Love on a Summer Night (27 page)

“Faith!” Dean yelled louder, right behind her, and then his hand was on her arm, twisting her around. “Stop.”

“Let go of me!” Her lungs were burning and her words tore out of her chest. “I know where he is.”

“Good. But you can’t see anything and you might hurt yourself. Take my flashlight.”

He pressed the large metal torch into her hand and she turned again, still fast, still uncaring about cuts and scrapes, but slower enough that she could breathe. How far was it? The other searchers had gone in the other direction. They didn’t know that she’d come here with Eric when he was….three? Maybe even two. God, it had been a while. And the brush didn’t look the same at all in the winter. Time had changed it, too. But she wasn’t looking for a familiar scene. She was looping the memory in her head.

Eric ducking around a tree, pretending to know where he was leading her. “This way, Mommy, this way.”

It had been their one and only hike in this direction. It wasn’t even a real path. But up ahead, hopefully not too far, there was a rocky outcrop, a shallow cave. If there was any justice in the world, if Fate had any decency, inside it would be her son.

— —
 

Zander made it to Wiarton in less than two hours, and when the shadow of a police cruiser pulled onto the highway behind their car, he swore under his breath. No way was he stopping, but it would be incredibly awkward to deal with one of his brother’s co-workers charging him with half the Highway Traffic Act if he didn’t. He turned to his mother to tell her to call Rafe, but before the words were formed, the lights lit up behind him.

But instead of pulling him over, the cruiser sped up, pulling alongside. Zander didn’t recognize the uniform inside, but the hand signal was clear.
Follow me
.

“Get an update from Rafe,” he said woodenly, not wanting to dwell on why he was getting an escort up the peninsula. But he needed to know before he got there. Needed to be strong.

His mother nodded, and this time she didn’t put the call on speaker phone. Zander listened to her side of the conversation as he watched his speedometer climb. The cop in front of him was going over a buck twenty. One thirty. Dark shadows and drifts of snow flitted by on either side of the car.

“Rafaelo, it’s your mother.”
 

“We’re in Wiarton.”
 

“Yes.”

“I understand.”

“Right.”

Zander knuckled the steering wheel. He couldn’t take the suspense. “Mother?”

She hesitated. “They haven’t found him yet.”

Fuck
. He slammed his hand against the dash as his mother hung up the phone.
 

“They’ve just taken Faith into the woods, the area you suggested to Tom. Rafe says Tom’s team had a ten-minute head start on her, so hopefully we’ll hear something soon.”

The kilometres ticked by still too slowly, even though they were going nearly twice the speed limit, and as they streaked past the exit for Pine Harbour, his phone lit up again.

— —
 

Three sharp whistles pierced the air and stabbed Faith in the chest. She stopped still, spinning around. “Where did that come from?”

She remembered from her climbing days—that was a distress signal. And it was close by.

Dean curved his gloved hand around her arm and turned her. As they spun around, the whistle sounded again. She’d been a bit off course, she could see that now. The rise of the land was there, and at the top of it was another flashlight.

“Eric,” she called out, scrambling up through the brush faster now.

“We have him,” someone shouted, and it sounded like Zander so it must be Tom. “He’s breathing. And awake.”

Thank you
, she silently said to the universe.
 

It didn’t slow her down any, knowing that he was alive. Her feet slipped and Dean helped her up, propelling her forward at the same time.

At the top of the hill, where the rocks rose up from the ground and made a shelter, she found Eric wrapped in a foil blanket and Tom Minelli quietly talking to him. Someone else she didn’t recognize was standing nearby, a human lamp as his headlamp clearly illuminated the two people on the ground.

Faith fell to her knees and pulled Eric into her lap. “Oh God, you’re okay.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

She swallowed the sob that begged for release and shook her head. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters.”

The blanket crinkled as she tried to get up, but her arms were shaking too much. Her legs, too.

“Hang on a minute,” Tom said, and she blinked over at him. “He’s okay. We’ve looked him over, and that’s one good quality coat you bought him. He’s warm enough for you both to catch your breath and have a hug before we head back to the road.”

