Stay With Me, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 5)

by J. H. Croix

  Jessa took another sip of coffee and leaned back in her chair. Even with Eli sending her body, heart and mind into a tailspin, she was finding that Diamond Creek soothed her soul. She hadn’t known she needed this respite before the fire, but she was discovering the slower pace here was doing wonders for her. For the last few years, she’d worked herself to the bone. She loved her art—building furniture and making it fun and whimsical with painting—but she hadn’t found a way to make enough money to keep from barely staying afloat. She wasn’t naturally competitive by nature, so the marketing and self-promotion she needed to do to make a splash in the art world she inhabited in Seattle wasn’t easy. She still struggled with the lingering doubt that what she was doing was silly and pointless.

  Before her apartment building burned down, she’d worn herself out in the months prior getting ready for a regional furniture market. The market had been scheduled the weekend following the fire. She’d been smart enough to store some of her stock in a shared storage space, but roughly half of what she’d intended to sell at the market had burned to ash. The fire had wiped out more than her spirit. Reeling, she’d pulled herself together and cut her losses. All she could think was she needed to be with her family and she desperately needed a change of scenery. Her older sister Becca had hugged her close and insisted Diamond Creek would be exactly what Jessa needed. Jessa had packed what little she had left into Blue and taken off for Alaska after a quick stop to see her parents in Bellingham. Once she crossed the border into Alaska, after almost three thousand miles of driving through the wilds of the Canadian Yukon, she’d purchased a tiny Alaskan flag. It was blue to match her truck with its pattern of stars—the Big Dipper and the North Star. Tucked behind her rear view mirror, the little flag lifted her spirits on the rest of her drive to Diamond Creek.

  Here she was now with coffee, amazing quiet mornings, friends and family…and an unexpected man who tipped her world sideways. She wished she could be one of those people who knew what she wanted and had a plan to execute. Gage was like that—he always had a plan. Marley was probably the first person in his life who hadn’t been part of a plan. Actually, all of her siblings were planners. Becca and Garrett, twins who were so different and so alike at once, were brilliant lawyers. Sawyer had followed Gage into the Navy and onto become a Navy SEAL as well. Then, there was her. Jessa always felt like her hopes and dreams were a tad too, well, dreamy. She loved building and loved making her furniture fun. The combination of practical and whimsical called to her. Yet, she was flying along by the seat of her pants, and she damn well knew it. The fire had illuminated just how shaky her financial position was. Her apartment was home and work to her, and it all burned up together. Her lingering doubts about whether her career choice had been worthwhile came roaring back with a fervor. It was hard not to look at her circumstances and wonder if she’d been a fool.

  She shook her head sharply, bringing her mind back to now. She looked outside again to see a stellar jay fly past the windows and land with vigor on a bird feeder mounted on the deck railing. It swung wildly for a moment, the jay entirely unperturbed. Once the feeder slowed its’ swinging, the jay began pecking at the bird seed, scattering it on the deck below. The jay’s black crown bobbed up and down as it ate, and sun struck sparks off its blue wings.

  “Thanks for helping out again.”

  Jessa glanced up to see Delia pulling out the chair across from her. Delia set her coffee down and sifted her hands through her honey blonde hair, efficiently tying it in a knot.

  “No problem. I love getting up early. Seems like Alaska was made for early birds. The mornings here are so beautiful!”

  Delia grinned. “I know, right?” She paused and took a sip of her coffee. “So, how was fishing yesterday?”

  Jessa felt her cheeks heat and tried to ignore it. “It was great. Eli was an awesome host, and I caught two halibut!” A swell of pride rose inside at that. She hadn’t fished in years, so it was fun to actually succeed at it.

  “I know. Marley told me they tossed them on ice in the fridge for us to grill tonight. Speaking of fish, did I remember you’re a vegetarian?”

  “You could say that, but I’m not the best vegetarian around. I’m opposed to mass food production, so that’s why I call myself mostly a vegetarian. Most places aren’t like Alaska where it’s easy to find fresh, local foods. There’re some markets in Seattle that are pretty good, but it’s practically a fortune. Fresh halibut that I caught myself though? I’ll be eating some of that,” Jessa replied with a soft laugh.

