“He always thought he’d be rich,” Noni said, sighing. “Gold fever they called it. Probably still do. It took my mother, my brother, and me working to keep the family from losing everything. And what we couldn’t provide, the community did. There were some winters I didn’t think we’d make it, and then some wonderful soul would show up in our darkest hour of need with food, extra blankets, and sometimes a load of wood to burn if my brother didn’t have the time to cut what we’d need for the colder months.”
“He died in a mining accident you said before. What kind of mining accident was it?” I asked, wondering if, for once, she’d tell me the whole story.
“There isn’t really a story to tell, Nova. I only know what my mother told us. He went to his claim, there was an accident, and he died. Maybe one day when I see him again, he’ll tell me what happened,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Why do you always say that?” I asked.
“Say what?”
“The whole ‘when I get to heaven, I’ll ask so and so this, or find out the whole reason for that sort of thing,’” I said, keeping my tone level despite how much it upset me.
Mr. Lewis chose that moment to clear the doors of the kitchen, carrying along the scent of pan-fried halibut.
Not to be interrupted, Noni answered as our plates were set in front of us. “Nova, if you think for one second that anyone is getting out of this life alive, I fear I haven’t taught you what life is truly all about.”
I rolled my eyes. “You taught me everything I know. But it still doesn’t mean I have to like it when you talk about death so much.”
She took a bite of halibut and closed her eyes with a sigh. “Stanley, I believe this is my favorite dish yet.”
His cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink as he dipped his head. “Thank you, Noni, your happiness is my own. Now, do you ladies require anything else before I head back to the kitchen?”
“A nip of the good stuff wouldn’t go amiss on such a blustery day,” Noni said, sharing a secret smile with Mr. Lewis.
“I’ll just top this off for you.” He picked up her coffee and carried it back to the kitchen.
“A nip, huh?” I shook my head.
“Youth is wasted on the youth… yes, a nip. Believe it or not, just because someone gets old doesn’t mean they stop enjoying things in life. I’d put a shot of brandy in my oatmeal if I thought it would make it taste better,” she said, giving me a stern look.
“I just bet you would, Mrs. Ornery,” I said, clinking my fork against hers when she held it up and pointed it at me.
“Pot. Kettle,” she said, making me laugh.
Mr. Lewis came back with two coffees, placing one in front of Noni, and setting the other one at the edge of the table as he dragged a chair over and plunked it down in front of it. He sat down and then asked, “Mind if I join you?”
“Stanley’s father used to make his own whiskey, didn’t he?” Noni asked Mr. Lewis, forking another bite of halibut into her mouth.
He nodded, smiling enough that twin dimples bracketed his mouth. “He did. Sold it to, when the law wasn’t looking.”
“He teach you how to make it?” Noni asked.
“Why? Thinking on taking up bootlegging?” he countered.
Noni didn’t miss a beat. “And so what if I was? Nobody would suspect an old lady, would they?”
He hooted. “I’ll tell ya, if I thought for one second you’d be up for it, we’d leave just as soon as you were finished with your food and I’d show you how to make the best damn whiskey Nome has ever tasted.”
“Only Nome, huh?” she bantered.
“Well, he wasn’t much for expansion,” Stanley said, lifting his cup to take a sip.
“Hard to outrun the law with sled dogs, I suppose,” she said, lifting her own cup in a silent toast.
He shook his head as he beamed a smile at her. “I suppose so.”
“You could teach Nova. Seems something like that shouldn’t be forgotten,” Noni said, hiding her mouth behind her mug.
“Noni! I’m not doing that,” I said, lightly smacking the table to make my point.
The two of them laughed at me.
“Couldn’t help you even if I wanted to. My dad never did get around to showing me. I think he was afraid I would try to outrun the law with a dogsled team,” Stanley said, winking at me.
“He was probably right. If trouble didn’t find you, you found trouble.” Noni tapped the edge of her plate. “It’s a good thing you found better things to do with your life.”
“Why thank you, Noni. I’ll take that compliment,” he said, pushing up from his seat, and then collecting both our empty plates.
“It was really good, Mr. Lewis. Thanks,” I said, scooping up our silverware and setting it on the top plate.
“It’s Stanley, young lady. How many times do I have to tell you that? Yet you still call me Mr. Lewis,” he said, giving me a hard time.
“That’s because she was raised with manners. I saw to that,” Noni answered, beaming.
“You did a fine job, Noni. A fine one. Now, I best get these dishes washed and ready for the dinner crowd. Have a good day, ladies. Come back soon,” he said as I fished out some cash from my wallet and dropped it on the table because he never billed us when we came in.
He always saw me do it. And he always shook his head when I told him to put it toward one of those Alaskan sea cruises where he could whale watch. It was our running joke since he couldn’t step foot on a boat without turning green, or so he said.
“You up for the walk home, or should I see if Jan will give us a ride?” I asked Noni as I helped her into her jacket.
“A little fresh air won’t hurt us. Especially not you, since you ate so much lunch,” she said, poking my jacket in the vicinity of my stomach.
“You ate as much as I did,” I said, opening the door for her.
