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Adrian immediately set Ophelia down. “She was a little out of breath, so I...”
With dark red hair always long enough to cover his ears, Dad was shorter than Mom by a couple of inches. His hair, height, deformed ears, and eye color weren’t all he’d passed on to Ophelia. She’d also gotten his active gene for Type 1 diabetes. “What are you doing home so early, baby girl?” He didn’t take his glare off Adrian and there was no mistaking his emphasis on ‘baby girl.’
No matter how grown-up she got or how Adrian saw her, Ophelia would always be her father’s ‘baby girl,’ and woe to anyone who doubted it. There was a time when his paternal care annoyed her, but his illness had put it in perspective. In that moment, it meant everything for him to approve of Adrian immediately.
Dad opened the passenger door of his banged-up Toyota Tundra truck and set the red box inside.
“Just...um...” She glanced at Adrian who hung back, hands in jeans pockets. “Well...” She was a lousy liar, at least with her father, and so she didn’t bother trying. “I broke up with Martin and...”
“Finally. The selfish little jackass.”
“I went to see some eagles Adrian helped rehabilitate and release back into the wild.” Ophelia hoped the emphasis on Adrian’s selfless care of animals would ease the situation.
A loud barking preceded Kiska’s launch out the kitchen door.
“Hold the dog.” Ophelia moved to block access to Adrian.
But their husky stopped as soon as he saw her new boyfriend, sniffed the air, and started wagging his tail.
“Good boy.” Adrian went down on one knee and received doggy kisses. “Good boy.” He ruffled the dog’s fur with both hands. “Yeah, you’re a good boy protecting your family.”
Kiska made puppy sounds and rolled over to bare his belly for the new Alpha Male. It was clear why he’d never sounded the alarm when Adrian had tucked little gifts for her in his collar. They were old buddies.
Ophelia eyed her dad. “Kiska just about ripped out Martin’s throat night before last.”
“Dogs know the real thing when they see it.” Dad grumbled under his breath, still sizing Adrian up.
Ophelia wanted to ask him what he meant. “Dad, this is Adrian Grayer. Adrian, this is my dad, Robert Dawson. He teaches 6th grade.”
Dad offered a hand. “Well, if the dog likes you.”
That was guy-talk for ‘Fine, you can date my daughter and I’ll refrain from killing you.’
Adrian stood to shake hands. “Huskies are great dogs.” And that meant, ‘Thanks, I prefer to live.’
Dad let go and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at Adrian’s ear. His eyes widened, and his mouth fell open just a bit. “Well, I’ll be damned, explains a lot.”
“What do you mean?” Ophelia held her breath and Adrian glanced at her.
“Nothing.” Dad smiled, just a little, and pointed at Adrian’s earring. “Better put some rubbing alcohol on that, son. It’s getting infected.”
Adrian cupped a hand over the ear. “Yes, sir.”
Ophelia exhaled, and her heart raced with a new thrill. My daddy likes my new boyfriend. She peered in the truck window at the box. “What are you doing home so early?”
“Parent/teacher conferences ended earlier than expected. I’m headed up to the McDaniel’s.” Dad waved a hand at the mountains and walked around to the driver’s side. He wasn’t supposed to still be working, much less driving anywhere. “Jed has the chicken pox for Christmas and so do all six of his brothers and sisters. His mom and dad are wiped out taking care of them. They’re gonna have a crappy Christmas.”
“Not your fault they refused the vaccine.” Ophelia followed him, and Adrian’s feet crunched in the snow behind her. “Mom should go with you.”
“She just got back from there. And after being up all night with the Gorbechov’s new baby; colic, you know. Mom’s asleep. Tell Bianca to keep her music down when she comes home.” Dad shut the door before the dog could get in. “Stay.”
Kiska sat on his haunches next to Adrian’s feet and whined.
“Stay.” Dad stared unflinching into Kiska’s eyes. “Please.”
Kiska shuffled on his paws but stayed. He whined again.
“Good boy.” Dad looked at Adrian and glanced at his dog. “Take care of them.” He got into his truck and slammed the door.
Adrian nodded.
Ophelia let go a long breath. “Be careful, okay?”
