Falling Fast, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 4)

by J. H. Croix

  When she arrived at home a short drive later, she stood in the living room and looked around. Cam must have tidied up before he left. The pullout sofa bed had been folded back into its side of the sectional. The sheets and blankets they’d used were neatly folded and left on the corner of the couch. Her eyes scanned the room, tracking over the candles that had lit the room up in a soft glow last night. She flushed recalling how Cam had looked in that shadowed light—his etched muscles and golden skin. Oh God. She had to get a grip.

  George bounced down the spiral staircase and came to her feet. She leaned over and lifted him into her arms. She kicked her boots off and dropped her purse on the small table by the door before making her way into the kitchen. She quickly fed George and heated up leftovers from the pasta and sauce she’d shared with Cam the night before.

  Her heart squeezed a little when she noticed Cam had followed her instructions for feeding George. George’s two bowls for veggies and pellets were empty on the floor in the pantry.

  She shoved Cam out of her thoughts and stomped into the living room to start a fire. She loved evenings beside her soapstone woodstove with food and a good show on for entertainment. After she had the fire started, she plunked down on the couch and turned on the television with a glass of wine in one hand and food in the other. George joined her after he finished nibbling on his dinner. No matter how hard she tried to remind herself she loved her life as it was, her thoughts kept wandering to Cam. Even if she tried to forget the sex, she couldn’t forget how much she enjoyed being with him and how much fun she’d had playing cards last night. With a sigh, she eventually turned off the television, put her empty bowl and glass in the dishwasher and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. She fell asleep in her bed, trying and failing to forget how it felt to be snuggled up against Cam’s warm body.

  Chapter 10

  “Watch out!”

  Cam heard the muffled shout from Don and took a step back just in the nick of time when a heavy spruce bough came tumbling loose from the tree. He grabbed it and tossed it out of the way. He and Don had been working most of the day up on the backcountry trails, cutting back trees and ensuring a wide enough trail for skiers to safely navigate.

  He brushed away the snow the branch had dumped on him and turned to glance at Don. Don was leaning against his snowmobile. He grinned as he called out again. “That one must’ve been loose before you started cutting.”

  Cam leaned over and dragged the other branches he’d cut out of the way, tossing them onto the large sled attached to the back of his snowmobile. It was more of a giant cart on skids than a sled. Don also had one attached to the back of his snowmobile. To keep the area clear, they were hauling the brush back down the mountain to be used for a brushfire at some point.

  He paused for a moment and slowly turned in a circle. They were on the last stretch of the marked trails. Seeing they’d loaded all the loose debris, he tugged his work gloves off and walked over to Don. “Looks like we’re done here. How about we head over to the warming hut by where the trails start and pick up the pile we left there?”

  Don nodded and pushed away from where he’d been leaning on the snowmobile. “Sure thing.” He pulled a pair of gloves on and adjusted the visor on his hat before glancing back to Cam. “Did Gage happen to mention when he wanted to open these trails up for use?”

  Cam shook his head. “Nope. I meant to ask you the same thing. After today, they’re ready except for a run or two with the tracksetter to groom them, but we can have that done in a morning. Last time we talked about it, Gage wanted to get some signs up first though. Any ideas on that?”

  Don shrugged. “Let’s check with Delia when we get off the mountain. Marley usually handles that stuff, and if she talked to anyone about it, it would be Delia.”

  “Got it. Let’s get going then.” Cam walked back to his snowmobile, the snow crunching under his boots.

  He climbed on and waited while Don started his snowmobile and slowly turned with the cart to head toward the warming hut. After several moments, Don was out of sight with the sound of his snowmobile engine fading. Cam sat quietly and looked around. It was a sunny day with the blue sky bright in contrast to the snow-covered landscape. He took a slow breath of the cool air. A raven called nearby with a magpie chattering in quick succession. Seconds later, the raven flew out of the trees with the magpie right behind it. Cam chuckled to himself as he watched the larger raven swoop and dodge to avoid the smaller and utterly fearless magpie. Sun glinted off the iridescent green and blue wings of the magpie and cast a colored shimmer on the snow below.

