-state area.
She was within a ten-minute drive of just about anything she could possibly want to buy. She’d made new friends at a Bible study sponsored by a newly established church in the area. She kept busy.
She got to see Lucy and Brittany at least twice a week—and had discovered yesterday she was to be an aunt again. Even more exciting, this morning her oldest son, Phillip, had called from St. Louis to tell her she would be a grandmother for the first time.
How much better did life get? What a wonderfully blessed woman she was.
So why didn’t she feel grateful? Why did she, in fact, feel like crying?
She knew some of her problem stemmed from the excitement of early January. She still had some bruises on her face and neck, though the lingering chartreuse was nearly gone. She knew Lucy and Brittany continued to struggle with disillusionment about Larry Bager’s part in the Rick Fenrow fiasco, though they basked in the love of their new parents.
What they didn’t know, and wouldn’t for years to come, was that recent evidence pointed to the probability that Larry, and not Rick, had actually been the one who’d killed Sandi. After going back over all Rick’s earlier testimony, and speaking to eyewitnesses that placed Larry in the vicinity of Sandi Jameson’s apartment on the morning of her murder, the authorities had deduced that Larry Bager had placed the final blow that killed Sandi.
Rick Fenrow may have attempted to use force to get her to tell him where the photographs were, but Larry had most likely done the final deed.
A man they had trusted with their lives had been a killer.
Good had come from these revelations. Larry’s employer no longer controlled the empire of a wealthy company. The evidence that had been hidden in the stuffed bear, Chuckles, was bringing down a whole infrastructure of evil.
Ginger closed her eyes and thanked God for protecting them, and especially the children.
She’d heard no word about her latest résumé for a missions opportunity in Chernobyl, and held little hope that she would hear anything this week. In fact, now that she knew about her grandchild, she couldn’t deny some hesitation about future prospects.
The telephone rang inside. Its shrill sound carried through the glass doors.
She tried to ignore it, listening, instead, to the trickle of water down the side of the cliff, and the call of a mourning dove in the bare-branched dogwood tree in the yard.
The phone stopped ringing, and she heard her own voice recite its spiel on the answering machine. Then a dial tone. The call was a hang-up.
Fine. If whoever it was didn’t care enough to leave a message, then it was okay if she didn’t answer.
Two seconds later came a familiar tune, the one she’d chosen for her cell phone because it always made her want to dance. Today she wanted to cover her head with a pillow and wish the world away. The tune irritated her.
With great reluctance, as if lifting a heavy weight, she pulled herself from the deck chair and slid open the glass door. The tune stopped before she could reach the cell on her kitchen counter. But it began its tune again almost immediately.
She yanked it up and flipped it open. The caller number was blocked. “Yes!”
“Are you home?”
She paused, suddenly flustered. “Ray?”
“That’s right. Are you home?”
“Yes, but—”
The doorbell rang.
“Don’t you think you’d better answer that?” he asked.
In spite of every inner warning, she felt a smile try to spread across her face. “Ray Clyde, is that you downstairs?” The front door to her condo was at the bottom of a carpeted staircase. She didn’t get a lot of company.
“Nope.”
“Oh.” She rushed to the living room, where she could barely peer out the front window and see who was standing there. It was a woman she didn’t recognize. Probably looking for the renter in the downstairs unit. That happened a lot.
“Ginger? You still there?” Ray asked.
“Can I call you back? Looks like someone needing directions.”
“I can hold.”
Ginger grimaced. “I’ll call you right back.” She snapped the phone shut, and as her toes sank into the thick carpet on the stairs, she couldn’t help wondering why she and Ray always seemed to be at odds. It was as if they were born to disagree about practically everything.
And she really didn’t want it to be that way.
She opened the door to find the lost lady smiling, holding a huge basket of tropical goodies—a coconut, a pineapple, passion fruit and guava, with packets of coffees grown in Kauai, and a beautiful, huge red poinsettia centerpiece. And a teddy bear with a Hawaiian grass skirt.
“Uh.” Ginger gaped at the smiling woman. “Hello. This is 170B, not A. Are you sure you have the right place?”
The lady, blond and petite and wearing a Realtor badge on her jacket that identified her as Jan, laughed. “You know a hunk named Ray Clyde? Because if you refuse this gift from a man like that, I’d be glad to take him off your hands.”
