Melt (34 page)
Kelly chuckled. “I have to say it makes me really happy to see her with a girlfriend. An appropriate girlfriend.”
Jordan smiled her understanding and stood, extending a hand toward Kelly. “Are you ready to retire to our lair?”
Kelly took her hand just as the sound of a loud pop went off, sounding like a gun firing.
“It’s the fireworks,” Jordan reminded her.
“Oh, right. Fireworks with the sun shining. Seems strange. What are they celebrating, do you think?”
“Maybe they’re honoring our rapturous last night together.”
Kelly laughed. “Yeah, right. That must be it.”
Jordan opened the door and held it for her. “But they needn’t have bothered.”
“Why not?” Kelly asked, pausing in the doorway.
“Because we’ll be making our own fireworks.”
Kelly gave Jordan a quick kiss before entering the hotel lobby, happily anticipating their romantic night and all of their blissful days yet to come. They would be fabulous together, Kelly knew, because Jordan had always needed someone to validate her worth, and Kelly had never known anyone more worthy of her love, respect and devotion.
Epilogue
To the whining disappointment of Gudny and Jaaku, Ortuq extricated himself from the rowdy game on the floor, standing and taking Asa’s hand. “Come,” he said. “Look outside. Just for a minute.”
She wrapped a fur around her head and shoulders so she could follow him outside the hut. She crawled out into a blast of icy air that bit at her exposed skin. Ortuq stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her, and pointed her toward the horizon where colored lights danced against a black backdrop. Green, blue and yellow streamers glimmered like flames of cool fire, swirling up into the dark ceiling above where a million twinkling lights filled the sky. Snow blanketed everything in sight, blue in the darkness of the winter afternoon. Everything was still and silent. The only sound was Ortuq’s breath, warm against her cheek.
“They’re dancing tonight,” he observed quietly.
To Ortuq and his relatives, the lights were souls of the children who had died during birth. He had told her this story after she told him about Torben, the child she had lost. The lights are the lost children dancing at the edge of creation, he had said, at the doors to heaven, happy and forever trouble-free.
The wind was so cold, Asa’s nose started going numb almost immediately, but she stood there a while longer. He was right. The lights were especially beautiful today. As much as she longed for the warmth and light of summer, there was magic in a Greenland winter’s day. There were other places in the world, she knew, that were completely different from this, that were easier to live in, but at this moment, she couldn’t believe there was anyplace on earth more beautiful.
She tilted her head to glimpse her husband behind her, his gentle face tinted blue by the sky lights, and smiled her gratitude.
He smiled back. “The lights are the same color as your eyes today,” he said. “So beautiful.”
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