Snow Place Like Home

Chapter Twelve

Jason

Jason had gone back and forth with YoYo, trying to convince YoYo to call her family, but being a proud woman, she refused no matter what he said. Her explanation to him was that if her family hadn't wanted to visit her when she was healthy, then she didn't want them coming only because she was sick.

When YoYo's illness took a turn for the worst, he convinced her to call her daughter Leigha, but the woman wasn't too concerned after YoYo lied about the seriousness of her illness. He believed she should be with family while she was sick. After she passed away, Jason was the one to notify her family. But her son, Tracy, never returned his call, and Leigha hung up on him when he broke the news to her.

"I told her not to move there," were the chilling words of the voice on the other end of the line. Then she told him to deal with it.

Jason had called Shonna as well, but the woman never picked up the phone. He didn't feel comfortable telling a stranger over voicemail that her grandmother was dead, so he never left one.

Jason assumed when he told Shonna's mother that she would let Shonna and the rest of the family know, but he was mistaken. He wished he had tried harder to get in touch with her.

His guilt led him to confess. After her grandmother, her mother, and whoever else in her family had been lying and keeping things from her, he needed to be honest with her, even if it meant she would hate him for it.

"What do you mean you sent the letter?"

"Your grandmother wrote it before she passed. I didn't know what it said. I thought maybe it was her will. She made me promise not to send it until December first, and even though I didn't feel good about it, I honored her wishes and waited until then."

Shonna stared at the crackling fire, not saying a word.

"Do you have any idea what was so important about December first?"

"Last time we talked, I mentioned it to her. She must have figured by the time I got the letter, I would have heard about the promotion. They make their decisions the first week of December," she explained.

Then she got up and started searching through the cabinets.

"What are you looking for?" He got up and joined her in the kitchen as her searching became more frantic.

"There has to be a bottle of wine or vodka or something in here."

"I don't think that's the answer."

She stopped looking then and hung her head in defeat. He lifted her chin and turned her face to look at his.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you came here expecting to see YoYo. I thought your mother would have told you."

He didn't like the mist in her eyes. "You were the man who talked to my mom?"

He nodded cautiously.

"I can't believe this."

Jason was waiting for her to explode. Scream and hit him or blame him for not being able to say goodbye to her grandmother, but it never came.

"I had no idea you and my grandmother were so close. She never mentioned you. I wouldn't have tried to run you off the road had I known."

He laughed nervously, and her shoulders visibly relaxed. He wanted so badly to pull her in his arms and kiss her pain away, but he stopped himself.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything," he said.

She paused for a long time, glancing around the room. He waited anxiously for her to continue as the awkwardness fell over them with nothing but the whistling of the wind and the soft snoring of Penny to break the silence.

"I want to remodel my grandmother's place. Will you... I mean, if you're not too busy or anything... would you be able to help me with that?"

His heart skipped a beat. Did that mean she was staying? He tried to quiet those hopeful thoughts because he recognized how implausible that would be.

He went with a more logical explanation. "You looking to sell?"

"Maybe. Or I could rent it out. But I want to fix it up, make it more modern. I want a piece of my grandmother to always lie at rest here. I mean, I know she was buried here, but...."

"She wasn't buried," he interrupted. "She was cremated."

"What?"

In response, he retrieved the golden urn from its peaceful resting place on the mantle near the photos of her family, where Jason had left it on the day of her memorial.

"I was supposed to spread her ashes over the bay, but it didn't feel right. Family should be the ones to do that. I knew someone would come for her eventually, so I left her right here at home, just in case."

She gingerly grabbed the urn from him and hugged it to her chest. "You saved my grandmother's ashes?"

Her eyes were misty once more, and she hastily wiped a rogue tear from her face.

"God. You must think I'm the worst granddaughter."

"No. Maybe you could be better at answering your phone. But I know you were a wonderful granddaughter."

"You're just saying that."

"No, I'm not. YoYo told me all the time. She loved you."

Shonna stared at him. Her eyes were bubbling up with emotion.

"You loved her," she noted.

"Impossible not to," he admitted.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he offered, although a hollow sentiment.

He thought wistfully about the time they shared. How he had begged her not to do the Iditarod last year, but she was determined to win. She was getting older and slower, so he had been worried about her. He should have fought harder to keep her from going. Maybe if he had, she'd still be with them, and she'd be here with her granddaughter to comfort her instead of Jason, who was a stranger and couldn't offer her what she needed and what she came here for — a family.

She laid her hand on his, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"I'm sorry for yours," she said.

The warmth of the contact spread through his body, and then their eyes locked. This time, it wasn't lust that drew him into those copper beauties but something more. Something exhilarating and terrifying that made him want to cliff-dive headfirst into the mysterious abyss.