Apparently, this was some kind of waiting room—a very purple waiting room almost completely enclosed in purple velvet curtains. Anchored in the center of the ceiling, the curtains draped outward to the top of the walls. From there, except for where they parted above the door, they hung straight to the floor.
“Winona.” He had to pause to clear his throat. “This is very, er, atmospheric.”
The old woman glanced around with a grin. “Designed it myself. The older I get, the more I love purple.” Her grin flattened out. “Unfortunately, Evan is insisting that I’ll have to move indoors. He says we can’t possibly keep this sweet little shed warm through a Montana winter.” Before he could sympathize with her, she brightened right up again. “All right, then. Let’s get started, shall we?” She lifted a hidden split in the curtains, revealing another door that led to a second room. “This way.” Ushering him over the threshold first, she followed him in, shutting the door behind them.
He breathed a little easier. No incense burned in this room. And there were no draperies back here, either, just clean walls of a pale, soothing robin’s egg blue.
Winona signaled him to take one of the two chairs at a central table of simple bleached pine. “Sit, please.”
He sat. Winona perched on the chair across from him.
Feeling nervous as a sinner in church, he coughed into his hand again—and suddenly realized he hadn’t taken off his hat. Swiping the thing from his head, he turned to hook it on the back of the chair.
When he faced Winona again, her piercing dark eyes watched him, seeming to see right to the center of him. Did she find him lacking somehow? “I, uh, always enjoyed that column of yours.”
“Thank you.” She reached across the table and took his wrist. “Down to business.” Turning his hand palm up, she cradled it in her birdlike claw. Bending her turbaned head close, she hummed low in her throat. “Hmm...”
Alarm jangled through him. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
She glanced up, sharp eyes pinning him again. And then her face softened. Her voice changed, became gentle, soothing. “Let’s just sit quietly, shall we?”
He longed to leap up and run out, but he heard himself answer calmly, “Sure.” As he said the word, his urge to run faded. A sort of peacefulness stole through him.
They sat. Minutes ticked by. He felt truly unconcerned, relaxed, certain now that something good would happen. He only needed to be patient, to let the truth unfold at its own chosen pace.
Gently, Winona touched the tips of his fingers one by one. She bent even closer and stared at his open palm.
Again, she made that humming sound.
“Hmm... It appears to me, Jameson, that you are the kind of man who likes to take charge. You don’t care for ambiguity, and you do not like to wait.” She glanced up, and their gazes locked. “Has there ever been a time when you didn’t get what you wanted?”
He took a while to consider her question. “When I was younger, no. Things came easily to me back then.”
She chuckled. The small, spare room seemed to fill with light. “You’ve led a charmed life?”
He glanced around, trying to figure out where the extra light had come from. There were windows on three of the walls, each with white lace curtains drawn shut, letting muted light in that didn’t seem to have gotten brighter. And the two lamps on side tables gave about the same amount of light as before. Still, the room did seem brighter.
Winona shook a finger at him. “Pay attention, please, Jameson.”
He blinked and sat up straighter. “Sorry, ma’am.”
“Answer my question.”
“About my so-called charmed life?”
Winona beamed. “That’s the one.”
“Ahem. Well, yeah. Looking back, I’d have to say that I’ve had it really good.”
“Until...?”
“I got married. It didn’t work out. We divorced. She moved away. I felt disappointed in myself, you know? That I never really understood her. And then, once she was gone, I didn’t even miss her all that much. I started to wonder if there was something missing inme. If I would ever find someone to be my one. To be my only.”
Winona held his gaze again. “There is nothing missing in you, Jameson.”
Hope rose like a bubble in his chest. He swallowed. Hard. “There’s not?”
“Nope.” She popped thep, looking almost childlike at that moment. “You’re on the right path. Patience is required, though. You can’t have what you want until the one you want is ready.”
