From across the table dividing them, Adam said, "Whether it was over or not, I'd still want you back."
She looked at him, emotion brimming. "You're a beautiful man. Maybe I haven't been appreciating you as much as I should."
He said, "I guess that goes for both of us."
Later, they made love, to find the old magic had returned.
It was Adam, drowsily, who spoke their epilogue: "We came close to losing each other, and our way. Let's never take that chance again."
While Adam slept, Erica lay awake beside him, hearing night sounds through windows opened to the sea. Later still, she too fell asleep; but at daybreak they awoke together and made love again.
Chapter 29
In early September the Orion made its debut before the press, company dealers, and the public.
The national press preview was in Chicago - a lavish, liquor-laced freeload which, it was rumored, would be the last of its kind. The reason behind the rumor: Auto firms were belatedly recognizing that most newsmen wrote the same kind of honest copy whether fed champagne and beluga caviar, or beer and hamburgers. So why bother with big expense?
Nothing in the near future, however, was likely to change the nature of a dealer preview which, for the Orion, was in New Orleans and lasted six days.
It was a spectacular, show biz extravaganza to which seven thousand company dealers, car salesmen, their wives and mistresses were invited, arriving in waves of chartered aircraft, including several Boeing 747s.
All major hotels in the Crescent City were taken over. So was the Rivergate Auditorium - for a nightly musical extravaganza which, as one bemused spectator put it, "could have run on Broadway for a year." A stupendous climax to the show was the descent, amid a shimmering Milky Way and to music from a hundred violins, of a huge shining star which, as it touched center stage, dissolved to an Orion - the signal for a wild ovation.
Other fun, games, and feasting continued through each day, and at nights, fireworks over the harbor, with a magnificent set piece spelling ORION, closed the scene.
Adam and Erica Trenton attended, as did Brett DeLosanto; and Barbara Zaleski flew in to join Brett briefly.
During one of the two nights Barbara was in New Orleans, the four of them had dinner together at Brennan's in the French Quarter. Adam, who had known Matt Zaleski slightly, asked Barbara how her father was.
"He's able to breathe on his own now, and he can move his left arm a little," she answered. "Apart from that, he's totally paralyzed."
Adam and Erica murmured sympathy.
Barbara left unexpressed her daily prayer that her father would die soon, releasing him from the burden and agony she sensed each time she looked into his eyes. But she knew that he might not. She was aware, too, that the elder Joseph Kennedy, one of history's more famous victims of a stroke, had lived for eight years after being totally disabled.
Meanwhile, Barbara told the Trentons, she was making plans to move her father home to the Royal Oak house with full-time nursing care. Then, for a while, she and Brett would divide their time between Royal Oak and Brett's Country Club Manor apartment.
Speaking of the Royal Oak house, Barbara reported, "Brett's become an orchid grower."
Smiling, she told Adam and Erica that Brett had taken over the care of her father's orchid atrium, and had even bought books on the subject.
"I dig those orchids' lines, the way they flow," Brett said. He speared an Oyster Roffignac which had just been served him. "Maybe there's a whole new generation of cars hung in there. Names, too. How about a two door hardtop called Aerides masculosum?"
"We're here for the Orion," Barbara reminded him. "Besides, it's easier to spell."
She did not tell Adam and Erica about one incident which had happened recently, knowing that if she did it would embarrass Brett.
On several occasions after her father's stroke, Barbara and Brett stayed overnight at the Royal Oak house. One evening Brett arrived there first.
She found him with an easel set up, a fresh canvas, and his paints. He had sketched on the canvas, and now was painting, an orchid. Afterward Brett told her that his model was a Catasetum saccatum - the bloom which he and Matt Zaleski had both admired the night, almost a year ago, when the older man flared up at Brett and, later, Barbara forced her father to apologize. "Your old man and I agreed it was like a bird in flight,"
Brett said. "I guess it was the only thing we did agree on."
A little awkwardly Brett had gone on to suggest that when the painting was finished, Barbara might like to take it to her father's room at the hospital and position it where he could see it. "The old buzzard hasn't got a lot to look at. He enjoyed his orchids, and - he might like this."
Then, for the first time since Matt's affliction, Barbara broke down and wept.
It had been a relief, and afterward she felt better, aware that her emotions had remained pent up until Brett's simple act of kindness released them. Barbara valued even more what Brett was doing because of his deep involvement with a new car planning project, Farstar, soon to be presented at a top-level strategy meeting of company officers.
Farstar was occupying Brett's days and nights, leaving time for little else.
Obliquely, at the New Orleans dinner table, Adam referred to Farstar, though cautiously not naming it. "I'll be glad when this week is over,"
he told Barbara. "The Orion is Sales and Marketing's baby now. Back at the farm we've new things borning."
"Only two weeks to the big-you-know-wot parley," Brett put in, and Adam nodded.
Barbara sensed that Adam and Brett were tremendously caught up in Farstar, and wondered if, after all, Brett would go through with his private plan to leave the auto industry at year end. She knew that Brett had not discussed the possibility yet with Adam who, Barbara was convinced, would try to persuade him to stay.
Barbara revealed some professional news of her own. The documentary film Auto City, now complete, had been enthusiastically received at several critical advance showings. The OJL advertising agency, Barbara personally, and the director, Wes Gropetti, had received warm letters of praise from the client's chairman of the board and - even more significant - a major TV network had committed itself to showing Auto City as a public service during prime viewing time. As a result, Barbara's own standing at OJL had never been higher, and she and Gropetti had been asked to work together on a new film for another agency client.
The others congratulated her, Brett with obvious pride.
Soon after, the talk returned to the Orion and the dealer preview extravaganza. "I can't help wondering," Erica said, "if all this week is really necessary."
"It is," Adam said, "and I'll tell you why. Dealers and salesmen at a preview see any car at its best - like a jewel in a Tiffany setting. So from that, plus all the carnival, they go back charged up about the product that in a few days will be dropped off in front of their dealerships."
"Dropped off dusty," Brett said. "Or maybe grimy from the journey, with hub caps off, bumpers greasy, stickers and sealing tape all over. A mess."
Adam nodded. "Right. But the dealer and salesmen have already seen the car as it should be. They know how great it is when prepared for a showroom. Their enthusiasm doesn't leave them, and they do a better selling job."
"Not forgetting, advertising helps," Barbara said. She sighed. "I know that critics think a lot of the hoopla's corny. But we know it works."
Erica said softly, "Then mostly because all three of you care so much, I hope it works for the Orion."
Under the table, Adam squeezed her hand. He told the others, "Now we can't miss."