Once Burned

by Suzie O'Connell

  At his words, she realized with a start what she’d said and opened her mouth take the words back… and didn’t because that’s exactly how she felt in her heart—like she was coming home. Relief and joy mingled with the promise of adventure and excitement at reuniting with the friends she’d made here back in August. She covered Henry’s hand, which rested on the gearshift, curling her fingers around his with a squeeze. He briefly met her gaze again, and she smiled in thanks for this gift.

  “Wha’ did ya say, Mom?” Noah mumbled behind her.

  “I said we’re almost home to Northstar,” she replied. “We’re in the valley, so open your eyes and take a look.”

  A moment later, she heard him whisper, “Oh, wow.”

  She glanced back at him to see his face nearly pressed to the tinted window and the most open awe she had seen in his expression in a very long time. It was impossible to resist, and even if she tried, she wouldn’t be able to stop the grin from claiming her entire face.

  “This is amazing,” Noah sighed as they passed the road to the post office and the Lazy H Ranch’s main house. The main road climbed higher with an ever more commanding view of the eastern peaks.

  She’d forgotten how tall and dominating those mountains were, and even Skye’s gorgeous pictures of Northstar couldn’t capture the scale. She felt so small in the face of their enduring power and more connected with the natural world than she’d ever been before. Gazing up at those wintry peaks, it easy to understand why Henry and his family, their friends, and now Evie and Skye so loved this place.

  “Obviously Noah and I are glad to be here, but what about you, Henry?” Lindsay asked. “Are you glad to be home?”

  “You mean this smile that’s been on my face so long that my cheeks ache doesn’t give it away?” He laughed. “You’ve given me an entirely new appreciation of my home, Lindsay, and yes, I’m glad to be back. Even more so to have you and Noah with me.”

  He turned onto Aspen Creek Road toward his house, and Lindsay’s heart leapt. Unlike the sense of despair and resignation that had claimed her when she’d returned to the house she and Noah had shared with Chelsea and Spencer, seeing Henry’s house perched on the hill with the wall of snowy mountains behind it inspired in her all the joy and relief of homecoming despite the fact she’d spent only one night there. Maybe it was just her excitement to be visiting again and the parade of memories imbibed with freedom, but she doubted it.

  Henry turned left onto his short driveway and parked in front of his house beside a snowmobile. “This is it. Welcome home.”

  Lindsay noted the light glowing in the living room window and the smoke drifting out of the chimney and wondered who was inside. Probably a member of Henry’s family. Henry told her and Noah to head in while he grabbed their bags. Lindsay opened the door and poked her head inside to see Nick tossing a couple logs into the woodstove. He glanced up when he heard the door open and smiled.

  “Here’s a sight for sore eyes,” he greeted, straightening. He strode to her and gave her a big hub before turning to Noah. “Welcome back to Northstar, Lindsay. This must be your son, Noah.”

  “Noah, this is Henry’s older brother, Nick.”

  “It’s good to have you here,” Nick said, extending his hand.

  Noah shook it. “Thank you.”

  “What do you think of Northstar so far?”

  “It’s beautiful. I saw the pictures Mom and Skye took when they were here this summer, but it’s so much prettier now that I’m here.”

  Henry entered then loaded down with luggage. He dropped the bags in one hand onto the floor to embrace his brother. “Thanks for getting it warm in here for us.”

  “Any time, Hen. How were the roads?”

  “Terrible,” Henry replied. “Snow and ice the whole way. We saw about a dozen semis off the road, and I lost count of how many cars after thirty.”

  “Aren’t you glad you decided to leave yesterday after school instead of waiting until this morning?”

  “Yes, I am. We wouldn’t have made it today if we hadn’t. Eighteen hours of driving between yesterday and today instead of the eleven or twelve it’s supposed to take. Although… that hotel bed was so terrible, I almost wish we’d tried to drive straight through.”

  Henry picked the bags up again and headed down the hall to deposit them in their room and Noah’s.

  “Don’t remind me,” Lindsay groaned. “Even Noah didn’t sleep worth a darn.”

