Yukon Cowboy

by Debra Clopton

  Bethany dropped the can of peaches she was holding. It crashed to the floor and all eyes turned her way. “Sorry,” she said, and went to look for the can as it rolled down the aisle.

  “Looking for this?” Nate was standing behind the toothpaste, holding her can of peaches.

  “Yes, thank you.” She was embarrassed and took the can, glancing over her shoulder to see what was going on.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. “I’ve been standing here watching you, and it looks like you’re watching Harry on a covert op. Are you watching Harry?”

  “No!” she hissed. “I’m not—well, I mean I am. But…”

  Nate hitched a brow and his lip twitched. He leaned around so he could see better. “Are you trying to figure out if you want the long black sock or the short black sock?”

  The man was too funny. She frowned. “I am not buying socks, and you know it.” Joleen had moved closer to Harry and was looking about, trying to locate Bethany—who leaned around the mouthwash section just enough for Joleen to see her. “Go,” she mouthed to the woman. “Ask him.”

  “You’re coaching that woman,” Nate whispered indignantly. His breath was warm and tingled all the way to her toes.

  Bethany almost forgot what she was doing. “Be quiet,” she whispered, glaring at him. His blue eyes twinkled, and she forgot to breathe.

  “You’re coaching that Joleen woman on how to do something—”

  “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

  “Nope. I’m fine right here. My curiosity is getting the better of me. You know she was dating some leech last month. I think someone said she was trying to make ole Harry jealous.”

  Bethany told herself to take a breath and look away from the blue eyes. She was proud of herself when she broke contact. His comment was new to her. Joleen had a bottle of pickled eggs and was carrying them to the counter. Harry excused himself from explaining about the socks and hurried to the counter. His face was a blank canvas, though, none of the interest Bethany had seen on his profile when Joleen had entered the building showed now.

  Bethany couldn’t move. She had Nate breathing down her neck on one side, and a row of moon pies in her way on the other side. Joleen was nervous as she set the pickled eggs on the counter and smiled at Harry.

  He swiped at his hair and straightened. “Is that all?” he asked in his most dire, almost disapproving voice. It sounded like he was telling her that her cat had just died, and it was her fault.

  “Y-yes, I think that should do it.”

  “You like pickled eggs?”

  “No. I mean yes. I love them.”

  “Oh, brother,” Bethany groaned under her breath.

  “Just ask the man already!”

  Nate chuckled in her ear. “Is she trying to ask Harry out?”

  Bethany hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  “She is, isn’t she?”

  “And what if she is?”

  Nate grinned. “Hey, I think that’s great. Look at the man—he needs someone to ask him out.”

  But Joleen didn’t. She glanced around, didn’t see Bethany behind the moon pies or mouthwash, grabbed her bag the moment Harry packed up the gallon jug of eggs and hurried from the store before he could give her her change. Harry leaned out over the counter, holding out a handful of change, and watched her go.

  The man was interested in her. There was no doubt about it.

  Nate shook his head. “Boy, those two need help.”

  Bethany agreed. She was worried about Joleen. “I need to go.” She scooted past him and hurried outside. She stared down the sidewalk, but Joleen was nowhere in sight. Where could she have gone? Feeling bad for the sweet woman, she started walking down the sidewalk in search of her. Nate fell into step with her.

  “Are you looking for her?”

  “Yes, she’s really sweet.”

  “From what I hear, she’s been trying to get his attention for some time now. But I don’t think the man knows how to ask someone out.”

  “Didn’t someone break his heart when we were in high school? I seem to remember something about that.”

  “Yeah, my parents talked about it. He fell head over heels for this gal—a real gold digger, my dad called her. When she left town, it pretty much tore him up.”

  Bethany felt for the grumpy man. She could honestly say she empathized with him. “Joleen might be good for him.” She glanced down the next side street and stopped. “I don’t see her anywhere, and I know she was upset.”

  “That was obvious—even to Harry.”

