The Way Home

Chapter 18

Northern Minnesota, September

JESS HAD NEVER BEEN a clock watcher until Ty appeared in her life. When J.R. had deployed, orders came without warning, and he’d pack a go bag and be gone. Six or nine months later, he’d show up again. Exhausted, ten to fifteen pounds lighter, still revved from a mission he couldn’t discuss. On either end, she’d never had any heads-up or warning. And there’d been no point in marking time.

But after a three-week absence, Ty had called from Minneapolis to tell her his plane was due in the Falls in less than an hour. She hadn’t been able to keep her attention from the store clock since, as if willing it to move faster would make it do so.

“How much do you want me to mark down these shirts, boss?”

By mid-September, kids were back in school, and the families who bought store merchandise were back home settling down to normal life. Only the diehard fishermen braved the cold weather that sometimes set in in the fall, so business had slowed. Fall markdowns were status quo.

“Go ahead and make them thirty percent off,” she told Kayla, who had also gone back to college in Duluth but came home on weekends to see her folks and to help Jess with the heavier weekend business. “Let’s move as much as we can to make room for the spring shipment.”

She went back to figuring her quarterly taxes—which seemed to come around a lot more often than quarterly, especially since revenues would be lean until spring—when her phone rang.

“How’s my favorite shopkeeper?”

Ty! Her heart skipped. “Where are you?”

He laughed. “At Whispering Pines. Drive down. I want to show you something.”

“What are you doing at Whispering Pines?”

“Drive down,” he repeated. “I know Kayla’s there, because I already talked to her.” He hung up.

“What do you know that I don’t?” she accused Kayla.

“Loose lips sink ships. That’s all you’re going to get out of me.”

“I could fire you, you know.”

“Yeah, sure, fine. Now, get going. Only a fool would keep that man waiting.”

And only a fool would feel this giddy.

“I’m taking Bear,” she told Kayla.

“You’re going to want to leave him, OK? And don’t ask,” Kayla reminded her.

“You are so close to being out of here.”

“As if,” Kayla shot back with a grin that had Jess shaking her head.

“I’ll be back in a few.”

“Wouldn’t count on it.”

She’d had enough goading and teasing, so she grabbed her jacket and headed out the door.

A bowl of brilliant blue sky greeted her, along with an afternoon sun that warmed the crisp September air. Fall was Jess’s favorite time of year. She didn’t have to run her legs off taking care of business, the leaves were turning, and the temps hovered in the high sixties. They’d already had one unexpected killing frost, so the bugs were gone, which made jogging with Bear every morning that much more pleasant.

As she drove down Gamma Road toward Whispering Pines, she passed Brad’s guide business. A few days after Ty had left for Florida, Brad had stopped by the store and apologized. That first visit had been brief and strained. No gentle reconciliation, but he’d made the effort, and for that she gave him credit. A week later, she’d invited him to dinner, fully expecting him to turn her down. To her surprise, he’d accepted.

They’d had a good talk, both cried over J.R. and admitted that they’d been enabling each other by not letting go. It wasn’t easy for Brad, but he was finally making an effort to move on, and he’d accepted that she had a right to move on, too.

Moving on was what she was all about these days. It had taken her long enough. It had taken Ty Brown.

For every season, turn turn.

This seemed to be her season.

When she pulled into the resort five minutes later, Ty, looking like everything good and vital in the world, waited for her on the deck of the main lodge. Like her, he wore worn jeans and a lightweight flannel shirt and a jacket to accommodate the cooler weather.

“I thought your flight wasn’t due for another hour,” she said, as she stepped out of her car and headed up the deck steps.

“I may have fudged a little on the time. But let’s back up. Is that any way to greet a man who had a whole different scenario in mind—especially after that phone, um, conversation we had late last night?”

Despite the fact that he’d managed to make her blush, she walked into his arms and kissed him. Long and deep and thorough. “That more like what you had in mind?”

