Chapter Thirty Five
July Twenty Third
Juniper
June grinned with excitement to see the island out the window. “I can’t believe we’re back.”
She looked at Wolfie, “Now I can ask, what did you think about leaving the island?”
He raised his brows and exhaled, puffing his cheeks out, “I can see why you came here.”
He smiled back at her. “And I’m glad you did, that was an adventure.”
“I know, I’m ready to continue a normal relationship, no exes, running, hiding, just normal couple things and normal arguments.”
The tire’s scratched the runway and Jay drove the plane around slower than Juniper liked. She was ready to get off, her legs were restless.
Jay exited the cockpit and turned to them, “I'm going to let everyone else off first, then you guys can unload, s ound good?”
“Yeah.”
Wolfgang nodded, then grabbed June’s hand and kissed the back of it, “Welcome home.”
“Welcome home to you too,”
She grinned at him, “And Zeppelin!”
She rubbed between his ears.
June looked at their stuff in the cargo area of the plane, motorcycle, backpack, box, and their collected items of clothes and dog stuff in plastic garbage bags. “Not too much, what should we take first?”
She looked at him.
“The bike, and then I can bring the Jeep back for everything else.”
“I’ll have to wait with Zeppelin.”
“Wolfgang!”
A woman screamed running towards them. He turned to see his mother and Amy behind her walking. Saving her the trip he jogged her direction with Zeppelin shadowing him, barking. He stopped as they got close and hugged her.
“Welcome back,”
Marilyn leaned into Juniper. “Your hair!”
She touched the tips in surprise.
“Wolfie did it.”
Marilyn's mouth dropped as Amy joined them, “I can’t believe you did it,”
She looked at Wolfie. “You brought her back.”
“And a plus one.”
He looked down at Zeppelin.
Amy and Marilyn took turns petting him, “You got Margaret on board with a dog too? Did you bribe her with sexual favors?”
Marilyn looked at her sister disgusted. “Ew.”
“I’m just saying.”
She looked back at her, “What’s this pup's name?”
“Zeppelin.”
June announced proudly, “After Led Zeppelin.”
“Are you kidding?”
Marilyn looked at them, “The records at the cabin, those were my grandparents.”
“We have some things for you, if you would like to help us unload, sadly it isn’t Pat.”
“I’m still amazed you guys ran into him. That’s crazy.”
Amy walked with them towards the plane.
Marilyn grabbed his backpack, “I want to hear everything, let's get home.”
Wolfgang
“Mom stop, come here first.”
He pulled her into his old bedroom at her house and closed the door. “First, here’s this.”
He handed her a small plastic bottle of dirt.
“Oh thank you!”
“And Pat gave me some things, this one’s a secret.”
She gasped at the small velvet box and saw him smirk at her reaction, “Look.”
He opened it revealing her mothers wedding ring.
She let out a sob, “Are you serious?”
“Mom, you’re acting like I’m proposing to you, pull yourself together.”
She hit him, “When?”
“I don’t know Mom. We just got back, I want us to get settled and enjoy a few months together as boyfriend and girlfriend.”
The box snapped closed. “Can you hold on to this for now?”
“Yes.”
She smiled, wiped her already puffy eyes, grabbed the velvet box and slid it into his old nightstand. “Let's go see what Amy and June are up to.”
They exited his room and walked into the living room as June and Amy were looking at old pictures from the album. “I couldn’t stop her,”
June looked up at them.
Marilyn walked around the couch, “My mothers recipe box?”
She opened it and traced her finger along the corner of all the index cards before getting caught off guard by the blue package. “You’re kidding, you found Oreos?”
“You’ve heard of Oreos?”
She peeled the package open, “Yes Wolfgang.”
Biting down on one cookie she passed the container to Amy. “How was Pat?”
Marilyn turned to Wolfgang with tears in her eyes.
“He was good mom, happy and healthy, you saw the picture, two daughters, five grandkids.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, “I miss him Wolfie, and I miss your father but I missed you the most.”
Wolfie took her in his arms. “I love you son.”
“Love you too mom.”
He remembered his keys and stepped back, “Look.”
He pulled the keys out of his pocket, one for the bike and one for the cabin. “That's the cabin key.”
She grazed it with her thumb in her palm, “And that’s your uncle's bike key? I still can’t believe he gave you that.”
She looked over at June and Amy laughing, “Dinner is in two hours, you guys wanna go home to get ready?”
“Sounds good, I want to take the bike. Do you mind watching Zeppelin in the mean time?”
“Not at all, he’s pretty sweet.”
She stepped towards Amy and sat on the other side of her.
“Juniper.”
Wolfie called to her.
Her head snapped to him and her eyes slowly followed, “Yes?”
“Let’s go get ready, Mom?”
His eyes blinked to Marilyn as Juniper walked towards him.
“Yes?”
She hardly glanced up from the pictures.
“Is dinner here?”
She smiled, “It’s at the community center, a lot of people missed you.”
June turned around wide eyed, “What?”
“There’s going to be a lot of people there.”
*****
June’s palm opened the door to their apartment, revealing it spotless. They closed the door and looked in Max’s empty room, his old bed was made and a few of June’s things were sitting on the bed. June picked up a note, ‘June, Didn’t know if you would want your things here or in Wolfgangs room, so we got all we could in his. He has a lot of shit. Xo Whitney.’ She smirked and set it down. The kitchen had fresh flowers on the counter, their two phones next to each other and a bottle of wine. ‘Welcome home. Xo Brittanya.’ was scribbled on a piece of paper underneath.
Wolfie set his helmet down and pulled June in by the waist, brushed her hair back for a kiss then noticed the note, “Welcome home, for good .”
He murmured into her ear gripping her tighter.
