Head over Heels for the Holidays

by Jennifer Bernard

  Rune had done everything he could to spread that rumor, figuring it gave him an extra bit of clout.

  But this wasn’t Hawaii. This was Alaska, and she was just plain old Maya Badger, filling the unglamorous shoes of a police chief.

  “You have the address?” she asked Rune.

  “I already looked it up on GPS. I’ll see you there.”

  They parted ways and she swung herself into her Chevy. Before she started the truck, she checked her phone, which had been beeping periodically during their walk.

  Ten messages from various friends and acquaintances—all asking about Rune and inviting the two of them to some social event or other.

  Once he realized what he was in for, he was going to request a transfer.

  Or hell, maybe she should. Why was everyone in Lost Harbor so interested in her personal life?

  She started up her truck and headed for her father’s house.

  Sad to say, she knew why people found her personal life so fascinating. Because she didn’t have much of one as far as they knew. She had a strict policy of not dating anyone she might have to arrest someday. Which meant no one in Lost Harbor, which kind of limited her selection.

  Since high school, all of her boyfriends had lived either in Anchorage or somewhere even farther away. Long distance was the only kind of relationship that worked for her. The only time she’d broken that rule was with Jerome Morris, and look how that had ended up. Dumped on Christmas Eve for another Lost Harbor girl. Utter humiliation.

  Since then, she’d kept things simple. When she needed some fun, she headed to Anchorage, where she had a long-time “friends with benefits” arrangement with Tyler, a workaholic civil rights lawyer.

  Maybe she should schedule another trip pretty soon. She might need a distraction with Rune around, being so unexpectedly hot.

  She approached a group of teenagers walking down Main Street, goofing around, passing a joint back and forth.

  She should stop and lecture them. Give them the stern glare that might make them think twice about flouting the law against underage smoking. Scare them with the threat of a night in the holding cell.

  But she was on her personal time now, so she just slowed down as she passed and gave them all a wave.

  The joint went flying onto the sidewalk as the teenagers turned innocent, nervous faces in her direction.

  Wow. She hadn’t even frowned at them. Apparently she had the youth in this town very well-trained.

  Since she was the police chief, that was good, right? Then why did it feel so irritating? As if for most of the town, she had one mode: stern and authoritative. And only a select few saw her other sides. With Jay-Jay, in Hawaii, she used to run around barefoot and dance around a bonfire and stargaze past her bedtime.

  She made a note to text Tyler to see what kind of time he had in the next few weeks.

  Chapter 4

  Rune found Cara taking selfies on the balcony of the Eagle’s Nest Resort and Spa. None of those selfies would ever see the light of day, since she was strictly banned from using social media.

  But at least she’d have a very thorough family album to look back on some day.

  She leaned an elbow on the railing and angled her hip as she snapped the photo. Beyond her, the mountains of Lost Souls Wilderness looked almost violet under a heavy cloud layer. On the far horizon a perfect cone of a mountain rose from the ocean; a volcano, part of the Ring of Fire that linked Alaska to the Pacific Rim. It gave him a sense of home, since he’d grown up on a volcanic island in the middle of the ocean.

  Maya used to tell him stories about Lost Harbor, about the mountains and the glaciers and the bay that filled with fog. But the reality was so much more spectacular than he’d pictured. He didn’t know if this place was remote enough to evade the stalker, but it felt like it was.

  “Hello brother,” Cara greeted him cheerfully. “I think I like this place. These photos are fricking amazing.”

  “Yeah, that’s the most important thing to look for,” he said dryly. “What kind of background a place offers for your selfies.”

  She made a face at him and straightened away from the balcony. Even though she was his little sister, he knew perfectly well that she was magnetic with her thick butter-blond hair and loving nature. It was irritating because it made his life more difficult. She wanted to make friends with everyone. Which was why they were in this mess to begin with.

  “Are we going to meet Maya?” she asked eagerly.

  He’d told her all about his long-ago friend. She loved his Maya stories, and had been delighted at the thought of living in Lost Harbor for six months.

