I’m so lost in thought I barely notice when Grandma Bea comes into the kitchen from the pantry. She is wearing her poinsettia apron again and carrying a big fancy china serving bowl with dancing Santas painted on the sides. She stands at the head of the table and clears her throat to get everyone’s attention.
“I have been saving this treat for a special occasion, and Christmas seems as good a day as any,” she says, and Harold smiles up at her like she is his whole world. It melts my heart. “It is also my way of saying thank you for helping fix our roof. We don’t have much, but you boys deserve this and so much more before you set out again.”
She puts the bowl down in the middle of the table, and I can hardly believe my eyes. It’s full of mandarin oranges. Kyle nudges me with his elbow and wiggles his eyebrows. He knows I have searched every single house we’ve been in for even just one can. The bowl in front of me contains at least four huge containers worth.
I pile the oranges on my plate, trying very hard not to take them all for myself. The first bite is like heaven, and I savor the sweetness, the texture, everything. I notice Kyle is staring at me, and I glance over at him, my mouth full of orange segments. He is smiling and looking at me the way Harold did at Grandma Bea. He takes my hand in his and kisses gently over my work-scraped knuckles, communicating to me without words how much he loves me. How did I ever get so lucky to find this man after the world ended?
Outside later I’m standing by the small wooden dam in the retaining pond behind the farmhouse. Everything is covered in a soft blanket of snow that sparkles in the day’s fading light. It tamps down the sounds around me, and the rush of the river leading away from the pond and the soft nickering of Max’s horses in the stable next to the henhouse are the only noises that drift over. The silence I have become accustomed to in this nearly empty world is much different than the quiet peacefulness I feel now; I’ve come to understand the absence of sound is not the same as serenity.
I have my notebook out and am looking over the crowded pages at my scrawled notes, wanting to make sure I have everything ready before I start up the mill. Kyle walks out the back door and makes his way over. He stuffs his hands in his pockets as he comes to a stop beside me.
“How’s it coming along?” he asks. The cold air is already reddening his cheeks.
“Almost done. Just have to turn this wheel by the dam to get the water flowing, and it’ll be ready to go.”
Kyle gazes out at the icy pond and nods. “It’s really amazing what you’ve been able to do here for these people,” he says softly.
I let out a self-depreciating laugh. “Well, I have to make myself useful somehow. I’m not good at hunting and tracking like you.”
Kyle frowns, but I continue on before he can say anything.
“And besides my gadgets, I don’t really contribute. I try to help, but I know I can be clumsy as hell and am probably more trouble than I’m worth most days. That’s why I wanted to fix the mill. You’ve saved my ass more times than I could ever come close to repaying you for, so I had to do something.”
Kyle stares at me for a moment with his brows drawing together, then tugs the sleeve of my coat so we’re facing each other. “Do you really believe you don’t save my ass every single day?” His eyes search mine. “Tobin, seeing your face in the morning when I wake up is the only thing keeping me going. I love watching you come up with new ideas. The way your brain works? It fascinates me. The things you’ve created have kept us alive in the most critical moments. There is no way I could have come this far without you.”
He reaches up and cups my cheek with his cold hand. Then he presses close to me and gives me a soft lingering kiss that warms me straight down to my toes. I had never once imagined I helped him so much. With all the brains I supposedly possess, I never saw it until now. We both give to our relationships in the ways we are individually strong. We work together in harmony much like the gears on a watch.
Pulling away after a few tender moments, I shove my notebook back in my pocket and wrap my fingers around the gift I made for Kyle. The gash on Kyle’s temple has healed up nicely, with Grandma Bea’s well-meaning doctoring, but it will still most likely leave a scar. The guilt living at the back of my mind all week comes to the forefront.
I swallow hard and pull the watch out. “I got you a Christmas present,” I say quietly.
Kyle’s eyes light up as I hold the timepiece out in my palm, but I tug it back when he reaches for it. He looks at me, confused.
“I snuck out and was getting the parts I needed for it the night Max grabbed us. I know now he was just trying to help Grandma Bea and Harold, but I wasn’t there with you when it really mattered. I shouldn’t have left without telling you. I’m sorry.”
I hold the watch out again and let him take it this time. He picks it up from my palm reverently, turning it over and over. He glances up at me with a little crease wrinkling his forehead and his eyes shimmering. “You made this for me?” he murmurs, his voice thick with emotion.
Nodding, I chew at my bottom lip. “Yeah, but I—”
“Tobin,” he says, cutting me off and putting the watch on his left wrist, “this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I can’t imagine what you went through to put it together.”
