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  Gita stopped at a door along the upper hall. “I put you in here, Max. There’s an en-suite, and I think you’ll have everything you need. There’s a large screen TV that’s electronically controlled and rises at the end of the bed. I know how you like your sports. And if we get too much for you, feel free to retreat.”

  “Sounds perfect.” Max stepped over the threshold and set down his case. “I’ll just take this to Sky’s room, if you direct me.”

  Gita gestured and moved down the corridor. “I’ve put you in the rose room at the end of the hall, Sky. It has a lovely view of the gardens, and you can see across the courtyard to the west wing. It’s part of the original house. Over the years, we added on and renovated, turning it into guest suites with the billiard room and bar below them. Adam is partial to it,” she added, as an afterthought.

  Gita opened a door several rooms down and waved Sky into the most beautiful room she’d ever seen. The color scheme was pale green over soft pink with deep pink accents. It wasn’t frilly, but layered with quiet elegance. The depth of the colors made Sky feel she was in the rose garden she could see outside the window. French doors opened onto a small wrought-iron balcony. Gita threw open the doors and stepped over the sill, grasping Sky’s arm and drawing her out.

  “You can smell the roses from here.” She turned, looking uncertain. “I hope you like what I chose for you.”

  “I love it, Gita. And I can also smell the sea.” She looked past the gardens, seeking the stretch of water.

  “I’m sorry, dear. The ocean is on the other side of the old wing.” She gestured to where the sandstone arm stretched out perpendicularly from the end of the main house. “I wasn’t sure if you’d sleep with the sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks. A lot of my guests can’t. I thought you’d prefer the quiet of the garden, but I’d be happy to change your room, if you want the water.”

  “No, Gita, this is delightful, and as I’m not used to the waves, you’re probably right, they would keep me awake.”

  “I’ll leave you to settle in, then. Come down whenever you’re ready. My other guests should be arriving soon.”

  Sky took her time exploring what turned out to be a suite. Through one doorway, she found a dressing room leading into a bath, and through another, a sitting room, with a comfortable lounge, television, and small mini-bar. A tray of fruit, cheeses, and crackers was set out beside an ice bucket holding half bottles of wine, flavored bottled waters, and beers.

  Bouquets of roses in white and every shade of pink decorated the sitting room and bedroom. Even the bath had a deep pink rose in a vase on the vanity. While Sky had no doubt any guest to Gita’s house would feel they were in a five-star hotel, an inner conviction told her Gita had supervised every step of making Sky feel at home.

  Balancing a piece of smoked Gouda on a multi-grain cracker, she wandered onto the small balcony and looked over at the west wing. She imagined Adam looking out over the pounding ocean, from one of the windows on the far side. With a deep sigh, she planted a smile on her face and attacked her unpacking.

  Though her grandmother had stressed they would be informal, in the expectation of other guests and wanting to make Gita proud, Sky changed to a jumpsuit in a shade of dark blue. The silk knit hugged her figure and brought out the blue of her eyes. The high front skimmed her collarbones, and passing over her shoulders, draped low in the back. She brushed her hair into a high ponytail, which she threaded with blue ribbon, applied mascara and lipstick, and slipped into low heeled sandals in a neutral shade. She hoped her grandmother would approve.

  Max met her in the upper corridor as she walked past his room. “I thought we could test the waters together,” he explained, as if he knew she’d need extra support.

  “Don’t worry about me, Pops. Gita’s made me feel comfortable.”

  He looked away. “I hope it stays that way,” he muttered.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the butler escorted them to a large room off the front entry. Gita stood talking with another woman about her own age. She saw Sky and Max and beckoned them over.

  “This is one of my dearest friends. We’ve known each other since we came out together, Sharon, Sky and Max Stravinski. I’ve told you all about them. Sharon’s husband died several years ago, and her daughter and his family are in Hong Kong right now, so I begged her to share Thanksgiving with us,” she explained.