  The familiar tight feeling in his chest wasn’t there anymore. He was finally starting to see out the other side after Eric’s death. Being outside on a snow-covered mountain had hurt for a while because it brought back too many memories. He’d worried he’d lose the peace he found outside, but it was coming back. Last Frontier Lodge was giving him what he needed to find room to breathe and heal. He looked ahead through a gap in the trees where a sliver of the bay was visible. The sun struck sparks on a glacier between the mountains on the far side of the bay. The glacier ice was mesmerizing—a deep, glowing blue. As many mountain ranges he’d visited, he’d never seen a glacier until he came to Alaska. He took another bracing breath of mountain air and started his snowmobile. Don would begin to wonder where he was if he was too far behind.

  A few minutes later, he slowed his snowmobile and parked it beside Don’s. With Don nowhere to be seen outside, Cam climbed off his snowmobile and pushed the door open to the small warming cabin. Don was standing by the heater, chugging water out of a water bottle. He took a last swallow and set the bottle down on a bench beside the heater.

  “When you weren’t right behind me, figured I’d warm up and take a break.” Don removed his baseball cap and the thin fleece hat underneath it before sitting down on the bench and stretching his legs out. “Gotta say, I’m damn glad to have your help. I’m not as young as I used to be. Without you, the clearing work we did today would have to wait for Gage. I can help, but me trying to do it alone would be slow going.”

  Cam sat down across from Don on another bench. The warming cabins were small and basic. Each contained a propane heater, benches lining the walls and a cabinet with first aid supplies, water, and an emergency radio. Cam slipped his gloves off and removed his hat as well. Don snagged another bottle of water from the cabinet to his side and tossed it to Cam. After several gulps, Cam sighed and looked back toward Don. “You keep saying you’re not as young as you used to be, but you set a hell of a pace. I can’t imagine how hard you worked when you were younger,” he said with a shake of his head.

  Don chuckled and paused to empty his bottle of water. “I can work fast, but the heavy work is what I need help with. Like what you did today—all that cutting overhead and dragging the heavier limbs—not for me anymore. Enjoy your back while you can.”

  Cam grinned. “My back does okay, but I’ve been pretty hard on my body. Competitive skiing isn’t as rough as some sports, but backcountry skiing comes with its share of falls. All in all, I’ve been lucky, but I’ve gotten pretty banged up a few times.”

  Don nodded. He was quiet for a moment. “How long has it been since you raced?”

  Cam’s stomach knotted. For a split second, he started to feel that panicky feeling—the feeling that came whenever something reminded him of Eric. He forced himself to breathe and remember he needed to learn to talk about Eric. He met Don’s kind, steady gaze. “Not since my brother died. It’s been, uh, well it’s been hard to think about competing again.”

  Don nodded slowly, but he remained quiet as if he was waiting for more. Don was an easy man to be with, the kind of man who made you feel as if he understood. Cam figured he probably did. He’d lost his wife to cancer earlier than most, so he wasn’t a stranger to loss.

  Cam found himself talking in a way he hadn’t been able to talk about Eric yet. With his family, it was hard because he was hypers
ensitive to how Eric’s death had affected them. With Don, there was none of that worry. “Honestly, I hadn’t planned to compete much longer. I’m only two years away from forty. I didn’t quit because Eric died. It was more like I finalized a decision I’d been thinking about. My family needed me, and I needed to slow down. I won’t ever stop skiing, but I don’t miss the constant travel and everything else that goes with the competition circuit.”

  Don nodded slowly. “What brought you to Last Frontier Lodge?”

  “I love to ski and I enjoy ski instruction. I’d bounced around at a few jobs before I saw the ad for this one. Of all the places there are to ski, I’d never been to Alaska, so I figured it would be a good place to regroup.”

  “Any idea how long you’ll be around?”

