FIFTEEN

On the plane the next day, Raif got out a notebook and made a plan. He knew how to make plans. He scribbled down all kinds of crazy ideas for how to stay in touch with Wyn. Ideas for videos to make and send her. Ideas for cards to send her in the mail. If anyone knew how to do a long-distance relationship… it wasn’t Raif, but that didn’t matter. He’d figure out how to win her over from a distance.

His plane landed in Yellowknife, where he had to get on his connecting flight. He was being met by a private plane that was to take him on to his final destination.

The Yellowknife airport was not like the Edmonton airport and when he saw its shrunken size, he realized that the one on Banks Island was going to be even smaller.

In front of him, there weren’t many gates, and he wandered down the one hallway, thinking about Wyntessa and wishing that he had done something different that would have made her want to be with him. Why hadn’t he thought of anything more than what he’d done?

He took a seat on a bench under a window. Suddenly, he had the feeling that someone was watching him.

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Slowly, his eyes met the eyes of a woman standing across the hall. Her gray eyes arrested him. How many times had he stared at her until she saw him? During those times, he drew her to him with nothing more than his expression. Now she was doing the same thing to him, lifting him out of his gloom and pulling him toward her.

He ditched the bench, his bags, and everything else and ran to her. Without waiting for her to say one word to him, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. All his deft experience kissing vanished. The only thing that was left was how much he needed her and only her.

When he pulled off, she said, “Don’t go deserting all your dignity at once.”

“Who needs dignity? What are you doing here?”

“I applied for a job working at Aulavik National Park. I’ll be a tour guide for the summer. Do you approve?”

“Yes. Yes. I approve. What made you decide to come?”

She looked down and admitted hesitantly. “I was never going to get over you. I’m ready for everything to be different, and I’ve come to find you.”

He kissed her and kissed her again. He kissed her right up until a voice boomed above them, “Raif Laurant and Wynessa Marks? Please report to the information desk.”

“We’re missing our flight,” Wyn said breathlessly as they pulled apart.

“It wouldn’t matter if we did,” he said, the sound of ecstasy in his words. “All my wishes have already come true.”

THE END