THREE

Mia

“Hey, girl. How’s the Great White North?”

I smile at the sound of my best—and just about only—friend, Steffie.

Our history goes back to the first year of university. We were assigned roommates in residency, and immediately clicked. The fact we were both studying midwifery helped, and shortly after graduating, we opened a small clinic in the Beaches area of Toronto. We’d stuck together through the years, stood up for each other at our respective weddings, and when Steffie had her own kids, I’d been her midwife.

She’d also covered for me when I started staying home, more and more, and supported me through my divorce. She was the one who’d stuck it out with me when everyone else in my life had slowly, but surely, allowed me to withdraw. Not Steffie—she never let me get too far.

“Beautiful—as usual. It’s about time you came to check it again for yourself,” I tease her. She’s been here a few times in the past years, but the clinic, her family with teenagers, and a busy husband tie her firmly to the city.

“You’re evil,” she groans. “You have no idea how much I need a break from this rat race.”

“Then come,” I soften my voice. “Just get in that disgustingly, expensive vehicle of yours and drive yourself up here. Even just for one night.” I try to laugh off the almost pleading tone my voice had taken on, but Steffie is not my best friend for nothing.

“What happened, honey?” she immediately asks.

“Nothing happened. I’m just...I miss you.” I stop myself from telling her I’ve been overwhelmed with loneliness since he moved in and brought our quiet little inlet to life. Unlike with Frank and Harriet, who generally lead as quiet a life as I do, their house is now filled with activity, music, and even laughter bouncing across the water.

In the past week, since Jared helped me with my groceries, I’d purposely kept to my house, even though my vegetable patch badly needs weeding and the little bit of grass I have should see a mower. It had shaken me to the core. He had shaken me to the core. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the friendly, bright, smiling, and painfully handsome guy. It’d been impossible not to think of all his now covered...attributes, I’d been given an eyeful of on the dock. And he smelled good. Even over the fumes of the engine, I could smell the scent of clean man.

Griffin had taken to trotting around the inlet, when I let him out in the morning, to greet Jared; who apparently is an early riser as well and likes to drink his coffee on the deck.

“I miss you too, honey.” Steffie drags me from my thoughts. “Let me talk to Doug, and I’ll see if I can swing it sometime this weekend.”

I blink hard to fight back the unexpected tears. I haven’t even told her about the massive panic attack I had at the grocery store on Tuesday. One that resulted in the manager bringing me into his office, while he had one of his employees collect my groceries for me and load them in my car. He didn’t call an ambulance when I asked him not to, but when I felt ready to go home, he insisted I call him to let him know I got there safe. So kind. So very kind, and at the same time, unbelievably embarrassing.

Of course then the damn car stalled just as I reached the top of the hill, and I almost disappeared in my second panic attack of the day. Except Jared knocked on the window, and without knowing it, pulled me back from the brink by being kind as well. My ogre of a neighbour, whom I’d developed an almost instant dislike to, was nothing but friendly. And I’d been an asshole to him.

I think of Rueben’s painfully true assessment earlier this week. I can’t continue to pretend I’m an island, to stand by on the sidelines while everyone and everything rushes past. If anything, this week was proof that sometimes you just need to grab onto the hand someone holds out. There’s nothing wrong with that.

“I’d like that,” I simply say to Steffie, but with it, tell her much more than the just words. Steffie knows it, too.

“I’ll do my very best,” she says softly before hanging up.

Wiping the silent tears from my eyes, I turn to the dog, who is napping on the love seat.

“How about it, big guy? Want to come out for a bit?”

Griffin doesn’t need telling twice, he’s up off the couch and standing by the front door before I can get out of my chair. He’s a good dog. I got him right before I moved here and he’s as loyal as they come. He’s never taken off on me. Not even when in the first weeks of spring, a black bear had wandered onto the property. Griff stood on the steps at the front door, growling incessantly and eventually the bear took off.

I open the door for him and he leaps out, completely missing the two steps, while I grab my gardening tools. Time to get off my ass.

