Northern Encounter (14 page)

C
LINT WALKED INTO
G
US’S
.
The lunchtime crowd was fairly heavy. Donna laid some cash on the bar and stood, leaving her seat next to Nelson empty. Clint nodded a greeting to Donna and slid into the vacant spot.

“How’s it going, Nelson?”

“No complaints. You?”

Teddy approached on the other side of the bar. “Hey, Clint. What’ll it be today?”

“Moose burger, fries and a tea.”

“Sure thing.”

Teddy headed for the open kitchen and Nelson shot him a sidelong glance. “You ever figure out that eagle message?”

“Nope.”

“Have you tried?”

“I’ve been…distracted.” He’d been damn miserable is what he’d been. It was as if he’d lost a part of
himself when Tessa had climbed on-board and flown out with Dalton. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d wondered what she was doing and how she was doing. He’d been tempted to drop her an email but he never did. He’d never felt this way before.

He’d kept up his same routine, waiting for things to return to normal, waiting to find pleasure and joy in the wilderness that had always spoken to him. Now, however, it had grown silent.

“You’ll have to clear your head before you can hear what you’re meant to hear.”

“Maybe there is no message. Maybe it was just a freak accident.”

Nelson shook his head. “There’s a message. But you have to open yourself to it.”

Teddy delivered Clint’s food and Nelson pushed away from the bar. “Sorry, got to run.” Nelson clapped Clint on the back. “Take it easy.”

Clint ate about a third of his meal but didn’t really taste it. He got up and spoke to a couple of people on his way out, whistling for Kobuk when he stepped outside. The dog joined him and jumped into the truck ahead of him. He cranked the engine, then headed toward home. Everything seemed meaningless. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep.

He was driving near the spot where the wolf had appeared that day when it hit him like a glacier calving and sending waves crashing to the shore.

He needed…Tessa. The eagle had knocked him down, literally sending him sprawling and cracking his head, telling him to quit listening to his head and pay attention to his heart instead. He had been so damn busy trying to prove to Tessa that she didn’t belong, didn’t fit here, that he’d refused to see she’d been marked and she’d marked him.

For as much noise as he’d had in his head and as stubborn as he’d been, it was now all abundantly clear. A wolf and an eagle were a perfect complement to each other. They were both strong and loyal, and while the wolf ranged the earth, the eagle ruled the sky. The two dominions meshed in perfect synchronicity.

It was as if when the scales fell from his eyes, all was revealed. He knew what he had to do. He drove out to the village and parked in his grandmother’s yard.

He found his grandmother alone in the kitchen, the TV going in the next room. Apparently she and Aunt Leona had already had words for the day and Aunt Leona was working off her mad.

“Grandmother, I have something to tell you.”

“It’s a mistake.” She cut to the chase, her eyes knowing, reading his heart and his intention.

He had listened with his head for so long, but now his heart stood strong. “No, it isn’t. She isn’t. She belongs here as surely as you and I do.” He relayed the incident of the wolf marking Tessa. “It doesn’t
matter what color her skin is, the wolf recognized her soul as one of its own.”

The old woman tightened her lips in stubborn disapproval.

She had raised him, stepping in for his mother. Clint loved her, he respected her, but he would not live his life by her dictates. “I’m going for her and I hope she’ll come back with me. If I am lucky enough that she returns with me, you have a choice. You can either welcome her as a granddaughter in a way you never welcomed my mother as a daughter—”

“She was no daughter of mine.”

It was funny, you accepted circumstances of your life for years without question. Things were as they were and you simply moved forward. Now, for the first time in his life, he wondered, and so he asked his grandmother, “Did you ever lay down the rug and pass along the lantern for my mother?”

It was a long-standing tradition in their clan. In a harsh and cold climate, warmth and fire meant the difference between life and death. In the days of old, the rug was sewn together with either bear or seal skins, and it offered protection against the cold ground. The lantern had traditionally been whale oil and was kept going so that fires could be maintained, ensuring the family didn’t freeze to death. When a man married, his mother welcomed the bride into the family by laying down the rug and passing along a lantern, thus ensuring the new couple would have a
chance at a good life. Over the years, the rugs were no longer real animal skins and commercial lanterns had replaced the whale oil lamps of old, but the symbolism was still the same. It was one of acceptance and the wish to live and prosper together.

His grandmother’s black eyes bore into his, proud and unyielding. “She was not my daughter.”

“She could have been.” Sadness and more than a hint of anger tinged him. He had a new insight into what life here must have been like under his grandmother’s cold, harsh disapproval. But the past was done. He raised his head, returning her stare. “You can lay down the blanket and pass the lantern to Tessa or I can move out of the village and into town. And if she doesn’t want to live here, I’ll move to Tucson.”

