"Hmmm?"
"She's gone into her little artist world, Bro. Just grab her arm, and treat her like luggage," Eric told his younger brother as he picked up their bags. The threesome walked up the front steps into a small living-room area that doubled as a lobby. The lodge boasted ten guestrooms, some that actually had bathrooms attached, while others shared bathroom access. Kara had reserved a room with a bathroom attached.
Kara stumbled over the homemade oval rag rug, and would have fallen if Dane hadn't still been holding her arm.
"Geez, Kara, you need a keeper!" he griped. Kara wrested her arm away and looked down at the beautiful rug. It was done in deep forest green and salmon colors, with a splash of sky blue in the center. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. She hated cookie-cutter hotels.
"Dane, isn't this beautiful?" she enthused, pointing at the rug.
"Kara, we need to check in." Eric was standing in front of a desk, where an older Native American woman was smiling at Kara.
"I'm glad you like the rug," she said. "My grandmother made it." Kara walked over to her and held out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Kara Johansen, and I love your grandmother's rug. The colors are so vibrant, they really complement one another, and with that patch of blue in the middle, it's gorgeous."
"I can't remember the last time someone even noticed it lying there. It's nice to meet you, Kara," the woman said, taking her hand and shaking it. "My name is Lacy Begay. My husband and I own this lodge. Welcome," she said with a warm smile.
"Thank you for hosting us," Kara said. "These are my brothers, Eric and Dane Johansen. They've come for the fishing and I've come for the glass."
"Oh, yes, I know why you're here, Kara. Nate's been talking about you non-stop for weeks at bingo," Lacy said, her eyes twinkling. "He told me to tell you that he's babysitting his granddaughter tomorrow morning, so he won't be able to pick you up until about one o'clock."
"That's not a problem. You have so many interesting things to sketch here, I'll be fine." Kara kept looking at the beautiful woman in front of her, wondering if she could talk her into sitting for her.
"I thought you were a glass blower, like Nate," Lacy said.
"She's the family artist," Dane piped up. "She sketches, paints, sculpts, blows glass, and molds glass. If it's artistic, she does it." The pride in his voice was obvious.
"What about you?" Lacy asked.
Kara linked her arms between both of her brothers. "They're firefighters and they are also fire jumpers," she said proudly.
"Fire jumpers?" Lacy asked.
"If a fire starts in a remote location, before it gets out of hand, fire fighters can parachute in and put it out before it turns into a forest fire. As a matter of fact, we have a couple of fellow fire jumpers from Juneau who we hope to have join us for some fishing next week," Dane explained.
"Will they be staying here?" Lacy asked.
"Nope, we plan on camping. We asked Kara to camp, too, but she said she preferred having a bed and running water, go figure!" Eric said with a teasing smile.
"Honey, I feel you." Lacy gave Kara a knowing grin. "My husband likes to hunt, fish, and camp. He's always asking me to join him, and I'm always telling him that time apart makes a marriage stronger." Both women laughed.
Lacy checked them in and showed them to their rooms. Kara immediately took her sketchbook and headed outdoors. It wasn't until her stomach started growling that she looked at her phone and realized she had been outside sketching for five hours. She went back into the lodge and discovered that she had missed dinner. Lacy said she could help herself to anything in the refrigerator. Kara made herself a large ham sandwich and found her brothers on the back deck.
"You're looking a little like a pretzel, sis," Eric said as he tipped his beer bottle at her.
"Yeah, I might have stayed in one position too long while I was sketching," she admitted.
"Come over here. I owe you a backrub from after the last softball game." Eric moved his feet off the end of the lounge chair, to make room for Kara, and when she sat down, he pushed her long hair over her shoulder and started digging into the tight muscles of her neck.
"Oh, yeah, that feels great." She sighed.
"Tony and Sid are going to make the trip. They'll actually get here on Friday. So, we get to start earlier than we thought," Dane told her excitedly.
"That's great," Kara said as she pushed back against Eric's strong hands.
