“Do you mind stepping out to the garden with me to collect some vegetables for a salad?” Eve didn’t wait for him but headed out the back door.
Darius glanced down at his dress shoes and wished he’d changed his clothes before coming over. He followed her outside. She handed him a basket and started picking tomatoes.
“Francie said the garden won’t last much longer if they get a cold snap, so we should pick as much as we want. She can only bottle so much.”
They worked in silence for a few minutes. It was more comfortable than he would have expected, more like the time they used to spend together in high school. Darius wanted so badly to talk about that night, about the kiss, but the fear that had stolen his speech all those years ago returned.
He had many regrets about what had followed. It had never been his intention to not speak to her again. It’d been embarrassing to have just turned eighteen, be about to graduate from high school, and find out he was a coward. It was too bad there wasn’t a bucket-list wish that involved time travel.
“This will do for tonight.” Eve indicated the house and headed toward it.
Darius glanced around, enjoying the beautiful evening, the sound of crickets in a nearby thicket, the wind rustling in the trees. What would it be like to share a place like this with Eve all the time? He pushed the thought aside. He was getting way ahead of himself.
“Are you coming?” she asked, poking her head out the screen door. “I need the vegetables to make the salad, you know.”
Grinning, he returned to the house. Maybe he’d find his courage in Scotland.
3
“You think you’re up to this little jaunt to Scotland, Noah?” Darius asked his temporary intern as they were driven to the airport.
“Oh, aye, sir,” the redheaded young man said. “’Twill be interesting to see how the very northern part of England compares to the Emerald Isle.”
“Now don’t you go causing any problems with the locals.”
“Of course not, sir.” Noah wore a look of innocence.
He was also an addition of Kayn’s. That whole thing with Sona had ended with a surprise. Darius’s partner had made an unexpected return trip to Ireland and come back with her as his fiancée. Noah was her cousin. The only person in their group who hadn’t been surprised had been Kayn’s sister, Ahri. The man had gone from gloomy to ecstatically happy.
Since Noah was interested in a career in gaming, Kayn had invited him to attend Appalachian University in Boone, and the boy would begin classes in January while working at REKD Gaming. He was making the rounds in each of the departments as an intern to help him narrow down his major.
“So you’ve done this kind of thing before, Joe,” Darius said to the bodyguard in the front passenger seat.
“Yes, sir. I was assigned to guard Kayn during his trip to Ireland.”
“From your experience then, what kinds of things do you suggest I look for relating to the program during this trip?” Darius asked. “I’m an artist, not an administrator.”
“And Kayn is a programmer.” The older bodyguard shot Darius a wry grin. “Seems like you two are the creative types, the idea guys, so you come up with the goal and hire people with the administrative skills to make it happen.”
“That’s true in some ways, I guess,” Darius said. “But I’m also a hands-on guy. I’m one of the artists actively working on the art in our game. I’d never give that up to run the show.”
“Right. That’s something I like about your organization. You four are deep in the trenches with everyone else.”
That’s what they’d been shooting for when they’d created REKD Gaming, being in the trenches. Maybe that’s what Kayn had been going for when he’d first imagined the bucket-list charity. He’d wanted to be more involved. Well, it had certainly turned his life upside down, but in a good way. Would it do that to Darius? So far, Kayn hadn’t asked for the charity back. Until the trip to Scotland was over, that suited Darius just fine.
He watched the scenery go by, wondering what the trip would be like. Spending the last two weeks with Eve during the evenings and weekends working through the plans for this trip and brainstorming ideas for requirements for future ones had rejuvenated him. He’d been looking forward to some time off, but she’d turned out to be his vacation. Now he’d get to spend five full days with Eve.
Her excitement about the trip had been contagious. Would she always be like this, or was it because she knew Sophia? Due to the time limitations in his schedule, he’d paid extra to encourage the person with the reservation for the JK Rowling suite at the hotel to make a change to another room.
The timing of the trip was good. He’d have a few weeks after the trip to wrap things up before he had to focus on his responsibilities for the October North American finals in New York.
When they reached the airport, he wasn’t surprised to find Eve standing by the plane with the Hernandez mother and daughter. Eve acknowledged Darius’s arrival as he got out of the car and waited for them to approach.
“Hey, Noah,” she said. The boy raised a hand in acknowledgment. She nodded to Darius and looked at the mother. “May I present Mr. Darius Dimitriou of REKD Gaming? Darius, this is Carmen Hernandez and her daughter Sophia.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Darius extended his hand. Eve had stressed how important it was that they thought about it as helping him. He said, “I appreciate you giving me a hand with this project. I don’t know if Eve mentioned that I kind of inherited the project, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to move forward with it.”
“Oh, Mr. Dimitriou, I hope you will,” Sophia said. “Any time we can help someone who struggles every day with pain and illness to find some joy in life is agoodthing.”
