by Lena North
And it was truly my village, Hawker had made sure I knew that.
We’d been in Wilders small house when I suddenly got a text message that I needed to submit my bank details to receive my share of the Norton fund and could I please let them know my full name for the deed to my house, registration with the hospital and the library. I was also supposed to give a man called Douglas my photo so he could make me a key card for the ski lifts.
I’d blinked and turned to Miller, showing him the message and raising my brows.
“I think I told you we’d get married when hell froze over, and that you shouldn’t ask them to change the rules?” I asked. “Hell isn’t even chilly, honey, so what have you done?”
“Nothing,” he said, and I blinked because he looked completely taken aback.
“Yeah, that was me,” Hawker said with a grin. “Welcome home, Mary.”
I stared at him, not understanding at all.
“Hawk,” Miller said in an oddly gentle voice, and they exchanged a long look.
“What?” Wilder interrupted, and I nodded stupidly.
“Found out that the house you use as a studio wasn’t actually a part of Miller’s house. Wasn’t part of anyone’s deed. So I figured I’d take it to the board and have it added to the Keeghan deed, but then I decided you needed it. Everyone agreed, and it’s yours.”
“You gave me a house, Hawker?” I asked, not understanding, or maybe not believing that he’d do something like that.
“A small, old, rickety barn, Mary, but yeah. I did,” he grinned.
“Okay,” I said.
“Couldn’t give it to you unless you were a registered part of the village, so Mrs. McCullen put you in the lists.”
“Okay,” I repeated.
“If you’re on the list, then Mrs. Davidson adds you to the beneficiaries of the fund.”
“Wh –”
“So, be a good girl and send her what she asks for. If you don’t, she’ll give it to you in cash, and you don’t want that.”
I stared at him, and Miller started laughing.
“I –”
I had no words, and the others started laughing too.
“Welcome home, Mary,” Hawker repeated softly. “The board members knew what giving you that house meant, and they were all in agreement.”
The enormity of what he’d done hit me, and I tried to smile even though my eyes burned. I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling, which didn’t stop a soft whimper from escaping, so I gave up and threw myself into Hawker’s arms. He held me a long time and murmured something in my ear, but I didn’t listen. Welcome home, he’d said, and as I leaned my forehead on his broad chest, I felt it in my bones. I was home.
Then a thought struck me, and I straightened, turning toward Wilder.
“I guess I should learn how to ski,” I said. “Will you teach me?”
There was a short, stunned silence, and then Miller snorted out a sour, “Jesus.”
“What?” I asked.
Wilder grinned at me and said cheerfully, “You’re living with the best skier in the village, Mary, but sure, I can teach you.”
Oh.
Miller sulked a little, though when he realized that I’d actually never stood on a pair of skis in my life, he started laughing. Apparently, that made me the worst skier in the village because they all learned from a young age.
“How are you feeling?” Wilder asked, jolting me out of my thoughts, and I focused on my friend again.
“I don’t think I’ll be skiing this winter,” I said and put a hand on my belly.
She started laughing but then we heard cars in front of the house. The others were arriving.
When Miller and Hawker arrived, the porch was full of people, and loud cheers echoed. Miller seemed a bit stunned by the gathering, which I’d expected because I hadn’t warned him about our impromptu celebration.
“Everyone,” I called out and looked around.
My girls and their men were there, and all the others who had a link to a bird. Even Snow had come to Norton, and she was a little pale but held it together. Carson and Bo leaned on the porch rail and next to them stood Reuben. Dante was in one of the chairs, and Jinx sat on the armrest. Sloane was next to Dante in another wide chair, and she held a tiny baby in her arms. Hawker stood behind to her, and he winked at me as our eyes met.
“I went to Doc Anderson a few days ago for a regular check-up, and they asked me to come back for another appointment,” I started and felt Miller’s grip around my waist tighten slightly. “Nothing is wrong,” I said quickly, and he relaxed.
“Jesus, baby, I don’t need more gray hair,” he muttered.
My eyes met Wilder’s, and we started laughing. Since Mill and Hawk had been away doing something I had no clue what it was, she’d gone with me to the appointment, and we both knew that I was about to give the love of my life more than a few new strands of gray.
“What?” Miller asked, and I forced myself to calm down.
“It’s genetic,” I said with an apologetic smile.
“I knew it!” Jinx called out immediately. “I have wondered for the longest time –”
“What?” Miller interrupted, confused and a little irritated.
“They asked me to come back because the images they took of our baby was blurry,” I said.
I had planned what I wanted to say, but then I heard the sound of wings and turned slightly to watch Miller’s beautiful red kite position itself on the porch rail next to Carson. Before I could say anything, another, smaller, kite came gliding through the air.
And then another one.
