“Yes, the original store is directly across from Pike Place Market. Have you been there?”
“No. Perhaps you can take me sometime.”
“I’d be happy to, one day. But I still don’t get the connection.”
“You’re both from Seattle, obviously.”
“Okay, but what does that have to do with generosity?”
“I was getting to that. I heard the man order behind me, and when I went to pay, I added his bill to mine. Because all I wanted was coffee, I left almost immediately, before the guy had any idea of what I’d done.” Chase had felt good about it. He left with a huge smile on his face. Apparently, his emotional high had been noticed. Tristen, his assistant, had mentioned what a good mood Chase appeared to be in as he updated him on his schedule for the day.
“That’s great,” Maisy said, and sounded genuinely pleased. “You’re a quick study.”
“It’s all because of you, Maisy.”
“You give me far more credit than I deserve.”
“Do you remember mentioning to me passing out sandwiches to the homeless?”
“Of course.”
“There’s a homeless guy living in the alley by the office. Security got him to leave, but he came back. I walked past him today and saw him in a completely different light. I’ve decided I’m going to buy him a coffee tomorrow and see if there’s some way I can help him.”
“That’s great.”
“Again, it was an idea you inspired.”
“That makes my heart happy.”
He wondered if she had any idea how happy she made him as a whole. “Tell me more about your childhood.” He was eager to know everything about Maisy.
“My childhood? It was pretty average. The highlight was when Sean won a trip to Disneyland when he was in the fifth grade and the whole family got to go. It was the trip of a lifetime. Dad took a whole five days off work, and we went on every ride and ate out every meal. You can’t imagine what a wonderful time we had as a family. That was our only big vacation.”
“I envy you that time,” Chase said. “I’ve never been.”
“You’ve never been to Disneyland?” She sounded incredulous. “What about Disney World or any of the other Florida theme parks?”
“Nope. Dad was always too busy to take time off work. The highlight of my summer, if you could call it that, was someremote summer camp.” Not that he hated those times. He had some good memories from there.
“I’m sorry, I…I assumed you would have been to every amusement park ever built,” Maisy said sympathetically.
“No need to be sorry, I enjoyed camp,” Chase said, easing the tension with a short laugh. “Tell me more about your summers.”
At his encouragement, Maisy continued to recall her childhood experiences: swimming at the local pool, playing games in the park, riding bicycles, along with times spent with her cousins and grandparents.
Her experiences were far and away nothing like those of his own childhood. He realized as she spoke how much he’d missed. When he married, this was the type of life he’d want for his own family.
“Tell me about what it was like when you were a kid?” Maisy asked.
Chase gave her a brief description of his own childhood. “Like I said, Dad sent me to summer camp as soon as school was out. I flew from the boarding school to the camp. I enjoyed my time there.” He didn’t mention that only rarely had his father shown up for parents’ weekend. When it came time for camp to end, his father sent a driver to collect him and bring him back to Chicago. Chase would return home to an empty house for a week or two before he returned to boarding school. He told Maisy none of this.
“What about your grandparents? Didn’t they play a role in your life?”
“No.” He knew how close Maisy was to her grandmother and wished it had been that way for him.
“Surely you had some contact with them?”
“My maternal grandparents died long before I was born, in a private airplane crash. Their death was the reason my mother had such a large trust fund.”
