Angie tried very hard to curb her enthusiasm as she headed downstairs.  Callie’s question last night about how she felt had reminded her that she was supposed to be mourning the death of her best friend.  Acting like she was the happiest woman on Earth would be more than a bit of a contradiction.  But would she be able to hide the fact that she felt like jumping up and down and whooping like an idiot?  ‘I guess that Rol--no, Daniel, not Rollie, Daniel--and I will find out just how good an actress I am.’

Daniel was going to meet her for breakfast this morning, then take her on a tour of the town.  Before, Angie hadn’t really been expecting to enjoy her time on Hope Island, but now she was looking forward to every day she’d be there.  What she was going to do at the end of the two weeks was something she didn’t want to think about.

Angie sat at a table.  A few seconds later, Alex came over with a menu.

“Could you bring another menu?” the blonde asked.  “Daniel’s going to be joining me.”

“Oh.  Yeah, sure,” Alex said.  She fetched another menu and laid it on the table across from Angie.  “So . . . do you and Daniel have anything special planned for today?”

“Not that I know of.  He’s going to show me around town and some other places on the island.  I don’t know what else.  He said that the rest was a surprise.”

“I see.  I would think that Callie would be the one to show you around.”

“Well, Daniel thought I might enjoy a relative newcomer’s take on the island,” Angie explained.  “Besides, Callie’s kind of busy getting stories for her next edition.  I’m going to be here for two weeks, so we’ll have plenty of time to do stuff together.”

“Two weeks, huh.  That’s a nice visit.”

“Yeah.  I think it’s going to go by fast, though.”

Just then, Daniel walked in, and Angie couldn’t hold back the huge smile that spread across her face.  She still couldn’t get over the fact that he was alive.  Just the sight of him walking toward her was enough to make her want to laugh with joy.

Returning her smile with a bright one of his own, Daniel sat across from her.  “Good morning, Angie, and good morning to you too, Alex.”

“Morning, Daniel,” the redhead greeted.  “I’ll come back in a few minutes to take your orders.”

The minister frowned slightly as Alex walked away.  She was usually a lot more conversational with him when he came in.  He returned his attention to the woman sitting across from him.

“So, are you ready for your day out on the town?” he asked jokingly.

“Uh huh.  It should take, what, at least half an hour to cover it from end to end,” Angie replied, also jokingly.

“Well, that all depends.”

“On what?”

“On how many people are going to grill us on how we knew each other before.  By now, at least half the island has heard that we’re old friends, and the rest will know by the end of the day.  A small community is not conducive to keeping information private.”

Angie glanced around to see if anyone was within earshot.  She lowered her voice.  “Is that going to be a problem?”

“I don’t think so,” Daniel murmured.  In a louder voice, he said, “We’d better decide what we want for breakfast.”

Alex returned just as they made their choices.  As she took their orders, Daniel scanned her face, trying to judge what she was thinking.  He knew that he was going to have to talk to her about his reaction to Angie when he first saw her.  It was something that he’d completely forgotten about until he went home last night.  He’d lain in bed trying to come up with a plausible explanation for quite a while.

For the benefit of anyone who might be listening in, Daniel and Angie pretended to tell each other about things they’d done in the years since they’d last seen each other.  It was strange having Angie tell him about stuff that she’d done as if he hadn’t been right there through it all.  It was even stranger telling her about events in the real Daniel Cooper’s life as if he’d done them himself, knowing that she knew the truth.

After breakfast, they began the “tour.”  Daniel started it off with the general store.  Knowing Ruby and Bonita, they were probably both dying to meet Angie.

“Okay, before we go in, I need to warn you about something,” the minister told Angie.  “Ruby and Bonita are mother and daughter, and they have a rather unusual way of communicating.  They don’t talk to each other, ever.  Instead, they write notes.”

“That’s pretty weird, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but it works a lot better that way, believe me.  It all started years ago when they both fell for the same guy.  Shortly after I got here, I helped straightened things out between them, and they started talking to each other again.  I think that was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made since coming here.”

“How’s that?”

“All they did was argue, day and night.  They stopped ordering items for the store because both of them kept arguing about whose responsibility it was to do the ordering.  The store ran out of everything.”

“So, how did you fix it?” Angie asked.

“Alex contacted the guy who had been responsible for them not talking to each other in the first place.  He was the lighthouse repairman, and they got him to come out to fix the lighthouse.  Of course, there wasn’t really anything wrong with it.”  Daniel laughed.  “He was definitely not what we had expected.  Let’s just say that the years had not been kind.  Anyway, the moment Ruby and Bonita caught sight of him, they were falling all over themselves for him.  He put on the charm with both of them, then left.  They started arguing about which of them he really loved.  The verbal arguing changed to writing and peace was restored.”

Angie laughed.  “So, how long had it been since they’d talked to each other?”

“Seventeen years.”  Daniel opened the door for Angie, and they went into the store.

“Hey, Daniel,” greeted a heavyset, auburn-haired woman.  Her eyes then went to Angie, as did the eyes of the older woman behind the counter.

“Bonita, Ruby, this is Angie Ramirez, a friend of mine and Callie’s,” Daniel said, introducing the older woman as Ruby and the younger as her daughter, Bonita.

“Hello, Angie.  Welcome to Hope Island,” said Ruby with a smile.  Her gaze quickly darted back and forth between the blonde and the minister.  “We hear that you two are old friends from way back.”

“You heard right,” Daniel said.  “We haven’t seen each other for a long time, though.”

“Really.  Well, what a wonderful thing that you should meet again after all these years.  I bet you’re both very happy.”

“Yeah, it’s been great,” Angie agreed.  She glanced around.  “Do you have any souvenir stuff?  I’d like to find some gifts for some friends.”

“Sure.  There’s a whole mess of tourist stuff over there,” Bonita said, pointing toward one of the walls.

Angie and Daniel perused the “tourist stuff”.  Almost right away, the minister found something perfect for Angie.  “Hey, Ange.  Here you go.”  He showed her the ceramic figurine in his hand.  It was a computer bobbing on the ocean.  There was a lighthouse sticking up out of it, splitting the monitor in half.  The words, “Hope Island, unconnected to the rest of the world” was written on it.

Angie laughed and took the figurine from Daniel’s hand.  “That’s great.  I love it.”

Ruby and Bonita watched the couple as they looked at the souvenir items, their laughter often ringing out.  There was a pleased expression on the older woman’s face.  She turned to her daughter and furtively wrote a note on her little chalkboard. “They seem very friendly with each other.”

Bonita scribbled a reply.  “VERY friendly.”  The two women nodded knowingly to each other, then turned back to Daniel and Angie.

Angie made her choices, getting a few gifts, as well as the computer figurine for herself.  Ruby carefully wrapped the items in tissue paper and put them in a bag.  “Brian hated those computer figurines when we had them made.  He grumbled about it for weeks.  But they’re our biggest seller among all that stuff.”  Her eyes lifted to Angie’s.  “So, how do you like Hope Island so far?”

“Well, I haven’t seen much of it yet, but it seems like a really nice place.”

“Oh, it is indeed.  I think you’ll love it here.”  She gave Angie an extra warm smile.  “And we’re all very happy that the reverend is here with us.  He was a Godsend.”

Embarrassed, Daniel didn’t know what to say.  Stammering his thanks, he and Angie left the store.

Bonita looked at her mother, shaking her head.  She picked up her chalkboard and wrote, “You’re matchmaking again, Mom.”

“I can’t help it,” Ruby wrote back. “They look so good with each other, like they just fit together.”

“Yeah, well, remember what Daniel said about staying out of his personal life the last time you tried fixing him up with someone.”

“I know.  I just want him to be happy.  It’s not right that he’s alone.”

Bonita shook her head again and gave up on the conversation.  Nothing she said was going to dissuade her mother once she’d made up her mind.

Daniel and Angie’s next stop was the police station.  Kevin was leaning back in his chair behind the desk, reading a comic book.  Upon seeing them, he hastily sat up straight and shoved the magazine in a drawer.

“Hi, Kevin.  I want to introduce you to Angie,” Daniel said.  “She’s a friend visiting from New York.  Angie, this is Kevin Mitchum.  He’s our lone dispenser of law and order here on the island.”

“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Ramirez.  Molly told me a little about your visit.”

“Please call me Angie,” the blonde replied.  “I understand that you’re Molly’s fiancé.”  Daniel had told her of the three-year courtship between this man and the pretty blonde woman who worked with Alex at the Widow’s Walk.  He’d also told her about the fiascos that had resulted from Kevin’s insistence that his marriage proposal had to be perfect.  First, there had been the romantic, candlelit dinner complete with violin music, which had turned out to be a bust when, because of an emergency, it got started late, then was canceled altogether because the kid who was attempting to play the violin for them, the son of the man who was supposed to play, had to be taken home by Kevin.  Next had come Kevin’s recreation of his and Molly’s first date.  One problem.  The date he recreated was his first date with his old girlfriend.  Needless to say, Molly had not been pleased.  For his third attempt, Kevin hired a sky writer to write “Will you marry me?” across the sky while he and Molly sat drinking coffee on the pier, which had been what they’d really done on their first date.  Things would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the pea soup fog that rolled in.  Kevin had ended up proposing on the kitchen floor of the Widow’s Walk with grease smeared over his and Molly’s faces.  And, according to Molly, it had been perfect.

Kevin smiled.  “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Have you set a date yet?”

“No, not yet.  We’re not going to rush things.”

Angie couldn’t help but think that a man who took three years to propose was obviously not the kind of person to rush into the wedding.

They visited with Kevin for a couple more minutes, then headed on over to the Catholic church.  Angie felt a little odd walking into the church and seeing the statues of the Madonna and Christ and other articles of Catholicism.  This was the religion that her father had been raised with and that she had been exposed to as a child, though she could not remember going to church more than twenty times in her life.  None of those times had been once she’d reached the age of fourteen and had been allowed to make her own decision on whether or not she would go.  The one exception had been her father’s funeral.

A bearded priest who looked to be in his early to mid sixties was walking toward them, a smile on his face.

“Hey, Father Mac,” Daniel greeted with a big smile.  “How was choir practice today?”

“Beautiful, beautiful.”  There was a look of pride and pleasure on his face.  “You and I will have to bring our choirs together again one of these days.  Perhaps for a Christmas festival?”  There was a note of hope in his voice.

“That would be great.  I’m sure that everyone in the Hope Community Church choir would love to do that.”

Father Mac turned his attention to Angie.  “This must be the young woman I’ve been hearing about.  Angie Ramirez, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right.  It’s nice to meet you, Father.”

“Please, call me Father Mac.  A certain someone pointed out not too long ago that it was all right to have friends as well as parishioners.”  The priest glanced warmly at Daniel.  “Ramirez is a Hispanic name.  Are you of Latin descent?”

“Cuban, but I’ve lived here in the States most of my life.”  Angie had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what the next question would be.  She wasn’t wrong.

“Do you practice Catholicism?  We would love to see you at services on Sunday or perhaps for Wednesday Mass.”

Angie shifted uncomfortably.  “My father was Catholic, but I don’t go to church.”

“Ah, I understand.  Well, if you decide that you would like to, we will be pleased to see you.”