"But I thought Nate said he wouldn't be available this weekend. That leaves you at loose ends, though, right? Are you sure you don't want to come with us? You like to fish," Dane coaxed.
"Yeah, but I don't like camping," she reminded her older brother.
"But what will you do? Read a book? Come with us. You'll really like Tony and Sid, I promise." This time Dale waggled his eyebrows.
"Quit trying to set me up. I'm more than capable of finding myself a man. Oww!" she turned to look at Eric. "What the hell? Ease up there, Viking Boy."
"Yeah, if you're so good at finding yourself a man, what the hell were you doing with Burt for so many years? He hardly qualified." Eric scowled at his sister.
If Kara hadn't heard the confusion and concern in her older brother's voice she would have been hurt and lashed out. Instead, she tried to answer as honestly as possible. "Look, I was away at school, away from my family. Burt was shy. He was really talented and he needed me."
"Yeah, he needed you. He needed you to make every damn decision for him," Dane said in disgust.
"In hindsight, it wasn't a good match," Kara admitted. "I think it was because I was so far away from home, and I was so caught up in being an artist. I thought I needed someone who really got me, someone who really understood the art I was trying to create."
"That was our fault. We shouldn't have teased you so much. If we hadn't, you wouldn't have gone for such a namby-pamby wimp." Dane had openly disliked Burt from the start.
"I think you chose someone who wasn't like any of your family, because we didn't show you the respect you deserved, and I, for one, deeply regret that. Kara, we were always proud of you, we just didn't understand how you did what you did. It seemed like some kind of amazing mystery would occur and then you would present us with this beautiful creation. Not even Mom knew how you did it," Eric explained.
"I should have had more faith in you all and recognized it as our normal family teasing. But I was really insecure in the beginning about my art," she admitted. "And as for Burt, he wasn't that bad," Kara defended.
"Kara, he had to be. Otherwise, you would have dated someone in the three years since you broke up with him. You were twenty-two when you guys broke up, now you're twenty-five. Have you had a date since then?" Eric asked kindly, his hands now gently kneading the muscles of her neck.
"No," she admitted quietly.
"Why do you think that is?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"I think because you don't trust yourself. But, honey, you were nineteen when you chose that idiot. You're so much smarter now. You know yourself, you know what you want. You know what you need. You deserve a man who will love you, someone you can lean on. Since Burt, all you've done is work. You've become an amazing artist, and now you have your own studio, you own your own house. You have galleries selling your work, and you live an independent life. You've proved yourself. You've shown you don't need a man. But wouldn't it be nice if you could find one that you could lean on if you wanted to?" Eric asked.
Kara was silent for long minutes, relaxing into the soothing neck rub, watching her other brother drink his beer. Finally, she broke the silence.
"Maybe you're right, Eric. Do you really think I can make a good decision this time around?"
"I know it, sis. You're the smartest woman, other than Mom, that I know." She turned around and gave her big brother a hug.
"I'm going to turn in now. I'll see you for breakfast, and I'll join you for fishing in the morning, since Nate won't be arriving until one o'clock."
"Okay, but we're going to be at breakfast at four-thirty and we intend to leave by five. You snooze, you lose!" Dane told her.
"I'll be there," Kara promised.
* * * *
Kara had fun that morning fishing with her brothers. Afterward, she took the truck back to the lodge to meet up with Nate. She left it with Lacy, who promised that one of her sons would go to pick up Dane and Eric before dinner.
Nate turned out to be just as Kara expected. She had been e-mailing and talking to him on the phone for months. They had been trading processes, as well as just sharing their enthusiasm for the craft with one another. Nate was in his mid-sixties. He was a big bull of a man, and Kara well knew that part of his bulk came from years of lifting the crucible and pouring the glass into molds. It was heavy, painstaking work. When she shook his hand, she saw many burn scars. She only had the one. She had diligently worn gloves when working with the molten glass, since the first time she had accidently burned herself.