THEY WERE ONLY A FEW minutes late to the upscale fusion restaurant called Vim27. The ever-present chic modern décor, the bleached wood and black metal, recessed lighting, bamboo floor and walls. Red ceramic plates. It reminded Cab of his apartment, clean, sleek, and cool. Cutting-edge in every way. So slick, he felt a chill.
His mind drifted toward Bailey, but he pulled away from his thought before it could take root. He was getting married next year.
George had managed to get a reservation for one of the private rooms, and the five of them sat around the polished table as if they were at a board meeting rather than a social dinner.
Which was probably the case. Cab hadn’t missed the round tubes of plans that Frank carried in and deposited in the corner.
Bailey was laughing with George and Tony, but she’d have a fit when she realized they would be talking business as soon as the dishes were cleared.
Then again, Bailey would do anything to advance his career. Cab looked from her to George to Frank to Tony. And he wondered how far she would go? He shook the thought off. What was wrong with him?
He should have canceled. Told them he was too tired to meet tonight. He felt cold, hot, both. His head hurt. He needed to think. Something was suddenly not right in his life. It would probably pass, but he didn’t want to have to make any decisions about buildings or life tonight.
After dinner, the table was wiped by a silent busboy dressed in a print sarong. Frank opened one of the tubes and spread out the plans, using all their cell phones to hold down the corners.
“This is what we worked out on Friday when you were gone. Hope this is in line with what you intended.”
Cab glanced at the spec sheet; there were several new squares of various sizes. A small square depicting a guard kiosk sat exactly on the spot where that little girl had left her bike. Where would she ride? Where would two ignored children steal candy and not be punished but shown compassion?
Drugs, drinking, poverty, he reminded himself. Abandoned buildings, burned-out cars. Gone and replaced by something beautiful.
The sound of the ocean, Sarah and her understocked community center. Bethanne awash with floral prints and no customers.
The two places were becoming meshed into one. He was obviously losing his mind.
“Cab?”
“Sorry? I’m not sure . . .” About anything.
“There’s a hang-up with the bridge between the A Tower and B Tower.”
Cab dragged his attention to the end of Tony’s pencil point.
“What kind of hang-up?”
“Some jackass in the zoning office is saying that this isn’t within the limits of the town ordinance. Or something.”
“I’m on it,” Frank said. “But we might want to think about moving it down a couple of levels.”
“I thought this was all cleared with the zoning board,” Cab snapped.
Frank and Tony flinched.
Under the table, Bailey’s foot rubbed along his calf. Warning him to cool it.
“Sorry, I’ve had a long weekend.” God, he was like Pavlov’s dog. He didn’t need Bailey to ride herd on his temper. This was the kind of thing that should have been cleared before they got to this stage of development. Someone had dropped the ball. He had every right to be pissed.
“So can we move it down to the third floor?”
“The point was to allow direct access from the one spa floor to the other so there wouldn’t be service repetition. If you move it down, why not just let them walk outside in that case?”
“The point is to keep them from having to go outside.”
In a beach resort. Right. God forbid someone would actually have to breathe the salt air. Because they had a whole air-purifying system for each residential and business tower.
“You guys can work out the details,” George said, reaching into his wallet. He pulled out a credit card, which he handed to the waiter who had appeared in the doorway. “I want to start demolition next week. We’ll adapt as we go.”
“George, a lot of people are still living in those blocks.”
“There are always a few holdouts. They’ll move soon enough once we bring the bulldozers in.”
“Some of them must own their own homes.”
“They were the first in line. Nothing like a little financial incentive to get them packing up.”
Cab shook his head. Little, right. Like Silas. “Are they being relocated? Where are they going to go?”
“Not our problem. They were given plenty of notice.”
Frank began rolling up the spec sheet but stopped. “Jeez, Cab. You know there’s always a bit of collateral damage on these projects. You never bothered about relocation before.”
“I’ve never visited a site before it was cleared.”
“Oh, man,” said Tony. “You’re not goin’ all righteous on us, are you?”
“He’s goin’ home and straight to bed,” Bailey said, diffusing the situation. She stood. “He’s dead tired. I shouldn’t’ve let you fellas drag us out when he just walked in the door. He’ll see ya’ll tommorah.”
She smiled at the three men, who had stood when she had. Turned her smile on Cab. Was she really making excuses for him? Couldn’t he make his own excuses . . . if he needed them?
Is this what his life would be? With Bailey navigating the waters of business and society, pulling him along behind her.
Cab stood. “Sorry, guys. I’m beat. And can’t really think clearly. I’ll look into it tomorrow.”
THEY HAD BARELY gotten in the car when Bailey turned on him. “What is wrong with you? This is a huge project. Do you really want to upset George? He can get vindictive. Daddy’s known him forever and told me to keep you on his good side. He can make or break your career.”