Angie was more that a little surprised by the priest’s response to her not going to church.  She had expected a disapproving frown at the very least, but, instead, he had accepted her announcement graciously.

“So, how’s Barnabas, Father Mac?  Have you managed to clean up his vocabulary yet?” Daniel asked, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

The priest made a face.  “I fear not, but not for lack of trying.”

“Who’s Barnabas?” Angie asked.

“He’s an African Grey parrot that Father Mac got a little while ago,” Daniel explained.

“Would you like to meet him?” the priest asked Angie with a smile.

“Sure.”

They went to the father’s home.  As they walked in the door, they heard a high-pitched voice cry, “We’re gonna party!  Party till the crows come home!”

Angie smothered a laugh and walked with Daniel and Father Mac to the bird’s cage.  The parrot looked at her and let out a wolf whistle, then said, “Foxy lady!”

“Barnabas!  Mind your manners!” the priest scolded.

The bird ignored him and asked, “Wanna party, foxy lady?”

Father Mac gave a huge sigh and looked toward heaven as if in supplication.

“No, Barnabas, I don’t want to party,” Angie told the parrot.  “Wanna go to church?”

“Wanna go to church!” Barnabas cried.  “Church, church, church!”

Father Mac’s eyes widened in surprise.  “Well, I’ll be.”  He turned to the blonde.  “Thank you, Angie.  Would you like to come back later and teach him some more suitable phrases?”

Angie opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the parrot.

“Gonna party at church.  Gonna party at church till the crows come home!”

This time, Angie couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled forth, and neither could Daniel.

Father Mac picked up a black cloth.  “Say goodnight, Barnabas.”

“Goodnight, Barnabas,” the parrot repeated as the priest threw the cover over the cage.

“It’s dark in here,” came the bird’s voice from behind the cloth, then there was silence.

Daniel, Angie, and the priest walked back toward the church.

“Well, I’m going to finishing showing Angie around.  We’ll see you later, Father Mac,” the minister said.

The older man nodded his head.  “It was a pleasure meeting you, Angie.  I hope you enjoy your stay on our beautiful island.”

“I’m sure I will, Father Mac.”

Daniel and Angie walked toward the dock.  A grin came to the blonde’s face.  “That Barnabas is something else.  I’m surprised Father Mac has a bird that talks like that, though foxy lady is a lot cleaner language than I’ve heard some parrots use.”

“Yeah, it’s better than what Dee Dee called me,” Daniel said.  He immediately looked as if he regretted speaking.

“Dee Dee?”

“Um, she’s another African Grey that belongs to one of Father Mac’s parishioners.  Father Mac took care of her for a while.  This was just before he got Barnabas.”

“So, what did Dee Dee call you?”

Daniel remained silent, looking rather embarrassed.

“What did she call you, Ro . . . Daniel?”

“Uh . . . studmuffin.”

Angie stared at him for about three seconds, then began laughing so hard that she was gasping for air.

“It isn’t that funny,” the minister muttered in a sulking tone.

Angie wiped away the tears that had come to her eyes.  “I was just remembering the time I called you the same thing.”

“Yeah, I bet you were.”  Daniel smiled sarcastically.

By the time they reached an old, dry-docked boat near the pier, Angie had stopped snickering.  She noticed a name painted on the mailbox beside the stairs leading up to the boat’s deck.  “Oh, is this where Nub lives?”

“You’ve met Nub?”

“Uh huh.  He visited me while I was sitting by myself on a bench overlooking the bay.  There was something about him that. . . .”  Angie shrugged, not finding the right words.

Daniel smiled.  “I know what you mean.  Nub’s pretty special.  He’s just about the most gentle and honest person I’ve ever met.  I’m not talking about honest as in not lying, though I’ve never known him to lie either.  I mean that he never puts on an act.  He never pretends to feel or think something that he doesn’t.  There’s never any pretense with Nub.”

The minister pulled on a cord that rang Nub’s ‘doorbell’.  A few seconds later, the man Angie had met the day before appeared and looked over the railing at them.

“Hi, Daniel.  Hi, Angie.”

“Hi, Nub,” they replied simultaneously.

The young man came down the steps.  As he reached their level, Angie was again struck by his luminous, clear blue eyes.  She saw what Daniel had meant.  Those eyes were honest and completely open.  They were now looking at her in a gentle way.

“Are you feeling better?” Nub asked.

“Yes, I am, Nub.  Thank you.”

Nub removed his knit cab to wipe some sweat from his brow, and Angie was immediately surprised.  Without the cap, Nub was a very attractive man.  The difference was amazing.  She wondered why he wore the cap.

The young man returned the cap to its place on his head.  “Callie told me that you and Daniel really are friends, that you knew each other a long time ago.”

“That’s right.  It’s really amazing that we’ve met like this.”

“Maybe it’s not so amazing.  Maybe you were supposed to meet.”  Nub said solemnly.

Daniel and Angie looked at each other, thinking about what Nub had said.  At that moment, another voice broke into their thoughts.

“Ah, Reverend Cooper.  Just the man I was looking for.”  Brian came walking up to them, his gaze focused not on Daniel, but on Angie.  He held out his hand to her, and she shook it.  “Hello.  I’m Mayor Brewster.  I apologize for not being here to welcome you to our island, but I was on a very  important phone call with some people who are considering buying some acreage on the island.”

“That’s all right.  Callie was here to greet me.”

“Yes, I understand that you’re a friend of hers and the reverend’s, too.  You know, with two friends on Hope, you should consider buying a vacation home here.  We have some very nice places available overlooking the bay and--”

“Brian,” Daniel interrupted.  “I don’t think Angie’s in the market for a vacation home.  What did you want to talk to me about?”

“What?  Oh, I wanted to tell you that Kenny is working out well.  The tourists really like that landscaping stuff.  It was a smart idea for me to hire him.”

Daniel hid a smile.  It had been necessary for him to bargain with Brian to get him to hire Kenny to landscape the town.

Brian returned his attention to Angie.  “So, I hear that you’re in the motion picture industry.  Well, as you can see, Hope Island would make the ideal location for filming.  You won’t find another place with quite the same quaint, seafaring community ambiance as we have here.”

“Ambiance?” Daniel and Nub repeated at the same time.  The only reply they received from the mayor was a frown.

“Hope Island is a nice place, Mayor Brewster, but I really don’t have any strong connections in the movie industry, especially not now.  I no longer do special effect for movies,” Angie told him.

“Oh.  I see.  Well, if you do ever happen to bump into an old friend, like a director or producer, just give them my card.”  He handed Angie a business card.  “Well, I’d better be going.  I’m a busy man, you know.  Nub, I’ll need you over at the old Carson place in half an hour.”  Brian said goodbye and walked off down the road.

“We’d better go too, Nub.  I want to introduce Angie to Emily.”

“Ah.”  Nub nodded knowingly.  “It was nice meeting you again, Angie.”

“Same here, Nub.”  She and Daniel headed on down along the dock.  Dying of curiosity, she finally asked.  “So, who’s Emily?”

A rather mischievous smile came to the minister’s face.  “I think it will be better if you find out for yourself.”

Angie’s eyes narrowed, wondering what he had up his sleeve.  “Okay, then, who’s Kenny?”

“Kenny is a mentally challenged man who was going to be taken to a facility because he didn’t have the money to pay his bills after his mother died.  He has a wonderful gift for growing flowers and landscaping, so I got him a job beautifying Hope.”

“Is he the one who planted all those flowers there in the center of town?”

“Yeah, that was Kenny.”

“You’re right, he does have a gift.”

“You should see his garden at home.  Maybe I’ll take you over there one of these days.”  He came to a stop beside a boat with a cover on it.  Daniel bent down and pulled the cover off.  “Angie, meet Emily.”

Angie stared down at the boat.  “This is Emily?”

“Uh huh.  She’s mine.”

“Yours?  As in you own it?”  There was surprise in Angie’s tone.  “But what about your seasickness?”

“Cured.  I guess it really was mind over matter like you kept telling me.”

“So, how did you come to own a boat?”

“It was given to me by a friend, a judge whom I befriended shortly before he died.”

“Were you, um, there as a minister?”

“I was at first.  I was asked to see him because he didn’t have long to live.  But he didn’t want to talk to a clergyman.  He didn’t believe in God.”  Daniel smiled fondly.  “We ended up playing chess.”  He looked back down at the boat.  “So, would you like to go for a ride?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

Daniel pulled out two life jackets and handed one to Angie.  He put on the other one.  Angie then got in the boat as Daniel untied it from the dock.  A few seconds later, they were traveling down the coastline.  The minister drove the boat with confidence and skill.  After about fifteen minutes, he headed toward shore.  A tiny stretch of beach was before them.  Angie then saw the remains of an old, dilapidated dock.  Daniel pulled up to it.  Angie jumped out and tied the boat up.  The minister then joined her, and they walked to the beach.

Angie looked around.  “Did there used to be something here?”

“I don’t know.  Something must have been here for that dock to be there.  I use this as a place to get away, where I won’t be disturbed.  We’re quite a ways from the nearest house and it’s private.”  He paused.  “I can be Rollie Tyler here.”

It was almost strange to hear him speak that name.  She looked up into his eyes.  “Is it all right for me to call you Rollie here?”

The minister hesitated for a moment.  “Yeah, Ange, you can call me Rollie here,” he said, letting his Aussie accent return.

They went a little further up the beach, then sat down.  Rollie’s eyes went to the boat.  “That’s another way that Daniel and I are different,” he commented, “and a way that I couldn’t pretend to be like him.  He doesn’t get seasick.  However, while I don’t have any problem with boats, he’s afraid of them.”  He laughed.  “You should have seen me when Alex was teaching me how to drive one.”

“You had Alex teach you.  I’d have thought you would have just hopped right in and taken off.”

“Well, yeah, if I’d been Rollie Tyler that’s what I would have done, but I had to be Daniel all the time.  I was really paranoid those first few weeks, afraid that someone would get suspicious.  I even found myself doing things the way that Daniel would when I was alone.”  A grin came to Rollie’s lips.  “Anyway, when Alex started teaching me, she told me to do this Zen thing, become one with the wheel.  I knew she was full of it and was just doing it to have fun, but I went along with it anyway.”

“So, is he a better swimmer than you?” Angie asked, smiling.

“No, he can’t swim at all.  That’s why he doesn’t like being on boats.  I’m afraid that I had to blow my cover a bit on that.  I ended up jumping into the bay to try saving someone from drowning.”

Angie shook her head.  “Why does that not surprise me?”  She studied his face.  “Why do you pretend to be Daniel so completely?  I mean, no one here knows him.  They wouldn’t have known what he likes and doesn’t like, what he can and can’t do.”

“I know, but, to be safe, I had to be Daniel in every way, at least on the outside.  There was always the chance that a friend of his, or even his father, would come to visit.  If that happened, and I hadn’t been acting like the real Daniel all along, there would have been trouble.”

“What are you going to do if a friend of his does show up?  What if his father comes?  Do you think that you could fool them?”

