Chapter 17
Remington
Crazy Coincidental Companionship
“It has been a beautiful day today,” I said as we started out on the trail. “We’re supposed to get snow over the next couple of days, so we’ll probably be able to do some more winter-like activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas.”
“One moment,” Addy said, and I glanced over my shoulder.
She knelt and tied her boots. That was odd, I could have sworn she’d laced them up pretty tightly that morning.
Although some kids liked to take off their shoes when they ran around the main cabin, Addy once told me the idea of her socks getting wet with an errant bit of melted snow made her soul wanna climb out of her mouth and crash out.
“Do you need help?”
My daughters were perfectly capable of dressing themselves, but it got more complicated once gloves were involved. With my increased body heat, I didn’t have to worry about wearing those.
“No, I got it, besides, we’re a little bit early.”
“Early?” I echoed in amusement. That was my Addy.
We’d agreed to set out on the trail at three-fifteen, and currently it was only three-ten.
Honestly, I was surprised she wasn’t objecting harder, because she didn’t like random disruptions to her plans, especially if there was a specific time involved.
“I should tie mine, too!” Eva agreed enthusiastically. I was all set to tell her that hers were fine, but when I glanced at them, sure enough, one of her boots was unlaced.
How had that happened?
I wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t a big deal, so I tucked it out of my mind and stretched while my girls took their sweet time lacing their boots up. Once they were ready, at approximately three-sixteen, we headed out onto the trail.
I hadn’t taken this trail in a handful of years, but I wasn’t worried. There were a couple of trail signs as well as informal markers that I could follow if my memory lapsed. Frankly, I was surprised my daughters even remembered it, because the last time we went had to be three or four years ago.
“We should come here during the fall sometime,” Eva mused as we strolled along.
Neither of my girls were going at their usual pace, but maybe they were also tuckered out from a wild start to our trip. Seeing them have so much fun really solidified that I was right to come this year. It seemed that we were finally ready.
And maybe, just maybe, it was also a sign that I could be ready for other things. Things I thought I would never have for the rest of my life.
Or maybe I was getting carried away with that ol’ vacation razzle dazzle where anything seemed possible. Once the cold reality of everyday life set in when we got home, I’d be slapped in the face with a vengeance by practicality.
Better not to think about it.
“I would like that,” I said. “You’re saying that because you’d like to see all the pretty different leaf colors, aren’t you?”
“Yeah!”
I grinned. No matter what anybody said of me, no one could deny that I knew my daughters. I tried to linger in that pocket of happiness and contentment, knowing that no matter what happened, I would always have them in my life.
But try as I might, my thoughts kept wandering to Jeannie.
She fit in so seamlessly with my family.
Several folks had approached me to tell me that she was a delight.
Earlier, I’d spotted her walking to the old playground with her arm looped through my sister-in-law’s.
Somehow, despite all logic, the entire scene seemed so right.
Even, perhaps, meant to be.
But I had never believed in fate. Which I supposed was a bit hypocritical considering it so often felt as if destiny had led me to that specific spot in the aquarium right in front of Zara.
Still, too many people used it as an excuse to not do something or resign themselves to never change.
Or worse, even as an excuse for when they knew they were doing something wrong.
“We should ask Miss Jeannie and Max too. I bet he’d love it!” Eva squealed.
“I bet he would.”
It was impossible for me not to notice my body’s reaction to the idea.
My lips pulled up into a grin, and anticipation locked up the back of my brain.
Even though we were in the middle of a trip right now, a not-insignificant part of me was thrilled at the idea of going on another trip with Jeannie and her son.
I straight up didn’t know what to make of it.
If I didn’t know better, I would think I was developing feelings for the curvy, kind mother, who sometimes looked at me and made me believe that the future was full of possibilities.
It was so completely different from what I’d felt when I first met Zara, that it confused me more than anything else.
When I’d first laid eyes on my wife, it was like the entire world snapped out of existence, and suddenly she was the center of it.
Her smile was the sun, and the dark freckles on her cheeks were the stars that dotted the cosmos.
One moment, she had been unknown, the next she was practically everything.