  “Yes, let’s go. Not just Maya, but her father. He’s my patient, so be cool.”

  “You’d better be cool, or Maya will know you used to have a crush on her.” She stuck her tongue out at him as she danced past him, back into the suite.

  “Cara,” he warned. “You say anything like that and I’ll toss you off that balcony.”

  “No one should be punished for telling the truth,” she said virtuously, crossing her heart like some kind of mischievous nun.

  “It’s not the truth, and you definitely will be. I’ll start by leaving you here. I’ll tell Maya you weren’t feeling well because you fell off the balcony.”

  She giggled and grabbed a neon-pink hoodie off the table next to the door.

  He eyed it unhappily. “Really? Have you learned nothing about laying low in the past two years?”

  A shadow came over her face. “Yes, I’ve learned that for six weeks, I can do whatever I want because it takes him time to find us. After that, I have to tone down what I wear for a month. Then I have to change the color of my hair. Then I have to avoid going outside until the day you come home and tell me it’s time to move on.”

  His heart wrenched at the sad resignation in her voice. Why had he done anything to bring down her mood? He should be grateful for every moment that Cara was her normal joyous self.

  “Fine,” he said. “You can wear the hoodie. But you still have to behave yourself.”

  She brightened, like a sailboat regaining its equilibrium after a gust of wind. “No, you have to behave yourself or I’ll show Maya your old diary.”

  He made her wait to exit the suite—that was one of the rules. He always went first to scope out the surroundings. With a jerk of his head, he indicated that the coast was clear. “You don’t have my diary.”

  It wasn’t a diary so much as a few drawings in an old sketchbook. But there was certainly some incriminating material there. Luckily, Cara had only seen it once.

  “No, but I memorized it.” She breezed past him. “I can recreate it.”

  “Better stick to selfies, kiddo.”

  Still bickering, as was their habit after two years of living mostly on the run, they made their way down to the boring Toyota they’d bought in Seattle, then ferried to Alaska. He missed the days when he could drive flashier cars.

  “Can we drive past the high school?” Cara asked when they’d buckled themselves in.

  “Don’t you want to see the sights? The boardwalk, the harbor, all the fishing boats? This town is one of the most scenic locations in all of Alaska, or so they say.”

  Cara shrugged, ignoring the panorama unfurling out her window. Here at the tip of the boardwalk, the backdrop of snow-peaked mountains loomed like a majestic reminder that humans were short-timers here. “I just want to see the high school.”

  Since he knew that the prospect of being able to attend an entire semester at one school was overwhelmingly exciting to her after so much home-schooling, he nodded. “We can swing by there. But it wouldn’t kill you to take in some scenery on the way.”

  They’d reached the harbor, where storefronts and restaurants were jumbled together on either side of the boardwalk. Some were perched on stilts sunk into the mudflats, some were covered in weathered shingles, others painted bright colors—purple and green and blue.

  Cara looked out the window just in
time to see a young fisherman, about her age, emerge from the top of a ramp that led to the harbor. He carried a cooler on one shoulder and wore nothing but a muscle-baring sleeveless shirt under his oilskins.

  “Okay, fine, I’ll look at the scenery,” she said, eyeing the kid. “I wonder if he’ll be going to my high school?”

  Rune was only thirty, but in that moment he felt at least ten years older. On top of everything else, teenage hormones? Lord help him.

  Chapter 5

  Harris Badger lived in a tidy one-story home on the edge of Trumpeter Lake. From the house, a lawn sloped down to the shore, where a dock extended into the water. A cedar-shingled cabin—maybe a fish house—squatted at the top of the dock. Rune could imagine Harris sitting on the end of the dock, fishing on a sunny afternoon.

  Everything on the property looked well-kept, despite the usual Alaska decor of old cars and piles of lumber.

  Maya paced across the lawn near the front door, talking on her cell phone. She waved at them in greeting, then held up a finger to indicate she was almost done with her conversation.

