“Are you ready?” Brad asked.

  Jenna gave the town a final look before she boarded the plane. She hadn’t said goodbye to Reid, who’d mysteriously disappeared. The moment she’d announced she was returning to California with Brad Fulton, he’d vanished. She’d hoped he’d ask her to stay, but he hadn’t. That hope refused to die, though, and she’d held out until the last possible moment.

  She’d just started up the steps when Reid shouted her name. She turned to see him, her heart pounding with a mixture of dread and excitement. Hurrying toward him, she didn’t bother to disguise how pleased she was.

  He took both her hands in his. “I can’t let you go without saying goodbye.” He glanced at the plane. “Fulton will be a good husband.”

  “Perhaps.” Jenna wasn’t convinced she would marry Brad. He didn’t truly love her. He was accustomed to working with her, to seeing her five or six days a week. He enjoyed the ease she brought to his professional and private lives. That wasn’t a firm enough foundation on which to establish her future.

  “You aren’t going to marry him?” Reid asked, frowning.

  She hesitated, then explained. “I’ve agreed to come back to work for him.”

  His frown deepened. “But eventually you’ll marry him.” He made it sound like an immutable law of nature—like something that couldn’t possibly not happen.

  “I don’t know.” She hesitated, hoping Reid would say the words she longed to hear. When he didn’t, she hung her head, defeated.

  “Right,” he said abruptly. “Well…”

  “Jenna,” Brad called impatiently from the plane’s opening.

  “I have to leave. Thank you,” she said, putting on a brave front. “You know, when we first met, I thought you were horrible.”

  His grin was sheepish. “I was pretty detestable.”

  “No,” she whispered and ran her index finger tenderly along his shaved upper lip. “You were wonderful. I might have made the biggest mistake of my life if not for you.”

  Reid dismissed that, shaking his head. “You would’ve seen through Dalton in five minutes. You’re a lot more savvy than you realize. I should never have brought you here,” he said and then with meaning added, “but I’m glad I did.”

  “I’m glad you did, too.” Impulsively she hugged him and, for just a moment, closed her eyes and savored the feel of Reid’s arms around her. It broke her heart that she might never experience this again. She waited, her heart in her throat, for some sign that he wanted her to stay.

  “Goodbye, Jenna.” He stepped away from her.

  “Watch out for my mother?”

  He nodded, grinning. “She seems a little preoccupied.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes and he laughed. She took in the dear, sweet faces of her friends, then walked purposefully toward the plane.

  “Jenna! Jenna!” Her mother shouted from the distance as she raced toward the plane. Pete was with her. Judging by their open coats and flapping scarves, the two had dressed quickly in an effort to catch the plane.

  “Mom…” Jenna narrowed her eyes at Pete. She began to warn her mother about staying with such a man, but then changed her mind. As she’d told Lucy, Chloe was old enough to make her own decisions and live with the consequences. Jenna was through rescuing her.

  “You’re really leaving?” Her mother apparently hadn’t believed her earlier.

  “I told you I was.”

  Pete stood next to her, his hand at the back of her neck and his gaze, as always, adoring.

  “I’m staying.” They exchanged a long glance, obviously drunk on love. The only thing wrong with that, Jenna thought wryly, was the nasty hangover that came later.

  “All right, Mother, stay,” she said in an even voice.

  “I can’t leave,” Chloe whispered, her gaze not wavering from Pete’s. “I’ve never known this kind of happiness.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  Chloe looked away. “I mean it, Jenna.”

  Jenna was sure she did. “I don’t doubt you, Mom. It’s just that I’ve heard this all before.” Still, she wasn’t going to list her mother’s failed marriages now. More than likely, Pete didn’t know a thing about any of the previous men. That was her mother’s habit. She didn’t see any reason to compromise a new relationship with a small thing like the truth.

  “I’ve discovered my soul mate,” her mother said dreamily.

  “Of course you have.”

  “I mean it,” she insisted. “When you fall in love, you won’t be so skeptical.”

