“And the bird people?”Holly asked, glancing around the room.“I don’t think I understand what it is they do with the birds, other than they are nice, and not evil.”
“I looked it up,” Corbin said, taking out his phone and passing it to Holly.“They are actually quite well-known in the short-film world.”
“Oh my god, look at Herbster!”Emily cried, leaning over Holly to watch.“His little strut as he walks down the street to face that posse of pigeons ...Fang, are you sure—”
“Very sure,” he responded quickly.“You can get a rescue pigeon in the States, if you really want one.”
“You’re moving home?”I asked, startled by the statement.I knew something was up with Emily, but I half expected her to announce she was pregnant.Instead, it appeared they were leaving us.
Iain’s hand descended on mine, giving me the comfort needed.
“Yes.”She glanced at Fang, who continued, “Emily is talking to Corbin and Amy about the possibility of working for them.That would require us to live in the States, so we’re looking at the logistics of a move.”
“Could you be gettin’ work there?”Iain asked him.
“I’ll have to deal with the licensing red tape, but it’s doable,” he answered.
“I won’t say I’m not seriously sad at losing you, but I understand you can’t turn down a good job offer.”I slid a look at Amy.We had a lot in common, and I was pleased to find she shared my somewhat warped sense of humor.
“We promise to take very good care of her,” Amy told me, then added, “Sorry, Fang.We’ll take care of both of you.”
He laughed, and shook his head.“It’s a full-time job taking care of Emily, and I wouldn’t risk anyone else trying to do the job.”
“Spoken like a man who’s happily married,” Corbin told him, his arm draped along Amy’s shoulders.She grinned at him and sent him a look that had him sitting up straighter, too.
“Just because we’re moving doesn’t mean we won’t ever come back to England,” Emily told us all.“Not that I want to part ways with Amy and Corbin—assuming you want me to have the job—”
“We do,” Amy said quickly.
“—but even if it all works out, it doesn’t mean we’ll stay there forever,” she finished.
“The contract is for three years,” Corbin said, nodding.“Naturally, we don’t want to use you up and cast you aside, especially since Holder—he’s our partner—has an idea for something new and different after this project, but we won’t talk about that for some time.”
“It’ll be OK,” Emily said, sharing a look with Fang.I was warmed to my toes by the love that shone so brightly in their faces.“So long as we’re together, that’s all that matters.Well, and having the animals.And a cowboy pigeon.I wonder how hard it is to make those films.If we got a little knight’s outfit with a fake horse, and a rescue pigeon who didn’t mind dressing up—”
The laughter of everyone there drowned out Fang’s faux groan of despair.
I gave Iain’s hand a nudge until he took mine again, and leaned into his arm, happy to see Emily and Fang so in love, and reassured that come what may, we would find a way to stay at the farm without it injuring or maiming Iain.
Someone turned on their phone and had a playlist piped through the speakers.Iain pulled me into his side, and nibbled discreetly on my neck when no one was looking.Life, I decided as I did a bit of nibbling of my own, was shaping up to be even better than I’d imagined a few days ago.
“Mum?Are we going home tomorrow?Because I just found a new vendor for oils, and they have frankincense.Christmas is just four months away!I need to get frankincense and myrrh soaps out by October.Oh!I could do a whole line!I could call it the crèche line!I have to see what sorts of other scents they have, especially if I need to make enough product to fill a gift shop at
home ...”My child, her face filled with animation, hurried off with her phone.
Iain sighed the sigh of the deeply martyred.
“Are you going to hate it?”I whispered into his ear.
He knew what I was asking, and gave it obvious consideration.
“No,” he finally answered, and I was pleased to see that the lines of strain about his mouth were less pronounced.“It makes sense.I don’t know that I agree with yurts as the perfect camping solution, but I looked up some of those camping experiences, and it’s well within our means.We could even put a few closer to the barn and run out a line so they’d have power.”
I was silent for a moment.I knew Iain, and he loved being a sheep farmer more than anything other than our family.“And the sheep?”
He slid me a look out of the corners of his eyes.“If I told you I was wanting to keep them all?”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” I said without a second of hesitation, although I was mentally working through my list of people we could hire to help Iain and Mark.
