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13
Jim brought the Cessna from Tok and flew Kate home to Niniltna two days later. Bobby, Dinah, and Katya and Auntie Vi were there to greet her on the airstrip. Auntie Vi wanted her to come stay while she recuperated, but Kate refused. She was like Ruthe. She wanted to go home.
So Bobby tucked her into his truck and ferried her twenty-five miles down the road, and Dinah and Jim, who had followed in Billy’s Explorer, walked her down the path to the homestead, Mutt trotting anxious circles around them as they went. “Joh
“No,” Kate said. “Dinah, could you stop in and ask him not to? I just want to see if I can get up the ladder and sleep in my own bed. Tell him I’ll be over tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Dinah exchanged a glance with Bobby. They both looked at Jim, who remained impassive.
They settled her in, fussing over the woodstove, over-filling the kettle, and bringing her comforter down from the loft. “I’m okay, guys,” she said when she could stand it no longer. “Go.”
“Okay,” Dinah repeated. “I’ll be back out tomorrow.” She saw the look on Kate’s face and said, “If I don’t come and report back to Auntie Vi, she’ll be here, and she’ll bring all the other aunties with her.”
It was only too true. “All right. See you tomorrow, then.”
Jim waited until Dinah was out the door. “By the way, Kate.”
“What now?” she said grouchily.
He gri
“Know what?” Kate said, dragging her eyes to his face with difficulty.
The grin widened. She measured the distance between the couch and the gun rack over the door. “I’m moving my post,” he said.
“Moving your post? You mean you’re being transferred?” She tried to tell herself that she was feeling relief, not dismay.
“No, moving my post from Tok.”
“Moving it?” With sudden foreboding, she said, “Where?”
“To Niniltna.”
She gaped at him.
His dimples deepened. How had she never noticed those dimples before? “Yeah. I’ll be around all the time now.” He stepped to the door and tipped his hat.
“Be seeing you, Kate.” The grin flashed. “A lot of you.”
14
Two days later, Dan came to the homestead. “I’m sorry, Kate,” he said. “Get your ass in here and close the door,” Kate said. “You’re letting the cold in.”
“I didn’t know if I’d be welcome or not.”
“You want to drink your coffee or wear it?”
His face cleared.
“What did you think you knew?” she said as they ate homemade bread, her first batch since she’d gotten out of the hospital, spread with butter and strawberry preserves.
He sighed and put his bread down, half-eaten. “She asked a lot of questions about Ruthe and Dina.”
“So did everybody. They weren’t exactly low-profile.”
“Don’t try to make me feel better about this, Kate,” he said, looking sober. “Christie asked a lot of questions, and when Dina died, I should have told you or Jim. She wanted to know about the restrictions on developing privately owned property within Park boundaries, for god’s sake. Why would she care, unless she owned some? She didn’t, not then. I should have noticed. I should have figured she was only using me to help her get what she wanted. Damn it, Kate, I just feel so damn stupid.”
“You were in love,” she said.
“No, I was in heat,” he said. “You can lead even the smartest man most anywhere by his cock.”
She tried not to wince.
“Sorry,” he said. “Hey, did you hear about Jim Chopin moving his post to Niniltna?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Sure will make life easier for me,” he said. “Long as I’ve got my job anyway.”
“They haven’t fired you yet, I take it?”
“No. They even revoked my suspension. I think Pete might have had something to do with that.”
“Why?”
“He stopped by the Step, told me not to worry.” Dan’s grin was a pale shadow of its former self, but it was out where you could see it. “Told me I owed him.”
“He would.”
“Well, I do. And I won’t mind paying off when the time comes.” He finished his bread and coffee. “You going to be okay?”
“I’m going to be okay,” she said.
She watched him leave from the doorway. Snow was falling, coating the semicircle of buildings in the little clearing with a fresh layer, filling in the old blemishes, covering up the new. A new snowfall was a great place from which to start over.
The next day, she walked up to the steps of the Int-Hout homestead and knocked on the door.
She had rehearsed what she was going to say all the previous night, that morning, and all the way to Ethan’s. Not the truth, of course, never the truth, not if she could help it, not even when she figured out what it was herself.
Ethan, she was going to say, I’m just not ready, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be. What we’ve been working on is the residue of a high school crush. If we’d ever managed to make it to bed together in college, we wouldn’t be sniffing around each other now. I’m moving on. You need to, too.
Short, to the point, and the absolute truth, and only she needed to know it wasn’t all the truth. She knocked again. Footsteps came toward the door. She squared her shoulders and prepared to lower the boom.
The door opened. A large woman with freckled skin and wild red hair stood in the opening.
“Hello, Margaret,” Kate said.
“Hi, Kate. I want my husband back.”
Over Margaret’s shoulder, she saw Ethan with his lap full of twins. He looked over their heads at Kate, his face full of shamefaced apology.
“He’s all yours,” Kate said, and with those words, a huge weight fell from her shoulders.
“Good. You can have this back, too.” Margaret reached behind her and pulled Joh
“I’ll take him,” Kate said.
Margaret closed the door in their faces.
“Why are you smiling?” Joh
“Was I?” Kate said, and started to laugh. She stood on the porch, shoulders shaking, trying not to laugh too hard, hand pressed to her side, which she was still afraid was going to fall off if she moved the wrong way. “Sorry,” she said, the last chuckle draining away. She put her hands on Joh
“What? What for?”
“I should have let you stay at the homestead from the begi
“Oh.” He was confused but willing. “Okay. I guess.” He was further confused when she pulled him in for a bear hug, and the hell with the damage to her side. He trailed her bemusedly to the snow machine. “So… does this mean that you’re not going to… uh… you and Ethan aren’t…”
“No. We’re not.”
“Good.”
“Yeah?” She pulled his hat down over his eyes.
“Yeah.” He shoved it back up. “I like Ethan and all, but he’s kind of, well, static, you know? Sort of ru
“It could,” Kate admitted.
He loaded the duffel on the trailer. Gal meowed imperiously from his parka and he petted her absently. “Dad liked Chopper Jim.”