Warming Trend (17 page)

Ani’s head shot up. “What was that for?”

“Broke the pattern, didn’t it?”

“No hitting. No more hitting. There’s no hitting.” The world was still tilted in Ani’s field of vision, but her sense of up and down was starting to align with the angle of the sidewalk—but darned if she’d admit it. “I was getting better before that.”

“Good. Can we get our luggage now?”

In spite of her impatient words, Lisa gave Ani another few minutes to collect herself. The sensation of being drunk on air eased, but she still wanted to smile with every breath.

By the time they retrieved their bags and took a shuttle to the car rental counter, it was getting late even by summer standards. Economics required she rent them an inexpensive car and her exhausted body demanded she do it quickly. She was haggling over the model and rate when Lisa derailed the conversation by asking for a cup for water from the fountain.

“I’m afraid of getting myself wet—the handle thingie is kind of wobbly.”

The clerk was pleased to hand over a cup and didn’t get back to his paperwork until after Lisa had thanked him twice and headed for the fountain. Ani just wanted to sign for the car and go.

Lisa was back far too soon to have drunk very much water. “Isn’t it great that we’re being helped by the manager?”

“I’m not the manager,” the clerk said, still pushing at buttons. But now he was blushing.

Damn her, she was flirting with the guy and Ani just wanted to get it over with. She gave Lisa an evil look, which was completely ignored.

“Oh.” Lisa looked so disappointed. “I was just reading about the manager’s specials and all. How do we qualify for one of those if you’re not the manager?”

“I’m the assistant manager.” Blush, blush, blush. “I have some discretion.”

Lisa literally bumped Ani out of the way with an impressive hip shot. “We just got here from the Florida Keys. It’s sunny and warm there and I don’t think I’m going to have much use for my swimsuit. Or my surfboard!” Lord, Lisa could giggle. “So what kind of upgrade could we get, do you think?”

The silence in the four-wheel drive, fully automatic all-weather utility hybrid was profound. They were on Minnesota Drive before Lisa heaved a loud sigh.

“I could have gotten us the Expedition.”

“This gets way better miles per gallon.”

“I’m just saying there is nearly nothing you can’t get from a guy if you squeal over how big something is.”

“Are you sure you’re a lesbian?”

“Hey.” Lisa’s tone lost most of its mirth. “I don’t tell you how to be a lesbian.”

“Point taken. And thank you again. This is a great car and, yes, for the third time, I realize that it’s only costing twenty more a week than the Tic Tac compact they were going to rent me.” Ani turned into the lot of the motel where she’d stayed three years ago. Its chief recommendation was that it was cheap and clean.

“Just earning my keep.”

“I can’t decide,” Ani said slowly, “if I like you because you’re annoying or because sometimes you stop being annoying.”

Lisa fluttered her eyelashes. “Is there a reason it can’t be both?”

Ani indicated the motel. “Maybe you could get us the Presidential Suite?”

Lisa gave the establishment the once over. “I’m a blonde with boobs, not a miracle worker.”

“Allow me, then, to get us two beds and a clean bathroom.”

Though she’d said she wanted to see the northern lights later, Lisa declared the room good enough for her and was asleep within twenty minutes of their check-in. Ani didn’t last much longer. But before she slept she relived her misery the last time she’d been here. She knew that none of the facts had altered, and that trying to tell the dean of the school, or old classmates, or even Eve what had happened, would sound like a lame lie. But that didn’t change that this was home and it felt good to be home.

She turned onto her side, thinking that the slight feeling of dizzy euphoria must still be caused by the air. If it wasn’t the air then she might have to call the feeling hope.

“Well, this is what passes for a beach in Alaska,” Ani told Lisa. The nine a.m. sun behind them was nearly white, stripping everything it illuminated down to its most essential color. She drove slowly along Minnesota Drive where it split Westchester Lagoon from Westchester Lake. Both lagoon and lake glinted turquoise as glacial silt turned the surface opaque. Beyond, the channel was a deep, rolling indigo. There hadn’t been any blue to match this in Key West and Ani was filling her soul with it.

The Belle of the Beach wasn’t pleased. “I’m not saying it isn’t a perfectly beautiful bit of water. I’m sure when bald eagles fly over and baby seals gambol about it’s even more striking. But it’s hardly a reason to settle here. We have several beaches in Key West, and we get to do more than just look at them, and we don’t freeze our toes off.”

