Phoenix Inheritance

by Corrina Lawson

  “Is there gas somewhere for a generator?” he asked.

  “Stored outside in the shed. If we lose power, I can turn the generator on with a switch.”

  “Good disaster preparedness.”

  “Thanks.”

  Charlie, coat and boots now off, set the cat down. The dogs came sniffing over but the cat, not being stupid, decided to hide behind Charlie’s legs rather than deal with animals three times his size.

  “Inside,” Renee said.

  The dogs went first, going through their door. Charlie quickly followed, scooping the cat back up as he went inside.

  “Whew.” Renee turned to stare at Daz, her eyes full of gratitude, her face showing absolute, total approval for the first time in years. Renee had always been hard to impress.

  “Thank you doesn’t cover what you did,” she said, unbuttoning her coat.

  “‘Thank you’ is plenty good enough for me.”

  “I’m sorry about your van.”

  “No worries. It’s insured.” He shrugged. He’d smash a whole truckload of vans if she’d keep looking at him like that. She was wearing one of her geeky T-shirts again. He didn’t recognize the superhero but he liked the bright colors. Princess Sparklefists. Hah.

  “I’ll give you a ride wherever you want to go once the snow clears.” She pointed to her pickup parked in the other garage bay.

  “Again, not worried about it. But you are stuck with me for the duration or until we can get a tow truck here to get that mess out of the driveway.”

  “If you can handle that, I can.” She smiled and shucked off her boots. The coats went on a coatrack, the boots neatly below.

  Okay, how to keep this good feeling between them going? Daz spotted the small woodpile to the right of the door. “Want me to start a fire?”

  “Yeah, that would be great.” She halted in the doorway, halfway inside already. “A warm fire would be perfect after today. Thank you again.”

  They were about to be trapped together in this house for hours, maybe even a couple of days. This was the best chance to patch things up with her, if he could find the right words and do the right things.

  “One roaring fire, stat.”

  “Great.” She went inside and he heard her say something to Charlie.

  He loaded his arms with kindling and a couple of logs and stepped into Renee’s house, the first time he’d done it with the intention of staying. All the previous times, he’d only stayed a few minutes to pick up Charlie.

  He passed through the mudroom that contained the washer and dryer and into the living room hallway. To his right was the kitchen, where Renee and Charlie were talking. He wasn’t much of a decorator but he could see the care that had gone into making this a home. Charlie’s homework papers covered the surface of the stainless-steel refrigerator and Renee’s pens sat in a handmade holder that was obviously Charlie’s work.

  Daz took his load of wood into the living room. Photos of Charlie alone, with his mom, and with friends and family decorated the end tables. It seemed everyone was in those photos except him. Ouch.

  He set down the wood and opened the flue above the fireplace. He glanced out the picture window as he placed the logs and kindling in the best configuration to catch. Nothing but white outside, with a few dark shadows that likely represented fallen trees or storm debris.

  They were trapped in a snow globe.

  But the company was good.

  He struck the matches, waited for the flames to catch, and listened to Charlie and Renee talking in the kitchen. The kitchen was open to both the hallway and to the living room on the other side, so he could hear them clearly.

  “Charlie, meet my eyes,” she said.

  She must have knelt down to put them face-to-face. She’d told Daz more than once that was the best way to get Charlie to pay attention.

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  “Running after Odin today was really, really dangerous, Charlie.”

  Yes, insanely dangerous. Renee was being calmer about it than he would be.

  “Why was helping that cat so important?” she asked.

  “I dunno,” Charlie mumbled.

  A pause. “I’m not going to yell at you, I’m trying to figure out why you did it so it doesn’t happen again.”

  It better not happen again, Daz thought.

  “I swear, I won’t go near the cliff again.”

  Charlie’s voice shook a bit. Good that he was a little freaked by what happened. Maybe he actually would think twice about running off again.

  “What if Odin wants to go back outside and you give chase again?”

  “He won’t run away, Mom! He said he likes it here.”

  Another pause. Renee sighed. No wonder.

  “You did run off, Charlie. You can’t do that again, okay? Next time, you could be really hurt.”

  “I won’t run after Odin again because he won’t run off again. That’s a fact.”

  “Just tell me next time when you get the urge. I’ll help you work through it so we can do what needs to be done safely.”

  “Would you have let me run after the cat?”

  “Remember? I offered to get the kitty myself,” she said. “We’ll work together on it next time, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Renee was very calm, considering. Daz remembered his panic the day at the zoo when Charlie had run off and tried to climb into the wolf den. A fence had stopped him that day. But not everything could be fenced away from Charlie. When Daz had pressed Charlie about why he’d run off, Charlie just said the wolves wanted him to come closer so they could all talk to him. That was the same excuse he’d given Renee about running after the cat.

  Dangerous. It had to stop. But damned if Daz knew how. Maybe Renee’s talk would have some effect.

  “Okay, then,” Renee said. She moved on and started asking Charlie questions about the cat.

  Daz picked up a framed photo of Charlie and Renee on a hiking trail from the fireplace mantel. As he lifted the frame, a small piece of paper fluttered toward the floor. Daz scooped it up before it drifted into the fireplace.