  Delia grinned. “Have you had fresh halibut from here yet?”

  Jessa shook her head. “Not yet. When we were up for your wedding, it was a king salmon extravaganza.”

  “Oh, you’re in for a treat!” Delia paused, her gaze thoughtful. “So, tell me what’s up with you and Eli?”

  Jessa felt the blush race up her neck and cheeks again. She tried and failed to will it away. She took a gulp of coffee, glancing out to the mountains and back again. She shrugged. “Um, I don’t know. He invited me to go fishing anytime and I wanted to see what it was like out on the bay, so I went.”

  Delia nodded slowly, her eyes warm and kind. “Sure. Who wouldn’t want to do that? I’m not asking what you did. I already knew that. I was wondering how come you blush whenever his name gets mentioned. Let’s be honest, it’s not like Eli gets mentioned all that much. I know him, but he’s only up here once in a while. He works like crazy. Gage has started getting supplies from Eli for customers. We always need gear for people who forget things when they pack for their trip. But it’s funny, you had your little fender bender with him, and it seems like you might like him. That’s not a bad thing, you know.”

  Jessa chewed on her lip. “I know. I might be a little into him,” she finally said, blushing even harder. “How in the world do you notice so much?”

  Delia chuckled. “I pay attention. You’re also one of the most straightforward people I know. I might not have gotten to spend that much time with you, but you just are who you are. It’s one of the things I love about you, but it also makes it easy to notice things. You might want me to shut the hell up about now, but should I do some reconnaissance and see what I can find out about Eli?”

  “Oh my… why would you think I’d want that?” Jessa finally asked, dying to ask Delia to do just that.

  Delia shrugged, a gleam in her eyes. “Because when most people are interested in someone, they’re, well, interested.”

  Jessa threw her hands up. “I can’t hide anything around here, can I?”

  “It’s not too easy. I’m just teasing, you know. I’ll steer clear if it makes you feel better.”

  “Oh no! If I’m going to have to deal with my nosy family, I might as well get something out of it.”

  Delia threw her head back with a laugh. “It’s good to have you here,” she finally said when her laugh quieted. “Speaking of you being here, I thought maybe you might want to go with me to Midnight Sun Gallery today.”

  “I’d love to. If it’s an art gallery, I’m there. Any reason you want me to go with you?”

  “A friend of mine owns it, Risa Thomas. I thought you might want to talk with her about your furniture. Diamond Creek may be small, but the art galleries here do a brisk business. You might find some opportunities to make a little extra cash here. The tourists spend crazy money.”

  A sprout of hope unfurled inside of Jessa.

  10

  Eli stood staring at the phone in his office. It was mid-morning and he’d mentally promised himself he’d call his father this morning. In between ruminations over what to do about Ryan’s unexpected presence in his life, Jessa danced through his thoughts. Those few minutes on the boat with her had basically blown his mind. He’d gone home and needed an ice cold shower to get a handle on the raging lust coursing through his body. He’d fallen asleep replaying those heated moments on the boat again and again in his mind. He was rattled at how quickly she’d snuck through what he’d con
sidered his impervious defenses. He didn’t do relationships. Ever. But Jessa…she made him want more. Beyond the pounding need she elicited, he wanted to just spend time with her. She was light-hearted, funny, curious and damn good at fishing for someone who claimed to have little experience. She had a positive attitude and a spirit to try. The lightness she carried was so intoxicating, all he wanted was to see her again to soak up the way he felt when he was with her.

  His office phone rang, snapping him out of his Jessa-reverie. He stepped to his desk to answer when it stopped ringing. He heard Ryan’s voice answering from out front in the retail store. In a few short days, he’d gone from living a private, quiet life to stumbling into the cauldron of his attraction to Jessa and having a tag-along everywhere he went in Ryan. Even with Jessa’s forceful burst into his world, his worries about Ryan and how to handle the situation were simmering in the background. Eli had decided this morning that he would find a way to make sure Ryan stayed with him. The problem was how to make that happen without it becoming ugly with their parents.

