Her Alaskan Hero

by Rebecca Thomas

  HER ALASKAN HERO

  AN ALASKAN HERO NOVEL

  REBECCA THOMAS

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Rebecca Thomas

  Copyright © 2015 by Rebecca Thomas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by Libby Murphy, Book Alchemy, LLC

  Copyedits by Ellen Stacey Publishing Services

  Cover Design by Clarissa Yeo

  Join Rebecca’s Newsletter for updates on new releases and giveaways.

  ISBN: 978-0-9966521-0-0

  For Jennifer Hilt, whose enthusiastic support of the Forrester Brothers kept me believing that this was a series worth writing

  CHAPTER 1

  Sabrina’s heart beat at an unsteady clip. She avoided looking into her sister’s eyes, glancing instead at the staid, white walls of the room that seemed more like a hospital room than a bridal suite. Her father loved this church, so she’d agreed to get married here, just as Susan had last year, even though her sister was completely miserable in her marriage now. Sabrina had even agreed to have boring white roses as her wedding flowers, for her mother’s sake. Now her sister had decided to interrogate her only minutes before she walked down the aisle.

  Sabrina coached herself to take deep breaths. “Kyle is considerate, handsome, and rich. Any woman would be over the moon to marry him,” she said.

  “That isn’t what I asked,” Susan replied flatly.

  “Of course I’m eager to start my wedding night, but come on, we’ve been together a long time.” Sabrina shrugged, avoiding her sister’s laser-like gaze. “So things have become a little routine in the bedroom, but I don’t mind.”

  Susan’s eyebrows shot up. “Routine?”

  A knock sounded on the door. Melody, her best friend and maid of honor, opened it. Finally the ceremony was about to begin. The course for her life had been set. She’d managed to do everything she’d planned for her life so far: she had completed her college education, and now she’d be married to a great guy who she loved.

  Maybe now her father would see her as a fully independent woman, able to make decisions on her own—without consulting him.

  Sabrina readjusted the sequins on her sleeve. She’d considered her wedding night, how she might spice things up a bit, even before Susan’s inappropriate questions. Not every decision she had made was done with someone’s stamp of approval. She’d thrown a couple sex toys in her carry-on bag at the last minute. That would surprise Kyle.

  Melody propped the door open and spoke with Kyle’s best man. Butterflies beat their wings inside Sabrina’s belly. The time had finally arrived. She was about to be Mrs. Kyle Gerringer.

  The whispers between Melody and Randy, the best man, were subdued in tone at first, but picked up in volume. Something wasn’t right. Sabrina walked toward them, but Melody quickly shut the door.

  Melody’s flushed face matched her red hair, and Sabrina was sure it wasn’t from California’s September heat.

  “What’s the matter?” Sabrina asked.

  “That was Randy.” Melody stared down at the floor.

  “I know.” She felt like a bird hurtling full speed toward a window with no way to stop, but she steeled her spine and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Melody’s eyes clouded with tears. “Kyle’s not coming.” She held up an envelope. “He wrote you a letter.”

  Panic catapulted through Sabrina’s body. Her balance faltered. She reached for something to steady herself.

  “I’m so sorry,” Melody said, and coiled an arm around her waist.

  Sabrina’s breathing came in hard gasps. “What did you say?”

  “Randy said Kyle isn’t coming,” Melody said. “What should I do?”

  “Get me my phone.” Sabrina leaned against her friend. “My purse. It’s in my purse. Just bring it to me.”

  She had to call Kyle. What else could she do? This had to be a mistake. But Melody said he wrote a letter. She could read the letter. That’s what she’d do.

  The other bridesmaids looked content to keep the two flower girls occupied with Go Fish card games. Maybe they wouldn’t notice if she slipped out to read the letter. She couldn’t read it with everyone looking at her.

  Melody returned with her purse in hand.

  Susan approached her. “What did Randy want?”

  Melody leveled a gaze at her. “He asked if we were ready. I told him Sabrina needed to make one more bathroom stop.”

  Melody grasped Sabrina’s arm at the elbow. “Let me walk you out.”

  Sabrina breathed in and out through her nose, just like she learned in yoga. Despite Melody’s arm around her waist, her legs wobbled on her four-inch heels. They made their way down the church hallway to the bathroom; all the while Sabrina prayed she wouldn’t see anyone.

  Once inside the bathroom, she mumbled, “Oh god, oh god, oh god. Give me the letter.”

  Melody handed it to her..