  Sky shook hands with Sharon and watched as Pops segued from comforting father to Max the charmer in the time it took Gita to finish the introduction. He’d seen something in the curvy brunette that called for more investigation. With a smile and a few words, he led Sharon toward the trolley, holding a variety of beverages, at the side of the room.

  “So, Gita, you talked our girl into coming?” Patrick’s warm voice erupted behind Sky’s shoulder. She swung around and found him striding toward her from the front entrance. Adam stood watching.

  Her gaze locked with Gita’s. Her grandmother braced her body, as if waiting for a blow. Sky reined in her feeling of betrayal. “You did say a few old friends.” She watched Gita’s stiff shoulders relax. “I just never made the connection.”

  “Patrick and I have been friends for over forty years,” she offered, as she lifted her face for his peck on the cheek. “I was his wife’s best friend, and I’m Adam’s godmother. Of course, I would want them here for Thanksgiving.”

  Sky wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “You also promised no manipulation.”

  “On my honor.” Gita rested her hand over the purple knit sweater covering her heart. “Adam…” she stretched her arms around his tall body, as he kissed her cheek. “Welcome.”

  “Thanks for having us, Gita. Sky.” He stepped to the side, turned, and acknowledged her. “I saw the Cessna on the airstrip and guessed you’d flown over. Max with you?” He looked around the large room, spotting Max.

  “So, you got a little lead time. Gita forgot to tell me you were coming.” Sky tried for friendly, when her breath caught and her body burned at the sight of him. Every feminine cell responded, softening her flesh and warming her blood. Desire burned through her like a flash fire.

  “She’s a great one for surprises.” Adam gave Gita a critical look. “I hope there are no more.”

  “I promised Sky, no tricks, just those I love most, all together sharing the holiday. Now, go get a drink, while I check how the buffet is coming.” She pressed her hands against their backs and pushed them further into the room. “We’re doing for ourselves tonight.”

  “Except for the butler, chef, bodyguards, and drivers,” Adam teased her.

  “Oh, pshaw.” She drifted out of the room.

  “I also counted a woman carrying linen in the upstairs corridor, and another man setting a fire in the den,” Sky raised her voice, ensuring her grandmother heard.

  Gita giggled and waved her hand without turning around.

  “I hope this isn’t a problem for you?” Adam brought Sky’s head around fast with the question.

  “What? I mean no, if you mean your arrival being the problem.”

  “Somehow, I can make sense of that. Good, I’m sorry Gita didn’t tell you we were invited.” He looked hard at her, as they stopped in front of the drinks tray.

  “Adam, Gita’s gone to a lot of trouble to make a nice weekend for us. I’d like to keep it stress-free. Can we just enjoy ourselves? I’d like to talk about…” She waved her hand, while she searched for the words that would explain her past actions. “But now is not the time.” She cut off as several pairs of eyes turned in their direction.

  “Fair enough.”

  “Besides,” she offered as an extension of her olive branch, “if I had known you were coming, it wouldn’t have changed my decision.” His presence only accelerated her plan to find him and take action. And Gita, the sly “I’m not a manipulator,” had put Adam right where Sky could find him.

  She bolstered her courage by asking for a glass of red wine and stood back as another flurry of greetings
surrounded Adam. It seemed he’d known Sharon his whole life, and Patrick had been close friends with her husband. Sky looked around the room, tallied heads, and realized Gita had, with or without conscious thought, kept her numbers even and her genders equal. There were three men and three women in the room.

  Within half an hour, they sat around a small table in the morning room and addressed plates loaded from the buffet. Beef tenderloin rested beside cold Pacific salmon and crab. Roasted fingerling potatoes, asparagus in herbed butter, and several combinations of fruit and green salads vied for space on her plate. Sky ate the tasty food and listened while Patrick told her about the scuba diving holiday he was planning for January. He was such an attractive, active man, she wondered why he’d stayed single so long after losing his wife. He loved his son and demonstrated his feeling openly. Sky was pretty sure Adam would love his children with the same commitment. She felt safe with Patrick. She was glad Adam had such a loving father and godmother. Contentment crept into her soul. She’d been included and accepted as part of that loving circle, too.

