Julie Ortolon - Almost Perfect

Christine: NO! Amy, I'll make all the arrangements. I'll pick you up at your front door and be with you every step of the way. Consider this a test run for you going somewhere on your own. As for your question to Maddy: Yeah, Mad, why do you think Joe will be upset?

Maddy: I told y'all, I've decided for sure I want to marry this man.

Christine: So? Is he asking you to choose between him and your dream? Because if he is, dump the jerk.

Maddy: He's not asking me to do anything. Are

you kidding? We don't have "Big Conversations." We keep everything very small and very safe.

Amy: You mean you still haven't told him you love him?

Maddy: I'll tell Joe I love him when the time is right. When I know he'll believe me.

The following day brought another blistering reply from Christine, while Amy's response was disapproving but sympathetic. Before Maddy could answer, she heard Joe coming up the stairs to her apartment, his step light and happy. Her heart lifted.

Closing the laptop-which shut off her friends' disapproval-she went to open the door. Christine and Amy meant well, but they didn't understand. How could they? They weren't the ones in love. In fact, Amy had never had a serious boyfriend and Christine was a loser magnet, so their advice was suspect at best.

The minute Joe swept her into his arms and kissed her crazy, doubts over her choice vanished. Well, faded.

He lifted his head to smile at her. "Are you done with your art for the day?"

"Actually, I was just- Never mind. Yes, I'm done."

"Great. I'm done with work as well." As he stepped inside, she realized he wore a dark blue dress shirt, black slacks, and cowboy boots. With the bolo tie at his neck and silver ranger set on his belt, he looked like he'd stepped out of an ad in the Santa Fean.

"Wow," she said. "Don't you look nice."

"I just heard Bill Hearne is playing at the La Fonda. So what do you say to dinner and dancing?"

"You're on!"

Never underestimate gut instinct.

– How to Have a Perfect Life

Joe couldn't remember ever being happier. Which made him very nervous. Especially as the weeks flew by with increasing speed. Every day brought him closer to the end of summer and the time to relaunch Phase Two of his plan.

When the initial launch had nearly ended in disaster, he'd decided to retreat, regroup, and wait for better timing.

The month between the end of summer camp and when Derrick arrived seemed appropriate. This time, he would test the waters more carefully by mentioning the future casually in conversation so he didn't scare her off. No way would he blurt out a marriage proposal and ruin everything.

He did, however, have a ring picked out, and had even made a down payment. It was a custom design by one of the most talented jewelers in the area-much more Maddy-esque than the traditional solitaire he'd tried before. What a dumb choice that had been! Maddy needed something unique, like her, which made this ring perfect.

She was going to love it. He was sure

At least he hoped.

First, though, he had to talk her into moving to Santa Fe permanently, since the last day of summer camp had somehow arrived. How had that happened? How had weeks vanished while he wasn't looking? Granted, between running his mother's camp, making plans for his own, and being with Maddy, he'd been having the time of his life. Plus, he accepted from his past experience that being in love made the brain malfunction, which was why he'd messed things up so badly before.

Not this time, though. This time, he was doing it right, moving in stages, so that when he popped the question, she'd say yes.

Even as he told himself that, he broke out in a nervous sweat. Or maybe that was the sun, he decided as he stood in the parking lot supervising the chaos of loading buses. All around him, little girls ran and screamed. Older girls cried and hugged.

Maddy stood with his mother, exchanging a few last words with the campers as they climbed onto the first bus. Looking at her never ceased to stir him up on every level. She excited, soothed, mesmerized, and… enchanted him. Yeah, he thought with an admittedly goofy smile, she flat out enchanted him.

Today she wore a cropped T-shirt covered with hand-painted flowers-the result of one of her craft projects-with a denim miniskirt she'd obviously made from an old pair of jeans. He'd long since accepted that uniforms and Maddy simply didn't go together. Since none of the other coordinators complained, he let it slide without comment. Besides, once she was his wife, not an employee, it wouldn't matter what she wore.

His smile got a bit goofier as she bent to accept a macaroni necklace from one of the little campers. She gushed with praise and thanks, which had the little girl beaming. What a great mom she'd make.

Finally the first bus was full. With a whoosh of brakes, it started down the hill toward the front gate. The chaos dimmed only momentarily, since they had several more buses to go, plus parents arriving in private cars.

Maddy turned and spotted him, then moved through the maze of campers lined up with their trunks, pillows, sleeping bags, and stuffed toys to join him.

"Is it always this hard to watch them go?" she asked.

"I'm afraid it might be." He offered her a sympathetic smile, barely resisting the urge to kiss the frown line away from her forehead. "All last summer, I thought I'd be relieved to have quiet and sanity return to my life. Then I remembered the scre wed-up home life some of these kids are going back to, and I wanted to climb on the bus and go with them. Maybe knock some parents' heads together. I still do."

"I know what you mean." She shaded her eyes as the next bus pulled into position. "It's not so hard with the good kids. It's ones like Cory and her gang who get to me."

"Me too." He chuckled, since thirteen-year-old Cory had spent half her summer at Camp Enchantment on probation for smuggling in cigarettes-not once but three times. Carol blew her whistle and started calling roll. "We get them for five weeks every summer, though. I like to think it helps."