  “Do you think that’s why Harry almost broke his neck watching her when she left? Or do you think he was wishing he’d at least asked her about more than her pickled eggs?”

  Nate chuckled. The sound gave Bethany a warm, fuzzy feeling, even as worried about Joleen as she was.

  “I’m pretty sure he wishes that he’d talked to her more. He was so lost in thought when I followed you out that the sock guy couldn’t get a response out of him. Not even when he waved his socks in Harry’s face and demanded attention.”

  Bethany laughed. “I hope Joleen is all right. She wants…” she stopped. She couldn’t tell him that Joleen was talking marriage. “She seems like she really wants to go out with him.”

  “I’d say you’re right on the money with that one,” Nate drawled. “But it might take some help from outside.”

  They’d started walking again, and Bethany turned abruptly to Nate. “Do you think you could help make that happen?” she asked, feeling optimistic.

  Nate pushed his hat back with his thumb, as a slow, cocky smile spread across his ruggedly handsome face. “I can sure give it a shot, if that’s what you want me to do.”

  Despite the alarm bells clanging in her head, Bethany could have kissed him for that—she didn’t—but she could have.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “So, any news on the body?” Ethan Eckles, a school teacher who led a few tours a month, asked, as soon as Nate and Gage entered the staff meeting.

  After not finding Joleen, Nate had left Bethany at her shop and rushed over to get to the meeting. He met Gage hurrying inside the building, but they were both running late, so he didn’t have time to ask if he’d heard anything. “I don’t know. Have you heard anything, Gage?”

  Gage shook his head just as Amy walked in, sat and took her post at the front of the room. “There is no news yet,” she said. “I just talked to Reed.”

  “Jake is really having faith that it isn’t Tucker,” Casey Donner said. Casey’s fiancé, Jake Rodgers, had gone to school with him and was Tucker’s best friend. He hadn’t given up on his friend and was still searching for him.

  Nate never figured Tucker for a guy who would run from life. But that was exactly what it seemed like. He and his dad hadn’t gotten along for years. Tucker had come home after his dad’s death and had been angry that, even knowing he was dying, his dad hadn’t reached out to him…hadn’t tried to straighten out the problems between them. It bothered Nate to think that Tucker and his dad could both die distant like that. All it would have taken for them to begin the road to reconciliation was for the two of them to sit down in an open and honest conversation.

  “I’m praying it isn’t Tucker, too,” Amy said. “But Reed warned me not to get my hopes up, so I’m going to pass that on to all of you who knew Tucker. We don’t want it to be him, but it very well may be. Reed will let us know just as soon as he hears anything.

  “As most of you know, Nate didn’t have any luck with the clues on the map, either. So everyone needs to continue to keep their eyes open. Think hard, and if any of you think of any places that you’ve been that might be a likely place Mack may have thought to hide it, let’s explore it.”

  Nate listened to the rest of the meeting, but his thoughts kept going back to Bethany. He’d toyed with the idea of stopping by to see her all the way into town. Sure, he’d told Royce that he wasn’t, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought about it.r />
  Royce had been a good friend all these years, keeping his secret and respecting Nate’s choice, while at the same time giving his honest opinion—which was that he believed Nate had made the wrong choice. Nate hadn’t thought so. But on the tour this last week, things weren’t looking so clear any more. The fact that he’d lied bothered him more and more every day. Trying to justify that he was doing the right thing for Bethany was starting to weigh heavy on his conscience, and it was not cutting it any longer.

  Again, the questions kept coming back to him: had he taken the easy road out by not telling Beth any he couldn’t have children? Should he have given her the option of making up her own mind, given the facts? Even at the risk of her choosing to stay with him out of pity—or leave him out of disappointment.

  Honest conversation.

  The Lord didn’t take to lying. Nate rubbed his temple, trying to ease the tension building up behind his eyes. When the meeting was over, he told every one goodbye and headed straight for his truck. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. But spying the moving van across the way, in front of Bethany’s shop, he knew he had to go see if she needed him.

