CH 94 Lovers meeting

"How…? What…?" Over Danny's head, Bonnie's eyes sought Rosa's.

Her look was returned with a smile so brilliant, Rosa seemed to shine. She came further into the room, and, leaning over Danny, saluted Bonnie's cheeks in greeting. "I'm so glad you were able to see us, chérie," she said, a giddy note in her voice. "Thank you."

"But…" Bonnie found that her knees wouldn't hold her. She sank limply back onto the couch, leaving it to Angela to invite their guests to sit. Rosa chose an armchair for herself while Danny hitched himself onto the couch at Bonnie's side. Stupid with shock, she turned to ask him, "How are you here?"

"We took a plane," he answered simply. "Daddy and me. We flew all night. It was fun but then I fell asleep."

"Your first time on a plane?" Angela inquired kindly.

Danny shook his head. "I been on one before. Last Christmas."

"They went to Eleuthera," Rosa supplied. "It's a sort of Baer family tradition. That's how Danny comes to have a passport."

Angela absorbed this with an "Ah!" and, following up with Danny, asked, "And when did you arrive?"

Danny, at a loss, looked to Rosa, who replied, "They got in very early this morning. I met them at the airport, and they've had a bit of a rest and some lunch chez moi."

Danny pressed close to Bonnie and confided, "Mémé Rosa's Daddy's mom. They've been strange 'til now but they're settling the difference."

Rosa beamed at her grandson. "Yes, we are, and I couldn't be happier."

Bonnie finally found her tongue. "Your dad didn't come with you and Rosa?"

"No, he did," Danny assured her, "but we didn't all fit in the elevator, so he's waiting for the next one."

Rosa seconded this with a nod. "And the elevator in this building can be very slow."

She accompanied this nonsense with so speaking a look at Bonnie that her meaning was instantly clear: Bear was below, uncertain of his welcome and waiting either to be invited up or turned away. He'd crossed the ocean for a last-ditch chance to argue his case, but, even so, he wouldn't barge in. The choice was hers.

Angela, having grasped the situation too, rose and announced she was going to see about refreshments. "I wonder, could you give me a hand, Danny? I could use some help in the kitchen. You're not too tired, are you? No? Well, good. It's this way."

When they'd passed out of earshot, Rosa said quickly, "I'm so sorry, Bonnie, for all you've been through! Rudolph's told me everything, and I know — I know! — he's behaved abominably, but he's desperate to make things right, so desperate he's even turned to me for help. He's never asked me for anything before, so you have to understand I couldn't refuse when he asked me to intercede on his behalf. I won't plead his cause — that's for him to do — but I would ask, as a great personal favor, that you hear him out."

Bonnie dropped her gaze and shrank back against the couch. "I can't see it's any use, Rosa. I know he feels bad about costing me a job at the Jeff, and I respect him for it, but I'm not going back on my decision just to relieve his conscience."

Rosa stared at her, wide-eyed. "Is that what you…? Mon dieu, he really has messed up!" She hesitated, and then, the clatter of dishes reminding her that time was short, she reached into her bag and drew out an envelope. "Here," she said, extending it to Bonnie. "Maybe this'll sway you."

Bonnie hung back, wary of taking the note until she saw it was addressed to her not, as she'd feared, in Bear's hand but in her grandfather's scrawl. She swiftly extracted the notecard, and read:

"Sweet Tart,

"I don't like being kept in the dark so I had Eddie pick Baer up for questioning (any talk of him being 'snatched up off the street' is untrue. He came willingly). After a thorough interrogation, I've concluded he's a certifiable idiot, but I've been a fool, myself, in my time — notably where your Grammy T was concerned — so I can't judge him too harshly. He has my blessing to explain himself to you. Give him a hearing. You know I'd never steer you wrong.

Love, Gramps."

Bonnie raised her eyes from these astounding words to find Rosa watching her anxiously. At a questioning quirk of her brows, Bonnie drew in a deep breath and nodded. Rosa tapped out a rapid text and was tucking her phone away when Angela and Danny returned bearing platefuls of sweets and followed by Jeanne with the tea tray.