  That was true enough, she supposed. “You’ll call me, won’t you?” Jenna urged.

  “She can use the phone in the office,” Reid assured her.

  “Thank you.” Jenna offered him a grateful smile. She’d give her mother a week, two at the outside, and then Chloe would return to California, disillusioned, miserable—and cold. For two or three weeks afterward, she’d be an emotional wreck, waking Jenna at all hours of the day or night. Then, miraculously, Chloe would snap out of it and everything would go back to normal until the next man. And the next, and the man after that.

  “Jenna,” Brad called to her a second time. “We need to leave.”

  She nodded and gave each of her friends one final hug before racing up the stairs, blinded by tears.

  Pete’s store was closed for an entire week. Everyone in town was ready to complain, but on the seventh day after Jenna flew out of Snowbound, the sign stated OPEN. Apparently Pete was back in business.

  Reid had to admit he was curious. Who wouldn’t be? No more than half an hour after the sign appeared, everyone in Snowbound found an excuse to visit. Reid wasn’t the first customer of the day. Jake had beaten him by a good ten minutes. Pete was totaling up the other man’s purchases when Reid entered the store.

  “’Morning,” Pete said, sounding more jovial than Reid had ever heard him.

  Reid acknowledged the greeting with a nod.

  “Anything I can help you find?” Jenna’s mother asked, stepping out from behind the curtain. She looked mighty chipper herself, Reid mused.

  “I was thinking of making myself a pot of chili,” he said, taken aback by her bright smile.

  “He’ll want kidney beans and a packet of spices,” Pete told her. “And add a package of toilet paper. I figure he must be nearly out.” Pete had an uncanny ability to keep track of all his customers’ household supplies.

  “Right away.” Chloe scurried behind the counter and assembled Reid’s groceries.

  “Chloe’s agreed to be my partner,” Pete explained.

  “Do you want me to put this on your tab?” she asked Reid before he could ask what Pete meant. Business partner? Marriage? Or the living-together kind of partner? He wondered what Jenna would think of that.

  “Please.”

  She nodded, and Pete smiled benevolently in her direction.

  “So,” Reid said, hoping the “partners” might give him a few more details. “How’s it going with you two?”

  “Fabulous,” Chloe assured him.

  Pete pulled her into an embrace. “Life couldn’t be better.”

  Reid could only hope it lasted. “Do you want to phone Jenna this afternoon?” It was an innocent enough question, but he wasn’t just being neighborly. He hadn’t been able to get the woman out of his mind. At the end of the day, his cabin felt empty. He felt empty. He didn’t know what he could’ve said or done to persuade her to remain in Snowbound. He had nothing to give her, nothing except his heart, and that wasn’t enough. He couldn’t compete with everything Brad Fulton had to offer.

  “I probably should call Jenna,” Chloe said. “She worries, you know.”

  “I’ll drive you out to the station on the snowmobile,” Pete murmured.

  “See you both later, then,” Reid said, and taking his purchases with him, he left. He returned to the cabin long enough to put the ingredients for his dinner in the crock pot, then hopped on his snowmobile and drove out to the pump station.

  Chloe and Pete showed up early in the afternoon. He found it difficult to be around them, constantly reminded as he was of their overwhelming happiness. Reid hadn’t considered his own existence bleak or dull until he saw Pete with Chloe. He felt like a man who didn’t realize he was hungry until he stumbled upon a table sumptuously set for dinner.

  “Would you dial for me?” Chloe asked, handing him a scrap of paper with the number.

  Reid dialed and waited for the connection, then passed the phone to Jenna’s mother.

  “Don’t you want to talk to her?” Chloe asked, not taking the receiver.

  Reid did, more than he cared to admit.

  “Hello?”

  Her voice made him weak with longing. “Jenna?”

  “Reid? Oh, Reid, it’s so good to hear from you! Is everything all right with my mother?”

  “Everything’s fine. She’s here now. Do you want to talk to her?”

