She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, her heart overwhelmed with gratitude and joy to know love’s transforming power in her life. Now please don’t let me be too late. Please don’t let him have moved on. Please, please let us still have a chance to be together.
She settled on the loveseat, typed in her e-mail address and password and felt tingles of nervous energy in her belly. She was about to open a second browser to search for airline tickets when she noticed an e-mail from Ingrid in her inbox, sent six hours ago. Surprised and curious, she decided to read Ingrid’s e-mail before buying her tickets.
Dear Jenny,
Merry Christmas to my best friend. I am guessing you had a traditional Svenska Christmas Eve with your dad and the boys and I imagine you reading this the day after Christmas. How was Bozeman? Did your crazy, weird uncle try to kiss you under the mistletoe again? I hope you had your running shoes on!
Kristian had a message from Sam that mentioned you two had an intense weekend together. Kristian says that it’s not our place to get involved, and I think he’d be mad I was writing to you. (Then again, he knows me so well, part of me wonders if that’s why he forwarded Sam’s message to me in the first place.) We don’t know exactly what happened between you two and I don’t even know if you want to see him.
But, I know you, Jenny-girl. You’ve never given your heart away. I am wondering if you gave it to Sam. Based on what he told us, I am thinking you did. And on that suspicion, I need to tell you something:
Sam’s in Great Falls. He’s spending the rest of Christmas week and New Year’s there at the Triple Peak Lodge. Kristian’s grandparents used to own it. It’s somewhere between Great Falls and Choteau. He heads back to Chicago on New Year’s Day.
What you do with this information is up to you. If whatever was between you two is over, I guess you delete this e-mail and get on with your life. If it’s not, stop reading, get off your ass, and drive north, girl.
Here’s what I know, Jen…being away from Kris is awful. Being apart has made me realize how precious a gift it is when we are together. Don’t let this slip away if it’s the real deal. I can’t be with the man I love. But, there is no good reason you can’t.
Drive safely.
We love you,
Ingrid, Kristian and Baby S.
Chapter 12
Sam stared at the roaring fire, sitting on the edge of an easy chair, his elbows on his knees and his hands folded out in front of him. The warmth from the blaze in the massive lobby fireplace was comforting on his cold hands. He had arrived at the Triple Peak the day before yesterday, and as the days went on, he was certain he was finally on the right path for his life. Being back in Montana after the cacophony of Chicago was soothing and exciting at once, and as Sam strenuously considered a permanent move to the state he had always loved, his heart felt lighter than it had in weeks.
His job interview at Davis Financial this evening had gone predictably well. Sam knew his education and experience overqualified him for the open position, but surprisingly, they wanted to venture into some really interesting, quantitative, cutting-edge solutions and were willing to give him some latitude in hiring talent for his own team and rolling out the program at his own pace and discretion. It would have been another five or six years before MTA would have offered him anything close, and even then his ideas would have been bogged down in the bureaucracy of a large company. No, there weren’t going to be many posh client dinners in downtown Chicago, but his subtle understanding of the office culture—mostly based on watching a mass exodus of people at 5:01 p.m. while he was still being interviewed in a glass conference room—indicated quitting time was quitting time, and the employees of Davis were encouraged to get home to their families in lieu of late nights at the office. It was exactly what Sam was looking for. They asked him for an answer by January 2, and Sam was ninety percent sure of his answer.
The outstanding ten percent rested on Jenny’s unaware shoulders. He planned to go see her tomorrow, and he hoped and prayed that her heart would still be open to him. But he would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried. He was. She hadn’t reached out to him in any way since she had run out of the courthouse in tears. He wasn’t certain she would welcome him back into her life.
That’s okay. As long as there’s even the slightest sliver of hope, I will take the job in Great Falls and I will court her properly, driving down to Gardiner every weekend until she softens. I will do anything to have her in my life. I love her.
He had taken a walk around Great Falls after his interview, trying to see the city through new eyes. It wasn’t a bad little city: shopping areas and restaurants, big stores, small boutiques and the university. He meandered through the unfamiliar paths of the university, dusting the snow off a bench to sit for a few minutes and imagine Jenny going to school here. He had visited Kristian once in his senior year, meeting Ingrid at the time, but it was a short weekend that had included a visit up in Choteau, so he didn’t have vivid memories of the campus.