CHAPTER FIVE

Mid July, 2044

Jere's campaign for President was going well. He had just won his party's nomination for the White House, and had chosen a running mate; Angus Hammer was a good twenty years older than Jere, and had the experience that Jere felt he lacked. He knew that his main competition for the nomination, Richard Pike, was disappointed in losing out to Jere, but vowed to support him by going out and talking him up to the voters.

The Candidate, however, wanted five minutes alone where he was thinking about anything other than running for president. I missed Rachel's wedding, he thought. But he also wanted his wife to be there with him, and not in Chicago working at the hospital.

Since he wasn't likely to see Jasmine for at least a couple of weeks, he sat back in the campaign bus and allowed himself to daydream about the next time he'll see the most beautiful girl in the world.

===

The wedding of Rachel Regina Summers and Nicolas David Nichols was a nice affair, coordinated by the cousins of the bride. Rachel didn't even have to think about anything except getting to the church on time.

Their mothers both cried, Rachel's cousin and maid of honor, Aaliyah Donovan, caught the bouquet; and Aaliyah's boyfriend, Robby Crandall, caught the garter.

All too soon, the newlyweds were on their way to O'Hare to fly to Miami to go on their honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas.

"Now that we've got the kids married off," Julia said to Cole's mother, Nico, "What are we going to do with ourselves now that there are no kids at home anymore?"

"I don't know about you, Julia," Nico said, "but I'm going get out of here for a while."

"I wish I could do that," Julia said; "but I work nearly 90 hours a week. I'm surprised I had enough time to even come to my daughters wedding!"

"That's why I'm retired now," Nico said; "The hours just about killed me. Fortunately, the police department has policies in place for that. I've been writing my grandmother's memoirs, and I had no idea she had lived such an interesting and intriguing life."

"Stefanie didn't want to write them herself?" asked Julia.

"She would have, but she's writing novels now," Nico said; "You've no doubt seen books by Charlotte Rush."

"I have, actually," Julia said; "Stefanie is Charlotte Rush? Wasn't that her name during the Occupation?"

"It was, yes," Nico replied; "But not everyone knows or remembers that, so that's why Nonna thought it was such a great pen name."

"One of my patients was reading one of her books," Julia said; "She told me she's read all of them and can't wait til the next one comes out."

Nico laughed. "That doesn't surprise me! I don't know where Nonna comes up with half the stuff she writes about!"

They talked for a while, then Julia asked where Nico was going to go to "get out of here for a while".

"I think I'll go to Hawaii," Nico said; "I've always wanted to go there, just to relax. Now that the wedding is over, I can just relax."

"I hope that you get to relax, Nico," Julia said. "Have a mai tai for me!"

"Will do!" Nico said, laughing as she and Julia parted.

When Nicoletta Nichols got to Hawaii, relaxing won't be the only thing on her agenda.

She would come face to face with her past.

===

"Wow, Cole, look at this room!" the newly married Rachel Summers Nichols said; "Your great grandma really outdid herself!"

"I kinda got a feeling she was going to do this when she asked me where I'd like to take you on a honeymoon," Cole said; "I jokingly said, 'a cruise to the Caribbean', and ta-da, here we are on a cruise to the Caribbean!"

"Too bad I look about 12," Rachel said as she unpacked her things to put them away for the three week cruise; "It'll look like you're taking your kid sister on a trip."

"Nonsense," Cole said as he wrapped his arms around his new bride; "So you're short. You look like a million bucks!"

"Watch, I'll get carded everytime we go into the casino, or to one of the shows onboard," Rachel said.

"I think everyone knows who your family is," Cole said; "I don't think they're going to sweat it much. I'd take my ID with me if I were you. Maybe I should take mine as well. We are only 18 you know."

"Fortunately, most things onboard are 18 and up," Rachel said. "I'm not really interested in the bar anyway. My family aren't big drinkers."