Unrelenting, unyielding, she narrowed her eyes at him. “You would put this woman before your own people? Your own land?”

He didn’t hesitate, yet he let the silence stretch between them. Once he spoke, there would be no going back. “Yes, I would.”

Cunning flashed in her eyes. “It is your father and mother all over again, I—”

He interrupted her. No more. “I am not my father and Tessa is not like my mother.” Actually, had his father truly put his mother first, they might have stayed together. “We are each our own selves. Tessa is strong and resourceful.”

His grandmother looked positively grim. “What about Ellie?”

He shrugged. Ellie was the least of the matter. Not because he was callous and unfeeling but because the woman wasn’t interested in Clint in the least. “Ellie is no more interested in me than I am in her.”

“She’s never told me that.”

“And she won’t because she’s not as strong as Tessa.” He stood tall and resolute. “You have a choice to make, Grandmother, because if Tessa will have me, I’m hers.”

T
ESSA STOOD IN HER
bedroom window overlooking the front courtyard, unable to sleep, feeling like a stranger in her own home. Mainly because she didn’t want to be here, and this wasn’t where she belonged anymore. She wanted to be back in Good Riddance, but mostly she wanted to be with Clint. It didn’t matter whether she’d wanted to love him or whether she’d allowed herself to love him…she simply did.

In the distance, a coyote howled, a different sound from the howl of the wolf. It reminded her of the beliefs of Clint’s people, and suddenly she knew the truth. She and Clint had marked each other. It was indisputable. Undeniable. She wouldn’t give up on him…on them.

She had wanted, needed validation from him, but she realized that wasn’t the way it worked. If she had learned nothing else from losing her parents and then
her aunt and uncle, it was that life was uncertain and every day should be seized and lived to the fullest. She could pursue her life list but not the man she loved or the place she belonged? No.

The moon cast a swath of light across her floor and she edged her toe in and out of the light, thinking. This house was paid for. It had been for years, long before her aunt and uncle had died. She could either sell it or rent it and use that money to buy a place in Good Riddance. She could work from there. It would just mean a little extra planning to commute out of Anchorage.

She stepped into the moonlight and looked out into the front yard. At that moment she realized she didn’t want to continue traveling the globe, wandering as a child of the world. She’d found where she belonged and now it was up to the next person to step in as an ambient videographer. Part of what she was meant to do was obviously bring videos to people. Now she’d simply do that on a much smaller scale. She’d open a video store and screening room.

She crossed the room to her bed and slid back between the sheets. Lying on her side, she stroked the eagle carving on her necklace. She fell asleep thinking of Clint Sisnuket.

T
HE TAXI PULLED UP IN
front of a stucco single-level house topped with a red-tile roof. Clint wiped his palms down the front of his jeans. He’d rehearsed
what he wanted to say to Tessa innumerable times but he was still nervous.

He hadn’t called or emailed. She’d given him a chance to ask her to stay and he’d given her some lame story about his parents. He’d come to present his case in person.

“You getting out, buddy?” the driver said.

“Yeah. Here you go.” He handed over the fare and a tip.

“Thanks,” said the cabbie. “You want me to wait?”

Clint was going into this optimistically. “Nope.”

Slinging his overnight bag over his shoulder, he climbed out and approached the front door.

He’d gained an hour on the flight from Anchorage to Tucson. It was early morning and he figured he would catch her at home. If not, he’d simply wait. He knocked on the door.

It took a minute or two but then the lock turned on the other side and she stood there, wearing a pair of green pajamas, her eagle/wolf necklace and a shocked expression.

“Clint?”

“May I come in?”

“Of course. Certainly.” She stepped aside and he walked past her into a terra cotta tiled foyer.

She closed the door behind him and all he could do was stare at her, drinking in the sight of her, inhaling her scent.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, hands by his side.

She nodded, a wariness shadowing her eyes. “I’ve missed you as well.”

In that moment, all his nervousness vanished. This was right. They belonged together. He spoke the words he’d come to say. “I love you. I believe you love me as well. Other people might think this is too soon but we’ve marked each other. All these years I didn’t truly understand that my father required too much of my mother and wasn’t willing to meet her half way. If you want to we’ll live in Good Riddance. If that doesn’t work for you, I’ll move to Tucson.”

She stood, tense, as if she might turn and flee at any moment. “But you love Good Riddance. You love Alaska.”

“I love you more. Without you, I no longer find the joy in my land I once did.”

“You would give up Alaska for me?”

“Yes.”

She flung herself at him, throwing her arms around him. “Oh, Clint!”

He held her, reveling in the feel of her curves pressed against him, showering her face and neck with kisses. His lips found hers and he claimed her as his own.

When they broke apart, she lightly touched the stitches on his scalp. “You’re okay?”

Even though he knew it had been a message and an important one he’d needed to receive, he still
found that whole incident slightly embarrassing. “I’m fine.”

