A Man on an Island Ch. 04

"I feel like another cup of this coffee," he smiled, "I feel like asking my friend if she'd have time to arrange for me to be able to spend some of my tourist dollars on about a ton or so to send or maybe bring back with me.

Maya smiled, knowing the gesture and what it was when she saw it. "No hard feelings?" she asked and he shook his head, "It's not what I had in mind, but I knew there was a chance that my evil plan wouldn't work, and anyway, I am happy to see you again."

Cale was on an evening flight home on Wednesday afternoon. He was a little sad, but he knew that he'd waited too long and that he couldn't really have expected anything much different. He thought about Maya and the way that she looked with Hector when they'd gone out to dinner the evening before. He wasn't certain of it, but to his mind, Maya was settling. Since she wasn't settling for him, it was none of his business.

It didn't bother him, Cale thought, deciding that she needed someone for her and she had somebody in Hector so that was good.

As a method to keep his bored brain from locking up during the long flight home, he tried to decide on which one he liked better. He was down to the same two every time; Penny or Bailey.

He figured Bailey by a small margin because they liked each other's sense of humor.

Nothing would come of it, and Cale didn't really mind. But she was the only one that he found that he'd like to have as a friend, though that probably wouldn't happen either. It was just a nice thought to him.

By the time that he'd landed and been cleared by Customs, he'd almost stopped calling himself a fool. He knew the odds were long when he'd had the idea – but if it had worked, he'd have been a little proud of himself and just maybe they both could have been a lot happier.

He paid his parking fee and began the drive north to his home. He wasn't far out of the city before he realized that it had snowed again during his absence. Before he left the outskirts behind, he pulled into a drive-through for some coffee without thinking and he was sorry for it after his first sip. Thank God he'd been able to buy some of the hand roasted stuff from the little old woman with Maya's help. Customs had wanted an arm and a leg for it, but he didn't care.

It was just after midnight when he slowed as he approached his driveway. There was a truck parked out on the road because it had snowed and the plow demon had been back, sealing the entrance to Cale's driveway as though he was walling the tomb shut. But it was the truck itself which caught Cale's eye.

It was Sylvia's' truck – her baby, she called it, a bright metalflake pink Jimmy jacked up over a foot. Cale knew it well, since he'd done a lot of the work building it up with her in their spare time, or helping to get it to the specialty shops for the custom work and the paint. What was it doing here? Sylvia would never normally drive it at this time of year.

He eased up behind it and shut off his lights and ignition. Looking over at his house, he saw smoke from the woodstove chimney and at least one light on and struggling up over the bank of snow across the end of his driveway, he began to walk to the house trying to dodge the drifts.