He clicked the door in place and then stared out at the water, presumably gathering his thoughts.
Shay waited with her arms crossed over her chest and didn’t care in the least if she looked impatient.
Finally he faced her. “Look, Shay, I know you aren’t exactly happy that I’m here...”
“Really, Jonah? Caleb is obviously ecstatic—and that makes me happy.”
“Shay, come on—I can tell when you’re upset. I realize it’s been a while, but some things don’t change. I just, I...”
“I?” she repeated sharply. “As always, Jonah, you’re making this all about you. I can’t believe you’re standing here and telling me that you think I’m upset because you’re here?”
“You’re not?” His arrogant smirk made her want to say something really mean—something reminiscent of their fight two years ago.
She pushed three fingers of each hand into her eyebrows, took a breath, and then released everything at once. “Jonah, I don’t care what you do. Am I thrilled to see you? No—of course not. But my obvious angst is due exclusively to the fact that I’m worried about Caleb. So you can go ahead and get over yourself right now. I don’t know what your plan is but—”
“Trust me, Shay, I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me to be. Gramps asked me to come home—I didn’t offer. He asked.”
“He asked you...”
Slowly, simultaneously, they turned and looked toward the house. It didn’t need to be spoken that if Caleb had asked Jonah to rush home then something was wrong—terribly wrong.
A surge of fear left her entire body tingling.
Their eyes met again.
“Jonah, what is going on?”
“I’m not sure. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. He hasn’t mentioned anything to you about being sick or anything?”
She shook her head.
“You haven’t noticed anything that might give you some clue?”
Shay thought about the times she’d seen him in the last couple weeks. “No, he had what we thought was a flu bug. It’s been going around—you know a sneeze and cough kind of thing? He stayed out of the office for several days, so I signed him up for the food loop at the church. But this was supposed to be his last night for that because he was feeling so much better.”
Shay gestured toward the house. “I thought he was better. I mean, he looks great, right?”
“He called me last week and asked if I could come home. I said sure, started looking at my calendar, firing off weekends that I could possibly make work but then he said... He told me that what he meant was...could I come home—like for a while?”
“I know he misses you, Jonah, maybe he just wanted you to visit or...”
Jonah started shaking his head, and she realized how silly that sounded.
“He also said there was something he wanted to talk to me about.”
Jonah’s composed features were at odds with the rigid tension emanating from his body. Jonah could be difficult to read, undoubtedly a valuable trait as a lawyer, but something that had always been frustrating for her. But she could see now that he was worried. She had known him very well once, and even though years had passed, maybe Jonah was right that some things didn’t change—not enough anyway.
“What?” Shay stared at him, waiting. “What is it?” she repeated, impatience seeping into her tone. “What did he want to talk to you about?”
“That’s just it, Shay. He hasn’t said anything yet.”
Her mind began whirring with possibilities. “What are we...you—I mean. What are you going to do?”
“Come on, Shay,” he said. “We. In this, at least, we can be a we, right? Gramps is closer to you than anyone else—except maybe Doc. And that’s what I wanted to speak to you about. I know I’m not your favorite person in the world, but I guess I’m asking for your help in...figuring this thing out.”
As much as she wished otherwise, she felt his words working on her as easily as he’d manipulated that ice cream. In spite of her disapproval of his lack of attention toward Caleb, she knew he loved his grandfather. Caleb was the only family Jonah had in the world. In direct opposition to Shay who had both parents, five siblings and a close extended family.
“Of course,” she said without hesitating. “Jonah, yes, anything I can do. What time is his appointment?”
“Doc said he has a full day tomorrow, so we’re going in early before he opens.”
“Okay, if something is wrong with him, Doc is the obvious place to start. Call me after you see him, okay?”
“Absolutely. As soon as I know anything I’ll call.”
* * *
JONAH KICKED UP his speed as he approached the road leading to the Faraway Inn. Instead of calling, he’d decided to go for a run and tell Shay the news about Gramps in person. Running eased his anxiety like nothing else, even though the exercise didn’t seem to be helping much now.
Doc and Gramps had holed up in his office for nearly an hour this morning while Jonah sat in the waiting room and tried not to let his anxiety-ridden imagination get the better of him. Then Gramps had come out and announced that Doc was sending him to see a heart specialist in Anchorage—in three weeks. Amazing how a few weeks could suddenly feel like an eternity.
Upon returning home from Doc’s, Gramps said he needed a nap and then promptly disappeared into his room. This caused further angst for Jonah because Gramps didn’t nap, other than dozing off occasionally in his recliner during a ball game—if that counted—and even then it had to be a pretty dull game.
Now, each stride seemed to heighten Jonah’s anxiety as it took him closer to his ex-fiancé—to the woman he had once believed would be his wife and the mother of his children.
Shay...
Seeing her the night before had absolutely tied him in knots. It was difficult to believe that he and Shay had ever believed they could share a life together. She wanted this... Jonah looked around at the rugged countryside that surrounded the remote town of Rankins. Mountains with jagged, snow-covered peaks dotted the skyline, while thick green forest stretched for-seemingly-ever. The view on his other side was of a raw, picturesque, island-dotted coastline with the town of Rankins perched on the shore of a small bay.
Sure, it was postcard pretty, but it was just...nothing. For as far as a person could see, even with binoculars from the ridge on the outskirts above town—the ridge where the Faraway Inn sat. Shay’s Faraway Inn. The inn that had ultimately meant more to her than he had.
Jonah had wanted—wanted still—a high-powered law career, skyscrapers, noise, a penthouse apartment, impractical cars that didn’t have four-wheel drive and snow tires. And yes, he wanted to be successful, make money, and enjoy these finer things in life—the things he knew his late father had wanted for him, too.
Somehow Shay always made him feel like his aspirations were some kind of mortal sin.
The sight and sound of a vehicle going by and then making a u-turn didn’t really register until a horn honked behind him. He looked over his shoulder.
“Jonah?” Shay’s cousin Bering shouted from the window of the mud-spattered black pickup idling toward him.
Jonah jogged back toward him. “Hey, Bering! How’ve you been?”
Bering pulled over, then hopped out and stuck out a hand. “Fantastic, actually.” He added a befuddled kind of head-shake as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself.
Jonah gripped his