“I really don’t know.  In these eight months, I’ve tried to learn everything I could about him.  When I was with him, I studied his mannerisms, the way he did stuff, the way he structured his sentences.  It was like the ultimate character study.”  A smile came to Rollie’s face.  “Lucinda would be proud.”  The smile faded.  “Fortunately, Daniel is left-handed, too.  There would have been a real problem if he wasn’t.  Actually, it was pretty weird how alike we were in a lot of ways.”

They fell silent as they looked out across the ocean, both of them lost in their own thoughts.  At last, Angie spoke.

“Rol, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.  When you were studying to be a minister, if something had happened that made it so you didn’t have to hide anymore, what would you have done?”

Rollie’s eyes remained on the water.  “I’ve asked myself that same question.  Even after things changed for me and I began to . . . connect with what I was learning, I still think that if I’d had the opportunity, I would have gone back to special effects.  I’d always felt like that’s what I was meant to do.  Of course, some things in my life would have changed.  I’m certain of that.”

“And now?  What if you could go back?”

Rollie’s eyes dropped to the sand.  “I don’t know.”  His gaze then went to her.  “I love it here.  I love the people, the town.  I feel at home here, like I belong.  If I left, I would miss this place a lot.”

“What about F/X?”

“Like I told you before, at first, I really missed it.  I missed the life, the excitement, watching a gag come together perfectly.  But, after I’d been here a while, I found that I could be happy without it.  I found something that made me happy in, I don’t know, a deeper way, I guess.”

“You mean being a minister?”

“Being a minister is part of it, but it’s more the way I help people, the way I can connect with them.”

“Well, you did always have this thing about helping people,” Angie said softly.

“Yeah.”  He gave a faint sigh.  “More than anything, it’s the people here.  They’re not like the people we dealt with in the business.  They’re a lot more genuine.  They don’t help each other just to look good or because they want something out of it.  They don’t put on airs or make themselves appear to be more than what they are.  They’re real people, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“A while back, Nub got really sick.  He could have died.  Everybody, the entire island, got him cards, and gifts, and prayed for him.  I’d never seen anything like it before in my life.  It was so wonderful.  It made me thank God that I was here.  And Nub wasn’t even born here.  He’s only been here for four years.  But these people, once they welcome you into their hearts, they do it completely.”

Rollie picked up a small shell and began turning it about between his fingers.  “I’d only been here about two and a half months when Daniel’s wife showed up.  Callie smelled a story and dug into things.  She found out about the incident with Daniel going to Las Vegas.  She was going to print it in the newspaper, but she came to me first.  I was so scared and upset.  Part of me was Daniel and another part was Rollie.  Daniel had been trying to make things better between him and his father for a long time, and I knew that if the story got out, his father might never forgive him because of the terrible damage it would do to his reputation as a minister.  The strongest connection that Daniel and I have is the way things are with our fathers.  For most of my life, I couldn’t see eye to eye with Dingo, and it was the same way with Daniel.”  He tossed the shell out into the surf

“At the same time, I was afraid that if Callie printed the story and the media on the mainland found out, they’d swamp the island.  If my picture had gotten in the papers or on TV, that would have been the end.  Loubar or one of the others would have seen it, and they’d have come here.  I would have had to run again.”

“What happened?”

“I told Callie how it would hurt people, that it would destroy things between Daniel and his father or, rather, me and my father.  She gave up the story.  She’d never given up a story in her life, but she did it for me and our friendship.  How many reporters in New York would do that?”

“None,” Angie said with conviction.

Rollie nodded in agreement.  “That’s the kind of people Hope Island has.  It’s not perfect.  There are some real jerks that come around, and some ugly things have happened, but it’s still a wonderful place.”  He glanced down at his watch.  “I guess we should go.  I want to take you up the coast a little farther before we head back.”

They stood and wiped the sand off their clothes.

“Rollie?”

“Hmm?”

“It was nice being with Rollie Tyler, even if it was just for a while.”

The Aussie looked at her, understanding what she meant.  “Yeah, it was.”

They returned to the boat.  A couple of minutes later, as it headed back out over the water, Rollie Tyler once again became Daniel Cooper.
 

CHAPTER SEVEN

As Daniel and Angie walked back into town after having returned the boat to its place on the dock, they noticed several people watching them and whispering amongst themselves, smiling and nodding.  Wondering what was going on, they headed over to Callie’s.  The newspaper woman grinned like a Cheshire cat when she saw them.

“So, did you enjoy your boat ride?”

“Yeah, it was nice,” Daniel said.  A woman passed by and nodded at him.

“Hello, Reverend.”  The woman’s gaze went to Angie.  “Hello, Miss Ramirez.” She smiled the smile of someone who knew a secret, then continued on her way.

Puzzled, Daniel turned back to Callie.  “What’s up with everyone?”

“Beats me,” Callie responded innocently.

Daniel’s brow lowered.  “Cough it up, Callie.  Something’s going on.”

“Well, one of the fishermen was out on his boat and just happened to see you and Angie together on that little stretch of beach that’s down the coast a ways.”

“And, of course, he had to come back here and tell the whole town,” Daniel said, groaning.  Great.  This was just great.

“I don’t understand,” Angie said.  “We were just sitting there talking.  What’s the big deal?”

“Angie, in New York, it might not be a big deal, but here, things are different,” Daniel explained.  “By now, everyone probably thinks we’re having a romantic relationship.  Before we know it, they’ll be talking about us getting married.”

The blonde blushed.  “But it’s not like that,” she stammered.

“No, but that won’t stop them from thinking it is.”

Callie looked at them.  They both claimed that there was nothing romantic between them anymore, but what else would explain this sense she got that there was more than just an ordinary friendship between them?

“Great.  So, what do we do?” Angie asked.

“Well, I could march over to the Widow’s Walk and make an announcement that we’re just friends, but that probably wouldn’t do much good.  All that would succeed in doing is making them think that we’re trying to hide what’s between us, which would be ten times worse.  It’ll all blow over, Ange.  Once you go back to New York, everyone will forget about this.”

A thought came to Angie’s mind.  ‘What if I don’t go back to New York?  What if I decide to stay here with you?’  Aloud, she said, “So, we’re going to have to put up with this for the rest of my stay here?”

“I’m afraid so,” Callie admitted.  “You get used to stuff like this when you live in a small town.”

“It could be worse,” Daniel said.  “At least I’m the minister.”

“What do you mean by that?” Angie asked.

The reverend lifted his eyebrows meaningfully.

“Oh,” Angie said, her blush deepening.  Daniel being the minister meant that people would assume he would not do certain things that might happen between any other man and the woman he was romantically involved with.

“On the other hand, you being the minister is going to make them talk all the more,” Callie remarked with a grin.

“Thank you so very much for pointing that out, Callie,” Daniel said, sounding exactly like Rollie for a moment, but without the Australian accent.

Angie moaned.  “Maybe I should just hide in my room for the rest of the two weeks.”

“Nothing doing, Angie,” Callie said.  “You came here to have fun, and that’s what you’re going to do.”  A mischievous smile curved her lips.  “Besides, this could be fun if you two played along with it.”

“Not on your life!” both Daniel and Angie exclaimed.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll take that as a no.”  Traces of the smile yet remained.  “So, what’s next in your plans for the day?”

“Lunch, I’d say,” the reverend said.  “Would you be able to join us?  If you’re there, people will talk less.”

“Sorry, Daniel.  I’ve just got too much work to do.  I might be able to join you for dinner, though, that is if you have it together.”

Angie stared suspiciously at the journalist, wondering if she really did have too much to do to have lunch with them.  She had a feeling that her friend was enjoying this little situation and was going to milk it for all it was worth.

Daniel and Angie went to the Widow’s Walk, trying to ignore the looks that came their way.  They sat at a table and waited for Molly to bring their menus.  It seemed to them that every pair of eyes in the place was fixed upon them, with a couple of notable exceptions, one of which was Alex, who appeared to be ignoring them completely, and the other being Father Mac, who just sat at his table, looking amused.

Finally reaching the threshold of his patience, Daniel treated each and every one of the gawkers to a penetrating, “I’m the minister and you will stop this nonsense right now” glare.  Everyone immediately looked elsewhere.

“Hey, you did that pretty good,” Angie whispered.

“I’ve been practicing, though I don’t get to use it much,” the reverend whispered back.

Molly came up to them, menus in hand and a smile on her face.  “Good afternoon, Daniel, Angie.  Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

Daniel and Angie would have had to be incredibly dense not to see that the woman really wanted to ask something else instead.

“Yes, it is a nice day, a nice day to go for a boat ride and spend some time talking to an old friend.”  The minister’s voice had been a good deal louder than what was necessary and had pointedly put extra emphasis on the words ‘talking’ and ‘friend’.

Molly glanced about at the other patrons, whose eyes had gravitated toward Daniel and Angie again.  A look of sympathy came to her face.  Understanding their dilemma, she bent down closer.  “Would you like some company for lunch?”

A look of relief came to both Daniel’s and Angie’s faces.  “Yes, please,” Angie said.

Molly nodded.  She then headed straight toward Father Mac’s table.  “Let’s move you to another table, Father Mac.”  She gently pulled at the confused man’s arm until he stood.

“Molly, I--” Daniel started to say, but it was too late.  She was already leading the priest to their table.  This was not what the minister had had in mind.  Father Mac was just about the worse person Molly could have chosen to be his and Angie’s lunch companion.  What were the islanders going to think now?

Molly pulled a chair out and sat Father Mac down in it.  “There.  That’s much better.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot, Molly,” Daniel muttered.

The waitress took their orders and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the three to fill the uncomfortable silence that had arisen between them.

“So, I hear that you and Angie went for a boat ride today,” the priest commented pleasantly.

Daniel groaned.  “Please!  Not you too, Father Mac.  All we did was go for a ride and talk.  Angie and I are just friends.”

The priest chuckled.  “Nevertheless, the good people of Hope seem to want to believe something else.  Perhaps you should consider having a chaperone along with you from now on,” he suggested jokingly.

“At this point, I am seriously considering that,” the reverend sighed.

Father Mac chuckled again.  “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Daniel.  It’s all harmless gossip.  I doubt that anything serious will come of it.”

“I hope you’re right.  I wouldn’t want them to get the wrong idea about things.”

The priest nodded in understanding.  His eyes traveled between the two of them.  “I hear that you went to McKinley’s Beach.”

“Is that what that place is called?” Angie asked.

“Yes.  There’s a rather sad story behind it and a bit of a mystery.”

“Really?”  She and Daniel temporarily forgot their trouble with the Hope Island gossip mill and focused on Father Mac.

“Yes, indeed.  This was a very long time ago, almost a hundred years now.  A fisherman named Jack McKinley owned the property.  He lived alone and seldom associated with the other islanders.  One day, a beautiful woman named Miranda came to the island, a woman from Jack’s past.  They had a . . . romance.”  The priest cleared his throat, making it obvious that the relationship had been a lot hotter than the word ‘romance’ implied.  “It was said that their love knew no bounds, that they had sworn to live all eternity together.

“A short time after Miranda came, it was discovered that Jack was not who he had claimed to be.  He was actually the son of a banker.  He had come to Hope Island after having a terrible argument with his father about not wanting to be a part of the family business.

