by Laurel Kerr
* * *
Honey quite enjoyed being a mother, even if it meant spending most of her time in a burrow. Recently, she had the urge to move her lair again. Carefully carrying the newborn in her mouth, she dug another cavity in the dirt. Hopefully, this time the humans would not plant odd-looking things inside it.
When her new home was complete, Honey curled up and felt her baby nestle against her. She sighed as her eyes drifted shut. She did not mind this new adventure. She had a feeling it was going to turn out to be an exciting one. Once her kit grew old enough to leave the den, Honey was going to have so much fun showing her heir how to properly stir up mischief.
* * *
June woke to find Magnus watching her. He gently brushed back her hair, his blue eyes glowing with affection. “Good morning, lass.”
She smiled and stretched in the circle of his arms. Admiration mixed with the tenderness in Magnus’s eyes. Leveraging herself up, she laid a kiss on his lips. She meant to just give him a peck, but it turned into a longer one. She sighed. “Now that is how a girl should wake up.”
“Is that an order?” he asked, his voice teasing without any trace of tension. Given what Magnus had confessed about his past, June recognized what it meant for him to say those words so easily.
She laid her palm on the side of his dear, familiar face. “Do you want it to be?”
“Aye,” he said, “one I’ll willingly t-t-take.” He turned his head and kissed her hand before he rose from the bed. The sheet slipped, and June exhaled in appreciation as he walked stark naked over to his duffel bag. When he bent to shuffle for his clothes, lust bolted through her. The man did have one fine-looking heinie. She could spend all day ogling it.
He turned and froze when he caught her looking. His eyes heated, and her body immediately started tingling. Memories from yesterday flooded her, and heat flared. Mercy, she’d never thought of sex as transformative, but she felt all shaky and new.
“If you keep looking at me like that, hen, we’ll never leave the b-b-bed.”
June did not stop. “Is that a problem? The tea shop isn’t open today.”
Leaning forward, he gave her another explosive kiss. Unfortunately, he pulled back. She made a mewling sound in protest. Before she could reach for him, he dropped a fat manila envelope in her lap. Curious, she glanced at him.
“What is this?”
“My latest manuscript. It’s due to my editor in a week.”
June froze. “I thought you never let anyone read your work until it was published.”
Magnus sat down on the bed, his expression solemn. “I don’t, lass, but you aren’t just anyone.”
Joy sparked as she clutched the papers to her chest. Magnus leaned over and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You’re who I wrote this b-b-book for. It’ll be dedicated to you and Frida.”
June blinked at the last statement. “I share billing with a geriatric grizzly?”
Magnus chuckled. “Just read it, June. I’ll take care of your nan.”
“She missed you,” June told him as he started over to his duffel bag again. While Magnus had been sleeping from his long journey, she’d taken care of Nan and gotten her ready for bed. Clearly exhausted, Magnus had slept straight through the night.
“How is she?” Magnus asked as he pulled out a pair of boxers and pants.
June started to give an upbeat response but stopped herself. This was Magnus. She didn’t need false cheer. “There’ve been a lot of bad days. Some good ones too. She’s not getting worse, but she’s not getting any better. The doctors believe she’s plateaued.”
Immediately, Magnus stopped putting on his shirt. He came back over and sat on the bed. “How have you been handling it?”
June teared up. She didn’t try to hide it. Love meant honesty, even when it came to sharing the uglier emotions. “It’s been hard. I’ve even considered putting her in a nursing home. Katie convinced me to let folks help out. Her mom comes at least one evening a week, and Buck and Stanley watch her during the mornings.”
Magnus reached over and pulled her close. “I’m here now, lass. I’ll help take care of her.”
June rested her head against his shoulder, feeling his heat and strength. “That’s a lot to ask.”
Magnus shook his head, and she felt his chin scrape against her hair. “Nay, not at all. I’ve never minded spending time with your nan, and I can write while sitting with her. I’m t-t-tired of living my life alone, June. It will be good for both of us to have a spot of company.”