I rub a hand over the back of my neck, thinking of how I fell through the roof of the jewelry shop. “It’s a long story,” I say with a laugh. I should have known Kyle would be understanding about it all. My self-doubt has become a companion I seriously need to cut ties with. If I can teach myself how to fix a damn one-hundred-year-old mill, I can sure as hell teach myself how to be more confident.
Kyle patiently listens as I explain to him how to wind his new gift. The second hand starts moving after I finish, and he holds the watch up to his ear. He smiles delightedly, and I can’t help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction swell inside my chest; I’ve actually done something right for a change.
“I have a present for you too,” he says, surprising me. He reaches behind his back and produces a leather-bound notebook. “I noticed yours is running out of room.”
I grab the book in awe and eagerly thumb through all the crisp, empty pages. “Where did you find this?”
“In the pharmacy the time I got the medicine for you after you got sick. I’ve been holding on to it. I knew you’d need it eventually, with all the drawings you do.” He smiles gently and runs his fingers down the cover. “Stayed awake when you were sleeping to make the leather jacket from that deer we caught in the fall. It was in my backpack at the B and B, and Max grabbed it for me when he went into town. Took me a while to put together, but for you, it was all worth it.”
“Thank you,” I say with the utmost sincerity. “I love you so much.”
Kyle gives me a tight hug and plants a loud, ringing kiss to the side of my neck. “Love you too, Tobin. Merry Christmas. Now what you say we get this mill up and running?”
He releases me, and I turn back to the dam and take a deep breath. Twisting the metal wheel opens it up, and water immediately starts filling the pond. A steady stream begins flowing down the wooden chute leading to the water wheel attached to the farmhouse. After a moment, the wheel begins to turn. I had already set everything up inside to start moving once the rushing water fed the turbines, so I stay outside on the snowy bank of the pond beside Kyle. In the pale light of the setting sun, we watch the big wooden wheel revolve in place. The sound of the generator powering up inside the house is loud in the stillness I am so accustomed to.
I wrap my hand in Kyle’s as we stand side by side. And then something truly magical happens. Christmas lights that have been strung on the farmhouse since last year suddenly flicker on. Red and white bulbs twinkle brightly, edging the newly patched roof in a festive and unexpected light show.
Kyle and I stare in awe at the sight before us. It almost feels as if the end of civilization hasn’t come and gone over these last twelve months. It’s a notion of normalcy for us in a world that is n
o longer normal.
“I don’t want to go to New York anymore,” I say suddenly, surprising myself. But it really shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I have felt more at home in this place with Max, Grandma Bea, Harold, and of course, Kyle, than I have anywhere else this year. And besides, the thought of walking for hours on end another six hundred miles makes me groan. I look at Kyle expectantly, hoping he feels the same way.
Kyle is quiet, his face illuminated softly with the glow of red-and-white light. His expression is almost unreadable. But then he squeezes my hand and rests his head on my shoulder. “You know, I was thinking the same damn thing. We found our sanctuary right here in Clifton, Ohio,” he says with a happy sigh. “Who would have thought?”
I tuck my new notebook into my pocket alongside my old one and watch the water wheel make another pass through the river with Kyle right at my side. The Christmas lights gleam brightly, and I can see Grandma Bea, Harold, and Max staring out a window at the back of the house, amazed. I grin at the sight. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
CASSIE DECKER has been a writer most of her life, but only started writing love stories once she read her first romance novel in high school and fell in love with falling in love. After graduating college and entering the corporate workforce, she realized sharing those stories with her friends and coworkers wasn’t as scary as she thought it would be. She found rather quickly how much they enjoyed her steamy yet sweet tales of love and passion when they kept asking for more.
When she’s not writing, Cassie enjoys getting her geek on by making cosplay costumes, going to comic-cons, and drawing fan art of her favorite characters. Besides being a total nerd, she likes to knit, read, binge-watch the shows on her streaming list, and practice her ukulele if she can find the time. Cassie also loves playing in the Colorado Rockies with her husband and her corgi pup, Murphy, when she’s not busy obsessing over the fictional men plotting their love stories in her head.
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/cassie.decker.9
Twitter: @cabooseomalley
Blog: www.lopsided-whiskey-grin.tumblr.com
By Cassie Decker
Driven to Distraction
Kismet
An Unexpected Sanctuary
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
An Unexpected Sanctuary
© 2017 Cassie Decker.
Cover Art
© 2017 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-301-5
Published December 2017
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
An Unexpected Sanctuary Page 4