One crazy call to Dana later, and I'm on my way. I don't tell Mom what's up, only that I need to go up there, but it's not hard to see that she knows.
She doesn't curse me out or beg me to stay like I expect. Instead, she just wraps her arms around me, squeezes me tight, and tells me she loves me.
“Do what you need to do, and come home happy,” she says. “That's all I ask, honey.”
“Mom? Who the hell are you?” It's scaring me. The woman staring at me with her big, beautiful eyes is someone else.
Okay, maybe there's more to this Zen-yoga-breathing stuff than a way to escape her guilt.
“I'm family, Claire. It's taken me a long time to realize that I need to be putting my daughter first. I care about what's going to make you happy – even if it's a little crazy. Life's too short for nothing but climbing the ladder.”
Her words echo in my head when I'm on the flight up. I'd just started to remember that there's a ladder to climb at all, and now I'm on the verge of throwing it all away again for this man who's burned into my heart.
I can't pretend I'm not scared. I eat a simple snack and down some anti-nausea stuff on the plane. If everything in Ty's note holds true, he'll be waiting for me at the docks this afternoon, just a short taxi ride from the airport.
I've got some emergency funds and a hotel room lined up in case it's a disaster.
But hell, who am I kidding? I can't imagine any disaster worse than this last year apart.
Just seeing him again promises to be the best thing that's happened to me since leaving Gary's house of horrors.
There's a uniquely northern crispness in the air when I step outside for the first time to hail a taxi. A pudgy older driver smiles at me with a few missing teeth, and I hop in. It's hard to keep up with the sparse small talk while he takes me down toward the section of the harbor I've asked for.
The trip takes a little longer than I expect. I hand him his cash, get out, and start moving fast. It's bewildering to see the choppy Pacific from a whole new angle, flanked by Mount McKinley and its towering cousins.
I walk fast, trying to keep my wits, searching high and low. I want to see him before he sees me. I can't let him surprise me. I can't just walk back into his life as nothing more than a moving target.
Luck's on my side today. At first, I almost walk right past the hulking man sitting on the pier. It's the tattoos that catch my eye.
Of course it's him, sitting shirtless and magnificent, despite the cool. I recognize the immense stripes flowing down his arms and over his shoulders instantly. When he turns, the tiger on his chest looks at me, as if it remembers how I moaned and shuddered beneath him those hot, unforgettable nights.
My legs ache. It takes everything I've got to move, steer myself toward him.
Ty's arms are folded and his face is an impenetrable mask. But I recognize the cosmic fire in his eyes, the magnetic energy in his baby blues that grabs me by the heart and draws me toward him, step by painful step.
Jesus, I swear he's filled out with new, rugged muscle. That's why I didn't recognize him at first glance. The tight slabs chiseled to his bones are even tighter now, rougher and more natural. He even seems taller.
His eyes are the same, and they draw me into his world instantly.
“Hey,” I say sheepishly, as soon as we're close. I jerk to a stop just outside his reach.
“Hey yourself.” The distance doesn't stop him.
It takes him all of two seconds to close it, and he's right up in my face, so close my blood boils. I don't know whether to jump up and kiss him, or jump off the pier and drown myself in the icy Alaskan waters. The fire roaring beneath my skin blazes hotter than everything I've known before, even the ones he kindled a year ago.#p#分页标题#e#
“Cannot fucking believe you're here.” His mask breaks, and he flashes me a big, broad grin.
My body tenses as he lunges forward, throwing his arms around me, lifting me high off the ground to look into his eyes. God, it feels good to touch the sky with this giant. I never forgot how much I missed these arms, but nothing compares to having them around me again.
“Christ, I missed you, babe. It's like seeing spring returning to this God forsaken place.”
My heart flutters. It's hard to speak, my throat's so damned dry. “Ty. I can't believe it either. I can't believe it's you.”
I allow myself to squeeze his shoulders. A million emotions explode in my belly. Anger, fear, love, and lust. It hits my brain at once in a big sloppy wave, and I fight not to pass out.
He tries to move in for a kiss. As much as my body lights up when his skin's on mine, I can't do it. I jerk my head away. He senses the resistance and sets me down, his broad smile fading.
“What the fuck? Don't pretend you haven't been missing these lips all over your body.”