“We’re skimming by, Cora. We’re finally building something. I want to be able to take care of her, and you the way you really deserve. Not this hand to mouth shit.”
“Stop being so alpha. I’m fat and happy and graduating with a biology degree in December. You’ve done nothing but good for us. And I love you for it. She’ll love you for it too. But if you refund that money, I’m going to punch you in the balls.”
I laughed. “Bald-faced lie.”
She tossed her hair. “I need a dress for a date. Refund the money and I punch you.”
I laughed. “That noble speech you just gave got negated by that.”
“Whatever.” She turned and looked at me once more. “Seriously, Jase. Go and find some beautiful flowers, dress nice, and apologize. Don’t apologize for calling her a whore, though. Apologize for being thoughtless or thickheaded or something. Leave the word ‘whore’ out of it.”
“Okay, whatever, fine.” I grabbed the beer and took a hard draught off it. “How are the appointments looking next week?”
“Two contract ships, one no contract. I’m going to concentrate my ads on that one this week, and weekend. You might get a few, honestly. It’s a standard, not a high end.”
“Good, awesome.” I stood up and headed for the stairs.
Cora grabbed my arm. “Hey. Jason. You know you’re doing amazing, right? You kept the house, and the car. Even if our savings and the investments were wiped out, we always have a roof and food.”
I smiled at my little sister. She barely remembered our parents anymore, and I was always afraid I was failing her when the bottom had fallen out. I wondered if I would ever be able feel stable again. But she didn’t care. She didn’t remember having money and stability.
“Thanks, Cora. I appreciate it.”
“But you don’t believe it.”
“Not yet. I hope soon.”
“You’re such an alpha. Seriously.”
I snorted and patted her arm. The absolute last thing I was was an alpha.
She let me go this time, and I headed for the stairs again. I had an apology to practice and flowers to find.
Patrick walked back into the living room after answering the door, and smirked at me.
“You have a gentleman caller, my dear.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Seriously? He’s here?”
Patrick nodded, and Addi made a shooing motion to the door. I really hoped she wasn’t in on this.
I put the beer down and headed over. We were all exhausted from working on the cabin. Jess, Addi, Brandy, Zanna, and I had all spent the day clearing land. Dry, dead brush, overgrown vines, invasive species. We had piles of tinder now, and on Monday we were planning to start working on the trees around the place.
I had scheduled someone to come up and level and pave a basic road. I was sick of bouncing up and down the dirt road there.
Truth be told, I wanted to spend a gob of money because I could after Jason had pissed me off so badly the night before.
He was standing on the porch of Patrick’s house after being told to wait. I stepped out and shut the door behind me.
“What do you want?”
He thrust a bouquet of flowers out, and there was no better word for it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything I said last night. I had a brain fart.”
“Flowers.”
He sniffled. “I picked them from the field.”
I quirked my eyebrows up. “You picked them from that field?”
His nod was firm. “Yes. I thought that might be nicer than a bouquet from the store.”
Folding my arms, I still didn’t take them from him. “Do you understand why I was so angry?”
He nodded. “I…implied things. I didn’t even know I was doing that. I didn’t mean anything by it. I felt more that we were on different footing by the time we left and that it was wrong for me to charge my…girl for a hike we both enjoyed.”
“Your girl?”
The sheepish look on his face was made adorable by his sheepish shrug.
Running a hand down my face, I shook my head. “That’s not how you run a business, Jason. I paid you, and that’s that. Even if we had known each other at the start of the hike, I would have insisted on paying. It’s your livelihood, and no one should ever expect a discount unless they have a coupon.”
Astonishment rolled over his face. “Is that why you slapped me?”
“No, I slapped you because you reduced amazing sex, and a hell of an afternoon to money.”
“Oh. That’s what Cora said.”
Laughing I shook my head, and finally took the flowers from the poor guy. He looked so sweet and sexy standing there in his pressed khakis and small-checked button down. The flowers were so simple, and it was nice to see them.
I honestly didn’t remember which ones had been in the field.
“All right, well…come in. Let me change and we can go to dinner.” I stopped and pointed at him. “But I swear to God, if you bring up money and sex, I’m going kick your ass.”
He held his hands up. “Nope. No way. My mouth is shut.”
Just inside the door, both Patrick and Addi were staring at him with their arms folded. This was a hilarious united front, since it didn’t exist until just a few days earlier.
“Are you going to behave, Jason?” Patrick’s voice almost seemed to vibrate the air.
“Patrick, it’s fine,” I said. “He apologized. And brought flowers.”
“Picked from the field at the top of the glacier. Today.” Jason puffed out his chest.
Addi rolled her eyes and dropped her arms. “Okay, that’s sweet. I’m good with this.”
Patrick lifted an eyebrow. Jason bowed his head, in a very strange show of supplication to him. There was a strange tingle in the air, and I rubbed my arms to try to get rid of it.
“I’m going to take a quick shower and then we’re going out to eat.” I stopped halfway up the stairs. “The house is yours. I’ll be back later, but do me a favor? Could you hang a sign or something if the two of you are naked anywhere in the house?”