“Makes me wish I’d come straight to your apartment instead of instigating this little outing.”

“Outing?”

He draped an arm over her shoulders and walked her down the steps toward the shore. A light breeze made a rustling sound through the ash and maple leaves that had started to turn but had not yet fallen. The foliage hid all but glimpses of the water in the bay until they were almost down the hill, so the yellow float plane moored by the dock took her by surprise.

“Whose plane?” she asked when she spotted it.

“Remember when you told me about the guy in Vermillion? The one who retired? I looked him up. This is his plane.” He grinned at her.

She walked down for a closer look. “What are you doing with his plane?”

“Thinking about buying it.”

That whipped her head around toward him. “Buying it? Why would you buy it?”

“Because it’s for sale?” When that feeble reason earned a scowl, he laughed. “Planes are my thing. Come on. I want to take you up in her.”

“Oh, no. I’m not going up in that thing.”

He laughed again. “Why not?”

“For one thing, it’s a wreck. For another… commercial is more my style.”

“OK. The body needs a little work, I’ll give you that. But the engine’s sound. I wouldn’t suggest you go up with me unless she was perfectly safe. Heck, I flew her up here from Vermillion.”

She gave the plane another once-over. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“You aren’t seriously afraid?”

What she was was horrified. Planes might be his thing, but heights had never been hers. “In a word, yes.”

“We’re going to fix that right now. Come on. Sit in her with me.”

“And you won’t take off?”

“Not unless you say it’s OK.”

Because she didn’t want to disappoint him and because she trusted him, she let him help her out onto the float, grabbed the wing strut, and climbed up into what could loosely be called a cockpit. She slid under the yoke in the pilot’s seat and into the shotgun seat.

He climbed in after her, shut the door, and settled in.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s a relic.” The leather in the two front seats was worn and split. The instrument panel looked like something out of World War I, and the four passenger seats in the back practically sat on the floor. “I see a lot of duct tape.”

“She’s nicely broken in.” He grinned at her horrified look. “OK. So she’s a fixer-upper. But it’s all about the engine, and the guy who owns her has kept it in excellent shape. She’s got a lot of hours, but with a bird like this, that’s a good thing.”

“Um, Ty.” She craned her neck to her left, then her right. “We seem to be floating away from the dock.”

“That’s because I cast off before I got in. Don’t worry. I’m only going to scoot around on the water, let you get a feel for how she moves.”

“And then you’re going to try to talk me into taking off.”

“That would be the plan, yeah. Relax. You’re in good hands. But you might want to buckle up.”

She was about to spout a comeback when he cranked the engine. It hiccupped and coughed, then engaged and revved like a rubber band on a bicycle spoke, before really kicking in and negating any chance of talking.

He reached above him, grabbed a pair of headsets, and handed one to her. Following his lead, she put one on, fastened the seat belt, then groped for something to hang on to as he maneuvered away from the dock and out into open water.

For several long moments, they did exactly as he’d promised. Jess couldn’t shake a mental image of a damaged dragonfly skimming along the water’s surface.

“How ya doing?” he asked into the headset.

“We’d better go back. I think I left something cooking on the stove.”

“Come on, Jess.” He reached over and squeezed her thigh. “Have a little faith. It’ll be fun.”

She pinched her eyes shut and, because it was so important to him, gave him a quick nod.

“That’s my girl!”

He didn’t give her any opportunity to change her mind. He throttled back, and the plane responded, picking up speed, and finally, with a dip in her stomach, they were airborne.

“Don’t pay any attention to the vibration,” he told her. “It’s only wind resistance. It’s all good.”

“What about the groaning?”

She heard him laugh. “I thought that was you.”

“It is me. Oh, my God, I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

“Open your eyes. Look at this view.”

On a deep breath, she forced herself to look. And while the sight of the lake with its many fingers, bays, and islands a few hundred feet below them had her gripping her handholds tighter, she had to admit, it was stunning.

