Selkie

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

I always thought investment firms were run by grumpy old men in marble buildings.

I fully expected Barry to be white-haired and condescending in a severe suit, sporting a monocle. I was prepared for Spankston Inc. to be a powerful-looking building. I was not prepared for it to be in a cute yellow house with a white porch and flower boxes at the windows.

Barry wore a sweater. He was also younger than I'd anticipated. Maybe only a few years older than myself. "Hello, Miss. I was wondering if I'd ever get to meet the beneficiary of this account. It's been with our firm since we opened in 1940. My Dad used to say that Great Grandpa's favourite story to tell was about how if it wasn't for the beautiful and mysterious Miss Edith Murchadha, we wouldn't have had the capital to open up shop. If you ask me, I think he was half in love with her."

"I am starting to think she had that effect on people."

"Then you must take after her."

I remember being taken aback by his brazen flirting. I've always had luck with men, but the fellas on this trip had been ridiculous. I was starting to wonder about this birth mother of mine. Who was she? What had gone so wrong? What was she running from?

"Are all the men around here such shameless flirts?"

"Only the smart ones."

Barry had me sorted out in no time at all. He didn't even blink an eye when I told him what the Rev had suggested, but I paused when he asked me to dinner.

"Barry, I'm not sure how long I will be in town. I don't want to start something."

"It's just dinner. Let me take my favourite client out on the town. Mrs. Giesbrecht makes a mean sausage plate."

"How German."

Dinner with Barry was charming. He was a perfect gentleman, funny and conscientious. He had me forgetting the strangeness of the situation. There was this one moment when he leaned in across the table to deliver a particularly savage punchline. The candlelight glinted off his green eyes and for a moment I saw what life could look like if I stayed in Taylor. We would date for a few years. I'd learn to curl and in time we would have a couple of shaggy haired little ones. He'd golf on the weekends and I'd have a book club of local moms. I'd get a job at the local bookstore. Heck, I'd buy the local bookstore. I could see it. I could practically taste it. Thankfully Mrs. Giesbrecht came over just in the nick of time with our coffees and I snapped out of it. Fantasizing about a future with someone I'd just met was very unlike me. This whole adventure was very unlike me.

He drove me back to the house and did me the courtesy of not kissing me goodnight while at the same time making it clear he wanted to. He walked me up the long drive to the house and took my hand, taking a step closer. "Edith, I never thought I would get a chance to meet you but I hoped I would. Now that we've met, I'm not sure how I'm going to let you walk out of my life again." I must have looked completely taken aback because he squeezed my hand and stepped back. "I hope we see each other again." He walked back to his car, slowly shaking his head. He seemed as flabbergasted as I felt.