Juniper
“You really want to take the bike?”
She stood in her underwear in the bathroom, with a dress on a hanger while Wolfie showered.
“I would like to.”
“Fine, guess I won’t wear this dress.”
“Which one?”
He said frustrated.
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll have underwear on.”
“Juniper.”
“Fine, jeans it is.”
She turned to walk into his closet which had become their closet. Brittanya and Whitney had done a good job. It was nice that she didn’t have a lot, she fit better. She hung up the dress and grabbed her phone.
Juniper ‘Do you have a top that is hot and goes with jeans?’
Whitney ‘Yes! I can drop it off now. Miss me being your roommate already?’
Juniper ‘Yes.’
A single minute later she heard a bang on the door and shuffled out to the living room in an oversized tee shirt of Wolfie’s to open the door, “June!”
Whitney barged in with a hug and a shirt in her hand.
“Whitney.”
She smiled at her, welcoming her embrace. Her hug was long and rocked side to side. “You were fast.”
“I was at Fade’s. He lives down the road.”
She stepped back. “Where’s Wolfgang?”
“Showering.”
June turned to the bedroom and back to Whitney.
“Is that his bike out there?”
“Uh, yes.”
Whitney leaned in, “Hot. Anyway, I’ll let you get ready and I will see you in a bit. Cute hair.”
She smiled at her, “Okay, bye.”
June walked back into the room and changed her clothes as the sound of the water turned off. The bathroom door opened, revealing Wolfie in a towel and June asked, “How is this?”
Showing him her tight jeans and blue tank top.
His eyes darkened, looking for seconds, “I like it.”
“Don’t.”
She stopped him, “Get dressed.”
There were quite a bit of cars in the community center parking lot, not as many as Community Day but more than she expected. After resting the helmets on the seat Wolfgang grabbed her hand walking up the sidewalk and into the building. “They’re here!”
Brittanya squeaked and ran to them, wrapping her arms around both of them in a group hug. “Thank you Wolfie for bringing her back, and her hair doesn't look too bad.”
She released them and June looked around seeing Max and Shianne, who was definitely pregnant, Margaret, Golden and a few of her coworkers, members of the council, Marilyn, Amy, Whitney, Fade, Jay and others she didn’t personally know.
Brittanya handed them both a glass and turned to the small crowd, “Welcome home.”
She led them in unison as they toasted to the couple's return.
The guest came and greeted them one by one throughout the night, “Junie babe!”
Golden found himself hugging her.
She gasped, “Golden, do I still work with you?”
“Yes, I’ll see you tuesday!”
He turned from them after looking Wolfie up and down.
“Congratulations on your wedding.”
She smiled at Shianne and Max.
“Thank you!”
She rubbed her stomach. “We wish you guys could have made it, but I guess he was off rescuing you or something?”
She laughed after her comment, “Baby I’m starving,”
She looked at Max as if it was a command and not a comment.
“Welcome back guys, I’m glad you made it Wolfie, now you can take half the load again.”
They shook hands with an embrace.
“I appreciate it Max. You’re going to get one hell of a paternity leave in November. I also got hardware for the system, things should start running better when that gets installed.”
“Awesome. I better get her to a table with a plate.”
He pulled Shianne away.
Margaret made her way to them, “I’m sorry.”
She looked at each of them apologetically, “I wish it didn’t have to go that way and that I knew it was him.”
“No, thank you Margaret, for letting me come back. My life would have drastically changed for the worst if Wolfgang didn’t save me.”
“You’re a blessing here Juniper. I apologize for my misjudgment on Elijah, we’re working on better security. Let me know if I can help you with anything.”
She smiled at them both and turned away.
June turned to him, “You know, this is where it happened, where it all went downhill. But I’ve thought about it, if we had known earlier, they still would have asked me to go with him and leave.”
His brow crinkled together, “They asked you to leave?”
“No.”
her head tilted, “They told me he wouldn’t remember the island, but he would remember me. And if he could track me the first time, what would stop him the second time?”
He pulled her in by both arms, “I would have.”
June looked up at him, “I mean, you did.”
She reached up to kiss him.
July Twenty Ninth
Juniper
“How is it? Not too bad right?”
Whitney asked, sitting next to June in the chair with a needle buzzing on her outer thigh.
“No actually.”
“Does Wolfie know you're doing this?”
“Hm, no. We talked about it, but he hates the idea of couple tattoos.”
“I literally have ‘Fade’ tattooed on my ass.”
She pointed to the spot.
June laid still, “Whitney, that doesn’t surprise me.”
“I’m just saying, when you know, you know.”
Whitney slid her phone out of her pocket, “But, he knows now.”
“What?”
June refrained from moving her leg.
“I sent him a picture.”
She didn’t seem phased by her action.
Juniper's phone started ringing in her bag, “Whitney!”
“Fine, I’ll answer it.”
She picked it up rolling her eyes as she quickly tapped it against June’s hand, not letting her grip it. “Hello? Yes. The salon. Murphy. Bye.”
“He’s on his way.”
She set June’s phone back down. “Let me see.”
She stood behind Murphy. “I think he’s going to love it.”
Five minutes passed and Wolfie entered the salon, “Are you kidding me?”
He paced towards June.
“Hey Wolfgang, what up?”
Murphy didn’t look up, trying to ease whatever tension may arise.
“Hi Murphy.”
He stood next to Whitney to inspect the project. “Wha - June! I thought we agreed.”
“Too damn bad. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.”
She blushed at her rebellion.
“Okay, if that’s how you want to play.”
He sighed and looked at the one line artwork tattoo on the side of her thigh, a wolf howling towards a star. “Murphy, do you have any openings next week?”
he smirked.