Page 5 of Skipping Stones
* * *
Derek sat at his desk in Toronto, turning a small blue box over and over in his hands. There was a beautiful diamond ring inside that he could imagine on Olivia’s slender finger. He hoped she would like it. He’d risen far beyond his beginnings, where winter coats came from the charity box at Silver Lake, but good as it was, his salary didn’t compete with hers. He’d saved up for several months for the square-shaped diamond.
Linney’s excited reaction had boosted his confidence. They had shared everything for as long as he could remember, and her opinion mattered to him. She’d listened to him lament his father’s absence, and she was the only person he’d confided his fears of alcoholism being hereditary. He hated that she’d been so far away for the past five years. Texting and phone calls were one thing, but it wasn’t like having her in the same city.
He put the box on his desk. Tonight was the night. Derek was meeting Olivia at her office, and the plan was to walk down memory lane through their law school campus. He was going to drop to one knee in front of the law library where they’d met and ask Olivia to make him the happiest man alive before taking her out to one of the hottest new restaurants she had been dying to try. Derek had only been able to get the reservation because it was a weeknight. It didn’t matter. He was more than ready for them to begin the next stage of their lives.
She’d be shocked at first, then she’d say yes. He was pretty sure she’d say yes. He hoped she’d say yes. He ran over the details in his head one more time and reached out for the box again.
“Counsellor!” There was a loud rap on the open door to his office. “Pickup basketball this week. You in?”
Derek jumped at the clipped, but joking tone of his friend and colleague, Aiden. The ring box skidded away from his fingertips and his heart pounded in his chest. “Geez, you scared me!”
Aiden laughed. “You were so far away. Thought I’d put your feet back on the ground. You gonna do something with that ring soon?”
“Go back to work, Aiden!” Derek grabbed the ring box and jammed it into his jacket pocket.
“Just saying! And get back to me on the basketball.” The two men sometimes joined a league of lawyers and other professionals at a gym around the corner from their office. Aiden closed the door behind him, leaving Derek to his thoughts.
Aiden was right. Derek had been holding on to the ring for a while now. And while he said it was so he could tell Linney first, he knew there were other reasons for the delay. He pulled the box out of his pocket again, opened it, and looked at the ring. Derek hadn’t grown up with a male role model at home. Yes, there had been his uncle, his mother’s bachelor brother, who ran Silver Lake’s small hardware store, but he didn’t have a healthy marriage to emulate.
Derek had only a few fuzzy memories of his father. He remembered his dad roughhousing with him in the living room and kicking a ball around in the yard. But he also remembered a lot of empty bottles on the kitchen counter and raised voices when he was in bed. He remembered his father napping during the day, sometimes on the couch, and once or twice on the floor—he’d been a teenager before he’d realized what those “naps” were. And he remembered his mother crying. By the time Derek started kindergarten, it was just the two of them in their little house. Santa didn’t bring much that year. When Linney arrived a couple of years later, his mother was just scraping by, keeping the books for her brother’s store. They often had dinner with Linney and her grandmother, and in his memory, those meals were feasts. A teenaged Derek understood better, and he showed his gratitude through his own acts of giving back to the community.
By then, his mother had explained about his father’s relationship with alcohol and that one day he’d just left. Disappeared. They’d never heard from him again and she said it was for the best. She had never given Derek many details, but he understood that there had been some difficult years for her. He’d been careful around alcohol since his first bush party. It didn’t do much for his popularity, but he didn’t want to give his mother anything new to worry about.
Derek didn’t talk about his dad to many people. Only Linney knew the whole story. She knew him, and back in Silver Lake on the dock, she’d understood what he was hesitant about. Her encouragement had helped. The ring twinkled under the harsh office lighting as Derek turned the box in his hands. He snapped it closed and gently put it in his pocket until later that day. It was time.
* * *
“That, mon amie, is stunning on you.” MJ made a motion for Linney to twirl and she complied. The floor-length black dress she was modelling hugged her in all the right places. It had a high slit and showed more cleavage than she was used to.
Linney bit her lip with indecision. “Are you sure?” The dress was far outside her comfort zone, but she trusted MJ’s fashion style.
“Mais oui. We will need to find shoes, of course, and a bag, but you must buy this.”
Linney twirled again as MJ disappeared into the dressing room. She did look good, and it would be a perfect dress for the gala awards event, even if it was still a month away. She was nominated on her own this time, which was a huge honour. Mac was nominated too, as he was most years, and she was sure he’d win again. Linney twisted her hair and held it up on her head, imagining the updo she would have her hairstylist create for the event. She looked in the mirror, turning back and forth to see every angle. Almost, but not quite right. She took off her glasses with her free hand. Would that be better? Squinting suddenly at her fuzzy reflection in the mirror, Linney blinked several times, but couldn’t make anything come into focus. Her shoulders slumped. Contacts had never been an option for her given her particular condition, so she was stuck with the glasses, even if she thought they marred the sophisticated image MJ was helping her create.
The door squeaked and a blurry figure approached. Linney jammed the offending eyewear back on and her jaw dropped. MJ was wearing a cobalt-blue dress with jewels embellishing her slim waist. Linney’s eyes opened wide. “Wow,” she said, as MJ turned around. “Just wow.” The high-collared dress was conservative in front, but the back was where the drama was.
MJ swayed back and forth, looking at the way the fabric draped low showing off the small of her back.
“I think this will do,” she said finally. “We’ll be the two best-dressed reporters there. Let’s go find shoes.” They laughed and put their street clothes on before heading down to the shoe department.
“You’re good for me, MJ,” Linney admitted, as she stood in black patent stilettos with heels far higher than she would ever have considered on her own. “You push me to try new things.”
“Ah, but this is my job as your friend, Linney. To stretch you a little bit. You should know how beautiful you are. You know, you can do far better than Mac.”
Linney sighed inwardly. MJ rarely let her thoughts about Mac slip out. “Drop it, MJ. I love him and he loves me. We’re very happy.” Linney knew her voice was louder than it needed to be. She slipped out of her heels and led the way to the cashier.
3
Linney turned the page of her novel. She stifled a yawn and then turned the page back again. Her toes grazed Mac’s under the covers at the end of the bed. The newly-released bestseller was excellent, but it was late and getting harder and harder to concentrate. They’d shared a romantic dinner and at least one bottle of wine at their favourite Thai restaurant earlier in the evening and now, close to midnight, her eyelids were growing heavier with every passing moment. Mac sat in bed beside her, scribbling research notes as sleep finally won and Linney’s book slipped from her hands. Mac gently lifted her glasses from her nose, closed her book, and put both on the nightstand beside her cell phone. He kissed her forehead and picked up his pen again.
Silver Lake soon filled Linney’s dreams. She was a teenager, back at Page Turners where she’d spent hours and hours with Kirsten in the back room—originally the old home’s kitchen—doing homework and devouring as many books as Kirsten’s mother would allow. Anna and Derek joined them, dropping backpacks and grabbing cookies. Soon they were all giggling over silly jokes when the bells on the front door jangled, announcing the arrival of another customer. Derek bumped her shoulder playfully as the bells kept jangling.
No, Linney realized, not bells. What was that sound? Waking with a start to Mac jostling her shoulder, she pulled her ringing phone close to her face, squinting to make sense of the blurry letters on the display.
“It’s Derek,” she yawned, as she slipped out of their bed and put her glasses back on. “I really should take this.”