He tensed a bit at the Freudian slip. We get them every summer. Would she realize he'd meant the two of them, not the camp staff at large? He shifted his gaze sideways, but she showed no visible reaction. Although, the slip did fit the timetable for his plan, since camp was over. He was supposed to start dropping in references to the future to gauge her reaction. Only, she wasn't reacting. She was just standing there as still as stone.

Finally, she lowered her hand, but kept her gaze on the campers as she quoted the camp motto. " 'Building character and memories to last a lifetime.'"

"Yeah," he agreed, thinking of the two of them. He wanted more than a lifetime of remembering Maddy. He wanted a lifetime of making memories. He thought of the ring he'd picked out and fresh sweat broke out on his forehead.

Somewhere over the den of noise, he heard the phone in the office ringing.

"I better get that," he said, leaping on the excuse to get away from this conversation before he said something stupid. He stepped gratefully into the cool, shady office and snapped up the handset. "Camp Enchantment."

"Yo, Scout."

He grinned at the sound of Derrick's voice. "What's up, Socrates?"

"Good news, my man. We have us our first victims."

"Campers. They're called campers."

"Ho-no, these guys definitely be victims." Der-rick's deep chuckle came through full of good humor. "My sister told her boss about the boot camp. Apparently it's just the sort of team-building experience he's been wanting for his programmers. He wants to sign up for a corporate package."

"What?" The words wouldn't quite register in Joe's brain. "You sold a corporate package?"

"Yep. Looks like we're getting a whole slew of computer programmers to turn into super geeks."

"Wow, that's…" Way ahead of schedule. The main reason Maddy was staying was to help them sell the programs. "That's great, man."

"Do you think you could tone down the enthusiasm just a little?" Derrick asked in the same flat tone Joe had just used.

"Sorry." Joe shook his head, laughing at himself. "It is great. Really."

"So what's the problem?"

"You're messing with my plan."

"Uh-oh. You and the word 'plan' always scare me. So what are you planning to death this time? No, wait, let me guess. This has something to do with your lady, right?"

"I don't plan things to death." Joe scowled in offense. "I never heard you complain when we were on an op. I happen to excel at planning things out."

"In other words, you haven't followed Brother Derrick's advice for your love life, have you?"

Heat climbed up Joe's neck as he remembered how much he'd revealed to Derrick over the last several weeks. But if a man couldn't let down a few barriers with his Ranger buddy, who could he confide in? Besides, after working side by side in some extreme situations, they didn't need words to know what the other was thinking.

"So," Derrick persisted, "have you managed to articulate the big three words?"

"I told you," Joe said. "I have a plan."

"I'll take that as a big negatory."

"A plan that now I'll have to rework, since you just blew half of it out of the water."

"Joe, Joe, Joe." Derrick sighed. "You can't treat relationships like an op, working out every detail down to the last possible contingency."

"Well, why the hell not? That's what I'd like to know."

"Because…" Another sigh. "Terrorists are predictable. Women are not."

"I know. That's what worries me." He walked over to watch Maddy through the window. "Plus, I have this gut instinct telling me that something's wrong."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I can't put my finger on it, but…" He remembered some of his conversations with Maddy lately, when he'd asked her how things were going with Sylvia and she'd changed the subject. "I have this nagging sense that she's keeping something from me. Something to do with her artwork."

"Isn't that what you said happened last time?"

"They say history repeats itself." Except this time she had no reason to keep things from him. Not that she had last time either.

"Have you considered the possibility that you're seeing ghosts from the past, inventing things to obsess over?"

"Maybe." He turned away from the window. "So, are you still coming next month?"

"Actually I thought I should come up sooner, for us to get rocking on the obstacle course for the super geeks."

"How much sooner?"

"I can be there week after next."

"Oh, man, you are shooting my schedule all to hell."

"Joe, get a grip," Derrick said dramatically. "Even on an op, sometimes your plan gets screwed and you have to go in with what you've got, guns blazing."

"Which, if you'll remember, is how I got shot."

"True. But have you considered this? If you hadn't taken that hit, you wouldn't be sitting in New Mexico right now. We'd both be sweating our asses off in some desert dodging car bombs. And your high school sweetheart would still be just a wistful memory."

"Are you saying I should be thankful I got shot?"

"Out of adversity comes opportunity. See ya in a couple of weeks, man. And, hey, good luck with your lady."

"Yeah. Thanks a lot."

The instant Joe hung up, he remembered a second reason he didn't want Derrick to come ahead of schedule. Maddy's show in Taos. He couldn't miss it. Her friends were going to be there, and he'd finally get to meet them.

Besides, it was the only show she had scheduled, which he found strange. Sylvia didn't seem to be doing much to promote Maddy's work. Was that why Maddy tensed up when he asked her how things were going?

Ill ease tickled the back of his neck, that sixth sense alerting him to danger. Something was definitely off kilter. Or maybe Derrick was right. Maybe he was seeing ghosts from the past. Maybe.

"I can't believe another session has come and gone." Sitting on the edge of the patio behind the office, Maddy stared up at the stars.

"Feels weird, doesn't it?" Joe dropped down beside her and held out a beer. "Here you go."

"Thanks." She popped the top with a satisfying spew, then drank quickly, before the foam spilled down the side. "Ah! I never knew beer could taste so good."

Joe took a long pull from his can and sighed loudly. "Abstinence makes the taste buds grow fonder."