The airport exit came up on the right and he took it. A few moments later, he angled up to the unloading dock, came around to her side of the truck and pulled her into his arms.
She clung to him, praying he’d change his mind.
“I love you,” he murmured. But he didn’t get back into the van. After saying goodbye to the girls, he kissed her quickly on the mouth and gathered his bags before striding purposefully through the sliding doors.
THE AIRPORT WASN’T very crowded. Isaac sat near the gate, feeling empty and strange. He considered setting up his laptop so he could return some e-mail. He needed to let certain people know he was coming home, to schedule a physical, to do a final read-through on the research he’d managed to organize in Dundee. If he could get into his old groove, he’d probably feel more like himself, right?
He rubbed his hands together eagerly, but couldn’t manage enough enthusiasm to act on the thought. He kept picturing Reenie at a restaurant not far away, eating lunch with her daughters.
After several seconds, he let his eyes drift over to the window. Outside, the day was sunny and bright.
He put his computer at his feet and stood for several minutes watching the planes take off. He was doing the right thing by going back to his former life, wasn’t he?
His melancholy suggested otherwise. But he’d wanted to return to Africa for a long time. His work wasn’t finished there. Now that the grant money had been awarded, he could continue to fight for conservation of the rain forest, which meant a great deal to him.
He imagined the long flight to the southern hemisphere, the trek from Ouesso, the people with their interesting customs and languages. He loved the uniqueness of Africa. Every moment there, the whole ambience, stirred his blood.
So why did the trip suddenly sound less appealing than it had before?
Probably because he’d been out of circulation too long, he told himself. He’d gotten used to living at a slower pace, to paying less attention to his research, to thinking about Reenie.
Reenie again. Shoving the nagging thoughts and memories of the woman he loved from his mind, he called Reggie on the nearest pay phone. He planned to leave a message saying he was on his way, to suggest a meeting first thing Monday morning.
But his boss surprised him by answering. “Hello?”
“Reg?” Isaac said.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing at the office on a Saturday morning?”
“I’m behind, trying to catch up,” he replied.
Isaac couldn’t remember if he’d ever heard his boss speak of a family. He and Reg had worked together on and off for several years, but theirs had been a strictly business relationship. Unless Reg had made a comment Isaac hadn’t catalogued, they’d always confined their dialogue to other topics.
“You work too hard,” Isaac said.
“Goes with the territory, I’m afraid.”
That “territory” was obviously very important to him. Reg’s voice was brisk, as though he felt pressed even now. But was his work truly fulfilling enough to devote his whole life to it and nothing more?
“How old are you?” Isaac asked. He knew the question came out of nowhere. But he didn’t care. The answer was significant to him.
“You want to know how old I am?” Reg repeated.
“Yeah.”
“Fifty-seven. Why?”
Fifty-seven. And the most he had to look forward to on the weekend was more of what he did during the week? Crazy thing was, Reg was so busy, he didn’t even seem to notice that he was missing anything.
A baby squealed. Isaac glanced over to see that a young couple with an infant had taken the seats not far from him. The mother dug through a diaper bag while the father gently jiggled the baby on his shoulder.
“Isaac?” Reg said. “Have you gone a little daft on me out there in cowboy country?”
Suddenly Isaac saw himself in thirty years. He could be Reggie, a bonafide workaholic; he was following the same course, wasn’t he?
He watched the father settle the baby in the crook of his arm and give it the bottle the woman had finally located. The baby’s cries immediately turned to a few whimpers, then fell to complete silence, while the father gazed dreamily at the bundle he held in his arms.
“Isaac?” Reg prompted again.
“No, I’m…I’m just wondering, that’s all.”
“About what?”
If I can live without Reenie’s laugh and the girls and Spike and the farm…
A flight attendant walked to the podium near his gate and began to call for boarding. “I’ve got to go,” he said.
“Is someone picking you up at the airport?”
“I was planning to take a taxi.”
“Give me a call when you get in. I’ll swing by if I can get away. We need to go over a few things for the trip.”
“Right,” Isaac said. “The trip.” But watching the little family he’d noticed earlier suddenly held more allure for him than the trip.
When the flight attendant made the final call for boarding, he told himself to stride up and hand her his boarding pass. He was a field researcher and a biologist, not a high school science teacher.
But five minutes later, he was still standing at the window, watching his plane take off.
REENIE, ANGELA, JENNIFER AND Isabella were sitting down to watch a movie when she heard someone at the front door. She stood up to see who it was, tensing when a key clicked in the lock.
“Who is it?” she called. She hadn’t been able to make herself remove Isaac’s key from beneath the geraniums. It was too much of an admission that he wouldn’t be coming back. But she regretted that now. Maybe there wasn’t any crime to speak of in Dundee, but if by some remote chance she’d left her children vulnerable to harm, she’d never forgive herself.
“Reenie?”
Isaac’s voice reached her ears before she could round the opening to the living room. But she recognized it instantly. The kids recognized it, too.
“Isaac!” Isabella cried, and brushed past Reenie in her hurry to reach him.
“Hi, squirt,” he said, swinging her up into his arms.
“What are you doing here?” Isabella asked.
He shot Reenie a devilish grin. “I live here now.”
Reenie felt her heart stop. “What?” she breathed.
Setting Isabella down, he mussed Angela’s hair, grinned at Jennifer and swept Reenie into his arms. “Hi, honey,” he said. “I’m home.”