Message Received (3 page)

“But we have to find them.”

“Somehow, I have the feeling they won’t be found
until they want to be found.”

“
What is this about
?” Amanda mused,
equally frustrated with the wayward senior citizens. 

Once again, he took her elbow.  He escorted her
back the way they’d come.  Amanda resisted the urge to stop on several
occasions, when particularly lovely roses beckoned to her.  Brady seemed to
sense she was drawn to those flowers.

“You’ll have to come back here sometime,” he
said, smiling suddenly. 

Amanda was taken aback by the change in his face
when he smiled—so much so that she stopped walking.  He’d seemed so stern
before, but smiling…  He seemed an entirely different person—transformed. 
There was no denying he was a good looking man, but that smile seemed to erase
years of worry and strain from his face.  She figured he was probably in his
early thirties, but something about his eyes suggested he had the weight of the
world on his shoulders.

He apparently noticed her studying his face,
since he gave her another smile, this one charmingly lop-sided and full of
question.  “What?” he asked, bringing them to a stop.

“Oh, nothing,” she answered quickly, embarrassed. 
She glanced away from him and began walking rapidly away, surprised at her
reaction to his smile.  Sure, he was handsome, but she met handsome men all the
time.  Executives in power suits who seemed intent on catching her eye.  But
she didn’t have time for romantic entanglements, and had ignored each and every
advance.  Until she was a business success, or at least met her own definition
of success, she wasn’t interested in the opposite sex.  She simply didn’t need
the distraction—and certainly didn’t have time for a relationship.

Relationship
.

She suddenly remembered that recently, her
grandmother had called her at work.  She’d been busy, of course—typically
harried, and hadn’t been able to give her much of her time.  But she now
recalled her grandmother inquiring about her relationship status.  She had
suggested that Amanda wasn’t getting any younger and might want to consider
dating someone.  She had gone so far as to suggest she had someone she wanted
her to meet… 

Oh, good grief!

She came to an abrupt stop.  Brady came to a
halt, and watched her curiously.  “What is it?” he asked.

She met his questioning gaze and gave a sheepish
smile.  “I think I know what this is about…”

“What?”

She gave an embarrassed smile.  “I think this is
a … setup.  I think this was their way of assuring that you and I met.”

He watched her with surprise, but began nodding
his head up and down in understanding.  “My granddad called me at work recently
and told me he wanted me to meet the granddaughter of one of his friends.”  He
laughed.  “Okay, you’re right.  I get it now.”

Amanda nodded in agreement.  “Grandma told me
about the ‘nice young grandson’ of one of her friends.”

Brady chuckled, but quickly sobered.  “I told
Granddad I wasn’t interested in being set up.”

“Me too,” she admitted.

“So they took matters into their own hands.”  He
laughed.  “You have to give it to them.”

She nodded.  “This takes meddling to a whole new
level.”

Brady sighed.  “I do feel bad about one thing. 
I’ve been neglecting Granddad lately.  I’ve been so busy with work.”

Amanda raised her right hand.  “Guilty too.”

“Okay, well, now that we’ve figured this out…” 
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began texting.  When done, he sought
Amanda’s eyes.  “I told him we know what they’re up to, but that we don’t have
time for all this right now—that neither of us have time to be set up on a
date.  I added that they’d better get back to the retirement center.”

They stood quietly for a moment, awaiting a
response.  None came.

“I’ll text my grandma,” Amanda told him
wearily.  She sent the text.  She alerted her grandmother to the fact that both
she and Brady knew what they were up to, and that neither were interested in
being set up.  She followed by telling her to meet them back at the retirement
center pronto.  “That should do the trick,” she said with confidence.  “Grandma
is a very reasonable individual.” 

Once again, they waited for a response.  None
came.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or get angry,”
Amanda admitted finally.

Suddenly, both young people heard buzzing sounds
coming from their phones alerting them that they’d received text messages. 
They read aloud and in unison:  “It is the small pleasures in life that mean
the most.  The scent of a rose in full bloom, the creamy texture of ice cream
against your tongue, the warmth of the sun on your shoulders.”

Brady gave a short laugh.  “I wonder why they’re
waxing poetic?”

Amanda shook her head.  “I have no idea.  But
they are definitely trying to tell us something.”

“Do you think there’s more to this than a
setup?”

She spread her hands in a gesture of confusion,
and then diverted her attention to her cell phone, which was once again
buzzing. 

Brady turned his attention to his buzzing phone
as well.  “Meet us at Bea’s Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street,” he read aloud. 

“Let’s go,” Amanda said, shaking her head
ruefully.

The young couple stepped into the bustling ice
cream parlor.  Fortunately, it was a small establishment, so if their elderly
grandparents were here, they could easily spot them.

“I don’t see them,” Brady observed, searching
the space with narrowed eyes.

Amanda nodded and dropped into a nearby chair. 
Her eyes did a pass over the fifties retro-themed parlor, featuring a sleek, silver
ice cream display case set against a polished white backdrop. 

Brady took the seat across from her.  “Wow, I
haven’t been here for awhile.”  He glanced around and smiled nostalgically. 
“My granddad used to bring me here when I was a kid.”  He gave a laugh.  “We
used to come here a lot.”

She nodded.  “I came here many times when I was
a kid,” she remembered.

Brady tapped the tabletop.  “Well, I suppose we
should get to the business at hand.”

She nodded.

“Where are they?” he muttered, biting back a frustrated
smile.

Amanda shrugged.  “I’ll check the women’s
restroom.”  She rose and crossed the room and poked her head inside.  She saw
no sign of her grandmother and returned to the table.  She nodded at him and he
took his cue. 