“Jack and Miranda had been together for one month when another man came to the island, Miranda’s fiancé and an old enemy of Jack’s.  Enraged at his fiancée’s infidelity, the man swore that he would kill her and her lover.  He burned Jack’s house to the ground, but could find no trace of him or Miranda . . . except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Angie asked, her imagination captured by the tale.

“Two sets of footprints disappearing into the sea.  According to the legend, Jack and Miranda, knowing that they could not be together in this life, chose to go to the next so that they would never be apart.  Many of the fishermen and older residents think that the ghosts of Jack and Miranda still haunt that beach, seeking the life together that they could never have.  Of course, that is just silly superstition.”

Daniel sat utterly still, goose bumps popping up on his skin.  Jack McKinley, living an identity that was not his own, one day has a woman from his past appear.  The parallel between the man’s life and his was startling, even though there were many things that were different.  What disturbed the minister the most was the appearance of the old enemy and the fate of Jack and Miranda.  Would history repeat itself?  No, that was ridiculous.  It was just a story about something that happened a long time ago, most of which had probably been distorted far beyond the truth.  Yet the tale had made something crystal clear to Rollie.  Angie could never stay on Hope.  The danger that Loubar would come here would be too great.  The same thoughts must have been going through Angie’s mind, for she was looking very serious.

Just then, their food came, and everyone focused on eating.  During the meal, Daniel tried several times to catch Alex’s attention, but she always seemed to be looking elsewhere.  He didn’t know what was going on with the owner of the Widow’s Walk, but as soon as he could, he was going to find out.

After the meal, Angie and the two clergymen left together and walked slowly down the street.  Father Mac was puzzled by the reaction the two young people had had to the legend of McKinley’s Beach.  They had both seemed ill at ease and rather sad for quite a while afterwards.  He had a feeling that there was something between these two friends that neither one of them wanted to reveal.

A chilly breeze had picked up off the ocean, and Angie found herself rubbing her arms to warm them.  “Daniel, I’m going to go grab a sweater, okay?”

“Sure, Ange.  I’ll wait for you over by the church.”

The clergymen covered the rest of the distance to the Catholic church.  Standing beside the steps, silence fell between them for a couple of minutes.

“Daniel, would it be too presumptuous of me to ask a personal question about you and Angie?” Father Mac asked hesitantly.

“Um . . . no, I guess not.”

“Was there ever something between you like what the islanders think there is?”

“I. . . .”  Daniel paused, trying to think of the right words.  “There was a time when Angie and I were really close, almost inseparable, in a way, but that was in another lifetime.  It could never be like that again.”

“Why is that?”

“Things are . . . complicated now.  She lives in New York and I live here.  We don’t share the same life anymore.”  There was a touch of regret in Daniel’s voice.

“I get the feeling that there is something more to this.”

Daniel’s gaze dropped to the ground.  “Yeah.  It’s something that I can’t talk about.”

The priest laid his hand on the young minister’s shoulder comfortingly.  “Whatever it is, have faith that God will help you work things out, Daniel.”  He looked toward the Widow’s Walk to see that Angie was returning.  “Well, my duties call me.  If there is ever a time when you want to talk about things, remember that it will go no further than me.”  He walked up the stairs and entered the church.

Angie came up to him and noticed the expression on his face.  “What’s wrong?”

Daniel shook his head.  “Nothing.  I was just thinking about how things would have been different if it hadn’t happened.”

“Oh.”  She smiled, trying to dispel the gloom that had come to them both.  “Well, I, for one, want to go for a bike ride, and I don’t care what the islanders think about us going off alone together again.”

Daniel returned the smile.  “As it just so happens, that is something we can do.  I have a bike of my own, and I’m sure that we can borrow one for you.”

The two friends headed up the road, their minds now on the fun they would have for the rest of the day.

Callie Pender stepped out from behind the bushes beside the church and watched them leave.  It was more than her journalist’s instincts that told her that what she’d heard between Daniel and Father Mac, and then between the minister and Angie, was something big.  She was positive that it was news that would rock Hope Island and be a front page headline in The Lookout for weeks.

As had happened before, Callie was torn between her desire for a story and her feelings of friendship, this time both for Daniel and Angie.  Of course, there was no sense fighting her conscience until she had a story.

Callie walked off, forming a plan in her mind about how she could find out more about what went on in Daniel and Angie’s past.
 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Angie was sure that she must have been imagining things when she heard what sounded like thunder coming from the kitchen.  She stood to the left of the door, hesitating before venturing past it, which was a good thing because it prevented her from becoming the casualty of a collision with a moving mountain.

A large man came storming out of the kitchen, a plate of something that bore a resemblance to food in his hand.  The terminus of his charge, which would have flattened the entire defensive line of the Green Bay Packers, was a table at which sat a lone and now terrified-looking man.

The big man very firmly placed the plate on the table.  He then loomed over the cowering patron.  “Boris no fix sloop.  Am excellent chef, learn from greatest chefs in all of Russia,” he announced.  “This is recipe handed down from great, great, great, great grandmother who cook for czar.  If good enough for czar, then is good enough for you.”

“Bu-bu-but I don’t know what it is,” the man whined.

“Why you want to eat food you only know what is?  All you want is grilled cheese and hamburger.  Is boring!  This is good Russian food.  Put hair on chest.  Look at Boris.  Was this close,” he put his fingers about half an inch apart, “from being cosmonaut, but too big for suit.  Boris is big and strong from eating good Russian food like this.”  He looked the man up and down.  “I think you need Russian food, too.  Put muscle on skinny body.”

“Boris!” Alex yelled, just having come down the stairs and through the doorway.  “What do you think you’re doing?  Leave the poor man alone.”

“Why should I leave man alone?  He say I fix sloop.  Am very insulted.”

“Sloop?” Alex asked.

“Slop,” Molly explained.

“Oh.  Uh . . . okay.  Boris, come here, please.”

The Russian left the man and approached her.

“Look, Boris.  I know he insulted you, but he didn’t know any better.  He’s a businessman from the mainland.”

The Russian snorted.  “I am thinking that he not have business for long if he so stupid thinking Russian food is no good.  He not even try, just look and say is sloop.”  He spun around and strode back to the man, who looked as if he was trying to meld his atoms with those of the chair.  “Why you no try?  You taste with eyeballs?  You try, then you see that is good.”

“I-I-I. . . .  Okay,” the poor man squeaked.  He tentatively dipped his fork into the meal, pulling out a tiny morsel.  Looking like he was about to poison himself, he took a bite.  After a couple of seconds, a look of surprise came to his face.  “This is . . . this is good.”  He took another, larger bite.  “This is very good.”

A huge smile bloomed across Boris’s face.  “You see?  I tell you!  Is good Russian food, better than grilled cheese or hamburger.”  He slapped the guy on the back hard enough that if the man had been wearing dentures, they would now be across the room.  “Boris forgives you for saying he cook sloop.  We friends now.”  He turned back toward the kitchen.  That’s when he caught sight of Angie, who had not moved from her place beside the door.  He looked startled for a moment, then another smile appeared.  He walked up to her.

“Boris not know your name.  Not see you before.”

“I’m Angie, Angie Ramirez.”

“Ah!  Angie from New York!  Does big explosions for movies and makes dinosaurs eat people.  Boris actor in movie once.  Could have been big star.  I am pleased to meet you, Angie Ramirez.  You remind Boris much of little sister of best friend in Russia.  She was good kid.  Sad when she run away and not come back.  Make her mama cry.  Did your mama cry when you go to New York to make movies?”

“My parents are both dead,” Angie said quietly.

A look of horror came to the Russian’s face.  “I am so sorry to make you feel sad.  You forgive?”

Angie smiled.  “Yes, Boris, I forgive you.”

“Good, good.  Now you come sit and Boris fix nice Russian meal for you.”

“No thank you, Boris.  I ate only about three hours ago.  I’m not hungry yet.”

“Then you sit and have coffee and eat apple pie.  Is good apple pie.  Boris bake it this morning.”  He smiled encouragingly.

“All right, but tea instead of coffee, please.”

“Tea it is.”  He led Angie to a table and waited for her to be seated before going back to the kitchen.

Molly was passing by and Angie stopped her.  “Hey, Molly?  Is what he said about being a cosmonaut and an actor true?”

“I have no idea.  Nobody does.  He’s also a painter and claims to have been a plumber, a fireman, a sword swallower, and a few other things.”

Angie laughed.  “Interesting mixture of career choices.”

Molly studied Angie’s face for a moment.  “I heard that you and Daniel went for a bike ride this afternoon.”

Angie sighed silently, having gotten used to the continual questions about her and Daniel.  “Yeah, that’s right.  We went riding up on the back roads and trails.  I haven’t been on a bicycle in ages.  I use inline skates at home.  But it was fun.”

“Will you and Daniel be eating here tonight?”

“I don’t know yet.  We were thinking about just eating something at his place.”

Molly nodded, then excused herself and went back to the kitchen.  She nearly collided with Boris who was coming out with a slice of pie and a cup of tea.  He placed them before Angie.

“You try.  If you not like, then I give you something else.”

Angie took a bite of the pie.  “It’s very good, Boris.  Thank you.”

The smile returned to the man’s face.  “Boris is pleased you like.  Pie is on the roof.”

“On the roof?  Oh!  You mean on the house.  No, that’s not necessary.  I’m happy to pay for it.”

“Boris wants to give pie to Angie who looks like best friend’s sister.  You will let me do this?”

The blonde hesitated, then agreed.  Boris went back to the kitchen looking pleased.  Angie began eating her pie, then noticed a boy around ten or eleven years old staring at her.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi.”

“You must be Dylan, Alex’s son.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m Angie.”

“Yeah, I know.  I heard everyone talking about you and Daniel.  So, are you going to marry him?”

Shocked at the bold question, Angie was at a loss for words for a moment--and a moment was all the time there was between the boy’s question and an angry exclamation from a few yards away.

“Dylan Stone!  What are you thinking asking a question like that?!” Alex yelled.  “Come right here this instant, young man.”

Dylan went to her, and she took him upstairs to his room.

“You know better than to ask something like that.  What happened to the manners I taught you?”

Her son looked at her with a rather sullen expression on his face.  “I just wanted to know if they were going to get married.”

“Why?”

The expression on Dylan’s face changed, became clouded.  “Because if they get married, then Daniel will probably leave and go to New York with her.”

Alex’s anger with her son drained away.  She sat on the bed beside him.  “Why do you think Daniel would leave?”

The boy shrugged.  “Because some people were saying that might happen, that this Angie wouldn’t want to live here in a little town when she’s from New York.”

Alex silently absorbed what Dylan had said.  Though she would not tell him, this is what she also had feared might happen, that if Daniel and Angie got together, the minister might leave to be with her.  Daniel was the first man to really become a part of Alex’s and her son’s lives in the years that had passed since they last saw Steve.  She knew that Dylan adored him, and she couldn’t bear the thought of her son losing yet another ‘father’.  As for her, she was honest enough to admit to herself that she would miss Daniel a lot as well.

Even if he didn’t leave, but, instead, stayed with Angie here on the island, Alex had worried that he would start to pay less attention to Dylan.  It would be only natural, having a new wife, starting a family of his own.  Dylan would fall by the wayside.

