Until Tomorrow (Boot Creek Book 3)

by Nancy Naigle

  “Yeah. I’m serious. This is it.”

  She reached for her purse. “This is way bigger than a cabin. It’s not what I had pictured at all.”

  “Come on inside.” He carried their bags up to the porch, then touched the keypad with his finger. The door unlocked. He held the door for her to go inside first.

  “Thank you.” She stepped inside, and a small gasp escaped her pretty lips as she stood, slowly turning around. She walked over to the huge fireplace. The stacked stone ran straight to the top of the second story, and the loft that extended from his bedroom opened up to the living room below, allowing the heat to rise and warm his room. But rather than focusing on the massive stonework, she knelt in front of the hearth and admired the fireplace screen. “You made this?”

  He nodded.

  “Ford, this is no cabin. Not in size. Not in style.”

  “Well, it’s in the woods. And the style is simple.”

  “The finishing touches are far from simple. I’ve never seen a stair railing like that. Did you blow those glass bubbles in the railing yourself?”

  “I did.” His heart pounded. With pride, yes, but more so at the way her eyes lit as she noticed each little thing.

  “Aren’t you afraid those blown-glass balls will break?” She walked over and touched a bright cobalt blue one. Bigger than a bead, but smaller than the ornament they’d made. “Are these like caterpillars? Like the ones you were having me make in the shop?”

  “Pretty much. Very simple, yet elegant.”

  “Trying to equate the simplicity of the glass to the comfort of the cabin? Easy. I guess I can buy that.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. “Let me know if you break any of these. I’ll whip up some more for you. No problem.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “Sure. I learned from the best.” She walked to the dining room, swiveling to take it all in. “This chandelier is gorgeous.”

  “I worked for months on that thing. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like, but it definitely stretched my skills.”

  “It would cost a fortune to buy something like this.”

  “I can tell you, with the number of hours I put into it, there would be a very limited audience who could afford it. If I ever leave this place, it’s coming with me.”

  “I don’t blame you.” She turned and put her finger to her lips. “I hate to even ask this, but you do have indoor plumbing. Right?”

  Ford was so tempted to tell her no. But even the look on her face at his brief pause had him laughing.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’m not off the grid. This was about as far as I could go up the mountain and still have some of those luxuries. I did have a nonnegotiable plumbing requirement. Some things are just not fun in the cold. Even for guys.”

  “Can I hope for a bathtub?”

  “You can. And you won’t be disappointed.”

  “My trip is already perfect. Nothing can ruin it now. I’ve had fresh halibut and we have indoor plumbing and a tub. I’m set.”

  And now, imagining her in his tub, his trip had just gotten better too. “Somehow I think you’re going to be demanding a few more things.”

  “I’m not the demanding type.”

  She wasn’t. It was one of his favorite things about her. But bantering with her was so much fun he couldn’t help himself.

  She picked up a framed picture from an antique table in the corner of the dining area. “Is this your dad?”

  “Yeah. That’s us when I was practicing law with him.”

  “You clean up nice, Mr. Morton, but I think I’m kind of partial to the blue jean version of you. You do favor him,” she said.

  “Only in looks. We’re completely different.” He felt his mood dip. Even just thinking about Dad made his temper dance like a fighter on the ropes. “Dad is very money driven. If it’s not going to benefit his bottom line, he isn’t going to do it.”

  “Well, being money conscious isn’t a crime.”

  “Even on my birthday, he’d plan parties that would incorporate people he wanted to network with. He never made it to a ball game, but you can believe he never missed a golf game with a client. I was starting to act like that and it freaked me out. I didn’t want to be like him. I want to have a family, and I will put them first. If I’d stayed at the firm, my life would have been so different.” He’d never looked back. Even talking about it now had a way of dampening his mood. He shoved the thoughts to the side. “Let me show you around.”

  “I’d like that.”

  He took her through the kitchen first.

