Come Fly With Me

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  “Yes,” Denise said solemnly, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “This will be fun.” Then she mouthed for us.

  The last thing Brodie expected to find when he made it home was Katya standing on his living room coffee table, wearing a wedding dress, with Delia and Denise at her feet. Oh, and Fraser snoring on a couch.

  “No!” Delia screeched as soon as she spotted him. “You aren’t supposed to see the bride before the wedding.”

  “Um.” Brodie was confused. “I hate to tell you, Delia, but that ship sailed long ago.”

  “Get your mind out of the gutter.” She rushed over to smack his chest before trying to push him out of the room. “I meant the dress.”

  “Mum,” Katya said with obvious long-suffering. “Let him come in and sit down. This isn’t a normal wedding, and you know it. Plus, this is Brodie’s house.”

  “Technically, this house belongs to Craig Wallace,” Fraser said, his eyes still closed. “And he’s no’ looking after it properly. If I were you, son, I’d ask for a decorator to come in and spruce the place up a bit.”

  “I’m back to being son then?” Brodie asked the lump of a man on the couch. “I thought I was the loser who ruined your daughter’s life.”

  Fraser opened one eye. “Can you no’ be both?”

  Savage logic—there was no arguing with it. “I’d like a minute alone to talk to Katya.”

  She moved to step down from the table, but her mother stopped her. “Not until I have that hem pinned up. I swear, your great-grandmother must have been six-foot tall. Either that or this dress dragged wherever she went. It’s not like it has a train—though goodness knows there’s enough material in the skirt to make one—it’s just overly long.”

  “I’ll put the dress back on when I’ve finished talking to Brodie,” Katya said.

  “No, you won’t. I know you. You’ll make a run for it and end up getting married in jeans again like you did last time.”

  A look of longing passed over Katya’s face at the mere mention of her beloved jeans.

  “How about”—Denise linked her arm through Delia’s—“we all go have a nice cup of tea in the kitchen, and let Brodie and Katya talk in here?”

  “Aye,” Delia said slowly, “I guess that would work. Don’t you dare do anything to damage that dress while I’m gone, Katya Jane Savage MacGregor. Fraser! Come along.”

  “I was comfy here,” Fraser complained as he dragged himself to his feet. “Don’t upset her,” he warned Brodie as he passed.

  “Don’t move from that table,” Delia called from the hallway.

  Thankfully, Denise had the presence of mind to shut the door behind her. Then he was alone with Katya.

  “Do you think they’re done giving orders?” Katya glared at the closed door.

  Brodie had other more important issues on his mind than Katya’s parents. “We need to talk.” He closed the distance between them.

  “Great. Those four little words no one ever wants to hear.”

  “I’ve done some thinking.”

  “And there’s another four….”

  He shook his head at her. “Be serious. We need to discuss the situation with the land.” And not get distracted by the sight of Katya in an ivory white dress that made her skin glow.

  The neck wasn’t as low as he would have liked, and it was a tad snug in parts, yet it still flowed over her like cream off the back of a spoon. His fingers itched to touch, to see how soft the material felt—especially where it cupped her breasts like gentle hands.

  “Hey, eyes up here,” she snapped.

  “Why would I do that when the view down here is so good?”

  “You’re a pervert, do you know that?” She didn’t sound particularly bothered by it either. “If you must know, it’s a little snug in the chest area. I don’t think Natasha had much up top.”

  “Poor old Tom, because I definitely appreciate a fuller figure on my woman.” His hand reached up before he could stop it.

  She smacked it away. “Mum will kill me if she comes back in here and finds dirty fingerprints on my boob.”

  Brodie looked at his hand. It seemed clean enough.

  “Anyway,” Katya grumped. “Are you ready to tell me what Catherine said to you at the lawyer’s office, or do I need to beat it out of you?”

  That was Katya’s way of threatening to tickle him until he caved.

  He took a step back, out of reach, and watched her smirk. “She offered to give me the land—if I agreed to divorce you and never speak to you again.”

  As he watched, her face turned the same color as her dress. “You accepted her offer, didn’t you?”

  Brodie stilled. “What makes you think that?”

  Katya shook her head, visibly upset. “It’s everything you wanted. You can build on the land without having to share it with me.” She blinked rapidly and focused on the cornices at the top of the walls.

  “It’s a funny thing,” Brodie said. “If you’d asked me a month ago what I wanted, I would have said exactly that.”

  Hesitantly, she turned to look at him. “And now?”

  Brodie placed his hands on the sash tied around her waist. “Since then, I’ve learned that I don’t exactly spend time considering what I want. I have a tendency to float along, believing everyone else’s ideas for me are perfectly fine.”

  “It’s because you’re too easygoing,” Katya said softly, her hands finding his shoulders.

  With her on the coffee table, he was looking up at her for a change, and he couldn’t miss those eyes softening.

  “You used to tell me that all the time,” he said.

  “I was worried you were only doing things to make your family happy.” She shrugged, although it was far from nonchalant. “I also worried you were doing stuff you didn’t want to do just to make me happy.”

