As Alex, Cliff, and Bonnie approached Daniel’s room, they heard a sound that made them all smile: Daniel’s laughter. They entered the room to find the minister sitting up in bed, reading a letter. A small pile of mail was sitting on the bed.
“Hi,” he said upon seeing them.
“Good morning, Daniel, What’s all this?” Bonnie asked, delighted to see the smile on her son’s face.
“Letters from Hope. A pile of them got delivered this morning.”
“Hey, that’s great,” Alex said. This was just the kind of thing that Daniel needed. Knowing that the islanders were thinking about him would help get him through what was happening.
“Yeah. This one’s from Nub. He says that he’s glad I’ll only be using forks for eating.” The minister’s eyes were twinkling as he spoke.
“Forks? What does that mean?” Cliff asked, puzzled.
“It’s to do with something that he told me a few months ago when he was very ill. It means that he’s glad I’m alive.” Daniel picked up all the letters. “I’d like to write back to them.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Bonnie said. “We’ll get you a writing pad and some envelopes.”
Daniel nodded. “I can write them this evening after Alex leaves for the meeting.” He looked at the redhead. “I still wish I could be there. I’d like to hear what those men have to say.”
“I wish you could be there too. I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Alex said.
“Just remember, Alex. Don’t ignore your instincts. If you feel that it wouldn’t be good for the island, then say so. It may bring money into the community, but if it’s going to hurt what we have there, it isn’t worth it. All the money in the world isn’t worth it.”
“Yeah, you’re right, it isn’t. I just hope that the others will see things the same way. Of course, Brian won’t. He’s ready to sign on the dotted line now.”
Daniel smiled. “You can handle Brian.”
The morning passed swiftly. Shortly before lunch, Bonnie and Cliff left to get something to eat and to buy what their son would need to write his letters. Daniel had told Alex to go get lunch too, but she insisted on staying. She wasn’t about to waste any of her time there getting food. The minister’s parents told her that they’d bring her something.
Once they were gone, there was a brief moment of silence. It was Daniel who broke it.
“Alex, I’ve, um, started to remember a conversation I had with Father Mac. I only remember parts of it so far, but. . . . There’s something I want to ask you about. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“What?”
“Father Mac said that you were a member of his congregation when you were young.”
“Oh.” Alex shifted in her chair. “Yeah, I was. When I was growing up, my family was pretty deeply into religion. My mom was very devout. She never missed a service and went to Confession regularly. In fact, she went to church pretty much every day. I think it was her way of coping with Dad walking out on us like he did. When I was small, Father Mac was almost like a real father to me. But, um, when I got into my teens, I started rebelling big time.” She smiled faintly. “And poor Father Mac didn’t know how to handle it.” Her smile disappeared. “He backed away from me. At the time, I had been resenting his attempts to be like a father to me and my sister, Laura, and when he drew away like that, it hurt. I couldn’t help but compare it to Dad abandoning us. By the time I graduated high school, I wanted to get as far away from Hope Island as I could. And so I went to college in Miami.”
“Which was as far as you could get and still stay within the country,” Daniel remarked.
“Yeah. Well, you know what happened then. I met Steve, got pregnant, and then was left to raise Dylan on my own while Steve went off to take pictures. I eventually had to quit college because I couldn’t handle it, and a job, and taking care of a child. Things were really rough for a few years with Steve coming home every now and then for short visits. Finally, I managed to get to the point where I could go back to school, take night classes. But then Father Mac called to tell me that my mom was sick, and Dylan and I came to Hope.”
Alex gave a sigh. “Mom was sick for several months. Laura was supposed to come and take over for me in caring for her, but she’d gotten a new job working for a lawyer in Chicago and didn’t want to lose it.”
“So all the responsibility fell on you.”
The redhead nodded. “That was the hardest time of my life. There were so many bills to pay, doctors’ bills, medicine, and not much money coming in. The Widow’s Walk was deep in debt. On top of that, Dylan didn’t adjust well to Hope. To be honest, he hated it there. He wanted to go back to Florida. He kept talking about Steve coming to take us all back home. Of course, that never happened. Up until his visit a few weeks ago, Steve had never set foot on the island.”
An expression of sadness came to Alex’s face. “Then the big storm came, and Mom got really sick. She died that night. Nothing I did could help her.”
Daniel took her hand, squeezing it gently. “I’m sorry, Alex. I know that must have been very hard for you. I wish I’d been there to help you.”
