Where I Belong

by Charlene Bright

  There was a gravel and dirt road that led from his house up to another, smaller one that she assumed was his uncle’s. Behind that house was a large shop, and off to the side of that looked like a big barn. As she parked and stepped out of the car, Hooter ran up to greet her. Drake came out of the house behind him.

  “Hooter, get off of her. This is why we never have company.” Sophie laughed and petted the rambunctious old dog. Something else caught his attention and he scampered off toward the garden. “Come on in,” Drake told her. “What does your mother say about using the walker?” he asked as he led her into a cozy living room.

  It was furnished with what looked like handmade furniture covered with thick brown and tan upholstered cushions. There was a fireplace along one wall and a lot of family photos on the mantle. There were also hand-carved animals everywhere. They were intricate, beautiful pieces of art. Sophie was thinking about asking him where he got them from. It would look great in the lodge room of the B&B.

  “Well, I think by now you know my mother … so what do you think?” she said in answer to his question.

  He laughed. “I think she doesn’t want to be a burden to her daughter, mostly. Have a seat.” Sophie didn’t want to sit down. Being in this house that was so much a reflection of him was making it harder for her to deny she was beginning to have feelings for him. It was a little bit overwhelming all of a sudden. She didn’t want to be rude though, so she sat.

  “Your carvings are beautiful. Where do you get them from?”

  Drake smiled as he took a seat across from her. “My uncle made these.”

  “Oh my goodness. Does he sell them?”

  “Yeah, when he can. During the tourist season, he sells quite a few. I get first dibs though.”

  “Does he take orders?”

  “Not very well.”

  Sophie had been looking at a carving that stood about two feet tall. It looked like a piece of a mountain with three unique-looking wolves standing on each flat area. She looked up at him suddenly and relaxed when she saw he was joking. “Well, I assumed since he was related to you that was the case—”

  “Hey!”

  She laughed. “Seriously, do you think he’d make some for me? I’d be willing to pay whatever his asking price is. I’d love to have some for the lodge.”

  “We can take a walk up and ask him if you’d like,” Drake told her.

  She resisted the urge to look at the time. Once again, she was getting nothing done today. Taking one day off seemed to have set the pattern for the entire weekend, but she was enjoying herself for the most part, so she simply said, “Sure, I’d like that.”

  “Okay, let me get that walker for you and we’ll load it up on the way out.” She watched him step into the other room, and then she got up and looked at the pictures on the mantle. There were a lot of him at various stages of his life with his parents or a man in a wheelchair, who she assumed was his uncle. Drake looked a little like his mom and a little like his dad … and a lot like his uncle. There were also quite a few of him with a blonde-haired girl that looked a lot like the doctor. She felt that annoying twinge of jealousy again.

  “All right, here it is,” he said, returning with the folded-up contraption. He carried it out and put it in her car, and then they started the short trek up to his uncle’s house.

  The mountain behind Drake’s property was still mostly green, but Sophie could see where there were patches of color—the leaves were just beginning to change. She couldn’t wait until it was full-on fall and everything was in vivid color. When they got to the little house, Drake stepped up onto the porch and, through the screen door, he said, “Uncle Mac, I have someone that would like to meet you.”

  “Come on in,” a deep voice called back. Drake held the door open while Sophie stepped inside. This little house was furnished with the same handmade furniture that was in Drake’s house, and the place was just as neat.

  A man in a wheelchair rolled out of the bedroom. He held two little wiggly burnt-orange creatures in his lap that looked almost like kittens with bushy tails. He smiled at Sophie. He’s as handsome as his nephew, she thought, just older.

  “Uncle Mac, this is Sophie Michelson. She’s the one that I’m working for over at the inn.”

  The older man offered his hand, and Sophie shook it. “I’m pleased to meet you, Sophie.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too. Are these the kits I’ve heard about?” Mac looked like a proud papa. He introduced them to Sophie as “Todd and Copper.”

