He spent his days with his friends, men and women he trusted to have his back.
And then there was Nora.
He still couldn’t believe he’d won her hand in marriage, and he was happy to see that as time went on, the worried frown that had often creased her brow when he met her smoothed. Smiles lit up her face far more often these days, and love shone in her eyes—for Constance and for him.
She’d rallied over the last year, overcoming the trauma of her stalker’s attack and healing her wounds, physical and mental. These days she jogged every morning, worked hard with the building crew and spent the remainder of her workday split between home and the Crow reservation, developing textbooks and curriculum with Sue. They’d launched their flagship textbook to quite a bit of praise and were working hard to expand the curriculum. Clay had no doubt someday the two of them would head an educational publishing empire.
“Clay? I said you have a lot to be proud of,” his dad repeated.
“Thanks.” He gripped Dell’s shoulder for a minute, then released him. “So do you.”
Nora checked to make sure Constance was secured in her backpack carrier as she waited with Clay, Dell and Curtis for the open house to begin and the public to arrive. She was one of several people tasked with walking people through a tiny house to give them a better perspective on living quarters at Base Camp and answer their questions. Clay and Dell were manning a booth with pamphlets and information about their construction business, while Curtis would be answering questions about his finish work. Daisy had found herself a patch of shade to rest in.
Nora looked forward to the day and was pleased to find almost no traces of the fear that had dogged her in her early time at Base Camp. As the months passed from Andrew Pennsley’s death, she became more secure that her ordeal was truly over. She was safe here at Base Camp, surrounded by friends who loved her rather than teaching colleagues who bore a grudge.
Clay made her feel safe and loved every day. He made time every evening to sit with her under the stars, if the weather was good, or snuggle up on their couch inside if it wasn’t, to talk through their days, patient with the petty worries and issues she was sure would bore a man.
In turn, she tried to be patient with his frustrations as he navigated school and work. Sometimes she knew it galled him he was getting to his education this late in the game, especially when his classmates acted their youthful age, but most of the time he was able to see the humor in it and was grateful he’d gotten the chance at all. “At least I’m not my dad’s age,” he often said.
“Here they come,” Dell said.
“Ready?” Clay asked her.
“I’m ready.” Nora’s heart expanded when he reached over to kiss first her and then Constance, who was bouncing up and down in her backpack with excitement at the people streaming toward them. Constance loved everyone, and Nora had no doubt she’d make friends today. Lizette had promised to take her when she got tired of being carried around.
As the first people arrived at their station, couples young and old clustered around the booth to talk to the men about the construction process, while others came straight to where Nora and the other “tiny house tour guides” were waiting to show them the actual houses. Nora’s first customers were three twentysomething women who oohed and aahed over every inch of her home.
“We’re looking at a piece of land near Billings,” one of them said. “We think we can afford it if we pool our money. Then we’ll need to build something.”
“We all just graduated,” another said. “We don’t want to pay rent; we want to try to own something.”
“Are all three of you going to live in one tiny house?” Nora loved her friends, but she wasn’t sure how that would have worked out.
“We thought we’d build one, move in together to save money, build the next one and so on. They’re about the size of the dorm room we shared.”
“You’d better check the building code,” Nora warned them, and they were off on a conversation that kept going until she turned them over to the men outside. She saw them loading up on brochures and pigeonholing Dell soon after. If they approached the whole project with this kind of enthusiasm, she was sure they’d get it done.
“You’re glowing,” Lizette said when she stopped by several hours later during a break from working at the manor.
“I love any kind of teaching,” Nora admitted. “Even when it’s as open-ended and unstructured as this. I’m an information junkie and love to share everything I learn.”
“Clay said someday you’ll reopen the one-room schoolhouse across Pittance Creek and teach the Base Camp kids there.” Lizette’s brows tugged together. “You won’t be overwhelmed by bad memories if you do that?”
Nora shook her head. “Sue said she’ll help me purge it of any bad energy left over from that day. I trust her to be able to do that. Besides, I think the process of cleaning it up, restoring it, giving it a new coat of paint—and knowing all the children I’ll teach there—will erase anything that happened before.”
She looked forward to those days, although she was content to enjoy her time with Constance and Sue now. When she began teaching Base Camp’s children, she wouldn’t have as much time to work on curriculum. She had decided not to worry about that yet. She would make the most of each stage as it happened. She and
