Page 12 of Like the Season
Chapter Four
Boyd tried to relax as his plane taxied to the gate in Portland, but it wasn’t happening. Tension rolled through him even though, logically, he knew he was wanted here.
Ellawantedto see him and get to know him as much as he wanted to get to know her. He was finally going to see her again.
This isreallyhappening.
When he was able to turn his phone on again, he breathed a sigh of relief to see Caleb’s text that he’d arrived safely at Boyd’s after leaving the airport. He sent him a quick response that he was on the ground and would call him as soon as he retrieved his luggage and had picked up his rental car.
He also texted Ella just before getting off the plane to let her know he was on the ground. He’d opted to meet Ella at her place, wanting a rental car to use while out there since she’d be working some of the time. After retrieving his luggage, he found the rental car counter and, less than thirty minutes later, he sat in the car.
He called Caleb first.
“How was your flight, Sir?”
He thought Caleb sounded a little…tense. “I’m here. Nervous as hell.”
“You’ve got this, Sir,” Caleb said. “I don’t expect you to call me later, so I’ll say good-night to you now.”
“I love you so much, boy.”
“I love you, too.”
Caleb definitely sounded a little off. “Are you all right?”
Caleb’s brief hesitation filled Boyd with fear. “Stupid conversation with my parents. That’s all. I’m fine, Sir. Nothing to do with you.”
Boyd relaxed. “Is everything all right with them?”
“Just my dad being my dad. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Boyd wasn’t sure Caleb might not be holding back to not worry him, but he wouldn’t press him about it now. “Call me if you need to talk about it later, please?”
“I’m not going to bother you about this while you’re out there, Sir.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m fine, though.”
Boyd knew he was stalling, even though he did want to see Ella. Reluctantly, he said his good-byes to Caleb and plugged Ella’s address into his phone’s GPS.
With that, Boyd was on his way to Beaverton. Deep shadows painted the landscape as the sun set over the far western horizon. The mountains fascinated him. They reminded him of the time he’d spent in Europe, before college, his senior year of high school when his father had been stationed in Germany.
He had lived in Florida ever since leaving Germany for college in Tampa, which, considering the worst of his memories of Germany—getting his heart broken during his first romance with another man—had been an attempt to build his life without painful memories weighing him down.
Maybe he’d only partially succeeded in doing that, until he’d met Caleb.
The man had healed his soul completely in that way.
Still, didn’t have many mountains in Florida. He’d traveled, mostly for work, but never to the Pacific Northwest. Another reason he wanted a chance to gather himself before seeing Ella again, to have time to get the new-location wonder out of his system so he could focus all his attention on her.
They had talked several times on the phone since the night she’d reached out to him, and texted every day. A tentatively growing relationship Boyd hoped would become much closer over time. During the past week, Caleb had helped him scan copies of pictures of his parents and family to bring with him. He wanted to sit down and go through them with her, explain who everyone was.
Show her a few more pictures he had of him and Helen together as kids, pictures he knew she didn’t have. What would hopefully be a sweet surprise for her.
He knew Ella had just received her nursing degree six months earlier and worked at a local hospital, in their ER department. She wanted to continue her education to get her doctorate at some point, but for now her focus was working and building her savings. She’d used everything she’d received in the insurance settlement over Helen’s death for living expenses and college tuition, the last bit of that exhausted on her trips to Florida to locate him.
Something else he felt guilty about, even though he knew it wasn’t logical to feel that way. It’d been her choice to do so.