  She still wore her police chief uniform, but that didn’t take away from the confident grace with which she moved. Her hair was flattened close to her head, with a few pins keeping stray strands under control.

  A quick flash of insight told him she spent a lot of time keeping things under control generally.

  He knew the feeling.

  “Wow, she’s really pretty,” said Cara, sounding kind of awestruck. “And a little bit scary.”

  “That’s right. She’s terrifying. You’d better behave yourself.”

  He didn’t find Maya terrifying at all, but he didn’t mind spreading the legend.

  “If she tells me to, I will,” Cara vowed.

  Yesss. He’d done the right thing, moving them here.

  But then Maya ruined everything when she ended her call and aimed a radiant smile at his little sister. “You must be Cara. I’m Maya, old old old friend of your brother.”

  “I know who you are.” Cara looked as starstruck as if she’d just met Beyonce. “Rune told me all about you.”

  “Uh oh. Don’t believe a word of it,” Maya said cheerfully. “Unless he mentioned that I’m a Haitian princess. That’s completely true but I’m here incognito so don’t tell anyone.”

  Rune laughed at the expression on Cara’s face—as if she was perfectly willing to believe that Maya was royalty.

  “Sorry to make you wait, there’s a big investigation going on that’s suddenly getting a lot more complicated.”

  “The yak?” Rune asked, dryly.

  “No, not the damn yak. This is about Lost Souls Wilderness and some shit that’s going on over there. I’m trying to get the FBI to pay attention, but to them it’s like that wilderness is a no-man’s-land. They want nothing to do with it. Anyway, you’re not here for that. Dad’s excited to see you.” She ushered them toward the front entry, which had a boot brusher to one side and a welcome mat that said, “Enter in Friendship.”

  “I had to remind him who you are,” she said in a lower voice, before opening the door. “The surgery took the juice out of him for a while. But he remembers now.”

  The interior of the house was just as orderly as the exterior. Framed family photos lined the walls. There was a wedding photo of Harris and Maya’s mother—he knew that she’d died when Maya was only two. He spotted shots of Maya through the years, as well as some older relatives and a few family reunions. And then there were the stunning ocean shots that Harris must have taken in his Coast Guard days.

  “Well look at you, fine fellow.” Harris Badger emerged from the living room, wearing a track suit and a pair of house slippers. His hair was grizzled with gray and his face more lined, but his kind smile hadn’t dimmed a bit. “That little fisher boy that kept coming around the house every time we looked up.”

  Rune smiled and reached out his hand. “That’s me. I guess you still can’t get rid of me. I’m Rune.”

  Harris shook his hand, frowning slightly, as if he knew that name wasn’t right but wasn’t going to dispute it.

  “Rune. You can call me Harris. And who’s this little thing?” He turned to Cara, who beamed back at him. Between the two of them, their smiles could set off a rocket ship.

  “My sister Cara. She’s going to Lost Harbor High this year.”

  “Well, good for you. Maya graduated at the top of her class, did you know that?”

  Maya rolled her eyes slightly. “Near the top, Dad. And you don’t have to boast about me to every single person you meet.”

  “Now you know that ain’t true.” Harris winked at the two of them. “I gotta boast. What else is going to heal this old heart?” He thumped his chest. “You two want to sit down for a bit?”

  They followed him into the living room, where Maya helped him into a recliner upholstered in tan corduroy. He shooed her away, obviously eager to do everything himself.

  “So you’re going to be my nurse.” Harris settled into his chair and touched his chest. “Didn’t know I needed one but I gotta do what the police chief says. Can you believe little Maya’s our police chief?”

  “I’m not surprised, actually.” Rune sat on the couch, and Cara plopped down next to him. “She’s kind of a natural when it comes to ordering people around.”

  He aimed a smile in her direction to show he was just teasing. She raised one eyebrow with a “you’re dead” kind of look.

  But Harris loved his little joke. He threw his head back with a peal of laughter. “Ain’t that the truth. You should see how she pushes me around trying to say it’s for my recovery. For my own good. I can decide for myself what’s for my own good.”