“You know. I hadn’t seen my uncle in a good fifteen years. That was wrong. I should have given back to him for all he did for me. But I didn’t.”
“I’m sure he understood.”
“I’m sure he did, too. It doesn’t make it right.”
They drove in silence for a while.
“Everything is broken down there. The carousel building, his house; hell, most of the town. But the beach is rebuilding, half the town is on their way up.”
“Mmm.”
“He’d closed up the carousel and stored the animals. He was saving them for me.”
“How sweet of him.”
“The center of town used to be that carousel. It was hard for me to see what’s happened to it. The building, the carousel itself. Well, it could be fixed with a lot of work. When I saw that empty platform, I was sure he’d sold them off, but he hadn’t.”
“Well, now you can sell them off. Luanne Strickler has one in her lake house. She paid something like twenty thousand for it. I mean it’s cute and all. But twenty thousand? I’d rather put it into a honeymoon.”
He pulled into the garage, and they went upstairs. They didn’t speak on their way upstairs. But he could tell her mind was elsewhere.
And so was his.
And in the same way an elusive piece of design suddenly falls into place, and the whole structure makes sense, the thing Cab had been missing fell into place.
As soon as they were inside the apartment, he said, “I want you to go to Stargazey with me.”
“Oh, Cab, honey, you know I’d love to, but there are so many things to do. And you just got back. Maybe next summer.”
“No, I mean I want to move there.”
Her eyelashes fluttered once, then she stared.
The silence stretched while he waited for her to absorb his meaning.
“Have you lost your mind? It’s hours away. How are you going to manage that commute? ’Cause if you think you’re goin’ to stay in town Monday through Friday and have me waiting patiently for you to come home on the weekends, you can think again.”
“I mean, move there permanently. I helped mend a piece of porch rail this afternoon. Do you know how long it’s been since I actually did something with my hands?”
“Well, that’s the whole point isn’t it? Hire people to do it for you, so you won’t have to?”
“No. That was never the point. The design was the point. But I didn’t expect this total disconnect between the plan and the people. I wasn’t even aware of it until this weekend.”
“You’re sounding like some lunatic agitator.”
“I’m going to run a carousel, my uncle’s carousel.”
They locked eyes. She didn’t believe him. How could she? She had no way of understanding what he needed. It would never make sense to her. That was his fault as much as hers. She wouldn’t be going to live in Stargazey with him. That didn’t fit into her plan. And he couldn’t fit in it, either. Not anymore. He knew they would both be miserable if he stayed here.
“Just think about it.”
“There’s nothing to think about.”
“I’m telling them I’m off the project. I’m leaving the firm.”
A flush spread over her chest and into her face. “Then you’ll go without me.” She pouted and gave him the sultry look that she always used to get her way. And he could see that she thought she had won.
She was wrong. They were wrong. Had always been wrong. Cab just hadn’t seen it or didn’t want to see it. It was hard to admit that he’d been the arm candy rather than the other way around.
She cared more about her life and lifestyle than she did about him, and he cared more about his future than he cared about her. There was bound to be heartache if they tried to make it work.
“I’m sorry, Bailey. I changed the rules, I didn’t mean to. But it happened. This is something I have to do, want to do. People are counting on me.”
“Then go by all means. I give you two weeks before you get tired of playing Peter Pan and realize what a mistake you’ve made. So let me know when you come to your senses and decide to grow up. I’ll see if I’m still available.”
She grabbed her purse and keys and walked to the door. “I’ll send someone over to get my things next week.”
“Bailey.”
She waited, waited for him to capitulate, but it was too late.
“I’m sorry.”
Those sultry eyes grew cold as diamond. “Peter Pan.” The door didn’t slam behind her. The hinges were designed so it wouldn’t make noise.
Cab poured himself another drink, but he put it on the table untouched. He felt guilty but relieved. Really relieved. It was an awful way to break things off, but at least they wouldn’t end up living in a hateful marriage.
And he realized that his life, the one he was meant to live, had been changed years before, when he’d fallen in love, not with Bailey, but with Stargazey Point.
Maybe he was Peter Pan. Maybe he would hate living in Stargazey Point, alone. But not trying was not an option. He would just have to wait and see.
He looked around his apartment, realized there was nothing he would miss and nothing to keep him here any longer.
He retrieved his suitcase out of the closet, added a larger one to it, and packed all the clothes that would fit.
He ’d have to come back. He’d have to make it square with the firm. Finish up whatever projects they wanted long-distance, but not the Myrtle Beach complex. He’d probably have to make trips back here, that was okay as long as he had a home to return to. A home in Stargazey Point.
When his bags were filled, he rolled them out of the apartment and set the lock. It was pitch-black when he drove out of Atlanta, but the sun was rising as he drove into Stargazey Point.
ERVINA ROLLED OVER on the mattress, opened one eye to the rising sun. Laughed. It was gonna be a mighty fine day.