  Sabrina crumpled the envelope, as if sheer hand strength alone could change her circumstances. She had to open it, but she didn’t want to. “How could he do this?”

  “I don’t know.” Melody shook her head and stared at her with an unreadable expression.

  She ripped out the letter.

  Dearest Sabrina,

  I’m sorry. You deserve more. We both deserve more. I hope someday you can forgive me.

  Kyle

  “That’s it?” Disbelief slammed into her. But at the same time, the smallest seed of hope took root. Did she deserve more?

  Why did he wait until today—the morning of their wedding? Her heart thudded in an erratic pace. If he didn’t want to marry her, why did he wait this long to tell her? “I don’t understand.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That I deserved more. That we both do.” Sabrina handed her the letter on the church’s beige-colored stationary.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “For once in my life—I don’t know.” Sabrina stared straight ahead, absently fixating on the bathroom stall doors. “I’ve always done what I’m supposed to do.”

  In the midst of all the emotions running through her, she had to recognize one of them for what it was: relief. “I want to leave. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I don’t want to explain anything,” she said. “Damn you, Kyle for doing this to me.”

  “Wherever you’re going, I’m going with you.”

  “No.” As much as she wanted a Melody’s help, a sense of responsibility kicked in. She knew someone had to take charge of the guests and the paparazzi, and she couldn’t trust Susan to do it. “I need you to tell my parents what’s happened.” Sabrina gripped Melody’s forearms. “I need to leave. I need to be anywhere but here. And I don’t want reporters hounding me.”

  Melody gave her a probing look. “I understand. I’ll tell your parents. Don’t worry.”

  “I got a weird premonition right before Randy showed up. You know, like I get sometimes. Maybe Kyle knew we were getting married because of our families,
not because it was best for us.”

  “He might be right.”

  “Maybe I do deserve more.” She clawed at the sequined neck of her gown, suddenly wanting to free herself from all the layers. “Maybe all the decisions I’ve made in my life up to this point were because it was what was expected of me. It was the right thing to do. To make my dad happy, and my mom,” Sabrina said. “What do I really want to do with the rest of my life?”

  Melody shook her head and gave her a sad pathetic look. “I don’t know.”

  “I was so caught up in becoming Kyle’s wife, I didn’t even look into my own heart.” Sabrina squared her shoulders and found courage somewhere in the depth of her uncertainty. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want anyone’s pity. I just need time alone to think; away from everyone, away from L.A. Away from any reminders of Kyle and this wedding.”

  Sabrina usually had the answers. When she was helping raise money for charity events or assisting her father’s campaign, she always knew her next move, her next goal, but at this moment, she was coming up completely empty. Biting down on her bottom lip, she asked, “What would you do if you were me?”

  Melody remained quiet for several moments. “Truthfully? I’d go find myself a hunk-o-man somewhere and have the wedding night you didn’t get.”

  Sabrina burst out in laughter. Leave it to Melody to make her laugh after she’d just been jilted. The release of tension loosened the suffocating grip on her lungs so she could breathe. “Where would you go?”

  “Um…that’s easy, where the man-to-woman ratio is in my favor,” Melody said.

  “Where’s that?”

  “Alaska.”

  “I should have known you’d say that.” Sabrina chuckled again and a tear leaked from the corner of her eye. Melody had been subscribing to the Alaska Men magazine for over a year now to scope out the pickings.

  “Alaska has the highest man-to-woman ratio of all the 50 states,” Melody explained.

  “But I could go to Hawaii and have the honeymoon suite all to myself. Hawaii sounds a lot warmer.”

  Melody gave Sabrina’s arm a squeeze. “And risk reporters finding you? I’d pick a big, burly Alaskan man to keep me warm, not a trip to a tropical isle where you have reservations in Kyle’s name.”

  “A big, burly Alaskan man? I’m thinking of a fisherman with a scraggly beard who chews tobacco.” But even as she said the words, she thought Melody’s idea wasn’t bad. Some of the weight she’d felt on her shoulders began to lift.

  “You’ve been watching too much Deadliest Catch. Just stay away from the coastal cities.” Melody winked.

  “Do they have cities in Alaska? Or just cabins in woods?” Sabrina wasn’t sure if taking off to such an unfamiliar, wild place was her best course of action, but then there was something adventurous about the last frontier of Alaska.

  “I personally like the idea of a cabin in the woods. Sounds perfect to me. Better yet, I saw an ad in one of my magazines for this lodge with a huge rock fireplace. Oh man, it looked amazing,” Melody gushed. “In fact, I remember the name of the town. You fly into Fairbanks, then take a commuter plane to Gold Creek.”