A heaviness lifted from June as she flung her arms around Magnus. He held her tightly and kissed her temple. The simple tenderness in his embrace wrapped around June like her favorite wool scarf. The fear and grief that had clung to her since her nan’s hospital visit fell away. Yes, her grandmother might never return to her normal self, but she and June would muddle through this just as June had promised her gran.
“Junie?” Nan’s thin voice came over the baby monitor.
Magnus planted a kiss on June’s forehead as he rose. “I’ll take care of her, June.” He paused and jabbed his thumb at the stack of papers on the bed. “You read.”
As Magnus left the room, June picked up his manuscript, but before she could even glance at the title page, the monitor crackled to life.
“Magnus?” her grandmother’s voice sounded full of wonder. June felt a stab of relief that Nan recognized him so easily.
“Aye, in the flesh,” Magnus said.
“You came back.”
“I couldn’t stay away from the two b-b-bonniest lasses I’ve ever m-met,” Magnus answered.
“Oh now,” Nan protested, but June could hear the pleased smile in her voice. She heard the old wooden chair creak as Magnus sat down.
“I won’t leave either of you again,” Magnus promised, and those darn tears pricked the back of June’s eyes.
“Well, you better not,” her grandmother said, sounding every inch a Brit with her clipped tone.
“I promise I’ll m-m-make it up to you.”
“Hrmph.”
“June is reading my latest m-m-manuscript right now, but when she’s done, I’ll read it to you.”
“I would like that,” her grandmother said, clearly mollified.
When Magnus spoke, affection suffused his tone. “As would I.”
“If you’re planning on staying, you might as well call me, ‘Nan,’” her grandmother said, sounding so much like her old self that June squeezed her eyes shut.
There was a beat of silence before Magnus said gravely, “Aye, Nan, I’ll d-do that.”
“Will you read to me now?” Nan asked, her voice childlike again. June smiled softly as she turned off the baby monitor. Glancing down, she started on the first paragraph.
I didn’t expect the sharp cold…or her. I’ve always imagined the American desert to be insufferably hot with a dryness that causes a man’s very cells to wither. Yet when I arrived, I discovered a crispness to the air. It is a new chill, not as baltic as the Arctic Circle or as dreich as Orkney. The sun still blazes overhead, a harbinger of the sweltering days to come.
After checking into my lodgings, I popped over to Sagebrush’s answer to the pub—the Prairie Dog Café. It is a larger establishment than I’d envisioned and is festooned with antlers and old farm equipment. Like the American West itself, the restaurant is a wide-open space, with no charming nooks and crannies for a man to tuck away in. I attempted to secrete myself in one of the booths the Yanks are so fond of, but I soon received my first lesson on hospitality in the United States.
I heard her voice first…slow and honeyed. It makes a man think of Spanish moss, magnolia trees, and steamy moonlit nights. I turned and found myself staring into eyes as green as newly sprung grass. Dreich, surly soul that I am, I tried to resist her sunny warmth, to retreat back into the vinyl bench
currently serving as my cave. But the fae lass persisted, grabbing my hand, pulling me into the merriment and light behind her.
June shifted as she read Magnus’s description of their first encounter. It was strange, seeing herself on the page and knowing this book would be distributed around the world. Yet, despite the slight twinge of vulnerability, she didn’t worry. She trusted Magnus, trusted he’d tell their story right.
As she flipped the next page, she forgot her momentary discomfort. Magnus’s beautiful prose pulled her into the story. Even though she’d lived it, she found herself riveted. He wrote of his talks with Frida and his fondness for little Sorcha and Savannah. Magnus captured details of the zoo residents’ personalities that June had overlooked. and those observations were what really made the animals come to life in the reader’s mind.
He wrote about his struggles with disfluency and how he’d finally come to accept it as part of him. June’s eyes grew damp. A tear or two might have dripped down her cheek when he alluded to his strict upbringing.
But mostly, her heart soared as she read his wonderful, wonderful tale. For it was a love story. Theirs. She appeared everywhere in the manuscript. Even when she frustrated Magnus, she could still detect his underlying fondness.