  Cam shrugged. “Before I came up here, I had no idea one way or the other. Now that I’m here, I love it. Last Frontier Lodge is a great ski lodge, and Gage couldn’t be easier to work for. Diamond Creek’s a great little town too. At the moment, I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon.”

  Another slow nod from Don before his eyes narrowed. “Hope you don’t mind me saying anything, but you might as well hear it from me than someone else. I get the sense there might be something between you and Ginger. None of my business really, but I tend to stick my nose wherever I choose,” he said with a chuckle and a shrug. “I’ve known her since she was a girl, and she has a heart of gold. She went through the wringer with her divorce, so, uh, you might find she has some pretty protective friends.”

  Questions flew through Cam’s mind, but he wasn’t about to grill Don. He experienced a twinge of anger toward the faceless ex who put her through the wringer, as Don phrased it. On the heels of that, a fierce sense of protectiveness rose within him. He didn’t like knowing she’d been hurt. He considered that he’d unintentionally stumbled into the small town rumor mill. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide anything, but he was befuddled by his feelings for Ginger. The attraction was like a brush fire gone wild, and his feelings were tangled up in it. His heart had a soft spot he hadn’t known existed—just for Ginger. He glanced back up at Don who was waiting patiently. “I suppose you might be one of those protective friends, huh?”

  Don grinned unabashedly. “You got it. I’m not gonna get all bossy with you. Nothing like that. Just thought you’d want to know things were ugly in her divorce and, far as I know, she hasn’t dated anyone since. If my hunch is on target with you two, make sure you treat her right. Don’t make any promises you can’t keep. That’s all I’m saying.”

  The idea of making promises of the romantic kind to anyone hadn’t crossed Cam’s mind. He was still trying to adjust to the nerve-rattling and heart-shaking attraction he had to Ginger. Don was about ten steps ahead of him. He realized Don was waiting again, so he took a breath and gathered his thoughts. “Look, you’re obviously pretty damn observant. I won’t pretend I’m not interested in Ginger, but you can rest assured I won’t make any promises I can’t keep.”

  Don nodded firmly and stood. “Good enough. Ginger’s pretty independent, so it’s not like I’d expect you to make some kind of commitment. Whatever happens, make sure it’s on the up and up. That’s all.”

  Cam tried to ignore the odd way his heart clenched when he considered that whatever happened with Ginger’s divorce sounded like it had done a number on her. He met Don’s eyes and stood. “No worries. I know you haven’t known me long, but I don’t play games, so you don’t need to worry I’ll be anything other than honest.”

  Don swiped his hats off the bench, putting the thin fleece hat on and the baseball cap over it. “Hope you understand why I said something.”

  Cam’s heart tightened again, but this time it wasn’t because of Ginger. One of the characteristics he’d come to appreciate about Diamond Creek was how tight-knit the community was. He could see the flipside to that would be sometimes people might come across as nosy. Don didn’t come across that way. It was clear he cared about Ginger. “I understand,” Cam replied.

  At that, they walked outside, each pulling their gloves on. In the crisp air with the sun starting to set, they quickly loaded up the pile of branches they’d left by the cabin. Cam followed Don slowly down the slope, keeping to the far side and clear of skiers. After they unloaded the carts and put the snowmobiles away in the garage, they headed inside. The staff entrance led to a hallway directly off the restaurant kitchen. The aromas of fresh-baked bread mingling with whatever variety of meals Delia had on the menu for the evening wafted into the hallway. After peeling off his outerwear gear, Cam raced up the back stairs to his suite for a quick shower. He and Don had worked solid all day, so he’d worked up quite a sweat. He needed to wash the day off before dinner.

  ***

  Ginger kicked her boots on the threshold, knocking the snow loose as she stepped into the lodge. She threaded her way through the cluster of people waiting for tables. Harry Lawson, the supervisor for the floor staff at the restaurant and Delia’s right-hand, gave her a quick wave. “Gage had me hold the usual table, although he and Marley won’t be down tonight.”

