Page 6 of Skipping Stones

“Really? He’s calling now? Doesn’t he know what time it is here?” Mac, who’d just finished his work, but was not yet asleep, was clearly not impressed.

Their eyes met briefly and Linney felt a spike of annoyance but bit her tongue. She shrugged a dressing gown over her cotton nightgown to ward off the cool air of the late October night. Mac would have to deal with the fact that the bed would be cold for a while.

“She said yes, Linney! She said yes!” Halfway around the world, Derek was giddy with excitement, not even giving her a chance to say hello.

Fully awake now, Linney closed the bedroom door and padded into the front room. She curled up in her reading chair and wrapped herself in the worn quilt that had lain over its arm. “I’m so happy for you. Tell me all about it. How did you propose?”

“It was outside the law library where we first met back in school. We stopped to sit under the trees in the courtyard after work and I just got down on one knee, the old-fashioned way. We’re going out to dinner to celebrate now, but I had to call you first.”

There was scuffling and laughter and suddenly Linney could hear Olivia in the distance. “Linney, we’re getting married! At the lake. You’ll come, right?” The two usually ultra-composed lawyers were anything but, tonight, and they talked over each other, bubbling with excitement, to Linney’s amusement.

“You can count on it!” Yawning, she reminded them of the time. “Send me pictures of the ring. And don’t forget to tell me as soon as you set the wedding date. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Congratulations again!” She hung up the phone and turned back to the bedroom, but Mac was on his way out to meet her.

“What was that all about?” He slipped his hands around her waist.

“Derek proposed.”

“Well, that deserves a toast!” Mac pulled Linney by the hand into the kitchen and poured them both a tumbler of whiskey. He knocked his back and as Linney slowly sipped hers, he poured himself another. He held up the bottle with a question in his eyes. Linney shook her head. One was more than enough for her, especially after the two glasses of wine she’d had earlier. She was about halfway through her drink when she covered a yawn with her hand.

“Go back to bed. I’ll be right behind you.”

Linney nodded, yawning again, and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Mac finished her glass and poured himself another.

* * *

Raindrops on the bedroom window the next morning woke Linney even before the alarm. She showered, put on the coffee in her tiny kitchen and got ready for work adding a black blazer over a knit maroon dress because she knew she’d be in front of the camera that day. She was blotting her lipstick when she heard Mac groan and hit the snooze button. Hard. Linney went to the bedroom to kiss him.

“Good morning, sleepy head.”

Mac grabbed her hips playfully. “Come back to bed.” He had the gravelly voice of someone who might have had one too many drinks the night before.

“I can’t. I have to—we have to—get to work.” Mac kissed her hungrily but Linney stood her ground. “I can’t.”

“Fine, you go ahead then. I’ll be about half an hour behind you.” He let her go and gave her a playful smack on the behind as she got up.

“Mac!” With an exaggerated sigh of frustration, Linney smoothed her dress. Being involved with a colleague had complications and while everyone at work knew about their relationship, she still worried about people thinking she was a girl who slept her way to success. So she worked twice as hard to make sure everyone knew what she could do. Leaving her lover in bed, she pulled on some black boots. At the bottom of the stairs, she buttoned her trench coat, opened her umbrella, and headed out into the drizzly day.

Linney walked up one of Notting Hill’s iconic streets of coloured houses toward the tube station thinking about Derek’s call. It had only been six weeks since she’d seen him, Gran, and the girls at Silver Lake, but she missed them already. Somehow, with time and distance, the same nosy, annoying townspeople that she couldn’t wait to get away from didn’t seem quite so bad any more. They were starting to morph into warm, caring neighbours who she cared about and who cared about her. She shook her head. No. London was where it was at. She was lucky that her flat was tucked away from the tourist mayhem, on a quiet little close—a cul-de-sac she supposed she would have called it at home.

Linney turned the corner and smiled, watching the market vendors open their stalls and set up for the day. Jovial banter filled the streets as the city started to wake up. London was teeming with excitement and full of good restaurants, markets, museums, and galleries. She loved it here.

It was nearly two hours later when Mac finally arrived at work, his hair still damp from a shower. He had a folded newspaper in one hand and an insulated mug of coffee in the other. One could almost believe he was late because he was checking out the competition. Only his bloodshot eyes gave him away to those who looked closely. He strolled across the newsroom and slid into the day’s story meeting just in time. Gemma, their bureau director, raised her eyebrows and tapped her watch. He ignored her but flashed a huge charismatic smile at Linney when he saw her across the table.

That look always made Linney’s stomach do fluttery flip flops, and this time was no different. Despite herself, she smiled back. The things he made her feel. There was no way to stay angry at Mac.

* * *

While Olivia proudly showed off the huge diamond on her left hand to her fashionable high-heeled colleagues in the tall glass Toronto tower where she toiled for long hours for TSX-listed clients, Derek shared the news with his own colleagues, including Aidan. There were congratulatory slaps on the back and good-natured jokes about his single days being over from his motley crew of Legal Aid lawyers while they drank the terrible coffee from the lunch room. Their offices were decidedly rundown and the coffee maker had seen better days, but they practised great law and helped people every day.

Derek and Olivia were as different as the kinds of law they practised, but they’d been in sync instantly from day one. He didn’t mind at all that he’d had to scrimp and save to pay for that ring.

Derek always told the story with a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. He met Olivia in law school when he was sound asleep over his books in the law library one evening. Even with the scholarships he’d won, Derek worked two part-time jobs to help cover the cost of school and the grind had caught up with him. He woke with a start to this gorgeous woman telling him the library was about to close. She was so far out of his league that in any other setting, he never would have had the courage, but in his not-quite-awake haze, he’d asked her out for coffee to thank her.

As they left the library, and as his brain started working properly, Derek realized that from the cut of her dress, the scent she wore and the designer logo on her bag, Olivia Hastings came from money. He sighed inwardly—what bad luck. Once she knew he was just a small-town kid with no money, intent on righting the wrongs of the world, she’d disappear quickly enough and he’d have wasted money on coffee. Still, he’d invited her, and she’d said yes, so Derek guided her up the street to Common Grounds, his favourite café. He studied there often—one of the few places where he could hang onto a table for hours for the price of a single cup of coffee.

They chose a table in the front window and Derek dumped his frayed backpack on a chair as she settled herself. He took her order and returned shortly with a caramel macchiato and slice of biscotti for her and a cup of plain black coffee for himself.

“How do you–”

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