He made it sound like it was something he'd done regularly, that they had seen each other just the other day, not ten years ago. The door swung wide, and Branna didn’t hesitate. Climbing in, she was relieved that she didn’t have to walk home, as her head was starting to hurt and her wrist was aching. She had some nice strong pain pills that she would take once she’d made up her bed.
“Jake’s gonna serve you up when he finds out you’ve done a runner,” Buster said as he made a U-turn.
“I didn't do a runner. I discharged myself.”
Branna shifted in the seat as Buster snorted. He was right, Jake wouldn’t be pleased, especially as he’d asked her to stay in the clinic, but then maybe he wouldn’t care, and why should he anyway? It wasn’t like they were even friends. She only remembered snatches of yesterday. Her memory was pretty fuzzy, but she remembered him carrying her and holding her hand. Pushing aside the guilt, Branna looked around her for the source of the wonderful aroma that was filling the small car.
“Buster, where’s that amazing smell coming from?”
He reached one beefy arm behind him and pulled a huge basket into the front, placing it between them.
“They’re a new muffin I’m trialing in the café. Have one.”
Her stomach rumbled at the thought, so Branna picked up one of the sweet-smelling treats and took a bite. Her mouth was filled with cinnamon and chocolate.
“Buster, will you marry me?”
“Jake already asked me, so sorry, Branna, it wouldn’t be right.”
She laughed and then took another bite, and another, until soon, she had eaten the entire muffin.
The rest of the short trip was accomplished in comfortable silence, as neither of them were talkers, both content to enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning.
When they arrived at Georgie's driveway, she said, “Stop at the bottom, Buster. I can walk up.” Of course, he ignored her, as she’d known he would. The people of Howling understood manners; Branna's father had once told her that.
“Well, thanks again, Buster, for the ride and the most delicious muffin I’ve ever eaten. I’ll be coming into your café later to get a few more.”
He handed her another muffin silently, then turned the car around and left. Branna stood there in what was now her small corner of the world and breathed. She could find peace here. This was going to be her home; she’d make it so. The little house wrapped around her as she walked inside, and she felt Georgie again.
Thank you, my dear, dear friend,Branna thought, as she walked slowly through the house.Thank you for giving me a place to belong.
Jake always woke early;it was a habit he’d formed that he’d never kicked after five years in the army. His nightmares hadn't woken him, and to his relief, seemed to be getting further apart, so he felt rested and ready to take on the day. His run had taken him away from town and around the lake. Then, after a shower and breakfast, he made his way to the huge barn at the rear of his property. In there were cars that needed his time. Split radiator hoses and misfiring engines, all things he loved to fix, now that he was no longer fixing broken bodies.
The words flashed a vision through his head of a soldier and the arm he’d amputated. It wasn't the worst of the flashbacks he experienced, but still, it always shocked him to suddenly be back there. He could smell the blood, feel the heat, and hear the anguished cries. The flashbacks snuck up on him when he wasn’t prepared, and he hated the way they made him want to drop to his knees, curl into the fetal position, and cry like a baby.
“Hey, boy, what are you fixing today?”
Coming out from beneath the hood of a car an hour later, Jake watched the long, easy strides of Patrick McBride as he wandered in. He’d look like that one day. Like Jake, his father was tall, but his hair had started to pepper with gray over the last few years, and there were other signs of age, but all of them sat well on the man. At fifty-two, he was still handsome, and there was no man Jake respected more. It made him sad that he’d never be the man his father now was; he didn’t have it in him anymore.
“Hey, Dad, you’re up early.”
“Your mother makes me walk with her some mornings if I don’t pretend to be asleep when she wakes.”
“That sucks.”
“Sure does, but the upside is that I get a cooked breakfast before she heads to the clinic.”
“Always a plus.”
Ducking back under the hood, he knew his father would be on the other side soon.
“How’s Katie?”
His father appeared and started poking about as he usually did, which Jake didn’t mind, as he was good with cars like him.
“It’s her break in a couple of weeks, so she’ll be home to annoy us for a while.”
Katie was Jake’s younger sister, and she was in L.A. at the police academy. They were close, and he missed her, as she did him when he’d gone away, but he also knew that like him, Katie would find her way back here when the time came to settle.
