ONE LAST WISH

by Reynolds, Aurora Rose

  Lulu’s face lights with an annoyed smile when she sees me coming, and I can’t help but smile, because I’m sure she’s annoyed with Barry. She’s always irritated with Barry, because he’s always bitching about his monthly bill. Lulu is only about four feet tall and a hundred pounds, but she has more sass in her pinky finger than anyone I’ve met in my life. I think she’s sassy to make up for her lack of height. Her husband is over six feet tall and two hundred and twenty pounds, and the fishermen she deals with on a daily basis are pretty much the same. If she didn’t have the attitude she has, I’m sure all the men in her life would walk all over her.

  “Hey, Lu. Everything okay?” I ask once I join their huddle.

  “Everything’s good.”

  I look at the captain. “How’s it going, Barry?”

  “Same shit, different day,” he grumbles, and I catch Lulu roll her eyes up to the heavens. “About my invoice. Think there might be a mistake.”

  “Barry, we go through this every month, and every month, you pay what you owe for fuel. Do we really need to do this song and dance today?” Lulu rests her hands on her slim hips.

  “I ain’t made of money, woman.” He huffs.

  “Barry, you know I keep the records, and you know I would never bill you for fuel you didn’t use,” I remind him.

  “Maybe you messed up this time?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “She didn’t,” Lulu states, losing patience. “I had her take a photo every time you came in for fuel so I’d have it as proof. Do you want me to show you the pictures?” she questions, raising a brow at him.

  He looks at me surprised, and I shrug. It was my idea to take the pictures, because a few months ago, he got away with not paying for over five hundred dollars’ worth of fuel. “No.”

  “Thank God. Now, can we end this meeting? I got shit to do today, and that shit does not involve me standing around here debating your bill with you. A bill you’re going to pay one way or another.”

  See? Totally full of sass.

  “Fine,” he mutters, looking from her to me, and lifts his chin before taking off toward his boat.

  “I swear, that guy is going to make me lose my damn mind one day.” Lulu shakes her head, watching him go, and then her eyes come to me and soften.

  “How excited is my girl about her birthday?”

  “She asked if she could have cake for breakfast tomorrow.” I smile when she laughs.

  “Are you giving her cake for breakfast tomorrow?”

  “Um, no,” I deny with a shake of my head.

  “What was her second choice?”

  “My pancakes and Denver’s scrambled eggs. If he can come over to make them for her.”

  “I’m sure he will,” she says knowingly, and I shrug. “When are you two going to—”

  “Lu,” I cut her off with a quick shake my head.

  “What? I see it. Everyone sees it.” She tosses out her arms dramatically.

  “You’re delusional.”

  “No, you’re oblivious. That man is in love with you.”

  “Seriously, this again?” She’s been saying the same thing for the last four years and tries to convince me I’m blind to Denver’s feelings for me. I’m not; I just know we are friends—kind of. He’s not waiting around for me like some hero in a romance novel. He’s dated a few different women since he’s been in town, or at least that’s what I’ve heard. I’ve never actually seen him with anyone. Then again, I don’t get out much.

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “It’s not.”

  “It is,” she continues to argue.

  “I hate to burst your bubble, but he’s never been anything more than friendly toward me, Lu.”

  “That’s because you’ve never given him any indication you’re ready to start dating again.”

  Okay, so I don’t want to admit it, but maybe she has a point. I haven’t given anyone a sign I’m ready to start dating again. I don’t even know if I’m ready now. Gabe was all I knew for years, and I loved what we had. It was easy. Being with him was easy, because he was my best friend. He knew me, understood how awkward I was… or am. Dating someone new would be like discovering a whole new scary world. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I should probably start though. I want to find someone to spend time with. I miss all the things that go along with having a significant other—the cuddling, the talking, the sex. But I could live without the sex, for the most part.

  “Don’t you have stuff to do?” I ask when I feel my cheeks become warm.

  “Nope, I have the whole day off.”

  “Liar, you never have a whole day off.”