"Nor is mine, Rach, you know that," Cole said. "Now, c'mon Mrs. Nichols, lets get this honeymoon jazz off the ground."

"I thought you'd never ask," Rachel said as Cole began to undress her.

===

With another successful wedding under their belts, Sandy Springer and Danica Donovan-Costner breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Rachel made such a cute bride," Danica said.

"If she were here, and not on her way to Miami," Sandy said, "she'd so kill you over that remark. Still it was hard finding a dress for someone who isn't ever going to be five feet tall."

"At least we found that bridal shop in Milwaukee that specialized in wedding gowns for those between four-ten and five-three. I think Rachel was pleased," Danica said.

"It was a nice dress," Sandy agreed; "Rachel almost looked like an adult, and not like a preteen."

"Aunt Julia was probably the same way, if you think about it," Danica said.

"I don't think Aunt Julia had a traditional wedding," Sandy said; "I think Dad said that she and Uncle Ryan eloped, then didn't tell anyone for several months."

"Now THAT sounds like something Aunt Julia would do," Danica said, laughing. "She was something like 17 at the time."

"True," Sandy said, "but we both know Aunt Julia was never anything like 17 year olds now! She did graduate from high school at 15, like all her kids did."

"Then Rachel had to wait for Cole to finish school," Danica said; "I know that was hard for her."

"It was cute that Aaliyah caught the bouquet, then her boyfriend caught the garter," Sandy said; "Wonder how serious that relationship is, with Liyah's dad running for President and all."

"Looked pretty damn serious to me," Danica said; "Aunt Jas told me that those two seem made for each other."

"Maybe we should make plans to take care of them as well," Sandy said; "We should suggest it to Aunt Jas at some point."

"Not today," Danica said; "We need to get back to DC and make sure that Nikky and Winter haven't taken on more than they can handle."

"I wouldn't mind keeping Winter on permanently, he's been such a big help and rarely complains," Sandy said; "Wonder if we could talk him into it?"

"I think Winter likes working with Dad too much to give that up completely," Danica said. "Maybe as a summer position until he decides where he wants to go to school."

"How's Wyatt doing?" Sandy asked; "Winter said something about him showing some paintings later this month."

"In Bangor on the 31st," Danica said; "Wyatt is really talented as an artist. I'd love to see him study that in school. But he's only 14, he's got a little time."

===

Late July,  2044

Wyatt set up his paintings and sketches in the booth reserved for him at the Bangor Arts Festival. It was a festival within a festival for artists between 14 and 18 years old. Both of his parents were there to help. Tracy couldn't help but admire her son's talent. I wish I were half that talented, she often thought to herself.

Someone in the crowd of parents, artists, judges and the public was making Tracy feel uneasy. She'd caught a glimpse of someone who looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before. That person spend a lot of time looking at Wyatt's work. His badge said he was one of the judges. Donal Simpson was his name. The name wasn't known to Tracy, but he looked very familiar.

"That guy's a judge," Wyatt said to his mother. "He must be interested in my stuff. This is the fifth time he's been here since I've set things up."

"We'll soon find out, won't we?" Tracy said.

"Where's Dad?" asked Wyatt.

"He went to put the stuff you don't need back in the car," Tracy said; "He'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay." And Wyatt went back to scanning the crowd. He liked watching people in the way they interacted with each other. Wyatt wondered if there was something to his people watching that inspired his art.

He then saw the 15 year old boy who chatted him up when he first arrived in the exhibition hall. His name was Randy. He had a sister named Linda. The sister was cute;but Wyatt saw more in Randy than he thought he should.

And for the millionth time since he first became aware of it, Wyatt wondered if he was gay.

Wyatt knew he liked girls. There was a girl at school he really liked. But there were certain guys that Wyatt liked in the same way. Wyatt always brushed it off. But the feeling still nagged at him.

It was the one thing he couldn't tell his parents about, although he was sure they'd understand. He couldn't even tell Winter, though he'd also understand.

