by J. H. Croix
“Don’t suppose you’ll tell me your name?”
Her cheeks heated. “Oh, oh, right. Jessa Hamilton.” Right about now, she wouldn’t have minded if a hole opened up in the ground. Cliché or not, she would have liked somewhere to fall in and hide. Eli was doing nothing other than being polite, and she could barely hold a conversation with him.
“Nice to meet you, Jessa,” Eli replied with a slow smile. “If you’re here for a bit, I’ll probably see you around. Diamond Creek’s pretty small.”
Her belly fluttered and her heart gave a little kick. What the hell was going on with her? She’d backed into Eli’s truck and was all but drooling on him. She realized she was about to enter into another long moment where she should say something. That’s how conversation worked. One person said something, the other person listened and formulated a reply. If this were a game of tennis, she would have definitely lost with the tennis ball flying by her each time. She gathered her scrambled thoughts and forced herself to speak.
“Nice to meet you too. I’m sorry about bumping into your truck. It’s been a long few days of driving. I’m glad your truck’s okay.”
Eli grinned. “No problem. Like I said, even if you had dented my bumper, it would have been joining a club.” He stepped away and opened his truck door. “See you around,” he said with a quick wave.
She watched while he drove away. A gust of wind blasted from the direction of the bay just across the street, blowing her hair wild.
***
Eli glanced in his rear view mirror and saw Jessa Hamilton standing in the parking lot. Her brown hair blew in a swirl around her face. He stopped where the parking lot met Main Street and watched as she brushed her hair back with one hand and turned to hurry back into her truck. She cradled one arm against her waist, and he wondered why. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward his shop. He was looking at the road in front of him, but all he could see in his mind’s eye were Jessa’s eyes. He’d never seen eyes like hers before—smoky gray with glimpses of silver.
When he was driving through the parking lot and saw her start to back up, he didn’t have enough time to stop. For a flash, he was irritated as hell. Spring was the busiest time of year for him. Owning his own business was great, except for the fact that he only had himself to count on sometimes. He owned Game to Fish, a retail store and guiding business for the hordes of wilderness travelers that descended on Diamond Creek once the snow melted. Spring meant long days of getting the store up to speed for summer and constant calls with visitors booking trips. He’d been up since way too early this morning and didn’t have time to deal with a fender bender. For a split second, he considered driving on past the little blue truck that bumped into him. He’d meant it when he said he wasn’t worried about his bumper, but it seemed a tad too rude to keep driving when she pulled forward and started to climb out of her truck.
One look at her chocolate brown hair with gold streaks in it, those silvery gray eyes, and her lush, curvy body, and Eli forgot that he only had a few minutes to get back to his store. Now, he had to make up the minutes he lost and gunned his truck. Within moments, he came to a jerking stop in front of his store and grabbed the small bag from the hardware store. The doorbell jangled when he walked in, and Cliff Gibson glanced up from behind the counter.
“Hey Eli, did they have the bolts we need?” Cliff asked.
Eli tossed the small bag from the hardware store to Cliff. Cliff caught it and immediately dumped the bolts on the counter. Without a word, he stepped from behind the counter and strode to the front windows to climb on the ladder there.
“Need a hand?” Eli asked, slightly bemused by Cliff. Aside from himself, Cliff was his primary employee in the retail store portion of Game to Fish. Like Eli, Cliff had been born and raised in Alaska. He knew just about everything there was to know about fishing and hunting in the area. Sometimes, Eli was amazed at how responsible Cliff was given that he’d only graduated from college a year ago.
Cliff glanced down from the ladder. “I left the bolts on the counter,” he said with a grin.
Eli stepped to the counter and snagged the bolts. After he handed them over, he watched while Cliff carefully adjusted the display rack hanging from the ceiling and replaced the two broken bolts on one side. Once he was done, Cliff returned the ladder to its storage spot in the back room and immediately got back to work on ordering supplies and gear for several upcoming trips.
Eli walked into his office and looked around. His office was small and crowded. A desk and chair were tucked into the corner with two chairs on the other side of the desk. The rest of the office was filled with a jumble of fishing and hunting gear, everything from fishing rods and hunting knives to high-end outerwear. He kicked a box out of the way and sat down at his desk, quickly opening his laptop and starting to plow through emails for reservations on guided hunts. As usual, he simultaneously tapped the speaker button on his office phone and started listening to his voice mails. The first two were from customers and the third was his mother.
“Hey Eli, haven’t heard from you in a while. I wanted to see how you were doing. If you get a chance, give me a call.” There was a long pause. He could hear his mother take a deep breath. “We’re doing okay, just so you know. Love you.” The recording held another deep breath from his mother before she hung up.
Eli tried to keep reading his emails, but the screen in front of him might as well have been static. He leaned back in his chair and eyed the phone. It might as well have been ticking like a bomb. He rarely spoke to his mother and hadn’t spoken to his father in over a decade when he moved to Diamond Creek from Juneau. Alaska was such a part of him, he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, so he moved far enough to get some distance—literally and figuratively.
He snatched the phone up and called his mother. After several long rings, the voice mail picked up. “Hey Mom, got your message. Doing fine here. I’ll make a deposit this afternoon. Let me know a good time to call and check in with Ryan.”
He hung up and ran a hand through his hair. His mother called only once in a while, and he knew it was due to her lingering guilt over staying with his father for too many years when he was growing up. Before Eli left Juneau, he’d set his father up in an apartment and warned him to stay away from his mother and his little brother, Ryan. Eli had been determined to make sure Ryan had a more peaceful childhood than he had. He sent his mother money to make sure she and Ryan could get by. He was in a much better place than he had been when he moved away, but one thing that helped bring him peace was steering clear of the wrecking ball that was his father.
