by Karen Harper
“I’ve got to go downstairs and make good on my promise to Chip, but I’m exhausted too.”
“Let’s both go and tell him more or less what happened, tell him the truth, that we’re mentally and physically bushed.”
“Can we tell Chip we’re going to my house in Juneau tomorrow, for at least one night, maybe two? The Big Man just responded to my email, giving me the go-ahead.”
“If Suze can get someone else in here to help that soon. It’s Josh’s day to work, so that will help.”
“Besides, don’t you think Rafe would scrub floors for her?”
Meg smiled and shrugged. “I’m afraid he’ll be hitting the road when this is over.”
“Kurt too—even me,” he whispered, covering her wrist with his big hand. “Unless you and Chip can find a way to go with me for longer than a couple of days. Can you envision living the school year in Juneau, the summers here? Could Suze run this place during the colder months without you?”
Her pulse pounded. “Let’s take this one step at a time.”
“We are, but it makes sense to look ahead so we don’t stumble on the next step. I admit it’s been nonstop fast and insane danger since we met—not exactly conducive to a loving relationship—for most people, at least. But this is us.”
She nodded and smiled, lost in his intense gaze. As exhausted as she was, she felt desire for him clear down to her chest, lower belly, even her toes. If she and Chip went to his home, if she spent that kind of time with him, she would be lost in love.
But with Bryce, maybe lost and found.
* * *
“Boy, it took you guys a long time,” Chip protested when they joined him in the basement. “My foot hurts from kicking this ball in the net.”
“We’re pretty tired too,” Meg put in before Bryce could say anything. That wasn’t the direction he’d meant to take this conversation.
“And you guys smell like smoke. Even Mom’s hair when she hugged me.”
Deciding to ignore that, Bryce said, “Remember what I told you about how a goalie sometimes has to save the team? It’s not easy, is it? Sometimes goalies get blasted with the ball, get hurt falling down and stretching out to keep that ball out of the net. It takes hard work and can be really exhausting, but it’s worth it to win with your teammates.”
Chip came closer and looked up at Bryce. “I remember that, what you said before.”
“Okay. My job is sometimes like that. Like I feel that I got blasted today, missed the ball and the bad guys scored. Mr. Getz’s house, where your mom and I went to see him, had a terrible fire. I went in to be sure he got out, but he was already hurt. He died right after I got him out where your mom was waiting, because she called the fire truck.”
“Oh!” Chip said, wide-eyed. “He was kind of a weird guy, but I’m sorry he died. At least he didn’t burn up with all his stuff. I’ll bet some magazines and stuff he took from here got burned up too.”
“Meg,” Bryce said, “do you have anything to add to that?”
She told Chip, “You’re right that Mr. Getz was kind of different from other people at the lodge, but that’s okay as long as they don’t hurt others. And, remember, he gave us those sleigh bells before he left.”
“Yeah, that was good.”
“So here’s the deal,” Bryce said with a nod at Meg. “I’d like to invite you and your mom to visit my house in Juneau for a couple of days, where we can relax and have enough room to play soccer instead of in this narrow hallway. I’d like to show you two my town and neighborhood, and there’s a kid in the area for you to play soccer with, even though he’s older than you.”
“Which prob’ly means he’s better than me, but I could learn some stuff from him, I bet.”
Meg put in, “We’re all learning things every day, not just you, Chip.” She looked directly into Bryce’s eyes.
At least, Bryce thought, he had this glimpse of normality—of maybe building trust for a new family. He was totally frustrated with this case and the fact that the Vice President of the United States of America was off being feted in Paris and hadn’t sent him the damned evidence he’d asked for twice. Not the right move on the Big Man’s part, so he hoped this was the right move on his.
He put one arm around Meg and tugged her close, and with the other he pulled Chip into their embrace.
Meg hugged them back. Chip did too. Whatever happened in this case, he prayed that private, precious time with Meg and Chip would, at least, work out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Loaded with Chip’s soccer gear and wearing their oversized jerseys on top of their winter jackets, Bryce, Meg and Chip drove Meg’s truck to Anchorage to get Bryce’s plane. Though today was Sunday, Chip did not have school the next two days because of teacher meetings, so it was a perfect time to get away.
“I bet a lot of kids in my class haven’t been to the state capital,” Chip said from his back seat. “Juneau’s bigger than Anchorage, right?”
Bryce told him, “Not in people, but in size. It covers such a large area among some tall mountains that the average population figures out to only about ten people per mile. But in cruise ship season up to six thousand people visiting can make some places really crowded.”
“I already read there’s great big glaciers, like thicker ice than even Falls Lake.”
“Right. And if you and your mom would like to visit again in the warmer weather, we’ll go up to see the one called Mendenhall Glacier. There’s a really neat cable car ride called a tramway too, but it’s not open in cold weather.”
“Good thing we have the soccer stuff with us then.”
Meg’s smile warmed him so much that Bryce turned the heater down a bit. He was praying all of this would work out, for Chip. For her too. And him.