  Flynn’s mouth dropped. “This is a chef’s kitchen.” She walked through the space, her fingers gliding across the granite countertops. “You are going to have to let me cook for you in here. Please don’t make me beg.”

  “You won’t have to beg. I’ve had your cooking. Remember?”

  “I can’t wait. I’ve never seen a range hood made out of rocks before. That is so beautiful against the deep tones of the cabinets.”

  “Well, figure out what you want to cook or bake and make a list. We’ll be going to the store tomorrow.” Ford guided her through the rooms downstairs. “You’ve seen just about everything down here. Kitchen, dining room, living room. There’s a guest room and a full bath over here. I thought you’d prefer to sleep on this level. It’d give you some privacy.”

  “Thank you.” She stepped into the room. “Very nice.” She poked her head into the bathroom. “Love the tub.”

  “There’s a bunch of girly stuff in the armoire. My sisters sent me a ton of stuff when I got this room done.”

  “They love you.”

  “They do. They spoiled me when they weren’t torturing me.” He opened another door off the hall. “Laundry room—I have a chute that drops here.” He opened the door in the wall to show her the basket of clothes. “Pretend you don’t know that those have been sitting in there since I left for Carolina two weeks ago.”

  She raised her fingers. “Girl Scouts’ honor.”

  “That’s it down here.” Ford climbed the stairs, and she followed him. He flipped the light switch at the top of the stairs. More blown-glass accents were nestled in alcoves all the way down the hall. Each was backlit, like a gallery.

  “Did you make each of those pieces specifically for those dimensions?”

  “Are you asking me whether the chicken or the egg came first?”

  “Or the alcove or the art. Yes.”

  He picked up one of the pieces. “These are some of my early works. Things that had special meaning to me.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  He showed her his bedroom. “I can’t wait for you to see the views when it’s light tomorrow.”

  “It’ll be daylight? I thought you had six months of darkness in Alaska.”

  Ford shook his head. “I think a lot of those rumors are started by people who live here to keep the rest of the world from discovering how awesome it is here. We are still south of the Arctic Circle so we do have sunrises and sunsets. And even in the summer we have some nighttime hours. The daylight hours are lopsided but we have them.”

  “I feel so misinformed.”

  “The sun will rise around nine thirty. It’ll set somewhere around three thirty or four, so it won’t be much. And if it’s cloudy it’ll seem much shorter. I hope we get some clear weather.”

  “Do you have Wi-Fi here?”

  “I do. I couldn’t be without it. However, it’s satellite and can be sluggish, so you’ll have to be a little patient with it sometimes.” Ford walked through his room, which thank goodness he’d left fairly neat, and showed her his bathroom. “Out here there are two more bedrooms and a bathroom.” He started at the far end and worked his way back to the master. “This is the smallest bedroom.”

  He opened the door, and she walked into the room. Only one piece of furniture was in the room, and that was a white rocking chair. “My grandmother used to rock me in that rocker. Mom said I was a colicky baby and the
only person that could keep me quiet was Gran.”

  “This is a nursery.” Her voice softened.

  “Yep. That door leads to the master. And I built the dressing table and drawers into the wall to save space. Dressers are always oversized for those tiny clothes.”

  “Never thought about that, but you’re right.” She walked over to the outside wall. “Is there a significance to this?” She pointed to the three cutouts in the wall. Not windows, just simple shapes that he had glassed and then blown colored glass to cover. A crescent moon in blue, an orange sun, and a purple shooting star.

  “Not really. I’d like to have three children. So I chose three shapes that represented nature and beauty. That kind of inspired me.”

  “So the three charms represent the three children.”

  “Never really thought of them as charms, just shapes, but I like that.”

  “Do you want boys or girls?”

  “Doesn’t matter. How about you? Do you want children?”

  “Four,” she said almost automatically. “No middle child that way. Two boys. Two girls.”

  “Were you a middle child?”

  “No. I was an only child, which is probably the only thing worse than being a middle child. I always thought it would be so neat to have brothers and sisters.”