  He was about to start across the street, when a couple of women rounded the corner and headed inside her shop. One of them was that Delilah woman. Nate cringed. The two moving men almost dropped Bethany’s red couch as Delilah and her other fancy friend sashayed past them. Spinning on the heel of his cowboy boot, Nate made fast tracks back to his truck. No way was he going over there now. Besides, Bethany had a business to run. She had moving men there to unload her things, so there was really no reason for him to stop by.

  Climbing into his truck, he headed toward home. He’d heard Morgan complaining that he was going to have to take Delilah on a tour tomorrow. Poor guy. Nate felt for him.

  Although, the one positive was that seeing Delilah had stopped him from making a mistake. He had to keep his distance. There were times when there would be no way to avoid Bethany; but then there were other times, like just now, where he’d been about to seek her out—and those were avoidable. He had to remember that.

  And he had to get his head on straight, get all this crazy stuff batting around inside it figured out and under control before he saw her again. If not, he might make a mistake and say something he didn’t need to say.

  And more important, something Bethany didn’t need to hear.

  He was halfway home when he remembered he’d promised to see if he could encourage Harry to ask Joleen out. He made a mental note to do that the next time he was in town. He’d promised Bethany he’d do it, and he was going to make good on that promise if it was the last thing he did.

  Bethany had so much on her mind that she was having trouble thinking straight. After Nate had tried to help her find Joleen the day before, she’d thrown herself into setting up her shop. And since her furniture and things had arrived, she was able to get started a little on setting things up in the apartment above the shop. She stayed working late into the night, but opted not to spend the night there yet. It was still too disheveled. A big mess was what it was, but she was making progress. Still, though, as she finally headed back to the hotel, she felt distracted, partly, to a small degree, from thinking about Joleen. Where had she gone? She wasn’t the woman’s keeper, but she was really worried about her.

  Then there was Nate. Pushing furniture around and arranging displays didn’t distract her from thinking about him. She’d still not approached him about why he had told her he didn’t love her. Was she chicken?

  She decided that the answer was a resounding yes!

  How could it be that after all these years she could still feel like he was the right man for her? Oh, she’d tried to deny it. Tried so hard it hurt. But when he offered to help her look for Joleen she’d been so happy to have him beside her. And in the store, he’d almost driven her crazy with his nearness. They needed to have a talk. A long talk.

  But she’d known it wasn’t the time. Not when she had so many things to do and she was still so mixed up.

  When she couldn’t sleep, she crawled out of bed and sat at the window of the hotel room, staring out over the town. Down the road, across the street, she could see the church. It stood out in the dark, illuminated by the street lamps. She’d been in Treasure Creek almost two weeks. Maybe Sunday she would go. It was Friday, and she had the overwhelming urge to dress and go there now. Rubbing her hand over her eyes, she found herself praying automatically for God to help her find peace. For God to lead her.

  She rose from her chair and went to the hotel dresser and found the Bible—her own was packed away somewhere in all the boxes at her shop.

  Settling back in her seat at the window, Bethany took a deep breath and then opened the Bible and began to read. She opened it automatically to “Psalms,” but then she stopped reading the passage and flipped pages. Stopping finally, her gaze landed on the passage that seemed to be calling to her. It was Romans 15:13. She read it silently and then she reread it out loud in the quietness of her empty room.

  “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Her soft words seemed to echo in the room.

  She closed her eyes. “Please, Lord,” she prayed. “Bring me back to You and let me feel that peace again. Let me know You are here and leading me.”

  She opened her eyes. “I trust You.”

  The last three words were hard to say. It had been a long, long time since she’d trusted anyone. Especially God. Maybe she could do it.