The blush raced over Addi’s cheeks and I swore that I could hear Patrick growl. I grinned and ran to the bedroom.
Showering and dressing at record speed, I was back downstairs with Jason, and out the door. I could see that Addi and Patrick were just waiting for us to leave, and I was happy to do so.
If Patrick could make her scream his name in delight, I wasn’t about to stop them. Addi deserved a guy who could see her and not her scars and hang ups.
“So, Patrick and your friend?” Jason asked as he started the car that was waiting for them.
“Addison,” I supplied. “Yeah. All night every night. I don’t know how they make through the daylight hours. I had to buy earplugs.”
Letting out a raucous laugh, Jason drove the car down the street. Three blocks later, he turned and headed up a little hill, and pointed to a house on the right, nestled back behind some trees. “That’s my house.”
I physically turned in the seat. “You live here too?”
“A lot of the construction guys and wilderness guides live in the St. Terese compound. It’s a collective. It’s better to live in a group for the cold winters we get. Everyone can check on each other, and we can share meat and produce, keep each other entertained.”
St. Terese was a strange little place. It was a small suburb, really, of eclectic houses and unique people. They had a small general store, run by Dimitri Danikov. He was Olga’s brother, and a real grump. He carried everything and could order anything. He was also only there for two hours a day, but anyone on the compound could call him any time of day to buy something. The food staples were in a vending machine of his own making.
I’d never seen a gallon of milk in a vending machine. It was strange.
There was a doctor and a nurse, and tons of construction worker and guides, like Jason had said. I had no idea how big the compound was though, since I had only seen a few blocks of it. Th
ere were houses everywhere, and all of them sat, no matter their size, on an acre of land.
We cruised out on to the main road to Juneau, and passed the turn off for the cabin.
“Jason, do you know why there would a pack of wild coyotes living around that cabin?”
“Coyotes suck,” he said, and then grimaced. “That’s not true. Only some of them do. I have an issue with them. They encroach on the land here and threaten us all the time.”
“Are they rabid?”
“No, just assholes.” He chuckled. “I sound nuts talking about them like I know them.”
“Nah, lots of people do that.”
Our conversation from the house into the city was casual and light and comfortable. How was it I knew this guy for about two days and felt cozier with him than I had any of my last four so-called boyfriends?
I really did enjoy his company, and I was glad he realized, or had his sister beat it into him, why I was mad. His apology was sweet and sincere, and the flowers were…more than I needed, really. Just a sorry would have done.
I stared out the window, the trees passing by and the sunlight glimmering off the water beyond. I thought I saw the blow of a whale drift by.
I could live here. Why had my parents never brought us here? I could have been here a hundred times by now. Big spaces, open spaces. Sun that did what it wanted to the sky, making a day an abstract concept.
“You’re deep in thought.” Jason’s words were soft.
“I feel like…I’m home. Like this is where my heart is, like I should have been here all along.”
6
My heart leapt.
Delia felt it too. Even if she didn’t know it was a mating call, she felt it. Gods and stars, I could have died right there and never been happier.
And then I remembered that I was driving an eighteen year old truck I had barely kept running sometimes. That I had no money in the back and no way to give her everything she deserved. She didn’t know I was a wolf shifter, that I had almost no standing in the pack and that my parents had been killed by the Turner Lake exiles for the money they owed on gambling debts.
Well, there was no official proof of them being killed by the coyotes. But the cars brakes had gone around a sharp corner just days after my father had them fixed. And like any shifter, they could have survived most anything—except the car had plunged into the cold water, and the cold shock, and lack of air was completely unsurvivable. They were upside down in the water for nearly an hour. There was no coming back.
And now, the mate I was hoping for was here and I wasn’t going to be able to keep her.
Life could really suck sometimes.
Still, I’d take anytime I could get with her. Maybe one day in the not too distant future, when I was in a better place, she and I could find each other again. Meanwhile, I had places to show her.
“Where are we?”
Delia peered cautiously around as I pulled the old truck down a terrible, over grown road. “You promised me ice cream for dessert.”
I laughed. We had both eaten more than we should have at dinner, and it was nice to see her eat. There were so many women on the compound who were afraid of a candied yam and a nice steak.
I’d coaxed her away from the amazing looking desserts by promising her ice cream. What I didn’t tell her was I’d planned a little stop along the way.
With the way the undergrowth was in the area, I wondered if anyone else knew about this spot at all. I had come here a lot recently and just enjoyed the view, the sunshine, and the water. I also immediately remember that I had shifted to get here, so the truck was a bit of a hindrance.
The trees fell away a few minutes later and the expanse of the whole field that led to the water laid out before us. I turned the car around and pulled it next to the road, bed facing the water.
“Wow,” she breathed, and followed me out of the truck. “This is gorgeous.”
“I plan on showing you all the amazing places that we hid from the tourists.”
“Ooh, I’ve moved out of tourist?”
