This Holiday Magic. Celeste O. Norfleet
keys. She found them and handed them to Janelle.
Two minutes later Janelle was out the door and headed to the Truman Building. The usual thirty-minute drive took less than twenty.
As soon as Janelle drove up to the building, she looked up, seeing that the lights in her father’s office were still on. She parked the car and hurried inside. The security guard she’d known for years greeted and welcomed her back. She signed in and took the elevator to the top floor.
Her thoughts raced as she hurried down the long hallway. Her father was unavailable and there was a strange man in his office. At this point she had no idea what to expect. She turned the corner and saw that her father’s office door was cracked open. She could see a light shining from inside. She knocked once but didn’t bother to wait for a reply, opening the door wider and peeking inside. “Dad...”
For the second time that night a shocking sight met her eyes.
When Janelle had called, Tyson Croft had held on to the receiver, forgetting all about hanging it up. As soon as he picked up and she had spoken, his heart had faltered. There was no need to ask who was calling. He had known it was her even before she had said who was speaking. The sound of her sultry voice was unmistakable. He closed his eyes as a slow, easy smile pulled wide across his lips.
“Janelle,” he had whispered softly and then shaken his head slowly. Hearing her voice again after two long years was like awakening from a long deep slumber. His body stirred just as it had done so many times before.
He remembered what it was like walking away from her years ago. It had nearly broken him, but he hadn’t had a choice at the time. Now he did have a choice. And nothing—and no one—was going to stand in his way this time.
“All righty, then. This ought to just about do it.”
Tyson quickly hung up the phone. Ben Truman bumped the office door wider as he walked through carrying another lidded cardboard box. Tyson nonchalantly cleared his throat and nodded, looking back at the computer monitor. He had no idea how long he’d been holding the phone receiver. Thoughts of Janelle had clouded his mind again. It had been happening more and more lately.
“There’re a couple more boxes in the storage room, but I doubt they have anything in them that will be useful. Was that my phone I heard ringing?” Ben asked.
“Uh, yes. It was Janelle.”
Ben frowned as he set the container down on the small conference table in the center of his office with the other boxes. “Janelle, huh? That’s surprising. I didn’t expect her call.”
“What do you mean?” Tyson asked, looking more interested.
“She usually calls me at home, and this isn’t her usual day. She calls on Sundays. I hope everything’s all right over there.”
Tyson instantly tensed. “I thought you said she’s safe where she is in Africa. Is there a possible problem where she’s assigned?”
“Well, for the time being, she is safe. But you know as well as I do that my daughter is a dedicated physician. Wherever they need her, she’ll go. She’s almost eight thousand miles away in an unstable region...” Ben said, then stopped, seeing the horrified look on Tyson’s face.
“But no, I’m sure she’s fine. As you well know, Janelle is a brilliant doctor and a very levelheaded woman. She’d never intentionally put herself in danger. She’s very capable and can certainly take care of herself, even in the middle of Africa. I’m sure she’s fine. I’m just surprised she called me here at the office. She knows I don’t work this late.”
“When is she coming back stateside?”
“In a couple more months. She said February or March.”
Tyson nodded, not feeling at all reassured. “Maybe you should call her back just to make sure everything’s okay,” he suggested eagerly, failing miserably to play down his uneasiness.
“Yeah, I think I will.” Ben nodded and pulled out his cell phone, only to see that the signal was gone and the phone was turned off. “Damn, no signal. I forgot to charge the battery this afternoon. No wonder she called me here.” He crossed the room to use the phone on the desk.
Tyson grabbed his cell phone off the desk, stood and quickly handed it to Ben. “Here, use my cell phone,” he offered. “It’s international. It’ll reach anywhere in the world.”
Ben nodded, took Tyson’s phone and dialed Janelle’s number. The call rang six times, then went to her voice mail. “No answer,” Ben said, looking at his watch.
“Where exactly is Janelle in Africa?” Tyson asked as he continued working.
“Tanzania, but she moves around a lot. Three weeks ago she was in Dodoma. Last week she was in Dar es Salaam. But one thing for sure, she calls me every Sunday evening to let me know where she is and that she’s okay.”
“And is she—” Tyson paused to look up “—okay?”
“That’s a matter of opinion. She’s lost faith.”
“Faith? How do you mean?”
“She lost faith in love, in her ability to love and be loved.”
“Because of me,” Tyson said flatly, laying his pen on the desk. He walked over to the window, glancing out.
“Because of a lot of things, son,” Ben said, sitting with a stack of files at his side. “Truthfully, I’m right there with you. Since her mother died, I’ve had three different wives. She’s seen me in and out of love dozens of times. For the past two and a half years she’s thrown herself into work and had time for nothing else. You might have been the last straw, but I was right there, too. If there’s one thing I want more than anything, more than cleaning this mess up, it is to help her love again.”
Tyson’s heart tightened from the pain that gripped it. Janelle had lost faith in love and he was partially responsible. But at least she was physically safe. He nodded slowly, but he wasn’t at all satisfied.
Sitting, he absently glanced at his notes and then back at the monitor. All of a sudden the program he had been using for years didn’t make any sense. His notes were a confusing scramble of numbers and notations that made even less sense.
Tyson looked over at Ben, who had begun talking about his last trip to visit his daughter. The more Ben went on, the edgier Tyson got.
“I tell you, the moment I stepped off the plane I was amazed,” Ben said. “The country is the perfect duality—both stunningly beautiful and horrendously terrifying. I tell you, every moment I was there I was...”
Tyson looked back at the monitor again. There was no use—his focus was shot. Everything he’d done in the past three hours meant absolutely nothing. All he could think about now was Janelle’s safety.
Ben had moved on to a story about shopping in an African marketplace, but Tyson had long since stopped paying attention. Unlike her father, he wasn’t as convinced that everything was all right with Janelle. He didn’t want to alarm the man, but there’d been something in Janelle’s voice that was definitely stressed. He hadn’t liked the sound of it. But calling her back to make sure she was okay was out of the question. He was the last person she’d want to hear from. He was one of the reasons she’d joined Medics International and left for Africa in the first place—to get away from him.
Still, two and a half years was a long time. There was a good chance she would have gotten past their relationship’s ending. The nerve in his neck tightened and his jaw tensed. Yeah, he had messed up. He’d let his ego and his ambition overrule his heart. Walking out on Janelle had been the biggest mistake of his life.
“Okay, here it is. I knew it was packed away in one of these old boxes