Eli shook his head sharply and forced himself to focus on work. He confirmed a few reservations and made it through the rest of his emails before walking back out front. Cliff was talking to a few early tourists and issuing temporary fishing permits for them. He glanced to Eli when he rounded the back counter.
“I’m headed to the bank and maybe a coffee run. Need anything?” Eli asked.
“Thought you were getting coffee earlier,” Cliff replied with a grin.
Eli shrugged. “Forgot. How about now?”
“I’ll always take coffee. Just get me whatever the house coffee is at Misty Mountain today.”
“You got it. Be back in a bit.”
Eli swung through the bank and transferred enough money into his mother’s bank account so she could get by for a few months. Shortly thereafter, he took a welcome gulp of coffee and climbed back into his truck, tucking Cliff’s coffee in the holder while he kept his in hand. As he drove down Main Street, he saw Jessa’s bright blue truck at the grocery store. Without a thought passing through his brain, he found himself pulling into the parking lot and walking inside the store.
He could always find something to buy, so he grabbed a cart and started tossing groceries in as he passed through the aisles. He couldn’t quite believe he was meandering through a store, hoping for an incidental encounter with a woman he’d m
et for a total of maybe three minutes, five tops. Yet, here he was. He was jittery with restless energy between the jolt of coffee, his mother’s phone message, and this out of the blue attraction to a woman he barely knew. He practically careened around the end of an aisle, swinging his cart into the next aisle when he bumped into something, or rather someone.
“Ooomph!”
At the muffled comment, he glanced up to find Jessa standing in front of the pasta section. His cart rolled back into him. He took in a few more details this time. She wore a denim skirt over blue leggings with a fitted white t-shirt and a gray fleece jacket tied around her waist. A pair of black cowboy boots that looked beyond worn completed her attire. As his eyes traveled to her face, her amazing silver gray eyes met his. Her hair was tied in a loose knot atop her head with wispy brown curls framing her heart-shaped face.
“Oh shit! I’m sorry. I wasn’t even paying attention. Are you okay?”
She cradled her left hand against her, the same one he’d noticed earlier. “I’m fine,” she said quickly. “Just a little bump. My hip can take it.” Her mouth hooked in a rueful smile at that.
“You sure?” he asked with a nod toward her hand.
She glanced down and back up. “Oh, you didn’t hit my hand. I, uh, injured this a few weeks ago.” She held it out, and he saw her hand was sporting a gauze wrap. “It’s healing fine, but it seems like I’m always walking around with it pinned to my side. I don’t even think about it most of the time.”
All kinds of questions tumbled through his mind. He didn’t know what it was about Jessa, but she made him want to know everything about her. He didn’t think it was prudent to bombard her with questions, so he merely nodded. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.”
She laughed softly. “You didn’t hit me nearly as hard as I hit you with Blue.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, but that was my truck. This was you.”
One shoulder lifted in a slow shrug. “I’m fine. No need to worry.” Her eyes canted down into his grocery cart. “Wow, that’s a lot of frozen pizza.”
He looked into his cart and saw he’d tossed probably ten frozen pizzas in there, along with an array of snacks. He shook his head and met her eyes again. “Not the best cook. Once fishing starts, I’ll be eating a bit better. Then comes hunting season in the fall. Usually, I’ve got enough to make it through to summer, but my freezer died a few weeks ago,” he offered with a rueful smile.
Jessa’s eyes widened, alarmingly so. “You fish? And hunt?”
He nodded slowly. “I do. Hard to find anyone in Alaska who doesn’t.”
Jessa was quiet for a long moment. “Oh.” She fiddled with the sleeve of her fleece jacket, twining it around her good hand. “I guess you don’t get many vegetarians here, huh?”
Eli couldn’t help but laugh as he shrugged. “Maybe a few. We get plenty of people visiting just because they like to fish and hunt though.”
Jessa bit her lip, her teeth denting its plump softness and sending a jolt of awareness through him. “Oh. Well, I’m a vegetarian,” She offered with a slight smile.
“There’s plenty to do here that doesn’t involve hunting and fishing, but I’d suggest you steer clear of the harbor when the boats are coming in.”
“How come?”
“Because once fishing season starts, when the boats roll in, that means fish,” he offered with a grin.
Jessa’s return smile was wide and suddenly she burst into laughter. He didn’t know what was so damn funny, but seeing her laugh just about made his day.
Coming Soon!
Stay With Me (A Last Frontier Lodge Novel)
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Diamond Creek Alaska Novels
When Love Comes
Follow Love
Love Unbroken
Love Untamed
Tumble Into Love
Last Frontier Lodge Novels
Christmas on the Last Frontier
Love at Last
Just This Once
Falling Fast
Catamount Lion Shifters
Protected Mate
Chosen Mate
Fated Mate
Destined Mate
Ghost Cat Shifters
The Lion Within
Lion Lost & Found
Acknowledgements
A toast to my real-life hero who supports me in everything I do. Every book I write is made better by my editor, Laura Kingsley, so the thanks just keep on coming. Clarise Tan at CT Cover Creations is simply amazing when it comes to creating beautiful covers! Last, but never least: many, many thanks to my readers. Cheers to many more books ahead!
Author Biography
Bestselling author J. H. Croix lives in a small town in the historical farmlands of Maine with her husband and two spoiled dogs. Croix writes sexy contemporary romance and steamy paranormal shifter romance with strong independent women and rugged alpha men who aren't afraid to show some emotion. Her love for quirky small-towns and the characters that inhabit them shines through in her writing. Take a walk on the wild side of romance with her bestselling novels!