Page 101 of Badd Baby

She only nodded at this, staring at nothing. After a moment or two, she looked at me. "What if I told you I couldn't do it?" she asked. "Move to Ketchikan, I mean."

I tried to ignore the acid in my gut her question created. "I would understand." I swallowed hard. "I'd probably move down here. We do have a location in West Hollywood."

She searched me carefully. "But you'd be doing it for me. You really don't like the idea."

"No, I don't." I shrugged. "But you don't like the idea of Alaska, either. I just…it just sucks that for us to be together, one of us has to move."

She looked around her room, her gaze coming to rest on the photographs on her desk. "Duncan, how do we decide?"

I hesitated. "You said earlier that you think you're in love with me. You meant that?"

She softened, nodding, taking my hand. "Yes, Duncan. I fought it as hard as I could for as long as I could, but I can't deny it anymore."

I sighed, relief flooding through me. "Then we'll figure it out. We can't necessarily solve it all right this moment. I don't know that we need to, either. Maybe we split our time. I don't know. I'm not trying to drag you away from your home and your family, Rune. I want you to be happy."

There came a knock on the doorframe—we had the door open. "Rune, Duncan?" It was her mom. "We need to talk to you guys downstairs, please."

Rune slid off the bed immediately—perhaps a little glad to be escaping the conversation. "Right behind you."

We gathered in the living room, including Lindsey and Dane—between whom I detected some sort of tension. Tom and Kelly sat together, waited for us to all sit, and then Tom cleared his throat.

"So, Rune, your mother and I have some news that may help inform some of your decisions." He glanced at his wife and then continued. “Your mom has decided to take a sabbatical."

Rune blinked. "I…I'm not entirely sure what that means, honestly."

"A leave of absence from the university," Kelly responded. "I'm taking at least a year off and your father and I are going to do some traveling. It's something we've been talking about for a long time, and I actually just got the approval from the department just now while you guys were talking. I've got a new book I've been working on, and this sabbatical is going to be partly research and partly some much-needed time away together."

Rune was silent for a moment. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Well, we know you've been worried about leaving. Being away from your mom and me." Tom rested his elbows on his knees, meeting his daughter's gaze. "We've also been talking about selling the house. Possibly leaving LA altogether."

Rune blinked. "What?"

"We've been here for almost thirty years, honey," Kelly said. “We're ready for a change of pace. Not retirement, exactly, but just…something different." She rested a hand on her husband's knee. "Rune, baby, you need to do what's right for you. No matter where you are, we'll find ways to be together. If you were, just for example, to move to Ketchikan, it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that your father and I could spend summers up there with you guys."

"The fishing around here sucks balls, if nothing else," Tom muttered.

Kelly shot him a nasty side-eye glare. "Sucks balls, Thomas? Really?"

I couldn't help a laugh. "Blatant plug for my own interests, here, but my uncle Ramsey is an outdoor guide. He and Papa Lucas run trips to the interior all the time, as well as day trips to fishing spots all along the Passage. So if you like fishing, we've got you covered, Mr. Rigby."

Tom's eyes lit up. "See? It's all coming together."

Rune laughed. "Ah yes, fishing. The real reason for me to move to Alaska."

"Sweet-Pea, I was just—"

Rune cut in over him. “I’m teasing, Dad." She let out a breath. Glanced at Lindsey. "Do you have any thoughts, dearest friend of my heart?"

Lindsey blew a raspberry. "Do I have thoughts? Do ducks shit in the water?" She barked a sarcastic laugh. "Yes, Rune, I have thoughts. I could give a PowerPoint presentation, if I didn't loathe presentations and if I knew how to make a PowerPoint presentation."

Rune sighed. "Linz?"

“Right, right. I'm off topic." She gestured at me with both hands. “Reason number one why you'd be an idiot not to move to Alaska—the fine hunka-hunka burnin' love beside you. The man came all the way down here just to tell you he loved you."

I opened my mouth to tell her that that wasn’t the primary reason for my visit, but she glared me into silence.

"I know, I know," she said. "You came down to express your support. But really, you came down to tell her you love her and to try to get her to admit that she loves you back."