Alex had been angry with Daniel because of these fears, feeling like he was abandoning her and Dylan as Steve had and like her father had abandoned her.  She now realized that hadn’t been fair to Daniel.  He’d done nothing wrong.  She’d also done him an injustice.  He was not the same kind of man as Steve Kramer.  He was better than that.

Alex put her arm around her son’s shoulders.  “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Daniel and Angie.  I only know that they’re clearly very good friends and that Daniel cares a great deal about her.  But, Dylan honey, you have to know that Daniel loves you.  No matter what, he wouldn’t just walk out on you.  He’ll always be your friend.”

“You said that Dad loves me, but he never comes here, and he almost never writes.”

Alex sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the pain of Steve’s failure as a father. “I know, sweetheart, but Daniel isn’t like your father.  Daniel loves people, and he would never hurt someone if he could help it.  And he would never ever walk out on a friend or his family.”  She stood.  “Come on.  I want you to go downstairs and apologize to Angie for being so rude.”  Her son made a face, but she halted his objections before they were spoken.  “None of that, young man.  You owe her an apology, and that’s what you’re going to do.”

Dylan reluctantly followed his mother down the stairs and to Angie’s table.

“Angie, my son has something he’d like to say to you.”

The boy stared at the floor, shifting his feet uncomfortably.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.  At a quick poke in the ribs from his mother, he met Angie’s eyes.  “I’m sorry,” he said more loudly.

Angie smiled at him.  “That’s all right.  You just surprised me.”  She scanned the boy’s face.  “I’d like to be friends, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good.  Hey, I’ve got an idea.  Daniel and I were thinking about having dinner at his place tonight.  Maybe you and your mom could come join us.  It would be fun.”

Dylan looked up hopefully at his mother.

“Well, I don’t know.  I really should be here for the dinner crowd.  It gets so busy.”

Boris suddenly stepped up to them.  “Boris and Molly can take care of dinner.  We did good on buffet when Alex was campaigning for mayor, no?  Dinner is piece of cake next to buffet.  Is right, Molly?”  He looked at Alex’s best friend.

“Is right, Boris,” she agreed with a smile.

“So you go moosh moosh to Daniel’s and have fun.  You deserve a smash.”

“That’s break, Boris.  She deserves a break,” Molly corrected, trying not to laugh.

“Yes, this is what Boris mean.  You have fun.”  He made a shooing motion with his hands.

“Well, we’re not leaving yet, Boris, so don’t go pushing us out the door,” Alex said.  She looked at her friend.  “Are you sure, Mol?”

“Yes, I’m sure.  Like Boris said, it’ll be a piece of cake compared to the buffet.”

“Well. . . .  All right, then,” Alex said.  She was rewarded with a smile from everyone.

“Great!” Angie rose from the table.  “Well, I have to go shopping for this dinner.  I’ll be doing most of the cooking.  Ro . . . Reverend Cooper couldn’t cook a real dinner if his life depended on it.”

Alex watched Angie leave, again thinking that she and Daniel must have gotten to know each other extremely well when they were friends before.  The way Angie talked, it was like they’d been friends for years.  Yet again, the redhead felt her jealousy rise.  Daniel and Angie clearly had something very special between them, something that Alex would probably never have with him.  Alex chastised herself.  What kind of attitude was that, being jealous because Daniel appeared to have a closer friendship with Angie than with her?  ‘Pretty petty, Alex.’

Shoving her thoughts aside, Alex got back to work.  It was going to be nice having dinner with Daniel and Angie tonight, even though she did owe the reverend a big apology for the way she’d been acting.  Hopefully, she’d get the chance to make that apology tonight.

“Can I help you find what you’re looking for, Angie?” Ruby asked.

“Um, yeah, where are the mushrooms?”

“Right over here.  How many cans?”

“Better make it two.”

Ruby handed her the cans, glancing at the other things the blonde had gathered.  “Looks like you’re planning to fix a nice dinner.”

“Well, I don’t really know how nice it will be.  I don’t fix dinner much anymore, now that it’s always just me I’m cooking for.  When Rollie was--” Angie halted, not wanting to say anymore. She dropped her eyes to the groceries.

Ruby looked at the young woman in concern.  There had been a deep sadness in her blue eyes for a moment.  Ruby laid her hand upon Angie’s in a comforting, motherly fashion.  “Was Rollie this friend of yours that I heard died a while back?”

Angie nodded, but did not look up.  Even though she knew that Rollie was alive and well, the pain she’d suffered over the last eight months still crept up on her once in a while, especially when she thought about the fact that she might have to leave Hope Island and never see him again.

“I’m very sorry, Angie.  You must have loved him a great deal.”

Angie cleared her throat of the knot that had formed in it and got hold of her emotions.  She looked up at the older woman.  “Thank you, Ruby.  I’m all right now.  Well, I’d better hurry up and finish my shopping.  I’ve got to get up to Daniel’s and start fixing everything.”

A look of delight came to Ruby’s face.  “Are you and the reverend having dinner together at his house?”

“Yeah, with Alex and Dylan.”

“Oh, I see.  Well, I hope you have a wonderful evening.”

Angie watched the woman as she returned to the checkout counter.  She could have sworn that she’d seen disappointment in Ruby’s eyes when she mentioned Alex and Dylan.  Shrugging, Angie finished gathering the things she’s need and took them up to the counter.  Bonita came out from the back room.  She looked at the things Angie was buying.

“Would you like some wine to go along with dinner, Angie?”

“I didn’t think of that.  We . . . I usually drink beer.  But wine would be nice.”

Bonita helped her select one that would go well with what she was fixing.  The purchases were paid for and bagged.

“That’s a lot of stuff for you to carry up there,” Bonita said.  “Why don’t you let me drive you?”

“Thanks.  That would be great.”  Daniel had told her that any time she wanted a lift up to the church, she would have no trouble finding someone who would take her.  Apparently, he’d been right.

Daniel came out of the house a few seconds after Angie and Bonita pulled up.  His eyes widened at the amount of food that was unloaded from the van.

“Are we feeding an army?”

“No, just four.  I invited Alex and Dylan to join us.  I hope that was all right.”

“Yeah, sure.  You mean you actually got Alex to agree to leave the Widow’s Walk during the dinner rush?”

“I can’t take credit for that.  That was Boris’s doing.”

The minister smiled.  “I can just picture what Boris told her.  ‘Boris take care of dinner.  You go have good time.  Moosh moosh,’” he said in a perfect imitation of the Russian’s voice.

Both women laughed.  “That was really good, Daniel.  I didn’t know you could do impersonations,” Bonita said.

“I . . . used to dabble with it from time to time,” the reverend explained.  He helped the women carry the groceries in.

“I’d better get back to the store,” Bonita said.  “I hope you have a nice dinner.”  She headed back down to the store.

“Did he look happy to see her?” Ruby wrote on her chalkboard as her daughter came in the door.

Bonita picked up a pad of paper and answered, “He was expecting her, Mom.  It wasn’t a surprise.  It was a surprise that Alex and Dylan were coming, though.”

Ruby’s eyebrows rose.  She picked up another pad of paper and pencil, needing more room to write.  “Really?  That’s interesting.  Maybe Angie’s afraid to be alone with him for dinner because she doesn’t want to get too involved.”  A thoughtful look came to the woman’s face.

Bonita sighed.  “Mom, I really don’t think you should interfere.  Besides, I think that Angie was in love with the man who died.  That’s the way it looks and sounds.”

“All the more reason that she should have someone in her life.  I saw her when she first came, and she looked so sad.  Since meeting Daniel, she’s been like a different person.  He’d be good for her, and she would be good for him.”

Bonita looked heavenward.  “I give up,” she said to whomever was listening.  She returned to the back room as her mother began muttering to herself about how she was going to get Angie Ramirez to stay on Hope Island.
 

CHAPTER NINE

The smell of food drew Daniel to the kitchen.  Angie was at the stove, busily preparing the meal.  He smiled at the picture of domestic life she made.

“Well, don’t you make the cute little homemaker,” he teased.  “What’s for dinner, honey?”

Angie shot him a glare.  “Your head on a platter if you make another wisecrack like that.”

Daniel chuckled and came up beside her, laying his hand lightly on her shoulder.  The familiar touch made Angie pause in what she was doing, remembering all the other times he had touched her like that.

“Can I help?” the minister asked.

“You can make the salad.”

“Will do.”  He gathered the ingredients and began chopping and slicing.  “Did Alex seem to like the idea of coming over here for dinner?”

“Yeah, after Boris and Molly convinced her that they could handle things on their own.  Why do you ask?”

“Oh, it’s just that Alex has been acting kind of strange lately, like she was upset about something.  I’ve been worried about her.”

Angie turned and looked at him.  “You like her a lot, don’t you.”

“Yeah, I do.  Actually, she reminds me of you.  She’s got the same temper and the same tendency to say exactly what’s on her mind.  I should think that you two would get along really well.  On second thought, having two women like you in my life is overwhelming enough.  I don’t want to think about what would happen if you ever joined forces.”  He gave a mock shudder.

“Ha ha ha,” Angie said, then turned back to her cooking to hide the big smile that had come to her lips.  It was so good to be bantering like this with him again.  It was just like old times.

“Daniel, I never got the chance to thank you for that letter you wrote.  It really helped.”  She smiled.  “At the time, I was wondering how you seemed to understand the relationship I had with my late friend so well.”  She grew serious again.  “When you wrote it, were you . . . thinking of the pain that Daniel suffered when he lost the woman he loved?”

“A little.”

“Was it about your mom?” Angie asked softly.

Daniel paused, then nodded.  “Her death really hit me hard.  I withdrew from everyone and everything.  It took Cale throwing me off that mountain and me spending those three days in the desert with a broken leg to make me see straight.”  Not wanting to dwell on the pain of the past, he looked in the grocery bag on the table.  “So, what’s for dessert?”

“Who says there’s going to be dessert?  Didn’t you say that the real Daniel is a health nut?”

The minister pouted.  “He’s not that much of a health nut.”

Angie reached into the other grocery bag, which was sitting on the counter, and pulled out a box.

“Chocolate cake!”  Daniel exclaimed happily.

“And chocolate frosting to go along with it.”

“Thanks, Ange.”

“You’re welcome, Daniel.  Now, let me get back to work.”

The minister smiled.  “Yes, ma’am.”

Alex gave a loud knock on the door.  A few seconds later, Daniel opened it.

“Hi!  Come on in.  You’ve got perfect timing.  We just finished cooking everything.”

“We?” came Angie’s voice from the kitchen.

“Well, I helped,” the minister said defensively.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Alex commented, wiping a dark smudge off Daniel’s cheek.

“That’s probably cake mix.”

“Cake?” Dylan said, his eyes brightening.

“Yeah, chocolate cake,” Daniel said with a grin.

“Isn’t that kind of blowing your usual diet?” Alex asked.

“It won’t kill me to splurge every once in a while.  Besides, it’s a special occasion.”

“Why?” Dylan asked, suddenly worried.

“Oh, because I’ve met Angie again after all this time and because I get to have dinner with her and two of my best friends on Hope Island.”

A brilliant smile lit the boy’s face.  “Did you see any ghosts when you were at McKinley’s Beach?”