“Hell yes.” I grinned. “Move out of tourist, move in with me. Up. Move up with me.”
I darted away from her side to busy myself at the back of the truck. Holy crap on crackers, how the hell had I let that idea slip out? That was too much, overwhelming really, for either of us. I really felt like I had just drenched any heat between us, and now we were just going to be awkward around each other.
Seventy-nine years and tongue-tied like a hormonal teenager. Fuck.
A feather light touch drifted up my arm, and I knew I had to turn and face her. I grunted, then sighed, then surrendered.
She was studying me, her head tipped curiously. Her green eyes narrowed then opened, then narrowed again, all while her fingers were brushing slowly over my forearm.
“You feel it too, don’t you?”
“What?” I felt like an ass.
“This…thing between us. This connection. That this isn’t just another romp in the hay. Wildflowers. Whatever. That there’s something more. There’s something about this place that brought me here, and there’s something about you—us—that’s beyond right.”
Gah. Damn it. “I didn’t mean to ask you to move in with me. I also don’t mean this apology as an insult. We don’t know each other well yet, and I already almost scared you off once with my inelegant words. Fuck, I’m an idiot.”
I couldn’t stop talking. What the hell was wrong with me?
“You’re even hot when you’re flustered,” Delia said quietly.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long time…”
“Could have fooled me yesterday.”
Damn, again. Her soft voice shot right to my cock, and I was half aroused by the time it got there and finished the job.
“I thought that you might like to come out here and see the stars come out.”
“Did you bring a blanket?”
No mincing words with her. “I did one better.” I unlocked the tailgate and lifted the bed cover. Lifting it off, I could see the happy smile on Delia’s face.
“I’ve never done this!”
“You don’t have truck beds?”
“We don’t have stars.”
“Oh, well! Allow me, my lady!” I hopped up on the tailgate and stood on the end of the bed.
Offering my hand down, she grabbed it and I hoisted her up with me. The airmattress had held all the air, the pillows were still in the right place, along with the sheet. There were two blankets, one on either side of the bed and we had an unimpeded view of the Alaskan twilight sky.
Sitting down in the center, Delia patted the mattress. “Come on, sit. The sun is just about gone. I want to see all these stars.”
We both adjusted ourselves in the back of the truck, and she wound up curled into my side, head on my shoulder. The darkness was slow to creep up on us in mid-summer, and deep twilight would last all night.
I reached behind my head and hit the play button on my iTouch, and soft music rolled out of the waterproof speakers I had in the bed.
Delia giggled softly. “You thought of everything.”
“I tried to.” I grinned into the night. “There’s also some drinks. Just water, but I didn’t want us to be thirsty.”
She leaned up on her elbow and considered me. “This is possibly the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. Flowers, dinner, and star gazing.”
I leaned up and kissed her nose. “Come back. Just lay with me.”
It was quiet as we watched each of the bright stars appears in the wake of the retreating sun. I could name them all and pointed as they appeared.
“Where did you learn all this?”
I smiled. “My grandfather. He used to bring me out here when I was little. We’d camp for a few nights and he used to tell me Tlingit legends. Stories about the Thunderbird, and how the land was made. Each of the stars and their places in the heavens.”
“You loved him.”
“I was devastat
ed when he died. I was only seven. My sister never knew him or my grandma.”
“Where are your parents?”
“They were killed in a car wreck. Years ago. Cora was just four, and I’ve been taking care of her since.” I glanced at her. “And your parents?”
“Happily settled in a place in Maine. Big house, couple of dogs, a few cats, lots of water. They love it. It’s still home. Me and my brother visit every year in the summer.”
I heard something in her voice that made me wonder about what else had happened with them. But I didn’t want to push, not yet. “Brother?”
She smiled. “Twin. Younger by five minutes.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
“Yes, we can tell where the other is and what kind of mood they’re in. Right now, he’s in a good mood. We talked last week, and he was spending a week in the Seychelles with his girlfriend, and they were heading to Tanzania after.”
“What’s his name?”
“Mitchell.” She smiled. I could see that she and her brother got along really well. “We’re as different as night and day, but there’s one thing we love, and that’s outside. Big wide space.”
“Hence, Tanzania.”
“Yup. I think he wants to propose to Violet there. At least, that’s what I was getting off him. We’re different.”
“So, he’s wild and you’re studious?”
“Basically.” She laughed.
“I’d love to see Tanzania one day,” I mused.
“I’ll take you. Oh! Are those…”
Her finger shot to the sky where there was a pale hint of green hung like a curtain.
“Northern lights, yup.”
“Ohhh.” Her breath hissed out, awed. “We’ve been to the Scandinavian countries, but we missed them every time.”
Her eyes twinkled back at the slow-moving ribbons, mostly green in their light, but once in a while a shot of yellow or blue danced up, and she laughed.
I felt a feather light touch to the front of my pants, and moments later, the clear sense of fingers. I didn’t move. I didn’t want to move. But I did question it.
Frozen Alaska (The Juneau Packs Book 2) Page 5