Alex laid her other hand upon his, grateful for his touch and his comfort.
“I don’t think you could have helped, not as a minister. I probably would have reacted to you in the same way that I did to Father Mac.”
“I wasn’t a minister back then, Alex. I would have helped you as a friend,” Daniel said softly.
Alex gazed at him. There had been something in the way he spoke those words that had made her pulse quicken. Looking in his eyes, she could see the same thing there. What would their relationship have turned out to be if they’d met back then? She had still harbored the deep bitterness of Steve forsaking her and Dylan in favor of his career. Would she have been able to let another man into her life? Feeling as she did about Daniel, she suspected that things would eventually have gone in the same direction, but it might have taken a lot longer for Daniel to break through her walls.
“I wish you’d been there too,” she told him. Giving him a smile, she continued. “As you already know, after that, I wanted nothing more to do with religion.”
“Then I came along and brought your son into it.” There was a faint smile on the minister’s face.
“Yeah. I was pretty furious with you, that’s for sure.”
Daniel’s smile widened. “I remember.”
Alex looked at him intently. “But I’m glad you did. It’s been good for Dylan. It was really tough for him not having his father around and living in a place where he felt like he didn’t fit in. You gave him something to believe in. But more than that, you gave him what he needed most: a friend and someone whom he could look up to like a father. You’ve been a much better father to him than Steve ever could be. Thank you.”
“I love Dylan. In a lot of ways, he does feel like my son. He and I have a lot in common, that’s for sure.”
“You mean because of your dad?”
“That’s part of it, but it’s more than that. When I was growing up, we moved a lot. We’d be in a place for two or three years, then Dad would find a bigger church somewhere else, and we’d move again. And in between time, he’d be off ministering all over the place. It seemed like he was constantly going off.” Daniel sighed sadly. “I idolized him and resented him all at the same time. When it came to being a minister, I believed he was perfect, that he could do no wrong. But as far as being a father. . . . It angered and upset me that I seemed to be just a footnote in his life. I tried so hard to make him proud of me, to please him, to get him to spend time with me. And when that didn’t work, I’d do things, get into trouble, because I felt as if I could never live up to him, and doing those things was a way to strike out at him and also to make him pay attention to me for a while instead of his ministry. And so that’s how the better part of my childhood went, with me going back and forth between rebelling against him and trying to please him.”
Daniel rested his head back against the pillows. “But then we moved to California, and shortly after that, the TV cameras began rolling. As time went on, money became more and more the focus of his ministry. The feelings I’d had that Dad was perfect when it came to being a man of God slowly died, and I rebelled more often. Yet, even then, I still desperately wanted to gain his approval. I was really mixed up.”
Sometime back, Alex had begun to gently caress his hand in an unconscious attempt to comfort him. When she abruptly realized what she was doing, she blushed, and her fingers stilled. Daniel looked down at her unmoving hand. He took it in both of his and brought it to his lips, placing a soft kiss on her knuckles. Alex’s breath caught.
“I’ve never talked about this to anyone before, not even Mom,” the minister said in a low voice, his eyes never leaving Alex’s as he continued to hold her hand in both of his, resting them upon his chest. “But I think she understood what was going on. She was always there for me, no matter what mischief I got into. If it hadn’t been for her, I think that I might have gotten into some real trouble.” He smiled wryly. “Of course, I did anyway with Stella.”
“Your mom told me about Kate,” Alex said.
“She did? I guess it is time for you to know that whole story. What did she tell you?”
“She told me that Kate was Catholic, and it was the reason why your father didn’t want you to have a relationship with her. She . . . told me about the accident.”
Daniel’s gaze dropped to the bedcovers. “I can still remember that night like it was yesterday. Dad and I had that terrible row, a real screaming match, with me doing most of the yelling. I took off and went straight over to Kate’s. Up until then, I had kept hoping that Dad would come around, that he would come to accept my relationship with her. But after that, I knew it was never going to happen. I talked Kate into eloping with me. She packed a bag, and we headed for Nevada.” He paused, swallowing. “But we never even made it out of Irvine. We were going through an intersection, and . . . and, suddenly, there was this car.”
Alex grasped his hand, holding on tightly. “You don’t have to talk about it, Daniel.”