  “This is true.” She sighs. “I would have had the day off, but Barry called in and wanted to see me about his bill.”

  “You could have let Ben handle it.”

  “You know Ben. He’d lose his temper and I’d end up at the sheriff’s station, talking to your dad.”

  “True.” Ben is a big teddy bear most of the time, but when he’s poked, he tends to fly off the handle without much provocation. “You might not need to work, but I do,” I say, figuring that will force her to give up trying to convince me, even for a little while.

  “Fine, but one day you’re going to come to me and tell me that you and Denver are together, and when that day comes, I’m going to try not to say I told you so.”

  “Whatever.” I roll my eyes at her.

  “What time is the party tomorrow?”

  “Everyone’s coming over around five for pizza and cake.”

  “Do you want Ben and me to bring anything?”

  “Just yourselves,” I say, then turn as a boat starts to pull in. When I see the boat, my stomach dips when it totally shouldn’t be dipping.

  Denver’s boat is unmistakable. It’s white with a thick lavender stripe around it. Lyra picked the lavender color when Denver had it repainted a year ago. I thought he was crazy when he asked her to choose what color to paint it. I also thought for sure that she was going to pick pink, but she didn’t; she chose lavender. Not much better than pink, but he didn’t back out when she told him what color. And really, the boat looks kinda cool with the lavender stripe and the black curly lettering of his ship’s name, the Aurora.

  “Look what the tide brought in,” Lu says, grinning from ear to ear.

  I fight another eye roll then go to the shed and turn up the heat inside, since it’s close to freezing. I drop my purse and grab my receipt book. When I get to Denver’s boat, he’s standing at the edge talking to Lu, but as soon as he sees me, his eyes meet mine. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” I repeat, as I tuck a piece of my blonde hair behind my ear. “You need fuel?” At my stupid question, he grins, making me feel like a total dork, because there’s no other reason for him to come here except to get fuel for his boat.

  “Yeah.” He tucks his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, a pair that is molded to his thighs in all the right places. The dark thermal he has on today is also snug, showing off his muscular arms, the wide expanse of his chest, and the tightness of his abs underneath. He’s beautiful in a masculine way, with a strong, powerful jaw that is never completely clean of scruff, dark, thick, wavy hair, and goldish-green eyes that are surrounded by lashes that make me jealous. Honestly, he looks like he was sent down to earth from heaven for the sole purpose of testing the women of earth’s willpower. I’m sure we’re all failing miserably. “Is my girl with your mom or mine today?” he asks, and my chest feels warm. I love that he calls Lyra his girl.

  “Mine today,” I reply, then add, “next week’s your mom’s week.”

  “Right.” He nods, probably knowing that every other week our moms take turns watching Lyra while I’m working. I used to have Gabe’s parents helping out, but two years ago, I had to change that.

  I might have loved Gabe, but the same couldn’t be said for his family. His parents are both a little odd, and not the fun kind. The kind of odd that you have to be leery of. They live mostly of
f the land, hate the government, really any kind of authority. They don’t believe in education or modern medicine. They tried numerous times to tell me, even when I couldn’t, I should be breastfeeding Lyra. When I didn’t agree, they bought another woman’s breast milk without asking me first. Needless to say, when I found that out, I lost my mind. They were always trying to tell me how they thought I should raise her. I put up with it, because that’s what Gabe would have wanted me to do.

  After the breast milk incident, I worried myself sick that if something happened to my baby when I wasn’t around that they wouldn’t take her to the doctor, that they’d try to give her some kind of natural remedy or something. Gabe had a big, ugly scar on his leg to prove that his parents were crazy. When he was seven, he sliced into himself with an ax, and his parents didn’t take him to the hospital. Instead, they cleaned and sewed him up at home. He ended up with gangrene and could have lost his leg. I did not want to go pick up my daughter one day and find out that not only had she been left alone with an ax, but that she had been hurt and didn’t see a doctor.

