She had wanted, needed validation from him, but she realized that wasn’t the way it worked. If she had learned nothing else from losing her parents and then her aunt and uncle, it was that life was uncertain and every day should be seized and lived to the fullest. She could pursue her life list but not the man she loved or the place she belonged? No.
The moon cast a swath of light across her floor and she edged her toe in and out of the light, thinking. This house was paid for. It had been for years, long before her aunt and uncle had died. She could either sell it or rent it and use that money to buy a place in Good Riddance. She could work from there. It would just mean a little extra planning to commute out of Anchorage.
She stepped into the moonlight and looked out into the front yard. At that moment she realized she didn’t want to continue traveling the globe, wandering as a child of the world. She’d found where she belonged and now it was up to the next person to step in as an ambient videographer. Part of what she was meant to do was obviously bring videos to people. Now she’d simply do that on a much smaller scale. She’d open a video store and screening room.
She crossed the room to her bed and slid back between the sheets. Lying on her side, she stroked the eagle carving on her necklace. She fell asleep thinking of Clint Sisnuket.
THE TAXI PULLED UP IN front of a stucco single-level house topped with a red-tile roof. Clint wiped his palms down the front of his jeans. He’d rehearsed what he wanted to say to Tessa innumerable times but he was still nervous.
He hadn’t called or emailed. She’d given him a chance to ask her to stay and he’d given her some lame story about his parents. He’d come to present his case in person.
“You getting out, buddy?” the driver said.
“Yeah. Here you go.” He handed over the fare and a tip.
“Thanks,” said the cabbie. “You want me to wait?”
Clint was going into this optimistically. “Nope.”
Slinging his overnight bag over his shoulder, he climbed out and approached the front door.
He’d gained an hour on the flight from Anchorage to Tucson. It was early morning and he figured he would catch her at home. If not, he’d simply wait. He knocked on the door.
It took a minute or two but then the lock turned on the other side and she stood there, wearing a pair of green pajamas, her eagle/wolf necklace and a shocked expression.
“Clint?”
“May I come in?”
“Of course. Certainly.” She stepped aside and he walked past her into a terra cotta tiled foyer.
She closed the door behind him and all he could do was stare at her, drinking in the sight of her, inhaling her scent.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, hands by his side.
She nodded, a wariness shadowing her eyes. “I’ve missed you as well.”
In that moment, all his nervousness vanished. This was right. They belonged together. He spoke the words he’d come to say. “I love you. I believe you love me as well. Other people might think this is too soon but we’ve marked each other. All these years I didn’t truly understand that my father required too much of my mother and wasn’t willing to meet her half way. If you want to we’ll live in Good Riddance. If that doesn’t work for you, I’ll move to Tucson.”
She stood, tense, as if she might turn and flee at any moment. “But you love Good Riddance. You love Alaska.”
“I love you more. Without you, I no longer find the joy in my land I once did.”
“You would give up Alaska for me?”
“Yes.”
She flung herself at him, throwing her arms around him. “Oh, Clint!”
He held her, reveling in the feel of her curves pressed against him, showering her face and neck with kisses. His lips found hers and he claimed her as his own.
When they broke apart, she lightly touched the stitches on his scalp. “You’re okay?”
Even though he knew it had been a message and an important one he’d needed to receive, he still found that whole incident slightly embarrassing. “I’m fine.”
“You must have gotten up incredibly early to be here now.”
He laughed, remembering Dalton’s grumbling at having to fly Clint out so early. “Yeah, me and Dalton both. He wasn’t a particularly happy camper but he’s a man who understands what it’s like to be in love.”
Tessa beamed, a sly look creeping into her eyes. “You must be exhausted. You probably need to rest, have a good nap.”
He knew exactly where she was going with this. “Maybe you could show me your bedroom.”
She took him by the hand. “Right this way, Mr. Sisnuket.”
Epilogue
“YOU HAPPY?” CLINT’S WARM breath stirred against Tessa’s hair as he leaned forward and asked the question in the middle of Good Riddance’s Thanksgiving celebration.