“Yes, I do. I’ve never talked about it. Not once since it happened. And I think that I need to.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “I remember the impact, the sound of screeching metal and breaking glass, the . . . the sound of Kate’s scream.” Daniel swallowed again. “I lost consciousness for a while. When I woke up, the rescue squad was pulling me out of the car. I began looking around for Kate and asking where she was. I got so frantic because I couldn’t see her, and they wouldn’t tell me what had happened to her. And then--” His voice cracked, and he halted for a moment to regain his composure. “And then I saw her. She was covered in blood. The side of her face was . . . was. . . .” He stopped again, unable to continue. He was squeezing Alex’s hand so tightly that he knew he was probably hurting her, but she didn’t say a thing.
Closing his eyes, Daniel took a few deep breaths, and relaxed his death grip on Alex’s hand. “I just saw her for a moment as they were covering her with the sheet. I began to cry and scream. The EMT’s got concerned and tried to sedate me, but I wouldn’t let them. I wouldn’t even let them treat me. I just started running. I don’t know how far I went before I came to a phone booth. I was completely irrational by then. I called Mom and Dad up, and I told Dad that it was his fault, that he’d killed Kate. But I was blaming myself too. If I hadn’t talked her into eloping, we wouldn’t have been at that intersection.”
“Daniel, it wasn’t your fault,” Alex said. “It was an accident. It could have happened anywhere, at any time.”
The minister nodded. “I know that now, and I know that it wasn’t my father’s fault either. But back then, it was all too much for me to take. My mom got on the phone and convinced me to tell them where I was. They came and got me and took me to the hospital, though all I’d gotten from the crash were a few cuts and bruises. Three days later, I went to the funeral. During those three days, I didn’t talk to either one of them. I’d locked myself in my room and didn’t even come out for meals. Mom brought food up for me and sat it outside my door every day, three times a day, but half the time I didn’t eat it. With every day that passed, my anger and grief grew. The moment I got back from the funeral, I threw some clothes in a bag and was out the door before either of them realized what I was doing. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
“I’m so sorry, Daniel. I can only imagine what you must have been going through.”
“It was the worse thing that ever happened to me,” Daniel said. “I’d never lost someone I loved before. I just couldn’t handle it. When I was in Las Vegas, drinking myself into oblivion and gambling away thousands of dollars, I felt like my life was over. Then I woke up in that motel room, married to someone I barely knew. That was a major wake up call. After five days of destroying myself and turning away from everything in my life, I finally came to my senses. But the damage had already been done. The press had found out about what was going on and rushed in like a pack of wolves. Thankfully, they didn’t learn that Stella and I had gotten married. If that had happened, it would really have been all over. At the same time as the press was zeroing in on us, Dad’s people arrived and got Stella and me away. I was hustled back to Irvine.”
Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh. “I’d finally gotten what I always wanted; I got my father’s attention. At the same time, I destroyed what little respect he’d had for me. He refused to speak to me. He wouldn’t even look at me. And poor Mom was caught right in the middle. James Reilly, Dad’s right-hand man, informed me that Dad had washed his hands of me. He wanted nothing more to do with me.”
Alex felt her anger rise at the thought of how callous Cliff Cooper had been, disowning his son for something Daniel had done out of grief over the death of the woman he loved. How could any father do something like that? But Alex held her tongue and stamped down her anger. It wouldn’t help Daniel for her to go ranting on about what his father had done.
“So how did you end up on Hope?” she asked instead.
“When I realized that my father and I were really through, I begged to be sent away somewhere, someplace where I could start over, do some good with my life and be what I had up until then refused to become: a minister.”
Alex’s brow knit in puzzlement. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“I hadn’t been ordained, Alex. After college, I went through three years of seminary school, but I quit just before completing my training. Seeing what my father had become, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a minister.”
“You went to college? What did you major in?” the redhead asked, distracted by this new information.
“Literature. I minored in music,” the minister told her.
Alex smiled. “That makes sense.” Realizing that she was getting off the track, she sobered. “I’m sorry. Go on with what you were saying.”
Daniel smiled at her to let her know it was all right. “Anyway, Dad told James to find me a ministry where I couldn’t get into trouble. A friend of James’s told him about the request for a minister on a little island in Washington, and my father agreed that it was the perfect place to send me. I received my ordainment and headed off to Hope Island to start my new life.”
“Thank you for telling me all this, Daniel. It means a lot to me.”
“I want you to know these things. They’re a part of who I am. They are some of what shaped me into the man I am now.”
