Chapter Fourteen – Theo

Food and beer, honey beer at that, what could be better? Oh, yeah, having his mate by his side, smiling. Even Cathy appeared to have lightened up a little.

“So the brewery belongs to the Carter Eden?” Cathy asked, looking at the label on the bottle.

“Yes.” Theo could even put up with his sister going all gooey eyes at the thought of Carter, if it made her happy. He’d love to get through to her somehow, to make her see that this was a good place to live. He snorted, and took a deep drink of beer. No chance.

“So, Walt said you want to expand?” Will asked, coming to sit next to him on the grass.

“Thinking about it,” Theo said. “And I don’t just mean the house. The business too.”

“The bees.” Will held up his bottle. “If the beer keeps on selling like it is, Bear Creek Honey Beer will need as much honey as you can produce.”

“But are you ready to hang up your pen?” Teagan asked, coming to sit down with them. Fern followed, passing around plates of food.

“You know, I have been giving that some thought,” Theo said. “The bees don’t take up that much time. And I still want to write, and I know of at least one other journalist in town, plus I have a friend who takes awesome photographs.”

“Whoever can your journalist friend be?” asked Will, and Teagan shoved him.

“Are you beating my husband up?” Freyja asked. She was Will’s wife. Or long-suffering wife, as she had informed Theo when they were introduced earlier, but it was obvious they were deeply in love; with a couple of boisterous children, they made the ideal family.

He turned his attention to Fern, who looked happy and relaxed, after all the tears of last night. “What did you have in mind, Theo?”

“It’s a bit of a hair-brained idea, but I thought we might start a local newspaper.” The announcement was met with a stunned silence. Was that good or bad? “We could cover news in Bear Creek, Bear Bluff, Wolf Valley, and the surrounding area.”

“That’s a great idea,” Freyja said enthusiastically. “You can include local news.”

“What are we conspiring about?” Jamie asked as he and Dani wandered over hand in hand. Dani was the local school teacher, and it was a conversation he had with her earlier that had sparked the idea.

“Dani told me it was a pity that school recitals and sports days don’t get reported.”

“Yes, in my last school, moms and dads loved to keep the papers as keepsakes,” Dani said, watching her children run around, or toddle around, in the case of their baby. Theo could feel his primitive need to procreate growing stronger.

“There used to be an old printing press in town,” Walt said, overhearing and coming to join in.

“It’s all switched to computers now, Dad,” Theo informed Walt.

“I know, but the building is unused. They used to print leaflets there years ago. Little pamphlets detailing what people had for sale or trade. Would be the ideal place to set up a newspaper.”

“I know the place, behind the library,” Will said.

“Are you with me, Teagan?” Theo asked.

“I’ll think about it,” Teagan said, then broke into a grin. “Thought about it, the answer is yes. I’d love to work with a pro.”

“Then it’s settled.” Theo raised his bottle of beer and they all drank to Bear Creek News. “Until we come up with a catchier title.”

Fern raised her bottle and he took hold of her hand, seeing the happiness in her eyes, but also something else.

“Happy?” he asked.

“Very.” Tears pricked her eyes, and she turned away from everyone around her.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” She wiped her eyes. And laughed through the tears. “This is embarrassing.”

“Not at all. They are happy tears.” Theo wiped her cheek. “Haven’t you ever cried happy tears?”

Fern shook her head. “Not that I recall.”

“I hope there are many more happy tears in your future, Fern.” He leaned forward and kissed her, their lips pressed together, while a cheer went around the small group of friends.

“Get a room,” Will called.

“Or more beer,” Teagan joked.

Theo broke away from Fern, and looked around the smiling faces, his gaze resting on his sister, who was walking away. “I’ll get more beer.” He stood up. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he told Fern. “I want to check on Cathy.”

She nodded, and scooted across to Teagan. “Take your time.”

Theo walked to the house, in time to see Cathy going inside alone. Jogging the short distance to the front door, he went inside. Cathy was standing in the sitting room, looking at the photographs in the fireplace. “So many memories.”

“Not all bad I hope, Cathy?”

“Not all bad,” she conceded. “I remember this as if it were yesterday.” She pointed at a picture of her and Theo on a toboggan.

“Bear Creek does have the best snow.” Theo picked the picture up and stared at it. “We were so young.”

“We were,” Cathy agreed. “I never told you how much I liked having a brother.”

Theo put the photograph back in its place. “I could have had a worse sister.”

“Really?” Cathy asked.

“Yeah, I could have had a sister who didn’t like to romp across the mountains.”

She gave a short laugh. “I was always the fastest.”

“Yes, you were.”

“What, no argument?” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

“Do I always want something?”

“Come on, the only time we get along is when one of us wants something from the other.”

