Wilder (The Halversons #7)

CHAPTER ONE

Wilder Halverson shifted in his seat, grateful that, for whatever reason, the airline had upgraded him from economy to first class for his flight from Reykjavik, Iceland to Spokane, Washington. He’d traveled enough in economy, with his knees bumping the seat in front of him, to appreciate the times he was blessed with an upgrade.

“Heading home?”

He looked at the older woman seated beside him. She was probably about his parents’ age. But while his mom tended to choose more comfortable clothes when she traveled, this woman was dressed in a dark blue pantsuit with a paisley scarf. Her short silver hair was styled elegantly, and she wore several pieces of jewelry that Wilder was sure cost a fortune.

When he traveled, he opted for comfort over style, like his mom. Which meant he was dressed in a pair of black joggers, a long sleeve T-shirt, and a pair of Converse sneakers.

At first, he’d assumed the woman was a bit of a snob, because she’d spent most of the flight working on her laptop. Wilder had also spent his time working, though he’d been on his tablet.

“Yes. My family lives in northern Idaho.” He smiled at her. “And you?”

“I’m meeting some friends for a girls’ weekend near Serenity Point. Do you know the place?”

“I do,” Wilder said with a nod. “It’s my hometown.”

“I’ve never been to this part of the US before,” she said. “What’s it like?”

Wilder had no problem giving her the run-down on the area. After all, he knew it very well, plus he was used to sharing the highlights of a place when he did his travel videos. It was a nice reminder of all the things he loved about his hometown, and why he was eager to get back to Serenity.

When the announcement came that they were beginning their descent into Spokane International Airport, Wilder turned to look out the window. The sun had set about an hour earlier, so there wasn’t much to see beyond a scattering of lights across the dark landscape.

But they were lights that represented home.

His time away from Serenity seemed longer than it had in the past, though that hadn’t actually been the case. In fact, he was coming home a little earlier in the year than he usually did. He wasn’t usually so glad to be back, but he was.

In the past, he’d always been happy to be back in Serenity and to see his family, but this time, it felt like more than that. It was a sense of relief that he hadn’t ever experienced before, which made no sense. Especially since he’d seen his parents only two weeks earlier.

His parents had been with him at the orphanage in Thailand until they’d had headed home while he’d flown to Iceland to film a collaboration that he’d had scheduled with a travel company there. He’d enjoyed spending time with his parents in a ministry setting, and he’d been proud of how they’d thrown themselves into the work there.

Once the plane was on the ground, the woman next to him exhaled audibly. “Flying is not my favorite thing.”

“It is always good to get back on land,” Wilder agreed, though he didn’t really mind flying. If he did, he wouldn’t be able to live life the way he wanted.

Because they were in first class, they were among the first to disembark. Wilder thought the woman might walk with him, but she took off, walking quickly up the jetway.

Wilder followed at a more leisurely pace, knowing that he’d still have to wait for his luggage at the baggage claim. As he neared the area, he looked around, curious to see who was there to pick him up.

Once he’d had his flight information, he’d dropped it in the family chat and trusted that someone would be there to pick him up. It was how he’d done it the last few years whenever he’d returned to Serenity Point.

He grinned when he spotted his brother, Lee. “Did you draw the short straw?”

Lee pulled him in for a hug, pounding him lightly on the back. “Nah. I volunteered.”

Wilder hadn’t seen much of his older brother in the last few years, since Lee hadn’t lived in Serenity. They’d usually seen each other for Christmas, and that was about it.

“So, I hear you’re settling down,” Wilder said as they stood at the baggage claim conveyor.

A smile grew on Lee’s face as he crossed his arms. “You heard right. New job. New love. It’s been a bit of a journey, but I’m happy here.”

“Never thought I’d see the day, honestly,” Wilder said as he thumped him on the shoulder. “You seemed very happy in Chicago.”

“I was,” Lee agreed. “But circumstances change, you know.”

“Your breakup?”

“No. I would have stayed there after that, but then I was laid off.”

“Did they just happen to be hiring at the vet clinic in Serenity?”

“Dr. Carl had been trying to handle it all on his own since it’s not a super busy clinic, but his wife told him he needed to hire someone to help now that he was getting older.”

“Perfect timing.”

“God’s timing,” Lee said.

Wilder wasn’t surprised by Lee’s response. In his family, God’s timing was definitely an accepted belief. Even he had experienced moments when it seemed that God had guided him to just the right place at just the right time.

“You didn’t bring your new girlfriend with you?” Wilder asked as he eyed the suitcases that were tumbling down onto the conveyor belt. “Afraid she might decide she likes me better?”

Lee’s laughter was immediate. “Yeah. No. That’s never going to happen.”

As he spotted his suitcase, Wilder took a step closer to the conveyor belt. “You seem pretty sure of that.”

“I’m not just pretty sure,” Lee said. “I’m one hundred percent certain.”

Wilder grabbed the suitcase’s handle and hefted it off the belt. “I’m wondering if I should take offense to that.”

“It has nothing to do with the sort of man you are,” Lee said. “I would be as certain about her meeting Chris Hemsworth.”

After pulling the handle of the suitcase up, Wilder set his backpack on it. “That kind of makes me feel better, I guess.”