Alex shook her head. “You seem so different now than what you say you were before, more mature and centered.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. That must have sounded horrible.”
“No, not at all. You’re absolutely right. You know that old saying that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger? Well, as strange as it may seem, everything I went through--losing Kate, that bender in Las Vegas, having Dad disown me--succeeded in making me ‘see the light’. I finally stopped focusing on my problems with my father and focused on God and my service to Him. I’d always had a deep love for God and felt close to Him in kind of a personal way, but my anger and bitterness over my father’s neglect interfered with completely committing myself to God. Once I stopped living my life in Dad’s shadow and was really on my own, I was able to become what I was meant to be.”
The minister gave a small sigh. “But even when I arrived on Hope, I was still struggling with some of my anger and grief. When I didn’t get the welcome I had thought I would, and when I found out that Brian falsified the petition for a minister and only wanted one there for a moneymaking scheme, I gave up. I just couldn’t take anymore strife or disappointment in my life, so I decided to leave. I really don’t know where I would have gone or what I would have done, but I believed that Hope simply wasn’t the place for me.” His eyes drifted away from Alex. “If I had gotten on that ferry and left, it would have been the third biggest mistake of my life. Hope Island has given me the thing I longed for almost as much as my father’s approval and respect. It gave me a place where I felt needed, where I could finally feel at home, a place where I could find friendship and love. Within just a few weeks, I knew that Hope was where I wanted to spend my life.” But it had taken him a lot longer to realize that the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with was there too.
Silence fell between them as they both thought about how their lives had been changed by Daniel’s arrival on Hope. Deciding that she wanted to lighten the mood, Alex smiled.
“Your mom told Dylan all about the things you used to get into when you were a kid,” she told the minister.
“Uh oh. She did, huh.”
“Uh huh. Then he told me. Pretty interesting stuff there, Daniel. I particularly liked the story of how you got chased across the field by the billy goat after you tried to milk it.”
Daniel blushed furiously. “I was five years old, Alex. I’d never seen a goat before except on TV.”
“Uh huh, and you saw your Aunt Louise milking one and decided that you wanted to help.” Alex smiled wickedly. “I guess Mom and Dad hadn’t explained the differences between boys and girls back then, eh?”
The minister’s blush deepened. “I was five years old!” he repeated.
Alex chuckled. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”
“I wish you’d been the one being chased by the goat,” Daniel shot back. Then he smiled. “I wish you’d been there too. I think that we would have been good friends.”
“I think so too.”
“Maybe if I’d been with you way back then, I could have helped somehow after your dad left,” Daniel said gently. “I know I would have tried.”
“Thank you, Daniel. I think it would have helped to have someone to talk to besides Father Mac, maybe not when I was small, but later on.” Alex shook her head. “I will never understand why Dad left. I’m not really mad at him anymore. For years, I hated him. I didn’t want anything in my life that reminded me of him. But Father Mac finally helped me come to terms with Dad’s abandonment.” She grinned. “And I have you to thank for that.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. It was when you bought Father Mac’s services for me at the charity auction. We ended up having the best conversation that we’ve had in a very long time.”
“I’m glad.” The minister hesitated. “Um, what happened with your father exactly? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“No, that’s okay. It doesn’t hurt like it did. The truth is that I really don’t know why he left. I had no idea there were any problem in Dad’s life or between him and Mom. Of course, I was only six. Things seemed to be going along fine. Then, one day, Dad left on the morning ferry to pick up some supplies for the Widow’s Walk. Later that day, Mom found a note from him. All it said was, ‘I can't live this way any longer.’ That was it, no explanation, no apology, nothing. We never heard from him again. It embittered my mother, him leaving us like that. For a long time her anger was in everything she did. Laura was only three at the time, so she didn’t understand what was happening. She just kept asking every day where Daddy was, which made things all the worse. To cope, Mom completely immersed herself in the church. It was her lifeline.”
“What would you do if he ever came back?” Daniel asked, thinking how terrible it was that a man would simply up and leave his wife and children without even a goodbye.
“I really don’t know. I think that maybe I’d feel like hitting him first. I may not hate him anymore, but I really don’t think that I could accept him back into my life. He’s never so much as sent a postcard in the twenty-five years that he’s been gone.”
“Whatever his reasons were for leaving, Alex, I’m sure that he must have loved you.”
“Kind of a strange way of showing it, if you ask me,” the redhead said with a shake of her head.
