Cotton Grass Lodge (18 page)

“No. We don’t. Tom will clue me in I’m sure. It’s too bad you won’t be here.” Duncan leaned in toward her. “I’d really like to kiss you.”

“Not in front of the children.” Hanna pointed her chin toward the cluster of guests watching her ready the plane. “You won’t miss me. You’ll be having too much fun.”

“Maybe,” Duncan said. “But I doubt it, you are my fun. Tell Charlie I said hello.” Duncan chuckled. “I miss him, any idea when he’ll be back in the air?”

“No, I feel bad when I can’t fly more for him. But the new kid came with a good résumé.” Hanna shrugged, resigned to the way things were. “We hope for the best.”

****

Tom anticipated the Fourth of July would be almost as big a party as June first, so Duncan was prepared for the unexpected.

He met the plane on the afternoon of the third of July expecting a couple from Norway and a few extra groceries for the party. The plane landed, and Charlie’s impatient new pilot unloaded two men, who thought they were going to Willow, no mail, six brand new cinder blocks, melted ice cream running all over the floor of the plane, and Nell.

Duncan was prepared for everything except Nell. “Why did you bring her?”

The pilot must have thought a cocky attitude would mitigate his blunder. “Man, the old lady said she comes in here all the time.”

“Where did you drop my customers?” Duncan’s fury was a mix of concern and exasperation.

One of the misplaced men stood shoulder to shoulder with Duncan. “Where the hell are we?”

Nell answered, “Welcome to the Cotton Grass Lodge. Let’s go have some lemonade.” She marched toward the four-wheeler Duncan had ridden down to the strip.

A bead of sweat trickled down the pilot’s face, and he chose to concentrate on the greatest immediate danger—Duncan. “They just got off, man. I thought they knew where they were going.”

“Nell, wait,” Duncan called. He turned on the pilot again. “You thought? Call Charlie.”

“I can fix this, we don’t need to—”

“Call. Charlie.” Duncan controlled the desire to throttle the little shit. Just barely.

The misplaced man’s companion turned from the cargo door in the plane and shouted. “These aren’t our bags. Where the hell is my luggage?”

Tom trotted past the four-wheeler just as Nell started it and headed toward the lodge. Tom’s incredulous stare dissolved into uncontrolled spasms of laughter.

“This is better than June first.” Tom leaned on a tire of the plane, his body shaking. Hilarity streamed as tears down his face. “We got a call from a landing strip over on the Skwentna. They’ve got two really confused foreigners.” He choked out the message he came to deliver. He slipped off the tire and had to catch himself before he fell on the ground making his laughter worse.

Duncan was not amused.

“I said call Charlie,” Duncan demanded of the pilot.

“The radio won’t be able to get out to Anchorage with me on the ground.” Jeff retreated to the plane as if leaving would fix everything. Duncan followed him and stood in the open door of the cockpit.

“Well, try. You might be surprised.” Duncan’s teeth clamped shut over his wrath.

Charlie wasn’t nearly as accommodating as Duncan’s restricted rage. The airwaves crackled and blazed with vehemence as he sorted out the next best flight plan.

Three hours later, Duncan sat on the front porch with Tom. The Norwegian couple was settling into their room. The lost luggage had been reunited with their owners in Willow. The only unanswered questions were how Nell got around the formalities of getting on the plane and where the cinder blocks were supposed to go.

Someone across the lake set off early fireworks. At least they were over the lake, fire was a constant concern. The booming echoes made Nameless jumpy. He paced back and forth in front of the steps panting heavily.

“Come here.” Duncan patted his leg, and the dog slinked up the steps. He wasn’t ordinarily allowed on the porch. When he got within a finger’s width from Duncan’s hand he stopped. “Come on.” Duncan patted his leg again, and the pup slid up close and put his trembling head on Duncan’s lap.

“Are you spoiling that animal?” Tom asked.

“No,” Duncan said. “I hate dogs.” He ran his hand gently over the dog’s head and patted its shoulder.

“Where is she?” Tom jerked his head toward the interior of the lodge.

“Alice fed her, and last time I saw her she was sleeping in a chair in the living room. Edna’s going to come and take her home to spend the night. I’ve got a full house today and tomorrow, and I’m not giving up my damn bed again.” Duncan’s irritation sparkled. “I called her daughter; all I got was an answering machine. I swear, I’ll call the troopers and have them pick her up at Charlie’s if her kids don’t call me back.”