Ani had deliberately chosen this route from the motel. The downtown business strip had so far blocked all views to the east. One more turn, though…

“What are you smiling about? You’ve been in a good mood since you got up.” Lisa gave her a suspicious look. “It’s not like—
holy crap
!”

Ani guffawed even though her own heart felt as if it would burst. She quickly pulled over and killed the engine.

It hurt her eyes to look east toward the sun, but the sight filled up all the empty places—nearly—that she’d carried away with her. The Chugach Mountains filled half the distance to heaven, pristinely white against the sharp morning blue of the sky. They rose from sea level to over thirteen thousand feet and the first ascent began where Anchorage ended. Gilded by the sunlight, they were close enough to touch, and the world, the entire world, seemed in their embrace.

To the extreme skiers who competed on the lower runs every year, the Chugach seemed to say “Bring it on.”

To Ani, the Chugach were too high, and too pure, to care about sparring with humans. They lived too deep for her to see, but she felt the breath of the world when she looked at those mountains, or at Denali, or the endless ice fields further into the Alaskan interior.

There was no other word for living under the mountains but
home
.

“What the hell is that?” Lisa fumbled at her door and finally got out of the car.

“That’s a mountain. Well, a couple of them. Most places have mountains. Except where you’re from.”

Lisa didn’t comment that Ani was wiping her eyes. Maybe she understood that on top of losing Eve, and her dreams, she had lost this, too.

“There aren’t even words for it, are there?” Lisa sounded a little faint.

Ani shook her head.

“Are glaciers like this?”

“Glaciers are like…they’re the part of this that we get to walk on. They’re the millions of years of history of the mountains, brought down to our level.”

They stood in silence for quite a while. Finally, Lisa stirred when Ani’s stomach growled.

“How did you ever leave?”

Ani realized, then, a piece of the truth. She had never left. And that’s why she had never moved on. “I thought I had to. I thought it was the one thing I could do right. For Monica, because she had believed in me. And for Eve, because she’d loved me and I was going to pull her down with me.”

Lisa muttered something under her breath, then said, “Can we get some breakfast and sit and look some more?”

“Sure. I never tire of looking at it all. But after breakfast we’re going shopping—and I have to make a phone call before we hit the road for Fairbanks.”

* * *

“What do you think, boss? I used to make this in huge sheets, but I scaled it down and added caramelized onion deglazed with red wine.” This was the first recipe Neeka had suggested for the restaurant. She was trying to hide her nervousness, but it still showed.

Eve had another bite of the lasagna before rendering her honest opinion. “This could be some of the best lasagna I’ve ever had. How did you get it so lean? That’s the beauty of it. The flavors aren’t buried under a layer of rich fat content.”

Looking shyly pleased, Neeka said, “Low fat ricotta and feta. Since feta doesn’t melt, it gives a lot of body. I always thought ricotta by itself just went to mush.”

“Well, this is delicious.” Eve had another bite. “The sauce is the key. That is a beautiful sauce you can use in a lot of dishes. Did you think about topping the lasagna with kalamata olives and going a little bit Greek? Neeka’s Greek Lasagna.”

Her face split into a wide grin. “You really like it?”

“Yes, I do. How would you feel about making a full pan for tomorrow night’s special?”

“I’d love to.” All the tension went out of Neeka’s broad shoulders, and Eve adored the way she looked five years younger. Their kitchen partnership was working out great.

“Knock, knock, ladies.”

Eve glanced over Neeka’s shoulder. “John! You’re just in time. Neeka has made the most incredible lasagna.”

She dished out another slice while studiously ignoring the awkward silence and heightened color between the other two. Ever since she’d been alerted to the possible flirtation, she’d seen the signs deepen every day of the past two weeks. Had she ever shown her heart on her sleeve so plainly? Never with Cyndy. It had always seemed like Cyndy was about to leave, and showing that she cared would only make the hurt worse. With Ani she didn’t think she’d ever hidden how she felt. It had worked from the start, and every hour together since. Until that last hour—that one had really, totally sucked. Ani hadn’t given them another hour.