Through the stunned silence, the two younger kites landed on the rail, and then all three birds looked at Miller. Their triumphant laughter breathed through the air, and I couldn’t hold my own back.
“Twuh,” Miller said. Then he turned to me, cleared his throat and tried again. “Twins?”
He looked a bit pale, and I put my hand on his cheek.
“Yes,” I said softly.
He swallowed.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Of course I am,” I said calmly.
“Okay,” he said and swallowed again. Then a slow grin spread on his face. “Guess we have to come up with one more name,” he said.
We’d talked about calling our son Drake, but I had more news to share.
“Two,” I said.
“Two what?”
“We need to figure out two names,” I clarified.
He understood immediately and went even paler.
“Girls?” he whispered, and I nodded. “Two girls?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe it.
I nodded again and watched as his eyes softened.
“I knew it!” Bo suddenly squealed. “I told you, didn’t I? A room that pink – it had to be a girl!”
“Two girls,” Carson corrected him, although he sounded as stunned as Miller.
Laughter and cheers echoed, and I felt Miller take a few deep breaths to steady himself. Everyone started moving toward us, but I raised a hand, and they stopped. My eyes met Hawker’s again, and I nodded slowly. He grinned and leaned down, but I turned to Miller who looked like he didn’t know if he should cheer or faint.
“Do you know what this means, Mill?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“Hell just froze over.”
His eyes flew to mine, and the sweetest smile slowly spread on his face. He and Carson had told me that their dad used to say that hell would freeze over before any girls were born into their family, but that was also words I’d used, so many times it had become a joke between us.
The sound of something heavy landing on the low table with a thud made everyone turn, and a low murmur spread as they stared at the Johns’ family Bible. Then Hawker stepped forward, nudging Carson and Kit to stand by Miller’s side. Bo immediately walked over to me.
“Nuptials,” he whispered lo
udly. “Love them and love you. I’ll be your matron of honor, my lovely.”
“Thank you, Bo,” I whispered back, and felt how Mill took hold of my hand.
“Today is a good day,” Hawker began. “We have work to do, but today is a good day, and it is time to celebrate the love between my best friend and this woman. We have gathered here today to witness…”
Miller started chuckling softly as Hawker spoke, and I giggled.
“Do you, Milvus –” Hawker stopped to cough, and restarted, “Milvus Keeghan take this woman as your wife?”
Hawk’s wink was so subtle it was barely noticeable, and I realized that he’d managed to cover up Miller’s ridiculous name and that he’d done it deliberately. I tilted my head back to look up at Miller, and our eyes met. He was laughing down at me, but beneath his joy was the kind of calmness and strength that last for a lifetime.
“Yes,” he said.
Ep
ilogue
I sat with one of my daughters in my arms, and her sister lay on the blanket next to me when Miller walked around the corner of our house. His face softened like it always did when he came home to our girls and me.
Miller’s kite circled the sky, but the birds connected to our daughters were close, as always, sitting on a branch in the closest tree. After the girls were born, I didn’t hear them anymore. Jinx’ theory was that I’d connected to the birds through my babies, and it had never happened before, but there had never been twins born in the families either. I missed the connection, though since we wanted more kids, I hoped I might get it back again somehow, at least for a little while.
Hawker approached at a slower pace, leaning down a little and holding his son’s hand. The boy pulled away from his father and wobbled over to glance at the girl in my arms, dismissing her immediately.
Then he sat down next to the tiny girl on the blanket. The smile he gave her was so sweet, and as we watched in stunned silence, he leaned forward to put a sloppy open-mouthed kiss on her forehead. Somehow, she managed to grab his hand, and the boy’s smile widened into a giggle as their eyes met.
“Well shit,” Miller muttered.
“Uh, son, you’re a little too young for that, aren’t you?” Hawker snorted.
That’s when Wildman Johns straightened, turned to his father, and calmly spoke his first word.
“Mine.”
C
ontinue reading…
Black Snow – Birds of a Feather, book 4
Prologue
I stood on the edge of the bluff, watching the endless ocean stretch out in front of me. The color of the sky deepened at the horizon, merging with the sea and making the world around me a bubble of soft blue light. The air that just seconds ago had burned like acid with my every breath suddenly seemed lighter, and knowing what was in front of me soothed my soul.
I’d found the secluded spot by chance, and when I saw how the smooth cliff stretched straight down from the top and into the waves crashing into the mountainside far below, I’d known what I would do. What I would have to do.
My name is Snow. My father gave me that name out of endless love, for me and for the mountains surrounding the village where I was born. He gave me my last name too.
Black.
Sometimes I wonder if that is the color of my soul.