  He opened his hand to see what it was. He brought it toward his face for closer inspection and realized it was a little origami animal, squashed flat. Not just any origami, either. This was the bear he’d folded years ago for Renee.

  One of the dogs wandered in and stared at Daz while he put the frame back and slipped the bear behind it again.

  “What are you looking at?”

  The dog lay down and put his head on his paws, still staring. Inscrutable, like Renee could be. Or maybe the dog was tired and liked to soak up the heat.

  Funny, he’d never thought of Thor and Loki as growing older. They’d been frozen in his memory as the young dogs from when he’d met Renee in Turkey.

  Daz adjusted a log. He’d made that bear for Renee to cheer her up after they’d been nearly mauled by one. That was the first night they’d slept together. Despite their breakup, she’d carefully preserved it and placed it close to a photo of her and Charlie.

  All that he’d put her through and she’d still kept that little token. He didn’t deserve her, he didn’t deserve Charlie. Despite being called Batman, he had more leveling up to do to even come close to that.

  He added another log to the fire and watched it catch. Satisfied, he shut the screen and set down the poker. He wandered over to the big map of the world that Renee had mounted on the opposite wall. Multicolored pins decorated the map, representing places she’d traveled over the years. He frowned. The green and orange pins, representing trips before Charlie was born, far outnumbered the blues, reds and yellows from after Charlie was born. Renee loved to travel. Having Charlie had obviously impacted her ability to do that.

  Daz still traveled a great deal, for work and to visit friends all over the world. He could g
o where he wanted, usually when he wanted.

  He’d never felt guilty about that before. He did now.

  Outside, he heard a nasty thump. That was close!

  He rushed over to the glass doors that overlooked the back deck but he still couldn’t see anything in the swirling snow. Dammit, if this kept happening, it was going to be a long night, with him twitching every time he heard wood crack. He really hoped Renee was right about that one fallen tree being the biggest one near the house.

  He strolled over to the kitchen from the hallway entrance and Charlie nearly knocked him over on his way out.

  His son skidded to a halt, the cat at his heels. “Sorry, Dad, Mom said I gotta set up a bed in my room for Odin. He’s tired.”

  “Uh, no problem.”

  Wasn’t Charlie tired? He sure didn’t seem like it since he basically ran to his bedroom, the cat bounding around him. Renee was good with animals but, damn, those were dogs. But somehow Charlie had gotten a stray cat, who by rights should have found a dark, quiet spot to hide once in the house, to follow him around.

  “Why did he name the cat Odin?” Daz asked as he came into the kitchen.

  “I assume because the name goes with Thor and Loki.” Renee was staring out the window over her kitchen table, into the storm, much as he had been.

  “You sure we’re okay now that that big oak came down?”

  “And the one tree that just came down in the backyard? Yeah, I heard that too.” She shook her head. “Most of what’s left is the pine trees, and snow doesn’t bother them. Damn, the timing of this storm is just so odd. I’ve never seen anything like it. Another two weeks, the leaves would be gone from the trees and this would be just another winter storm.” She turned to face him. “It’s silly but I hoped to be immune to natural disasters in my own home.”

  “It’s not silly, it’s natural to expect your home to be safe. Tell you what, I’ll stay awake until the storm’s over, stoke the fire when needed, and keep watch.”

  “Thanks, that’d be great.” Her voice caught. “You’ve been wonderful today, Daz. I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “I told you, you don’t have to thank me. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do.”

  “Well, it’s appreciated.” She held her right arm awkwardly at her side and rubbed her shoulder.

  “What’s wrong? You okay?”

  “Sure, fine. You want some coffee?”

  “Coffee will be great. It’ll keep me up at night when the adrenaline wears off.”

  He leaned against the counter to watch her, keeping an eye on the shoulder she was favoring. She opened the cabinet and reached up with one hand to grab two mugs at once. Her right arm barely moved and remained awkwardly at her side.

  “You are hurt.”

  “It’s not so bad. It’s probably just a bruise. I hit the tree trunk hard when I slid into it.”

  She reached for the coffee pot and winced. Enough. She might like to do things on her own—he knew she did—but he couldn’t just watch her be in pain.

  “Easy. I got that.”

  He reached past her to grab the coffee pot, putting them only inches apart. They were so close he could smell the lingering scent clinging to her hair, the same enticing strawberry-vanilla scent as always.

  She froze, her eyes wide. Instinct told him to act, to kiss her, but if he was wrong…

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and hugged her, much like he had out there in the storm, except this time there were no layers of coats and gloves between them. His fingers settled just above her hip, separated from her skin only by the T-shirt. He longed to slide his hand under it, caress her, release everything that had boiled up out there.

  He stared at her face, watching her for any sign about how to go forward. “You kept the origami bear,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she whispered.

  She wasn’t conventional supermodel beautiful but there was something lively and distinctive about Renee that no one else had. There was that familiar dent in her chin from hitting the edge of a table when wrestling with her older sister when she was six. And there was that soft mouth, so ready to be kissed. And freckles. Damn, she even had freckles.