  Now Maya raised both eyebrows at Rune. “See what I mean? He doesn’t listen to me. He keeps saying I’m not a doctor so he doesn’t have to.”

  Rune could definitely see the problem. Two independent and stubborn personalities like Harris and Maya were bound to clash. He had his work cut out for him. “We can talk later, you and me,” he told the man. “Work out some ground rules.”

  “I have a say in it?”

  “It won’t work unless you do. My job is to help you get back on your feet and maybe even better than before.”

  “Can you make me look like you?” Harris gestured in the general direction of Rune’s chest. “Much as an old man can?”

  Rune grinned at him. “You can’t fool me. You’re a strong man. I remember the time I took you spearfishing, you picked it up fast. You could probably outlast me on a winter day on the ocean.”

  Harris gave a gleeful cackle and leaned forward to offer Rune a high five. That’s what he needed—the beginnings of a bond. The fact that they’d known each other in the past made all the difference.

  He looked at Maya and gave her a wink, letting her know that everything would be fine. She flashed him a thumbs up. Already she looked more relaxed, those lines of worry smoothing out.

  Maya carried a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders, he could already tell. He found himself wanting to ease those burdens any way he could. What was that saying, that once you save someone’s life, you’re responsible for them? Something like that.

  “Where y’all staying?” Harris asked.

  “At the most beautiful hotel!” Cara said exuberantly. “It has a hot tub and a balcony.”

  “Just for a night or two. We’re looking for something else,” Rune explained. “Any tips on good neighborhoods?”

  Maya answered before Harris. “Depends. Where do you stand on outhouses?”

  “Outhouses?” Cara’s eyes went round.

  “Outdoor toilets,” Maya explained. “You plop a little shack over a hole in the ground and there’s your bathroom.”

  Cara sent a panicked glance at Rune. “Outhouses?”

  “I read about them in the guidebook I picked up,” Rune told her gravely. “It’s a timeless Alaskan tradition. You said you wanted an adventure, didn’t you?”

  “They’re definit
ely an adventure.” Maya seemed to pick up on his line of teasing. “You can’t call yourself an Alaskan until you’ve put on your boots and coat to battle your way through a blizzard just to take a dump.”

  “Blizzard?” Cara said faintly.

  “We get a few every winter. I once assisted in the rescue of a gentleman who got trapped in his outhouse by a moose who decided to take a nap right outside the door. He couldn’t get it open. Finally his wife came looking for him and called us. He just about froze out there.”

  “Froze?” Cara repeated.

  “She was lucky it wasn’t a bear—”

  “Stop scaring the girl,” Harris interrupted them. “We have plenty of houses around here with indoor plumbing. Even my fish house has a—you know something? You should just stay in my fish house. I converted it to a guest house a couple years ago. It’s got a bedroom and an extra loft. Bathroom, kitchenette. You could stay there for free.”

  Rune glanced over at Maya, who shrugged. “It’s small, but it’s got everything. Want to take a look at it?”

  He wasn’t at all sure it was a good idea, but didn’t want to be rude. “Sure.”

  Harris started to get up, but Maya shooed him back down. “I got this. I swear, I need to hang a sign around my neck that says “sit down, I got this.”

  Grumbling, Harris relaxed back into his recliner and picked up a half-completed scarf with knitting needles sticking out from it. “Guess I’ll get back to work then. Winter’s coming. Got my Christmas list to fill.”

  Outside, Maya led the way to the shingled structure perched at the head of the dock. Cara ran ahead of them to check out the dock itself. When she reached the end, she flung her arms wide and yelled, “I’m the king of the world.”

  Goofball.

  “Is he really prepping for winter already?” Rune asked Maya as they strolled more slowly down the slope. Her phone beeped. It beeped a lot.

  “Better believe it. Some people have been chopping wood and smoking salmon all summer. Dad’s fine, though. He talks tough but he has everything he needs. The way he talks, finishing all his Christmas gifts is a matter of survival.”