She couldn’t stop reading. Magnus checked in on her a few times and even brought her lunch. He’d reported that her nan was doing fine, so June kept turning pages. When she read the last paragraph, her heart galloped faster than a runaway stallion. The tears in her eyes bubbled over, this time from sheer joy. If she ever doubted the Scot loved her, this chased the thought away.
I have returned home from my sojourn in the States, but London no longer suits me. The green in the pub’s stained-glass windows reminds me of her bonny eyes, and though the fire chases away the dreich of a London spring night, it cannot warm my soul. I am a half-awakened man. Just as a seed needs the sun’s rays to sprout through its hull, I need the warmth of her smile and the heat of her touch to push through the husk of my past. I have been running since I left Bjaray; perhaps now it is time I changed directions and returned. Not to the dark, windy Isles, but to the sun and dust of the American West.
June rose and walked to her grandmother’s room. Nan lay asleep on the bed, while Magnus typed on his laptop. At her entrance, he immediately glanced up. He took one look at her face and set his computer aside. Wordlessly, he arose from his chair and followed her out into the hall.
“Did you like it?” he asked, his tone slightly hushed even though her nan would never be able to hear them.
“How could I not?” June asked, wrapping her arms around him as she lifted her chin to regard him with all the love she felt. “It was the most magical thing I’ve ever read. I’m so honored, and touched, and… Well, I don’t even know how to describe how glorious I feel, Magnus.”
“I didn’t realize what I was writing until I was finished,” Magnus admitted. “After I read the first draft, I got blootered. I was so blitzed I called Frida.”
“The bear?”
“Aye, I suppose I owe Bowie a thank-you for not letting on about that,” Magnus said. “I was still guttered when I headed to Kirkwall, but I sobered up afore I reached m-my m-mum’s. It was good, seeing she’d made a life—a good one—after a childhood of ugliness and m-marriage with m-my da. I’d been going about it wrong, trying to keep myself shut off and thinking it was freedom. I was still under his control, his words in m-my head.”
“Oh, Magnus,” June breathed.
“But I’m done with listening to him and with worrying that committing m-myself to another will mean losing my autonomy. You’ve released m-me from so m-m-many of the chains I put on m-myself…and not just those I forged because of m-m-my d-d-d-da. I’ve accepted who I am June, even the stuttering, because you kept pushing. I meant what I wrote. For the first time in my life, I’m ready to come home.”
“Sagebrush is home?”
“Nay, lass, you’re home.”
The truth of Magnus’s words rang through June. “You know, darlin’, my whole childhood I was looking for a place to put down roots, and I did here. But when you left, I felt as empty as a larder after a hard winter.”
“What are you saying, lass?” Magnus asked, his voice husky with hope and joy.
“That you’re my home too.”
He kissed her then. It was sweet and tender…and even a little innocent. It was a kiss of homecoming and belonging.
Epilogue
“So, I am going to ask the lass to marry me on Monday when the zoo is closed to visitors,” Magnus told Frida.
The bear looked up from her ice treat. She licked her lips as she regarded Magnus. He’d been back in Sagebrush Flats for a month now. Life had fallen into an easy pattern. To his surprise, he’d become accustomed to having his breakfast at the tea shop with Nan, Buck, and Stanley. The locals didn’t even appear to notice his stutter anymore. They just gave him the time he needed to get out whatever he wanted. Although Magnus would never become a gossip, he’d begun to appreciate the rhythm of small-town life.
“And I’m planning to get a dog, a friendly one who won’t mind cozying up in a corner of the tea shop.”
Frida snorted, the sound indignant. Magnus smiled. “Don’t fash yourself, lass. I’ll still be volunteering at the zoo and stopping by to see you. I might bring Nan along too.” Although the older woman remained on antianxiety medication, she’d slowly improved to the point where she could handle short outings. She had good days and bad days. While June managed her two businesses, Magnus kept Nan company and wrote. Yesterday, he’d finally persuaded June to agree to try having a home healthcare worker watch her grandmother a few times a week. June had protested at the cost, but they could afford the expense, especially after the last call from his agent.