-

I’m wrestling with my old-fashioned push mower on the far side of the cabin, when I hear Griff barking from the driveway.

The sun is low in the sky and I’m starting to get hungry, realizing I’ve skipped lunch. On the plus side, my vegetable patch is completely weed free, and I’ve pulled off a couple of zucchini I’m going to use for a zucchini lasagne.

Giving up on the angled slope I’ve been trying to mow for the last forty-five minutes, I push the mower in the direction of the shed, only to find a familiar Lexus SUV blocking my path.

“Steffie!” Abandoning the mower, I rush to where my dog is laying on his back, getting a two-handed belly rub from my friend. “What are you doing here?”

She stands up and brushes off her pants, that now sport a decent collection of Griff’s fur, before wrapping me in a hug.

“Delivered a baby at noon, called Doug to get his ass home, so I could pack and drive up to see my bestie,” she mumbles in my hair.

I hug her a little harder while fighting those damn tears for the second time today. “He came?” I hear her snort before she takes a step back and looks at me with a glint in her eyes.

“He knows what’s good for him, or he won’t be coming any time soon,” she deadpans. “God, Mia—every time I forget how absolutely, disgustingly perfect this place is,” she says, spreading her arms wide as she turns to the lake and breathes in deeply. “Christ I needed this.”

I hide my smile, I know she’s only partially telling the truth. She may have needed this, but she’s here because she knows I needed her.

She sits at the kitchen table, drinking wine from the massive bottle she unearthed from her overnight bag, while I put together my zucchini lasagne. Her constant flow of chatter about the clinic, patients, Doug, and most of all her kids, soothes my soul like a balm. She doesn’t care that I don’t say much, she never has.

“So I told Doug we had to find a cottage near here, before the kids won’t want to go anywhere but the mall anymore.”

“You know you’re always welcome here, right?”

“I know,” she says, smiling at me. “But I also know that you get fidgety when my whole family is here longer than one night.”

I’m a little embarrassed to admit she’s right. I do get fidgety. I love having them around, but after a full day, I feel like the walls are closing in on me. Doug is a quiet guy, in perfect contrast to Steffie, who’s a bundle of energy. The kids take after their mother and can’t sit still to save their lives. And yet I love having them.

“Anyway,” she changes topics. “Tell me about that hottie neighbour of yours, flexing his muscles over there.”

I can’t help it, my head instantly swivels around to see Jared pulling himself out of the lake, water sluicing off his broad back. The impressively sculpted muscles I hadn’t really noticed before—maybe because I was busy looking at his tight ass—span the width and length of his back, and I can’t help wonder what they would feel like under my hands. A giggle snaps me out of my scrutiny.

“Careful,” Steffie warns, teasing. “You’re gonna burn him with your eyes.”

I harrumph and turn back to shove the two trays into the oven, ignoring her.

“What’s he like?” she asks, walking up behind me to refill my glass. With my wine in hand, I lead the way onto the screened-in porch and curl up on one side of the couch. Steffie does the same on the other side.

Then I tell her everything.

Jared

“Are you okay with chicken?”

Jordy’s stomach has been queasy all day. I suggested she call her new doctor in Bracebridge, but she just laughed at me. I admit, I freaked a little when she came back from her first visit there earlier in the week, to tell me she was apparently already two centimeters dilated. I don’t want to know anything about my sister’s vagina, thank you very much, but the knowledge that bump in her belly was actually going to result in a baby, and apparently soon—that got me good and nervous.

Jordy’s all cool and collected, going about her business like she’s not about to drop my nephew, and I just want to drop her off at the hospital so they can worry about her. Apparently that’s not done, although for the life of me I can’t figure out why they’d make you wait until labour is already well under way.

No—strapped safely to a hospital bed, where she can’t do stupid shit like climb on a stool to dust the tops of the kitchen cabinets, is absolutely the way to go.

Now she’s nauseous.

“I’ll try the chicken,” she calls from her bedroom. I almost had to arm-wrestle her into taking a damn nap.