  “Yeah, and I can sleep anywhere,” her son piped.

  “In that case, I hope you took a nap in the truck because Will and Jessie are very excited to meet you.”

  “Will is your son, right?” Noah asked. “And Jessie is Aaron’s daughter?”

  Lindsay regarded her son with brows lifted, surprised he’d remembered that.

  “Right.” Nick glanced at his watch. “You’ve got a couple hours until we’re all supposed to meet for dinner at the Bedspread Inn, so you might want to use that time to get a little more rest. I’ll see you all at five.”

  Nick gave Henry a hand with the rest of their bags, then left, and while Lindsay ducked into the bathroom, Henry gave Noah a quick tour of the house. After, the three of them retreated to the couch to watch the fire dance behind the glass of the woodstove while the snow flew outside. Just like she’d imagined so many times since she’d left Northstar. Henry lay angled against the arm of the couch with his feet propped on the coffee table, and Lindsay rested her head on his chest with her arm around her son. This was perfect.

  “Well, Noah, what do you think?” Henry asked.

  “I love it. Thanks for inviting mom and me here. This is gonna be our best Christmas ever.”

  “I have a feeling it’ll be mine, too, but I won’t say ever. I’ll say yet.”

  There was so much promise in that statement that Lindsay’s heart threatened to climb out of her chest, too exhilarated to be contained by her ribs. She didn’t want to ruin the moment by questioning it, but she couldn’t help it. “Yet? As in you’re looking ahead to more Christmases with us and that they might be even better?”

  “Yes, yet.”

  Beneath her ear, his voice was a rumble that sent a breeze of warmth and love straight to the deepest reaches of her heart, and she closed her eyes as hope threatened to swamp her. Not so long ago, she’d almost lost hope for anything better than the lonely fight for survival her life had been since Noah’s birth, but now, here she was snuggled up with a man who loved not only her but her son and showed her with his patience and admiration that she was stronger than she’d ever realized.

  She didn’t want to this moment to end, but as soon as she thought of seeing the rest of his family again, a new and different kind of joy blossomed, and she unpeeled herself from Henry’s embrace, and stood, offering a hand each to him and Noah.

  “Where are we going?” Henry inquired sleepily.

  “I don’t want to wait until dinner to see your parents.”

  “All right.”

  “That’s it? No excuses to stay here and relax?”

  “Nope. To be honest, I want to see them, too, and I want to introduce them to Noah. They’re going to love him.”

  “You think so?” Noah asked.

  “I know so. So let’s go.”

  After the cozy heat of the fire, the air outside sucked the air from her lungs, but she was too excited to complain. It was just one more experience for her, one more thing to love about Henry’s home. Noah rode in the middle between them on the way down to the Hammonds’, staring out the windshield with the same awe inscribed on his face as what she’d seen the moment he’d gotten his first glimpse of the Northstar Valley.

  John was outside splitting firewood when they arrived, and he sunk the ax into the chopping block to greet them. Much like Nick had done, John embraced first Henry and then Lindsay, and offered Noah his hand in greeting. He then sent them inside to see Tracie, but Henry stayed outside to help him bring in the firewood. To her astonishment, Noah volunteere
d to carry some wood in, too. Yeah, Henry is definitely a better role model for him than Max has ever tried to be.

  Tracie was in the living room poring over what looked like financial reports for the ranch, so Lindsay knocked on the wall beside the door to announce her presence. Immediately upon seeing who’d come in, Tracie set her work aside and strode over with arms wide. Lindsay stepped into them, hugging Henry’s mother tightly.

  “Lindsay! We weren’t expecting to see you until dinner.”

  “I couldn’t wait.”

  “Welcome back, sweetheart. Where’s your boy?”

  “He’s out helping John and Henry with the firewood.”

  “What a good boy. Come on in and have a seat while we wait for them.”

  “I feel terrible for not finding out as soon as we arrived,” Lindsay said, sinking into the plush couch beside Tracie, “but have my parents checked in to the cabin yet?”

