In the bedroom, Ian let out a long breath, and his hand uncurled around the door knob.
“Yes, I’m coming!” he yelled. He took one more breath, then returned to the living room before Micah could start making up stories about his digestive system for laughs. “Let’s do this.”
Kelsey stood in the doorway, looking ready to move furniture. Her hair was pulled up again, and she wore a heavy flannel shirt over a pair of beat-up jeans and some solid-looking work boots. Strangely, the shapeless, made-for-heavy-labor outfit didn’t detract from her appearance. She could do nothing about that cherubic face, but for once her outward look matched the tough, take-no-shit attitude that lurked inside. Ian wasn’t sure if it was the alignment between her inside and outside that made her seem more appealing at the moment, or if he’d finally spent enough time in Alaska to begin appreciating the local dress code.
Either way, he found himself hoping for more snark on the drive, because flannel had never been such a turn-on.
* * *
* * *
“HAVE YOU BEEN to Wasilla before?” Kelsey asked as she pulled the SUV onto the highway heading north.
Ian sipped his coffee, watching the paw print charm dangling from her rearview mirror swing back and forth. “No. Micah’s been hitting the road, not me. I’ve been to Anchorage and Juneau, and a couple of smaller towns between, but that’s about it. All I know about Wasilla is that it’s where—”
“Don’t say it.” Kelsey held up her right hand. “That’s all anyone in the rest of the country knows about Wasilla.”
Ian fought down a laugh. “Fine. Is it bigger than Helen?”
“Yes, much bigger. We’re growing, but we’re not that big yet.”
“Not even in the summer?” He was only partially joking.
Kelsey sucked on her bottom lip, which had the unfortunate effect of drawing Ian’s attention toward her mouth. He’d never been fascinated by lips before, but Kelsey’s were always pink and pouty in a way that stirred the lower half of his body.
Ian turned his gaze back to the road, willing his cock to behave. Kelsey was starting to be a whole lot of firsts for him.
“Helen’s population goes up in the summer by a third maybe?” Kelsey said, oblivious to his thoughts and sarcasm. “Enough to be annoying, but still not nearly as big as Wasilla.”
“But also necessary.”
She sighed. “Yeah, necessary. I know. My brother’s sightseeing business relies on tourism. It’s not the tourist expansion that bugs me except when I’m trying to find a parking spot. It’s the people who come and stay, who develop open land, who open chains or franchises that threaten our local businesses—that’s who.”
Ian cupped his hands around his thermos, even though the SUV was perfectly warm. Clutching the coffee gave him something to do besides fidget. “What about those of us who want to open a local non-chain business?”
Kelsey shot him one of those sardonic half smiles. “Are you trying to pick a fight, or do you want me to absolve you of your sins?”
“Not sure. Let me think about it.”
“It’s a long drive and not usually exciting. You have time.”
What might be not-exciting in Kelsey’s world was still scenic in Ian’s. Once the outlying bits of Helen faded into the distance, he felt like he was being transported into another world—a wild one of rugged mountains and lush trees and endless sky. This was the backdrop that had driven him to beg his grandparents to take him to visit Alaska in the first place. He could imagine he was in the middle of nowhere, tossed into a fantasy world where yetis and talking wolves might show up any moment.
At least, as long as he could ignore the highway, the road signs, and the other vehicles zipping by.
Finished with his coffee, Ian set the empty thermos down and glanced behind Kelsey at the back seat. She’d tossed her jacket on it, and the SHS button was missing. Now, that was even more interesting than the scenery. It had been there two days ago when he’d run into her by the library. Had their conversation had an impact—had she been wearing it to goad him? Or maybe it had simply fallen off?
The silence in the car wasn’t precisely comfortable, but it was peaceful, and just as importantly, it kept him from glancing at Kelsey as she drove. Ian broke it reluctantly. “I see your SHS pin is missing.”
“Thirty minutes!” Kelsey slapped the steering wheel.
