“We played fetch with them and Calvin always caught the stick first but wouldn’t bring it back.” Thomas giggled at the memory.
“You’ve both helped me so much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you watching over the puppies for me. You’ve done me such a huge favor.”
She was the one doing the favor for them. She had to know it. The puppies would be the highlight of this particular trip for the children, besides Gemma’s wedding, of course. Without the distraction of three cute balls of fluff, Amelia and Thomas would have been bored and troublesome.
“I wish we could take one home with us,” Amelia said, her voice subdued.
“So do I, sweetheart. But I’m afraid all three have been promised already to other homes. Plus, that would be a very long airplane ride for a little puppy.”
She sighed. “I know. It’s a long airplane ride for me, as well. I’ll be so sad to say goodbye to them.”
Samantha’s expression softened as she ran a gentle hand over Amelia’s hair in a gesture that made a lump rise in Ian’s throat. “Saying goodbye can be hard, can’t it?”
“Yes. I wish we didn’t have to.”
“The puppies already have homes they’ll be going to in a few weeks. If you took one, that would leave someone here very sad.”
“Dad says maybe we can get a puppy of our own when we go back home,” Thomas announced.
Samantha smiled at him, as well. “Oh, that will be fun. You’ve had good practice taking care of mine, then, haven’t you?”
His children both seemed to drink in her attention. They both wanted to hold her hands as they walked the short distance from her house to his vehicle. Samantha had a way of drawing people to her, something he suspected she didn’t consciously realize.
At the vehicle, she looked surprised. “No Mrs. Gilbert?”
“She begged off,” Ian said.
“She said she wanted a quiet night at home with her book and the telly,” Amelia said with shock in her voice that clearly conveyed what she thought of that idea.
Ian thought that sounded perfectly lovely, though he couldn’t deny he was looking forward to the evening ahead in Samantha’s company.
“You have made quite an impression on my mother,” he said. “When I took her home, she couldn’t stop talking about how well the fitting went. What did you think?”
“I think your sister’s dress just might be my favorite of all the wedding gowns I’ve created.”
“My mother’s exact word was exquisite.”
“I believe I quite love that word,” Samantha said with a smile. “I’m planning to incorporate it into my daily vocabulary.”
He was finding Samantha such a funny mix of contradictions. She seemed full of life and light and energy at some moments, then seemed almost paralyzed by doubts in others. Was that because of her own mother’s influence?
She seemed to have so much love to give but was almost afraid to offer it.
“How was your afternoon?” she asked. “I don’t imagine you could give the salmon much of your attention while you were busy running your mother to dress fittings and having coffee with your new brother-in-law.”
He had thoroughly enjoyed his time with Joshua Bailey. His first impression of him had been spot-on. He was a good man with a kind heart and a deep love for Gemma. Ian expected that even despite the distance, the two of them would form a strong and lasting friendship as the years went on.
“The salmon will be there tomorrow, I imagine. They’re very patient.”
She settled into her seat as Ian drove the short distance to his sister’s house. After a few weeks in America, he was almost used to driving on the opposite side of the road. He only hoped he didn’t have a big adjustment back to the other way once they were home.
“I’m still fascinated by the fact that you’ve chosen to study salmon,” Samantha said after a moment. “Of all the things in the world a person could choose to research—elephants, aardvarks, honey badgers. There’s no limit. So why salmon?”
“Salmon are vitally important to the world. They are considered a keystone species for the environment, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. That means a great deal of other life depends on them. When ocean-dwelling salmon swim upstream to spawn, they bring their nutrient-rich bodies and end up feeding wildlife, microorganisms, even trees, if you can believe that. When eagles and bears and other predators take a fish out of the water to eat it, they distribute what’s left on the forest floor and that feeds the trees. It’s estimated that fully one-third of the nitrogen in old-growth forests comes from salmon runs, which I find fascinating. In England and across Europe, we no longer have the historic numbers of salmon and we’ll likely never get that back, but there’s still hope for the Pacific Northwest salmon to recover.”
He caught himself before he could start lecturing on. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bore you.”
“You didn’t bore me,” she said, a curious light in her eyes. “I like seeing you so animated and excited.”
She met his gaze, then quickly looked away, her cheeks suddenly turning pink for reasons he couldn’t have explained.
She turned back to the children. “Amelia, Thomas, I understand from your grandmother that you took a field trip with Mrs. Gilbert to the children’s museum today,” she said quickly, as if in a hurry to change the subject. “What did you like about it?”
“That it had a great display about the weather.”
“I liked floating things down a little creek inside,” Thomas said.
While Samantha engaged the children in a discussion about the museum, Ian kicked himself for going on and on about his work. Susan often would tell him how pedantic he could be on the subject.
He could almost hear her voice echoing in his head. “Of all the people on the planet, maybe four of
