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“Dad, before you go. How are you feeling? And tell me the truth. You were so tired all the time.”
“Ah, well, I saw Jeremy here in New York.”
“You did, thank goodness. What did he say.”
“Don’t get upset, but apparently Bethany was slipping sleeping pills into my cocoa. Matt told me.”
“Now I want to wring her neck again.”
Tom laughed.
“Dad, it’s not funny.”
“But sweetheart, it could have been so much worse. There were other drugs Michael had ordered her to give me, and she didn’t. Be glad she was brave enough to defy him. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“No, I don’t suppose it was.”
“I feel like my old self again. Let it go. It’s over, and I’m absolutely fine and it’s over. Okay?”
“Yes, dad, you’re right. It’s over…Thank God.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Once settled in the plane with their seat belts fastened, Tom started telling Jeanette about Ellie’s new passion for horses, but as the aircraft started down the runway she interrupted him.
“Tom, I have news of my own, important news,” she declared, placing her hand on his arm.
“You’re about to sail to—“
“No, quite the contrary,” she said, cutting him off. “My days on the high seas are over.”
His heart skipped.
“The world has changed, and it seemed to happen really fast,” she continued. “But time does that. It moves at the speed of a flying bullet. I swear it feels like barely a year has passed since I was setting off on my first trip on the open seas.”
“I was starting my third big development,” Tom muttered with a heavy sigh as the jet lifted into the sky. “You and I were married when I finished the first one, remember.”
“How could I forget? You finally had the time to spend an uninterrupted week with me, though you did take some phone calls.”
“Yeah, I was so driven,” he admitted. “I guess I still am, except other people take those phone calls now. But getting back to you. What brought about this decision, and are you sure you’ll be happy being a landlubber?”
“Tom, I, uh, I had a scrape with some pirates.”
“Pirates? You must be kidding!”
“You don’t hear about them much, but they’re out there. I was able to send an SOS and got lucky. There was a navy boat close enough to get to me in time. The captain gave me quite the lecture, but he didn’t need to. It really shook me up. All I could think about was getting home to Ellie—and to you,” she added, pointedly. “I still want to sail, but only lakes surrounded by mountains.”
“Jeanette—”
“Before you say anything, why have you never found someone else? Surely there must be a plethora of women wanting to date Tom Mitchell.”
“A plethora?” he retorted. “Hardly, and I could ask you the same question, except the answer seems obvious. You were never in one place long enough,” he remarked, glancing out the window.
“Seriously, why haven’t you?” she pressed. “Was it because of how Eleanor might react?”
He knew what she wanted to hear.
And he knew what he wanted to say.