Alice came out on the porch. “I’m done.” She repositioned a bag and the baby. “See you tomorrow. By the way, no matter what you hear in the pantry, don’t open the door. Frosty’s working. Let him out at bedtime.”

Duncan squinted and started to ask a question, and Alice shook her head. “Don’t ask. I hate mouse traps.”

“Let me take it.” Tom stood and took the bag from Alice. “Duncan, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m gonna make sure these two get home safe.” He looked down at Alice’s quiet thank you and let her precede him down the steps. Nameless usually walked Alice home, but this time he stood and as if remembering looked over his shoulder at the door to the lodge. Nell was inside. “I think Tom can handle it tonight,” Duncan said. Nameless watched until the threesome faded into the brush of the overgrown trail, and then he sat down and nuzzled Duncan’s hand. “Don’t get pushy.”

Duncan transferred his glass to his other hand and let his fingers work deep into the dense, warm fur leaning against his thigh. His knee ached to match the other ache, the one in his chest. He missed having someone to share the dim evening with. He wanted Hanna to be sitting next to him.
I must be getting old
. The ache wasn’t the lust of last week. It was the empty hole of lonesome.

About ten on the rainy Fourth of July morning Duncan answered the phone, “Cotton Grass Lodge.”

“Duncan, this is Petra.” He heard a grudging apology in her voice. “I—we had no idea how bad she was slipping. We’ve all been taking turns keeping her, and when she got away, we all thought someone else had picked her up.” Her annoyance didn’t shift to Duncan this time. She explained how the Pioneer Home still didn’t have a place for Nell, and so she was being shuffled between kids and grandkids.

“Petra, I’ll call and let you know when the weather breaks. I won’t send her into town unless someone’s there to pick her up.”

“Thank you.” Petra verified a phone number and gave him three others.

“I’m glad your family has been able to see how limited her abilities are. If she goes to Arizona to see her sister, I hope you have someone to travel with her.”

A long silence followed. “Her sister?” Petra’s voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “Her sister has been dead for three years.”

The Fourth of July celebration fit Duncan’s mood, he kept a bonfire going for most of the afternoon and evening. Sparklers, hot dogs, and marshmallows satisfied the guests as well as the few locals gathering for the subdued festivities.

The Jeffersons came across the lake in their skiff with another couple. Edna’s husband was home from his job on the slope, and they sat laughing with the newest guests.

Duncan lounged apart from the group and nursed a beer. The first one he’d had in a week. Restrained snatches of conversations drifted past. He contemplated the disconnected reality he felt as he gazed into the fire. He was a voyeur on the day.

“This is when it happens, you know,” Edna said from where she stood at his side. She leaned forward to stick a marshmallow into the glowing embers of the fire pit, and she glanced up and smiled at Duncan.

“What?” Duncan hadn’t been aware she’d moved closer to him.

“The first or second week in July is when the love and hate of a season in Alaska catches up with you. You’ve been working at a dead run from dawn until dim, ’cause it never gets dark, and suddenly you’re tired.” Her face creased warmly.

“Is there a name for what this is?” Duncan asked.

“Yes. Tom has started to tell you all the things you have to do before freeze-up, and that feels overwhelming. Alice is tired, you’re tired, and the customers aren’t nearly as much fun as they were in May. You’re burned out. Don’t let it get to you.”

Duncan gave a rueful chortle and continued for her, “And Charlie’s new pilot is an ass, the kids they sent up here to count fish left a tap open and ran a hundred gallons of water into the lane, and Hanna…” He didn’t know quite what to say about Hanna.

Edna nodded and joined him in his contemplation of the fire. “Hanna isn’t here, and you want her to be.”

“It’s obvious? Does everyone know?”

“Oh, yeah. Small town.” Edna nodded like the sage old-timer she was. “Do something fun. You can work too much. You won’t be worth much if you burn out.”

Jacob and Naomi brought their children and Mathew and Leah’s as well. Naomi let the sporadic drizzle keep her on the porch with Nell. The crowd migrated back and forth from the misty yard to the porch to see Naomi and chat with Nell. Everyone was interested in when the new baby might be born.

As the evening began to wind down, Edna and her husband loaded Nell onto one of their four-wheelers. Duncan wasn’t surprised when Nameless stopped playing fetch with the children to escort Nell down the trail.

