“In trouble, huh?” Carlos was quiet for a second, and then said thoughtfully, “I guess Glacier Park is the place to be, since everyone seems to be congregating there. I’ll be there as fast as I can. Don’t suppose they have an airport.”
Nate smiled to himself. “Don’t think they allow those in national parks, buddy.”
“Right. Well, I’ll figure it out. Be there soon. And I’ll explain some things once I’m there.”
“Same here,” Nate said, and hung up before Carlos could demand to know what sort of things he had to explain.
Then he went back to the dishes. Everyone had a lot of figuring out to do, and they might as well do it in a clean house.
***
Stella
Stella went to talk to her daughter.
She’d migrated off the porch back up to her room at some point, so Stella knocked softly and waited for the, “Come in.”
Eva had been about ten when she’d started insisting that her mom knock and wait. It had been one of the first real signs of her growing up and wanting independence, and it had made Stella wistful for her babyhood—even though Eva’s babyhood had been the hardest time of her life.
Now, her baby was all grown up and getting ready to apply to college, and the wistfulness was back.
“Hey, mom.” Eva was dressed now, coffee consumed, munching on a granola bar and scrolling through her phone again.
Eva was too supernaturally good to ever really need punishment—frankly, she was more mature than Stella was, some days—but if Stella had ever needed to punish her, threatening to take away her phone would probably make her willing to do anything in the world. She was practically surgically attached to it.
“Hey,” Stella said, sitting down on the bed next to her. “Can I talk to you about something?”
Something in Stella’s tone must have alerted Eva to the fact that this was serious, because—wonder of wonders!—she set her phone aside and looked up. “What is it?”
“Well,” Stella said, “Nate and I...” She hesitated.
Eva only took a second to get it. Or, at least, to get something. “Mom! He’s supposed to be bodyguarding you!”
“No—I know—it’s not like—” Stella had to take a deep breath to compose herself.
Meanwhile, Eva was rattling on. “I know he’s nice and, like, I guess pretty good-looking for an old guy, but Mom, you can’t just mack on your bodyguard—”
“I know! And if you’ll let me get a word in edgewise, I’ll explain why this is different,” Stella said, with some I’m-Your-Mother snap to her voice.
Eva subsided, looking mutinous.
“It’s more than what you’re thinking,” Stella said carefully. “Nate and I have discovered that...we’re mates.”
Eva’s eyes went round and huge. “Mates?”
Stella nodded.
“Like Aunt Lynn and Uncle Ken? Like Mavis and Colonel Hanes? Like—”
“Yes, Eva, like all of those.” Stella wasn’t going to let herself think about the number of picture-perfect mates pairs there were in Glacier Park, all happily living here, quiet and domestic, many of them raising families...and how much she didn’t really want her life to look like that.
“So,” Eva said, hesitatingly, “you’re going to be together...forever?”
“That’s the idea,” Stella said on a long exhale.
“Can you—uh, can you do that?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Stella said dryly.