“Nope, not a one, but I don’t believe in ghosts anyway.  Angie, on the other hand, believes in all that stuff, ghosts, aliens, psychic powers, everything.  She’s really into it.”

Angie came out of the kitchen.  “What are you telling them about me?”

“Only the truth, Ange,” he assured her.

She looked at him suspiciously.  “Well, I could use a hand getting the stuff on the table.”

With everyone’s help, the food was on the table and everybody was seated within a couple of minutes.

The minister glanced at Alex and Angie.  “Um . . . usually I’d give a blessing now, but . . . I suppose we could dispense with it.”

The two women shared a look.  “Thank you, Daniel,” Alex said.

He nodded and began serving the food.

An hour later, everyone’s stomachs were full and their throats were aching from talking and laughing.  Daniel and Alex had shared more tales of Hope Island goings on, the redhead telling some stories of things that happened before the minister’s arrival.  She had thought that Angie would share some stories of things that she had done in her work as a special effects artist, but the blonde had preferred to listen to everyone else.  Alex wondered if the reason for her silence about her work was because of her friend’s death.

Throughout the evening, she had watched Daniel and Angie interact with each other.  They seemed able to read each other’s expressions and body language so well that it was sometimes like they were reading each other’s minds.  Alex just couldn’t get over it.  How could two people who hadn’t seen each other in so many years be so close?

A buzzer went off in the kitchen.

“That’s the cake,” Angie said.  She rose from the table.

“Would you like a hand?” Alex asked.

“Um, sure.”

The two women went into the kitchen.

“There are some potholders there in the bottom drawer.  Could you get a couple and put them on the table?” Angie asked as she opened the oven and pulled the cake out.  A few moments later, the cake was sitting on the potholders.  “Frankly, I was surprised that Daniel even had potholders since he almost never cooks.”

“Stella probably got them.  She baked cookies for everybody.”  Alex looked at Angie’s face.  “Did Daniel tell you about Stella?”

“Some.  He told me about her visit here.  I’m glad things were resolved between them.”  Angie began running a butter knife along the edges of the pan to unstick the cake from it.  “Could you get some wax paper?  It’s up there in that cabinet.”

Alex got the wax paper and tore off a piece.  She laid it on the table beside the cake.  For a moment, she just stood staring at it, then she lifted her eyes to the blonde.  “You really love him, don’t you.”

Angie froze, her heart giving a heavy thud in her chest.  “I. . . .  Yes, I do.  He’s a very good friend.  He was when I knew him before, but I think we’re even closer now.”

“Were you and he ever, um, more than friends?”

Angie paused again.  To stick with their story, she would have to say yes, but she really hated lying about this.  “There was a time when I felt a lot more than friendship, when I thought about spending my life with him.  But that was a long time ago.”  One year and eight months ago when she’d made love with a man she had thought was him, then woke up the next morning feeling happy and content.

Angie put the wax paper over the cake.  She then got the cutting board and laid it on top of the cake and paper.  She flipped the cutting board and pan over and laid them on the table.  Tapping at the bottom of the pan a few times, she cautiously lifted it.  The cake came out cleanly.

“Tada!” the blonde said.  Her gaze lifted to the redhead’s.  “What about you?”

“What about me what?”

“How do you feel about Daniel?”

This time it was Alex who paused.  “I like him.  I guess I like him a lot.  He’s great with Dylan.  One of the things I like best about him is that he doesn’t try to get me to go to church.  He respects my beliefs.”

Angie nodded.  “That’s the kind of person he is.”

“I get the feeling that you don’t go to church either.”

“No, I don’t, not in a very long time.”

“Was that a problem when you and he were going together?”

“No, not at all,” Angie said.  In truth, since he didn’t go to church either, the issue never even came up.  Of course, she couldn’t tell Alex that.

Angie looked at the other woman.  She could tell that the redhead wanted to ask something, but was hesitating.

“Go ahead and ask, Alex, whatever it is.”

Alex met her gaze.  “Do you think that you and Daniel might ever get back together like you were before?”

Oh, boy.  She would have to ask the question, wouldn’t she.  “I don’t know.  I really don’t.  So much has changed since we saw each other last.  There would be . . . complications with us getting back together.  I just don’t know if it would be possible.”  She tried not to show the pain that her admission caused, but didn’t know if she succeeded.

Alex watched Angie as she spoke.  The blonde was trying to keep her tone and manner light, but Alex could see the sadness lying underneath.  Alex suddenly felt sorry for Angie.  It was clear that she wanted to resume her life with Daniel, but something was preventing it.

All at once, Alex felt even worse that she had been jealous of Daniel and Angie’s relationship.  “Can I help?” she asked quietly.

Surprised, Angie looked at her.  She’d had a suspicion that Alex liked Daniel a lot more than she was admitting, yet the woman was now offering to help Angie and Daniel get back together.  “Thank you for offering, Alex.  It’s very kind of you, but I’m afraid that there’s nothing you could do.”

Daniel and Dylan stood on the deck, looking down at the trees.

“Those there are Douglas Fir trees,” Dylan said, pointing to a line of evergreens.  “They’re really common in the Northwest.  They’re used a lot for Christmas trees.  And that’s a, uh, ponderosa pine.”

“Wow.  I’m impressed, Dylan.  You really know a lot about this.”

The boy fairly glowed at the compliment.  “They’ve been teaching us a little about trees and plants in school.”  He had thought it was boring, but now he would learn everything he could.

“Well, as well as you’re doing, you’ll be an expert in no time.”  Daniel patted the boy on the shoulder.

Dylan’s pride expanded.  He looked up at the minister who was smiling at him warmly.  Every time Daniel complimented him, it made him feel like he could do anything.

“You like Angie a lot, don’t you,” the boy said.

The smile faded from the minister’s face.  “Yes, I do.  Very, very much.”

“Have you ever kissed her?”

“Uh . . . yes, I have.”  Daniel was starting to get embarrassed by Dylan’s questions and was beginning to worry about where they would lead.

“On the mouth?”

“Dylan, that’s rather personal.  You don’t ask people questions like that.”

The boy’s eyes dropped from his.  “Sorry.”

“Why are you asking?”

Dylan shrugged, but didn’t say anything.

“Hey.  We’re buddies, aren’t we?  Why do you want to know about Angie and me?  You can tell me,” Daniel said encouragingly.

The boy looked up at him.  “Are you going back to New York with her?”

Daniel stared at him in surprise.  “Why would you think I was going back to New York with Angie?”

“Because that’s what some people think.  They think that you’re going to get married and live with her in New York.”

Daniel laid his hands on the boy’s shoulders and looked at him straight in the eyes.  “Dylan, I am not going back to New York, so just get that idea right out of your head.”

Dylan’s worry over Daniel going away vanished at the minister’s words.  “Is Angie going to stay here?”

He watched as Daniel’s eyes filled with sorrow.  The minister turned away to look out over the bay.  “She can’t.”

“How come?”  Dylan was worried again, but this time for his friend.  He’d never seen Daniel look so sad before.

“It’s just not possible.  There would be problems if she stayed.”

“But you want her to.”

“Yes.  More than anything in the world.”  Daniel closed his eyes, fighting desperately to hold back the tears.

Dylan was getting more distressed by the minute.  He felt like he had when he saw his mother crying alone after her mother died.  He wanted to help, but he didn’t know how.

He looked at Daniel, not knowing what to do.  He remembered what he had done with his mother when she was crying, but she was his mom.  That was different.  Yet, seeing the sadness on Daniel’s face, he knew he had to do something.

Shyly, tentatively, Dylan slipped an arm around Daniel’s waist.  The minister looked down at him, then wrapped him in a tight hug.  The boy held onto him, deciding that hugging was okay after all.

“Where are the guys?” Angie asked as she and Alex came back out into the living room.

“I don’t know.  Maybe they’re on the deck.  I’ll go check.”  Alex went to the French doors and pushed aside the partially drawn curtains.  She stopped when she saw what was on the other side.  Daniel and Dylan were hugging each other.  Alex felt her throat close up at the sight, tears prickling behind her eyes.  She turned away, leaving them their moment of privacy.  Getting a grip on her emotions, she went back to Angie.

“Are they out there?” the blonde asked.

“Yeah.  It looks like they’re having a ‘man to man’.”

“Oh.  Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah.”

A few minutes later, Daniel and Dylan came back in.  The minister gave both women a smile.

“I see that you’re done with the girl talk.”

“Girl talk?  What makes you think we were making girl talk?” Angie asked innocently.

“You’ve got to be kidding.  Two women alone in a kitchen together?  Of course you were making girl talk.”

“What’s girl talk?” Dylan asked curiously.

“Things that girls talk about when no guys are around,” Daniel explained.  “Stuff that they don’t want us to hear.”

“Like what?”

“Yes, Daniel, like what?” Angie asked, smiling mischievously.

The minister shot her a look.  “What they think about guys, especially particular guys.  They discuss things that only other women can understand about each other, which, by the way, is just about everything.  Female things--”

“Female things?”  Dylan pounced on the opportunity to learn more about the differences between men and women.

Angie snickered.  “You’re digging yourself in deeper, Daniel.  If you’re not careful, you’ll be explaining the facts of life.”

“Oh, I already know that stuff,” Dylan announced wisely.  “We learned about sex and reproduction in school.”

“Dylan!” Alex screeched, mortified.

Daniel and Angie gaped at him, their mouths hanging open.  After several seconds, they both closed their jaws with a snap.  The minister cleared his throat.

“How about if we have a nice piece of cake now?”

“It has to cool before we can frost it,” Angie told him.  She saw the look his face.  “Don’t worry.  I promise you’ll get your cake before you go to beddy bye.”

“Oh!  That reminds me,” Alex said.  She got her coat and pulled something out of the pocket.  “Molly found this in the trash when she was cleaning your room and figured that it must have gotten knocked into the wastebasket accidentally.”  She handed Angie the bottle of sleeping pills.

“Oh.  Thanks.”  Angie looked at Daniel and saw that he was staring at the prescription bottle.  When his eyes met hers, there was fear in them.  He then turned to Alex.  “Would you excuse us a moment, Alex?” Without waiting for her answer, he led Angie into the bedroom.  The moment the door was closed, he focused an intense gaze on her.  “Angie, what’s wrong?  What are those pills?  Are you sick?”

“No, no, Rol, I’m not sick,” she hastily assured him, dispensing, for the moment, with the name Daniel.

“Then what are those?”  He pointed at the pills.

“They’re . . . sleeping pills.”

“Sleeping pills?  Since when do you need to take sleeping pills?”

“Rollie . . . Daniel, I’ll explain later, okay?  We need to get back out to Alex and Dylan.”

“All right, but we will talk about this later.”

They returned to the living room.  Daniel went to get a deck of cards so that they could play a game.  As he did, Alex leaned close to Angie.

“I’m sorry, Angie.  He didn’t know you were taking sleeping pills, did he.”

“No, but it’s okay.  I stopped taking them last night.  I’ll get it straightened out.”

