Pathways (9780307822208) (24 page)

“The question is, what are you going to do about it?” The older man stared at his radar screen, trying to pinpoint the marauding
bear’s position. The young male would have to be moved far outside any populated area.

“I’m going to marry her.”

That brought Ben around, his eyes sparkling with delight. “You think that girl will marry a lout like you?”

“I hope so.” He shook his head, ran a hand through his hair. “I’m in love, Ben. Worse than ever before. Having her all the way in Boston—it’s about to kill me.”

“She’ll be back soon.”

“Think I ought to have gone with her? Been there to support her?”

“It happened so fast. You’ve got a business to run, and she could get a bereavement ticket. Yours would’ve cost at least a thousand.”

Eli stared out at the lake. The river wasn’t the best fishing around, but it had given him the excuse to come and see Ben. And the scenery was spectacular. Hopefully his clients would catch a decent load and deem the entire outing worthwhile.

“Why hasn’t she called?” he asked for the hundredth time, as much to himself as Ben.

“She’s busy with the memorial service, taking care of her family, catching up with long-lost relatives and friends that she doesn’t see unless somebody gets married or dies.”

Eli sighed and nodded, crossing his arms. “I just feel so helpless, having her out there. Outside, I mean.”

Ben rose and stood by the picture window with him. There was a strong wind, sending foot-tall swells down the lake toward them. Ben put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Eli, if you can’t trust her to go to the Lower 48 and return, either you’re not ready to marry her or she’s the wrong one for you. Unless, that is, you’re ready to move where she goes.”

Eli winced, pulled his head sideways. “Can’t imagine that. My business—”

“She’s a doctor now. Where is she going to get work up here?”

“Housecalls might hire her on. Talkeetna has a clinic.”

“Doesn’t pay much. Doctors these days head out of school owing more money for their education than it takes to buy a house. Especially those Ivy League-educated docs. Besides, Talkeetna has the doctors they need on staff, I’d wager.”

“Willow, then. Anchorage!” he said, getting irritated. Did Ben not want things to work out between them?

“Just want you to be thinkin’ realistically,” Ben said, dropping his hand. “Got your head up there in the clouds. With your mom and dad Outside on their RV expedition, I’m thinkin’ I’m your only voice of reason. Me and the Man upstairs.”

“I thought you said God would work it out.”

“He will. I’m just thinking there’re more places to live than here—for the right woman.”

Eli let his forehead bump up against the cool windowpane. He didn’t want to think about reality. He and Bryn had just discovered each other, allowed themselves to revel in newfound love. Couldn’t they just enjoy that for a while? Wasn’t it enough to think of marriage itself? Couldn’t their happily-ever-after come later?

What if she did decide to take that job in Boston? Could he really leave to be with her?

Bryn said good-bye to her coffeehouse companions and walked through the park, watching lovers in the swan boats and wondering
about Eli. It was sweltering hot, and Bryn found herself longing for the cool, refreshing northern summer air of Alaska, to be out of the crowds, walking on trails that maybe only two or three others walked along over a given summer. She longed for a friendly hello from a passerby, a look that said she had been seen, not merely taken in with the rest of the landscape.

“Lord, a little direction, here,” she whispered skyward. She wiped her temples and upper lip of sweat and then opened the huge phone book, looking for Boston Memorial’s number. What was the name on that letter? “Make it clear, Father,” she said. “Show me what I should do.”

B
ryn consciously dropped her hands to her sides and let them swing, as if she was feeling comfortable, relaxed, instead of all tied up in knots inside. She was nervous—
nervous!
—about seeing Eli again. She turned the corner in the Jetway, and a bit of the Anchorage terminal came into view. And then she saw him, carrying a bouquet of roses and grinning as if she were the Chugach Mountain Range on a lovely Sunday afternoon.

She hurried to him, feeling shy, wondering what it would be like to hug him again, but when he swept her into his arms and gave her a long kiss, she knew her nervousness had been foolish. He loved her, would always love her. He ran his hands over her hair and down her back and kissed her again, his lips soft and welcoming, his scent of cinnamon and wood smoke washing over her.

This was home. This place, under the curve of Eli’s chest and arm, walking side by side, feeling all warm inside, smiling at each other as if they had just been given the grand prize from
Readers Digest
Bryn’s chest felt tight with glee at the realization that she was in love, truly in love, and that Eli was in love with her too.

“It’s good to have you back, Doc,” Eli said, staring at her tenderly.

“It’s good to be back.”

“Tell me about your trip. How’re you doing? Your dad?” They began making their way to baggage claim.

“ ‘Fair to middling,’ as Grampa Bruce would’ve said. I get teary thinking I won’t see him again for a long time. I’m going to miss him! But I’m glad he’s reunited with Gramma in heaven. They were so in love. So it’s good, too. All my life, I’ve wanted a marriage like theirs.”

Eli pulled her close again. “It’s good to see that marriage vows can last until death, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh. And my dad’s doing pretty well. I spent a little time with him and Ashley and the kids. It was all right. There was something about going back, seeing him, something about Grampa’s passing. I just finally realized that I was punishing him for making a new life without me. For finding happiness with his new family when we could never seem to get it together ourselves. It was just as much my fault as his that we haven’t been close. Got to see my baby brothers—they’re very cute. And somehow, it was all okay.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Bryn. Everyone needs their dad.”

