AURORA ☾ Leah Clearwater ✔

Chapter 6... Crossed Paths

☾

March 2005

Leah

"Is it okay if I bring Jared and Paul too? You know how they love to eat..." Sam chuckled gently, and it reminded me of earth moving, rough and yet velvety. I fought back the urge to sigh. I never stopped marvelling at the miracle of him. His return still seemed like a blessing, even though it had been almost half a year ago now.

Sam's laughter died away. "...Leah? Leah are you there?"

"O-of course," I said, snapping to as I finally remembered that I was the second half of this conversation. "Yeah, of course they can come. You should see the amount of meat Dad brought home. It'd be great if you guys helped eat it all, otherwise Dad will and Mom's been trying to get him to watch his cholesteral 'cause of his heart..."

The earth moved again as he laughed. "Glad to be of service. We'll come by just after seven, okay? Give the rest of you a chance to get some food before Hurricane Jared moves in."

"Perfect. I'll see you then," I snickered, then my voice turned gentle. "Love you, my Sam."

"Love you..." he said, and then dropped his voice. "... my Lee-lee." Immediately, hooting and hollering rang out in the background. I realized he was probably with Jared and Paul now, and his attempt to hide his embarrassing nickname for me had failed. Just before he hung up, I heard him shout, "Don't make fun of that nickname! That's an order!"

Order? What's he mean by order? I giggled to myself as I put the phone back on the cradle. They were so silly... but "silly" was a relief. After he gave me that cryptic talk about needing to keep me safe, I had feared that things were going to go bad between us. Now, thinking back on it, my worry seemed ridiculous. Sam had never been better.

The tribal council had reached out to him right after he returned, and he had embraced it. Now he was more active with the tribe, and had even recruited other guys—Jared and Paul—to help. Everyone seemed impressed by their work, though I wasn't sure what exactly they were doing. But it had made everyone really respect them, look up to them... Well, everyone except Emily.

Just as I thought of her, I saw the Young's Toyota Camry roll into view. It looked like Emily was in the driver's seat. She honked as she came up the drive and pulled to a stop right in front of the big kitchen window where I was sitting. I waved to her and her parents as they all piled out and headed for the door.

"Hey!" she chirped as poked her head in. I rushed over to greet them and dole out hugs.

Auntie Gwen grabbed me in first and kissed my cheeks. "Oh Leah, I never get over how beautiful you've become. Already such a proud, noble woman." She said as she ran her hands over my long hair.

It was a cheesy compliment, but I couldn't help but beam at her. With Sam back, I had a hard time frowning these days. "Thanks. Everyone's out back already, Dad's just making the fire."

"Excellent," Uncle Michael said, pulling me into a short, firm one-arm shoulder squeeze. "Ditto on the beautiful stuff or whatever." He guffawed and went on his way, following his wife through the back door.

After my aunt and uncle were gone, Emily pulled me in for a small hug of her own. "How are you, sis? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"Not since winter break," I nodded solemnly. "Too bad the roads have been bad. Not to mention I've had a ton of homework to catch up on."

"And Sam-work, I bet," Emily replied quickly. She had tried to make it sound playful, but I could hear the serious edge in her voice.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "And yeah, spending time with Sam. Is there something wrong with that?"