Page 246 of Back in the Saddle

Eric and I turned off our lights, snuggled in, Henny curled at our feet.

And our little family went to sleep.

* * *

In our short relationship,Eric had never insisted on anything.

But the next morning, when I told him I was going to swing by the camp to see how Homer was doing before I went to work, he insisted on taking me.

Then again, I didn’t really fight him on it.

When he rolled the Tahoe to a stop across the street from the entrance to the camp, or more precisely, across the street from Homer’s tent, and we both watched Homer duck out, Eric said quietly, “I’ll wait for you here.”

I turned to him and nodded.

Then I got out.

I was halfway across the street when Homer put his hand over his heart.

He looked beyond me to Eric in his SUV, back to me, where he dipped his chin.

And with that, he ducked back in his tent.

I stopped moving.

Homer never ducked away from me.

I knew next to nothing about Homer, but what I did know was not to push this.

Feeling wrong—dejected, worried, maybe a little scared at what might be going on in Homer’s head—I turned around and got back in Eric’s car.

“He needs more time,” Eric said.

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

I heard him snap, looked down at the armrest between us and saw his hand extended, palm up.

I put mine is his. He curled his long fingers around.

After he did that, Eric took his foot off the brake, crept forward, found a place to turn around, and we drove away from Homer and the encampment.

As we did, one could say, I was really happy Eric insisted on coming.

* * *

“Uncle Eric!”Maisie shouted, hands on her little girl hips, pretty face screwed up in disapproval. She was standing among the open boxes of ornaments awaiting to be put to use. “This issuchaboy tree.”

Luke and Ava’s second and final child, who was seven years old, had her father’s dark hair and her mother’s light-brown eyes.

She was also a bossy little miss.

The minute I met her, it was instalove.

“Yeah,” her father agreed. “I like it. We’re switching our tree to that next year.”

Ava, working beside me in the kitchen, snorted, this stating plainly not only was this a tease, but even if it wasn’t, no way Luke would make the effort to follow through with it.

I’d already sensed Luke was not a Christmas décor kind of guy and was only involved in the current sitch because it included hefting, assembling and mounting. Once the ornaments came into play, my guess was, he’d be out.

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