“Never happier…except when you showed up on my doorstep,” she said. It was wonderful, crazy chaos at its finest. The door between Gus’s and the airstrip had been propped open for people to move back and forth. Tables of every size and shape had been brought into the airstrip office. Nearly every dish you could imagine was laid out for the potluck event. And everything smelled wonderful.
“I think your eggs are going to be a hit,” Clint said, tightening his arm around her, boldly claiming her as his own to everyone in the room.
“I hope so. That was really generous of Gus to share her kitchen.”
When Clint had first mentioned her coming back to Good Riddance with him for Thanksgiving, she’d protested. She had too much to do to get her affairs in order in Tucson for her move, but the truth of the matter was she’d wanted to be part of that celebration from the moment she’d heard about it. So, they’d flown in the day before and Gus had graciously allowed Tessa free range of her kitchen that evening to make deviled eggs as her contribution.
“Hey, it’s so good to see you again,” Skye said, giving Tessa a hug. “Welcome back. I had a feeling you’d be returning.”
Tessa laughed. “You did?”
“Oh, yeah.” She glanced between Tessa and Clint, smiling. “Having just been in your shoes not too long ago.”
“Where’s Dalton?” Clint asked.
“He and Bull are over at Gus’s setting up the karaoke for after everyone eats. Hey, there’s Curl. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check and see if that cough medicine I gave him is working for him.”
Skye headed toward Curl and Tessa touched Clint lightly on his arm. “It’s fine if you want to go find them.”
“I’ll wait,” he said, his dark eyes solemn beneath his smile.
She knew what he was doing and loved him all the more for it, but it wasn’t necessary. “It’s okay, really.”
Clint’s grandmother would arrive sooner or later. She never missed the Thanksgiving feast. The unknown factor was how she’d respond to Tessa’s presence.
“I’m staying right here for now because next to you is where I want to be.”
It wasn’t necessary but Tessa was glad of his quiet strength next to her. Merrilee had just bustled over, wearing one of her signature flannel shirts trimmed in lace, a smile on her face. “How do you like our little get-together so far?”
“I love it.” Tessa noticed a faint shadowing beneath the other woman’s eyes. Tad might be gone and her divorce might be done, but Tessa feared things were still awry between Merrilee and Bull.
Something, or someone, caught Merrilee’s attention over Tessa’s shoulder. Merrilee grasped her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, while she looked at Clint. “She’s here.”
Clint’s arm tightened around Tessa and she knew without turning that his grandmother had arrived.
Slowly, as if someone were adjusting the volume down on a television, the conversation in the room grew quieter until the only noise was that of the children chattering.
As one, Clint and Tessa turned. His grandmother, unsmiling, bridged the final few feet, until she stood before them.
�
��You’re back,” she said to Tessa, without preamble. There was no hostility, nor was there welcome in her words or expression.
“I am.” Tessa responded in the same vein.
“You are of the wolf?”
“I am.”
She narrowed her dark eyes at Tessa. “You love my grandson?”
“I do.” Her words felt as if they carried more weight than a vow in a church ceremony.
The harsh angles on the weathered face before Tessa softened slightly. “There is much of our culture you don’t know.”
“There is much I want to learn.”
Even the children quieted and it was as if everyone in the room held their collective breaths.
The old woman stared hard at Tessa, as if seeking passage to her very soul. The silence seemed to stretch on forever and back through generations as well.
“Then there is much I can teach you. I will lay my rug down for you and pass along the lantern… Granddaughter.” She nodded as if there was nothing more to be said, and really there wasn’t. She had just accepted Tessa as a member of the Sisnuket family.
Tessa nodded in return. “I look forward to it.”
As if a wave of relief had passed through the room, conversations started again.
“Thank you,” Clint said quietly to his grandmother.
The stern visage softened. “I want you to be happy, Grandson.”
“I am. We are.”
Tessa felt as if she had come full circle on a journey she hadn’t realized she had even embarked on years ago. They would have the ups and downs, their trials and tribulations that faced any couple, but together, the eagle and wolf would find happiness together.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7459-8
NORTHERN ENCOUNTER
Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer LaBrecque
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