  “Of course, but…I’d like to talk to you, too.”

  “Okay. I’ll give you to your mother first.” He passed the phone to Chloe. It occurred to him that from the moment she’d left Snowbound, he’d been waiting for the sound of her voice. He just hadn’t known it….

  Absorbed by his thoughts, Reid didn’t hear anything Chloe was saying. When he did start paying attention, Jenna’s mother was making plans to collect her things in California and move to Alaska permanently. Apparently Jenna was objecting and the conversation wasn’t going well.

  “Here,” Chloe muttered, handing him back the receiver. “You reason with her.”

  Reid preferred not to be caught between mother and daughter, but he was so anxious to talk to Jenna, he disregarded his better judgment. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Mom and Pete want to get married.”

  “I see.” Pete was holding Chloe and she’d buried her head in his shoulder, weeping quietly.

  “This would be her sixth marriage,” Jenna said.

  “I guess practice makes perfect,” he said frivolously, immediately sorry when his remark was greeted by disapproving silence.

  “They’ve barely known each other a week.” Jenna was definitely aghast. “A week! Reid, you’ve got to do something.”

  Reid felt at a complete loss. “I don’t see how I can. They’re both adults and they certainly seem compatible.”

  “That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one,” Jenna agreed with heavy sarcasm. “Besides, when my mother gets like this, it’s impossible to reason with her. I’ll do my best to talk her out of it when she flies down to get her things.”

  “Worth a try if you feel that strongly about it.”

  “It’s the best I can do for now,” Jenna muttered. “How are you?”

  “Fine,” he told her heartily. “What about you?”

  “Good,” she said after a moment.

  “Are you working for Fulton Industries?”

  “Yes.”

  She didn’t sound happy or excited, and selfish as it was, Reid felt downright glad.

  “How’s Lucy?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “Doing well.” Reid hadn’t talked to his sister much. Lucy and Jim were in love, and their relationship, like Pete and Chloe’s, emphasized how alone he was. At this point, Reid didn’t want to think about that.

  “Addy and Palmer? Have they come up with any more business ventures lately?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Oh.”

  “Give them time, it’s only been a week.”

  “A week? That’s all?” she asked.

  “It seems longer to me, too.”

  The line went quiet, and Reid discovered that he’d admitted more than he wanted to. “I guess I’d better go,” he said briskly, as though he had a dozen other things he needed to be doing, when all he really cared about was talking to Jenna.

  “Yeah, me, too. You’ll call again?”

  “If you’d like.” He didn’t want to appear too eager.

  “Only if it’s convenient,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  “Bye.”

  “Bye.” Reid replaced the receiver and kept his hand on it for an extra moment before he realized that Chloe and Pete were watching. He cleared his throat and straightened. “It was good to talk to Jenna,” he said.

  Pete and Chloe exchanged glances. “So it seems,” Chloe said with a knowing smile.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jenna received three letters from Snowbound on the same day. The first was from her mother, the second from Lucy and the third, the shortest of the three, from Reid. Jenna opened her mother’s letter first.

  My Darling Jenna,

  I know you’re upset with me, but please don’t be. I’m insanely, deliriously happy. Pete is a wonderful, wonderful man. For the first time in my life, a man sincerely and utterly loves me. Because of your objections, we’ve decided to wait a month before applying for a wedding license. That should please you.

  You assumed I’d be home by now, I know you did. I thought I’d miss California, but I don’t. This is love, my darling daughter. Love as I’ve never known it with five previous husbands. I don’t expect you to understand, although I’d appreciate it if you’d try. You didn’t expect me to last a week in Alaska, knowing how I thrive in the sun, but I’ve discovered I could be happy living in a desert as long as Pete and I were together.

  I can hear all your arguments. I agree with you, it is too soon. You think Pete and I don’t know that? You see, my sensible daughter, I’ve wasted almost forty years on men who were wrong for me. I knew the first time Pete took me in his arms that we were meant to be together. Scoff if you want. I can’t say I’d do anything different if the situation were reversed. But in my heart I know Pete’s the one and only man for me.

