Page 55 of The Women of Wild Hill
“Have you really hit a dead end?” Flora asked. “Or is this more of a temporary roadblock?”
Calum seemed to consider the question before he spoke. “Well, my business partner and I spent ten years building a media company. Now we’re on the verge of taking the company public, and the investors I brought on board have decided that my vision is not aligned with theirs. I’ll make some money off the IPO. But nobody’s going to hire me, and I don’t have it in me to build another company from scratch. So I suppose it means my career is over.” He looked at Flora and shrugged. “I have enough of everything. I’ve been incredibly lucky. I suppose I shouldn’t complain.”
“Me, either,” Flora agreed.
They sat in silence for a very long time.
“I have some time on my hands tomorrow,” Calum said. “Maybewe could go on another walk. I promise I won’t make you save me this time.”
“Don’t you have to fly back to New York?” Flora asked.
“No, not anymore,” Calum told her. “I don’t have a job, my kid is away at college, and my wife was one of the investors who just sided against me.”
“Ah,” Flora said.
“It’s just business,” Calum said. “At least, that’s what she thinks.”
“Want to go on that walk right now?” Flora asked. “Once we’re away from the lights, we should be able to see the entire solar system. Sometimes it helps put things in perspective.”
Calum raised his arm and called the waiter over. “Could we possibly get a bottle of champagne to go?”
“THAT WASN’T NEARLY AS RAUNCHYas you guys made me think it would be,” Sibyl said.
“No,” Brigid replied tersely.
“It was really sweet,” Sibyl added.
Phoebe stayed silent.
The next vision opened with Flora in tears.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Phoebe said. Brigid rolled her eyes and Sibyl gave her a dirty look. “What?” Phoebe demanded.
THE BACKGROUND CAME INTO FOCUSand they saw Flora was sitting on the beach in front of the California mansion where they were raised. Two legs walked closer across the sand, then Calum took a seat beside her.
“I’m very sorry about your aunt Ivy,” he said. “The girls told me she was old?”
Flora wiped her eyes. “Yes, very,” she said. “And she died on her own terms, which is the best way to go. In any case, my family doesn’t believe death is an end. That’s not why I’m crying.”
“Then what’s upset you?” he asked.
“The girls and I will be leaving this evening.” She turned to him. “If I come back to California, it will only be for a visit. Now that Ivy is gone, it’s my turn to care for Wild Hill.”
“I see,” Calum said, though it was clear that he didn’t.
“I’ve never loved anyone outside my family before. I didn’t think I could. I thought my job was to find fathers for my children. I never imagined falling for someone.” Flora looked around as though committing the beach to memory. “What we have here is perfect.”
“Why can’t it be just as perfect on the East Coast?”
Flora pulled in a deep breath. “I don’t know. Wild Hill does strange things to people.”
“You act like it’s haunted.”
“It is,” she told him. “By a witch who was murdered in the seventeenth century.”
Calum laughed. “Even better! Look, if two territorial teenage girls can’t scare me off, then what hope does a ghost have?”
This time, Flora laughed along with him.