Even though we were just kids, I could feel the draw of her, the sheer gravity of her presence.
Jeannie wasn’t anything like that. When we were with each other, it was like the troubles of the world grew quiet, but the colors all around us were that much brighter. More intense. The world didn’t wink out of existence; it just was so much more.
She wasn’t the sudden center of anything either.
She was her own rapidly moving celestial body, allowing me the privilege of being in her presence, extending a hand to me so I could join in her journey through the galaxy, her comet tail radiating light and all those beautiful things that we only saw in high-tech NASA photos.
So, so, so incredibly different, not even in the same stratosphere, really. But if that was the case, then why did my inner bear and the more primal parts of me insist that she could be “mate”?
Because love was love, right? Wasn’t it always supposed to be the same?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t ready to ask anyone. Especially since sometimes it felt like the only person I could truly share my unfinished, rougher thoughts with was Jeannie herself. Maybe that was why my mind kept going back to her over and over again.
In fact, it was almost like I could hear her, those dulcet tones of hers and musical laugh drifting through the trees like a melody carried on the slightly spiky wind.
Wait…
“Now hold up finger guns like you’re secret agents.”
Actually, I was pretty sure that was her voice.
“Jeannie?” I called, jogging up the path. As I rounded a thick corner of dense pines, I saw her, Ana, and Max on the side of the trail, doing cheesy poses beneath an impressive oak tree that could have been a stand-in for the Angel Oak on Johns Island.
“Remy!” My heart ratcheted at the pure pleasure on her face. “What are you doing here?”
I almost told her we were there to scout the trail to see if it was appropriate for Max, but I didn’t want him to feel bad about it, so I tried to come up with a plausible excuse.
“Just wanted to stretch our legs a bit,” I said.
“What a coincidence. So did we,” Ana answered quickly—too quickly.
Clearly, the rather mixed-up feelings I was having about Jeannie and my whole internal situation was spilling over into other parts of my life, because it felt like everything had a double meaning.
That wouldn’t be healthy long-term, so obviously I had some stuff to work on.
“What a fun coincidence.”
“Yeah,” Max said, bounding up to me. His running gait was a lot steadier. From the day I met him, I noticed he was a touch like a new fawn on shaky legs.
Then again, maybe the fresh air and the ability to play with a bunch of other children who didn’t treat him with kid gloves was doing wonders for him.
My inner bear chose to believe that one, and rumbled in pride at having provided successfully for a cub in his care.
I reminded that primal force within me that Max was not actually my responsibility even if I was starting to feel that way.
In response, my inner animal basically gave me the bear equivalent of a middle finger.
Well, that was certainly something.
“I was told there is, like, a real-life abandoned cabin at the end of the trail. And in the snow, it looks like the North Pole! I wanna see.”
Never in a million years would I ever get tired of the unrepentant joy and enthusiasm that Max and Eva shared.
Even though Addy often liked to play her cards close to her chest, I could tell she was pleased as punch at how accurately she had predicted what would make her new friend happy.
That was my girl, using those mental powers of hers for good.
“Oh, I’ve been there, but not in a while. You’re right that it’s really fun.”
“We should really get a move on if we want to make it there and back before sundown,” Ana said, practically beaming.
Although she had always been the cheerful sort, often being a clown for Zara in the darkest of times, she seemed really jazzed about this particular hike.
Maybe she’d been caught up in a lot of her work lately?
She was a woman who liked to move around physically, so maybe this was giving her some much-needed catharsis.
“Okay, just a few more pictures now that everybody’s here,” Jeannie said, her rounded cheeks pink and her hazel eyes practically dreamy.
Dreamy? Really? Since when do I use adjectives like that?
Now, apparently, because even though I questioned the word, it still rang true in my mind.
“Addy, Eva, take the spy pose with Max.”
“OMG YAS! We can be like Charlie’s angels!”
I raised my eyebrow at the fact that not only did Max find the idea of being one of Charlie’s angels exciting, but also that he knew about it at all. Jeannie shrugged and sent me a smile that would have looked right at home on one of the angels painted onto the roof of the Sistine Chapel.