Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
Marilyn sat and watched the boys run about all over the places as they were driven around the the next day, to get a good look around the area. It took half a day to do, as they stopped and got out and looked at many things. The boys were making lists of things they could see they could do here at the different towns around the lake.
There was plenty of water sporting activities, here you could rent sail boats and power boats. Kayaks and paddleboards, there was hiking nearly everywhere, plenty of different nature trails to explore, and there was a myriad of camping places, and lots of wildlife.
There were plenty of guided tours that they could take as well over time and, apparently, in September each year there was a dragon boat festival, which the boys now wanted to come and see. She’d nodded and stated ‘I don’t see why not’. They now had a house here to stay in, so they wouldn’t have to find accommodation; a bonus.
They were also very close to the Glacial National Park, where there was even more hiking and other lakes to explore come summertime. In the wintertime there were even a couple of ski resorts, Blacktail and Whitefish, that were not that far away. The boys liked the snow and so that would interest them, likely at some point they’d want to learn to ski.
There was definitely going to be plenty of things for her boys to do all year round. They did like being outside, and sometimes they did complain to her that all she did was sit and write every day. That she needed to go outside more.
To which her usual response was
“How do you think I earn money for you to do all those things you like doing?”
It just made them pout at her and tell her they were bored was all.
They got back to their condo and took a stroll about the town of Bigfork itself, got fresh baked goods from the local bakery and just looked about at some of the local stores here. She was going to have to do some serious shopping for that house she’d just bought, she realised as she was looking at local handmade furniture.
A lovely dining set of natural wood that she really liked and so she stopped and talked to the store owner about how long it would take to get something made. The set she was looking at stated display only. He got out a catalogue of previously made wooden dining tables and explained the process to her.
She smiled and nodded, ordered one and put down the deposit right away, and gave him the delivery address. That struck up a conversation, and she told him to just call when it was done she’d fly out for it to be delivered. There was no rush on it and, for the size she wanted and all the chairs, he’d given her a timeframe of a four??o??ix??eek turnaround. That was fine with her. She could come back closer to Christmas.
The boys had gone to bed early, told her they were tired and went to their room of their own accord just on 8pm. She’d thought it was a bit odd, but shrugged it off. It had been a long weekend and tomorrow they were on a long flight home again once more.
They stayed until Anabell’s flight took off, 45 minutes ahead of their own scheduled flight. They had to be fitted in and around the regularly scheduled commercial flights. It was an uneventful flight, and they were home by 6pm and as she unlocked the front door for them to go inside, Vincent telling her he was busting to go to the toilet, and both boys were pushed in front of her to get into the house before her.
She shook her head and let them as she turned at the sound of Daniel greeting her and Heath. He told her nothing unusual had happened here at the house. She’d smiled and thanked him for staying, thanked Heath for going out to Montana with her and the boys. And he just nodded and told her they’d head of ather in a few minutes after Daniel was all packed up and Cameron would contact her about the security update for the new house, a place called Castle Rock.
She stepped inside the house and found Callum standing by the coffee table. He waved that phone at her
“It needs charging mum.”
He stated, and ran off up the stairs with it.
She just shook her head and rolled her eyes a little, muttered
“It’s not like it went anywhere.”
As she realised that pushing and shoving had been more about getting to the phone to see where their father was. Those two she’d thought would have settled down about looking at it. No such luck on that front. She wondered if they were going to have obsessive tendencies like Calvin did? She didn’t want that, she thought as she put her suitcase on her bed to unpack it.
Calvin
His weekend had passed by for him with many happy smiles as his own boys texted him on and off. It had started with just that first text, which he’d not replied to right away, and then there had been a massage after they’d landed, to which he had responded to right away.
“Morning Boys, it’s nice to talk to you. Sorry I didn’t answer your first text. I didn’t want your mother to hear the phone and you two to get in trouble.”
Had been what he’d sent.
“We turned the sound down.”
He got right back.
“Where is your mother now?”
Calvin had asked.
“Waiting for someone else to arrive.”
They’d sent back.
And that had been how it all started, his first conversation with the two boys that were his sons, and it had made him very happy. It hadn’t taken long to find out that, that someone had been an Aunty Anabell and that had made Calvin chuckle into his apartment.