The refreshments were no sooner set out on the coffee table than a knock sounded at the door. Jeanne went to respond, and some moments later, she ushered "Monsieur Baer" into the room. He carried before him a large white poinsettia in a beribboned basket which, Angela having risen to receive him, he presented to her with his compliments. As they stood chatting and then handing the plant off to Jeanne, Bonnie took advantage to sneak a look at Bear. He looked tired, which was only to be expected, but handsome still and unusually neat in a sports coat over a crisp dress shirt and jeans, his unruly hair tamed.

"Please," Angela said, indicating a chair she'd had set for him close to the table. "I'm sorry you were left waiting so long in the lobby. That elevator's an unreliable old thing."

Bear shot her an appreciative glance. "I gave up on it finally and walked up."

"You did?" Danny said, interested. "All those stairs?"

"Yep. So many, I lost count." He shifted his gaze to Bonnie then, and, catching her eye, offered a tentative smile. "Bonnie," he said, with a nod of hello. "You're looking well. I was sorry to hear you'd been sick. You've made a full recovery?"

"Yes, thanks." Much as she yearned to, Bonnie found she couldn't look Bear in the face, their last, mortifying interview still all too vivid in her mind.

"Did you have the flu?" Danny asked, as a point of curiosity. "Miss Monroe had it all last week. We had to have a substitute."

Angela jumped in quickly with, "I take it Miss Monroe's your teacher? Do you like her? And how about school? What grade are you in?" This line of questioning, with Danny center-stage, went a long way toward defusing the tension in the room, and when that subject had run dry, an inquiry into what Danny might like to do and see while in Paris saw them safely through their refreshments.

"Well," Rosa said at last, returning her cup and saucer to the table, "this has been delightful, Angela. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Rudolph has some business to discuss with Bonnie, I collect, but Danny and I will be on our way."

"No!" Danny, a perfect angel to that moment, scowled ferociously and thrust out his lower lip.

"Buddy," Bear said, in a placating voice, "we talked about this."

"No! I want to stay!"

Rosa flashed Angela a helpless look, but Angela was, as ever, equal to the occasion. "I'm glad you want to stay, Danny, because — well, I didn't like to ask, but — I've heard you're a fantastic artist, and I'd love to have one of your drawings."

He considered her. "To put on your refrigerator?"

"Yes. You saw how bare it is. It needs decorating. And, you know, I like to draw, myself, and your Mémé does, too. The three of us can set up in the dining room where there's a bigger table. What about it?"

"Okay." Danny slid off the couch, and made to follow his personal Pied Piper. "Do you have colored pencils?"

"Yes, and charcoal pencils, too. Plus, markers, chalk, crayons…"

Bear watched the trio vanish down a hallway, then turned back to Bonnie with a rueful smile. "Your grandmother's a wonder."

"Yes. She's my hero."

An awkward silence descended on the room. Bonnie kept her eyes fixed on the jumble of used cups, plates and napkins on the low table between them while, on the periphery of her vision, she was conscious of Bear shifting uncomfortably in his chair. At length, he cleared his throat, and, when she hazarded a look up, he said gravely, "Thanks for agreeing to see me."

Bonnie fished the note out from where she'd stashed it between couch cushions. "You can thank my grandfather."

Bear nodded. "I owe him for that, and more."

Despite herself, she was intrigued. "So, what's this about Eddie 'snatching you up off the street?'"

Bear leaned out over his knees, grateful, it seemed, for the opening. "That's not how it went. Booth — your cousin — was ready to strong-arm me into his car but, as it happens, it wasn't necessary. When he stopped me outside my apartment, I was actually on my way to your house — you weren't answering my emails, so I thought turning up on your doorstep was worth a shot. He saved me a lot of trouble."

"When was this?"

"Last Saturday. Danny was at Val's, so I had the whole day free. Of course, I didn't know you weren't at home, and Booth… well, let's just say he wasn't chatty on the drive. I got the really strong impression he'd've been glad of any excuse to deck me."

That was her hot-blooded cousin all over. "He'd've caught hell for it from Gramps if he had."

