Page 34 of Shelter for Shay
“He’s a good man,” Shay agreed. “He’s like no one I’ve ever met before. But this is all happening so fast. It’s overwhelming. Not to mention I’m here and he’s in Virginia and about to be deployed. He also loves the Navy and he’s not leaving that career anytime soon.”
“Okay. So what’s the plan moving forward?”
Shay looked down at the scuffed toe of her boot, then up again. “He’s coming to visit when he’s back. We don’t know when that is, but… he’s coming. And until then, we write. We call. We figure it out.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yes and no,” Shay said. “I’m scared to death, but somehow he sees me better than anyone ever has.”
Becca smiled, slow and certain. “Terrifying and horribly romantic.”
“Exactly the kind of thing my mother would love.” Shay looked out at the lake, the sun catching the ripples, the wind tugging at the hair near her temple. “She wanted us to meet. She told him that in letters.”
“Is there any part of you that’s worried you’re doing this for her?”
“No,” Shay said quickly. “And before you ask, I don’t believe he is either, and that frightens me even more. The feelings are real. I know that because they were there the second I met him. Maybe even before.”
“How could they have been there before you ever laid eyes on him?”
“The letters,” Shay whispered. “My mom let me read them before he came. God, Becca. His words. The way he put them on paper. They touched me.”
“Damn, that’s a little out there, but sweet.” Becca took Shay’s hand and squeezed. “What do you want?”
“I don’t want to stay here forever. That much I know. But I’ve got things to settle first. My mom’s house. Her files. A hundred pieces of her life still left in drawers and closets. It’s going to be a while before I can even think about where to go next.”
Becca nodded. “But after that?”
Shay looked over at her. “I have this degree, and I’ve always wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps. But again, I just don’t want to do it here. I want to forge my own path. But now that I’ve met Moose, I want him to be part of whatever road I take and that’s strange. I’ve never thought about my life in terms of someone else except me and maybe my mom. I know that makes me a selfish person, but that’s just the way I’ve always been.”
“You’re the least selfish person I know,” Becca said softly. “You can be a school counselor anywhere.”
“I know.” Shay nodded. “I just have to figure out where and how Moose fits into that. It’s time to do what my mom has always said I needed to do and that’s grow up and be an adult.”
“You are adulting.” Becca laughed. “You’ve been seeing the world. You’ve lived more than most of us.” She pointed to her son. “I don’t have regrets. I’m glad I got married young and had my kids when I did. But sometimes I look at you and all the places you’ve traveled, and I realize I might never get to see them. I might never get to know what the world is like outside out of the world I grew up in. That’s something, Shay. And your mom, she was so proud of your accomplishments.”
“Sometimes I wonder.” Shay stared out over the water. “While she always supported me and my life decisions, she was always trying to set me up with men when I came home and asking me when I was going to settle, especially this last year. I feel like I let her down.”
“You did nothing of the sort,” Becca said. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Not to mention, your emotions are so raw right now. My advice, whatever this is with you and Moose, just enjoy it. Let it play out. No risk, no reward.”
A kid screamed—a full-out wail—and Becca winced. “That’s my cue,” she said, standing and calling after her daughter. “Lucy, stop hitting your brother!”
Shay laughed. She shouldn’t, but she did. It filled the quiet spaces in her chest. It didn’t erase the uncertainty. But it made it feel less like a weight and more like a beginning.
Moose – Virginia
The sun had dipped low, bleeding amber and rose gold across the horizon as twilight settled over the Virginia countryside. Moose’s five-acre patch of land sat at the edge of a forgotten two-lane road, bordered by split-rail fencing and a stretch of scrub woods where deer liked to loiter at dawn. He’d bought the place when the team had first been assigned to the base because he had needed space. He’d needed a place where he could go and quiet his mind after missions and just be. He’d needed a place where he could distance himself from the world of covert operations—and even his team—and simply breathe.
The men on his team understood that about him and never questioned it. They’d known his history. Known everything about his childhood. They had no secrets between them. They couldn’t. In order to protect each other in the field, they had to understand the psychology of each team member, and that meant understanding their demons.
And Moose had a few of those.
But today, those demons seemed to have faded into the darkness. They weren’t even lurking in the shadows, taunting him. It was as if merely facing his mother after all these years allowed them to slip off like a snake shedding its skin.
He stared at the sky and smiled. He’d told Shay that her mom would always be with her and right now, he felt Margaret’s presence everywhere. More so than he had in a long while and that was an odd thought.
His coop sat twenty feet from the back porch, homemade and painted barn red, currently hosting twelve squawking hens and four roosters that treated him like a rock star when he came bearing scratch grain.
Past that, a small weathered barn leaned a little too far to the left, sheltering his feed bins, a few tools, and a rusting four-wheeler. A single floodlight lit the backyard, casting long shadows as the chickens murmured and scratched in thefading light. Beyond them, the fields rolled gently, dotted with sycamores and framed by pine trees.