Everyone knows that my parents are dead. My father died in his beloved mountains because of me. He said that it wasn’t my fault, but I know. My mother died by the waters, and the hand that opened the small plastic bottle and emptied its contents might have been hers, but the reason she did it was me. I know this too because she said so, many times. I found her, just before she passed away, and she told me again.
“We’d still be happy if it weren't for you,” she slurred.
Then her eyes glazed over as if they were suddenly covered by a thin layer of milk, and she was gone.
Without Dante, I wouldn’t have made it. I knew how hard it was for him, and felt his pain burn through my bones, but I was just a devastated child, so I let my cousin hold me together until I found a way to exist without shattering into a million pieces of anguish. When the first wave of grief had passed, I carefully selected the parts of me needing him the most and buried the rest deep. He thought he could read my mind like he read everyone else’s, and I had always been good at letting him think so. The truth was and still is that I only allow him access to what I am willing to share. I let him see the parts of me that are happy, and hide the black snake of anger and grief that sleeps coiled up in my belly. He knows nothing about the things I do when the world around me turns dark, and that snake raises its ugly head to make my insides churn and roil.
I mostly find relief in the water, and they think I’m sailing in my small dinghy, but I free dive until my lungs burn and my vision blurs, swim in the river where the current threatens to drag me down or climb the mountainsides on the shores south of Prosper. When I can’t be by the water, I skydive or base jump from the skyscrapers in the city.
The closer I get to the razor-sharp edge between success and disaster, the more I know I’m alive, and I have no desire to live, but I won’t end it. Not now and not ever. Suicide is nothing but a selfish form of escape, and I’ve promised myself that no matter how dark my world turns, I’ll never do to others what my mother has done to me.
An accident, though… It would be unfortunate, but bearable for the ones around me.
I smiled as I turned around to look at the narrow path that I’d followed up to the bluff, and the fence with the sign announcing that it was private property and access was prohibited, scanning the area for signs of people. Good, I thought. No one was around to stop me.
“Bird?” I asked.
“Snow,” my friend answered immediately.
“Okay?” I asked.
“Let’s fly together,” the bird murmured.
I walked a few steps away from the edge and turned, took a deep breath and then another.
Then I ran.
As I jumped off the cliff, I stretched my arms out, and for a second it felt like I was floating in the air. Everything was empty, but I felt whole. For that fleeting moment, I felt complete. Then the bird shrieked, and I twisted my body around, diving straight into the cold water with adrenaline rushing through my veins. My osprey laughed, high-pitched and gleefully, as she dove next to me. When we slowed down, I turned my head and looked through the water at her. My face split up in a wild grin when our eyes met, and we shared a moment of pure, undiluted joy. If I could have laughed out loud, I would have.
Suddenly another, deeper sound rumbled through the water. I twisted around to see where it came from, worrying that it might be the undercurrents moving a rock or debris around, at the same time thinking that it sounded a little like laughter, but the only thing I could see were a few small fishes scurrying away.
“Come,” my bird cajoled. “Need air. Come.”
“Okay,” I replied, and we surfaced.
I was wringing the water out of my long, black ponytail when a soft sound of an overturned stone rattled behind me and I turned.
“Dante?” I whispered although I knew immediately that it wasn’t him.
The man walked toward me with the bright afternoon sun at his back, and he had the same build as my tall, muscular cousin. All resemblance ended there, though. This man was my age and had a mess of long dreadlocks tied back at the nape of his neck. His eyes were a clear, pale blue, and his skin a darker bronze than any tan Dante got in the summer. The grin he fired off at me was nothing like Dante’s polished smile.
“You can call me that if you want to,” he said lazily.
“Sorry, my mistake,” I said quickly because the way he looked at me made me uneasy.
I had a pair of short tights and an equally tight, black tank top but I might just as well have worn nothing at all. His eyes were intense, piercing as if he registered every strand of hair and even the tiniest birthmarks on my body. When his
gaze finally locked with mine, it felt as if he saw straight into my brain. As if he could read my mind.
“That was some dive you did,” he murmured.
I was about to protest and tell him that I hadn’t done anything when he turned away to look up toward the bluff.
“Want to do it again?” he asked.
I felt a smile curve my lips and answered without thinking.
“Yeah.”
“I’m Nick. Come on,” he said.
We made a few jumps and then we sat down to talk long into the evening.
That’s how it started.
“Snow, let’s go,” I heard someone say, and I jumped.
I’d been so lost in my memories that I’d forgotten that I wasn’t alone on the bluff. As I turned, I felt my mouth curve in a soft smile.
“Be careful,” Jamie said and stretched a hand out toward me. “You could fall over the edge, and I’d be far up shitola-creek with Jinx then.”
I smiled into his kind, gentle eyes, and followed him down the path, casting only a swift glance over my shoulder.
Then I sighed silently. I’d be back another day.
Table of Contents
Copyright
My thanks
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