Harv waved to Duncan and called out, “Don’t worry about the pup. He can stay with Nell tonight. We’ll bring them home in the morning.”

Duncan gratefully shook his head and gave thumbs up in understanding.

Chapter 18

Hanna flew to the lake a week after the Fourth of July fiasco. A spectacular afternoon in mid-summer was the same as anywhere else. The two guests she brought had too much fun planned for too little time. She unloaded the usual, a few fresh groceries, the newspapers, and a packet of mail. The letter she delivered to Alice was certified.

Later she sat on the porch holding Emily and talking to Tom. “Well, gossip to me. Charlie said Nell came out for the Fourth. What happened?”

“Nothing much.” Tom yawned and stretched. “She was a little testy when Duncan put her on the plane the next day. We haven’t heard anything since.” Tom ran a hand over his freshly trimmed beard. “It’s sad.”

“Mmm, at least she has family.” The warm, solid baby fit comfortably in Hanna’s lap. As she fought sleep, Emily’s head bumped against Hanna’s breasts. Contentment felt good and normal, and with it came the lusty needs she’d been wrestling with for a week. “I can’t believe Duncan actually went fishing. What got into him?”

“Jacob offered him a trip, and he took it.” Tom giggled like a girl. “He was like a kid.”

Hanna pointed over the heads of two couples, laughing and getting to know each other around the fire pit. Beyond the pit where once a stand of alder brush had been, was an open vista across the lake. A makeshift fence consisting of a single strand of yellow poly rope reminded people to stay off the new grass seeding. “The view down to the lake is beautiful.”

“Hmph.” Tom wrinkled his face and shuddered. “It took an awful lot of blood to get the view to beautiful. Why couldn’t Duncan ‘a left it alone and called it moose habitat?”

“Uhh, because it’s beautiful?” Hanna thrust her chin at him good-naturedly. “Don’t you give me a look. You know it looks good, too. Harry loved it like this he just got too sick and tired to keep it up.”

Tom’s fierce look wasn’t genuine. “Easy for you to say. We ran out of bandages.” He held up one hand still sporting a finger wrapped in black electrical tape.

Alice came out on the porch and plopped down in a chair. “Whew. I love this job, but I’m glad the day is over.”

Tom held his hands out to Emily. “Come here pretty girl.” The heavy-lidded baby squirmed in Hanna’s arms and went willingly to Tom.

“Are you hogging this baby?” Hanna pouted as she handed Emily over. “I haven’t seen her for over a week.”

“You’re gonna have to stay here longer or have one of your own,” Tom said. He laughed and bounced the baby on his lap. Hanna didn’t want to think about the truth in what he said. Staying home and having babies never crossed her mind until this summer. Now, an ache in the cradle of her pelvis brought her mind back to Duncan.

Alice spoke with a tired voice. “All right you two. Share. She’ll be so spoiled after a summer out here no one will want to be around her. Tom, don’t get her riled up, or she won’t go to sleep.”

Tom’s eyes widened, he took a deep breath and held it while exaggerated shaking took over his body. He stood and handed Emily back to Hanna. “I’m gonna tuck tail and head to my house. You don’t need me if Hanna’s gonna walk you home.” Tom held Alice in a longer-than-needed gaze, and she faintly smiled in return. “Have a nice day off,” he said. “See ya, Hanna.”

Like the snap of fingers the moment passed. Tom skipped down the steps and turned the corner around the lodge to the trail toward his cabin.

“He’s a nice man. You’ve been a good influence on him.” Hanna watched Alice’s face. Their eyes locked.

“I will say he’s getting more than a little attached to Emily.” Alice averted her look and stood.

“I think he’s getting more than a little attached to you, too,” Hanna said. “Let’s go have a hen party at my house. I’ve got a really nice bottle of wine, and we can both sleep in in the morning.”

“I’m tired. I’m afraid one glass will be my undoing.” Alice tittered. “On the other hand, a gab session with a girlfriend is just what the doctor ordered. Hey, I thought you didn’t drink.”

“I don’t drink alone or twenty-four hours before a flight, tomorrow is my day off. I’m sticking to my story.” Hanna stood and hefted the baby onto her hip. “Emily needs a lesson in girl talk.” She wiggled her fingers across the baby’s tummy and enjoyed the resulting high-pitched squeal. “A girl can never start those lessons soon enough. Come on, girlfriends, let’s go home.”