Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [91]
“This is your first Christmas as a married woman,” Megan noted as she handed Faith a cup of hot cocoa. “How’s Caine holding up?”
“He’s the best. He took such good care of me when I was sick. He even went to stand in line for Do-It-Yourself Messiah tickets for me. You know, legend has it that when Handel’s ‘Messiah’ debuted in Dublin in April 1742, the ladies were asked to attend sans hoops in their skirts and gentlemen sans swords because they expected the audience to be huge.” Her expression turned dreamy.
“Thinking about Handel gives you that goofy look on your face?” Megan teased her.
“No. Thinking about Caine and his sword does.”
Megan laughed and took a sip of tea before saying, “Did I tell you that I got an e-mail from Fiona yesterday?”
“Fiona of brothel fame?”
Megan nodded. “She asked if I’d gotten the Woodstock jeans from Astrid. She also wrote that Pepper Dior e-mailed her asking for my address. Fiona didn’t know if she should give it out, so Pepper included a message for Fiona to forward on to me. I told you about Pepper from Last Resort, right?”
“The one you got all those vintage outfits from.”
“Right. Anyway, it turns out that that storage room where they tried to hold Logan and me had some unexpected treasures in it.”
“Like what?”
“Like a remarkably preserved Native American blanket worth . . . are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“$100,000.”
Faith almost spewed her hot cocoa over Smudge, who was curled up on the couch beside them.
“There were several antique quilts and other items worth money as well,” Megan said. “They’re going to use the funds for improvements to the café and motel. Pepper wrote that if I hadn’t been locked up in the storage room and found the teacup I liked, they wouldn’t have thought to look through the stuff.”
“What teacup?”
“This one.” Megan held it up.
“Is it worth a ton of money too?”
“Only to me.” She ran a finger over the Wedgwood design. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she and Logan had been marooned in Last Resort. So much had happened since then.
“Tell me again why she wanted to lock you and Logan up in a storage room?” Faith said.
“It was their version of a jail.”
“Right. The shotgun wedding scheme. So tell me, what’s up with you and Logan these days? Things are pretty serious, huh? Have you told him how you feel about him yet? Has he told you?”
“No to both questions. What’s the rush?”
“Didn’t you tell me when Buddy was in the hospital that Gram saying time is precious really hit home and made you realize life is short?”
“Okay, you’re right. I’m not making sense. But I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of everything.”
“Well, that narrows it down.”
“What if he doesn’t love me? What if this is just a fling for him? What if he doeslove me, and something happens to him? What if I can’t cope with the stress of his job?”
“What if you drive yourself nuts by asking too many what-ifs?” Faith said.
“Don’t try telling me what Jane Austen would do. That doesn’t work for me.”
“What doeswork for you?”
“Logan.”
“There you go then. Just have faith and go with that. See where it takes you.”
“What if it takes me right off a cliff?”
“Then a parachute would come in handy.”
“Yeah. Know where I can get one of those?”
“It’s all about taking chances, isn’t it? You read Emma’s book Taking Chances. Risk versus reward. Is the reward worth the risk?”
When Megan was with Logan, the answer to that question was yes. The problem was that when she wasn’t with him, the doubts and fears set in.
But Gram was right. Time was precious and life was short.
That was still the case when Logan picked her up to go to the ice rink Sunday afternoon. When she’d mentioned that she’d always wanted to go to the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink on the western edge of Millennium Park, he’d insisted that he’d be happy to take her skating. She’d visited in the summer, when the rink was turned into an outdoor café with the awesome view of the Michigan