“What?”
“It took you thirty minutes to notice. Damn it.” She smacked the wheel again. “I had you pegged for under ten. How dare you do this to me?”
Unsure whether to laugh or get pissed off, Ian stared at her, jaw open, for a second while he processed her unexpected reaction. “Who were you taking bets with?”
“No one, thank God. You’d have let me down for real.”
He rested his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. “I don’t believe you. Actually, I do. Not sure what’s worse.”
Kelsey snorted. “Please. It’s funny.”
“To you.”
“Yeah.” She paused. “Admit it—you think it’s funny too.”
The smile he’d been fighting made Ian’s lips twitch. “Mildly, maybe.”
“Whatever.” She waved him off. “Yeah, I got rid of the pin when I found out it’s the Lipins who are behind the SHS. Don’t get me wrong—I agree with the sentiment. But I can’t support them.”
“Ah, right. Because of the feud. It’s the Montagues and Capulets in this town.” This time he did fully smile, thanks to the absurdity of it.
Kelsey, however, did not smile. “I hate Romeo and Juliet.”
“Then why did you name your dogs after them?” He’d overheard her introducing the dogs to Micah, and that was probably why the play had popped into his head when thinking about the town. Shakespeare had been torture for him, but random bits and pieces remained lodged in his brain. Somewhere his old high school English teacher was cackling with glee.
“I didn’t name them,” Kelsey said, reaching for her water bottle. “They’re rescues, so we’re all stuck with the names someone else provided. But Helen’s not as bad as fair Verona; no one’s being murdered in the streets.”
She grimaced in a way that made the unspoken yet practically audible.
“It’s still something.” Seriously messed up was the phrase that sprang to Ian’s mind, but seeing as he was trapped in a car with Kelsey, insulting her family—especially as they were helping him—didn’t seem wise. “Helen should come with a warning sign. You might keep people from moving there if it did. No one told me it was a war zone.”
“Ha.” Kelsey swallowed her water poorly and coughed. “That wouldn’t suit my father, who is all about development and profits. No way he’d have warned you about how screwed up we all are.”
Ian was surprised to hear her describe the situation as screwed up, but on further reflection, perhaps he shouldn’t be. For all her scowliness, Kelsey didn’t seem like the sort of person to let her biases cloud her vision. Or maybe that was why she was so scowly—she realized how messed up the world was.
“Maybe not your father,” Ian said. “But the real estate agent could have. It might have lessened the shock the first time Tasha tossed a permit request back at my face.”
He’d added Tasha as an afterthought, mostly to himself, but the name caught Kelsey’s attention. “Tasha who?”
“McCleod. She works for the town clerk’s office. Do you know her?”
Kelsey was silent for a moment as she passed a slow-moving RV, but her lips—why was he staring at them again?—were upturned. Not exactly smiling, but knowing. “It’s Helen. If someone’s around my age, I probably know of them from school. And yeah, I know who Tasha is. She was a couple grades above me.”
“At first I thought she was just a stickler about her forms, but I’ve lately discovered she’s very involved in the Save H
elen Society.”
Kelsey snapped her fingers. “Aha! If I’d known that, I would have figured out what the SHS is about ages ago. Of course she’s involved in it. Tasha is a Lipin on her mother’s side, and she married into a Lipin-supporting family.”
Ian burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it. The town was so ridiculous. “Naturally you are fully informed about her heritage and her husband’s family. And I thought my family had issues.”
“Everybody’s family has issues. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or naive. But you’re not wrong. Ours are somewhat unusual.” Kelsey shot him a quick glance. “Want to talk about yours?”
That killed Ian’s laughter real quick. He might not be actively fighting with Kelsey at the moment, but she most definitely struck him as the sort of person who would use anything and everything you told her against you at some later point if you pissed her off.
Not that he ever wanted to discuss his family’s issues regardless. “No.”
“Good. How about some music instead?”