He rose to look inside the men’s tiny restroom. 
“Nope,” he said, tiredly sitting down again.  He checked his watch.  “This
isn’t convenient.”

She nodded in response.  “I was called out of a
very important meeting at work,” she related.  “I’m desperately hoping this
outing hasn’t cost me an account.”

He gave a questioning gaze and she filled him in
on her work, and the demands of her position.  He followed by doing the same.

“I also just walked out of a very important
meeting,” he finished.  He began drumming his fingers on the tabletop again. 
“I just hope my partner is up to the task, and that he managed to sign the
client.  It would amount to a real boon for my company.” 

“I hope it works out,” she said.  “For both of
us.”

An awkward silence ensued, in which the young
couple sat quietly.  They both glanced around the busy establishment, as if
hoping the elderly couple would suddenly walk through the front doors.

Brady’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket.  He
snatched it out and held the phone in front of him so both he and Amanda could
read the screen.  “Buy the young lady a cone!” the text read.

Brady met Amanda’s eyes over the top of the
phone.  He quirked an embarrassed smile, but then his eyes narrowed and he
leapt from his chair.  He ran toward the door, veering around patrons in order
to avoid colliding with innocent bystanders.  He burst outside, into the
mid-morning sun, and squinted against the bright light. 

Amanda could see him through the windows,
scanning the city streets outside.  She could tell when he spotted something,
since his posture stiffened and he appeared to be staring after something.  She
saw him shaking his head in frustration as he turned and walked back into the
store.

When he returned to the table, she watched him
with a questioning gaze.  He gave a sheepish laugh.  “They were parked right
outside, but across the street,” he told her.  “That’s how he knew I hadn’t…” 
He laughed.  “…How he knew we hadn’t gotten any ice cream, as yet.”

Amanda gasped.  “They were watching us!?”

“Or trying to anyway,” he chuckled, and began
walking away.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“To buy the lady a cone,” he told her, still
chuckling.  He shrugged in response to her puzzled expression.  “Hey, we’re
here.  They’re gone.  And we have to formulate a plan.”

“Oh, okay.”

“What sounds good to you?”

She grinned.   “Brownie fudge delight.”

“Good choice,” he said, and strode away.  He
soon returned and passed her the double-scoop cone.  He took a large bite out
of his.  “Raspberry cheesecake,” he told her, “and every bit as good as I
remembered.”  He dropped into the chair and glanced around the restaurant, a
distracted look on his face.

“What is it?” Amanda asked softly.

He gave a sad smile.  “I was just remembering
all the times my granddad brought me here when I was a little kid.  Anytime I
was worried about something—had anything on my mind really—he’d bring me here
and we’d talk it out over a cone.”

She smiled.  “It sounds like you and your
granddad had a special relationship.”

He met her gaze.  “Yeah.  We did…”  He abruptly
shook his head.  “Do have,” he corrected, but sighed.  “I’ve been neglecting
him,” he announced, as if he’d just realized it.  He looked pensive for several
long minutes, but roused himself.  “He called me recently and asked me to pick
him up at the center.  He suggested coming here in fact, to talk…”

“Did you…”

He shook his head regretfully.  “Nope.  I told
him I was too busy.  Of course, I told him we’d get together soon.”  He was
silent for a moment.  “Funny how
soon
never comes.”

Amanda sighed.  She was also guilty of
neglecting her grandmother.  “If it’s any consolation, Brady, I haven’t spent
any time with my grandma either.  She and I were like two peas in a pod when I
was growing up.  I could tell her anything.  She was really my best friend in
the world,” she murmured, realizing it was true.  She and her grandmother had a
very special relationship.  Or had had.

She suddenly dropped her head onto her arms on
the tabletop.  “I’m a terrible person,” she moaned.

Brady reached across the table and squeezed her
shoulder.  “Hey, I’m sure she realizes how busy you are…”

She sat up and pinned him with a look.  “It’s no
excuse.  We’re both awful people.”

He gave a surprised laugh.  “Hey, you don’t know
me well enough to label me a terrible person,” he said in a teasing tone. 
“We’ve just met.”

“Well, I do know that our sweet grandparents had
to go to very extreme measures to get our attention.  We should be ashamed of
ourselves.”

“You’re right.”  He glanced off into the
distance and Amanda watched a series of emotions crisscross his handsome face. 
He turned back to her finally.  “
Do
you think this situation is more
than a setup?  Do you think they’re trying to alert us to the fact that we’ve
been ignoring them?”

Amanda nodded.  “Yes.  I think so.”

Brady sat back in his chair and absently licked
his cone.  Amanda did the same.  Both were lost to their guilty thoughts. 
Brady broke the quiet.

“Regardless of whatever life lesson they’re
trying to teach us, it comes at an inopportune time.  And it also begs the
question, what the heck are we going to do about them?”

“What do you mean?”

“They just drove off in my granddad’s old
Oldsmobile.”  He winced.  “He really shouldn’t be driving.  Frankly, they
should both be back at that center where they’re safe.”

Amanda gave him an alarmed glance.  “He
shouldn’t be driving?  Then how did he get access to the car?”  Her features
were stricken.  “He has a driver’s license, right?”

Brady winced.  “My mom mentioned to me that she
and my uncle had been talking in terms of having his license revoked and
selling the car, but he’d resisted the idea.  He apparently wasn’t ready to
stop driving but…”

“Is he unsafe?” Amanda asked worriedly. 
Her
grandmother was in that car with him
.

“Well, no, it’s not that,” Brady said, shaking
his head, but the gesture morphed into a nod.  “Well, yeah, it is that.  The
doctor is apparently having some trouble getting his blood pressure regulated. 
My folks were worried he might be a danger to himself or others if something
health-related crops up while he’s behind the wheel.”