“Ray sent this?”
“Yes, and I’d say he went to quite a bit of trouble to do it. We don’t have a lot of guava in Missouri. Or passion fruit, for that matter.”
Ginger thanked the woman and took the basket, then once more looked around outside. Could he be lurking in the shadows to see what her reaction would be? How could the woman know he was a hunk if she hadn’t actually laid eyes on him?
After three weeks of not hearing a word from him, now he was sending her fruit and flower baskets?
Still…she took the bounty upstairs and set it on the kitchen table, then searched for a card. There was none. She did, however, find chocolate candy. Dark chocolate with coconut, pineapple and macadamia nuts.
She was sinking her teeth into a corner of the rich, decadent bar when her cell phone rang again. She reached for it and flipped it open. “Thank you,” she said with a slightly full mouth.
“You’re really speaking to me?” he asked.
She chewed and swallowed. “Why wouldn’t I?”
There was a pause, then, “You haven’t heard from Future Investments?”
She caught her breath and nearly choked on a macadamia nut. Oh, no. What had he done now? “Not in the past few days.” Future Investments was the mission organization that sent food and medical care into some of the most politically dangerous countries in the world. It was one of the groups with whom she had applied for a position. “Ray Clyde—”
“I told them the truth when they asked for a recommendation.”
She slowly folded the wrapping back over the candy and put it away. “Mind telling me what that truth was?”
“That you are as honest as the day is long.”
All right! “You should be arrested for heavy-handed clichés.”
“And that you couldn’t keep your mouth shut about sensitive information.”
Ray Clyde was going to die. “Ever cracked a coconut?” she snapped.
“Uh, I don’t see what a coconut has to do—”
“Your head would work. I’ve got the—”
“Now, Ginger, hold on. I have another idea you might want to hear before you go busting heads.”
“I’m not interested in—”
The doorbell rang again. Ginger flipped the cell phone shut and laid it on the counter.
Ray braced himself for the door to open. He’d done it again, and he wasn’t sorry. Ginger didn’t need to be in another dangerous situation. He’d simply told the truth. Her mouth could get her killed.
The door flew back, nearly hitting the wall behind it. Ginger’s face was flushed, her eyes blazing. She looked as if she’d lost more weight in the past three weeks.
She looked tired. And angry, of course. It wouldn’t do to mention his observations aloud at this moment. At least the bruises were almost gone, though he had a feeling she didn’t want to hear that, either.
Her eyes told him he really wouldn’t have to say much to hang himself. “You told them what?”
“The truth.” He kept his voice calm, and tried to infuse it with all the tenderness he felt for her. “I’m not going to lie, even for you. Especially not for you, since you do have that bad tendency to get yourself into trouble in certain situations, and I’m not going to contribute to—”
“Well, why don’t you tell me exactly what it is you think I’m qualified to do, since I have such a tendency to put myself in danger.”
“I have a perfect—”
“No, wait, you obviously don’t think I have a brain in my head when it comes to dealing with people, so—”
“You know better. I have complete faith—”
“And traveling is obviously out.” She turned to lead the way up the stairs. “Since I’m likely to jump-start a third world war if I even set foot in a foreign country.”
“I need you in Columbia.”
Her steps faltered, her momentum slowed. She reached out and grasped the banister, then continued up the steps without acknowledging what he said. Was it his imagination, or were her shoulders not quite as stiff, her movements not quite as jerky?
He followed her. “I realize Columbia, Missouri, is not a foreign country, but there are children in our own state who have been abandoned, who have nothing, and who need someone to take care of them. Lots of children.”
She turned and looked down at him. Her warm brown eyes no longer blazed, but they mirrored confusion. “You’re telling me to start an orphanage in Columbia?”
“I’m…no. I’m telling you I need…I’m offering you a job.”
She blinked. “You think you can keep me out of trouble if I work for you in your practice?”
“Actually, it’s a two-part offer, but I’ll get to the rest later.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she put her hands on her hips. “I think you’d better explain what you’re talking about. I’ve had enough of your word games today.”