  Ginger paused by the small desk where he was managing a waitlist for tables. “Have you seen them at all today?”

  Harry flashed a grin. “Of course! Marley brought Holly down to show her off after the first night back. I know you’ve seen her plenty, so you know how adorable she is.”

  Ginger laughed. “Oh yeah. She’s about the cutest baby ever. I’m glad they’re taking some time to themselves though. I bet it’s been a merry-go-round with visitors.”

  Harry shrugged. “I call it the baby craze. Whenever someone has a new baby, everyone flips out until they get used to it.”

  A couple stepped to the desk. Ginger gave a wave and left Harry to work. Though Harry worked at a ski lodge in Alaska, he was far from an outdoorsy person. He prided himself on only skiing the bunny slopes and was heavily involved in the arts community in Diamond Creek. Delia had lured him away from another successful restaurant in Diamond Creek with the promise of year-round work. Many businesses in Diamond Creek were only open seasonally when the tourists flocked to Alaska during the spring, summer and fall months. Since Gage had reopened Last Frontier Lodge, it had brought back a flood of travelers to Diamond Creek during the winter months. Gage had also coordinated with a few local businesses to keep the lodge open in the summer for tourists seeking wilderness experiences, such as chartered fishing, flightseeing and other summer activities.

  Ginger glanced around the restaurant. It was completely full, which was the case most nights. She felt a hum of pride for Delia. Delia had been so nervous when Gage offered her the job of managing the restaurant, reception and housekeeping staff. Not only had the job landed her in the path of Garrett Hamilton when he came for a visit and fell head over heels in love with her, but it had given her the financial stability and peace of mind she so needed being a single mother. Delia had done a fabulous job of making the lodge restaurant a local and tourist favorite in town.

  Ginger’s eyes landed on the booth in the back corner of the restaurant, the one closest to the kitchen and the one Gage kept reserved for family and friends most nights. The moment her eyes coasted across Cam, her pulse rocketed. Oh. My. God. You have got a serious thing for him. If you were hoping it wouldn’t be obvious to the whole free world, you’d better get a grip and fast. Somehow, she’d gotten through the last two days without calling him even though she thought about it multiple times a day. The first day she’d been so preoccupied with Marley having a baby, she’d only thought of Cam in free moments and then when she went home. Day two hadn’t been so easy. Dear God. She was counting the days since he’d set her body on fire and shown her how weak the walls around her heart really were. This is not good. Not good at all. Meanwhile, he was front and center any time she showed up at the lodge and had been easily absorbed into her circle of friends, so it was pretty much impossible for her to avoid him.

  Cam sat on one side of
the booth with an elbow resting on the table while he gestured with his hand as he talked to Delia and Garrett. His amber hair glinted under the soft lights in the restaurant. Don pushed through the swinging door from the kitchen and snagged a chair nearby, angling it beside the booth. She gulped in air and tried to calm her racing pulse, but it appeared to have a mind of its own. She put one foot in front of the other and kept walking. When she reached the booth, Don glanced up and immediately gestured to the empty spot in the booth beside Cam. “Joining us?” he asked.

  Ginger managed to nod, but she couldn’t seem to form words. Yet again, Cam’s mere presence stole her capacity to speak. She focused on hanging her jacket on the corner of the booth and fumbling with nothing in her purse as she sat down. When she looked up, she forced herself to look only in Delia and Garrett’s direction first. She didn’t need to try to look at Cam and have her body run wild.

  “Hey!” she said brightly. “I love it when you give yourself enough time to eat,” she said to Delia, trying to talk about anything to keep her mind off of Cam.

  Delia smiled. “I always give myself time to eat.”

  Garrett’s arm was draped across the back of the booth. He squeezed his hand on Delia’s shoulder. “You usually eat on your feet. Pretty sure Ginger’s point was its nice when you take time to relax and eat with us.”

  Delia rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. I try, but it’s always so busy.”