Shelter Me Home (20 page)

She clasped her trembling fingers over her mouth to contain the sob that threatened to fill the room. “Do you still love me?” she whispered.

“With everything I am.”

“I don’t have enough saved up.”

“Don’t worry about that. Briney started a Farrah Fund at the bar. The Landing’s people have been dropping money in it for three months just for a plane ticket back. Everyone wants you back here where you belong. I can book a flight tonight. You can come home whenever you want.”

Home.

Hope bloomed inside her, filling her until warm tears of utter happiness touched her cheeks. “Can you make it for tomorrow?”

Aanon set the phone down slowly and stared at it on the table. He hadn’t just imagined her, had he?

Briney leaned against the sink with his arms crossed, and his bushy eyebrows lifted to his hair line. “Well? What did she say?”

“We’re going to need the Farrah Fund.”

A slow smile spread across the old man’s face. “I’ll take care of the plane ticket. When does she want it?”

“Tomorrow.” His own voice sounded dreamy, far away, but Briney slapped him on the back, then gripped his shoulders and shook him until his teeth rattled, slamming reality back down like a hammer on a nail.

When the old bartender grinned like a fool, he couldn’t ever remember seeing so many of Briney’s teeth.

“You must really want to retire,” Aanon teased.

“Darn tootin’ I do. And I don’t trust nobody but Farrah to run my bar. I’m going to go. Plane tickets to reserve, you know. Give me your number, and I’ll call you with the times and information she’ll need.”

Aanon scribbled the digits across the back of an old grocery receipt, and Briney shoved it in his pocket. “I can’t believe she’s coming back.”

“Well, she never should’ve left, if you ask me. That”—Briney halted and glanced at Dodge, who was wrestling a carton of milk from the fridge—“ex fox of yours got you two all tied up. Cunning little critter, she was.”

Briney let himself out, mumbling about how Burtlebey better not have burned his bar to the ground, and Aanon watched Dodge slowly toddle his way back to the table with the milk.

Scooting his glass from lunch closer, Dodge prepared to pour.

“You need help, bud?”

“No, I’m big.”

Dodge spilled a bit, but it was nothing that couldn’t be cleaned up. Most of the milk poured into the glass, and a sense of pride filled Aanon at his son’s independent streak. It would serve him well if he ever decided to run the homestead like the generations of Falks before him.

She’s coming home.

The thought was a warm brush against his heart, stirring life there once again. The months since she’d left had been hollow and clouded with fear. He’d been adrift without her here, and scared about losing Dodge for good. Aanon had lost part of himself he thought he’d never get back. But the thought of her coming back to him stirred within him a glimpse of what could be. Something he hadn’t dared dream about before, when everything had gotten so out of control.

Dodge chugged the drink and wiped the creamy mustache from his upper lip with the back of his hand. “Aaah,” he said with a satisfied grin, and Aanon chuckled.

“You and me, we have to clean up this house. Farrah is going to be staying here, and we can’t have her coming home to an untidy bachelor pad, can we?”

Hours later, as he rinsed a sponge out in the bathroom sink, he glimpsed his reflection in the mirror. His face looked sunken and tired. He ran a hand over his newly shaven jaw. Before the court hearing that morning, he’d shaved his beard. He hadn’t had the capacity to worry about shaving after Farrah left but wanted to look less like a hobo for the judge. He hadn’t given much thought to anything besides losing her and the possibility of losing Dodge, too. But now? His life had meaning again. Purpose. He’d be given a chance to do it right this time. Give Dodge a stable home and provide for him and Farrah. And Oleanna.

A ghost of a smile brushed his lips. There he was again. He wasn’t totally lost because that smile was so familiar. It’s the way he used to see himself before everything went belly up.

Oleanna.

The name was Norwegian, and even if Farrah hadn’t said she loved him with words on the phone earlier, the declaration of the baby’s name said them for her. She loved him still, and if anyone could bring him back completely, it was her.

His phone rang, and in a rush, he accepted the call. He was only a little disappointed when it was Briney with the flight information. It would’ve been a relief to hear Farrah’s voice again so soon, but knowing when she would arrive in Anchorage was the next best thing.

