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“I’M SO SORRY.” CHARITY side-shuffled so she stood in front of Margaret. “I didn’t realize... My apologies.” Had Margaret even noticed T&A walk right by her? The fierce woman probably thought it had been her holding up the line the entire time. Charity squared her shoulders and held her hand out. “My condolences with the loss of your husband.”
Margaret shook her hand. She smiled politely. “Thank you, but you never met the man. You can’t possibly commiserate or sympathize with how I feel.”
Charity blinked in surprise. Seriously? Could the woman be any ruder to her? She’d brushed off the earlier comments and made excuses for her harshness, but now, in the hot sun with a few drinks in her, she had to physically bite her lip to stop a retort she would regret. She glanced at Elijah but he was quietly chatting with an older gentleman and hadn’t heard. So she forced a tight smile as she pulled her hand out of the woman’s cool fingers. She turned and muttered, “No wonder Elijah left.”
“Excuse me?” Margaret spoke loudly. Nearly everyone in the tent area turned their heads to watch. “Did you say something?”
Cheeks burning, Charity thought quick and lied. “I said: I wonder how Elijah felt. How he feels, you know, with being so far away and losing his father.” She met Margaret’s glare and blinked innocently; meanwhile her heart pumped a furious rhythm so loud she was sure everyone could hear. Could this trip feel any more awkward? Margaret’s Jekyll and Hyde personality seemed aimed directly at Charity. Either the woman wanted to use her as her punching bag or ... Charity refused to let herself finish the thought.
Out of the corner of her eye a large white truck with a green and blue symbol on it pulled along the parking area near the grass. The New Zealand Conservation had arrived. She spoke quietly, not sure if Margaret would be angry if she gave the “secret” away. “The endangered birds have arrived. Why don’t I go speak with them and see where a good spot for their release will be?”
“Yes, check with them. Tell them we’ll be ready in about an hour or so.”
The way she spoke made Charity feel like someone hired to set this up. She walked over to the tall, thin driver who had already gotten out of the truck and had opened the back doors of the trailer. It took a bit to get to the parking area from the tent.
“Hi, I’m Charity Thompson.” She held out her hand. The man wore a tag on his shirt that read Bobby. “I’m the one who called you guys and set this all up.”
Bobby smiled and shook her hand vigorously. “Cool. These guys are ready to get out of this heat cabin and off into the wild.” He glanced across the lawn and gave a low whistle. “They said this place was a palace. Man, they were right.”
Charity laughed. “I thought the same thing when I got here.”
“You American?”
She nodded. The smell coming from inside the van wafted over with the breeze. She crinkled her nose. “I was thinking it would be cool to release them on the beach and let them fly over the water.”
Bobby laughed. “You sure are American. Kiwi don’t fly, sweetie. These little suckers just run, like an ostrich. ‘Cept loads smaller.”
Could this day get any worse? How in the world had she not known that? So they would be releasing basically brown, rodent sized birds which were going to run around the grass until they found somewhere to hide. Margaret was going to love this special send-off for her dearly departed husband.
“Mrs. Bennet would like to do the release in about an hour if that’s alright. She had mentioned to do it along the beach but if you have another suggestion?”
Bobby shook his head. “We can’t keep these guys in here for an hour. They’ll be cooked kiwi in this heat.”
“No, we can’t have that.” Crap! What was she going to do? Disappear. The thought hit her and as much as she wished to just not be here, it wouldn’t work. “Let me go down to Mrs. Bennet’s son and see what he thinks.”
“Sure, I’ll start getting all my gear out. They’ve all been tagged but I need to make sure their chips are working and all the data’s coming in.”
His comment just flew right over the top of her head. “Sure.” She jogged back over to the tent and tapped Elijah on the shoulder from behind.
He glanced back.
She began cracking her knuckles. “Do you mind helping me for a moment?”
She must have had a worried look on her face because Elijah didn’t hesitate. “Sure.” He stepped back and brought her around the back of the tent. “What’s up?”
Charity began walking back to the Conservation truck. She moved quickly. “Did you know kiwi can’t fly?”
Elijah snorted. “Uh, yeah. Everyone knows that.” He grabbed her elbow to slow her rapid pace. “Sorry, people from New Zealand know. Relax, Charity, it’s no big deal.”