They moved on to less emotionally touchy subjects. Bonnie and Cliff returned with a sandwich for Alex and writing supplies for Daniel.
The rest of the afternoon passed far too quickly, and the time came for Alex to leave.
“Well, I need to head back. There’s going to be a lot of stuff to deal with before the meeting starts,” she said.
“Will everyone be voting on this tonight?” Daniel asked.
“We were supposed to. That’s what those guys want since they’re flying back to Boston tomorrow morning. But I really think that we need a few more days to think about things. I’m going to tell them that.”
Daniel nodded. “Good. It’s best to wait and give people the time to think about their decision.”
Cliff’s cell phone rang. As he talked to the person on the other end, Alex realized that the call was about the very thing they had just been discussing.
“Thanks, James. Tell them to keep digging into it. I don’t want something overlooked.” Cliff disconnected the call.
“What was that about?” his son asked.
“I had my people do some checking on this Joseph Mann and his partner.”
“You did?” There was surprise in Daniel’s voice.
Cliff nodded. “Hope Island is your home, Son. I don’t want someone coming in and ruining it.” He turned to Alex. “According to my sources, it’s a legitimate company. They started out small, but have done very well for themselves in the past few years. They’ve become known for unique designs in construction, mostly office buildings and apartment complexes. There are some rumors about somewhat less than ethical practices on their part with some of their projects, but that is the rule rather than the exception when it comes to big business. Joseph Mann is divorced, no children. Frank Tate is married and has two kids.”
“Did your people find out the reason why they want to build a retirement complex like the one they’re talking about?” Alex asked.
Cliff shook his head. “Not specifically, though it may have something to do with Mann’s grandparents. They retired a few years ago and moved into a private, gated community, one with security patrols and six-foot chainlink fences around it. Two and a half years ago, a ring of burglars hit the community, and Mann’s grandparents were among the ones whose homes were robbed.”
“How awful,” Bonnie said.
“Well, that would explain things,” Alex agreed. “One of the things they focused on was the lack of crime on Hope.” She shook her head. “But this isn’t solely for altruistic reasons. If it was, they would be building a retirement community that was affordable to people other than those in the higher income brackets.”
“You’re right, of course,” Cliff agreed. “They’re definitely in this chiefly for the financial gain and notoriety. My people will continue to look into things and will call me when they find out more.”
“Thank you for doing this, Reverend Cooper,” Alex said. “It’s a big help.”
“You’re welcome, Alex, and please call me Cliff.”
Alex gave him a smile, then looked at her watch. “I really need to go now.” Her eyes went to Daniel. “I’ll call you tonight and tell you all about the meeting, okay? Or would you rather me wait for tomorrow when I see you?”
“I think I’d like to wait for you to tell me in person,” the minister told her. He wanted to watch her as she told him all about what happened. He delighted in watching the play of emotions on her face.
Saying goodbye to everyone, Alex left for Hope. After she was gone, Daniel turned to his father.
“Thank you for helping Alex out like this, Dad. I really appreciate it.”
Cliff nodded. “She’s quite a woman, Ms. Stone is.”
Daniel grinned. “Yeah, she is. She’s great. She won’t take garbage from anyone, and she’ll tell you exactly how she feels about things when she has a mind to.” His smile disappeared. “Um, about our . . . phone conversation concerning Alex. . . .”
“No, Daniel. You don’t need to say anything,” his father said. “You were right, and I was wrong. I should never have asked or expected you to halt your relationship with her simply because she had a child out of wedlock when she was younger.” He paused. “Just as I should never have told you to break off your relationship with Kate because she was Catholic. It was a mistake, and I am deeply sorry for it.”
“Thank you,” Daniel murmured. Looking at his parents, he wondered if he should tell them the whole truth about Alex now. He didn’t like keeping things like that from them, but he was afraid that his father’s warming feelings toward Alex would be cooled if he knew that Alex was against religion. Daniel didn’t want that to happen, especially not here with all of them being in such close proximity. He also didn’t want the Reverend Cliff Cooper to start preaching to Alex to try and get her back in the fold, which would very likely happen. That would make things really strained between them. No, it would be better to wait.
That evening, Cliff and Bonnie left to go to dinner and a play, leaving Daniel alone to write his letters. As the minister stared down at the blank paper, he thought about the way Hope Island’s residents had touched his life, how his life had been made so much better by having them in it.
With a smile, Daniel picked up his pen and began to write.