Besides, now he had a reason to call her back.

****

The four hour layover in Phoenix was torture. Farrah had plenty of time to leave the airport and find some local fare to eat, but paranoid about missing her flight, she’d settled on a fast food burger restaurant outside her terminal. Staring out the window, she watched flight after flight take off and prayed for time to pass so she could be up in the air, on her way to him.

Oleanna stretched within her, and she rested a hand over the movement. “We’re almost there, baby.”

When her flight was finally called, she ignored the suspicious glances from fellow passengers that said they thought she’d deliver at any moment. Nothing could dampen her mood. She’d never thought to see Aanon again, and now every mile she traveled brought her closer to him.

She settled into her seat on the plane and fidgeted impatiently. Five more hours and she’d see his face.

“Excuse me,” said an older woman with a stylish bob and glasses framed in a rosy hue to match her lipstick. “I’m in the window seat.”

“Oh, here let me stand and let you pass.”

The woman pressed her carry-on bag into the compartment above and scooted into her seat.

Farrah settled back in and worried a loose thread on her jeans with her fingertip.

“Nervous flyer?” the woman asked.

“No. Just ready to get to Anchorage. Someone is meeting me there.”

“Corinne,” the woman said, offering her hand.

“I’m Farrah.” She settled her palm in the woman’s for a shake.

“Are you meeting your husband?”

“My husband?” Farrah asked.

Corrine pointed to her protruding stomach.

“Oh no. I’m not married.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear. I just assumed.”

“It’s okay.” She felt the need to explain Aanon to the stranger so she’d understand. But what could she say about him? Calling him her boyfriend wasn’t enough. He was so much more. “I’m meeting a man who has been really good to me, though. My love story is complicated.”

An easy smile brightened Corrine’s face, making her look years younger. “I’m not an easy flyer like you are.” At a questioning look from Farrah, she asked, “Would you mind sharing your complicated love story with a stranger?”

A pleasant looking woman with curly red hair and rosy cheeks leaned across the aisle. “Two strangers?” she corrected with a questioning arch to her brows.

The flight attendant stood in front and gave a short lecture on safety procedures and how to use the seat belts. Directly after, the plane taxied the runway.

“Okay,” Farrah agreed as the plane took off. “I first met Aanon when I was six.”

And for the first hour, she told of how she’d come to be on this flight, in her last trimester, running back to the man she loved. Conversation after that drifted and flowed this way and that as the other women shared stories of their lives. There was something freeing about talking to people she’d never see again, and her earlier wish was answered. Time passed quickly.

As the plane descended on Anchorage, she became quiet and restless again. What if he didn’t like the changes in her? Residual sadness still clung to her like a second skin, and as much as she didn’t want the past three months to come between them, he’d see what they had done to her. The Aanon she remembered didn’t miss anything. What if he gave her back, like Miles had done?

“Go get him,” Corrine said with a kind pat to her leg.

She smiled her thanks and pulled her carry-on from the bin above. The wheels of her ratty purple suitcase made a hitched rumbling sound as she followed the others out of the plane. Gripping the handle of the luggage, her palms began to sweat, and her body felt as if it was floating. She stopped on the loading ramp and leaned against the wall as others passed, eager to meet friends and family waiting for them. God, what if she wasn’t enough for him?

Gasping against the panic that pressed against her chest, she leaned her head back until it rested on the cloth wall. She’d just have to work to be worthy of his love as he had worked for hers. Emotion shook her as she stepped unsteadily toward the exit.

In the bright light of the terminal, reunited families clung to each other. A trio of business men in suites shook hands and smiled their greetings. Children giggled and ducked out of the way when family members threatened to tickle them.

He wasn’t there.

Her heart sank lower and lower with each pass over the chaos of the lobby.

And suddenly, a fare haired little boy with Aanon’s blue eyes weaved through the crowd. A tiny bouquet of flowers was clutched in his tiny hand, and he yelled her name. Dodge plowed into her, gripping her legs as his head rested against her stomach.

“Ms. Farrah,” Dodge said again.