“You must have gotten up incredibly early to be here now.”

He laughed, remembering Dalton’s grumbling at having to fly Clint out so early. “Yeah, me and Dalton both. He wasn’t a particularly happy camper but he’s a man who understands what it’s like to be in love.”

Tessa beamed, a sly look creeping into her eyes. “You must be exhausted. You probably need to rest, have a good nap.”

He knew exactly where she was going with this. “Maybe you could show me your bedroom.”

She took him by the hand. “Right this way, Mr. Sisnuket.”

“Y
OU HAPPY
?” C
LINT’S WARM
breath stirred against Tessa’s hair as he leaned forward and asked the question in the middle of Good Riddance’s Thanksgiving celebration.

“Never happier…except when you showed up on my doorstep,” she said. It was wonderful, crazy chaos at its finest. The door between Gus’s and the airstrip had been propped open for people to move back and forth. Tables of every size and shape had been brought into the airstrip office. Nearly every dish you could imagine was laid out for the potluck event. And everything smelled wonderful.

“I think your eggs are going to be a hit,” Clint said, tightening his arm around her, boldly claiming her as his own to everyone in the room.

“I hope so. That was really generous of Gus to share her kitchen.”

When Clint had first mentioned her coming back
to Good Riddance with him for Thanksgiving, she’d protested. She had too much to do to get her affairs in order in Tucson for her move, but the truth of the matter was she’d wanted to be part of that celebration from the moment she’d heard about it. So, they’d flown in the day before and Gus had graciously allowed Tessa free range of her kitchen that evening to make deviled eggs as her contribution.

“Hey, it’s so good to see you again,” Skye said, giving Tessa a hug. “Welcome back. I had a feeling you’d be returning.”

Tessa laughed. “You did?”

“Oh, yeah.” She glanced between Tessa and Clint, smiling. “Having just been in your shoes not too long ago.”

“Where’s Dalton?” Clint asked.

“He and Bull are over at Gus’s setting up the karaoke for after everyone eats. Hey, there’s Curl. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check and see if that cough medicine I gave him is working for him.”

Skye headed toward Curl and Tessa touched Clint lightly on his arm. “It’s fine if you want to go find them.”

“I’ll wait,” he said, his dark eyes solemn beneath his smile.

She knew what he was doing and loved him all the more for it, but it wasn’t necessary. “It’s okay, really.”

Clint’s grandmother would arrive sooner or later.
She never missed the Thanksgiving feast. The unknown factor was how she’d respond to Tessa’s presence.

“I’m staying right here for now because next to you is where I want to be.”

It wasn’t necessary but Tessa was glad of his quiet strength next to her. Merrilee had just bustled over, wearing one of her signature flannel shirts trimmed in lace, a smile on her face. “How do you like our little get-together so far?”

“I love it.” Tessa noticed a faint shadowing beneath the other woman’s eyes. Tad might be gone and her divorce might be done, but Tessa feared things were still awry between Merrilee and Bull.

Something, or someone, caught Merrilee’s attention over Tessa’s shoulder. Merrilee grasped her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, while she looked at Clint. “She’s here.”

Clint’s arm tightened around Tessa and she knew without turning that his grandmother had arrived.

Slowly, as if someone were adjusting the volume down on a television, the conversation in the room grew quieter until the only noise was that of the children chattering.

As one, Clint and Tessa turned. His grandmother, unsmiling, bridged the final few feet, until she stood before them.

“You’re back,” she said to Tessa, without preamble.
There was no hostility, nor was there welcome in her words or expression.

“I am.” Tessa responded in the same vein.

“You are of the wolf?”

“I am.”

She narrowed her dark eyes at Tessa. “You love my grandson?”

“I do.” Her words felt as if they carried more weight than a vow in a church ceremony.

The harsh angles on the weathered face before Tessa softened slightly. “There is much of our culture you don’t know.”

“There is much I want to learn.”

Even the children quieted and it was as if everyone in the room held their collective breaths.

The old woman stared hard at Tessa, as if seeking passage to her very soul. The silence seemed to stretch on forever and back through generations as well.

“Then there is much I can teach you. I will lay my rug down for you and pass along the lantern… Granddaughter.” She nodded as if there was nothing more to be said, and really there wasn’t. She had just accepted Tessa as a member of the Sisnuket family.

Tessa nodded in return. “I look forward to it.”

As if a wave of relief had passed through the room, conversations started again.

“Thank you,” Clint said quietly to his grandmother.

The stern visage softened. “I want you to be happy, Grandson.”

“I am. We are.”

Tessa felt as if she had come full circle on a journey she hadn’t realized she had even embarked on years ago. They would have the ups and downs, their trials and tribulations that faced any couple, but together, the eagle and wolf would find happiness together.