“Not this time.” He took a breath, and said, “For once, I feel as if I have everything I need right here.”

“My brother, settling down, I never thought I’d see the day.”

“You did. You have a family that you love. I see it in your face when you talk about them.” He sighed. “I admit, I’m envious.”

“And maybe I am a little envious of your free spirit.”

“Really?” Theo asked. “I thought you loved the city, with the libraries and museums.”

“I do. But that doesn’t mean I had plans. When I left here, I was going to follow in your footsteps.” She shrugged. “Then I met Doug, and it was game over. Even then, we planned to travel the world together, but I got pregnant and he got a promotion.”

“I never knew.”

“Why would you? You were off exploring Machu Picchu. As a writer, you never were very good at communicating.”

“And you were?” Theo bounced the question back at her.

“I thought you would make fun of me. Wanting to go out and explore the world, as if I was copying you.”

“I wouldn’t have,” Theo told his sister. “Can we agree to be friends now? You know, act like grownups?”

“Seriously, you think that’s possible?” Cathy asked.

“As long as we don’t spend more than two days together at a time,” Theo joked, and then pulled her into a hug, which felt strange, unusual. He could not remember the last time he had hugged Cathy.

“You’ll look after Dad? Otherwise, this truce is over,” Cathy declared.

“Promise.”

“Good. One thing I do know about you, Theo, is you are a man of your word.”

“That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me.”

“I won’t make a habit of it,” Cathy replied.

That was more like it, the mood had shifted, their old quarrels buried for now. “Come on, let’s get some more beer from the fridge.”

“You have good friends,” Cathy said.

He paused as he bent down to take the bottles out of the fridge. “I’ve only just met most of them. I remember Will and Freyja vaguely from when we were kids. Will was a couple of grades above me at school.”

“They’ve accepted you. Which is something I miss. In the city, we are faceless to one another.”

Theo placed the beer on the table. “Will you promise me something, Cathy?”

“What?” she asked warily.

“Don’t be a stranger. Bring your family to visit as often as you like. Let’s make sure our kids get to know each other too. I mean, when I have some of my own.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You never know, they might get along better than we did.”

“That would not be hard.”

“Can I help?” Fern asked, entering the kitchen. “Or am I interrupting something?”

“Yes,” Theo said. “And no.”

“We were just making up, after twenty years or more of fighting,” Cathy said, gathering the cold beer bottles in her arms. “I should have welcomed you to the family, Fern. I’m sorry, I was a grouch.”

“Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?” Theo joked, secretly pleased Cathy was making an effort.

“Must be that Bear Creek mountain air,” Cathy said, and slipped out of the door, leaving Theo and Fern alone.

“She seems chipper.” Fern came around the kitchen table to fetch more bottles.

“She does.” He took Fern in his arms and held her close. “Do you know how happy I am right now?”

She pressed her body against his, tilting her face upwards. “I might.”

He kissed her lips, and then pulled away, saying, “There is one thing that would make me happier.”

“Well, I know it’s not sex, since you want to wait until we are married,” Fern said seriously.

“It’s not that I don’t want sex…” Theo tickled her. “You are a tease.”

“Do you like me being a tease?”

“Very much,” he murmured, and kissed her lips again. If there wasn’t a handful of people outside drinking beer, he might just forget all about the waiting until they were married thing. If they were alone in the house, he might just lift her up onto the counter and make love to her right here, right now.

“I think you are doing the teasing,” Fern said, her hand stroking the front of his pants.

“I might need to take some really long, really cold showers.” He was painfully hard, his arousal strong, his need for her stronger.

“Or we could see how fast a wedding can be arranged in Bear Creek.”

“Does that mean you will marry me?” Theo asked.

“You could ask,” Fern replied.

He wasted no time, and went down on one knee, taking hold of her hand. A thrill of excitement pulsed through him. She was going to be his. “You know how much I want you. You know I will cherish you. So I’m asking, Fern, will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate.

“Thank you.” He kissed the back of her hand, and then she knelt down beside him and he kissed her lips, and her neck, only stopping when he felt his control slipping. “First thing tomorrow, I’m going to book our wedding.”

She stroked his face and kissed his lips lightly. “Make it fast.”

He held her tight in his arms. “Life changes so fast, doesn’t it? A few days ago, I was on top of a mountain, now I’m on top of the world.”

“And I’m standing there right alongside you.”

“For always and forever.” As they stood in the small kitchen of his family home, he felt as if they had already made a promise to each other. But he was determined to stick to his word, and wait for their wedding night before he claimed her.

As they collected the beer and went outside, Theo glanced into the sitting room, and for half a breath, he was sure he saw the ghost of his mom smiling at him. But when he looked again, she was gone. It didn’t mean she wasn’t watching over him.

If she was, he hoped she was happy, and he had made her proud.