After they had a joy ride up the interstate, not speaking just enjoying the speed, Lars hurried down to the pub. He was late getting started and was glad to see Jesse already at the pub setting things up when he walked in. Jesse grinned at him.

“Over sleep boss? That’s not like you.”

“Nah, just catching up with an old friend. What’s the word around town?” He asked. Jesse filled him in on the local gossip. The only real thing was that Bobby Brown had gotten drunk the night before and fallen asleep in his dingy down on the harbor. Ollie had to take him to the hospital for a couple of frostbitten fingers and toes, but they figured he had at least three good ones left on each foot. There was a bet in the bar down the street as to the actual number. Bobby was one of the patrons who had left and not come back when his Dad had called everyone out on having an issue with the fact that his son was gay. Lars made a silent salute and bon voyage to the departed digits and a well wish to Bobby to get some help for his alcoholism, but at least he hadn’t cut himself free from the dock and drifted away.

It wasn’t long before the usual crowd filtered in and the regulars showed up. Thomaston was saying he had just warned Bobby he was going to lose more if he wasn’t careful, but he never listened to him. Lars kept himself busy trying to focus on an inventory so that he could stock up for the season. He also had the restaurant to think about when it re-opened in May. He ran a half kitchen with a full-time staff in the tourist season, but only offered a partial menu in the off-season to help with costs.

The evening passed, and he found his thoughts stray back to Tanner every other minute, making the inventory twice as hard because he had to keep recounting. But more often than not, he found himself grinning stupidly at his clipboard. Finally, when Hank kept pestering what had him all in a twitter, he shut himself away in his office to try to get some work done, but he spent most of the night twirling a pencil on the desk and rehashing the conversation about what happened before the fight.

His emotions ran the gamut as he became angry, hurt, sad, elated that he finally knew the truth and back to angry again. He felt like it was high time Ollie got his comeuppance, but the problem was, he was law enforcement. Lars knew it had to be done in such a way that was legal and ethical, but he just didn’t see how he could get Ollie to indicate himself in his harassment. He’d have to get him to show his true colors in front of someone important. Hank was the local judge, and he knew Ollie and his Dad were the way they were, but they always toed the fine line of decency and discretion, never outright saying they were homophobic, so it was difficult to prove any of it if the excuse of semantics could be used.

Lars pinched his nose between his eyes. He didn’t like thinking along these lines, but he was so angry with Ollie for causing the rift between he and Tanner. What did it matter if he and Tanner were happy? It wasn’t like they had ever been publicly out in the open. There had been rumors sure, but they had never confirmed them for the mere fact that there were people who were uncomfortable with it, not that it was any of their business anyway. But the harassment had to stop. Lars wasn’t sure how, but he would think on it later.

He reemerged from the office and found the bar had emptied out. It was early yet so he let Jesse off early and since it was the middle of the week, he didn’t anticipate getting any more customers, so he did a rare thing and closed up the pub early. He flipped off the lights, casting the pub into shadows. His father had rarely closed early. The pub was like a safe haven in the harbor, standing as a beacon of light, laughter and love. He felt it was somehow as important as the many lighthouses peppering the coast, and that tourists flocked to it because of the positive atmosphere. He hesitated at first, wondering if maybe Tanner might show up late, but decided what he wanted to accomplish that night was more important.

He walked down to the hardware store which was closing in a few minutes and began picking up supplies to shore up the cabin in areas and fix the entrance floor and patch the roof. Arnold Swanson was working and had been running the hardware store since he was a kid and offered to give him a ride up to his house with everything, rather than Lars having to come back in the morning and pick it up.

When he got to his house, he loaded everything into the truck and then hooked the truck up to the trailer with the four-wheeler on it. It was late, and the sun had set, the bay was glittering with the lights from the town, but he pointed his truck toward the highway and drove out to the cabin. Once he was down in the woods, far enough in that he was off the road and too far to be seen, but not so far that he would get the truck stuck in the melting snow and mud, he backed the four-wheeler off the trailer and loaded the materials on and drove them carefully up to the cabin.