  “They’re adorable,” Sophie said.

  Mac held one up and said, “Here. You can hold him.”

  Sophie glanced at Drake and he nodded. There was something sad in his eyes, and she wondered what that was about. She took the kit and held him to her chest. He cuddled into her just like a kitten. “Oh my gosh, they’re so sweet. I want one!”

  “They’re wild animals,” Drake said. “Even my uncle seems to have forgotten.” His uncle gave him a narrow-eyed look and then turned his attention back to Sophie.

  “Sophie, have a seat. Would you like something to drink? I have tea or I can make some coffee…”

  “No, thank you. I can’t stay long. I was just admiring your woodwork when I was up at Drake’s place. He actually brought me over here so I could ask if you might be interested in doing some for me for the inn.”

  “Oh. Yes, I could probably do that. What were you thinking?”

  “Anything you’d like to make, really. I love all of the ones in Drake’s house.”

  Mac looked back up at his nephew, who was standing with his back to the little island between the living room and kitchen. “How many does my nephew have?”

  “Just a few,” Drake said.

  Sophie suddenly realized maybe she’d said something she shouldn’t have. “Yes, only a few. I really love the one with the wolves.” Mac chuckled and Drake’s face turned red. “I’m sorry … did I say something wrong?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Mac said. “It just seems like my nephew didn’t have the heart to tell me some of my things didn’t sell, so he bought them.”

  “Oh …” She looked at Drake. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know …”

  He shook his head and smiled at her. “It’s okay,” he said, looking back at Mac. “They would have sold, but I didn’t give them a chance. I bought the ones I liked before I even took them into town.”

  Mac laughed then. It was like a deep rumble in his chest and so contagious that Sophie almost laughed too. “You’re so full of it,” he said. “But you have a good heart, kid.” He looked back at Sophie and said, “You bring me a list of what you’d like and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you so much. Drake, have you told him about my mother’s invitation?”

  “Not yet.”

  “My mother is making dinner tonight, and she’d really like it if you and Drake could join us.”

  “Oh … I don’t think … I mean I really shouldn’t leave the kits …”

  “It would only be for a couple of hours, or even less if you needed it to be. We’d really like it if you could come.”

  She felt bad because he looked so uncomfortable with the idea. He glanced up at Drake, but his nephew wasn’t going to help him out of it. “Okay … I guess that would be all right. It will just be you and your mother?”

  “Yes, and Drake.”

  “Okay, thank you, Sophie.” Drake looked both shocked and amused that Sophie had accomplished what he likely couldn’t have.

  “You’re welcome.” She stood up and handed the kit back to him. “Thank you for letting me hold him. He’s so cute.” Mac smiled again, and Sophie could see the love in his eyes as he laid the baby gently back in his lap. “I look forward to seeing you this evening.”

  “I’ll walk you back up to your car,” Drake said. He looked at his uncle and said, “I’ll be back. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  “Lots of surprises today, huh?”

  Drake
smiled sadly. “Yeah … I’ll be right back.”

  On the walk back to Sophie’s car, she could tell that something was bothering him. She was suddenly afraid it was what she’d let slip about Drake having so many of the carvings in his home. “I’m sorry about letting him know you had the carvings. I didn’t know …”

  He smiled. “It’s okay. He was bound to find out sometime. I just hate telling him they didn’t sell. Besides, they look good in my house, don’t you think?”

  “They do,” she said. “I also think he’s lucky to have you.”

  “It can get pretty lonely up here. We’re lucky to have each other.”

  “Is something bothering you?” she asked him just as they got back to her car.

  He kind of laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. “I have to tell him the vet is back in town and he has to give up those kits.”

  “Oh no! Why? He seems to be taking such good care of them …”

  “One thing my mother taught me about taking in strays around here was that it was okay to take them in if they needed a temporary home, but they’re not cats and dogs. They can’t live in a home with people forever and truly have a good life. They need to be free out there on this beautiful mountain with other creatures like them. It’s funny because Mac never used to have much interest in any of the animals I brought home to nurse back to health.”