Gradually, she relinquished her white-knuckle grip and, to her amazement, started enjoying the flight, even pointing out landmarks to him and discovering bays she hadn’t realized existed. That didn’t mean that every time the plane hit a little air pocket and they dropped a few feet, the butterflies didn’t take flight again.

“Do you love it?” Ty crowed through the headset.

What she loved was his excitement. “Love is a strong word. But yes, it’s growing on me.”

“What about me? Am I growing on you?”

Oh, yeah. He was not only growing, he’d taken root and was flourishing.

“Depends on if you get me down from here safely.”

“I can do that,” he promised, and fifteen minutes later, after one last buzz of the lake, he did.

The pontoons kissed the surface of the lake with a swoosh of parting water in a soft-as-silk landing.

She couldn’t help but grin as he expertly taxied the little plane back to the dock and gently beached it.

“You did great, Jess.” Ty beamed at her after they’d unbuckled and stowed the headsets. “Sit tight. I want to tie up before our wake washes in and lifts her off the sand.”

He stepped out onto a pontoon, grabbed the wing strut for balance, and expertly plucked a tie line out of the water. After securing it to the strut, he walked to the back of the pontoon and did the same.

He helped her out and up onto the dock, then followed. “So what do you think?”

“It was fun. I admit it. But I still don’t understand why you’d want to buy it.”

He took her hand and led her to a log bench that faced the water. “What if I said I wanted to start a fishing charter business up here?”

She hadn’t fully processed the implication of his words when her heartbeat spiked, her hands started to tremble, and a light-headedness hit her hard enough to make her dizzy.

He was talking about much more than purchasing a rickety six-seater float plane. He was talking about a commitment. He was talking about a future.

“Whoa. I recognize that look. Take a deep breath. Let’s back up a second.”

Now she was confused. He wasn’t talking about a commitment?

“Look. I’ve blindsided you twice. Once in the dead of winter. Once in July when I showed up again unannounced. It’s not my intention to do it again.”

“Too late.”

He smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “OK. So I have a little trouble in that area. But there’s no pressure here, Jess. I want you to know what’s on my mind. And I want you to think about how you feel about it.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I want to make a life up here. With you.”

Heart racing, she looked up at him.

“I want to marry you, Jess. I love you. I think I fell a little bit in love with you the first time I saw you.”

Her voice got trapped somewhere in the wellspring of emotions knocking around inside her. Elation. Fear. Excitement. Fear. Joy. Fear.

She didn’t want to be afraid. Not of him. Not of them. And yet… was she ready for this? Was she capable of this?

“Like I said, I didn’t want this to be another blindside, but sweetie, I’ve tried to make it clear that I’m crazy about you.”

He tipped her face up to his, and she could tell he was doing his best not to laugh at her.

“Not talking, huh? That’s OK. I know you need some time to process the idea.”

She needed more than time. She needed oxygen.

“So… I’m going to fly the plane back to Vermillion, OK? I need to get her back before sundown, and it’s about a thirty-minute flight. How long is it going to take me to drive back to Kabby? Hold up your fingers if you can’t talk.”

“Thirty-five… forty minutes,” she said numbly.

“OK, then. I’ll see you in a little more than an hour. I’ll stop and pick up something for dinner, so don’t cook. Jess?” he added when she stared at him. “See you in an hour?”

She nodded, leaned in to him as he pressed another kiss to her forehead, then watched him walk to the plane.

She was still watching the sunlight glint off the wings in the far, far distance when Shelley walked up beside her.

“Hey,” Shelley said in that quiet way she had of hinting that she knew something was up.

“Hey.”

“You OK?”

She breathed deeply and looked at her hands clasped together on her lap. “I’m not sure.”

Shelley sat down beside her. “Is that a good not sure or a bad not sure?”

She looked at her friend. “Not sure about that, either.”