  Everyone asks about you. Addy and Palmer are such dears, aren’t they? When they heard Pete and I wanted to get married, they decided to turn their cabin into a wedding chapel. They’re still trying to get a minister, though.

  I’m planning on making a trip back to Los Angeles in the near future. I need to pack my things and put the house on the market. I know you’re living there right now, which I appreciate, but I hope you won’t mind finding a new place. With your salary increase from Brad Fulton, it shouldn’t be hard.

  Write me soon, and please, Jenna, try to understand. For the first time in my life, I’m truly happy.

  Mom

  Jenna went through the letter a second time, attempting to read between the lines to be sure Chloe hadn’t backed herself into a corner and was afraid to admit she’d made a mistake. Her decision to sell the house was a shock. Throughout her five marriages, she’d maintained her own home, a gift from her parents, refusing to give it up. Now she wanted to put it on the market. If anything, this convinced Jenna that her mother was telling the truth—she was in love.

  Lucy’s letter confirmed it. Her friend wrote about Christmas preparations in the town, about Addy and Palmer’s wedding chapel and how everyone was amazed at the changes in Pete since Chloe’s arrival. Most days the store didn’t open until noon and the two of them seemed passionately involved with each other. She concluded with a discussion of the names she and Jim were considering for the baby.

  Jenna purposely saved Reid’s letter for last. His was a single page, written in his slanted scrawl. He, too, mentioned her mother and Pete. They appeared to be the main attraction in Snowbound. He asked about her job and told her the cribbage board was gathering dust. In the end, he said he’d be happy to hear from her. Very little of what he’d written was personal, but he added a series of comical pencil sketches in the letter’s margins, depicting Addy and Palmer holding up their Tourist Information sign and decorating their wedding chapel.

  Jenna searched for any hint that he missed her or was thinking about her. Well, perhaps the comment about the cribbage board. If she wanted, she could attach a lot of significance to that—which was something she couldn’t afford to do.

  She wrote everyone back the same day.

  The next week, she wrote again and included small gifts. A shop apron for her mother, a baby blanket for Jim and Lucy and for Reid, she enclosed a new deck of cards.

  Almost right away, she got two letters from Reid and learned that mail was delivered only twice a week in Snowbound. Her mother sent word that she was coming home on December tenth to make arrangements for the house. Jenna was dying to talk to Chloe, dying to learn about her friends, but mostly she wanted to ask about Reid. She treasured his letters and read them often, sharing bits with her friend Kim, seeking her advice. Even when she knew she wasn’t likely to receive a letter, she hurried home to check her mailbox.

  Her mother was due to land early in the afternoon, and Jenna had agreed to meet her at the house directly after work.

  “Is something bothering you?” Brad asked her at the end of the day.

  They’d quickly fallen into their old routine. He hadn’t brought up the subject of marriage again, and really, why should he? She was in his office the way she’d been for the past six years. Nothing had changed, except that she had a substantial raise.

  “Sit down, Jenna,” Brad said, motioning to the chair across from his desk.

  She didn’t want to get home late, not today, when she was so eager to see her mother.

  “This will only take a moment,” he assured her.

  “All right.” Pen and pad in hand, she positioned herself in the comfortable leather chair across from his massive desk.

  His eyes grew serious. “You’re not happy, are you?”

  She opened her mouth to deny it, and then decided that would be a lie. “I miss Alaska.”

  “Alaska?” he repeated. “Or Reid Jamison?”

  She dropped her gaze. “Both.”

  Brad didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I thought so. You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  “You haven’t been the same person since you returned.”

  “I hope my work’s still satisfactory.” She hadn’t been as scrupulous about details and sincerely hoped she hadn’t disappointed her employer.

  Brad dismissed her worries with a shake of his head. “I could see it when I flew into Snowbound. I assumed if I brought you back here you’d eventually forget him. That hasn’t happened, has it?”

 

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