They played two games of Gin Rummy, Dylan winning the first, and Angie the second.  The cake was frosted and eaten between the two games, Daniel sinfully enjoying every last bite of his piece and longingly looking at the leftover cake for seconds.  By the time the second game was over, it was time for Alex and Dylan to leave, though Dylan had a few things to say about it.

“But, mom.  Can’t we play another game?”

“It’s late, Dylan, way past your bedtime.  Now, thank Daniel and Angie for the nice time you had and get your coat.”

The boy turned to Daniel and Angie.  “Thank you.  It was fun.”

“Yes, it was.  We’ll have to do it again,” Daniel said.  He looked at Alex.  “Could we talk for a minute?”

“Um, sure, Daniel.”  She followed him into the kitchen.

“Are things okay, Alex?  I mean, is there a problem with something?”

“No, everything’s fine.  I . . . I was a little upset about something, but. . . .”

“About the rumor that I might leave Hope?” Daniel asked.  “Dylan told me about it.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, and I told him that I wasn’t going to New York.”

“You’re not?”

“No, I’m not.”

“That’s great!  I-I mean, I was worried about Dylan.  You and he are so close,” Alex stammered.

“Alex, I’m not like his father.  I wouldn’t just walk out on him.  If something ever happened that I had no choice but to leave, I would do everything I could to stay in touch.”  ‘If I could,’ he silently added.  Sadly, he knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to, just as he had been unable to contact Angie.

“I know you would, Daniel, but thanks for saying so.  I’m sorry I was acting like I was.”

“Don’t worry about it.”  The minister paused.  “Alex, I wanted to talk to you about what happened when I saw Angie come off the ferry.  I know you must be wondering about it.”

“Well, yeah, I was, kinda.”

“It was a real shock seeing her like that.  I never expected to see her again.  We were very close when I knew her before, and I, well, I got scared.  I wasn’t prepared for it.”

“Is that why you wrote her a letter instead of going to see her?”

The minister looked startled.  “I didn’t realize you knew about that.”

“Angie told me.  Daniel, you don’t have to explain why you did what you did.  I think I understand.”

The reverend nodded.  “Callie doesn’t know that I knew about Angie beforehand.  I didn’t want to complicate things.”

“Does Angie know?”

“Yeah.  We talked about it.  She understands.”

“Well, I won’t tell Callie.  We’ll keep this between the three of us.”

Daniel smiled in relief.  “Thanks, Alex.”

They returned to the living room.

“Can I give you a ride back to the Widow’s Walk, Angie?” Alex asked.

“Thanks, but I’m going to help Daniel with the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen.  After all, I’m the one who made the mess . . . well, most of it.”

“I’ll walk down with her after we’re done,” Daniel assured the redhead.  There might be a zero crime rate on Hope Island, but he still wasn’t going to let Angie walk down the hill alone at night.

“Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

As soon as they were gone, Daniel turned to Angie.  “Okay, tell me about the sleeping pills.”

“Daniel, it’s no big deal.”  Angie went into the kitchen and began rinsing off the dirty dishes.

“Yes, it is.  You’ve never had any trouble sleeping before, certainly not so much that you had to get a prescription.”

“I was just having trouble for a while, that’s all.  I don’t take them anymore.”  Angie kept her eyes on the dishes, not daring to meet Daniel’s gaze.

Suddenly, the minister’s hand came out and laid upon hers, stilling them.  “Angie, please,” he said softly, pleadingly.

The blonde sighed.  She lowered the plate in her hand back into the sink and turned off the water.  “It was after you disappeared.  I started having trouble sleeping.  I just kept worrying about you and wondering what had happened to you.”

“And you got the pills?”  Daniel’s voice sounded a bit hoarse.

Angie shook her head.  “I was still sleeping some.  It was . . . after the memorial service.  I couldn’t sleep at all after that.  I started taking the pills a couple of weeks ago.”  She finally looked up at him and found that his eyes were bright with tears.

“I’m so sorry, Angie.  I am so sorry.  I should have written you a letter, or sent you an email, or something.”

She put her hand on his cheek.  “No.  I wouldn’t have wanted you to put yourself at risk to contact me.  It’s all right, Rollie.  It’s in the past.  The pills didn’t fall into the wastebasket.  I put them there.  I knew that I wouldn’t need them anymore.”

Daniel drew her to him, holding her tightly.  “I thought that you’d. . . .”  He stopped himself from saying anymore, knowing he’d made a mistake.

“You thought that I’d what?”

“Nothing.”

She drew away from him.  “What did you think, Rollie?”

This time it was the minister who sighed.  “After what Loubar did to you, things were different between us.  It was like you were . . . distancing yourself from me.  We stopped doing things together.  Whenever I got near you, you seemed to draw away a little.  Even our teasing and joking around didn’t happen as much as it used to.  When this whole thing first happened, I wanted to contact you so badly.  I knew you would be worried.  But then, after a while, I got to thinking that you’d be okay, that you wouldn’t miss me all that much because . . . you were better off without me.”

Angie stared at him in disbelief.  “How could you think that?!  You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.  How could you think that it wouldn’t tear me up inside when you vanished?”

Daniel didn’t answer.  He just stared at the floor, a look of deep shame on his face.

As she stared at him, she got to thinking about how things had been between them in the months following what Loubar did to her. She had tried to get the images of that night out of her mind, but she couldn’t.  Sometimes, she would be repulsed to the point where she’d be sick to her stomach when she thought about who had been behind the mask.  Other times, she’d almost forget that it had been Loubar and would imagine that it had really been Rollie.  Because of the confusion and conflicting emotions, she had drawn away from the Aussie.  She hadn’t realized how much until now.

Angie’s anger drained away.  “Rollie, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to draw away from you.  I was just so confused and angry.”  She took his hand.  “But you never stopped being my best friend.  Please believe that.”

The minister’s eyes met hers.  “I do, Ange.”

Angie turned to the sink.  “Shall we get started on these dishes?  I’d like to get to bed while it’s still today,” she said with a smile, trying to drive away the turmoil of emotions they’d just gone through.

Daniel managed to put smile on his own face and picked up a towel.  “Wash or dry?”

“Wash.  You always seem to get more water on yourself than the dishes.”

Daniel turned on the water.  “Oh, is that so?” he said as he stuck his finger over the end of the faucet, spraying her with water.

Angie squealed, then scooped up a handful of water and threw it at him.  They both laughed, feeling their moods lighten, then got down to the business of washing the dishes.

Some time later, the dishes and the kitchen were clean and Daniel and Angie were both more than a bit damp.  A flashlight in Daniel’s hand, they headed down the hill.  The sound of crickets was loud in the air, a sound that Angie never heard except on the occasions when they did shoots at night in more rural areas.

“You know, I actually think I’d miss that sound if I ever ended up living in a big city again,” Daniel commented.  He looked at the stars overhead and the trees around them.  “There’s a lot of things I’d miss.”

“Getting back to nature, Daniel?” Angie asked teasingly.

“More like returning to it.  Remember where I lived as a child.”

“Yeah, though this nature is a lot different from that nature.”

“You got that right.”

They walked in silence for a while.  Daniel put his arm across Angie’s shoulders and drew her a bit closer.  Enjoying the close contact, she wrapped her own arm about his waist.

“So, what would you like to do tomorrow?” the minister asked.

“Well, I really should do something with Callie.  She is the one who invited me here.”

“You’re right.  We wouldn’t want you neglecting one friend for another, now would we.  Maybe you can drag Callie off the island for the day, and the two of you can go shopping in Seattle.”

“That sounds like an idea.”

“While you’re there, maybe you can pick me up a couple of sweaters.  I wear them quite a bit here.”

“Yes, and I noticed that the color of your wardrobe has brightened up a bit.  I like it.”

“Thanks.  Wearing black all the time was the old me.  This is the new multicolored me.”

Angie tugged on the leather jacket he was wearing.  “This hasn’t changed, though.”

“No, that’s the same.”

They walked the rest of the way, quietly chatting.  Daniel went with her all the way to the door of the Widow’s Walk.

“Goodnight, Ange.  Sleep tight.”

“I will, Daniel.  Goodnight.”  The minister watched her go in and make her way up the stairs.  He then turned and headed back up the hill, thinking about the fact that another day was gone in the time he had left with Angie.
 

CHAPTER TEN

Daniel glanced at his watch.  The morning ferry would be arriving soon.  He wondered if Angie and Callie would be on it when it left for the mainland.  Though he hoped they had fun, he had to admit that he was going to miss spending the day with Angie.  Yesterday had been great, the best day he could remember having in a long time.  He hadn’t realized how deeply he’d missed her until seeing her again, and he knew that when she left, he was going to miss her even more.  The minister quickly shoved that thought out of his mind.  The day would come all too soon as it was.  There was no need to dwell on it.

There was a knock on the door, and Daniel answered it to find the object of his thoughts standing there with Callie.

“Hey, I thought you’d be getting ready to take the ferry,” he said.

“We are, but we came to take you with us,” Angie explained, smiling.

“I’d think a guy would get in the way of you doing girl stuff.”

“Girl stuff?  Is that like ‘girl talk’, Daniel?  You remember what that brought up last night.”  There was a wicked grin on the blonde’s face.

“How could I forget?”  The minister looked back and forth at the two women.  “Are you sure you want me along?”

“Would we come all the way up here if we weren’t?” Callie asked.

“Then I’d love to go.”  Daniel followed them out to Callie’s jeep and got in.  They just made it onto the ferry before it pulled away from the dock.  They spent the trip to the mainland standing on the bow of the ferry, not because Daniel was seasick, but because he like being there beside Angie, the wind blowing their hair and the salt spray misting their faces.  He kept glancing at her, seeing that she looked happy.  The circles he’d noticed under her eyes the day she came were completely gone, and there was a healthy blush to her skin.  She looked beautiful.  He’d always known she was pretty, but she seemed even more so now.  ‘I guess the old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder is true,’ he said to himself.

Callie was watching Daniel, watching the way he kept looking over at Angie, the way his eyes ran over her face, a soft smile on his lips.  And whenever he was not looking at Angie, she was looking at him.  The blonde’s eyes seemed to devour him, as if she was trying to burn every millimeter of him into her brain for all eternity.  Only a fool would not see that these two people loved each other.

Callie watched them and wondered if her efforts to learn about their history was wrong of her.  What if something she uncovered really hurt them?  She knew that there was something there, some secret that they were both keeping, and by what she had heard, it must be something pretty serious.  She should just drop the whole thing and forget what she heard, but her journalist’s curiosity wouldn’t let her.  She was just doing a little digging.  That shouldn’t cause any harm.

The boat docked, and the three friends got off.  By mutual agreement, they took a taxi straight to the Seattle Center, deciding it would be much more fun than shopping.

As soon as it opened, the threesome headed over to the Pacific Science Center, one of the many attractions in the seventy-four-acre Seattle Center.  They wandered among the exhibits, soon coming to the Tech Zone. While Angie went to check out the computers, Daniel went straight to where a child was playing tic-tac-toe with a huge robot.  He watched the robot, which, for all of its size, couldn’t hold a candle to his Bluey.  He then joined Angie and Callie, and they went to where people were playing virtual reality basketball.  A kid around fourteen years old was wearing a special glove with sensors in it.  Whatever way his hand moved, the onscreen basketball moved with it.  The kid tossed the VR ball and sunk it in the basket.