  His hands flexed on her waist. “Then when I didn’t go along with your idea to travel the world, you thought I’d snapped and was telling you exactly what I wanted for a change. Kat, tell me you didn’t really believe I was desperate to get rid of you?”

  She swallowed, and he watched her throat bob. “I figured you’d gone along with the marriage because I’d wanted it, and when I wanted to travel, it gave you the perfect excuse to get out of being with me. It was the perfect excuse. I laid it all out for you. Practically gift wrapped on a plate.”

  “No,” he whispered. “No, that’s not it at all.”

  “After a while, I came to believe I’d used our fight as an excuse to run away,” she confessed in her own whisper. “Maybe, it was me who wanted out?”

  “How about,” Brodie said, “we stop coming up with stories about what happened and agree we were too young to know what we were doing or why? How about we stop fighting and agree we still love each other?”

  Her breath hitched.

  “And,” he added, “how about we put an end to this gulf between us and carry on from here together?”

  “Brodie.” Pain colored her voice and shone in her eyes. “That gulf is full of things we did that we can’t take back. I’m not sure we can move on from that. We’re different people now.”

  “Aye, we’re adults now. We don’t have to think with our hormones, we can engage our brains. We’ve wasted too much time, Kat, and I don’t want to waste any more. Sure, we’ve changed, but do you know what?” He leaned closer to cup her cheek. “I like this new Katya. She’s a little different from the one I knew, which isn’t a bad thing. Down deep, she’s still the girl I’ve always loved. She’s smart and funny and sexy as hell. She pushes me to stop accepting the easy options in life and to take some risks. She makes me feel alive.

  “I’ve been treading water for ten long years and didn’t even know it until you came back into my life and threw me a lifeline. I’m holding on to that lifeline, Kat, and I’m not letting go this time. So, you can walk away. You can say it’s too hard to start again, to build something better, something more mature than we ever had as kids, but it won’t do you
any good. This time, I won’t stand by while you leave me. This time, I’ll follow you wherever you go. Plus, somebody needs to make sure you don’t get killed by a drug-running gang.”

  “If I end up crying like a girl, I’ll punch your broken nose,” she threatened, making him wisely ignore the tears on her cheeks. “I’m not sure I can trust like that again.”

  “Because I hurt you when I rejected you.” He closed his eyes briefly before looking into hers. “I will regret that until the day I die, and I will spend my life trying to show you how sorry I am that I ever did that to you.”

  “I’m not looking for you to do penance forever.”

  “I’m Catholic, Kitten, it’s what we do. One way or another, I’ll earn your trust again and make you believe that I was never rejecting you. I was just being a selfish scared wee boy.”

  She stared into his eyes for the longest time before gently cupping his face. “We’ve lost so much time,” she whispered. “Let people in that had no place between us.”

  He felt the ache in her words right to his soul, because it was his pain too. “Ten years is nothing compared to a lifetime.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “I do still love you, even though you’re a huge, big baby.”

  “I can live with that.” He stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “As long as you still love me.”

  “I’m an idiot, but I do.”

  “That’s my girl.” He cupped her head and brought her down so he could sip at her lips before kissing away the tears on her cheeks. “Marry me, Katya. Be my wife again,” he whispered. “What do you say?”

  “I’ll say what I said the last time you asked.” She smiled through the tears. “Aye, but I expect I’ll regret it.”

  Brodie’s smile was impossible to repress. “Lucky I find that romantic streak of yours so adorable.”

  “I’m sorry I left,” she whispered against his lips. “I’ve always been sorry.”

  “Shh,” he breathed. “We’re drawing a line under the past and starting afresh. Okay?”

  She nodded, her hands tightening their hold on his face. It was a bittersweet beginning. One tainted with the knowledge of everything they’d lost during their time apart. They were no longer each other’s only lovers. Not their only kiss. Brodie had missed the excitement of watching Katya train to be a pilot. She’d missed him growing into a man you could count on. But there was nothing they could do about the choices they’d made in the past. All they could do was forgive themselves—and each other—and move on.

  “I like this dress,” he said between small, gentle kisses.

  “Mum’s determined we renew our vows.”

  “Then maybe we should.”

  She nipped his bottom lip. “Are you only saying that to make her happy?”

  He cocked his head to the side and thought about it. “I don’t think so, but that’s going to be a hard habit to break.” Plus, he wasn’t sure it was purely habit. He suspected that wanting to please those around him was a big part of his personality. After all, if something really didn’t matter that much to him, what was wrong with compromising on it?

  “Don’t worry,” she said with a smile against his mouth. “I’ll help you break it.”

  Brodie returned the smile, kissing her through it until the smile faded and the kiss took over. His hands slid around to the back of her dress, delighting in the silk beneath his fingertips—until they brushed over an area that wasn’t soft at all. In fact, it felt…crinkly.

  “Brodie, poking me in the back is not a turn on,” Katya grumbled.

  “I think there’s something tucked into the dress.”

  She reached behind her and felt the sash. Her eyes went wide. “It feels like paper.”

  “Turn around,” Brodie said, and she did so eagerly.

  “Be careful,” she ordered. “It’s probably really old.”