  Eli didn’t want Ryan living a life on tenterhooks, wondering when their parents might show up and try to force him home. Eli also wouldn’t allow Ryan to return to their mother, knowing that meant a replay of Eli’s adolescence. Norm Brooks, their jerk of a father, had reached his worst once Eli was old enough to stand up to him. When Eli was younger, Norm was frightening enough for Eli to steer clear, although he had to stand by and watch the relentless verbal, emotional, and occasional physical abuse of his mother. Once Eli got to be about Ryan’s age, he became more of his father’s target with his father lashing out verbally, deliberately picking fights over nothing and occasionally swinging his fists. To this day, he wasn’t sure he should be proud he’d never responded physically to his father. He’d been determined he wouldn’t become the man Norm was. He supposed he should consider it good that Norm hadn’t come knocking sooner on his mother’s door. Ryan was old enough now to find his own way out.

  Eli shook his head sharply and grabbed the phone. He needed to get this over with. He dialed the number for his childhood home, knowing his mother would be at work and his father home.

  “Yup.” Norm couldn’t even be bothered to say hello when he answered the phone.

  “Hey Norm, it’s Eli.” Eli had stopped calling his father anything other than his name years and years ago.

  There was a long pause before Norm spoke again. “Eli, huh? Figured you’d be calling sometime soon. Your mother’s heartbroken over Ryan. You’d best send him back this way soon.”

  While Eli should have been startled at his father’s matter-of-fact expectation, he wasn’t. He knew well that Norm expected others to do whatever he wanted them to do. Why Norm wanted Ryan around was beyond Eli though.

  “Right. That’s why I’m calling. Ryan’s staying with me. You can either make it ugly, or you can let it go. I’ve already talked to an attorney, and I’m filing for guardianship tomorrow.”

  “Oh, and you think you’ll win?” Norm’s question dripped with belligerence.

  Eli took a slow breath. He would not be baited into an argument with Norm over this. “I will. Between the police reports over the years, the reports to child welfare when I was little and the fact I’m willing to testify, I’ve got a solid case. Mom can try to oppose it, but it won’t do a bit of good for her relationship with Ryan. If she wants a chance to actually have a relationship with him, she might want to let this go.”

  Norm was quiet for several beats. Eli could hear the rattle of his breath through the phone line. Norm was probably on his way to emphysema based on his two-pack a day smoking habit. Every memory Eli had of his father involved the labored sound of his breathing, which had only worsened over the years.

  “Well, aren’t you just the tough guy now?”

  Weariness washed over Eli. “Norm, I’m just trying to do right by Ryan. Life with you is hell, so I’m not putting him through that. I don’t like knowing you’re back with Mom, but she’s an adult and she can make her own decisions. Ryan has to wait four more years. All he’s had to deal with is six months with you and he ran away. Just let him be.”

  The line went dead in Eli’s ear. He tossed the phone on his desk and sat down in his chair with a thump. Not that he’d expected any talk with his father to go well, but he’d hoped for a little more clarity than that. Norm would either let it go because he genuinely didn’t care, but he couldn’t admit it; or he’d put up a fight for the sake of it.

  “Eli?”

  Eli glanced up to find Ryan standing in the doorway. The worry swirling in his eyes told Eli that Ryan had likely heard part of his conversation with their father. Eli cursed himself for forgetting to close the door. He ran a hand through his hair and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the tension there. “What’s up?”

  “Was that Dad?”

  Eli nodded. “Yup. Didn’t mean for you to hear that.”

  Ryan stepped into Eli’s office and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and staring out the window across from him. It looked out into a cluster of spruce trees behind the building, right about where Ryan had started to set up his tent to camp when Eli found him. “It’s okay. It’s not like I don’t know the deal with Dad. Did you mean what you said?” he asked, his eyes darting from the window to Eli and back again.

  Eli cocked his head to the side and arched a brow in question, uncertain what Ryan was asking about.

  Ryan’s eyes flicked to him and back to the window. “Did you really talk to an attorney?”

  Understanding dawned and Eli’s heart clenched. He knew Ryan was worried, but he hadn’t considered how much it would mean for him to know Eli was going to do his damnedest to make sure Ryan could stay here free and clear. “Sure did. One of Jessa’s brothers happens to be an attorney. She gave me his number yesterday, so I called him already. He said I should have a good case if I’m willing to dredge up the past. It’s not my preference, but I don’t want you going through what I did, so it’s no problem. I’m heading over to meet with him at his office in a little bit. Wanna go with me?”