“I need to call Zander,” she hiccupped. The sob might be stifled but the tears rolled down her face, not giving two fucks if she wanted to hold it together or not. Her body was done being stoic.

“He’ll be here soon,” Dean said, joining their little group on the ground.

“Not soon. I need to call him
now
.” She glared at both men. “Now.”

Tom nodded and pulled out his phone. He dialled Zander and then held the phone between them.

Zander’s mom answered. “Tom, we’re ten minutes away. Where should we go?”

“Ma, can you put Zander on the phone?”

“What is it, Tom?” Anne’s voice was careful, but concerned. In that instant, Faith had a sudden rush of kinship for her. She recognized that mama bear tone. They might parent completely differently, but once a mother, always a mother.

“Anne, it’s Faith. We’ve found Eric and he’s okay. Can you put Zander on?” Faith’s breath puffed in the space between their bodies and she shifted, suddenly realizing the ground was wet and cold beneath her. “Come on, baby, we’re standing up now.”

“Faith?” Zander’s voice rang strong. “Do you have him?”

“Hi Zander,” Eric said.

“Oh, bud.” Zander sighed. “I’m going to give you the biggest hug in like five minutes.”

“Okay.” Her son gave her a sad smile. “Zander, I think I’m in trouble.”

“Don’t worry. We’re just glad you’re okay. I’m just passing Greta’s now. Did you go to your spy base?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, you start walking back to the road with your mom and I’ll find you.”

Faith handed the phone back to Tom and took Eric’s hand. The forest that she’d run through blindly just a few minutes earlier now looked dark and foreboding.

“I’ll take the lead,” Tom said quietly.

Faith nodded, and Dean fell into step on the other side of Eric, reaching ahead of her son to block the twigs from snapping into his face.

They were nearly at the road when Zander called out for them. He shoved his way through the brush like a raging bull, only stopping once he’d swung Eric into his arms and pulled Faith close.
 

He stared at Eric, his chest rising and falling heavily even through his coat. He shook his head in obvious wonder, and in the light bouncing off Tom’s headlamp, his eyes were bright. “You’re okay?”

Eric nodded and touched Zander’s face with his gloved hand.

“Thank God.” Zander kissed Faith’s forehead. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

— TWENTY-TWO —

T
HERE was no question about it—Zander hadn’t flown back out west to stay. He braced himself for a battle, but as soon as he sat down in Captain Diwali’s office the following Tuesday, his commanding officer quietly slid a piece of paper across the table.

“I’ll miss you, Minelli.”

Zander read the transfer posting. He’d serve the rest of his contract attached to the reserve unit in Wiarton. “Thanks for this, sir. It means a lot.”

“About time you found a wife and kid.”

“One thing at a time,” he laughed. Not because he wasn’t there. No, this was real and he was all in. But there was a time and a place for making that official, and he wouldn’t rush
that
. He wanted it to be perfect for Faith, too.
 

And for the next little while, everything would be about Eric. Faith was going to try and fail at not being hyper-vigilant. Zander was going to be stoic and stable and only check on the kid in the middle of the night when everyone else was sleeping and wouldn’t know about his fear.
 

No way was he going to propose until they were all well and truly comfortable with their new family dynamic, when planning a wedding wouldn’t distract from parenting and living and really listening to what everyone in their family was saying.

That weighed heavily on both of them, that Eric had been talking about his spy base non-stop and they’d written it off as nonsensical fantasy.

Zander felt awful about talking so much about his own training exercise, the fun parts of it, and not enough about the safety precautions. Rule number one in the Davidson house now: tell a grown up you are planning to take off on an adventure.

The next step for Zander and Faith, before he could ask her to marry him, was showing her that he understood her to her core—adventurous spirit, responsible mother, and all the special parts of her in between.

That night he went back to his apartment in base housing and started packing. By the end of the week, his truck was full and a small shipment had been picked up by movers. Without a single glance back at CFB Wainwright, he headed for home.