“Yeah. After my last summer in Alaska, I thought I could make it on my own, look to God as my heavenly Father. Get what I needed from him. But Dad’s still alive, and, well, I had to forgive him. For myself as much as for him.”

Eli nodded. She glanced into his warm hazel eyes and then away, tucking her hands into her jeans pockets. Talking about this felt good, but it also made her feel vulnerable. “We’ll never have that lovey-dovey, father-daughter relationship that everyone always talks about. But I think that’s okay. My dad is a good man. I’m just now remembering that.”

“And seeing him the way our heavenly Father does,” Eli added. “With a measure of grace.”

“He got a charge out of finding out you and I were … together,”
Bryn said, feeling shy again. She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss.

“I bet he did,” Eli said. “There’s your bag.” He lifted the heavy case off the conveyor belt with ease, and the two headed out to the open-air parking lot. A thick cloud bank covered Anchorage that day, making it seem later in the day than it was.

Eli opened the truck door for her and put her bag in the back. He hopped in and pulled her to him for a long, searching kiss. “I missed you, woman,” he growled, kissing her again.

She giggled and put her arms around his neck. “I missed you too, Eli.”

“Don’t go away again.”

“I won’t. For a while, at least.” The two eyed each other, aware that the summer was rapidly coming to a close. She only had three weeks left on her Housecalls commitment. What then? Eli turned away and cranked the key in the ignition, obviously not ready to talk about it yet.

“Mind if we stop at Housecalls? It’s just a mile from here,” she said.

Eli didn’t like the way Dr. Carmine Kostas’s eyes lingered over Bryn, the way he perused Eli like a thrift-store aisle with no decent goods. The doctor was plainly interested in Bryn and disappointed she had arrived home accompanied by a man. Last summer Eli and Carmine had hit it off. This summer they were in opposite corners like two prizefighters, separated by Bryn, the referee. Eli supposed he’d have to get used to other men being interested in his girlfriend. Bryn Bailey was a knockout and smart to boot. A guy would have to be from another planet not to look twice in her direction.

A drenching rain began as they sat in Carmine’s office, each drop pummeling the old warehouse roof as if knocking to get in. Carmine looked in Bryn’s direction mostly, solicitous in his care in asking after her family. Once they had caught up, he turned to a series of maps behind him and flipped to the one that covered Bryn’s Housecalls territory.

“I’m assuming you’re ready to get back to work.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Good. We had a couple of calls. Sent one emergency helicopter into a McKinley base camp with climbers suffering from altitude sickness. There might be a few more calls like that if the Park Service can’t handle it themselves. They only call us when they’re maxed out elsewhere, like yesterday when they were battling a western flank fire. Now with rain like this, I wouldn’t expect them to need us for a while. Yet with the season coming to a close, there will be more climbers attempting the ascent. Be prepared.”

He turned back to his map. “We had a call relayed in yesterday from a family near Webster’s hot springs. The dad’s a UCLA professor studying what it’s like for a family to be living in primal conditions. His six-year-old son isn’t faring well. Been sick for weeks. Might be pneumonia.”

“They didn’t want to come out right away?”

“The father is reluctant to break their study period. He wanted to wait for you to come back. Thought his son would be fine until today.”

“Temperature?”

“A pretty constant 102 degrees.”

“I’ll go in with some Rocephin just in case. Check him out and hopefully knock that infection back or bring him into town, if necessary. Dad can stay put.” She shook her head, obviously thinking
the man crazy to be placing his studies ahead of his son’s welfare.

“It’s not flying weather,” Eli said, rising and walking to the window. The rain was coming down in torrents. “And you’re beat.” He turned toward Carmine. “She just got in.”

“I know,” Carmine said. “I’m hoping that the rain will let up before you reach Talkeetna,” he clarified. “Bryn, I know you must be tired. But I’d rest easier tonight knowing you’d seen the boy.”

“Me too,” Bryn said, her eyebrows knitting together.

“You sure you’re up to it?” Carmine asked. “I could radio—”

“No. It’ll be fine. We’ll get in and out and be back home.”

Eli raised his hands. “Guess you’re back to work, Doc. Want to head out?”

“Are we done here?” she asked Carmine.

“Yes. That’s all I have. Be careful in this weather. And radio in, let us know if you’re headin’ to the hot springs tonight. I’ll pray that the weather lifts.”

“Will do, boss,” Bryn said, rising.

“You make the call about the weather. We appreciate you two and wouldn’t want to lose you,” Carmine said, shaking Eli’s hand.

“Don’t worry,” Eli said confidently. “We’ll be fine.” He hoped Carmine understood his use of the word
we
.

Kostas’s eyes shifted from Bryn to him. “Good,” he said.

“Weather Service says we have a break. A few hours though at the most. It will take an hour to get to the hot springs and an hour back. That leaves you half an hour with the kid. Will that be enough?”

“Better than not seeing him at all,” Bryn said. She looked over
her Housecalls bag’s contents, making sure she had everything she needed. “Let’s go.”

Eli took the duffel from her, the consummate gentleman. She shook her head. It was endearing, his care of her. She followed him down the slippery bank to the plane. The clouds were low, but at least it had stopped raining.

“Are those clouds high enough for you to have good visibility, Eli?” Bryn asked, warily surveying the horizon.

“We’ll be fine. I once flew a hundred miles right over the tree tops, low over waterways, so I could see,” he said. He stowed her bag and helped her in. “You packed your rain slicker plus your parka, right?”