A warm smile stretched her face as she rubbed his back. “I’m here.”

And then he was there, too, her Aanon.

He stood stark against the background of motion. Everything blurred behind him, making him brighter, clearer. He stood with an uncertain look on his face. He’d lost weight, and ghosts danced in his eyes where none had dared before. The corner of his mouth pulled up in a questioning smile. He was magnificent.

Her hand slid from the handle of her luggage as she and Dodge stepped toward him. Shaken from whatever trance had taken him, Aanon reached her in four long strides, and his lips crashed onto hers with the emotion of a tidal wave. A helpless sound left her throat as tears slid down her cheeks. He was hers, and nothing stood between them anymore.

Dodge clung to their legs, and she pulled back an inch. Her free hand to Aanon’s cheek, she brushed away the moisture she found there. “My boys,” she said, her lip trembling.

He stroked the curve of her stomach. “My girls,” he whispered.

Aanon pulled off the highway and into the gas station in Homer where they’d met.

“Why are we stopping here?” Farrah asked with a suspicious little grin tugging at her lips.

“I thought we could grab a bite to eat here for old time’s sake.” She leaned to open the door, but he stilled her. “Farrah?”

“Yeah?”

He had a hard time watching the road with her so close, so beautiful. She was radiant. A day would never pass when he didn’t think about how she looked at the airport. Glancing around like she halfway expected him to stand her up. Vulnerable, all her hopes and dreams packed into the suitcase she carried behind her. His insecurities were mirrored in the woman he loved. She’d worn jeans and a cherry red sweater that hugged her beautiful curves. She’d changed in the past few months—somehow she’d grown even more intoxicating than when she’d left.

He tucked a flyaway lock of her silken hair behind her ear. “I missed you.”

The most alluring color touched her cheekbones, and pride swelled that he’d been able to cause it.

“Give me a second to grab Dodge and I’ll help you out.”

“You know,” she said as he unbuckled the car seat for his son. “You won’t be able to coddle me like this at the homestead.”

“Oh yes, I can. I’m not taking as many construction jobs this year so I’ll be there to do the bulk of the work around the house with you. And anyway, Dr. Jansen said you’re going to have to take it easy until the baby comes, and then for a couple months after. I’m fully prepared to coddle.”

****

Aanon and Dodge rounded the back of the truck and helped Farrah out. And thank goodness for the hand, because the Chevy was a lot higher off the ground than she remembered. Or maybe she was just a much different shape with a new and unimproved center of gravity.

The same waitress who had served them the day they met those months before, Clara, gave them an uncertain frown.

“I remember you. You two were in here a long time ago. Bickering from what I remember. And now look at you.”

Farrah grinned over Dodge’s head as Aanon stared at her with such pride in the icy blue hues of his eyes.

He hadn’t even remembered her that day, and now she was his.

After putting their order in, Aanon said, “We’re going to have to stop by your mom’s house on the way home. She’s been worrying something awful about you.”

She touched the condensation on her glass of ice water, and a fat drop trickled down and disappeared into the napkin beneath. “You talked to my mom?”

“I’ve been bringing her food every so often.”

“Aanon, you can’t keep taking care of her like that. She needs to learn to stand on her own.”

“It wasn’t for her. I visited her for me. You talked to Miles about the custody hearings and that was your only connection with me, right? Well, talking to your mom was all I had.”

“Oh,” she said, swallowing hard. It was difficult to come to grips with Aanon suffering as she had those months apart. She’d do just about anything to save him pain. Even borderline desperate to see the homestead again, she agreed to the stop. It would be nice to see Mom again. Geez, she’d never thought she would ever think that, but things had changed.
She
had changed since she’d let Aanon into her heart. For the better.

Loaded back into the truck, the snowy Alaskan scenery she’d pined for passed by in a blur. If it wasn’t for the bone-chilling cold, she’d open the window to feel the fresh air against her face. The greens and browns of the passing foliage fused with the blue-white of the fallen snow and made the most beautiful artwork she’d ever seen. Condensation clung to the inside of her window and she wrote
I Love U
into the moisture with her fingertip.