* * *
“Bryce,” Meg said when their things were loaded on his plane in the hangar in Anchorage and they were ready to board, “I hope you don’t mind that I still don’t sit in the copilot’s seat. Not with the mountains we’ll be flying over. Besides, Chip would love to. I didn’t tell him yet one way or the other, but we can when he gets back from the bathroom.”
A shadow flitted across Bryce’s face with a hint of frown. He was no doubt sad that, despite all they’d been through, she was still not ready to totally conquer Ryan’s death by looking out at the mountains and cliffs. Of course, he had no idea she had faced the very place once before where Ryan had died—and that was enough. She’d kept it a secret for so long now, it felt impossible to talk about, the emotions too big, too personal. It wasn’t something she wanted to revisit.
“Hey, no problem,” Bryce told her. “Chip will love that, and I want him to love this trip.” He lowered his voice. “I want both of you to, and, if you do, I’m really hoping we will make it more than once in the future, a shared future—ours.”
She blinked back tears. This man could be rough and single-minded, but his words and voice—so tender and sincere.
Chip’s voice shattered her reverie and their mutual gaze as he ran back to them: “Okay, I went to the bathroom, so I’m ready!”
“Bryce says you can have the copilot seat. But don’t you talk too much if he’s busy flying.”
“Great! I’ve got to learn a lot, so I can fly someday too.”
Meg managed to nod, but her stomach flip-flopped. In such a short time she’d come so far, because she would have stopped that kind of talk merely a month ago. But, she thought as she sat in the first passenger seat again, when it came to small planes she still had a long way to go.
* * *
Once on the ground at the Juneau International Airport, Bryce had his car, which had been parked in the long-timer’s lot, brought to the hangar, and they transferred all their goods once again. Not that Bryce had protested when he saw how many things she’d brought, because most of the baggage was soccer gear.
; She’d included the only new-looking fleece robe and slippers she had and a floor-length nightgown she loved but never wore—black with lace insets. And some nicer day clothes that she almost never wore around the lodge. With Bryce, she had gone back to caring what she wore, how she looked. He had helped her to reclaim her womanhood and herself.
Now he kept up a steady stream of narration about what they were seeing as he drove from the northwest part of town toward his neighborhood in the sprawling northeastern foothills.
“It is a pretty funny place for the state capital,” Meg said. “I mean with no roads in or out of it.”
“It has the sea, and that’s what mattered when the city was founded and chosen as the state capital,” Bryce told them. “Of course, it was also closer to Canada and the US than other ‘southern’ cities like Anchorage, and the Klondike Gold Rush coming through this area helped build it up.”
Chip said, “I know some about that. I mean we studied about some crazy things the spectators—”
“I think you mean prospectors,” Meg put in.
“Yeah, that’s it. Like our teacher said people do some really bad things for gold and money.”
Bryce turned to glance at her before looking back at the road, which wound up into the spruce-covered, snowy hills toward his house. “That’s for sure,” he told Chip, but Meg knew they were on the same wavelength, thinking of Pastor Parson’s cryptic words at Witlow’s funeral, not to mention a plane crash, a fierce fire, bombs going off aboveground and under the ice. Had people done all that for the Confederate gold and treasure?
“Okay, look up and you can see my house from here,” he said, craning his neck and looking up, so Meg did too. “It looks like it’s perched on the hill but there’s plenty under it with a great view, trees, a stream—frozen now—and the valley below the hills.”
He kept saying “hills,” she thought, but really they were the beginning of mountains. This man knew her well, knew that she was still afraid of high peaks and sheer cliff faces. And he was right.
* * *
Meg and Chip loved the house Bryce’s father had built and had left him. Despite the dramatic view—especially from the wraparound patio—she could imagine living here. Eagles soared at this height, and the clouds seemed like neighbors. And there really were neighbors not far down the road, closer to the valley, including Steve, Jenny and Mark Ralston, whom they were going to visit later. Meg would be glad to see Jenny again, now that her husband was recovering. Mark, though he was nearly seven years older than Chip, had seemed like a very nice kid.
After they unpacked and Bryce dug frozen pizza out of his refrigerator to microwave, they set up the soccer net in the basement. Bryce and Chip played away at that while Meg wandered back upstairs.
This was a lovely three-bedroom home with not only a den but an office. How she had missed having a home. The entire place had clean lines and was filled with light, even on a wintry day. Bryce had quickly opened the vertical blinds and turned up the furnace. The decor was minimal and modern, but some new furniture and special touches could make it warm and homey. And the views were spectacular.
She spent some time looking at framed photos of his family in the living room and den. His father had been handsome too. His mother never quite smiled, but looked strong and determined as any Alaskan woman should be. Was she? Meg felt she was becoming that way again.
“Hey, Mom, I blocked a couple of balls Commander Bryce kicked at me real hard!” jolted her from her reverie. “He’s says if it’s okay with you now, we’re going to visit his friends down the mountain, but he calls it a hill.”
She had to laugh. Bryce coming upstairs behind Chip did too, looking like he was a kid who had been caught at something.
Bryce grinned and ruffled Chip’s hair. Meg smiled, really happy and excited, feeling as though she was flying high from deep within.