She blew her bangs away from her face. “It’s no big deal? You’re freakin’ mother hates me, half the women here you’ve slept with, and I’m about to have little ugly brown birds released onto your property in memory of your father! Twenty-five wingless things your mother is going to so enjoy. They can never fly away so she’ll always be reminded of what a mess I made of this day.” She shook her head and huffed. “I should never have come! Such a stupid idea.”
“Why do you care what my hard-ass mother thinks?” Elijah’s brows furrowed together. “Even if you released a hundred flamingos that did a dance and spelled out my father’s name, she’d still find a reason to complain. That’s who she is. The kiwi are a really neat idea. My dad would have liked it – isn’t that the reason you did it?” He forced a short breath through his nose. “And I didn’t invite these people to come!”
“Oh, so your mother invited them? She knows everyone you’ve slept with? Or it’s probably not that hard to figure out... just look for every pretty girl in New Zealand.” She’d gone too far. She knew it but couldn’t take the words back. The frustration from her own mistake on not reading up on the birds and just going after whatever sounded good was her fault, not his. Who he slept with before meeting her was also not something she should be judging or exaggerating. Especially not today.
Elijah’s lips tightened and his jaw muscles twitched. “Release the damn things! Just get it over with.” He spun around and stomped away.
She sighed and let her shoulders fall as she dropped her head into her hands. Ahhh crap. She wanted to find a rock and crawl underneath it.
“Ma’am?” Bobby came up beside her, holding four cages. “I apologize if this is a tough time. Where would you like me to set the birds? I’ve a remote which will open all the cages at the same time so the kiwis can exit altogether. It’s really quite remarkable how they will run and start to pair off immediately. Shall I find a spot?”
The man spoke so sincerely, it made Charity feel worse. He mistook her posture for grieving. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Bobby walked behind the tent and around to the area where the trees came close to the water on the property. She watched him make four trips back and forth from the truck to the grass area.
Margaret came up silently beside her. “I guess your true colors are showing.”
Charity swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m so sorry, I...” She’d misunderstood. Margaret was so casually cruel it took a moment for her words to sink in before Charity realized what she had meant. She stared at Bobby bringing the last cages over. “I apologize that you didn’t want me here. Your son is a great doctor and a very nice guy. My father does not give praise out easy and he hired Elijah as chief to take over his hospital. He wouldn’t give that job to just anybody.” She thought back to the day she said goodbye to her mother and how hard today must be for Elijah. “I’m going to head back to the house and pack my things. I’ll call a taxi and switch my flight. Please tell Elijah I’m sorry.”
“Don’t call a taxi.”
Charity’s breath caught.
“I’ll have Albert bring you to the ferry. Meet him ‘round the back in fifteen minutes.”
“Th-Thanks.” She didn’t know what else to say and wasn’t sure she could hold back the tears much longer. Charity slipped back into the house and collected her things. The grand room stood empty when she came back carrying her suitcase and bag. Through the windows and across the lawn, people had gathered by the birds. She couldn’t watch and quickly made her way through the kitchen to the back of the house.
Albert stood waiting by a little silver car. He didn’t say a word as he loaded her things into the back. They drove down the lane and off the property. When he turned onto a main road he glanced at her. “Everything all right back home? I thought you weren’t heading back for another two days. Elijah mentioned he wanted to take you to our place for dinner and show you around the island.”
He had no idea. Charity forced a smile. “Bit of a work emergency unfortunately,” she lied.
“Shame. Mia really wanted to meet you. Elijah wouldn’t stop talking about you the other night when he was over.”
Charity stared out the window and tried to blink back the tears. Wow, she couldn’t have screwed this up any more. Total disaster. Complete shipwreck. “He’s a great guy,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cool glass. She pretended to sleep until just before they got to the port where the ferry docked.
Albert helped get her things out of the car and gave her a big, tight hug. “Take care, dear.” He got back behind the wheel and waved.
When his car disappeared from sight, Charity let the pent-up tears fall. She collapsed against a park bench and cried. She pulled herself together half an hour later and purchased a ticket. While on the ferry, she connected with her airline and luckily had a flight leaving in two hours that had space. She’d have to fly from Auckland to Narita, Japan, and then catch a thirteen-hour flight to California and then back to Atlanta.
She couldn’t wait to get back to her place. She planned to throw herself into her work and hopefully get lost in it... forever.
