Chapter 25 #2
"Well, looks like the county is doing what it said it would. At least the propane tank will let me cook and have a hot shower." I managed a grin. "And I've already set up that small generator that can run the well pump. Won't be comfortable, but I'll manage."
Claire nodded slowly. Then she stood, came around the table, and kissed me on the cheek.
The touch of her lips was soft and brief. She pulled back just far enough to meet my eyes.
"What was that for?" I asked.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was quiet. "I'm sorry you're going through this. With Harlan. With all of it." She shook her head. "I'm the reason your power got cut off. If you hadn't bought this land from me, if you hadn't gotten involved in my problems with him..."
"That's not true." I reached up and touched her arm, keeping her from stepping away. "The only one to blame for any of this is Harlan. He's the one who decided to come after me. He's the one who's been cheating you and your father for years."
"Still."
"No still." I stood, let my hand rest on her arm, feeling the tension in her arm through the canvas jacket. "This is all on Harlan. But the kiss was nice anyway."
A small smile crossed her face. She hesitated, then leaned in and kissed me again.
This time on the lips.
Her mouth was soft and warm. The kiss started gentle, almost tentative, but then something opened between us and it deepened. Her hand came up to rest on my chest. I pulled her closer, my arm around her waist, and she made a small sound against my lips.
When we finally broke apart, she rested her head against my shoulder. Her breathing was unsteady. So was mine.
"I haven't stopped thinking about you," she said quietly. "Since that day at the farm. Since I kissed you in the tea field."
"I'm glad you kissed me again."
She laughed softly, her breath warm against my neck.
"It feels so nice to be held by a man again. I forgot what this was like." Her hand moved against my chest slowly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
She was quiet for a moment, considering her next words.
"Have you been sleeping with Liberty?"
I considered how to answer. Scout's privacy was not mine to compromise. What had happened between us was between us.
"I won't answer that," I said.
Claire nodded against my shoulder.
"I understand." She did not sound hurt or upset, just thoughtful. "She's a remarkable young woman. I've known her since she was a little girl, running wild in these woods."
"She is remarkable. That's a good word for her."
"And she looks at you like you are the only man in the world."
I did not know what to say to that, so I said nothing.
Claire lifted her head and met my eyes. In the lamplight, her face was beautiful and sad.
"I thought I was too busy surviving to be lonely," she said.
"Taking care of DJ. Taking care of my mother.
Trying to keep the farm from going under.
I didn't have time to think about what I was missing.
I thought I wasn't missing anything at all.
" She touched my face, her fingers light against my jaw. "Meeting you proved that wrong."
"I never tried to keep you away, Claire."
"I know. I want to open up to you. I ache to. You have no idea how much." Her voice cracked slightly. "But I can't. Not now. Not with everything that's happening. With DJ and my mother needing me and Harlan circling like a vulture. It wouldn't be fair. To you or me."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
"Yes." I pulled her close again, holding her against my chest. "I understand what it's like to have your life in pieces and not know how to put them back together. I understand being afraid to start something when you don't know if you can see it through."
She kissed my chest through my shirt, a gesture so tender it made my throat tight.
"I'll do whatever I can to help you," she said. "With Harlan. With the power. With anything you need."
"I'll do the same for you."
She pulled back and looked at me one more time. So much passed between us in that look. An acknowledgment of what could be, of what we both wanted but could not have. Not yet.
"Goodnight, Thomas."
"Goodnight, Claire."
She crossed to the door and opened it. The night air rushed in, cool and smelling of pine. She paused in the doorway, silhouetted against the darkness, and looked back at me.
Then she stepped through and closed the door softly behind her.
I stood alone in my cabin, lit only by the propane lantern on the shelf. I listened to her footsteps on the porch, then on the path, growing fainter until they disappeared into the dusk.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, my eyes half-closed, my hands on my hips.
I walked to the window and looked out at the evening sky, at the pond to the south. I could not see it, but I knew it was there. The pond where Scout had first appeared. The brush I had cleared. The soil I had turned. The paths I had worn with my own feet.
Harlan Foster wanted to take this from me. He wanted to use his money and his influence to drive me out, to claim what he believed was rightfully his. He had cut off my power. He would try other things. I was certain of that now.
But I was not leaving.
I had spent twenty-two years living someone else's life. Working a job I did not value. Married to a woman who had stopped loving me long before I asked for a divorce. I had let myself be pushed and pulled and shaped by other people's expectations until I barely recognized myself.
Not anymore.
I was forty-five years old. I had maybe forty years left if I was lucky, fewer if I was not. I would not spend those years running from a man like Harlan Foster. I would not let him take what I had built here in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula.
I would learn to live without power if I had to. Abner had done it for fifteen years. I could do it too.
I would help Claire get justice for her father. I would help her save her farm.
I would be there for DJ, show him what it looked like when a man kept his promises.
I would figure out whatever this thing was with Scout, this unexpected connection that had bloomed between us despite everything that said it should not have.
I would protect Grace if she needed protecting, though I knew she was more than capable of protecting herself.
I had so much now. So much more than I had when I arrived here with nothing but an Airstream and a cashed-out retirement fund and a heart that needed mending.
I was determined to keep it.
All of it.