He had to make three trips before he got everything in but then he got a fire going and began working on the floor by the door and fixing some areas on the interior of the cabin. There were some holes in the roof that he patched from the inside, and he could work on re-shingling in the morning when it was light out, but he worked through the night, fixing the interior of the cabin and the floorboards, and he worked well into the hours of the morning as he continued to fix up the cabin.

It wasn’t pretty, more like a patchwork quilt, but that was the appeal to it. And it was so worth the look on Tanner’s face when he rode his snowmobile in from the back side the next morning with a trailer in tow. It had an old, second hand loveseat and a new mattress crammed into the trailer it was hooked up to, and he himself was driving cautiously as he made his way in.

“Wow! Look at this place!” He beamed. It warmed Lars’ heart because it was the first genuine smile he had seen on his friend’s face since he had returned home. It was the same smile from when they were younger, and he would have stayed up every night that week if it meant seeing it again. “Did you work all night?” He asked.

“Umm, yeah.” He mumbled. He was so tired and was grateful when Tanner grabbed a box from the trailer and hauled it into the kitchenette. It had a new Coleman stove and kettle to make instant coffee. Although it wasn’t Lars’ favorite, he was so thankful he had thought to bring it. He had intended to drive home and brew a cup after he passed out for a couple of hours but seeing his friend’s face was worth choking down the swill.

“I can’t believe you got all of this done! It looks amazing!” Tanner couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. He looked at Lars then, and for a moment, his whole face went completely serious like he was going to say something, and Lars waited, but when he said thank you, Lars knew it was with some unspoken emotion that he just couldn’t figure out how to express yet. The tone he implied with the thank you was enough for Lars for now.

Lars nodded to the loveseat and the mattress. “Where did you get these?” He asked. The loveseat was hideous. It was a red and yellow paisley like something from a bad rundown motel.

“Gram had this stuff in the attic. Its lucky mice didn’t get it up there either, but she had the thought to set out traps and at one point I think she had a cat, but I swear that damn dog probably ate the poor thing.”

Lars barked out a laugh. He wouldn’t put it past Sparkle, as small as she may be, to be ferocious when it came to other animals encroaching on her turf.

“Come on, let’s get it inside before it starts to snow. Besides, you probably want to get back to Gram before the storm to make sure she’s ok.”

“She’ll be alright. She’s survived this long, and I hit the grocery store for her and brought in wood for the woodstove this morning. The store was mobbed, or I would have been here closer to first light. If she needs me, I got her a cellphone when I came home, and I have mine on me in case I get called out. She can call if anything happens.”

Lars thought about this a moment. Everything he just said indicated he had the intention of staying through the storm. He wondered why. Maybe Tanner needed some space, and this was the quietest space for him to escape to. If that was the case, he wondered if he should head out after hauling in the furniture and leaving him be.

He and Tanner wrestled the loveseat into the cabin and placed it near the fire. Tanner took a moment to look around and nod his approval as he took note of all the repairs Lars had done. He kept mumbling thank you, which made Lars rub the back of his neck in embarrassment because he wasn’t accustomed to all of the praise. He went out to the trailer and grabbed the mattress and began lugging it back in and then felt Tanner lift one end of it, making it easier to carry inside and not drag on the ground in the mud.

When they got it inside, Tanner fished around in one of his bags and tossed a package of cheap sheets onto the bed which Lars tore into while he unpacked the food rations and placed them in the cupboard. Both men worked in silence and Lars made the bed and then grabbed the trash bag which had several old quilts and comforters to protect against the cold, although the cabin had shaped up nicely with the amount of work they had put into it. It felt like it was there space again when Lars finally sat down on the edge of the bed and watched Tanner put away the supplies.

He gazed around at the post and beam ceiling and walls and smiled.

“You want some breakfast? I can do sausages on the Coleman stove and maybe pancakes too.” Tanner told him.

“Yeah man. I’m starving.” He said. He kicked off his boots and let his head fall back against one of the two pillows that had been brought in and before he knew it, his eyes were drifting shut as he smelt the food that was being cooked. He only opened his eyes sometime later when he felt the bed dip under the weight of someone laying down on it behind him, and then he was suddenly dragged into Tanner’s arms and cocooned in his embrace.