He and his father had found a new CEO for Hansen Energy who shared their vision, which made it possible for Johannes to step back and for Anders to work more as a consultant than full-time on-site, which he appreciated, because he loved it here and didn’t want to leave his wife or daughter. Isabel Claire Hansen was the apple of his eye. The youngest of the Contingent at just seven and a half months, she seemed determined not to be left behind by the other babies. She was already standing steadier than some of the older ones, and she’d taken her first step yesterday.
“Soon she’ll be running rings around us,” Eve had said with a happy sigh.
He didn’t want to miss a single milestone of his daughter’s journey to independence, and Johannes seemed to enjoy it at Base Camp, too. Anders never thought his father would be comfortable with letting someone else oversee the day-to-day business of Hansen Energy, but Bill, the CEO, wasn’t fazed by technology and video chatted, texted and called so often, Johannes might as well have been in Texas.
Only last week he and his father had gone for a ride to Chance Creek with their fishing gear and spent a couple of hours at it. The fishing was better up north, but Anders had still enjoyed his afternoon—and the new connection he was forging with Johannes.
As the dance went on, it was his wife who consumed his attention, not his father. Let Johannes flirt. He had the woman he wanted, and that made him feel everyone should have their share of love.
Eve smiled at him. “What are you thinking?”
“You know what I’m thinking.” If this were a waltz, he’d pull her in tighter. He’d come to think that Regency dances were a very effective form of flirting. You came together and moved apart, never keeping your partner as close as you wanted her.
But tonight, once Isabel was asleep, he’d get to be as close to Eve as he could wish. He saw the answering interest in her eye and knew they’d have a lot of fun.
“How much longer does this shindig go on?”
“Not much longer,” she promised him.
“Good.”
Anders still got her motor racing, Eve thought happily as they completed the dance and moved smoothly into the next one. Over the last year and a half, they’d polished up a half-dozen dances they could all do at the drop of a hat. It always impressed visitors to Base Camp. Plus, she loved them.
“You never finished telling me about the movie,” Anders said when a minute or two had gone by. “We got interrupted yesterday when Isabel bumped her head.”
Their daughter was sporting a small bruise on her forehead, the first of many, Eve predicted. She was a tiny thing but determined and fearless, and that step she’d taken yesterday had been followed by some fast crawling after a ball Anders was rolling around on the floor. She’d gotten so excited to catch it she stopped looking where she was going.
“Your CEO is thinking up movie ideas faster than I can make them,” Eve told him. “Now he wants one about the restoration of oil fields. It’s going to take a lot of research.”
“Which is going to make you one happy documentarian,” Anders said.
“You got it.” Eve didn’t think she’d ever get tired of making movies. As soon as Hansen Oil had started to transition to Hansen Energy, Johannes and his new CEO began to commission movies to explain their activities. She had found a crew that did great work but had previously struggled to find funding. With Hansen Energy’s deep pockets, she could let them run wild, traveling to immerse themselves in localities and collect footage that was astounding not only in its beauty or interest but also in the information it conveyed. She’d begun to get into some of the voice-over work herself, finding she had a talent for it, but it was editing footage that she loved best.
The next time the dance brought them close, Anders stole a kiss, holding her in place a moment too long, which made her stumble and nearly upset all the dancers around them. There was some laughter in the ranks, and the audience craned their necks to see what was happening.
“Behave,” she told him, spotting her best friend, Melissa, on the sidelines watching the dance. She was grinning—she’d definitely seen Anders’s illicit kiss.
“I will. For now. I’m not making any promises about later.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She waved quickly at Melissa, who turned to show her how huge her belly had gotten. Melissa was expecting her first “little cowboy,” as she kept calling the baby, in a couple of months and was over the moon—as was her husband. Eve was so glad her good friend had settled close by. She’d made so many wonderful new friends since being here, but Melissa was still the tether for her kite, although Anders and Isabel were certainly doing their part these days.
A husband, a baby, a number of good friends. The job of her dreams.
She had it all.
Sometimes life came full circle, Greg thought, switching his baby from one arm to the other. Ten years ago he’d stood next to Renata in Peru as she’d faced a busload of schoolgirls who didn’t know they’d just lost everything. Now the two of them were waving to a busload of visitors riding back to town after the open house.
Funny how he’d known the minute he saw Renata that she was the woman he wanted to build his world around. Amazing that all these years later, his dream had come true. What if he hadn’t taken the chance and come to Base Camp?
Where would he be now?
He doubted he’d be married; no one suited him like Renata did. She woke up each morning ready to get to work documenting all the troubles of the world—and all the solutions, too. She was
