Page 2 of Miracles and Marriage
If Zoe had married five years ago, she’d have children by now. Sometimes she wondered why Chloe didn’t. The answer to the question—they weren’t ready—seemed vague. But she’d never pushed for more. Everyone had their own timing.
Part of a large family, Zoe had always planned on having a large family of her own. She loved holidays and birthdays withher family. The closeness, the love, the feeling there was always someone there for her. She had deliberately sought to build a successful career before settling down to marriage and a family. Now it looked as if time had run out.
She dropped the quilt across one of the wooden chairs that surrounded the large plank kitchen table. Maybe she’d fix something to eat. If she had more energy, she’d go out to one of the local restaurants where the crab cakes were melt-in-your-mouth good. Or try one of the fish grills that dotted the town of Baden Harbor. But not tonight. She’d just heat up some soup and make toast. She wasn’t hungry, but practical enough to know she needed to eat.
Things would look better in the morning, as her grandmother always said.
Zoe didn’t know how, but she hoped so.
Jedidiah Callahan carefully replaced the phone, stunned at the reaction of his normally cool-headed senior analyst. Zoe had worked for him for the last five years. He’d only seen her angry enough to yell twice. What set this episode off?
He thought back over the last couple of days. He hadn’t been more difficult to work with than normal. So that wasn’t it.
In fact, if asked, he’d have said they had a great relationship. She stood up to him when she thought he was wrong. Something other employees could learn. She voiced her feelings about projects, sometimes pinpointing exactly what was missing. And he relied on her more than any of the other analysts to give him sound advice.
He rose and went down the hall and peered into her office. Tidy as always. She was neat beyond normal, he often thought; while his own desk was piled high with folders and printouts and reports. Zoe loved order, spreadsheets and tons of data to analyze. He counted on her to have the information he wanted when he wanted it. He was used to Zoe being there wheneverhe needed her. This wasn’t like her at all. Now he’d have to find Ginny and see if she could locate the file. And maybe give him some information on what was up with Zoe.
The younger woman was diligently typing a report from one of the field agents. She looked up when Cal stopped at her desk and almost grimaced before giving him an artificial smile.
“What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I’m looking for the Schribner folder,” he said.
“Oh, dear. I remember seeing that. Just hold on a sec and let me remember where.”
Ginny jumped up and began to rummage through the stacks of folders on her desk. It resembled his, but there the similarity ended. Jedidiah knew exactly where every piece of paper was on his. Ginny was still rummaging through piles.
“Zoe was working on it, making sure everything was up today because you’re meeting with them soon and she wanted you to have every iota of intel at your fingertips,” Ginny mumbled as she rifled through yet another stack of folders. “She called in yesterday and had me get it from her office. It’s here. Wait a sec.”
Cal took a deep breath, trying not to let his frustration spill over. His first tendency was to snap and then make amends, but he wouldn’t do that today. He had more control over his behavior. But he didn’t have much patience in the best of times and this was not the best of times. Blast it, why had Zoe taken off at this juncture? He needed her.
“Here it is.” Ginny beamed with success and handed him the thick folder.
He took it and walked away. At least one thing had gone right today. Where the heck was Zoe? She hadn’t requested vacation time. She wasn’t claiming sick leave. Was something wrong with someone in her family?
He didn’t know much about her personal life, just that her family came from Maryland and she had more brothers andsisters than anyone else he knew. Most of whom also worked in the District of Columbia.
He returned to his desk and opened the folder. His curiosity over Zoe and her odd behavior wouldn’t let him focus on the material therein. If she were sick, wouldn’t she have said something? Normally he knew her schedule as well as he knew his own—and vice versa.
Cal tried her phone again. The not-in-service message came on. He uttered a brief expletive and hung up.
Ten minutes later Cal closed the Schribner folder and rose. His security firm specialized in keeping people safe, especially when traveling to dangerous locales. The agents assigned the Schribner account could handle things. Cal would check on Zoe one more time and then call it a day.
Maybe put in some time at the gym. The exercise tired him out enough to sleep at night.
Though the nightmares still struck without warning.
He’d given Zoe a ride home a few times over the years. Her apartment building was out near Key Bridge. He’d never been inside. Entering the building a short time later Cal noticed it was as nondescript as most modern buildings. The elevator was quiet and quickly rose to her floor. Ringing the doorbell brought no response. He leaned against the door to listen. He heard nothing. He tried her phone again. No service. Where was she?
After eating her soup, Zoe perused the books in the shelves. She’d read all of them, a couple more than once. Light summertime reading, none would hold her attention today. She considered going to bed, but it was too early—though darkness had fallen. Sighing softly, she went to the cottage phone and called her sister. Time to tell Chloe what was going on.
Zoe felt marginally better after their conversation. Her twin had been as shocked with the news as Zoe had and wanted tojump right in the car and drive down to the beach, but Zoe had convinced her talking on the phone was good enough.
So then her sister had come up with a dozen of different scenarios all in which Zoe was miraculously cured.
When they’d exhausted those options, they settled into a heart-to-heart.
“Mostly I wanted a family one day, like ours,” Zoe told her. “Can you imagine life without all the kids running around and grandparents and aunts and uncles?”