  “So, Denver, what are your plans tomorrow morning?” Lu asks him, and he pulls his eyes off me, both of our attention going to her.

  “No plans tomorrow. What’s up?” he questions, and I cut in before Lu can speak again. Lord only knows what the hell she’ll make up in an attempt to push us together.

  “Ly was asking if she could have your eggs for breakfast tomorrow for her birthday,” I explain, and his face softens.

  “I can do that.”

  “Cool, she’ll be happy,” I say, and he lifts his chin. “Let me just get you set up to fuel.” I look at Lu. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you tomorrow,” I hear her agree as I turn to get to work.

  Sitting in the shed four hours later, wearing my jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves, I look up from my Kindle when someone taps on the glass window at the side of the shed. When I see who it is, I smile and push the window open to the side. “Hey, Mike.”

  Mike is not a local. He lives on one of the other small islands in Alaska, but comes to town for fishing at the start of every spring and doesn’t leave until the end of summer. He’s cute-ish, not handsome or really even good-looking, but he’s always got a warm smile on his face.

  “Hey, Aubrey.” He starts to smile then frowns. “Why are you dressed like that?”

  “Heater went out. It’s been acting wonky for days, but today it bit the dust.”

  “Want me to look at it?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “Lu and Ben are getting a new one today. They should be here with it soon.”

  “Cool.” He leans forward, and even though I can’t see his hands, judging by the way his shoulders are hunched forward, I know he’s tucked them into the front pockets of his jeans or into his jacket. “Did you have a good winter?”

  “It was winter.” I shrug. Winters in Alaska are brutal. Not only is it mostly dark all the time, but it’s also freezing, and more than occasionally, there is so much snow it’s impossible to leave the house. If my parents didn’t live right next door, I would probably go stir-crazy. “How was your winter?”

  “Spent it in Vegas where I have a place, so it was good.”

  “I bet.” I smile. “I’ve never been to Vegas, but I want to go sometime.”

  “You should come out to see me next winter. I have a spare room; you and your daughter could stay there.”

  “Maybe,” I agree without thinking, and his eyes light up. Crap, now what did I do? “Did you need something?” His boat’s not docked, but that doesn’t mean much.

  “I… Well, I actually wanted to see if we could get dinner. Maybe next Friday, before the opener?”

  “Um…” Gah, didn’t I just tell myself I should try dating again? Maybe Mike is the kind of guy I should test out dating with. He always seems pretty laid back, and he doesn’t make me nervous. Really, he doesn’t make me anything. No butterflies, no stomach dips. Nothing. “Sure, Friday works,” I agree, figuring that, between Shelby and Joe, one of them will be willing to watch Lyra for me for a couple hours while I go out.

  “Really?” His eyes widen, and I can’t help but to giggle.

  “Yeah.”

  “All right, cool. Wanna give me your number?”

  “Sure.” I shrug, and then I give him my number and take his. We talk for a few minutes more before he takes off.

  Once he’s gone, guilt settles in the pit of my stomach like sour milk, and I wonder if I’m somehow betraying Gabe by going out with someone else. I pull in a few deep breaths and remind myself of Shelby’s words from a while back. “Sweetheart, you’re still here, still living and breathing. Gabe would want you to be happy.”

  Though she wasn’t talking about me dating, she was talking about me changing out Gabe’s and my bedroom furniture for new stuff. Still, I think she would tell me the same thing in this situation. And Gabe would want me to be happy however that happiness came along.

  Wouldn’t he?

  Chapter 2

  _______________

  Denver

  “HEY,” AUBREY GREETS ME with a tired smile as soon as she opens the front door. Her hair is a rumpled mess—what it might look like after a hot and heavy round of sex. Her eyes are still sleepy, and her cheeks tinged pink. I run my eyes down her body and fight back a groan when I see what she has on. It’s not exactly sexy, but then again, she doesn’t need to walk around in lingerie to attract my attention. Short shorts that are black with white piping around the edge, a white T-shirt that’s tight and practically see-through, and socks, long ones that go up over her knees, the kind basketball players used to wear with the stripes around the top.