“Rori’s an amazing woman, and I know she is as devoted to me as I am to her.”

As they walked away from the baggage claim area, Wilder’s thoughts went to the woman he’d gotten to know during his stay in Thailand. Miriam was the daughter of the couple running the orphanage. She’d grown up there and had returned to the US to study nursing. Once she’d graduated, she’d gone back to Thailand to work alongside her parents.

Since they were close to the same age, and their parents had gotten along well, they’d ended up spending a lot of time together. For the first time, Wilder had seriously considered how a relationship might fit into his life.

Unfortunately, despite the connection they had as friends, the relationship hadn’t gone any further. There had been no romantic connection. Wilder had left Thailand with the promise that they’d keep in touch, but only as friends.

“Are you ready for the ski season?” Lee asked as he guided his car out of the airport parking lot.

“As ready as I ever am.” After spending several months in the heat and humidity of the tropics, he was looking forward to winter. His brief stop in Iceland had been a nice re-introduction to cooler temps.

“Kayleigh said they’ve built a big indoor ice rink at the resort.”

“Yeah. She mentioned that in one of our chats.”

“She didn’t seem one hundred percent sold on its necessity.”

“Neither am I. I don’t know that it’s going to get a lot of use, but it was Alexander’s call, and he was adamant.”

“I get the feeling that one doesn’t argue with Alexander,” Lee said.

“You’ve met him, right?”

“Yes. At Kayleigh and Hudson’s wedding. He appears to have a forceful personality.”

Wilder gave a huff of laughter. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“Kayleigh did mention that someone would be hired to work there with people like you do on the slopes. She might even give figure skating lessons, which works out well because the woman that’s been teaching Layla and Amelia has recently moved away.”

Wilder was looking forward to seeing his nieces and nephews. He viewed them and the lives they lived in a different light after his experiences of the past couple of years with the orphanages. He’d gotten a good hard look at how their lives could have been, had they been born under different circumstances.

It also helped him view his adopted brothers and sister in a new light. He’d never really questioned why his parents had adopted kids when they had so many of their own. However, Wilder had seen firsthand where kids who lost their parents or who were abandoned could end up.

“You could give skating lessons,” Lee said. “If I recall, you enjoyed ice skating.”

“Well, not figure skating. If I’d done any on ice sport, it probably would have been hockey or maybe speed skating.”

“Does the same group of people come back every year to work the ski season?”

“Not usually. I’m the only one who’s been a regular for the last several years. But there will probably be one or two people who are back from last year.”

“You don’t keep in contact with your co-workers?”

“Not really. The only one I talk to periodically is the sport shop manager, who is my supervisor when I’m here.”

Given how he’d chosen to live his life, he had a lot of friends in a lot of different places, but those friendships weren’t necessarily close. There were a few people who also had a nomadic lifestyle that he hung out with if their paths happened to cross when he was traveling.

“Are you okay staying at Charli and Janessa’s?” Lee asked.

“Yep. All I need is a decent bed, and I’m happy.”

Before they’d left, his parents had let him know that they had some friends coming to visit them for a few weeks. He probably could have stayed there anyway, but hanging out with his siblings and their families wouldn’t be a hardship.

“You still living there too?”

“Yep. Eventually, I’ll probably get a place of my own, but I’m in no rush.”

“You don’t mind having the kids around?”

“Nope. They’re good kids, and I think Charli appreciates having several other adults around to help with them.”

Wilder let out a long breath as he relaxed back into his seat. It had been a long day of travel, and he was ready to get to where he was going to call home for the next little while. Give him a shower, a comfortable bed, and no need to be up, and he’d sleep like the dead for twelve plus hours.

He was hungry though, so he asked Lee to pull into a fast food place so that he could eat something that wasn’t a bag of peanuts or didn’t cost the earth. Airport restaurants and the food offered on the plane was always well above his budget.

For the rest of the trip home, they chatted about what was going on with the family, and Wilder shared a bit about what he’d been up to. A lot had already gone on that year, what with Charli and Blake getting married on New Year’s Eve, then adopting a baby girl.

He hadn’t met the baby yet, but his mom and dad had shown him a ton of pictures. Every day Charli sent them pictures of baby Shiloh and the older girls. Though there was a big focus on the baby.

It was nearly nine by the time they made it to the house, but as he and Lee approached the front door, it was flung open to reveal his oldest niece.

“Uncle Wilder!” Layla greeted him with a grin and a tight hug.

She’d grown since he’d last seen her. He was sure that was true for all his nieces and nephews. Being away from them was one of the downsides since it meant he was missing those changes in them.

“Hey, princess,” he said as he hugged her back. “How’s life?”

“Good!”

“It’s good to have you back home,” Charli said, hurrying over to hug him.

With each hug—or back slap—that he shared with the members of his family who were there, Wilder felt a piece of his heart settle into place. It wasn’t a foreign feeling—he got it every time he returned home—but this time, the feeling was stronger than ever.

Though he loved traveling around the world, meeting new people and seeing new places, that lifestyle came with some stresses. There were language barriers, cultural differences, and unfamiliar foods. None of that had ever been detrimental enough to tempt him away from the nomadic life. Still, it was a bit of a relief when those stresses slipped away as soon as he stepped foot back in Serenity.

There really was something to be said for coming home.