He swallowed. Ray Clyde, there’s no doubt you have a definite way with women. A bad way. “Okay, it’s like this. I’ve loved you for years, Ginger, you know that.”
“Old news. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and realized that there are all kinds of love, Ray. Friends love each other. Even some enemies love each other, which is sick, but the Bible does say to love your enemy. Are you sure you aren’t talking about that kind of love?”
“Never in my life have I thought of you as my enemy.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
He took her hand, held it up, rubbed the back of it with his fingers. “It felt like the stab of a knife every time you left to go back to Belarus, but I made sure you always went back, because that was where your heart was.”
She swallowed. “We’re covering old ground here,” she said, but her voice had softened.
He barely concealed his frustration. How could one woman be so bullheaded and obstinate?
And yet, her determination was one of the things he loved about her. “I know you have a lot to offer,” he said. “Your life as a missionary hasn’t ended, and neither has your career with GlobeMed.”
“GlobeMed is an international mission board.”
“Sure it is,” he said, “but that doesn’t preclude us from having a mission in our own state. There’s a great need for another children’s home, and the funding has come through. I’m looking for someone who can be the director.”
Her eyebrows raised. “And that would be…?”
“You.”
For once, she appeared speechless. He pressed the initiative. “You would be the best person for the position, Ginger. Your heart is always softest when it comes to children.”
She studied him closely. “You’re serious?”
“Totally.”
Her expression lightened further. “You’re offering me the job?”
“That’s what I’m doing, and as with your position in Belarus, you would be paid a salary. You wouldn’t have to campaign for your support. We need you there, Ginger.”
Her eyes—those beautiful eyes—widened. He had her. He knew it, and it was all he could do not to smile in triumph.
She withdrew her hand from his and turned away from him. “I’ll have to think about it.”
He gritted his teeth. She was toying with him, but he knew how to handle her now. “Then think about this, as well. From time to time, you may also be asked to travel out of country to help establish other children’s homes.”
She turned back. Grudging interest sparked in her eyes.
“I know how much you love to travel,” he said.
“Is that the second part of the deal you mentioned?”
“Uh, no, that isn’t it.” He swallowed.
“Is this why you drove all the way here from Columbia?” she asked, sinking, at last, onto the sofa, and gesturing for him to join her. “To offer me a job? The telephone’s a lot more convenient.”
He didn’t move. For the moment, he couldn’t even think straight, much less focus on the effort it would take to decide where to sit—whether to light right beside her, or take the recliner across from her, or sit on the floor and babble like an idiot.
She frowned and cocked her head. “Ray?”
He cleared his throat. “This directorship is an important position.”
“So?”
“I thought I might have some convincing to do, since you and I seldom see eye to eye about anything, and this job would mean spending a lot more time with me.”
“If I were to take the job, that wouldn’t be a problem.”
“We might not always agree about the way things should be done.”
She shook her head. “That’s supposed to be news to me? Why did you drive all the way here to offer me a job?”
He sat down beside her then. “Because the second part of the deal is a lot more important, and it wasn’t something I could talk to you about over the telephone.”
“This is the second part of the job offer?”
He shrugged. “I think I might have said that wrong. It isn’t exactly…what I mean to say is, there’s a little more to it than…”
She leaned forward. “Why, Ray Clyde, I think you’re blushing.”
“I might be.”
She rested her elbows on her knees. “You know, it’s amazing that a man as fearless as you, who has no trouble talking about anything else, or proposing anything else, is afraid to propose marriage.”
He stared into her eyes. Her face was so close it would be easy to lean forward and kiss her. “I’m a coward at heart.”
“I’ve been afraid, too,” she said, lifting a hand to touch his cheek. “But my biggest fear has been that I wouldn’t see you again.”
He swallowed, catching the scent of plumeria. She’d purchased a bottle of that perfume in Kauai. “So does this mean you’ll marry me?”
Her eyes once more filled with laughter. She nodded. “It’s the only way you’ll get me to Columbia.” She leaned closer and touched her lips to his, so lightly it almost tickled.
Before she could change her mind and back away, he caught her in his arms, pressing his lips to her chin, her cheek, her forehead as he held her close. “Did I mention that I love you?”
Her laughter filled the room and echoed in his heart. For the first time in many years, everything in his world felt right.