He’d heard from Wil that Anabell was off on a spa weekend with one of her old friends from back in law school days, who had supposedly moved to another state. He even knew that Wil had taken her to the airport himself and seen her off.
Marilyn was away with Wil’s wife and he knew it. It couldn’t be a coincidence that she happened to know two women named Anabell. That Wil’s wife was also out of state right now. Wil though didn’t even appear to know who his wife was with right that minute, though he likely knew exactly where she was going to be.
Calvin hadn’t brought it up with Wil, he’d just left it alone. Although he was now curious as to when Marilyn and Anabell had reconnected with each other, and how that had come about. It could, he thought, only have happened through Wil. Either Marilyn had recalled Anabell or Wil had offered to have those two meet up and talk.
Which to Calvin could only mean one of two things: Marilyn was curious about her life as Marrin, and she wanted to talk to someone that wasn’t involved in anything he’d done, Or Wil had offered her to be in contact with one of her own old friends. Both, he thought, were for the same purpose; to help Marilyn recall her past by talking to someone that had known her, when she was Marrin.
That could only be a good thing as far as he was concerned.
Cal and Vin had managed to take that phone everywhere with them. Likely they had it in a pocket of their clothing, or they were carrying a backpack everywhere they went. He’d seen they’d had a backpack in the ICU. That was going to be the most likely explanation. It was too big a phone for a child’s pocket. A part of him wondered now if he should have gotten the Galaxy flip instead of the Galaxy fold.
He’d checked the weather where they had landed, and the Rocky Mountains! He’d thought was an understatement, as he saw just how far north they were, and the airport they’d landed at. They couldn’t really get any further north in a plane without crossing the border he didn’t think.
They had moved about up there on Flathead Lake in and around the area, and had in fact gone all the way around that lake the following day. Were sightseeing, he guessed, where he got random texts during the course of the day about odd things the boys wanted to share. He could only smile and put it down to that they were just seven, and where they were and what they were doing.
Hed responded with short simple texts, not knowing where Marilyn or Anabell were and trying to make sure the boys wouldn’t get into trouble. They’d texted more when they’d gone to bed each night and were likely behind a closed door where their mother could hear or see them. They told him about their day in full, and he’d actively texted them back.
It did occur to him over that weekend that this kind of behaviour now, could be seen as, later on in life, they would be boys that would sneak out of the house or have secrets from not only himself, but their mother as well. Then he’d wondered if he should try and curb that?
It was kind of a catchy situation for him, because he knew in one hand, Marilyn wouldn’t war the other hand, he really did want to be able to talk with the boys. Which was also him keeping weir secret. It wasn’t technically wrong of him, he’d not told them to do this, not started that conversation between therm and himself.
Wil had told him that although he wasn’t allowed to personally text them, he’d also told him to answer any and all texts or phone calls from that phone, because it could only be Marilyn or the boys needing something from him.
He also didn’t have Marilyn’s number to let her know what the boys were doing, but again he did have Anabell’s, and he could have texted her what was going on; ask her to inform Marilyn. But he had a feeling if he did that, Marilyn would take the phone from the boys and likely switch it off, and he’d have no contact with the boys at all.
Something he didn’t want, something he thought the boys wouldn’t want either now. They seemed very happy sending him text messages. So he’d let it go and just allowed the twins to talk to him as they wanted to. The only thing he’d actually been unhappy about all weekend had been when he’d gotten a text about they’d had fun exploring their new house. That had actually made him sigh heavily into his apartment.
Marilyn, it seemed, was prepping to move away from him once more and there was nothing he could do about it because he understood he wasn’t supposed to know about that house or where it was. That phone was supposed to still be showing it was back in Virginia. So if he brought it up; that new house of hers, up there in Montana, then the boys would get into real trouble, he imagined.
He not only knew where in Montana, on Flathead Lake somewhere, he also knew that Anabell herself had gone right to the very house. So, he figured Wil would have the information at hand too. He took a breath in and let it go. Tried not to think about her wanting to get up and vanish into the night without telling him.
A part of him wondered how much effort she had gone to, to try and hide the buying of that house. Was it again a private sale? He couldn’t really blame her at this time, she didn’t know him or what to expect from him. He also owned several properties himself, so it could be that she just wanted another home to go to at times; a summer or winter home, so to speak.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.