  “They have indeed, about an hour ago, so not much before you arrived, and they promised to join us all for dinner.”

  Lindsay exhaled, glad to hear that her parents had arrived safely.

  “So, you have to tell me all about Shannon’s play. Henry sent me the pictures from the photoshoot you and he did for your friend’s shop—they’re gorgeous, by the way, what a spectacular dress you wore—but he was rather vague on the details other than to say the play was great, Shannon was amazing, and your evening out was incredible.”

  “That covers it pretty well,” Lindsay replied, laughing softly. How marvelous it was to launch into conversation with Tracie like they were already family and had been for years. “We had a wonderful time with the Grangers and Pat and Aeli O’Neil and his parents. It was so nice to catch up with them again. We talked with them and Shannon for a while after the play—I wish you’d been there because she has a phenomenal voice—and then we went home to the cottage Henry rented from my Aunt Jeanie and danced in the living room for a while. Then I spent the night because my parents wouldn’t let me come home until the next day.”

  “I think I like your parents already, but back up a bit. You got Henry to dance? When he was younger and his father and I tried to teach him, he hated it. He humored us, sure, but it was never really his thing.”

  “So he told me.”

  “Now, that is fascinating.”

  The front door opened again, cutting off whatever else Tracie might have said, and almost as if she was looking for an excuse not to elaborate on her observation, she jumped to her feet to help John, Henry, and Noah unload their armfuls of logs. Lindsay watched as her son introduced himself to Henry’s mother.

  “Henry has already told us so much about you that I feel like you’re already part of the family,” Tracie remarked, hugging the boy.

  “He told you about me?”

  “Of course he has. All good things, I promise. Thank you for helping with the wood.” Turning to Lindsay, Tracie added, “Quite a considerate young man you have here, Lindsay.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, suddenly shy.

  “Well, it’s almost time to head up to the Bedspread for dinner, so let me just get the fire good and stoked, and then we’ll be ready to go. Henry, you don’t mind if Jeremiah joins us, do you?”

  “Why on earth would I mind? He’s sort of part of the family now, isn’t he?”

  “Seems so. He’s been a great help around here, and I for one am glad Aaron took it upon himself to offer him a job. But we can talk more about that later.”

  “Shall we meet you up there?” Henry asked his parents.

  They nodded, so Lindsay followed Henry out to his truck with her son’s hand gripping hers tightly. She glanced down at him, and he met her gaze with a brilliant smile. No need to ask him if he liked the Hammonds so far; the resounding yes was splashed across his face, clear as day. At least a couple members of their party had already arrived.

  She hadn’t thought it was so late, but the sky had darkened considerably in the short time she’d been in the Hammonds’ house, and when Henry parked in front of the Bedspread Inn’s wide deck, Lindsay spotted a vaguely familiar pickup.

  “Isn’t that Aaron’s truck?” she asked.

  “Yep,” Henry replied.

  Lindsay hadn’t seen Skye since late October—before Henry had arrived in Washington—so she was excited to see her friend and hear about everything that had been happening in the interval. Lindsay knew Skye and Aaron were serious, but she was curious to see just how serious. And she wanted to talk to her friend about everything she had discovered about her own relationship especially in the last few weeks when they’d only talked over the phone a couple times. Skye had been too busy taking care of business for her photography studio.

  Oh, and Evie! She had talked to her other best friend only once since she’d left Northstar, and guilt stung her for not keeping in closer contact with Evie since her friend had moved to Montana. Life and distance always seemed to get in the way, and Lindsay wished they still lived closer together. That thought prompted another. If she and Henry were to get married, would they live here or in Washington? As she crested the steps, she turned to take in the incredible view from the deck and knew instantly which she would prefer, but it wasn’t only what she wanted. Noah was awestruck by Northstar, but that didn’t mean he’d want to live here in this remote, sparsely populated ranching valley.

  “You coming or what, love?” Henry asked.

  “Yeah….”

