and closed my mouth before slipping from the conference room. Without a word, I hurried past Reg’s loitering and made my way to the elevator. But Reg’s words sounded so much like something Jed would say to me, they reverberated over and over in my head long after I made my way back to my condo.
Pulling into the underground parking, I see Kody’s car is long gone since he and I parted ways at the airfield. Soon, it will be me who’s gone. Two more days.
Then I’ll be back in the air, back to Alaska. And getting a shot at the family I never expected to have.
Jennings
I step outside Warm Up with a large Red Eye in one hand, a scone in the other, desperate to find a place to sit in the back courtyard for a few moments to gather my thoughts.
It’s been an intense few days between seeing Kara again, meeting Kevin, and flying back to Alaska with a very different outlook than I did when I landed just last week.
After putting in hours of work this morning, I needed to get away from the B&B for a while. I wanted alone time to drive around and experience Juneau without anything interfering with my thoughts. Over and over, I kept thinking so much had changed, but here and there would be something that would remind me of Kara. Despite how much has changed, I easily recognize different places Kara and I went on dates and got lost in each other. We’d laugh for hours over silly things when she didn’t do silly. She pulled out the serious in me, when I swore I wasn’t going to do serious.
And then, I went out to her glacier. Standing there, it took everything in me not to howl at the sky in agony. “She gave up her dreams of you.” Unable to tolerate being in her sacred place, I hiked back. Shivering in the car, I found myself in desperate need of caffeine and a moment to regroup.
Just as I step off the rickety back steps, I freeze in place. It’s like some mysterious longing reached out to her because there’s a familiar ash-brown head bowed over a laptop as she frantically types. One I didn’t expect to see until our prearranged dinner tonight with our son.
Slowly, so I don’t startle her, I ask Kara, “Is this seat available?”
Her head nods toward it without looking up. Amused, I straddle the picnic bench. She’s still hammering away, absorbed in whatever has her attention. Unwrapping my scone, still warm from the oven, I break off a piece and place it on a napkin. I slide it across the table to see what she’ll do.
I wonder if her response to me will be as instinctive as mine is to her, I think fleetingly.
Absentmindedly, Kara reaches over and grabs a bite with a muttered “Thanks, Ace,” shoving the chunk in her mouth before she comes of her stupor to comprehend what she said. “Uh, hi” is mumbled around a bite of chunky scone. She flushes before offering me a tentative smile.
“Hey,” I say before taking my own bite. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah. I just needed some time away without bombs exploding or phones ringing.” There’s a subtle bruising beneath Kara’s eyes I would wish away if I could. “Are you getting acclimated?” she asks conversationally.
I nod down to her laptop, both answering her question and teeing up my own. “I went out to the glacier today.” I couldn’t be more stunned by her response when she lifts a fist to her mouth and presses it there. I go on, unable to pull the words back, but not entirely certain why I should. “I remember when you’d get lost for hours writing down theories about climate change and how it would affect the glacier. Have you been out there yet?”
“Twice,” she whispers, her eyes lowering to her laptop screen. “I was just telling someone all about it.”
Shit. “I’m sorry, Kara. If you’re talking to a friend, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Well, I did, but not like this.
Her face takes on a look of tremendous pain. “I was typing an email to a man who will never get it, Jennings.” I freeze, wondering if she means me, when she whispers, “I just can’t bear to close down his email address. Not now, maybe not ever.”
“Your brother?” I guess.
She nods. Her fingers run over the top of her laptop. “He’s the only one I’ve ever been able