Deep Waters

breath. "I'm glad to hear it."
    "He and I have done a lot of talking since you went to see him that day in Seattle." Justin met Elias's eyes with a steady, determined expression. "He told me everything. About your father. The crash. Everything."
    Elias nodded. "I see."
    "Now I know why you did what you did." Justin hesitated. "There's just one thing I don't understand."
    "What's that?" Elias asked.
    "You had everything in place. Dad says you could have ruined the company's entire Pacific operation. But you pulled the plug at the last minute. And then, later, after I told you that he'd tried to commit suicide, you went to see him. He said you gave him a lecture.
    Something about not doing to me what your father had done to you."
    "I didn't think he was paying attention," Elias said.
    "He listened." Justin glanced out across the sunlit cove and then he looked back at Elias. "He wants to merge my new firm and Keyworth International. I'd be CEO. He'd be president."
    "Sounds like a solid executive team," Elias said. "Going for it?"
    "I'm thinking about it. Yeah. Probably. The old man knows the international freight business. He can be an S.O.B., but he's savvy as hell. I could learn some things from him. He seems to want to teach me. After all these years, he says he'd like to show me the ropes."
    "Better late than never," Elias said.
    "We'll see." Justin shoved his hands into his pockets and fixed Elias with another steady look. "But I still want to know why you backed off your plans to cripple his company. And why bother to go see Dad after he tried to commit suicide?"
    It was Charity who answered. "Nobody likes to swim in polluted water. Elias decided to do what he could to clean up the river."
    Justin frowned. "What the hell does river pollution have to do with this?"
    "It's a water thing," Charity said solemnly. "It takes years of training and self-discipline to comprehend the higher levels of consciousness and how they relate to the nature of water. However, if you want to take a short-cut to enlightenment, you can buy a really neat T-shirt from Ted's Instant Philosophy T-Shirt Company. Right over there on the other side of the pier."
    Justin turned back to Elias, clearly bewildered.
    Elias grinned. "Don't mind her, Keyworth. When she gets into her cryptic philosophical mode, you can't understand a word she says. Come with me to the buffet table. I'll get you a slice of wedding cake and some of the worst-tasting punch you've ever had in your life."
    "I could use a beer," Justin said slowly.
    "You're in luck. We've got some of that, too."

    The waters of the cove were black and silver beneath a moon that was nearly full. Elias stood on the bluff, his arm around Charity, and listened to the whispers.
    "What are you thinking about?" Charity asked.
    "About the first time I kissed you. We were watching the Voyagers from the railing at the old campground. Remember?"
    "I certainly do. Knocked your socks off, didn't I?" she chuckled. "Thought you were going to freak out on me."
    "I recovered swiftly."
    "You did," she agreed. "It took a while, but you definitely recovered." She turned and put her arms around his neck. "Things are going great down at the pier, aren't they?"
    "I think we'll all make it through to next summer." He wrapped his hands around her waist, enjoying the feel of her warm, feminine curves.
    "Town council's off our backs, at last. Shops are renting up quickly, thanks to the improvements you've made. Business is tripled over last year."
    "You're about to tell me that you've got a new project in mind, aren't you?"
    She smiled her brilliant smile. "How did you guess?"
    "You can take the CEO out of the executive suite, but you can't take the executive suite out of the CEO. What's the project this time?"
    "I was thinking that it's about time we started working on having a baby."
    He stared at her, as disoriented as he had felt the first time he had taken her into his arms. "A baby?"
    "Any objections? You'd make a terrific father, and Otis could baby-sit."
    Dazed with a profound sense of wonder, Elias was speechless for a moment. "No objections," he finally managed to whisper.
    She smiled.
    He pulled her very close and gazed out over the cove.
    The silvery moonlight reflected on the surface of the ceaselessly moving water. In that moment he could have sworn that he caught a fleeting glimpse of that rarest of all reflections, an image of the future. It glowed.
    He saw the way the waters of the past flowed