“I will, baby girl.” Dad dug into his jeans pocket. “Here’s your sister’s car keys. Teacher called and said she finally got her math up to a C. Tell her to slow down and keep it out of the ditch.”
“Okay. I love you.” Ophelia stuffed the keys into her pocket.
“I love you too, baby girl, more than anything, you and your sister and mom. You’re my whole world, never forget that.” David shifted into drive and away he went, down the snowy road, new flakes tumbling all around.
Ophelia rolled his final words over in her mind.
“Your dad really shouldn’t be going out alone like that.” Adrian patted Kiska’s head. “He’s getting really yellow.”
“Mom yanked his driver’s license, but who’s gonna arrest him? Dad can’t say no when anyone needs help.” She studied Adrian’s tense demeanor as he watched her father’s truck disappear around the playground corner. “The kidney dialysis isn’t working so well. Bianca’s a perfect match, but he won’t accept a transplant from her. He says I might need it one day and that I’m his little girl with my whole life ahead of me.”
Adrian rubbed her back. “You go on inside.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ve got some things to take care of. We’ll visit an Arctic Fox’s den tomorrow.”
“Oh, I like Arctic Foxes. They’re so beautiful.” Ophelia hoped he’d come in for a kiss.
“We have a lot to talk about.”
“Boys don’t like to talk.” All the girls knew that.
“You don’t like to talk.” He kept his hand on her back.
“Well, yeah, but that was before.” She drew his scent into memory, so close to her.
“Before what?”
“Before I realized someone was listening.” Ophelia gave him a sideways look. “Adrian.” She received his kiss and savored it, heart sinking when he let go.
Kiska nosed his hand.
“Keep an eye on her, boy.” Adrian rubbed the doggy head and walked away.
Kiska turned around and sat down next to Ophelia’s feet.
Adrian walked away.
Ophelia felt she’d been dropped like an old sock. “But...”
Adrian looked back from the corner of her yard. “I’ll see you in the morning, promise.”
She rubbed Kiska’s head when he nosed her hand and an odd thought solidified. Someone with a taste for diabetics?
Just then, wheels screeched, and Ophelia’s car raced around the playground corner, past Adrian. Bianca slammed on the brakes and smashed right into their garbage cans. She cut the engine and leapt out. “Oh, my dog. Oh, my dog.”
Ophelia’s heart lit up with her sister’s excitement. She burst into giggles and ran into the house just as Bianca slid across the hood of the car, chasing her. The dog barely got his tail through before she slammed the door in her sister’s face.
“Oh. My. Dog.” Bianca chased her through the living room and knocked over the Christmas tree. She stopped to fix it and sprinted up the stairs. “Did you make out with him? Was he good?”
They couldn’t contain their giggles.
Ophelia slammed the bedroom door in her face and fell back against it, laughing. She slid down to the floor, all dark thoughts banished to the outskirts of her mind. “Very good.”
Bianca hit the door like a linebacker and managed to push it an inch.
Kiska sat on his haunches directly in front of Ophelia and waited, wholly fixed on her.
“Better than Martin?” Bianca’s voice threaded breathlessly through the crack in the door.
“Infinitely superior.” Ophelia rubbed Kiska’s head.
“Must be. You’ve never been this silly in your whole entire life. Oh, my dog.” Bianca sighed and slid down to the floor still on the opposite side of the door.
The real dog wagged his tail.
“Did you make out with him right in the snow?”
Ophelia’s face warmed in the memory. “In a moose thicket. I sat on his leg. He froze his butt.” The door pushed her across the hardwood floor. “He has such a nice butt.”
With one great push, Bianca shoved open the door. “It’s just like The Princess Bride. All we need now is a loveable powerhouse. Martin...”
Raven flapped his wings outside Ophelia’s window, perched in her tree.
She climbed up into her bed and hugged her pillow. “Martin’s the last thing I want to think about right now.”
“Can’t blame ya.” Bianca flopped down beside her.
Ophelia rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “I’ve been trying to remember everything that happened at the party.”
Bianca tapped her forehead. “I told you. Adrian found you passed out while testing your blood sugar.”
“Interesting, that never came up today.” Ophelia narrowed eyes at the eagle drawing. “And what was Adrian doing in the girls’ restroom?”