I grab some chicken from the fridge, season it only lightly, for Jordy’s sake, and take it out to the BBQ, where I already have some veggies roasting. Glancing over at the log cabin, I notice that the car I saw pull in earlier is still there. I didn’t see who was driving it, but have wondered. In fact, I’ve caught myself checking, from time to time, to see if I could catch a glimpse, but no luck so far. This time I see her dog lying on the dock and instead of the kayak, the canoe is missing. Before I obsessively start scanning the lake, I shake my head sharply and turn my back. Idiot.

“It actually smells good,” Jordy says when she joins me on the deck, a few minutes later, a beer and a bottle of water in her hands. The beer she hands to me.

“Did you sleep?”

She’s turned to the water so I’m looking at the back of her head when I ask, but I can still tell she’s rolling her eyes before she answers. “Yes, brother dear—I slept. I actually feel a bit better.” She steps up beside me and slides an arm around my waist, giving me a sideways hug. “Thanks for forcing me.” I look down in her upturned face and try very hard not to display the smugness I feel.

“Welcome, Pipsqueak,” I tell her, bending my head to kiss her forehead. “For future reference, it’s easier to just listen.”

Immediately she pulls away from me and socks me in the arm. “Men are pigs,” she proclaims, before stalking off to one of the deck chairs.

“Ahoy the shore!” I hear a woman’s voice call over the water.

“Ahoy the boat!” my silly sister yells back.

I turn around to see Jordy waving frantically at the canoe, carrying Mia and her visitor; a blonde woman, who is equally excitedly waving back at my sister. Not quite sure if it’s that or the fact Mia’s visitor is a woman that has me smiling broadly.

“Why are you smiling like an idiot?”

I look at Jordy, who is squinting her eyes at me, then turns her head slightly to look at the approaching canoe, before turning back to me. “I knew you were interested,” she says, suddenly looking smug.

“She’s strange,” I counter.

“You’re still interested,” Jordy fires back. “And the fact that the car in her driveway, which you’ve been glaring at for the past couple of hours, actually belongs to a woman who makes you smile.”

I chuckle. My sister is like a terrier; give her the smallest bit of information and she’ll yank at it until she pulls the entire truth from you. “She intrigues me,” I admit, to which Jordy waves her hands dismissively.

“Just a fancy way of saying what I’ve been saying for the past week. You’re curious about her.”

“I am. I mean, a good-looking woman, living alone, and virtually off the grid, with just her dog for a companion, it makes a person wonder.”

My sister looks like she’s fighting a smile. “Does it make you wonder enough to consider that blonde woman in the boat with her might be her lover?”

She’s teasing, I know she’s teasing, but she’s also got a point. My head immediately swivels around to watch Mia and her...visitor, climbing from the canoe and subjected to an enthusiastic canine greeting. I never even considered the possibility she might be gay.

I didn’t realize I said the last out loud until another solid punch lands on my shoulder. “Ouch!” I turn to my sibling to see her with her arms crossed, resting on top of her substantial belly and squinting at me once again.

“I’m teasing, you idiot. How would I know if she’s gay? I’m just saying it to make you feel better about her not instantly falling for your charms.”

“I never had a chance to show her my charms,” I return.

“Ugh—like I said, men are pigs.”

After throwing me a disgusted look, Jordy disappears into the house and I have chicken, that is crisping a little too much, to tend to.

It’s after we’ve eaten—she manages to get down half the chicken breast and some vegetables, and we’ve watched some sappy movie which had Jordy in tears— she doubles over as she gets up.

“What’s up?” I ask, putting my hand on her back. “Junior kicking?” She told me these last few weeks the baby’s seemed restless, especially at night.

“Braxton-Hicks,” she says, making no sense.

“What?”

“Braxton-Hicks contractions. It’s normal,” she adds, seeing my panic at the word contractions.

“Sure?”

“Absolutely.” She seems very sure, but I still urge her to go lie down and to leave her door open, just in case.

I do the same with mine, but still I don’t sleep a whole lot that night.