Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [89]
“I’ve made mistakes.”
“So you’re not perfect. Neither am I.”
“Astrid isn’t an evil person.”
“I realize that now. She’s even interested in continuing a dialogue with me. Not a mother-daughter relationship but a person-to-person one.”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“I understand now why you didn’t. You didn’t want to tell me she was avoiding me, that she didn’t want me contacting her at any point. Did you know she was at Woodstock when she was a teenager?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“She kept the jeans from that weekend all these years. She and a friend had made a pact to keep them and Astrid did. She brought them to Chicago and gave them to me.”
He looked confused as she showed him the jeans. “Muddy jeans? Why?”
“For sentimental reasons.”
“Are you going to wash them?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m going to wear them. They represent a time when the world was filled with possibilities for Astrid.”
“You’re using her first name.”
“Because she never was a mother to me and never will be. And I think I’m finally okay with that,” she said slowly.
“I’m glad. Listen, I have some news about Buddy’s second wife. Faith couldn’t go visit him today because she’s still fighting that cold. So she did some digging, got some info from Logan about the woman’s name and date of the marriage in Vegas. Buddy’s pride wouldn’t let him accept Faith’s offer of help when she got home from her honeymoon. But when she heard the doctor say stress played a factor in Buddy’s collapse, she went ahead anyway. You know Faith is awesome at finding information.”
“I know. I might not have found Astrid if it weren’t for her.”
“Well, it turns out the woman died in some out-of-the-way place in Utah. Faith called me on the way over here.”
“Which means Buddy is free to marry Gram now. That’s good news. I talked to her this morning; she said Buddy should be released from the hospital tomorrow morning.”
“So it looks like everything is working out in the end,” her dad said.
Megan smiled, thinking of Logan on his way to be with her, and the can of whipped cream she planned to use on him later. “Yeah, everything is working out,” she agreed. “Hold on a second, that’s Faith calling now.” Megan answered her BlackBerry. “Hey Faith, Dad and I were just talking about you.”
“Do you have the TV on?”
“No.”
“Turn it on.” Faith’s voice was strained.
“Why? I’m expecting Logan for dinner any minute—”
“He’s going to be late.”
Megan frowned. “What do you mean? How do you know that? Did he call you?”
“Are you sitting down?”
“Faith, you’re scaring me.”
Are you okay? her dad mouthed.
Megan shook her head. “Turn on the TV. Channel Five.”
Her dad reached for the remote, and a second later Megan saw a special report news segment with one of the local female reporters saying, “We’re here live at police headquarters. It’s still very early in this situation, so we don’t have a lot of information at this point, just that there’s been a shooting here. The building is currently in lockdown. We don’t know how many are injured or how serious those injuries might be. We have confirmation of one officer down, perhaps two. We also don’t know if it’s a single gunman or multiple shooters. We’re getting word that there may be a hostage situation going on here as well, but that is still unconfirmed as of yet.”
“Logan works there,” Megan whispered, sinking onto the couch.
“I know,” Faith said.
“Maybe he already left. He could be on his way here. I’ve got to call his cell.” Megan hung up and hit speed dial. It went directly to Logan’s voice mail. “You know the routine. Leave a message.”
“It’s Megan. Please call me. I hope you’re okay.” She had to keep her message short because she was afraid her voice would start cracking if she spoke any longer.
“Don’t panic,” her dad said as he joined her on the couch and put a comforting arm around her shoulders.