"True. He was obviously under orders to deliver me unharmed. Your grandfather wasn't warm and fuzzy, either, but he was more discrete about it. He was clever, too. He let me think you were on the premises and that, as long as he liked my answers to his questions, I'd be allowed to see you."

"He asked you why I quit, I'm guessing."

"He did. My 'version of events,' as he put it. I had no intention of getting into the nitty-gritty with him. I told him there'd been a misunderstanding, that I'd come to clear things up and convince you to withdraw your resignation. But he wasn't having that. He wanted details and he was determined to get them. Things got testy pretty fast. I resented being badgered, and, finally, I'd had enough. I told him I had reasons for my actions that, even if they were any of his business, a man in his position, with his background, could never understand. All he said to that was 'Try me. I dare you.' So… I did."

"And…?"

"And…" He drew the word out, as if reluctant to continue. "I told him he couldn't have any idea what it was like to work every day with a woman you loved to distraction, and who only thought of you as a friend."

"You…!" Bonnie managed the one syllable, and then only had breath for, "What?"

Bear grimaced. "I know! I must be only the person in the known universe who's never read that book. What's it called? Parts of the Whole?"

"Yes. No! Wait! Back up! Did you just say…?"

Instead of answering, Bear motioned to the empty space beside her on the couch. "Do you think I could…?" At her dazed nod, he rounded the table and, sitting down, took the closer of her hands in his. "Bonnie Booth-Hodgins," he said, a crooked smile curving his lips. "I adore you. I was toast from day one."

"No!" It was too much to take in, too much what she wanted to hear to believe. "You… You didn't like me at first. You all but called me a pampered princess who only got the internship because of family connections."

"And that was out of line. You earned that job fair and square. But I could hardly admit — even to myself — that what I really resented was how attractive you were. Being drawn to you was a complication I didn't need or want. I was coming off a disaster of a marriage. The last thing I wanted was to get involved again. My feelings for you were damned inconvenient — not to mention inappropriate."

"So, you dealt with what was your problem by trying to scare me off?"

He had the grace to look abashed. "It wasn't a deliberate plan, but, yes, it would've simplified my life if you'd quit."

"Well, I wasn't about to give you the satisfaction!"

"No." His eyes lit with wry admiration. "You don't discourage easily. You held your ground, I put my guard up, and we reached a kind of standoff. And it might've gone on like that indefinitely — not a great situation but tolerable — if I hadn't made the fatal mistake of letting you look after Danny. Because what does he promptly go and do but fall in love with you?

"And that was it: the beginning of the end. I tried to nip it in the bud, of course, but Danny can be stubborn, and, while I'm not exactly putty in his hands, when he sets his heart on something, I have a hard time telling him no."

Bonnie gave his hand a squeeze. "It meant a lot to me when you brought him to my art show and later to the carnival. I know it cost you, letting him risk getting hurt."

He nodded. "I was afraid for him, but the strange thing is, I envied him, too — his openness, his ability to trust. I saw that I'd let myself go too far to the other extreme, that I was taking my past disappointments out on people who had nothing to do with them, that, in a nutshell, I was being unfair to you and to Danny, just like you said.

"I don't need to tell you the rest. I gave you chance after chance to let Danny down, and you never did. You justified his faith in you at every turn. I saw firsthand that you were genuinely his friend, that you were good to him and for him. I could've loved you if only for that, but of course there were many other reasons."

"Stop!" Bear's words were painfully sweet, and, in part, Bonnie yearned to hear more of them, but her confusion was so great, she pulled her hand from his. "I don't understand! Ten days ago, you couldn't be the man I want, and now, suddenly, you love me, and claim you have since — when? — last summer?"

Bear reached to take her hand again, and, after a brief tug of war, she let him. "Tell me, first, what you think I meant ten days ago."

She stared at him. "What else could you've meant? You can't return my feelings. I want more than you can give me."

He shook his head. "No, you've got that backward. Didn't you hear me just now? I thought all you wanted from me was friendship. I had more to give than you wanted, not less."

"But…" Bonnie said faintly. "Why? Why would you even think that?"

"You mean apart from my own stupidity? Two words: Vanna Greeley."