With a shy smile, she squeezed Aanon’s hand and leaned back for him to see.

The look of adoration in his eyes was breathtaking. “I love you, too,” he said in a thick voice and dragged his gaze back to the road that stretched in front of them.

Cooper Landing, Population 289
, the green sign read as they passed into the town. Something lifted in Farrah. Fate kept leading her back here, and for good reason. The Landing was where she belonged.

Mom stood waving on the front porch of her house as they pulled up, as if she knew exactly when they’d show up. Maybe she did.

Hugging Farrah around the neck and laughing despite the tears in her eyes, she gave in and melted into the embrace.

“I won’t keep you too long. I just wanted to be the first to see you when you came home,” she rambled as she shooed them into the warmth of the house.

Dodge immediately found a chest of toys from Farrah’s childhood that sat in the corner and started sorting through them.

“Where did you get that?” she asked Mom.

“I’ve been saving those toys in case you ever gave me a grandbaby. I had Bob bring them out of the crawl space last week. I also got these.” She handed over a pack of corner protectors for baby proofing.

“Mom, this is great. I’m going to have to get some of these. I need to get a lot of things, honestly.”

“Oh, I got too many so you can have the extras. We really don’t have three packs worth of corners to protect the baby from, and I have two more than I need.” The cabinet under the sink creaked as she dug around and muttered to herself. “Here,” she said, handing them over. “And this.”

A light pink gift bag with yellow tissue paper dangled from her outstretched fingers.

“What’s this?” Farrah asked.

Mom had rarely given her a present growing up besides the toys that cluttered the bin. One per Christmas.

“A gift for Oleanna. Aanon told me the name.”

“You did?” she asked, bewildered.

“I told everyone,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“As he should. It’s a beautiful name. The perfect one to suit my granddaughter.” Pride filled every word.

Miles may not have liked the name she had chosen, but the people who mattered did.

Inside the bag was a onesie and pant set, pink with a yellow smiling sun that said,
You Are My Sunshine
.

It was possibly the cutest thing she’d ever seen. It was so tiny. She stared at it in wonder, draped across her palms. It was the first time she’d realized how small babies really were. Dodge was a sturdy three year old, and she had only been around a handful of kids, none of them newborn.

“Dodge, clean up the toys,” Aanon said. “You can play with them again next time we come over.” With minimal grumbling, he replaced the toys and took Aanon’s hand on the way out.

In a move that surprised her to stillness, Mom clutched her shoulders and looked her square in the eye. “I’m proud of you, Farrah. I messed up everything when you were growing up, and you still turned out good. I know I can’t take credit for any of that, but I’m still so proud of you I could burst. You’ll make a great momma.” She pulled her in for a quick hug, then turned and disappeared in the house, leaving Farrah stunned. She swayed like a tranquilized buffalo, and Aanon gripped her arm as she descended the stairs.

“Well that was…unexpected.”

It was also unexpected when Aanon pulled the truck into a parking spot near Briney’s Bar.

“I don’t think the bar opens this early,” she said.

The sign on the front door was flipped to
closed
. The late afternoon sun reflected off the snow that blanketed the town, but inside, the bar was as dark as a black hole.

“Briney’s in back. I swore I’d bring you by for a minute before I took you home. He’s been chomping at the bit about getting you back to work in a few months.”

What she really wanted was a hot bath cradled in Aanon’s strong arms at the homestead, but it was a while yet until Dodge’s bedtime, so sure, she’d go see Briney about the job.

Aanon and Dodge followed her through the unlocked door, and the lights flickered on.

“Surprise!” What seemed like the entire town was piled into every inch of space in the bar.

She jumped and clutched her chest in an attempt to keep the scream inside her throat. A hand painted sign that read
It’s A Girl
and another with
Oleanna
in cursive letters decorated the whiskey cabinet. Pink streamers and balloons dangled from every rafter, and someone popped off a confetti canon in the back, dousing them all in glitter, paper, and streamers.

The laugh that bubbled from her was nothing short of joyous. She recognized every face in the room, and Briney himself yelled, “Welcome home, and happy baby shower.”

