Free WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) by Elizabeth Munro Page B

up more than her own bone. After she takes another painful step Mark comes out, glowing in a grease-stained high-vis parka.
    He stops and stares so Jenn pulls off her toque letting her long dark hair fall around her shoulders.
    “Jenn?”
    “Hi, Mark,” bravery makes her voice a little too loud and Jenn glances at the neighbour’s house certain she’s been heard but it’s black inside and doesn’t have a door. A trail of exhaled air follows him down three stairs and along his shoveled walk, heavy work boots leave a trail of fresh prints. His attention is on the waiting taxi and he doesn’t face Jenn until he’s a few feet away.
    “Do you have a few minutes?” Jenn starts, still brave inside. “I mean, if it’s a bad time I can come back or something.”
    “You want to come in?”
    Jenn peers past her freezing lashes to make sure Ambrose is still there. Waiting in the cold for him to come back looks more and more unappealing.
    “No, I just need a minute if it’s okay,” she resists palming her eyes as the wetness eases the discomfort. The speech she’d run through is ready but stage fright is already taking the words away.
    Mark nods and she starts with a deep breath, hoping it will give the first hard words the momentum she needs to finish. After that, she thinks, the rest will be easy.
    “My brother Terry died,” she chokes, hands hiding her face and pressing back tears until she gets control again. “Two and a half years ago. I haven’t even said his name since that morning.”
    When her hands come down Mark is closer, eyebrows pressed together and his head tips with concern.
    “He left me everything. His apartment, his sports stuff. It still doesn’t feel like my place. He loved those things so I did but they were his love, not mine. When you noticed it wasn’t my apartment I was overwhelmed with everything I’d buried coming to the surface and I thought if I talked it would wash me away.
    “I know what it looked like,” she goes on, picking a smudge on his coat to stare at in case he shows pity on his face. Even in the cold the smell of heavy grease settles around them. “Like I brought you to another man’s home. In your place I’d have felt cheated, used. I’d have been angry and I wouldn’t have held my tongue like you did. I appreciated that.”
    Mark nods.
    “After you left I started boxing Terry’s things up. I’m getting my stuff out of storage and when it’s ready to go I’ll rent something and put his life away… get mine back.
    “I didn’t think my problems would hurt anyone and I’m so, so sorry.”
    “Jenn…” he says.
    “Anyway,” she looks left, seeking the shelter of her waiting cab. “You deserved to hear a real apology.”
    She’s barely a step closer to Ambrose when the reverse lights come on.
    “Wait, Jenn.”
    The taxi keeps coming as Mark tries again.
    “Please,” he says as he takes her elbow then she’s folded up in his big coat. Inside it’s dark and warm. Outside they glow in Ambrose’ white lights shining out danger like a yellow-jacket. Mark smells clean of deodorant soap and fabric softener and his lips rest in her hair. The big muscles squeeze and Jenn’s neck tingles, loving it and forcing out any fear she had that Mark would send her away. “Stay here tonight. Tell your ride you’re staying.”
    Unable to get her hands from her pockets she surrenders in his arms.
    “Please,” he says. “No expectations.”
    “Okay, Mark,” she says as he lets her go. What Jenn really wants is a shower and some sleep but first she has to face the chill outside his coat and thank Ambrose. The crunch of snow under tires stops.
    Ambrose leans over, looking up at her when she opens the passenger door.
    “Thanks for waiting. I don’t need a ride.”
    Ambrose laughs, shaking his cell phone in his big fist.
    “I call Maude first, tell ‘er ‘bout you!” he proclaims. “‘bout you an da love story!”
    Jenn shakes her head to protest but then