The Baby Claim

“I’ve gotten a sampling of your father’s fishing skills.”

What? Interesting, and worth talking about later. Right now, he needed to stay on task. “Caribou, too, obviously. We even hunted some seals.”

Surprise washed over her face. “You caught a seal?”

“With some serious help from my great-grandpa. I was more of a lightweight participant. It was a memorable day, to say the least. But I learned lessons from them that stay with me now.”

“Such as?” she pressed.

He adjusted his body on the couch, facing her, hoping she would grasp the importance of what he was trying to explain. “In the pure Inuit culture, there was no social structure or class, no ownership. The earth and its resources belonged to all of us. It was shared property for living and hunting.”

“Everyone was equal?”

“To a degree. There were people with a higher status based on things like seamstress skills. Being a shaman. Others. But you had to pull your weight.” He chuckled. “Now that’s a credo my father wrapped his brain around.”

A small smile played at the corners of her lips. For the first time since she’d arrived at the cabin today, she seemed calmer. More assured. “I can see more and more how our parents are going to mesh well.”

“My grandparents made sure we heard the legends directly from them, not from a book. Like the legend of the Qalupalik. She was green and slimy and lived in the water. She hummed and would draw bad children to the waves. If you wandered away from your parents, she would slip you in a pouch on her back and take you to her watery home to live with her other kids. You would never see your family again.”

The story had terrified him and his siblings when they were younger. A small memory wafted through his mind as he recalled how Delaney had cried the first time she’d heard it.

“Sounds like a certain fish movie that’s quite popular.”

He spread his hands. “Hey, when a life lesson works, it works.” Which brought him to his point, what he needed her to know. “We also had our own werewolf legend about the Adlet. They were said to have the lower body of a wolf and the upper body of a human—”

“Like centaurs,” Glenna said, leaning forward. Her attention fully on him.

Good. This was progress.

“I guess so. And apparently, they still roam. My brothers and I tried to hunt one once. We had to turn back because Naomi tagged along and Aiden followed her… Are you just being polite? You have to have heard all of this.”

“I haven’t heard it this way. Not from you.” She narrowed her eyes as if trying to discern his intent. “What are you trying to tell me?”

The thoughts sliced at his insides like more shards of ice. “Naomi and Brea were twins. They were supposed to have that special bond. People worried more about her after we lost Brea, and I understand that. But she and I were close, too.” A pained smile tugged at his mouth. “She was even given the name I was supposed to have if I’d been a girl. She was my baby sister. I was supposed to protect her.”

He swallowed hard before continuing, “Since my sister Brea died, I’ve felt like half a person—like the legend of Adlet. I didn’t think I had anything of substance to offer another person, not until these past days with you and Fleur.”

Glenna’s blue eyes melted, tears glimmering. She squeezed his hand. “For a confident businessman, you vastly underestimate yourself.”

Hope kicked up another level, along with awareness from the feel of her hand in his. “I think you just complimented me.”

“I did. You are an incredible man on so many levels.” She took his other hand, as well, pinning him with an intense gaze. “Why would you want to settle for a loveless relationship? I accepted a half measure in my marriage for years and I can tell you, it eats at your very soul.”

He ached for her and the pain she’d been through. She deserved better.

He wanted to give her better. “I wasn’t settling, not by a longshot. You are everything I could ever want in my life. I realize now I was more concerned about being what you need in your life.”

Her eyes filled with more of those tears and she moved forward as he leaned toward her. Their mouths met, not in a kiss of unbridled passion, but one of relief, connection.

And love.

He felt the emotion without hearing the word. The connection went beyond the electrical current that set their senses on fire. This feeling was more like northern lights of the soul.

Her hands rested against his chest, sending his heart slugging against his ribs. “Broderick,” she whispered against his lips, “we haven’t made our report to the board. What about our jobs?”