  “Hi, Harry,” Bethany said, the next morning as she walked in to grab some staples and tape. The day was beautiful, the sky was clear and endlessly blue and Bethany just felt good. Harry glanced up from ringing up a purchase and gave her a nod. Not a happy nod, but what else did she expect from the grumpy man? Boy, did he ever need Joleen to lighten up his world!

  Not exactly sure where the staples were in the jam-packed store, she wandered down the rows, keeping a sharp eye out for them. She finally found them at the back and headed up front. She felt better today, hopeful beyond belief that if she put her trust in God, He would help her figure out her life.

  “I need supplies for a trip into the wilderness,” a pretty woman was telling Harry, as Bethany reached the counter.

  “Are you planning on a day trip or a week-long trip?”

  The woman had beautiful, long blond hair that looked even longer because she was so tall and willowy. She stared blankly at Harry with her blue eyes, making it apparent to all who were listening that she hadn’t a clue about camping. This was obviously nothing new to Harry, and two older men, who were standing beside the fishing tackle on the front wall, were gawking at her. She wore a white parka, a bright pink cap and fur boots—much the same outfit as many of the women who’d come to town with the intention of hooking themselves a hunky tour guide.

  Realizing Harry was going to be a while, Bethany decided to find a card from the small rack beside the counter. Though she’d called her parents after she arrived, she thought they would enjoy a scenic card from Alaska.

  With a scowl, Harry headed toward the backpacks at the rear of the room, all the while trying to explain to the woman, who looked vaguely familiar to Bethany, how the compass she was holding out to him worked.

  “That’s that Penelope Lear,” one of the old men leaned over and said to the other one. His voice carried. “You know, of the Alaskan Lears?”

  Bethany did a double take. Everyone in Alaska knew who the Lears were. They were basically the most prominent family in Alaska. Now she realized why the woman had looked familiar, her photograph made the society pages often. Hiking in the wilderness totally did not fit her profile.

  “Yup, you should have seen the jet she flew in on. And them suitcases—it should’a took a Seven-Forty-Seven just ta fly all them bags in.”

  “Harry better send her straight over to Alaska’s Treasures tours company instead of selling her a compass,” the
second old man said, chuckling, as the two stepped outside and headed down the sidewalk. “I don’t know why she’s come to Treasure Creek, with all them fancy city slickers she’s always in the papers with….” their voices faded away as the door closed behind them.

  “So I need jerky, a backpack, water—what else,” Penelope asked. Bethany tried not to eavesdrop, but it was hard, since they’d moved to the counter and unloaded all the stuff. Harry looked at the things and grinned at Penelope—actually grinned. But then he suddenly swiped his hand over his hair and stuck his shoulders back. Bethany realized, the same instant that Penelope did, that he was watching Joleen enter the store.

  “Joleen!” Bethany called, hurrying over to give her a quick hug. She couldn’t help herself. “How are you,” she whispered.

  Joleen smiled sweetly and gave her a wink. Then they turned away from the rest of the store to talk privately in hushed tones. “I’m just fine. I was just in a sad mood yesterday. You ever get to feeling blue like that? You know, when you don’t think things are ever going to go your way?”

  Bethany smiled, she couldn’t help it. Joleen was a breath of fresh air beneath all that hair and makeup. “Yes, I do.”

  “Well, that’s what happened to me. I’m sorry I rushed out of here like a crazy woman. I just got the jitters. And, honey, I saw that cute hunk of a cowboy flirting with you and thought you didn’t need to be worrying about me.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t flirting with me. I was trying to do what you wanted. I just—”

  “Oh, you don’t owe me any explanations. I just realized, standing there, that I was in no mood to try to ask Harry out, so that’s why I hurried out of here. I went on back to my room and gave myself a good talking to. I realized I didn’t need to be asking that man out. I’m a little old-fashioned for that, and so, I’ll just stick to my guns. I know that man is crazy about me…he gets jealous, too. A man doesn’t get jealous if he doesn’t care. So I fixed myself up last night and went over to the singles’ mingle and had myself a great time.”