  “He seems lonely. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

  Drake nodded. “Yeah, that’s my fault.”

  “How is it your fault?”

  “I should spend more time with him, encourage him harder to get out more.”

  “I don’t know either of you that well yet, but I can honestly say I doubt this is your fault. You seem like a great nephew. As a matter of fact, I’m beginning to wonder if there is anything you’re not great at.”

  Drake grinned. “There’s not,” he said.

  She laughed. “We’ll see. Can I tell Mom you guys will be there around six?”

  “Yeah.” He looked like he was thinking about kissing her. Sophie made a snap decision that if that was what was on his mind, she wasn’t going to object. She suddenly wanted him to kiss her so badly that she knew she’d be horribly disappointed if he didn’t. He stared into her eyes for what felt like forever and she thought about just taking the lead.

  When he finally leaned in and she could feel his warm breath on her face, she was shaking all over. The touch of his full lips sent goose bumps racing down both her arms and her spine. He put one of his big rough hands on the side of her face and held her head in place as his tongue slid out and traced the inside of her mouth … and then he pulled back, leaving her breathless and wanting more.

  He looked like he was searching her face for a reaction, or waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t, he said, “I’m sorry—”

  She reached up then and covered his mouth with two fingers. Once he stopped talking, she leaned in and kissed him again.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After Sophie left, Drake walked around in a fog for a while. He had kissed her, and she had kissed him back. He couldn’t stop smiling until he remembered that he still had to talk to Mac. “You do it, Hooter,” he told the yellow dog at his feet. Hooter gave him a sympathetic look, but Drake had a feeling that was all he would get from the old dog. With the heavy sigh of someone who was about to rip another person’s reason for living out of his arms, he headed up the path to Mac’s house. Mac and the kits were watching television and having lunch.

  “Hey, you’re back already; did your lady friend go home?”

  Drake grinned. “Yeah, she went home.”

  “She sure is pretty.”

  Drake nodded as he took a seat opposite his uncle. “Yeah, she is.”

  “So is there more there than a client/contractor relationship?”

  He still couldn’t stop smiling. He kind of felt like an idiot. “There just might be,” he said. Brooke was the only real girlfriend that Drake had ever had. They’d grown up in a tourist town, and their graduating class had twelve kids in it. Nine of those were boys. Girls were in short supply unless it was fall and winter, and then they descended upon them—ski bunnies with lots of hair and pretty smiles and daddies with lots of money. When Brooke broke up with him to go away to college, Drake had partaken of as many of those pretty rich girls as he could get. But the reality that they would return to their privileged lives and leave him behind and broken-hearted quickly became too much for him.

  He wasn’t a one-night stand or a serial dater kind of guy. Drake had always wanted a family—a life with a woman he loved who loved him back and as many kids as they could manage. That was a tall order in Brook Haven … or it had been. Now that he’d met Sophie, he had begun to wonder if there may still be hope.

  “She seems like a nice girl,” Mac said.

  “She is … but there’s something else I need to talk to you about, Mac.”

  “Okay …” He put his sandwich down and his dark eyes met his nephew’s. “You look so serious.” Drake’s eyes fell to the balls of sleeping fur in his uncle’s lap. Mac looked down at them and back up at Drake. “I know I can’t keep them.”

  Drake was fighting back tears as he said, “Sam’s back. He wants to take them up to the refuge center as soon as possible.” Mac nodded. The look on his face was agony, and it made Drake’s heart break. “I was thinking, maybe it’s time we got you your own dog or—”

  “I don’t want a dog. It’s okay, Drake. I’m not a kid. I knew they weren’t here to stay. I’m fine.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Mac smiled at him. “I’m really fine. Now go on and do whatever you have to do. I’m not going to hole up here with my guns and make Sam call the SWAT team to get me out. It’ll be okay. Just let me know when he’s coming.” Drake stood up and started to say something else, but Mac stopped him by holding up his palm. “It’s really okay, son, don’t worry.” Drake couldn’t help it. He was sure Mac was putting on a brave front for him, but unfortunately this was the way it had to be.