  Ryan was quiet for so long, Eli became concerned he’d moved too quickly on this. Ryan’s eyes finally bounced to him again, and Eli saw the sheen there. Ryan nodded, his hair falling over his forehead. Without a word, his pushed away from the wall and started to walk through the office door. He paused and glanced over his shoulder, his eyes trained on the corner of Eli’s desk. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” Eli replied, his words mostly for himself because Ryan practically ran into the store after that. He leaned back in his chair and looked out into the cluster of spruce trees, his eyes following a branch that dipped when a gray jay landed. He took a slow breath, trying to ease the tightness in his chest and throat. Ryan brought back so many feelings from his past, it was discombobulating. For a man who’d spent most of his life trying to keep emotional entanglements at a distance, he’d committed himself to doing the right thing for Ryan, and he’d be damned if he let his father get in the way.

  Later that afternoon, Ryan walked beside Eli into Garrett Hamilton’s office. Eli had driven by Garrett’s office almost every day since Garrett had opened it, yet he’d never had a reason to stop. In the short time Garrett had been in Diamond Creek, he’d quickly established himself as the go-to attorney in Diamond Creek. Diamond Creek was small enough there weren’t too many attorneys to go around. Prior to Garrett’s relocation to town, most people headed north to Kenai if they needed legal advice. The only other attorney Eli knew of was mostly retired. Garrett’s reputation from Seattle had followed him here.

  Garrett’s office was on Harborside Road, which ran perpendicular to Main Street and, not surprisingly, was toward the harbor side of town. Harborside Road held a mix of homes and small office businesses. Garrett’s office occupied one half of a single-story duplex. When they stepped through the doorway, Garrett waved at them from his desk. He was on the phone and gestured for them to sit at a round table si
tuated by a bay window that offered a view of the boat harbor. He said his goodbyes and strode to the table, reaching over to shake Eli’s hand.

  “Garrett Hamilton. I think we’ve met before, but maybe just for a minute,” Garrett offered with an easy grin. Garrett was tall and dark with blue eyes. He carried a resemblance to Jessa, but it was subtle. More than anything, he shared her warmth.

  Eli nodded. “I believe we met once when I was up skiing. I haven’t been up there as much as I’d like. Gage has done an amazing job with the lodge.”

  Garrett’s grin widened. “That he has!” He turned to Ryan. “You must be Ryan,” he offered, reaching across the table for another handshake.

  Ryan stood quickly, almost knocking his chair over in the process, and shook Garrett’s hand vigorously. Once they were all seated, Garrett caught Eli’s eyes. “So, I’m guessing you want to review what we discussed yesterday?”

  “I’d like to get things rolling. I didn’t plan ahead about bringing Ryan with me, but he wanted to come, so here we are. No secrets here. He knows I’d like to file for guardianship and that’s what he wants. I guess if I have anything to add other than what we discussed last night, I’m hoping to be able to get this through with Ryan having to be dragged into court…”

  Ryan cut in. “It’s okay. If I have to be there, I can handle it.”

  Eli glanced to Ryan whose gaze was resolute. Eli knew Ryan probably could handle it, but he didn’t want to put him in that position with their mother. Eli had already cut his ties. If their mother blamed him for cutting Ryan out of her life, it would be better than her blaming Ryan.

  “I’m sure you can, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary,” Garrett said.

  Garrett’s confidence eased the tension running through Eli. “Alright. Tell me what we need to do.”

  Garrett leaned back and reached for a folder on the corner of his desk. Once he had it in hand, he opened it on the table, fanning the papers out for them to see. “I’ve already drawn up the basic guardianship petition. I’d like you to read through this while you’re here, so if you have any questions, I can address them right now. Then, I say take it home and sleep on it. It’s past four, so we can’t file until tomorrow anyway. If you’re ready to file tomorrow, drop these off and I’ll take care of the rest.” He paused and glanced to Ryan, as if considering his next words. “Have you discussed everything with him?” Garrett asked, turning back to Eli.