  Yanking her gaze from the mountains, she took his offered hand and Noah’s and headed into the warmth of the restaurant. For the first time, she noticed the decorations. Unlike when she’d been here in August, garlands of fresh pine boughs decorated with bright red ribbons and white twinkle lights hung along the two side walls, a sprig of mistletoe hung from the first beam inside the door—Henry promptly kissed her when they passed under it—and each table had a mason jar with a candle floating above cranberries and holly leaves. A towering Christmas tree dominated the front corner of the room to the right of anyone walking in through the double doors, and stockings with the names of the employees of the Bedspread hung from the mantle beneath which a roaring fire cast a lively golden glow.

  “This is like something out of a country Christmas fantasy,” she murmured.

  Skye, Aaron, and Jessie stepped around the massive fireplace, and Lindsay let go of Henry’s hand to embrace her friend. Then she introduced Noah to Aaron and Jessie before inspecting her friend while the two kids immediately struck up a friendship investigating the gifts under the Christmas tree. The first thing Lindsay noticed was the brilliant happiness on her Skye’s face. It had been so long since she’d smiled like that, and it was infectious. The second thing Lindsay noticed was the flash of something glittery on Skye’s left hand, but before she could further investigate what she’d seen, Skye hid her hand behind her back. The conspiratorial glance she and Aaron shared gave Lindsay a pretty good idea that it was a ring she’d seen.

  “Spill it,” she demanded.

  Shyly, Skye held her hand out, and Lindsay snatched it to inspect the diamond solitaire now adorning her ring finger. Without a word, she hugged Skye again. Then she hugged Aaron.

  “I’m so happy for you both,” she whispered.

  “That makes two of us,” Henry agreed, wrapping his twin in a bear hug. “About damned time, Aaron.”

  Lindsay couldn’t be sure, but she thought she heard Aaron whisper to his brother, “You’re next.”

  “I certainly hope so.”

  “What about your studio?” Lindsay asked Skye to prevent herself from pondering the twins’ side conversation and getting herself worked into a fluster over the possible meanings of it. “Because I know you’re going to stay here. Aaron has his job with the sheriff’s department, and I’ve heard rumors that he’s planning to run for sheriff someday in the not too distant future.”

  “Yes, we’ll be staying Northstar,” Skye replied. “He belongs here… but so do I now. Joel will take over the studio, and I’ll star
t a new one here. I’ve shot a couple weddings for the Ramshorn now, and it’s sounding like June’s party planning endeavor is beginning to catch on in a big way, so she’ll have a few more events for me this winter, and even more in the spring. And speaking of her endeavor, she might have mentioned that she’s always looking for someone to cater because the one catering company in Devyn is always booked, so they end up doing most of that themselves, and it’s inefficient.”

  “Uh-huh,” Lindsay said flatly despite the flare of hope. “She just happened to mention that.”

  “Okay, she asked me if you’d be interested. I may have let it slip that you’ve been wanting to open your own catering business for as long as I wanted to own my own photography studio.”

  “But I don’t have a culinary degree, nor do I know the first thing about running a business.”

  “Maybe not, but as to the first, you’re a natural talent, and I’m sure Henry can attest to that by now.”

  “I certainly can,” he asserted.

  “And the rest can be learned.”

  “What about the money to start it up?”

  “That can be figured out. But the question is… are you even interested?”

  Lindsay’s chest tightened. This was exactly her dream—the dream she had given up to take care of her son while Max went off to college to pursue and attain his dream. Given up, she wondered, or only set aside? The way her heart beat faster with anticipation suggested it was the latter. “You know I am. I just don’t know how it’s possible.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Skye said. “You and me together, just like we used to dream we would.”

  “You know, you’re sounding an awful lot like Evie right now,” Lindsay mused. “Pushy, ready with an answer to shoot down all my doubts, looking out for my happiness with an optimism that borders on obnoxious….”

  Skye laughed heartily. “Must be something in the air around here. But imagine it, Linds. You, me, and Evie back together like old times… but in Montana and even better.”

  The arrival of more of their party—Lindsay’s parents, Henry and Aaron’s parents with a young man they introduced as Jeremiah Mackey, and Vince and Evie—put an end to their conversation.