Northern Lights

dog had been half blind, arthritic and damn near deaf on top of it. Putting him down had been a mercy, really. And had made a point.
    He walked back toward the woods, stopping at the edge to look back. There were some patches of earth where the snow was busily melting in the sun, where the rains had washed it clear. A few sprigs of green were rising out of it.
    Spring, he thought. And once the ground thoroughly warmed, they'd bring Pat Galloway home for the last time.
    He planned to stand at the grave site, with his head respectfully bowed.
     
     
    IT WAS JUST SOFTENING to twilight when Nate got home. He waited by the side of the road while Meg walked over from the lake, over boggy green with thinning patches of snow, he noted.
    She carried a box of supplies and wore a bright red shirt that made him think of some flashy tropical bird.
    "Wanna trade?"
    She looked at the pizza box he held, sniffed at it. "No, I got it and your toy badges. But I like a man who brings dinner. How'd you know for sure I'd be back for dinner, or were you planning on eating all that yourself ?"
    "I heard your plane. Finished up what I was doing, walked up to The Italian Place and got this. Figured you'd have to off-load your cargo, and the timing would be pretty close."
    "Close to perfect. I'm starved." She carted the supplies into the house and straight back to the kitchen. "And it so happens one of the things I picked up today is what's billed as an exceptional cabernet."
    She pulled out the bottle. "You game?"
    "Sure. In a minute." He set the pizza aside, laid his hands on her shoulders and kissed her. "Hi."
    "Hi, cutie." Grinning, she grabbed his hair, yanked him down for a harder, longer kiss. "Hello, boys." She crouched down for a quick rub and wrestle with her dogs. "Didja miss me, huh, didja?"
    "We all did. Last night we consoled ourselves with a bear bone and mac and cheese. Jacob supplied the bone, and the bear meat that's in your freezer."
    "Umm, good." She pulled out a plastic bag, shook it so the contents jingled, then tossed it to him.
    Inside he found silver pin-on stars. "Cool."
    "You said seven, but I got you a dozen. You can have some on hand if you want to deputize more kids."
    "Thanks. What do I owe you?"
    "You're running a tab. We'll catch up. Open that bottle, will you, chief ?" She slid her hand in the pizza box and tore off a slice. "Missed lunch," she said with her mouth full. "Had to set down—a little engine trouble—and it cost me a couple of hours."
    "What kind of engine trouble?"
    "Nothing dire. All fixed now, but I could use pizza and wine, a hot shower, and a man who knows how to rub me in all the right places."
    "Looks like we can handle all of that."
    "You keep getting this half-smile going on. What's that about?"
    "Things. You want to sit down and eat, or are you just going to stand there and stuff it in your face?"
    "Stand here." She took another huge bite. "Stuff."
    "Okay. Should this breathe or something?"
    "Not when I'm washing down pizza with it. Gimme."
    He poured her a glass and another for himself. Then he pulled out a slice and leaned back on the counter to eat it. "You know the day Peter was shot."
    "Hard to forget. He used to follow me and Rose around like a puppy. He's doing okay, right?"
    "He's fine. But that day, when I saw the blood on the snow, when I got to him and had his blood on my hands, part of my mind wiped out. No, more rolled back. To Jack. I was back in that alley again. I could see it, hear it, smell it. And I wanted to sink away somehow. Just go away."
    "That's not the way I heard it."
    "That's what was going on, inside." He'd get this out first, Nate thought. Make sure she saw him as he'd been, as he was, and as he hoped to be. "It seemed like a long time. A long time crouched there in the snow, with him bleeding on me. But it wasn't. And I didn't sink away."
    "No, you didn't. You drew his fire away from Peter."
    "That's not the point."
    "Cutie." She moved forward, gave him a light kiss, moved back again to lean on the counter. "You're such a cop."
    "I controlled the situation. Did the job and got everybody out of it alive. I could've killed him. Spinnaker."
    He saw her take that in, just a slight angling of her head.
    "I could've done it, and for an instant I considered it. Nobody would've questioned it. He'd shot my deputy, shot at me. He was armed and dangerous. It wasn't like in the alley with Jack.Then my partner was down—my partner was dying," he corrected, "and I was