So, her baby shower was being held in a bar? It was absolutely perfect. Audrey surged forward to hug her and Mayva followed.

“Did you plan this?” she asked Aanon breathlessly at a break in greetings.

“Briney and I started it, but the entire town got on board by hour four. Do you like it?”

“I love it. It’s—” She looked around at all of the happy clusters of friends, talking and laughing together. “It’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Aanon beamed, but his smile wavered. “I wanted your mom to be here. It’s why we had to stop off at her place first. Briney was attached to throwing your welcome home party at the bar, but your mom is really making a go at remaining sober. We thought it best if you had your moment with her at the house.”

She pressed the palm of her hand against his jaw, smooth and shaven, angled and masculine. “You did good.”

“Kiss her!” Ben yelled to the cheers of the house, then he started the obnoxious chant.

Heat rushed her cheeks, but Aanon didn’t seem embarrassed at all. Humor and challenge danced in his eyes. The man was irresistible, and she arched her neck as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Slowly, he leaned forward until all she could see was the handsome planes in his face. The background noise faded as the moment held her in Aanon’s embrace. His lips were patient and warm against hers, and she threw her arms around his neck and angled her head to kiss him thoroughly.

The man chuckled as she pulled away, and he shook under congratulatory claps on his back. Still, his eyes never left hers, and hunger, deep as eternity, swam in the seductive color there, making captivating promises of nights to come.

Briney climbed on the bar top. “Listen up! Aanon and I did some research on baby shower games, and we reject them all. We made up one of our own. Every time someone says Oleanna’s name, we drink! Burtlebey, go hand Farrah and Dodge those glasses of orange juice. The rest of you, come name your drink.

“Oh, dear Lord,” she said, laughing. “I’m going to go help him behind the bar.”

As she worked, pouring drink after drink with Briney, she couldn’t keep her gaze from Aanon. Dodge was in his arms, talking animatedly, and the easy laugh that pulled from his daddy’s mouth was hypnotizing. Those lips were hers, that beautiful man with a heart devoted to the people he cared about—he was hers. Just days before, she’d been drowning in a sadness so deep, she’d never breathe again. Now, she stood in the bar she loved with the people who meant the most, and the best man she’d ever known had chosen her in front of everyone.

The next hour was taken by opening an overwhelming number of gifts the people of Cooper Landing had thought to bring. She didn’t know what half of them were, but Aanon, confident Aanon, winked, telling her in one gesture, he’d teach her everything he knew about baby rearing, and they’d learn the rest together.

Occasionally, a happy drink was taken by all when someone said Oleanna’s name in conversation, and laughter filled the bar until Farrah felt drunk with happiness. Dodge helped her open the first seven gifts, but when he noticed everything was pink in color, he lost interest and played thumb wars with Ben. Mayva wrote down who gave what gifts so Farrah could send out thank you cards, and Aanon sat beside her and helped clean up the wrapping paper as they went.

She lingered as people started trickling out of the bar. She spun Dodge slowly on one of the stools as Ben told her about what a bore Aanon had been since she left. It was tough to hear about, but it showed her the depth of his feelings. Aanon and some of the others made trip after trip, filling up the bed of the Chevy with Oleanna’s gifts.

Briney leaned against the bar with a conspiratorial grin. “Did we surprise you?”

“Briney, I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised in my life. This was one heck of a welcoming home party.”

“And baby shower,” he said.

“That was possibly the greatest baby shower in the history of baby showers.”

“I knew it,” he whispered and turned to pull pink streamers from the rafters above.

“I thought you only decorated once a year.”

“You’re momma would have my hide if I didn’t use the decorations she got for your shower.”

She stopped Dodge’s slow spin and glanced up to determine if Briney was serious. He tugged at the tape that held the biggest sign in place with nary a twinkle in his eye. Huh. Mom had helped plan and decorate for the shower and hadn’t shown up to enjoy it in her attempt to stay sober.

“Hey,” Aanon, said, deliciously close to her earlobe. From behind, he ran gentle fingers up the small of her back, massaging little circles until she wanted to groan in bliss. The chair on the plane had been less than comfortable.