“It’s our pleasure, son,” Dad said. “We’re glad you’re here. Sleep well.”
Ella headed off for the living room and waited while Dalton hoisted his big duffel again.
It wasn’t until they were heading up the stairs together that she caught a hint of his masculine scent, and it hit her that she was alone with the big man on the narrow staircase.
She hurried the rest of the way up the stairs, surprised at herself for such a thought.
“Your room is at the end of the hall,” she said quietly to fill the silence. “The bathroom is right across from it.”
He didn’t reply, but she could picture him nodding, that intense expression in his eyes.
When they reached the top of the steps, she led him down the hall and into Andy’s room.
It wasn’t that they had preserved the room like a museum. Ella had made up the bed for any number of visiting guests. And Dad had moved his ever-expanding collection of old western paperbacks to the wooden built-in shelves last year, right beside Andy’s sci fi adventure books.
Dad would sit in Andy’s wooden chair once in a while, alternately reading and gazing out the window. And Mom came up from time to time too. She had a not-so-secret trove of yarn in a bin under the bed. Ella assumed they were both making excuses to visit quietly with Andy, as she often did whenever she missed her big brother the most.
But it still felt odd to come in here tonight, with a man who was a stranger to Ella, but had been so close with Andy himself.
“I’ll just make up the bed,” she said, busying herself so as not to meet his eyes.
She stripped the clean sheets that she’d only put on a few days before, and pulled fresh ones from the trunk at the foot of the bed.
“That’s him,” Dalton said.
She turned to see the man bent over Andy’s desk, looking at a photo in a frame that had been festooned with tiny shells, glitter, and glue.
“That’s us,” Ella said, smiling. “I made the frame when we were kids.”
In the photo, little Andy held tiny Ella on a golden beach, their hair flying back in a sudden gust of wind, both of them laughing.
Ella turned back to her work, not wanting to share the tender smile she couldn’t hold in from just thinking about the memory. She didn’t remember the summer day on the beach, but shedidremember presenting Andy with the framed photo on Christmas morning and how he’d fussed over it and over her.
“That’s us,” Dalton echoed softly after a moment.
This time when she turned, he was examining a photo of Andy with his unit on one of the built-in shelves.
She moved to look at it with him, and sure enough, there was Dalton Tyler, his bright blue eyes twinkling as he stood right beside her brother. It was no wonder he’d looked so familiar earlier. She’d probably looked at that photo a hundred times.
“Thanks for having me here,” Dalton said softy as he bent to deposit his duffel on the floor. “I can get my own place if it starts to be a burden having a guest.”
Inwardly, Ella wondered how long the man was planning to stay. But outwardly, she simply smiled.
“It’s no burden,” she told him. “You’re a friend of Andy’s, so you’re family here. Mom and Dad would tell you the same.”
Dalton Tyler’s cerulean gaze captured hers for just a heartbeat, and she felt more seen than she had in a long time.
Then he moved to the foot of the bed, away from her.
“There are towels in the top drawer,” she told him, pointing to the dresser. “Please let us know if there’s anything else you need.”
“Good night, Ella,” Dalton said, his voice slightly rough.
“Good night,” she replied, slipping back out to the hallway.
As she closed the door behind her, she heard the unmistakable creak of Dove’s bed in the next room, followed by light footsteps on the floor.
“I’m coming, Birdie,” she called to her daughter, notwanting to disturb the tired soldier with the thousand questions Dove would surely have if she wanted to delay bedtime.