“Well, you did remember Martin trying to do something to you and Adrian stopped him. Maybe Adrian saw Martin leave the gym and followed him because he suspected something. And maybe he just didn’t want to talk about it today. Guys hate it when other guys mess with their girlfriends.”
“Someone else was there too.” Ophelia’s cheek tickled in a cold memory. A loveable powerhouse?
“Who?”
“I don’t know, but I think he was good.” Ophelia rolled over and rummaged through her desk drawers. “Adrian calls me Buttercup.”
“That is so sweet. What are you looking for?” Bianca studied the pictures she dug out.
“This.” Ophelia pointed to her computer club photograph.
As president, the only girl, and the shortest member, she stood center front.
“Ah, you and your groupie-geeks,” said Bianca. “You do realize they bleached their hair out because they realized you have a thing for blonds, right?”
Ophelia gave her a little glare.
“It’s true. You never got over Luke Skywalker.” Bianca snickered. “Who was that blond guy on Star Trek Enterprise you had a crush on all those years?”
“Trip Tucker, chief engineer.” Ophelia studied the picture again.
Adrian stood, smiling, behind her left shoulder.
“He was right next to me the whole time, for four months, and I never realized.”
“And right under Martin’s nose. Adrian should work for the FBI. He’s got some skills.”
Ophelia pulled the photo out of its plastic pocket. “Can I borrow your scissors?”
“You can borrow my whole freakin’ scrapbooking kit.” Bianca rolled off the bed and went to get it. “Where’s Dad? I thought he was getting home early today.”
“Taking some Christmas cheer to one of his students down with the chicken pox.”
Experience had taught Ophelia it could take months for Bianca to find anything in her debris field. She dug scissors out of her own drawer and cut the image of herself and Adrian out of the group.
Bianca dug under a few bolts of fabric next to her sewing desk. “I hate it when Dad drives. He’s getting sicker and sicker.”
“Well, if Mom couldn’t stop him, we can’t. By the way, Dad heard about your C in math.” Ophelia finished the cutting.
Bianca carried a large plastic box over and dropped it on the floor next to her bed. “All right, where are my keys?”
Ophelia dug them out of her pocket. “You do realize we’re still officially skipping out? Where are you going?”
“Back to school. I can’t miss last period now.” Bianca tried to pry open her fingers.
“You’re not going to tell anyone about me and Adrian?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“No.” Ophelia pulled back her fist. “And stop cussing. Mom’s in bed just downstairs.”
“Fine, but I am going to tell Katelyn you dumped Martin.”
“Why?” Ophelia released the keys and fell into her bed.
“’Cause, she’ll go down on him tonight and he’ll be over you by morning.” Bianca hit the stereo’s ‘on’ button as she flew out.
“Slow down and keep it out of the ditch.” Ophelia studied Adrian’s image as her ears were filled with the joyful crooning of Mariah Carey singing, ‘All I Want for Christmas is You.’
The cell phone rang with the tune from the original Star Trek show. She pulled it out and recognized Martin’s number. She groaned. “Do something with this for me, will you?”
Kiska took the cell from her hand and dropped it in the trash can.
“Good boy.” Ophelia rolled her head over on her pillow and studied the artifact collection displayed behind glass on her dresser. She’d found most of them while fishing with her father.
At center front was an ulu an Alaska Native woman had dropped on the beach hundreds of years before, probably while skinning a walrus.
Ophelia had offered it back to the tribe, but they said she could keep it safe for them. The museum for such finds had been shut down by economic recession. The cruise ships had stopped bringing tourists eight years earlier, right after the Brynners came to town. “I’m not the only one who’s suffered because of them.” She pressed a fingertip to the glass, brow cinching. “This whole town’s gone to crap since they arrived.”
She had memories, wonderful, carefree memories of Chugachmiut dancers and riding their bikes down to the museum for homemade chocolate-covered wild blueberries. Tourists always puttered around, smiling, pointing, taking lots of pictures, and spending money which her neighbors depended on to feed their families.
The museum stood silent now, next to an abandoned storefront where t-shirts had been sold. The proprietor had moved to Anchorage long ago, along with a lot of other townsfolk.