“I have good news,” Magnus said to the bear. “You’re going to be more famous. There’s to be a movie about the Sagebrush Zoo.”
Frida appeared more interested in the apple slice she had dislodged from the ice than his revelation of her potential star status. She nosed the frozen fruit before gobbling it down. Magnus smiled. June’s response had been a wee bit more enthusiastic. There were benefits to having a human confidant.
“You’ll have to wait your turn, though. They’re first making two films based on my books about Orkney and the Arctic. The final one will be my favorite. It’s a love story, after all.”
Magnus’s editor had fully endorsed his manuscript. Then the vlog had gone viral, and Magnus’s agent was now in the process of negotiating a three-movie deal. She’d called last night to go over the compensation, which would give June and him more than enough to provide for her nan. With the onset of tourist season, June’s businesses were also booming. He’d talked her into setting up an appointment with the local bank to see about a loan to expand her jam-making operations.
“Things are settling where they should,” Magnus told Frida. “I just need to come up with a proper proposal for June. I’m a practical sort, but June fancies more flash. I want to make it pure magic for her. Bowie said he’d help me execute the details, and Abby’s over the moon with excitement. Here’s what I’ve been thinking…”
Although no one could hear him, Magnus leaned over the fence and whispered his plans to the old bruin.
* * *
June hurried through the zoo carrying two tattie scones, a tea for Magnus, and an iced latte for herself. He’d told her this morning he’d wanted to meet her for a late lunch at the prairie-dog enclosure. The new healthcare worker was watching her grandmother this afternoon. Although June hadn’t initially liked the idea of a stranger taking over like that, she’d warmed to Lily almost instantly and, better yet, so had Nan. The woman was both cheerful and competent.
Thoughts of the caretaker and Nan fled when June rounded a corner and spotted Magnus. At the sight of him, she gave a cry of delight. “Honey, I thought you said you woul
d never wear a kilt.”
Magnus stood in full formal Scottish attire, the flags of color in his cheeks almost as red as in his tartan. “Aye, lass, but I did it for you. I asked m-m-my m-m-m-mum if we are descended from any of the Highland clans since her folks came to Orkney from mainland Scotland. I have some M-M-MacGregor blood running through me, so I thought I’d wear their plaid.”
June ran her eyes over his tall form swathed in the bright-red and green colors. With his broad shoulders, neatly trimmed beard, and strong features, he looked like he belonged on the cover of a romance novel. “Darlin’, you do not disappoint.”
His flush deepened, a reaction June never failed to find charming. Magnus shifted, and June could sense tension rising from him like steam from a boiler. She frowned at his nervousness. Lately, they’d become as comfortable with each other as two worn shoes. His disfluency had decreased too. Although Magnus still blocked on words, he’d gained more control over his stutter. Since his return to Sagebrush, he’d been diligently working on speech therapy techniques.
Magnus gestured toward the prairie dogs and then the bench across from the exhibit. The little rodents had retreated into their burrows at her approach, but a few had begun to peek out. June caught a glimpse of their adorable little faces as they regarded Magnus and her with curious brown eyes.
“D-D-D-Do you remember the first time you b-b-brought me a tattie scone? I was sitting right there.”
June nodded. “You’d just learned your editor wanted you to do a vlog.”
“Aye,” Magnus nodded. “I thought it was the worst idea, b-b-but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to m-m-me. If it hadn’t b-b-b-been for his request, I would’ve kept avoiding you. I’d be b-b-b-back in my London flat now thinking I was free when I was really trapped in the same world of gray I’d spent my life trying to escape.”
Magnus swept his hand over the vista surrounding the zoo. Seeing her town through his eyes, June gazed at the familiar red dirt dotted with vibrant green sagebrush. Orange, pink, and white cliffs rose from the ground with hazy mountains looming behind them. “You’re like this land to me, lass…full of color and brightness and warmth.”