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Chapter Twelve
The following days turned into a week of warm weather. Much of the snow melted, and so Glen had gone to town and picked up the small plow he could add to the front of Whit’s truck in order to clear their road.
Demi couldn’t get used to how gorgeous the earlier hellish landscape looked now. A blue-sky winter wonderland that would beautify any Christmas card. The trees in the distance dotted with white lace through the branches, and the snow piled in different levels along the tree line had her itching for her camera.
Life resumed at a nice pace, with Demi doing a lot of cooking and baking for the cellar. Knitting, a new hobby that Norrie taught her, had taken over a lot of her time in the evenings. Finishing off a blanket that Norrie had given her a pattern for, gave her more pleasure than she imagined it would. Though she’d dropped a lot of stitches making it look like another botched attempt, she persevered. Considering it was nothing compared to the scarves she’d first worked on for Whit and Glen, she felt like she was getting better.
At the moment, she had her laptop out, writing to catch up on her deadline. As she worked hard, she looked out the window at the blue sky and wondered where Nito had gone.
Since Glen had returned, the dog stayed away whenever he was home. As soon as he drove off, the dog usually retuned, barked to be let in, and went straight over to the kitten who was beginning to fill out nicely, becoming stronger every day.
Suddenly, a loud ruckus in the yard made her jump. With Glen in town, she was alone and shocked at the noise. Clearly, she heard Nito’s bark followed by him growling warningly and a male voice yelling. “Bugger-off beast, or I’ll put a bullet between those wicked green eyes.”
Tanner?
Running to open the door, she flew to stop her foster brother from shooting her dog. “Nito, no.”
The dog refused, getting more aggressive after she appeared. Moving closer, she pointed angrily. “You little bastard, I said no.”
Like it understood she meant him, he stopped the guttural growling and the threatening lunges. His hackles slowly settled, and his rigid stance seemed to relax. He moved around Tanner, keeping his distance, went to her and leaned his body against her thighs as if he needed to form a barrier between her and any threat.
Unwilling to push her luck, as thrilled as she was to see Tanner, she still felt uncertain as to his safety. Walking further down the porch to clear the doorway, she carefully and for the first time put her arm around the dog’s neck. “Tanner don’t talk. Just go into the house slowly and close the door. I’ll follow.”
As nonchalantly as he could, the tall man backed to the door, not for a moment taking his eyes off the wolf. Once he was safely inside, Demi took her arms away from the stiffened body of the wild animal in her grasp. She carefully stood up and backed away. Then she crept to the door without looking at Nito and let herself in.
Once inside, she flung herself into her brother’s arms and let loose the tears of joy she’d kept inside worrying the dog might misinterpret them to be fear.
“My God, I’m so happy to see you. But what are you doing here? Why didn’t you call to say you were coming? Where’s Bella? Is everything okay?”
Laughing, he hugged her again, and then looked down into her face. “Let me catch my breath, and I’ll tell you everything. First, I need to let my ahh, testicles recover. Man, that is one wild animal you have to guard the joint. You never told me you’d kept the little bastard for security.”
Happiness at his appearance made her lightheaded and giddy. Thrilled at his way of wording her relationship with Nito, she laughed. “He’s a long story. But that’s for later. Now, I need to hear about you.” She motioned for him to hang up his parka and then pointed to the kitchen. “Come, sit down, and I’ll get us some lunch. Tell me everything while I work.” She led him to the table and scooped up her writing gear to make room for their food.
“Why isn’t Bella here with you? Is she okay?” Demi couldn’t feel scared when his face glowed from good news even though his expression underwent changes from happy to worried.
“Yeah. About that. Bella’s pregnant. She was going to call you with the news, but when I decided I would come here to see for myself that you were okay, she said I could tell you in person.”
“What!” Demi flew from her position at the counter and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re going to be a daddy. I’m absolutely thrilled… for both of you. Hey, that makes me an aunt-to-be.” She laughed giddily. “Now I really have to get better at my knitting so I can start a baby blanket.”
“You. Knitting? Jesus, kid, this life has really done a number on you, hasn’t it? You look happy. Well other than the dark shadows under your eyes.” He examined her face, his now dead serious.
“I’m fine. Some sleepless nights is all. No biggie. Tell me more about Bella. Is she happy? And don’t mess with me. She’d be here with you if she could. So why isn’t she?”
“Ever heard of morning sickness? My darling lady has it all day long and into the night a lot of the time. She’s wiped out and couldn’t take the chance of traveling without a toilet next to her seat and unoccupied at all times.”
His disgruntled tone made her laugh. “What did the doctor say?”
“It’s normal. She’s healthy enough. Guess many women of her background suffer the same way. She sends her love and wants you to promise to come to the wedding. Can’t be soon though because the idea of planning a big day is too much for her to deal with right now. Figures we’ll wait until after the baby’s here so Auntie can take care of the little one while Mommy and Daddy have a honeymoon.”
“Ha. It’s a brilliant plan and Auntie is all for it. I’m sorry Bella’s not here but I’m thrilled as hell to see you. Just let me know what date you’re planning on for the big day, and I’ll be there.” She chuckled just thinking about the good times ahead. “What other news do you have? In fact, why have you come so far? As happy as I am to see you, it’s a long way to visit someone. Even a favorite foster sister.”
“Sweetest foster sister.”
“Hey, I could tell Bella you said that.”
“I said you were the sweetest. She’s the favorite, so there’s no blackmail there.” He became serious and added, “I had to drop off a felon at the Vancouver RCMP detachment. Figured it was more than halfway so I grabbed a flight and got to Ketchikan last night. Then rented a Jeep and drove here this morning.”
“I’m sure glad it was today you traveled and not a while ago. We had a storm that according to the locals, was a first-time occurrence. Norrie, my friend who owns the store in Hyder, says they’re used to big dumps and even strong winds and low temperatures, but that night they hit all kinds of records. They had a huge blizzard phenomenon occurring in a matter of hours and the temperatures dropped faster than usual. That’s the night the wolf came to my rescue.”