The minister leaned over and whispered in Angie’s ear.  “You could do better with the imaging.”

“And I think Bluey would be a bigger hit than that thing over there,” Angie replied, also whispering.

Daniel, Angie, and Callie moved on to where people were donning VR helmets that made them think they were hang gliding through a city.  Daniel wished that he could join in on the fun.  If it had been just he and Angie, he would have, but Callie being there meant that he had to stay in character, and he was pretty sure that the real Daniel Cooper wouldn’t go VR hang gliding.

The friends went on to Body Works, where they tested the strength of their grip, their sense of smell, and other things.  It was no surprise to anyone that, when they took the test to see how healthy their diets were, it was Daniel who came out on top.  What did surprise Callie was when they took the reaction time test.  Her time was average, and Angie’s was well above average, but Daniel’s time was even faster than Angie’s.

“Wow!  You move fast for a clergyman,” the journalist commented.

Daniel grinned.  “I guess it must be all that healthy food I eat.”

They spent about three hours at the Science Center, eating a quick lunch there, then went over to Fun Forest, an amusement park.

“Laser Tag!”  Angie cried when she saw the sign.  She grabbed hold of Daniel’s hand.  “Come on, let’s play.”

“Angie, I can’t,” Daniel hissed.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m a minister, and I really don’t think that you-know-who would be running around pretending like he was shooting people.”

“Oh.  I didn’t think of that.”  She glanced at Callie, who was watching the bumper cars.  “How about that?” she asked.

A grin spread across the reverend’s face.  “Now that we can do.”  He and Angie headed toward the bumper cars, grabbing Callie on the way.

“Who, me?  No, no.  I’ve never been on one of those things before,” the journalist said.

“Come on, it’s easy,” Angie told her.  “Just pretend like you’re driving a car and also happen to be a homicidal maniac.”

With a little more encouragement, they got Callie to go on the bumper cars with them.  Once she was out on the floor, she discovered how fun it could be and was soon smashing into people every chance she got.  As their turned ended, the three friends left their cars, laughing.  Next, they went to the video games.  Daniel wondered if it would be safe for him to play some games.  He didn’t know if the real Daniel ever had or would ever even want to.  Finally, the urge to play became too great, and he picked a car racing game.

Callie watched the minister maneuver his car around the racetrack, somehow avoiding what seemed to be unavoidable crashes and showing her another example of his fast reflexes, not to mention virtual driving skills.  She studied his face, which was open and boyish-looking.  She was seeing a new side to the reverend here.  She wondered how many other facets of his personality still remained hidden.

Angie, in the meantime, was blowing away the competition in her chosen video game.  A group of kids had gathered around her and were watching as she shot down monsters and mutants by the dozens.  His game finished, Daniel and Callie went to join the audience.  As the last monster fell, Angie lifted her hand in the shape of a gun and pretended to blow smoke away.

“So, is the universe safe again, Ange?” the minister asked.

“For now,” the blonde replied.

“Good, then we can go ride the roller coaster.”

With more coaxing, Daniel and Angie got Callie to ride with them.  A while later, they left the ride, their throats hoarse from laughing and screaming.

“How about something slower now?” Callie asked, holding her stomach and gasping for air.

“Sure.  What about the Ferris wheel?” Angie suggested.

Instead of bench-like seats, this Ferris wheel had baskets that hung from the wheel.  Angie and Daniel took the seat on one side and Callie the seat on the other.  A few seconds after the ride started, the minister laid his arm over Angie’s shoulder, drawing her a little closer.  It was done naturally, as if he wasn’t even thinking about what he was doing, and Angie accepted the arm and the closer contact with equal ease, like it was something he did every day.  Callie hid her smile and turned her gaze to the sights below.

The friends spent a good portion of the afternoon at Fun Forest, enjoying more rides and games.

“Well, I’m pooped,” Callie announced.  “I haven’t had a workout like that in more years than I care to remember.  How about if we go on over to the Space Needle and I show you the view from up top?  It’s pretty spectacular--and it doesn’t involve any climbing, or running, or anything else like that, just a nice leisurely ride on an elevator.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Daniel said.

They walked toward the Space Needle, which could easily be seen from anywhere in the center.  It soared six hundred feet above the ground, crowned at the top by something that looked like a spaceship with a huge needle-like spire rising from its top.  The structure held a revolving restaurant and an observation deck.

As they approached the Space Needle, Daniel noticed that several dozen people were looking up at it, all appearing to be focused on the same spot.  The minister followed their gaze and saw a man in climbing gear scaling one of the three huge steel girder legs of the tower.

“What does that guy think he’s doing?” Daniel muttered.

“I’d say he’s not thinking much at all,” Angie replied.  “The wind’s picking up, and the higher up he goes, the worse it’s going to get.  If it was me, I’d be heading back down now.”

Callie looked at her in amazement.  “You talk as if you’d actually do something like that.”

“I have done something like that, though I was doing it to get a shot of someone on film.  This guy’s just doing it for the hell . . .” Angie cleared her throat, “heck of it.”

Daniel smothered the smile that had come at Angie’s sudden change of words.  His eyes went back to the climber.  A gust of wind hit the man and his feet slipped.  He grabbed onto the metal beams just in time to prevent himself from falling.  He then continued climbing.

“This guy’s an idiot,” Angie said disbelievingly.

Even as the words were leaving her mouth, another wind gust slammed into the climber, and, suddenly, he was falling.  Screams arose from the crowd.  The man fell about twenty feet before his rope snapped taut.  His body slammed into the steel leg.  The impact could be heard from where they stood.  Daniel watched the man anxiously.  He wasn’t moving.

“Angie, he’s in trouble,” he said, then yelled out for someone to dial 911.  The minister noticed a man watching the drama with a pair of binoculars.  He moved through the crowd to the person.  “I need to borrow those.”  The guy just looked at him suspiciously.  “Please, I want to see if I can tell how badly he’s hurt.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“No, I’m a minister.”

“What are you planning to do, give him the last rights if he’s dead?”

“Please, just give me the binoculars,” Daniel said, trying very hard not to react in anger to the man’s callous words.

The man gave him the binoculars, and he immediately focused them on the climber.

“How does he look?” Angie asked.  She and Callie had come up beside him.

“Not good.  There’s no sign of movement.  He must have hit his head.”  Daniel’s gaze went above the man to where the rope was anchored to the metal leg.  He watched it for a few moments, confirming what he’d been afraid of.  “The rope’s not going to hold.  It’s working loose.”

Daniel handed the binoculars to the man and began pushing his way through the crowd toward the tower.

“What are you doing?” Angie asked, fighting to stay beside him in the crush of bodies.  The crowd had tripled in the last few seconds.

“I have to help him, Ange.  If somebody doesn’t get up there and grab him, he’s going to fall.”

“And what if you fall?  I already thought I’d lost you once.  I couldn’t bear it if--”

Daniel stopped at the fringe of the crowd and turned to her.  “Angie, you know I have to do this.  I can’t just stand here and watch him die.”

The blonde’s shoulders slumped.  “I know,” she whispered.

The minister gave her a long kiss on the forehead, then headed toward the Space Needle.  Callie squeezed between a couple of people and drew up beside her.

“Where’s Daniel going?” she asked.

“He’s going up to get the guy.”

“He’s what?!”  She turned her gaze to the minister.  Sure enough, he had begun to climb up the same leg that the climber had been scaling.

Daniel ascended the leg, holding tightly to it.  He knew this was a foolish thing to do, but he also knew that the rope would not hold for long.  Better to be the fool than to stand by and do nothing while somebody died.

Though it had been a long time since he’d used them, his skills as a stuntman were quickly coming back to him.  As he climbed, his slow, careful movements became quicker, more confident.  The higher he got, though, the stronger the wind became.  He found himself having to cling to the leg as occasional wind gusts hit him.  After each gust, he would resume climbing.

Angie watched Daniel’s ascent of the Space Needle, her body tense with fear.  One misstep, one gust of wind when he was off balance, and he would fall to his death.  She would lose him for real.  The thought made her stomach clench, nausea rising.  She couldn’t lose him, not after finally finding him.  It would kill her.

Callie stared at Daniel, transfixed.  She was having a hard time picturing the man who gave sermons every Sunday on Hope Island as the same one who was now climbing the Space Needle like a monkey.  He moved with confidence and determination, not appearing to be the least bit afraid of what he was doing.  The journalist decided that, after this was over, she was going to have to ask the minister where he learned to climb like that.  She just hoped that he’d be alive to ask.

Angie didn’t know when the police arrived.  She only became aware of their presence when they started ordering the crowd to back away from the Space Needle.  She ignored them and kept her eyes glued on Daniel’s form.

The sound of a polite voice finally filtered through to her brain.  “Ladies, we need you to move back with the others.”

Angie looked at the young police officer.  “Please.  We’re friends of his.  I have to be here.”

The cop studied her face.  “Which one, ma’am, the injured climber or the other man?”

“The other man.”

“Pardon me for saying so, but your friend shouldn’t be up there.  He should have left this to the fire department.”

“The rope is coming loose.  It could come free at any second, and the fire department might not get here in time.”  Deciding that was explanation enough, Angie turned her gaze back to Daniel.

“I’m still going to have to ask you to move back, at least a little way.  We need to keep this area clear for the rescue workers.”

Callie pulled on Angie’s arm.  “Come on, Angie.  Let’s move back.”  She led the blonde in the direction of the crowd.  Angie allowed her to do so only as far as one of the police cars, then she stopped and refused to budge another step.

The gusts were getting a lot worse.  Daniel was now a hundred feet from the ground and was passing the Skyline Level, a catering and banquet facility.  People were staring at him opened-mouthed through the windows.  He nodded at them, then continued his climb.  He was about thirty feet past the Skyline Level when a sudden strong wind gust slammed into him.  His feet were pushed out from underneath him.

“No!”  Angie cried as Daniel lost his footing.  For several agonizing seconds, he dangled from the leg of the tower by his hands.  Angie felt Callie’s hand grasp hers, and she clung to it as if she were holding onto Daniel’s hand, as if that grasp was the only thing keeping him from falling.  A wave of relief washed through her as the minister regained his footing.

Daniel looked above him.  Just twenty more feet and he’d be to the climber.  What he was going to do after that, he wasn’t sure of.  He covered the remaining feet as quickly as possible.  Now level with the man, he looked into the guy’s face.  There was blood on it.

“Sir?  Can you hear me?” he said.  There was no response.  He grabbed the man’s right shoulder gently.  “Please.  You have to wake up.  I’ve got to get you down from here.”

The climber groaned and slowly opened his eyes.  He raised his head and looked into Daniel’s face blearily.

“Can you hear me?  Can you understand me?” the minister asked.

The man nodded faintly.

“Good.  Okay, then.  I’m going to hold you up against the leg of the tower.  I need you to grab onto it if you can and put your feet on it.  Do you have any pain in your arms or legs?  Does it feel like something’s broken?”

“My left shoulder,” the climber mumbled, “and my head.”

Daniel looked at the man’s shoulder and saw that it didn’t look right.  He suspected that it was dislocated.  This was going to make things a lot