  “Daz, if you hadn’t come along when you did…” She closed her eyes. Her head tilted back, exposing her neck. He couldn’t resist, not anymore.

  His put his lips to her neck where it met the shoulder and gently kissed her. “We’re all fine. That’s what matters,” he whispered. She shivered and her fingers clung to his shoulders.

  “Charlie went after the cat…I couldn’t catch him in time…”

  “I heard you talking to him.” He traced kisses up her neck. She shivered. “It’s all right, Renee.”

  “I thought having him outside with me would be safer. I thought I’d be able to catch him but…”

  He cupped her face in his hand. “You saved him.”

  “No, you saved us. I almost lost him.” Tears appeared in her eyes. “I got to the edge just in time. He was holding on by his fingertips. He almost fell…”

  Her voice broke. He wanted to banish this fear, this terror of hers. He wanted to make her see that it would all be okay.

  He kissed her lips, soft, gentle.

  “He didn’t go over. You saved him and kept him calm until I got there. This wasn’t your fault.”

  “I’m his mother. I should have known better. I should be able to keep him safe.”

  “He’s a kid, a smart, curious kid. He’s going to get into trouble. I’m sure I did something nearly as bad that terrified my own mom.”

  She let her forehead fall against his shoulder and took another deep breath, as if only just realizing what they’d been doing. She stepped out of his hold.

  “I don’t…” She shook her head. “Look, I’m pretty mixed up right now.”

  “It’s okay.” He poured the coffee. She’d leaned on him, trusted him for comfort, she’d responded to his kisses. Good, all good. He added milk to her mug before handing it over.

  She reached out with one hand, still favoring the other arm. “You remembered.”

  “Sure. Just a little bit of milk, not cream, no sugar.”

  Thor came over and head-butted her leg. “Oh, poor baby. I owe you treats, don’t I?”

  “Don’t they have food in their bowls already?” Daz pointed at the dishes on the floor in the corner of the kitchen.

  “Food isn’t treats. They know when they do SAR work, they get treats.”

  “Ah.” He stepped back to let her deal with the dogs. Let her regain her balance. They had time tonight.

  She set her mug on the counter, reached up and grabbed a bag of dog treats from the cabinet with one hand. Thor and Loki sat at her feet, open-mouthed, their tongues hanging out, giving them the semblance of smiling.

  “You guys. Thank you. Good dogs. You’re getting too old to do this anymore, you know. I’m sorry I had to ask.”

  Renee tossed them several treats each before kneeling down to pet them. They circled around her, almost enveloping her, and she murmured to them, her voice soft and low, and so affectionate.

  Lucky dogs.

  But she still held that right arm against her chest.

  “Renee, that shoulder is clearly giving you a lot of pain. Please let me look at it.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, I guess it’s worse than I hoped.”

  He set one hand on her elbow, only just now realizing how pale her face was. Before, it’d been all red from the cold. “I’m going to move the arm around a bit to see where it hurts.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes.

  Moving the arm from the elbow joint didn’t hurt. But as soon as he tried to get her to raise the hand above her head, her face lost all remaining color, with her freckles clear against her pale skin.

  “Sorry.” He put an arm aroun
d her waist to support her. “So on a scale of one to ten, how’s the pain?”

  Their faces were only inches apart again. “Well,” she breathed, “way closer to ten than one when you tried to raise it.”

  “Then let’s not do that again.” He brushed a strand of wet hair out of her eyes. “I bet it hurts more than you admit. Just like that nasty injury you took when protecting your dogs from that bear.”

  Even with blood oozing all over her hand, she’d not whined at all, including when she was being stitched up.

  “Blood doesn’t bother me.”

  “I know. You were more worried about Thor and Loki that day.” He cleared his throat.

  She looked over at them. Now that the treats were devoured, they were crunching their food happily. “They’re good dogs. They always have been.”

  “Yes, they are. They led me straight to you and Charlie. Here, let me get a clear look at what’s wrong with your arm.”

  She smiled. “Not a very smooth come-on, Daz. You’re losing your touch.”

  “Let’s just say I’m out of practice with you. Maybe I should fold you another bear.”

  “Do you make trees?”

  “No, just origami animals.” That she returned his teasing was encouraging. “I want to check your shoulder for bruises. If it looks bad, I’m guessing we should immobilize it until you can see a doctor. I’ll rig a sling.”

  She stepped away from him. Again.

  “Let me check on Charlie first. It’s too quiet in there.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  He followed her down the hallway. Their wet socks made small squishing sounds on the polished hardwood floor. Framed maps on the wall caught his eye. The maps were from places she’d traveled on SAR work. He spotted Turkey, where they’d first met, a circle drawn at the foot of the mountains, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria. He smiled.

  “That’s where we met,” he said.

  “Yeah.” She didn’t even glance back. Focused on Charlie?

  That circle was where his life had changed. That was where Renee convinced him to help find a missing rescue plane. He shouldn’t have become embroiled in that, but since Renee had the courage to try it, he couldn’t do any less. He’d not been able to say no to her.