  “Lyra is still sleeping.” Her words drag me out of my perusal, and I see she’s already moving away from the door. “I was just getting ready to wake her up,” she tells me, and my eyes drop so I can watch as the bottom of her ass cheeks peek out with every step she takes. She looks at me over her shoulder, and I pull my eyes up before she can catch me ogling her. “I just put coffee on, so help yourself. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  I watch her jog up the steps until she’s out of sight then shake my head, reminding myself that I need to be patient, that in the end, waiting will pay off. I hope so anyway. I’ve been waiting for some kind of sign from her that she’s open to the idea of dating again. So far, I’ve been waiting in vain. She’s cordial at best when we interact. If I didn’t see her obvious attraction to me whenever we come face-to-face, I would feel like an idiot for waiting this long for her.

  I carry the bag I brought with me into the kitchen and unpack the contents onto the counter. I pull out a pan and place it on the stovetop to warm up. I add butter to the pan so it can melt then take out a bowl for the eggs. I don’t start cracking them, because that’s Lyra’s favorite part. Instead, I get to work opening ten single slices of Kraft cheese then cut up some honey-smoked ham and place it in a bowl.

  I hear both girls coming down the stairs then the sound of tiny feet coming toward the kitchen. I rinse my hands off and turn just in time to see Lyra’s hair in a ponytail flying behind her as she runs straight for me. I crouch down on my haunches, and she plows into me, almost knocking me on my ass.

  “Hey, gorgeous. Happy birthday,” I whisper against her ear, and her arms wrap tightly around my neck as I lift her up off the ground.

  “I missed you,” she tells me, tightening her hold, and I smile before kissing the side of her head.

  “I missed you too.” Even though it’s only been two days since I’ve seen her I still miss her.

  “I missed you more.” Lyra pulls back enough to look at me and grins.

  “Impossible.” I touch my lips to her forehead then look at Aubrey. She’s standing in the doorway to the kitchen with her arms crossed over her chest, watching us with a soft look in her eyes. I love that look. Really, I love everything about her. I look down at Lyra, and ask, “Are you ready to help me make scrambled eggs?”

&
nbsp; “With extra cheese?”

  “Is there any other way to make scrambled eggs?”

  “Nope.” She shakes her head, and I smile as I set her on the counter then move the bowl and carton of eggs closer to her.

  When she was two, she wouldn’t eat much of anything. Her doctor was concerned about her weight and told Bre to put her on a supplement. Bre tried, but Lyra hated it and refused to drink it. One morning, I was over to take care of her and I made myself some scrambled eggs. She ate them all off my plate then asked for seconds. I came over for two months every morning to make her breakfast, and she gained the weight she needed and eventually started adding more things to her diet. In the end, her doctor was happy and Bre was relieved. I was just glad I could help.

  “Do you want a cup of coffee?” Bre asks.

  I take my attention off Lyra, who’s started to crack open eggs, to look at her. “Yeah, babe.” She nods and pours me a cup then dispense one for herself. Handing me mine, she takes a sip of hers then moves around, gathering the things she needs to make pancakes. Unlike me, who would make them from the box, she always prepares them from scratch. She could probably win an award for her pancakes; they are that good—crisp around the edges, soft and fluffy in the middle. Once Lyra has the eggs cracked, I let her beat them then dump them in the pan.

  “So, birthday girl, what are you doing today?”

  “Going with Mama to look for bears,” she tells me, and I look at Bre and raise a brow.

  “We’re going out the road. Dad said the salmon are starting to head up the river and the bears are out. Ly wanted to see if she could get some photos with the camera my brother sent her for her birthday,” she explains.

  “No getting out of your Jeep, and if a bear gets close, make sure you’re able to take off.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I’m not crazy, Den,” she tells me, spooning her pancake batter into a pan on the stove.

  “I know, but bears are unpredictable. Remember what happened last year to those tourists?”

  “I remember,” she says softly, shivering.