  “Okay … you’re still going to dinner with me?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be ready,” he said. Drake went back to his own house feeling like crap. He had to return some phone calls he’d been putting off all week. Working on the B&B for Sophie was taking up so much of his time that he’d been turning down a lot of jobs for others that he usually did, and he was feeling guilty about that. He’d decided that he would spend his Sundays between now and tourist season doing what he could for his other clients who had always been faithful to him in the past. He started making his phone calls and did his best to get his mind off of Mac for a little while.

  ****

  “Can I ask you a question?” Drake said to Mac as they headed to Sophie’s for dinner.

  “I’m fine. I haven’t been crying. My eyes are puffy because I’m old and I’ve been out of my night cream …”

  Drake laughed. “Stop it. I know you’re fine. This is about me.”

  “Well in that case, ask away.”

  “I kissed Sophie today.”

  “That’s not a question.”

  “Hush! I’m getting there. I kissed her and she kissed me back … but I’m so inexperienced at this, which really sucks for a twenty-seven-year-old man. I’m not sure what to do next.”

  “Was it a good kiss?”

  “The best one I’ve ever had,” Drake said truthfully.

  “Then kiss her again.”

  Drake chuckled. “Thanks.”

  “Okay, sadly, son, I am more inexperienced than you. Do you know how long it’s been since I kissed a woman?”

  “Yeah … but that’s your own fault because you stay out there holed up in that little house all alone.”

  “I wasn’t looking to incite a lecture. My point was going to be that inexperienced or not, you should just go with your gut instinct. You obviously felt like kissing her would be okay, and since she kissed you back, I’d say you were right. So the next step would maybe be t
alking to her about where she wants to go from here.”

  “And what if that’s as far as she wants to go?”

  “Then you either have to walk away or bring your ‘A’ game. I guess that depends on how strongly you feel about her.”

  “Too strongly to just walk away,” he said.

  “Then don’t. Tell her how you feel.”

  Drake nodded as he pulled onto the dirt road that led up to the B&B. “You know what … Sophie’s mom is pretty cute—”

  “Knock it off.”

  Drake laughed. He stopped the truck and got out to get Mac’s chair from the back. It had literally been months since Mac had been off the farm. Drake was really glad he agreed to come tonight. His uncle used his arms to lower himself out of the truck and into the chair, then rolled over to the right side of the house where there was a short ramp up to the porch. It had been there for years, and Drake had restored it when he did the rest of the porch for Sophie.

  “Did you do all of this?” Mac asked him.

  “Yeah, it was pretty weathered. Sophie’s mom put her foot right through one of the boards a couple of weeks ago. Brooke thinks it might be broken.”

  “Damn.” He looked like he was going to say something else, but at that moment the door was pulled open by Brenda.

  “Hi there, you must be Mac.” She offered her hand to him and he took it. “I’m Brenda Michelson,” she said. Drake didn’t miss the look on his uncle’s face when he looked at the pretty woman. He wondered if he might be able to do some matchmaking of his own.

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s me. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for having us out for supper.”

  She smiled. “You’re welcome. Thank you for coming. It was fun to have more than two people to cook for again. Hi Drake, you guys come on in.” She stepped back, and Drake maneuvered Mac in through the door. He made a mental note that maybe the doors needed to be widened slightly to better accommodate any handicapped guests that Sophie might have. “Drake, you and Mac make yourselves comfortable in the lodge room, okay? Dinner is almost ready and Sophie will be right down.” Drake felt his stomach flutter just at the sound of Sophie’s name.