  “Strange how I didn’t think of that myself,” he muttered as he carefully removed a small, tightly folded piece of paper.

  “What is it?” Katya, who wasn’t known for her patience, swung back around as he unfolded it.

  Eyes wide, he looked up from the paper. “It’s a certificate of divorce.”

  37

  April 1946

  Scotland

  * * *

  If Tom thought it strange his fiancée wanted to wear a wedding dress she already owned, he hadn’t said so.

  “The women at the camp made it for me as a gift,” Natasha had told him. “They had a sewing class at the displacement camp and someone found some parachutes. They said they would make beautiful wedding dresses, so that’s what they made. This one was given to me.”

  He’d stroked a hand over her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Then it’s good you have a dress to wear that means something to you. Although, another man would wonder why the women thought handing out wedding dresses was a good idea. Not me though.” His grin was contagious. “Because, if I did, I’m sure my combat-trained wife would soon sort me out.”

  Ever since he’d discovered what she’d done in the war, he’d been openly proud of her. In fact, there were moments when she had to remind him it was a secret that could get her sent back to the Soviet Union. If she hadn’t, Tom would have shouted about her from the rooftops.

  After explaining about the dress as best she could, she’d taken it to the local women’s craft group and asked them to make some adjustments. Despite the dress being precious to her, she couldn’t walk down the aisle to Tom wearing the same style as she had with Ben.

  The women had been more than enthusiastic about helping her, and they’d speedily transformed her dress into something new. A sash now wrapped around the middle, circling her waist several times before draping down the back to the hem. The puff sleeves were gone, replaced with neat cap sleeves, while the boatneck had been transformed into a tasteful scoop, and they’d removed some of the fullness of the skirt to give her a sleeker, more sophisticated silhouette—although, they’d kept the length. It was as beautiful as the dress the women had made for her when she married Ben. But this one was different enough to be just for Tom.

  A quiet rap at her bedroom door sent Natasha scurrying to answer it. She expected to find Betty McLeod, one of her bridesmaids, on the other side. Instead, she found Ben.

  For a second, shock made it impossible to move or even think, then she found her voice. “Ben, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in the church with Tom.”

  After the gunshot incident, Ben had sought help from a doctor in Glasgow who specialized in treating men who suffered from trauma after returning from the war. Ben didn’t talk about his visits to the doctor, but over the weeks, he’d started to behave more like the man she’d grown to love—as a friend. He still had flashbacks, although giving up whisky had stopped the paranoid episodes, and he no longer believed he was being spied on. Not only that, he looked healthier and stronger too. Mainly due to his housekeeper never letting him skip a meal.

  “I came to give you this.” He handed her a folded piece of paper before tucking his hands into the pockets of his suit jacket. “It’s important you have it before you walk down the aisle.”

  With trembling fingers, Natasha unfolded the paper. Her hand flew up to cover her mouth as she gasped. In her hand was a divorce certificate. She was no longer married to Ben Baxter.

  “Ben,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.

  “Had things been different,” he said softly, “I think we could have fallen in love. There was the potential for it to happen. Then you met Tom, and everyone could see you were meant to be together. You’ll always be a dear friend to me. Probably the only person in the world who understands what I went through, but it’s clear you were born to be loved by my best friend.”

  “I, I’m, I…” She wasn’t sure what to say.

  “It’s okay, Tasha.” Ben smiled. “There are no debts between us and never will be. I saved you in Germany, and you saved me in Scotland. Not only my life but my sani
ty—in more ways than you’ll ever know.” He took a deep breath as he stepped back from the doorway. “After the wedding, I’m going away for a wee while. Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you two, and I expect to be back well before you make me an uncle.” He grinned.

  “Where are you going?” Natasha wanted to hold him to her and keep him safe in Invertary.

  “To Germany,” he said wryly. “They need help with rebuilding, and I think going back will help me deal with the things that happened during the war. It’s as though I need to be a part of the healing process over there in order to move on.”

  “Promise you won’t stay away too long?” She blinked away tears.

  “I promise.” He gave her a shy smile. “Plus, there’s a lassie here who needs a few years to grow up before she can cope with the likes of me. I’m no’ an easy man.”

  No. He wasn’t. But he was a courageous one. “Anne?” Natasha teased, knowing full well Ben had noticed the feelings his housekeeper had for him.

  “None of your business.” He winked at her. “Now, finish getting ready. I have to get to the church to make sure Tom doesn’t bolt before you arrive.”

  “Don’t even joke about that.” She laughed, because she knew Tom would never abandon her.

  As Ben walked away, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Tasha? The dress is perfect.” And then he was gone.

  Natasha closed her bedroom door softly before studying the divorce certificate again. Carefully, she folded it until it was small enough to tuck into the folds of the tight sash around her waist. She didn’t want to leave it in her room or her luggage, where it could get lost. No, this document was precious, and Natasha wanted to keep it safe. After the wedding, she’d put it away in case she ever needed it.

  Until then, she wanted to think only about her soon-to-be husband and the happy life that lay ahead of them.

  38

  By the time Brodie and Katya made it to the council meeting that evening, the old Presbyterian church’s hall was jam-packed.