The Lucky One(48)

13

Thibault

Thibault watched as Victor cast his line into the cool Minnesota water. It was a cloudless Saturday morning. The air was still, the lake mirroring the pristine skies. They had set out on the lake early, wanting to fish before it became crowded with Jet Skis and speedboats. It was their last day of vacation; tomorrow, both were scheduled to fly out. For their final evening, they planned to eat at a local steak house they’d heard was the best in town.

“I think you’ll be able to find this woman,” Victor announced without preamble.

Thibault was reeling in his own line. “Who?”

“The woman in the photo who brings you luck.”

Thibault squinted at his friend. “What are you talking about?”

“When you look for her. I think you’ll be able to find her.”

Thibault inspected his hook carefully and cast again. “I’m not going to look for her.”

“So you say now. But you will.”

Thibault shook his head. “No, I won’t. And even if I wanted to, there’s no way I could.”

“You’ll find a way.” Victor sounded smug in his certainty.

Thibault stared at his friend. “Why are we even talking about this?”

“Because,” Victor pronounced, “it’s not over yet.”

“Believe me, it’s over.”

“I know you think so. But it isn’t.”

Thibault had learned long ago that once Victor started on a topic, he would continue to expound on it until he was satisfied he’d made his point. Because it wasn’t the way Thibault wanted to spend their last day, he figured he might as well get it over with once and for all.

“Okay,” he said, sighing. “Why isn’t it over?”

Victor shrugged. “Because there is no balance.”

“No balance,” Thibault repeated, his tone flat.

“Yes,” Victor said. “Exactly. You see?”

“No.”

Victor groaned at Thibault’s denseness. “Say someone comes to put a roof on your house. The man works hard, and at the end, he is paid. Only then is it over. But in this case, with the photograph, it is as if the roof has been put on, but the owner has not paid. Until payment is made, everything is out of balance.”

“Are you saying that I owe this woman something?” Thibault’s voice was skeptical.

“Yes. The photo kept you safe and brought you luck. But until payment is made, it is not over.”

Thibault reached for a soda in the cooler. He handed one to Victor. “You do realize you sound insane.”

Victor accepted the can with a nod. “To some, maybe. But eventually, you will look for her. There is a greater purpose to all this. It is your destiny.”

“My destiny.”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. But you will know it when you get there.”

Thibault stayed quiet, wishing Victor had never brought up the subject. In the silence, Victor studied his friend.

“Maybe,” he speculated, “you’re meant to be together.”

“I’m not in love with her, Victor.”

“No?”

“No,” he said.

“And yet,” Victor observed, “you think about her often.”

To this, Thibault said nothing, for there was nothing he could say.

On Saturday morning, Thibault arrived early and went straight to work at the kennels, feeding, cleaning, and training as usual. While he worked, Ben played with Zeus until Elizabeth called him inside to get ready to go. She waved from her spot on the porch, but even from a distance, he could see she was distracted.

She had gone back inside by the time he took the dogs out; he usually walked them in groups of three, with Zeus trailing behind him. Away from the house, he would let the dogs off the leash, but they tended to follow behind him no matter what direction he headed. He liked to vary the route he took; the variety kept the dogs from wandering too far away. Like people, dogs got bored if they did the same thing every day. Usually, the walks lasted about thirty minutes per group. After the third group, he noticed that Elizabeth’s car was gone, and he assumed she’d gone to drop Ben off at his father’s.

He didn’t like Ben’s father, mostly because Ben and Elizabeth didn’t. The guy sounded like a piece of work, but it wasn’t his place to do much more than listen when she talked about him. He didn’t know enough to offer any advice, and even if he did, she wasn’t asking for any. In any event, it wasn’t his business.

But what was his business, then? Why was he here? Despite himself, his thoughts drifted back to his conversation with Victor, and he knew he was here because of what Victor had said to him that morning at the lake. And, of course, because of what happened later.

He forced the memory away. He wasn’t going to go there. Not again.

Calling to the dogs, Thibault turned and made for the kennels. After putting the dogs away, he went to explore the storage shed. When he turned on the light in the shed, he stared at the walls and shelves in amazement. Elizabeth’s grandfather didn’t have just a few tools—the place resembled a cluttered hardware store. He wandered inside, scanning the racks and sorting through the Snap-on tool cabinets and piles of items on the workbench. He eventually picked out a socket wrench set, a couple of adjustable and Allen wrenches, and a jack and carried them out to the truck. As Elizabeth had promised, the keys were under the mat. Thibault drove down the driveway, heading for the auto supply store he vaguely remembered seeing near downtown.