9
KELSEY HAD NEVER been so glad for the end of a long drive as she was this one, and it wasn’t because her butt was falling asleep. Her plan to nurture her resentment against Ian was not going well. Probably because the resentment, in this case, wasn’t his fault; it was her father’s for pushing her toward him. Nonetheless, she thought she could have used it to keep her rebellious hormones in check. But no, her life wasn’t allowed to be that simple. Ian had ruined everything by being agreeable when he should have been insufferable and hot when he should have left her cold.
Hell, even the word insufferable no longer packed the punch it used to. She’d need a new one, but Kelsey worried what word her brain might generate. When she’d taken her eyes off the road to glance at Ian, she’d had to admit his damn dimple was cute when he smiled, and the way his fleece collar rubbed against his chin was all kinds of cozy. Part of her wanted to pet him like he was some puppy.
“Here we are.” Kelsey pulled into her grandparents’ driveway at last. She’d been to their new house only once before, and it was still strange to consider it their home.
“You said they’d downsized?” Ian peered through the window, sounding a touch incredulous, and she couldn’t blame him.
Compared to their last home, the one-story white house was small. But the grounds held two outbuildings, and even from the driveway, it was clear the place boasted an amazing view of the lake from its back-facing windows.
Kelsey shut off the engine. “My grandfather was a geologist for an oil company. Trust me—this is downsizing. It’s also why I’m getting their old furniture. They have too much now.”
“Okay then.” Shaking his head, Ian got out of the SUV. “Is there a plan for how we’re moving and packing everything?”
Kelsey flinched on the other side of the vehicle, glad Ian couldn’t see the oh-shit expression her face. “Yeah, of course. The plan is we fit as much as we can between here and the trailer.”
She popped the hatch on the back of the SUV, and Ian stood aside as she opened her supply case and started yanking out bungee cords. “What are you carrying in there?” he asked. “A roll of tin foil?”
It took her a second to realize he was seeing only a part of her Mylar blanket. “It’s just the usual supplies, you know.” She turned to hand him some of the bungees and realized from Ian’s expression that he didn’t know. “For emergencies? Especially in the winter?”
Ian absently took the cords. “Emergency supplies are jumper cables and a spare tire, aren’t they? That’s a huge box.”
Oh no. He was being a puppy again, and this time, not because he was cute but because he was clueless. Kelsey sucked on her lower lip. It shouldn’t be her job to explain this stuff to him. If he wanted to live up here, Ian could damn well do his own research. And yet . . . Yet she couldn’t withhold information from him if he might need it. She was neither that irresponsible nor that mean.
There was only one way to handle this situation. Put the puppy in his place. Remind him that he was an outsider and, in doing so, remind herself why she disliked him.
“Obviously a spare tire and jumper cables are good. But also . . .” Kelsey flung the crate fully open and started holding up its contents. “Collapsible shovel. Snow brush. Ice scraper. Mylar blanket. Wool blanket. Road flares. Hand warmers. Flashlight and spare batteries. Water bottles. Energy bars. First aid kit. Extra hats and mittens. Snow goggles. Reflective fabric. And that”—she pointed to the bag in the corner by the back seat—“is the sand you should be carrying. If I were doing a lot of driving outside of Helen in the winter, I’d bring other gear as well, but that’s the basics for winter travel. Didn’t you say you used to live in Massachusetts?”
Ian swallowed, his pallor a little paler than it had been a minute ago. “I did, but we left before I was old enough to drive. Besides, we lived in Boston. We were surrounded by civilization.”
“Well, welcome to Alaska.” Kelsey snapped the lid on her crate closed and pushed it as far back as it would go against the rear seat. Truthfully, she should have taken the bungees out at home and left the rest behind today, since the weather hadn’t turned bad yet, but she’d forgotten. “You want to retract your statement about how I won’t find you frozen like a Popsicle one day?”