  When everybody was groaning over how much they had eaten, Gita surprised them once again by announcing she’d set up a poker game in the billiard room and they were all playing.

  As they gathered around the table and Adam divvied out the chips, Max asked, “What are the stakes? Do I need to find an ATM before we start?”

  “We’re not playing for money. I’m playing you for time,” Gita said as she slipped into her seat. “Tomorrow, the O’Shaughnessy Foundation is hosting a lunch and afternoon entertainment for the veterans recuperating in the VA hospital. They are being transported to the venue, along with their families, for a day of fun and good food. Depending upon the value of the chip you lose to me, I win some of your time doing whatever job you’re assigned, like manning the dress-up booth for the photographer or serving food. So, if you’re not willing to lose your time, don’t sit at the table, because I’ll clean you out.”

  She was as good as her word. With much laughter and joking, they finished off the evening with Gita sitting behind a huge stack of chips.

  ****

  Gita’s brunch was as amazing as she’d described, but the party she hosted for the veterans was stupendous. Sky watched as Max and Sharon re-set pins for the children bowling in long lanes between rows of balloons. She was assisting Gita in filling plates at the buffet and wheeling vets into places at the tables.

  Adam carried a continual supply of chafing dishes out of the kitchen, and Patrick was circulating and handing out disposable cameras, so families could record the event from their own point of view. The huge barrack had been turned into a colorful bower with branches of autumnal leaves decorating the walls and filling table centers. Pumpkin carving and apple dunking created pockets of laughter. An inflated bouncy castle and a children’s replica of a mechanical bull elicited excited shrieks, competing with the bright Christmas music. In one corner, the football game played on a huge multi-directional television screen; hundreds of men and women, seated around it, passed plates of snacks and drank every beverage imaginable, while cheering on their team. Gita had rolled Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas together in a wonderland of fun and activities, and of course, the all-important turkey feast.

  Sky positioned a vet, missing his leg and one arm, in place at the head of a table and helped his children settle into chairs around him. Everyone was smiling. Even the soldier, who’d lost his limbs, was making an effort for his children. Visiting with them, Sky saw the gratitude in the wife’s eyes, as she watched her children gobble food so they could get back to the games. Patrick strode up and took several pictures, handing the two oldest kids cameras with a joke about catching their dad with gravy on his face.

  “Gita’s quite something,” Sky commented as she walked beside Patrick back to the buffet.

  “Yep, she finds bigger and better ways of sharing her money every year. Last year, the Foundation gave away fifty million dollars.”

  “For what?” Sky asked, astonished at the number. She couldn’t imagine that being a part of someone’s assets.

  “Grants for start-up businesses for returning veterans, as well as helping with prosthetic limbs, special surgeries, and family counseling centers. The military is a big part of the Foundation’s work, but they also fund soup kitchens that go back as far as the big earthquake, when her family set them up to feed the people who had lost everything.”

  Sky knew she’d been out of line when she painted all wealthy people with the same brush she’d tarred Brian. Now, she acknowledged the wrong she’d committed on Gita, the two Hamiltons, and many of their friends, who were there working as hard as anyone.

  “I’ve made some bad mistakes and have a lot to atone for. I took my anger at Erik and Brian out on an entire segment of society. Shame on me.”

  “Like Erik, you did the best you could with what you had at the time.” Patrick wrapped his arm around her shoulders and jiggled her. “I suggest you celebrate your personal growth over the past two months and move on.”

  Sky considered how far she’d come in her understanding, since meeting Adam. She’d wasted so much time wondering if she would measure up, until arriving at Gita’s and realizing no one was holding out a measuring stick…just infinite, unconditional love.