Wyatt didn't have any memories of the children's home that he and Winter were in before their parents adopted them. Perhaps that was a good thing.

But Wyatt was going to come face to face with a past he didn't remember, and his doubts about his choices would haunt him for months afterwards.

===

Nico landed in Hawaii about a week after the wedding of her son to Rachel Summers. She had a deadline to meet for her grandmother's memoirs, and once that was done, Nico was free to take as long a vacation as she wanted. She'd work on the memoirs some, since Stefanie had given her more documents to go through and hand written notes as to how she wanted her story told.

Nico had a briefcase full of things from her nonna's life, and she guarded those papers with the tenacity of a pitbull.

But even the life story of Stefanie Travetti took a back seat to the beauty that was Hawaii. And that just right after getting off the plane. She hadn't even been to her hotel yet.

Once she arrived at the hotel, Nico was floored. Nonna had paid for her trip, so Nico shouldn't have been surprised that Stefanie had booked her into the best hotel on the Big Island, but she was.

She walked up to the check in desk, gave her name, and almost immediately, bellmen came from out of nowhere to assist her getting to her room.

Her room was on the top floor under the penthouse. Only the owner of the hotel had access to that floor.

As she got settled, she thought about someone she hadn't seen in nearly a decade. It was his generosity that paid for the wedding of her daughter, Kit, and set up college funds for all three of her children. Each year on her birthday, the funds were replenished. Nico had nearly ten million dollars in a secret account that no one knew about. Not her children, her grandmother, nor any banker. It was all on a debit card that sat in Nico's safe deposit box in Chicago. For her trip to Hawaii, she transferred two million dollars of those funds to her personal debit card. Whatever didn't get used would be transferred back to the original account.

She set her briefcase on the nearby desk and looked out at the incredible view of the Pacific and thought of the man who made the last decade of her life easier because of his generosity, and the last time she saw him.

Nico felt the tears fall as she whispered, "Dammit, Eddie..."

And she wondered briefly if he was even still alive.

===

Edward Marshall went through the books of the hotel, like he did every month since he became the majority owner nearly a decade before.

He had made back his investment and thensome, and was very pleased that the hotel was doing well.

There was that unpleasant business of the accountant who was cooking the books to take care of her gambling debts from a few years before, but Marshall took care of that and started doing the books himself. If his grandfather taught him anything, it was to take responsibility for your own house. And Marshall did that.

Occasionally, when everything on his agenda was taken care of, he'd allow himself his one fantasy.

His green eyed angel.

Marshall never forgot Nicoletta Nichols and the kindnesses she showed him. He knew that she'd never be his. He'd broken a promise to her, and his self inflicted punishment was to live without her.

There were plenty of other beauties who wanted to be the woman at his side, but none of them measured up to the one he had to let get away. He decided that he'd rather be alone than to have anyone less than the former vice cop from Chicago.

A few weeks before, after not checking the online papers for stories about her for years, he found something of interest.

SUMMERS-NICHOLS
Julia R. Summers, M.D. announce the engagement of her daughter, Rachel Regina Summers, to Mr. Nicolas David Nichols. Mr. Nichols is the son of Nicoletta C. Nichols and the late Steven Nichols of Chicago. The couple will wed July nineteenth, at the home of the bride's family, J Bar R Ranch, in Belvidere, Illinois.

Marshall smiled. July 19th was about a week ago, he thought. I wonder where the newlyweds will honeymoon? 

He brought up the current list of guests and saw that a Nichols party was booked in a room the floor below the Penthouse. I wonder if that's them, thought Marshall. He then decided that it wasn't because Nichols was a common surname. It could be anyone, he reasoned.

He didn't realize that the Nichols in his hotel were not the newlyweds, but someone that Marshall would know on sight. Whether she'd recognize him, he had no idea.

The voice in his head came unbidden:

"Oh, God...Edward!"

===