Tom kept touching her, and made sure at least some part of his body was in contact with Claire’s while they bathed the boys.
“This is much easier with you here, I gotta admit.” Claire smiled at her husband and reached out to squeeze his leg. She washed some stray mashed potato from behind Tristan’s ears, while Tom shampooed Noah’s hair.
“Close your eyes, buddy.” Tom poured a jug of water over Noah who giggled and then spluttered when some of the soap got in his mouth. “And close your mouth! You’re not meant to eat it,” Tom laughed.
Tom finished helping her bathe them, and then showered himself. Claire was tempted to get in the shower with him, but she stayed with Noah and Tristan and read them a bedtime story, all three of them cuddled into the armchair. Tom soon came into the room, towelling his hair dry and in clean clothes. He paused at the doorway, smiling down at Claire. She wished there was room for all four of them on the comfortable old chair.
Noah insisted that Tom read him a story as well. Tom lay on Noah’s bed with him, and Claire stayed in the armchair with Tristan. She listened to his deep voice and felt safer than she had since finding out about the asteroid. Claire rested her cheek on Tristan’s dark curls and he soon fell asleep. After Tom finished reading the story, Claire carefully stood up and tucked Tristan into his cot. Tom came over and placed his hand on her back. They stood there together, looking down at their youngest son.
“I’m so glad you’re home,” Claire said after a few minutes. She reached out to caress Tom’s cheek. It was prickly.
“Me too.”
“What happened out there?” Claire asked. Tom pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head. He didn’t say anything, but bent over gently running his fingers through Tristan’s soft curls, before leaning in to kiss the sleeping baby on his forehead.
“I missed you all so much,” Tom said. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it back a few times.”
“What happened?” Claire repeated.
Tom took a deep breath and reached out for her hand.
“Let’s talk downstairs.”
Claire watched Tom tuck Noah in, and then followed him downstairs.
She found him in the kitchen, looking in the pantry.
“Good, you got food,” he said without turning to her. Claire padded over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “Lisa and I did the first night we found out. There’s more in the garage. Apparently your Uncle Jim has a big stockpile as well, so we should definitely be okay on the food front until… you know.”
Tom pulled her in tighter to him.
“And we’ve got a bunch of supplies for… after… if there is an after,” Claire continued.
“After?” Tom echoed.
“Dad’s got this idea in his head that we could survive, if we’re prepared.” She looked up at her husband. He looked puzzled. “That is, if the asteroid doesn’t land too close to us. Or on top of us. I don’t think anyone would be surviving that,” she added.
“But I thought if it hit, then that’s it. We’re toast. Has something happened? I’ve been out of the loop a bit…”
Claire sighed and led her husband over to the table. She could feel his eyes on her as she rummaged around the kitchen. His face lit up when she pulled two bottles of his favourite craft beer out of the fridge. She’d made sure to grab some before they ran out.
“Are you hungry?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Famished. We’ve been living off gas station food for the past two days.” Claire grimaced and poured them each a glass of beer, and then quickly put together a platter of cheese, dips and chips, and rustled around in the fridge until she found the gourmet salami she knew she’d stashed in there somewhere. She put the platter on the table in front of Tom.
“I’ve got a roast ready to go too, but it won’t be ready for a couple of hours. Sorry, I didn’t know what time you’d be getting back.”
“No, no this is great. Thanks, honey.”
The cat emerged from whatever hidey-hole he’d been in and wound himself around her legs, meowing for attention. Tom leaned over and scooped the cat up. The meowing changed to purring as Tom stroked the fluffy creature.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Claire started after she sat down at the table again. Tom reached out for some cheese and salami. “No one does. But after talking to Dad, I think it would be best if we prepared for all possibilities.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Tom nodded.
“Who knows, maybe it will all be sorted when we wake up in the morning and everything can go back to normal,” Claire said, sounding more positive than she felt. Tom smiled at her.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“So, what happened to you? I’ve been so worried.” She reached out and touched his hand lightly. He turned his hand over and squeezed her hand. With his other hand, he reached out for his glass of beer and took a deep swig.
“I don’t really know where to start. Getting out of Vancouver…”
“I kind of know what happened then,” Claire interrupted. “You still had your phone. What happened after you took off?”
“Right. Yeah. Well, so we rented the plane. It wasn’t really Mike’s fault that we crashed. We hit some pretty bad weather. The crash was scary, but… but it was kind of weird because I didn’t really know what was going on, I was asleep for half of it. It was more of a crash landing than a fall-out-of-the-sky and plummet to your death type thing.”
They both picked at the platter of food while Tom continued to tell her what had happened on the long journey home.
“I’m so glad you met Frank and Cora!”
“They saved our lives,” Tom agreed. “If we survive the next few months, I want to go back and make sure they’re okay and thank them again.”
Claire nodded. “Definitely.”
She rolled her eyes at Tom’s description of the vigilant border guard, and gasped and shook her head when he told her about the car-jacking. A shiver ran down her spine, thinking about how close he’d come to never coming home again. Claire told him about the woman and child in the car wreck.
“Oh, honey. That’s horrible.” Tom held her for a few minutes.
“How’s Lisa? I haven’t talked to her since the day we found out.” Tom asked.
“She’s already at your Uncle Jim’s.”
“She didn’t wait?” Tom frowned.
“It’s okay. I told her to go. Her house was broken into, she didn’t feel safe here anymore. She wanted us to go with her, but I wanted to wait for you. When do you want to go?”
Tom looked around. Claire followed his gaze.
“If we go, will we ever come back?”
“I don’t know,” Claire replied. They’d both thought this was the house they’d raise their children in. Tom stood up and held his hand out to Claire. She reached out. Together they walked around the quiet house, checked in on the sleeping boys, and started discussing what they should take with them. They decided to leave for Uncle Jim’s as early as possible in the morning, savouring one more night in their house.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tom
“WHAT would be on your bucket list?” Claire asked, curled up in his arms. The fire crackled in front of them. The remains of the roast dinner sat forgotten for now on the side table.
“My bucket list?” Tom stalled.
“Yeah. You know, if it was just us with the death sentence and not the entire planet.”
“Well…”
“I can’t decide on mine,” Claire went on. “Everything that used to be on it seems a bit trivial now.”
“Well, what did you used to have on it?”