  By the time they returned to Gita’s house, a tired but jovial bunch, Sky had chosen the path Patrick had suggested. She celebrated the change in her attitude and perspective since she’d met such wonderful people and would move on, focusing now on attaining her number one desire—Adam.

  “Sky, if you can spare a few moments, I have something I want to show you.” Gita grasped her hand the minute they were in the door and walked her across the huge entry. “Oh, Adam, I need you, too.”

  Sky and Adam had circled each other since their truce the night before, making certain their exchanges were always cushioned within a group. They’d both hung back, letting the others take the lead, waiting. For what? Was it the right moment, time alone, the courage to speak? Apparently, Gita had not only noticed their behavior but decided it had gone on long enough.

  She marched Sky into the room and crossed to the drink trolley. “Here, right here, is where this all began.”

  Waiting for the story of Gita’s marriage or the building of the Foundation, Sky was startled when Gita pulled Adam closer. “Remember, Adam? This is where I asked you to find Sky for me.”

  “Yes, I remember.” Adam monitored each word as if suspecting he would fall in a trap any second.

  “You found her and gave her the time she needed to adjust to the idea of me. I wonder if you gave her the same amount of patience, when it came to adjusting to the idea of you?”

  Sky watched Adam’s throat work as he swallowed. His gaze swung in her direction, a question lighting his eyes.

  “And you, Sky. I arrived at your home, so excited and so fearful of being rejected.”

  “Gita, you would never let someone reject you.” Sky smiled at the idea of the strong woman ever giving in.

  “Exactly. I would still be knocking on your door, if you closed it in my face a thousand times. I’d keep trying, because I could see you had a warm heart and would eventually let me in.”

  A knock on the door, followed by Sharon’s head, stopped her mid-sentence.

  “Sorry, Brigitta, I was just looking for Max.”

  “I believe he went for a walk on the grounds.”

  Gita waited until the door closed and continued, “And I bet that’s how you feel around Adam, excited and afraid of being rejected. And like me, I suggest you go after what you want with every bit of commitment you have, because I guarantee the reward for finding the courage far outweighs the fear.”

  A triple knock on the door sounded. Nothing followed. Gita gave an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Stanley, what is it?”

  “There is a call for you on line one, ma’am. The governor.”

  “Fine, I’ll take it in the den.” She turned back to Sky and Adam. />
  “Now, other guests and other matters need my attention. I trust you’ll sort this out, before you leave this room. We’re all tiptoeing around like we’re carrying a tray of Venetian goblets we might drop any minute. The tension is ruining everyone’s appetite.” With a quick kiss on the cheek for each of them, she went out. Before the doors closed, they heard her clipped words, “No, Max, you can’t talk to Sky right now. She’s busy. Go away.” With her hand still resting on the half-closed door, she called two of her bodyguards.

  “Lord, if there’s one more interruption, I swear…You two, stand guard on this door, don’t let anyone come near it.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” came in stereo, before the doors closed cocooning them in blessed silence.

  “Shall we?” Adam gestured to a couple of armchairs in front of the fire. As they settled across from each other, his gaze searched her face. “How are you really, Sky? You look more beautiful, and yet more fragile, than ever.”

  “I’m not sleeping well. I keep thinking of the hash I made of things between us.”

  He leaned forward resting his forearms on his knees, dangling the scotch and ice he’d mixed from his fingers. “Déjà vu. I remember sitting outside your trailer in Reno. You gave me a beer and offered to take me up. The first time you seemed approachable.” His eyes queried her intentions now.

  Sky set her glass of red wine on the table by her chair. She took a deep breath and straightened her back. “Yes, I have a lot to answer for. I have things I want to say to you, and it would help if you’d just listen, and then, I’ll listen to you.”

  “Go ahead.” His beautiful gray eyes remained locked on her face. She licked her lips, paused as she saw his gaze flick downward following her movement, before once more fixing on her eyes.