You’re doing it again, she reminded herself. Eyes on your restaurant and not the past.

John Russ’s incoherent sounds of pleasure as he ate the lasagna got in the way of business. “I’ve got two boxes of potatoes and carrots for you, um, oh, this is…tasty…and…rhubarb is starting to come on, and I was thinking you wanted some, so I’ve got a box of that as well…so good, oh, um…”

“Thanks John. I’ll get them. Why don’t you two get some coffee and grab a booth and Neeka can ask how Pelle’s doing in his new job.”

Neeka gave her an embarrassed, grateful, confused, happy look. By the time Eve returned with the last box of produce she was fairly certain that neither Neeka nor John would notice if the roof fell in. She tried not to envy them. If she was feeling a little bit lonely, she had only herself to blame.

The rhubarb looked lovely—time for apple-rhubarb cobbler topped with fresh strawberry sauce. Her stomach made an appreciative gurgle just as the phone rang.

“Hey Eve—tell me you are ready to be spontaneous.”

Monica sounded on top of the moon. “What?”

“A friend of mine has a ticket on a lesbian cruise that leaves from Seattle tomorrow morning, and she just found out she can’t go. She can’t get back a dime and is desperate that somebody at least uses the ticket. I have a damned symposium this weekend but I thought of you. A week cruising down to Los Angeles. First person to say she’ll take it gets it. Your new chef is working out great, isn’t she? You should grab it!”

“Wow.” Eve gave it serious consideration. It sounded wonderful. Who knows, she could meet somebody. “It can’t be completely free.”

“No—the fees to change things to your name are about two hundred bucks, plus airfare. A week of cruising for two hundred. I’ll pay it if you don’t have it.”

“I could do that, it’s just…”

“Don’t say you can’t leave the restaurant for a week.”

“I’d have to leave right now, wouldn’t I?”

“Just about. You have to be at the port in Seattle by eight a.m.”

It was so tempting. She could give Neeka a bonus and maybe not be open for dinner Friday to ease the burden. But that was starting to add up, expense-wise and lost revenue. She trusted Neeka, that wasn’t the point. They were wicked busy some nights and one night of bad service would cost her for weeks.

“Give me five minutes to see if I can work it out, okay?”

Monica sounded disappointed. “I hope nobody else grabs it before then. But I understand.”

Eve was standing with one hand on the phone when Neeka gave a little cry, reached across the table and kissed John Russ on the mouth. Soundly.

A moment later she was rushing across the restaurant, one hand held out in front of her. Something on her hand winked in the light—Eve threw both arms around her in a congratulatory hug.

“You two are pretty darned secretive!”

“Well, we took it slow, but last weekend, we…I was afraid he wouldn’t come around any more, you know how men are after they…okay, you don’t know how men are. You all do that U-Haul thing.” Neeka was trembling and couldn’t take her eyes off the ring.

“Women can be that way.”

“Well, he called, and he keeps calling, and we’re getting married.”

They embraced again. Eve was truly happy for her. Neeka deserved a good man after her first husband’s tailspin into drug addiction.

“Thing is, we want to elope. Right now. His dad is poorly, and we’ve got to go all the way to Bethel. John’s not sure his dad’s going to be with us much longer, and there’s a family gathering already planned. We’d get there by tomorrow morning, get married in the evening and be back by late Friday night. He can’t leave the orchards for longer, not this time of year.”

There was nothing else to say, Eve thought, besides yes. The woman was getting married and asking for a whole two days off. The cruise would have been a little more expensive than she ought to foot right now, anyway, and it really wouldn’t have been fair to dump the Dragonfly on Neeka for an entire week, regardless. It sounded heavenly, though, a lesbian cruise…

“Tell you what, boss, I’ll work extra shifts Saturday and Sunday so you can get some time. You work too hard.”

“You two should have some kind of honeymoon.” Eve quelled the immature kid inside who wanted to claim it wasn’t fair. Neeka was right, she could use a couple of lazy weekend days around home, getting chores done, far more than hopping off on some cruise. She’d save up for one, though. Someday, she’d see palm trees.

“Oh, Eve, I can’t believe you’re turning it down.” Monica was clearly disappointed.

“I can’t get coverage at the restaurant. My chef is gone tomorrow and Friday.”

“Oh. Damn.”