— TWENTY-THREE —

W
HEN
Zander sent Faith a text message asking if she could get away from her desk for the day on an unseasonably warm December day, she was confused. He’d left for work two hours earlier without a whisper of any such plan. It was a bit early for a nooner, but sure, she could be flexible. She grinned and texted back,
Definitely. What do you want me to be wearing?

She’d expected his answer to be one of his t-shirts, maybe, or nothing at all.

Warm layers and sturdy boots if you have them, runners if you don’t
was not the answer she wanted.

On the other hand, an entire day together? Even if she had to go out in the cold—not her forte—it sounded fun. They’d gone from long-distance dating to living together in the blink of an eye. The last three weeks had been a topsy-turvy period of adjustment, with Eric acting out and sometimes Faith acting out. Miriam and Zander were the calm, steady ones. Miriam even more so after she announced she was going to Florida in January with Bill, who apparently had a condominium in Clearwater.

It sounded lovely.

Faith hated the idea that her mother would be so far away. She also loved the idea of having the house just for the three of them.

It was the best and worst of times, and none of it was being spent alone with Zander, until everyone else went to sleep.

She grinned. Okay, maybe she didn’t need a nooner. They had nearly-midnighters every single night. Often twice.

Poor Zander. She’d been insatiable since he’d moved home and he had to wake up early to make the commute to the armouries in Wiarton. Not that he ever complained—she was still processing the day that Eric had disappeared for far too long, and Zander was more than happy to help her drive her thoughts from her head every night. She pressed her hand to the love bite he’d left on her neck, where the tendon meets the shoulder. No, he didn’t complain in the least.

He pulled up and hopped out, back in civvies. Jeans, a tight cable-knit sweater, and a buttoned-down plaid shirt sticking out from beneath that.

“You look kind of dressed up,” she said as he opened the door.

He gave her a look of amusement.

“Well, you know, for you. For us.” She’d just put on jeans and a hoodie over a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” He swayed closer, then pulled himself back as he glanced over her shoulder.

She laughed and shook her head. “Mom’s out getting evergreen boughs to decorate the window sills.”

“Oh, thank Christ.” He swept her into his arms, his hands going straight for her denim-covered butt as he hauled her hard against him.

His mouth crashed into hers, and she opened for him readily. She shared his hunger, and with his new job, they never got alone time in the daytime. There was something illicit about grinding against each other in the foyer.

But he had a surprise for her and she couldn’t wait to find out what it was. She pulled away. “So is what I’m wearing okay?”

He gave her a heated look that made her toes curl.

“Should we go upstairs and—”

“No,” he ground out. “I mean yes, later. I want to peel you out of every scrap of fabric. Later. Now…what you’re wearing is perfect. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

He headed down the highway, almost as far as Pine Harbour, turning right into one of the provincial parks. He flashed a pass at the guard at the gate, but once they were inside the park perimeter, he turned away from the signed road that lead to the campsites, and headed down a bumpy, rutted lane Faith had never noticed on her previous visits to the park.

He grinned over at her as she barely contained her curiosity.

“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” she protested, returning his smile. Whatever they were doing, it felt fun. She hadn’t had enough of that in her life, and that he brought it back so effortlessly made her chest all warm and muzzy feeling.

He just reached across the cab and looped his fingers through hers. A gentle squeeze was his only response.

The lane opened up into a parking lot, on the far side of which was a brown log cabin, much like all the other park buildings.

Hopping out, Zander grabbed a large duffle bag from the bed of the truck, then jogged around to her side as she climbed out. “This is the training centre for the Search and Rescue teams. I thought you might like something they have here.”

Hand in hand, they walked around the cabin. She gasped when they got to the other side and she found a climbing tower. It was quiet now, but she could almost hear the phantom slide of rope and the standard calls of climbers.
 

On belay. Belay on. Hold. Roping down.
Her limbs all felt hot and her mouth was dry. “Climbing?”