  “As an adult, I’d agree. As a kid, I once asked Pop-pop if he could slip my sisters in with the cattle at auction so I could get all the attention. Dad worked so much he probably wouldn’t have noticed they were gone for a week.” Sad thing was it probably wouldn’t have gotten him any more attention anyway.

  “You would not.”

  “Oh I would’ve. My sisters were all older than me. They dressed me up, made me play dolls and tons of other embarrassing stuff.”

  “I believe you’re holding a grudge?”

  “No.” The memories still brought joy, although there were days that they’d really humiliated him. “I loved my sisters. And being the only boy and the youngest, it was kind of like being everybody’s favorite. I never lacked for attention.”

  Flynn sat in the window seat built in under the only real window in the room.

  “From there you’ll be able to see the tip of Minton’s Peak in the daytime. It’s snowcapped year round. Very pretty.”

  “I can’t wait to see it all in the daylight.” Flynn stood. “It sounds like you were really close with your family. Well, except for your dad. Isn’t it hard to be so far away?”

  “Sometimes. I’m planning to spend some time with my family in Tennessee at the tail end of my Carolina trip.” He walked to the door and she followed him out of the room. He gently pulled the door closed. He could picture Flynn sitting in that room with a child in her lap in his grandmother’s old rocking chair. “But family isn’t always about siblings or blood relatives. It’s about who we let into our lives. Who makes our lives better.”

  “I believe that too.”

  “I still make the effort to get home for special occasions, and I keep in touch with everyone via the Internet and video calling. That helps, but the people in this town have become something like family too. Maybe you’ll come with me to Tennessee. I could show you around.”

  “I’ve never been. One more place for the bucket list, I guess.”

  “Come on downstairs.” He led the way back downstairs and sat in the recliner. “You get it, right? I mean you and Angie are like sisters. Jackson is just as much family as some of my blood relatives.”

  “She’s like the sister I’d always wished I had.”

  “You’re every bit of an aunt to Billy. He loves you like family too.” He’d enjoyed seeing how Flynn and Billy interacted. The night under the stars with the two of them was the closest thing to perfect he’d ever felt.

  Chapter Twenty

  The unfamiliar surroundings had Flynn grabbing for the quilt when she opened her eyes and could see straight outside. The bare windows hadn’t been as daunting in the night. Once she remembered she was in Ford’s house in Alaska, her worry subsided. She kicked the covers back and got out of bed.

  She and Ford had lain in the living room and talked until nearly four in the morning. She’d taken a bath, and realized that was a pretty bad idea when she’d fallen asleep in the tub. She’d woken up in neck-deep, chilly water, fearing she’d never have gotten warm again.

  Even snuggling deep under the covers wasn’t enough. She’d finally gotten up and added layers and socks to help retain the heat. If she hadn’t been so afraid that she’d wake up Ford by running another bath, she’d have done that to warm up.

  She ran her fingers across the shiny finish of the molding that framed the window. It wasn’t hard to imagine Ford standing here with a tool belt slung low on his hips, hammering nails—not a bad image to get stuck in her mind.

  She had no idea what time it was since her phone was on charge in the living room. She got dressed in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt and went to the kitchen in search of coffee.

  “Good morning.”

  “Hey. I didn’t hear you come downstairs.”

  “I haven’t been up long, but I do have coffee ready for you.”

  She clasped her hands together. “Thank you. I’m desperate for caffeine.”

  He opened the cabinet and took down a large glass mug.

  “Oh good. That’s a nice big one. I guess I should have warned you that I get downright wicked if I miss my coffee in the morning.” She added a teaspoon of cream and sugar and then took a long sip. The man could brew a perfect cup of coffee. “This hits the spot. Thank you so much. I should order some mugs like these. They’re really pretty.”

  “I can make you some.”

  “Don’t tell me you made these too.”

  He pulled his lips into a thin line. “Okay.”