It was absolutely the wrong thing to say. She’d been trying to sound bitchy, and judging from the pink that was replacing the white on Ian’s cheeks, she’d probably succeeded. But bringing up the Popsicle remark reminded her of her previous fantasies of licking him—and all his frozen parts. Now she was annoyed and turned on, and clearly, asking for Ian’s help had been such a bad idea.
Kelsey’s confused and conflicted brain was half ready to offer an apology for her tone, but then the house’s front door opened, and her grandmom called out her name. She let out a breath, thankful to put the awkward moment aside. But the tension in her shoulders remained, even as she hugged her grandparents. It was going to be a long day.
* * *
* * *
KELSEY HAD NO idea just how long. They’d only been moving furniture for an hour, but she might have aged a decade. Her grandparents weren’t in much position to help other than to carry a few light chairs, so after she’d introduced Ian and they’d surprised her by not being nosy, they’d opened their garage, showed Kelsey where the furniture was, and let her get to work.
The thing about loading inconveniently shaped wooden pieces into square-shaped vehicles was that it required coordination between the people doing the loading. As a result, Kelsey found herself in some tight corners with Ian.
Like now. She was standing in the trailer because he was too tall to do so himself, even hunched over, and he’d just handed her the last chair to tie down. His head was mere inches below hers, and she could smell the soap or aftershave on him, and damned if it didn’t smell good. Distracting, even.
That was the current word stuck in her head for him—distracting. She’d caught herself watching him lift things a couple of times. They’d both worked up a sweat, and Ian had taken off his jacket and pushed up the sleeves of his shirt. It was clingy, much like the T-shirt he’d worn in the website photo, and she could too easily imagine his muscles moving about underneath it. Maybe they were sweaty too.
Kelsey supposed watching him work was better than imagining licking him, but in the end, the activities weren’t that different in what they implied about her state of mind.
“Watch your head,” Ian called up after her, and Kelsey bit down a swear.
This was the problem with being distracted. All she really needed to improve the day was to give herself a concussion because she was picturing Ian naked.
God, she hated men. Cute, naive, puppylike men with arrogant cheekbones, potent-smelling soap, and tight shirts in particular.
“Um.” Kelsey frowned at her feet. She’d gotten the last chair wedged in and tie
d down, but she’d managed to trap herself inside the trailer along with it. Freaking brilliant. Today was a day for a spectacular lack of planning.
Gingerly, she swung one leg over the upturned table blocking her path. There were about four inches between it and the edge of the trailer. Theoretically, that was enough for a foot to land on. In practicality, it sure didn’t seem like it though.
Ian took a step forward and held up his arms. “Just go slowly.”
Did she look like she was about to leap over this thing? Ian was probably enjoying her doing something stupid after she’d lectured him about his lack of car preparedness.
Grabbing a table leg with one hand, Kelsey concentrated on lifting her own leg over the bulk of the furniture. The table wobbled, and so did her balance. She managed to set her second foot down on the trailer, and for a moment all seemed fine. Then the precarious position of her feet caught up to her, her center of gravity shifted, and Kelsey screamed as it seemed like crashing into her grandparents’ driveway was imminent.
Strong arms caught her, saving her face but not necessarily her sanity.
“Got you,” Ian said, as though it weren’t extremely obvious.
Heart pounding, Kelsey tightened her grip around Ian’s neck. Her nose was buried in his hair, which smelled even better up close, and holy shit. He felt solid and warm. She hadn’t missed having a guy’s arms wrapped around her, but she was going to now.
It was just the adrenaline from thinking she was about to fall. That was all.
But while that explained her heartbeat, it didn’t explain why the press of Ian’s hands felt so nice or the way her nerves tingled beneath them. If a pair of male hands touching her through two layers of fabric was turning her on, maybe Kevin had been right and she did need sex again.
Ian lowered her, and Kelsey jumped back as soon as her feet hit the pavement. As it was, there was no way she would be able to ignore all those Popsicle fantasies tonight. “Thanks.”
Paws and Prejudice Page 8