She loved to banter, which was probably where I got it from. “Well, I suppose we’ll be a pair, won’t we, waddling down the road.”
“You mean teetering? You’re the one who had a nip,” I reminded her.
“Probably could have used another one for the road,” she said, stuffing her arm through mine as the wind tugged at our clothes.
“Did I ever tell you how you got your name?” Noni asked.
“Once. A long time ago,” I answered, unable to look at her. She’d told me, but when I asked my mom, she laughed and called Noni an old fool because it wasn’t why they—my mother and father—chose to call me Nova.
“I always thought of you as my brand-new star. My Nova. You’ve brought such joy to my life throughout the years,” Noni said.
I bit my tongue. There was no way I’d tell her what her own daughter said to me.
“I heard her that day, and she was wrong to say it to you,” Noni said as if she’d plucked the thought right out of my head.
“Heard what?” I asked, because it was possible her thoughts didn’t run alongside my own. After all, my mother had been known to be more than a little jealous of me. Now and then, she’d find a way to try to tarnish a good memory.
“I named you. Me. Because the two of them were too busy mourning their old lives to take care of the one they created. So you were my Nova. My new star. My darling granddaughter, who I’d see raised right no matter what,” she said, giving a sharp nod of her head. “Your mother would have told you just about anything to cause a rift. So, no, you weren’t named after the supposed car you were conceived it. I should know since neither of them owned a car, nor did any of their heathen friends.”
I thought about it for a minute before asking, “Do you think that maybe some people just aren’t meant to be parents?”
She pulled her arm free of mine and put it around me. As she hugged me with a strength that surprised me, she said, “More often than not, honey. But that’s no fault of the child, and really, they’re better off without that kind of raising. Too many displaced kids and not enough love. I wonder what’s worse
…” she added. “Parents who cast children off, or parents who give their children gifts instead of their time? Either way, it’s a shame to see it happen and not be able to do anything about it. But I could with you, and so I did.”
“That you did, Noni,” I said, wrapping my own arm around her as we trundled up the walkway to her house.
Chapter 3
Eli
After several hours in town, I made it back to the house with a truck bed full of bags. Between stocking the house with food, and updating my closet with what I’d call my Alaskan adventure clothing, I’d be putting things away for days.
Once all the bags were inside, I closed the door and then leaned against it. There wasn’t much else to do, so I rolled up my sleeves and began the task of unpacking the food first. The last thing I needed was for the frozen stuff to thaw before I could get it in the freezer. I laughed at the thought, considering I’d turned the heat down before I left to go to the store and the house was about as cold as an icebox.
And with that frigid reminder, I bumped the thermostat up a few degrees, hoicked a handful of bags over to the counter, and began the mindless task of putting things away. I’d never been one who needed idle chatter, but it had been far too quiet lately. Maybe that was because I’d grown used to someone always being around. For the last couple of months, Ace, Aiden, Jared, Josh, and Mark, along with Riley, Airen, Murphy, Ella, and Paige, had been around. That meant there hadn’t been a dull moment.
It hit me then how our already large group of friends had grown so much. Yet, it felt as if every single one of them had always been in our lives. I didn’t think it was very common for more than a handful of friends to remain so and stay in constant contact after graduation. One or two, maybe, but surely not six. The odds of that had to be few and far between.
I missed them, though. Especially when it got too quiet. I could use some of Jared’s snark and Josh’s humor to make the days go by a little faster.
“Guess I’ll have to provide my own entertainment from here on out,” I said to the box of macaroni in my hand.
How fast did cabin fever set in? More than likely when the days grew shorter and trapped people inside for longer period of times.
With the groceries put away, I focused on finding room for my new winter wardrobe. With one dresser, and no extra hangers, it made for an impossible situation. I dumped everything bulky on the floor of the closet, then carried my new jacket out to hang it on the peg beside the door.
“Now, what?” Working for Cole Enterprise since leaving home hadn’t allowed much downtime. Standing in the middle of the kitchen with no idea what to do next left me in a sort of limbo.
I could look into the topography maps of Alaska and gain some idea of good ground for the new location, but until Cole gave me his top three location choices, it would only be wasted research. Then again, I had nothing better to do, so…
The map took up the entire top of the table. Bright circles of green, yellow, and orange marked my top picks, which I based off a few key factors. Cole Enterprise could be self-sufficient if it needed to be, but the more access we had to things like running water and power, the less we would have to do to set it up.
Since I was settled in, I had time to come up with a plan on how to approach Nova. I’d put it off for as long as I could. Roman Flint would want a report soon, even if it was just an outline of Nova’s day. They wanted her, and when Cole Enterprise wanted someone, they wouldn’t stop until they tried everything they could to acquire them.
What made Nova so special in Cole’s eyes was never spoken about. How he found out about her, I’ll probably never know.
All I knew was there was something special about Nova. Maybe it was the way she fought against every person telling her she couldn’t do the job, and did it anyway. The way she gave everything she had until she collapsed, and all for the welfare of a people she held no allegiance to. To me, that said she had more than a backbone. It said she had compassion, heart, and more love than most to give. Momma would have called it gumption.