  “You did? Of course you did. What can’t you do?”

  “A lot of things.”

  Somehow she doubted that. “I have a feeling I’m going to need a nap this afternoon. I’m still tired.”

  “A whole day of flying is tiring. Now you know why I wanted just to go to bed on the first night I got into town.”

  “I’m feeling kind of bad that we made you do dinner with us at Jackson and Angie’s now.”

  “You should. I was a zombie.”

  “You faked it pretty well. So what’s our plan today?”

  “I’m going to go see what all the details are at the glass shop. Would you like to come with me? Or I can drop you in town and you can wander through shops while I go and then we can reconnect for lunch or an early dinner.”

  “I’d love to come with you. If you don’t mind. I can’t wait to see your plans for the place.” She admired how well he knew what he wanted. The B&B was already in her family. His dream was something he’d come up with.

  “Mind? I value your business sense. I’d love to get your opinion.”

  She did have experience that could be valuable if they were talking strategy or return on investment, and just thinking about that made the day seem even more appealing. “Then count me in. Can we grab something on our way to town to hold us over until we get a chance to go to the grocery store?”

  “I know it was dark last night when we came in, but there’s pretty much nothing from here to town unless you want to stop and borrow breakfast food from a neighbor.”

  That would get the rumors rolling. “I don’t think I’m ready to meet your neighbors under those conditions.”

  “You already met some of them last night, but if you can make it back down the mountain, I promise to feed you first thing.”

  “I’m ready when you are.”

  “Then let’s hit the road.”

  Walking out the front door was Flynn’s first chance to really see his property. The landscaping was sparse, but what was done looked neat. As she walked to the truck she noticed the line of wire that ran around three sides of the property up to the road. “Is that your property line?”

  “No. Far from it. I’ve got twent
y acres, most of the property is wooded, but there’s a nice stream on it.”

  “Then why the wire?”

  “Just to keep the bear and moose from becoming too much of a nuisance.”

  “Bear?”

  “Grizzlies. Some black bear. They ransacked the place before I had the place finished. Tore right through the back door because a guy I had helping me left a lunch bag out. Not sure if I’ve just been lucky, neater, or helped by the wire, but I haven’t had any problems since I installed it.”

  “There goes my idea of enjoying that front porch at night to watch the stars.”

  “You’ll be safe with me. I’ve always wanted to be a hero.”

  “I’m not sure that’s how I want to test you.”

  As they drove, she stared out the window at what was mostly uninterrupted wilderness with an occasional house or shed tucked along the way. Nothing else was anywhere near as impressive as Ford’s house though. At least nothing she could see from the road. He was right. Alaska was big. Spread out. And she suddenly felt very tiny in its midst.

  Ford pulled his SUV in front of the Glory Glassworks building. “This is where I used to work.”

  She leaned forward. “It’s a bigger building than I had pictured in my head.”

  “Ziegler owned the whole building, but I’m really only interested in this end of it. I’m glad they’ve parceled it out.” He got out of the truck. “There’s a coffee shop just up the block. Good coffee and really good homemade venison sausage or bagels with smoked salmon if some local fare sounds good.”

  “Sounds Alaskan to me.” She skipped to catch up with him on the sidewalk. A few people were walking into the glass building as they walked by. Flynn watched Ford observing them. He looked irritated to see anyone else showing interest. “They could just be looky-loos.”

  “Yeah. They could.” That seemed to right his mood. They grabbed a seat in the coffee shop and had a quick breakfast.

  “I don’t want to get too much because we’ll only be here a few days and then I’ll be gone again, but we’ll go to the market while we’re here.”

  “I think we can get by with some basics,” she said. “And if I buy stuff we don’t use, I’ll make the promise right now that I’ll cook it up and freeze it so it doesn’t go bad. Plus, then you’ll have some good cooking to come home to.” The thought of cooking for him warmed her. The thought of him coming back without her, though . . . bothered her more than she expected.