* * *
Steve was sitting in a reclining chair when they visited, but said he was walking now with a cane. Jenny beamed to have them all here, and their son, Mark, still looked a bit shy but pleased too. For their differences in ages, Chip and Mark seemed to hit it off, and Mark soon took him to look at his own soccer setup in the basement. So maybe that’s where Bryce had gotten that idea.
After initial small talk over hot chocolate and cookies, the two men spoke at the other end of the living room. Some of it Meg could overhear as Jenny showed her around. After the tour, Jenny and Meg sat in matching club chairs in the next room. The view from here was good, but other houses were in sight, and the place didn’t seem to be perched in the heavens as Bryce’s was. Several photos were on the spinet piano. Meg had to smile at how traditional, almost old-fashioned Jenny looked in them, always next to her diver husband with his ponytail and neck tattoo of Semper Fi.
After they’d corralled Chip to leave, Meg whispered to Bryce, “So could Steve know his fellow marine Jordan McKee?”
“I can’t get ahead of you. I asked. He’s only heard of him—doesn’t know him or about him,” Bryce said, keeping his voice low. “Another dead end.”
“Don’t say it that way,” she blurted. “I mean—I’m not superstitious, but with Getz and Lloyd, it just scares me.”
“That’s why you’re here, safe and sound,” he told her, then turned back to say his goodbyes.
“Mom,” Chip said as they started for the door, “they asked me if I can come back and stay with them tonight. Mark’s soccer setup is bigger than mine—which is okay, Commander, ’cause I really love mine,” he added, turning to Bryce.
Putting his hand on Chip’s shoulder, Bryce told everyone, “We have created not only a soccer fan but a future goalie. It’s up to your mother—and Mrs. Ralston—to decide.”
“We’d love to have him,” Jenny said, turning to Meg. “Mark has to go to school tomorrow—unlike lucky Chip—so you boys will have to promise not to stay up too late.”
“Can I, Mom?” Chip asked.
“Of course, that would be so kind of you, Jenny. We’ll bring some things for him when we drop him off.”
“We’ll bring him on the way to dinner in town,” Bryce put in. “Not fast food, not up to his standards anyway, so he won’t miss a thing.”
Everyone smiled, even Steve, who had gotten up with help to walk them to the door using his cane.
“Steve,” Bryce said, shaking his friend’s hand yet again, “I’m so glad to see you better.”
“We’ll work together again someday, once you get this case off your back. At least this danger and destruction reminds us what’s really important in life, right? I mean, protecting people, guarding the country, even the nutty government, but friends and family most of all.”
Bryce nodded and hugged him with one arm, still holding Meg’s hand with the other. She blinked back tears, especially when Chip leaned on her a bit.
Friends and family most of all? Yes, whatever the cost, she wanted that with all her heart.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Kind of quiet, isn’t it?” Bryce told Meg after they’d left Chip at the Ralstons’ and headed down the mountain to have dinner in town. Then, like a married couple, they were going to stop at the store for breakfast groceries.
“Once in a while it’s nice,” she admitted and reached out to put her hand on his knee as he often did hers.
Bryce could swear, with her, normal things like this were exciting, so he could almost imagine giving up the rush of adrenaline that spiked so often in his current career. If she balked at the danger he sometimes faced, he would almost consider consulting work or starting his own underwater kelp or algae farm instead of being part owner in one where he was totally hands-off. But this evening, night, next morning, he’d forget business, for this time could be the most important of his life.
“I want so much for this to be a normal first date,” he admitted. “When really did we have anything in the be
ginning that approached normal?”
“No meet cute for sure.”
“Not cute at all. Deadly and dangerous, but from now on—I swear it—different. I think you’ll like this restaurant. Big menu, modern decor, great service. It’s called Salt. Despite how spread out and diverse Juneau is, once you get downtown, you feel what a tight-knit community it is. Actually, I have to ’fess up that this place has the reputation of a date night spot. I don’t want us to start all over again, since we’ve come so far, but, like in the old days, I’d like to court you.”
“Maybe that rough start is what I needed to jolt myself out of my doldrums, my rut, as much as I love the lodge, as much as I dote on Chip and rely on Suze. It was a crazy, even dangerous beginning for us, yes, but it woke me up.”
“Glad to hear that, because sometimes with you, I think I’m dreaming.”
* * *
Over dinner, they talked of silly things and important things. Of families they grew up in, of childhood likes and dislikes. Of their years of schooling, career victories—she had a degree in elementary education but had not taught since she became pregnant early in her marriage. They sipped local craft beer and lingered over crab bisque soup. She ordered a small filet and he the big rib eye steak. Too full to each get a dessert, they shared a vanilla crème brûlée and lingered even longer over coffee.
“I’m not really good with too much evening caffeine,” she told him. “I’ll be awake until all hours.”
He grinned. “Sounds good to me.”
She thrilled at that. No, she was in a constant state of “thralldom” with this man. Not the kind when they’d been in trouble, but an ecstatic, emotional—erotic—excitement. If she did make love with him tonight, if she did marry him, surely it would not always be this way. But she was willing to find out.
* * *