I met Nova in Haiti by complete accident inside what we called the Big Tent. She’d just assisted a pretty intense surgery that knocked her for a loop. She’d held it together as she tried her best to get out of the tent without losing it. Unfortunately, when I tried to get out of her way, she corrected her own path and ran smack into me.
I remember it like it was yesterday. The look in her eyes as her hand slapped over her mouth. The clammy sweat that coated her face as she fought to hold it in. I got her outside the tent in time, barely.
She thanked me by vomiting on my shoes. I fell in love with her about five minutes later as she cried on my shoulder. She had no idea who I was. She hadn’t even got a look at my face, but that didn’t stop her from crying her heart out as I held her and murmured nonsense words because I had no idea what else to do.
After our first official meeting, I’d found her again a few days later. She had the day off since she’d worked two weeks straight, only taking time to sleep and shove food in her mouth before diving back into the endless tasks always waiting for a pair of hands.
When I introduced myself, she’d blushed deeply and thanked me over and over again while mixing it with apologies for ruining my shoes. After that, we’d become really good friends. But there was never time for more than a day here and there to take the time to get to know one another better. In our brief moments, we talked about random things we liked, sometimes a bit about our families, but it always seemed as if it was cut short with so much left to learn about one another. The week before Ace showed up in my tent and my life was forever flipped on its ass was when I’d finally decided to jump in with both feet and kiss her.
I would never forget the dreamy look in her eyes when she asked, “What took you so long?”
And then melted against me when I told her I’d respected her enough to get to know her first. Then… well, then the moment was shattered. I’d been pulled from Haiti because of Jared being kidnapped. My life had once again changed, forever.
She’d never forgive me. I knew it deep in my heart. How could she? I’d just up and walked away as far as she knew. And there was no way I could tell her why unless she decided to join the team. And why would she do that if I was the one asking her to do it?
No, Nova was an honest person. Honest to a fault. I couldn’t come to her with lies and secret motives. I’d have to present the idea of it to her like the opportunity it was. She was sensible enough to see the benefits Cole Enterprise could provide. Fast tracking her career would also be appealing. The ability to travel the world might rank up there in her top five reasons why she shouldn’t turn her back on what was offered.
Then again, she could end up being completely stubborn and turn her back on it because of me. “Way to give yourself more credit than you deserve, Eli,” I chided myself, adding, “You might think too highly of yourself in believing she’d be swayed one way or the other because you’re there.”
I lowered into the recliner in the living room and turned on the TV. Thinking about seeking out Nova turned me inside out. Part of me wanted to rush over to her grandmother’s house and pound the door down, but the other part wanted to hibernate inside the house and stay there so as to not see the disappointment on her face when I popped back into her life.
Tomorrow, I’d make a plan. Maybe a few days after that, I’d set it in motion.
The drone of TV helped fill the silence even if I wasn’t really paying attention to it. Background noise at least made it feel like I wasn’t alone. I was already stir crazy, and I hadn’t even been in Nome for a full week. What the hell would I do for a month?
Sometimes, it didn’t matter how well we planned things, the big guy upstairs had a better idea. I’d kicked around all the possibilities about where I could run into Nova and strike up a conversation. Outside the grocery store, or the cafe she and her grandmother were known to frequent.
The last place I’d expected to run into her,
quite literally, was the post office. I’d walked toward the door, flipping open my wallet to put the key to my PO Box away.
Nova, from what I could tell after we crashed into one another, had been rooting around in her purse and not paying attention, either.
Stricken to momentary speechlessness, we danced around one another, eyes wide, mouths open and closing as if not sure of what to say.
A passerby lifted a tube of lip gloss in front of Nova’s face, saying, “I think you might have dropped this.”
Nova’s attention jerked to the object. Her hand came out, eyes darting to the woman who’d spoken. “Th-thank you,” she said, closing her hand around the small tube.
“There’s more just there,” the woman said, pointing between Nova’s feet, and then gave her a smile before briskly walking away.
We bent at the same time, heads cracking together and unceremoniously putting us on our backsides, respective hands holding damaged craniums with equal groans of pain. The particular position put us at eye level. When we looked at one another, twin smiles tugged at our lips.
“Sorry. Are you okay?” I asked, getting to my knees to retrieve Nova’s wallet while she reached out to grab her cell phone.
She hissed and rolled her eyes. “I am, but my screen is toast. I have the worst luck with phones. What brings you to Nome?”
Everything I’d planned to say fragmented and blew away in the arctic wind. Everything.
She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Eli?”
I blinked. Before I knew it, she was on her knees, running her hand over my head and then grabbing my arm, finger pressed to the pulse in my wrist as her eyes searched mine. “Is your vision blurry?”
I put my hand on hers, swallowed hard, and said, “I’m fine. I… it’s good to see you again, Nova.”
She pulled her hand back and tipped her head. “You too. What are you doing in Nome?”
“You. I came to find you, I mean…” A flood of embarrassment washed over me for being so direct.
Under Northern Lights (The Six Series Book 6) Page 2