Chapter Twenty-Five
Eating at the Talkeetna Cafe we don’t have time for this now.
“Big! Oh my God, you’ve got to hear this.”
“Lily, we have to go.”
“This is Wizard Ven Tarion. Wizard, this is my sister.”
“Wizard Ven Tarion the Inquisitor,” says the man. “At your service.”
“Pleased to meet you, your highness, but, Lily—”
“Wait, you’ve got to hear this!” She scoots over and pats the picnic table bench. “Start over,” she says to the Wizard.
Instead of sitting I grab Lily’s arm and pull her off the seat. “I’m sorry, your eminence, we’ve got to be somewhere. Important.
Let’s go.”
“But!”
“Nope, let’s go. Excuse us, it’s a . . . family emergency.”
“What kind of family emergency?” Lily asks as I drag her across the way through the after-dinner crowd. She snarls, “What
the hell, Big?”
We stop steps from the bar, and Lily yanks her arm from my grasp.
“Dane is in there. Drinking.” I tell her word for word what happened.
“That’s crazy,” she says. “I swear we were on the same page. A one-time thing. Like, what happens in Alaska stays in Alaska.”
“Listen, this can’t be one of those ‘Big to the rescue’ type things.
You’ve got to set him straight. It’s the right thing to do.
I don’t care what or how much you tell him.
It’s one thing that he has an unrequited a crush .
. . but this is serious. He’s just out of rehab. You can see that, can’t you?”
“Fine. But you have to come with me. I need you behind me.”
“I can do better than that. I can be beside you.” I take my sister’s hand. “Let’s go. Because our ride leaves soon.”
The bar has gotten more crowded, the sound of conversation rising to the wood-beamed rafters. Dane is still at his place at
the bar. The coffee and cookie are untouched. At least there isn’t a glass of whiskey anywhere near him. He turns when Lily
touches his back, and his face lights up.
“You missed an awesome dinner,” she says with her Lily smile. “Reindeer chili. Yum.”
“You didn’t eat reindeer! Rudolph? And Blitzen? How could you?”
Lily had a Cobb salad for dinner, but I’m certainly not calling her out on it. She lets go of my hand and stands next to him,
belly to the bar. She turns to me and says quietly, “I got this. Thanks for having my side, Sis.”
“I’ll be out there. If you need me.”
On the street, in front of the bar’s front windows, I’m doing my best lip-reading—by which I mean not picking up a word they
are saying—when Brick walks up to me.
“Any luck?” he asks.
“He’s in there. With Lily.”
He glances up at the sign over the door. beer and libations. “Does that mean what I think it means?” I nod. “Good Lord,” he says. It’s bad enough that Dane is drinking, but on his watch.
“Should I go in there?”
“Let’s let Lily handle it.”
He gives me a smile like a proud dad. “Well done,” he says.
“The grasshopper has become the master.” I chuckle and then put my hand over my mouth. What’s happening inside that bar is no laughing matter.
We peek in the window, and I can tell from the shape of her back that Lily is crying. Dane has his arm around her. Only Lily. The hour is almost up when Dane and Lily step out of the bar into the evening twilight. Some of the tiny blossoms
that have been floating through the air all day land in my sister’s hair. They could be newlyweds stepping out of a church
if it weren’t for Lily’s red eyes. She must have come clean with him. I’m sure it doesn’t make him any less smitten with her,
but from the body language, the hand on her back, her eyes to the ground, they’ve come to an understanding.
Dane pulls his phone from his pocket and walks away. Brick and I throw each other sideways glances. Our ride leaves in a few
minutes.
“Can we give him a second?” says Lily. “He’s going to call his sponsor before we lose service.”
“That’s a promising sign, right?” I ask. “You okay?”
She nods, and I wrap my arm around her. “I’m proud of you.”
She rolls her eyes and pushes me off. “Gee, thanks, Mom.” That’s my Lily.