Mac shook his head. “That’s a long and sordid story. When I get back, maybe you could invite me over for dinner. I’ll bring a bottle of wine, we’ll tuck up close to your woodstove, and I’ll tell it to you. I didn’t do anything wrong, Rebecca. I swear to you, I did nothing that would ever shame you.”
“I know that, Mac,” she said, speaking softly and with absolute conviction. “You’re the most honorable man I’ve ever known.”
Her words moved him deeply, and again his eyes stung with tears. He tightened his grip on her and bent his head over hers, breathing the sweetness of her. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, as soon as it’s over. I’ll call Sam and Ellin and give them the number where I’ll be staying. You can call me there. Collect. Call me every day. Promise me!”
“What about your dogs?” she said. “What if Brian sells them while you’re away?”
Mac shook his head. “Too late. He already has.”
Rebecca looked up at him and her face mirrored her dismay. “Oh, Mac, no! I didn’t think he’d do it! You’ll never drive another team of dogs any better than that one. And Merlin…you’ll never have a better leader!”
“I know. That’s why I bought the whole team, lock, stock and barrel,” he said, grinning at her reaction. “Now listen up, because I’ll miss my flight if I don’t leave soon, and I don’t want to leave until you know the rest of the story.
“When I get back I’ll be staying at Sam and Ellin’s because they’ve asked me to, and because I finally got them to agree to accept rent payments from me on that little cabin. Guy Johnson’s getting out of the hospital next week, but he’ll never fly again, so the powers that be called me up just last night and asked if I’d be interested in flying his mail route.” Mac grinned again at her expression. “So there you have it, Rebecca Reed. There’s the high-paying job Brian told you I’d get. It’s not quite the cash I’d rake in flying for British Airways, but I can sleep in my own bed nearly every night, see you as often as you’ll let me and still find time to train a team of dogs for next year’s race.”
“You told me you never wanted to race again,” she said, her voice sounding faint and faraway.
“Now that I’ve had a few days of sleep, I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “And there’s something else you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re going to be training and racing right along with me.”
“I am?” Rebecca said.
“You are.”
And it seemed to Mac as he bent his head to kiss this marvelous woman that all the paths he had followed all his life had been leading him to this very place at this very moment. Standing here with her in the cold, crystalline light of a Yukon morning and kissing her against the background of her forty huskies raising their voices together and singing the wild, primordial song of the pack, was the one of finest things he had ever done.
He tasted the salt of her tears, kissed her closed eyes, kissed her cheeks, kissed her trembling lips. “I have to go,” he said.
“I know.”
“When I get back, I’d like to ask you something.”
Her lashes were still sparkling with teardrops, but the beginnings of a smile trembled at the corners of her mouth. “What might that be?”
“I’d like to ask you if you’d let me dry my boots behind your woodstove.”
Her lips curved. “I’ll have to think about that.”
“And while I’m at it, I’d like to ask you a few other things, too. I’d like to ask if maybe I could fill your wood box and carry your water on a regular basis. If I could help you with your finances until you get back on your feet and get that book of yours written. If we could train our teams together this fall, run the Quest together next February and get married in Dawson on our thirty-six-hour layover.”
“In our mushing gear?”
He nodded. “Standing on the runners of our dogsleds.”
Rebecca laughed shakily. She tipped her head back and gazed into his eyes. “I’ll think about all of the above,” she said.
Mac kissed her tenderly. “Promise?”
“I promise. You’d better get going. You’ll miss your plane.”
“That’s it?” he said, eyeing her. “Aren’t you going to give me a hint as to how you might answer any of those questions?”
“I told you I promised to think about them while you’re gone,” she said. “The sooner you go, the sooner I can start thinking, and the longer you’re gone, the longer I can weigh the pros and cons.”
Mac tucked a stray curl behind her left ear. “I don’t know as I like the sound of that,” he said. “How much time do you think you’re going to need?”
“Oh—” her brow furrowed as she gazed past his shoulder, calculating “—at least sixty seconds.”
Mac nodded gravely. “I see.” He bent to give her tear-streaked cheek a chaste, parting kiss. “Goodbye, then, Rebecca,” he said.
“Goodbye, Mac. Safe journey.”
He turned and started down the steps, walked out to his truck and wrenched open the sagging door. He pulled himself up and in, slammed the door shut behind him and turned the key in the ignition. The old engine groaned and sputtered and finally caught. Mac adjusted the idle and sat in the cab for a few moments, his breath frosting the windshield. He pushed back the sleeve of his parka, glanced at the face of his watch and rolled down his window.
“That’s sixty seconds on the dot,” he said to the woman who stood on the cabin porch, watching him with a bemused expression.
“You don’t give a woman much leeway, do you?” she said. “Supposing this takes a little longer than I thought?”
“That’s seventy seconds.”
“I mean, those were some pretty serious questions, Bill MacKenzie. A woman ought to be allowed a few extra moments to think about them, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Eighty,” he said.
“If you sit there any longer, you’re apt to miss your plane. You keep the navy waiting and they just might revoke your pardon.”
“Coming up on ninety seconds.”
She laughed then, reaching her hand to smooth her hair back from her face while the wind did its best to defeat her. “All right, then, yes,” she said. “Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! But as for standing on the dogsleds for the nuptials, I haven’t made up my mind about that one yet.”
Mac let out a whoop that started the dogs barking. He leaped from the truck, covering the distance between them at a gallop and sweeping her into his arms. He kissed her again and again and again until she was dizzy and laughing and crying and so full of love and joy that all she could do was gasp his name.
“I love you, Rebecca,” he said, folding her into the protective embrace of his strong arms. “Dammit, I love you so much it hurts!”
“I love you, too,” she said. “So much it scares me.”
“I thought the only thing that scared you was falling through the ice,” Mac said, setting her gently at arm’s length.
“Falling through the ice and falling in love. Equally terrifying.”
“But vastly different,” he countered. “One makes you very, very cold, whereas the other…” He drew her close. “We’ll have plenty of time to perfect the other,” he said as he bent his head to kiss her.
“Mac, you’ll miss your flight!”
“Woman, the only thing I’m going to miss is you.” He kissed her again and she pushed him away, laughing and breathless.
“Go, please, I can’t stand goodbyes! Hurry up and leave so I can start thinking about you coming back again.”
“Okay. You might start planning our wedding while I’m gone. I’d really like Merlin to be the ring bearer, and you really do look kind of cute in Bunny boots.”
She laughed again and gently guided him down the steps. “I told you, I’ll have to think about that.”
“I’ll give you as much time as you need,” he said as he climbed into the truck for the second time. “You can let me know when I get back.�
�
“I will,” she said softly as he put the old truck in gear and started down the long, snow-covered drive that led out to the Klondike Highway. “I promise.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4360-6
ACROSS A THOUSAND MILES
Copyright © 2002 by Penny R. Gray.
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Across a Thousand Miles Page 26