  “Gold Creek? That sounds remote. Are you sending me to a place with running water? I am not using an outhouse, I’m telling you that right now.”

  “Oh, stop. I would never do that, but do you want your dad to be able to find you? You want some time and space, right? You get in your limo and I’ll take care of everything.”

  Melody was right. She’d have to return to her responsibilities soon, but for now…

  “All my guests are out there waiting. I can’t imagine the repercussions this is going to create.”

  Melody didn’t entertain her worries with an answer. “Do you have clothes?”

  “I have clothes for Hawaii packed in a carry-on bag inside the limo.”

  “They’ll have to do.”

  “I can’t imagine Alaska is a good place for shorts and flip-flops.”

  “It’s still summer.” Melody opened the bathroom door an inch. “I don’t see anyone. Come on, follow me.”

  Melody had a commandeering way about her, especially when she had her mind made up. “You don’t worry about a thing, okay? I’ll take care of everything. I’ll enlist the other girls to help, too. We’ll make sure all the guests have a good time at the reception. No sense in letting all that good food go to waste. You get on a plane bound for Fairbanks with a connection to Gold Creek. Promise me?”

  Sabrina continued to follow Melody through the maze of hallways. “Then once I get there, where do I go?”

  They stepped into the California sunshine, heading toward the waiting limo. No wandering guests or reporters. Yet. “I’ll text you the name of the lodge,” Melody said. “You’re going to love it. Promise me you’ll go.”

  “I promise.” Sabrina drew Melody in an embrace. Part of her didn’t want to let go of her friend.

  “You better go now,” Melody whispered and shooed Sabrina toward the driver holding open the limo’s back door. “I love you. Don’t forget to call once you get there.”

  Melody was right. Sabrina had to go, but she certainly didn’t need the veil strapped to her head. She ripped it off and threw it on the sidewalk.

  “That’s the spirit!” Melody cheered, then yelled at the driver, “Take this woman to LAX.”

  Sabrina slipped inside and closed the privacy glass in the limo. She opened her bag and changed from her wedding dress to a pink A-line cotton skirt and white button-up blouse with capped sleeves. Removing her four-inch heels, she opted for her flip-flops. Staring at her crumpled wedding dress, the knot in her chest loosened a few degrees.

  Reluctantly, she stuffed the sequined layers into her carry-on roller bag.

  Instead of a bird hurling toward a window, she wondered if perhaps she had been set free. Maybe Kyle had done her a huge favor. She settled into the limo’s luxury and looked for the bottle of champagne she had ordered for the occasion. Concrete walls, brick houses, and high-rise buildings covered in glass sped by her window. She felt a sense of peace, or maybe it was the champagne calming her nerves, but either way, taking some time away from here to lick her wounds felt like the right decision.

  Her cell phone beeped, and she peered down at the screen.

  The Forrester Lodge—that’s the name. Find yourself an Alaskan man and don’t worry about anything. Let me know when you get there. Love, M

  Sabrina powered off her cell phone. She wouldn’t turn it on again unless it was to call Melody. She poured the amber liquid into a huge glass and swallowed five gulps of the champagne. “Forrester Lodge, here I come.”

  * * *

  TEXAS IS our little-sister state.

  The words on the man’s tee shirt were white on a gray background above an outline of the state of Alaska with Texas, much smaller, beside it. The cotton material stretched and molded across a broad, sculpted chest. He stood behind the knotty pine registration desk at the Forrester Lodge.

  This guy was more in line with what she was hoping to see in Alaska. The pilot and men on her commuter flight had left a little to be desired. A missing tooth, long unkempt hair, camouflage clothing: the Alaskan men she’d seen so far wouldn’t make the cover of Melody’s magazine, but this desk clerk certainly would. Although she hadn’t seen his teeth yet. Hopefully they were all intact and clean.

  Melody would think this place was perfect. Sabrina, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. Either way, she’d give this place a chance. Stay here for a week or so, then decide what she was going to do with the rest of her life.

  She lifted her gaze and peered across the desk at the man, who didn’t look like a typical desk attendant. His eyes were gray, or green, or a mixture, she wasn’t sure. Rainwater dripped from her hair into her eyes, obscuring her vision. She blinked several times. The man had a sexy five o’clock shadow that gave her the urge to run her hand alongside his jaw to feel the scratch on her palms. The idea of it surprised and shocked her. A quiver
of interest coursed through her soaking wet limbs.

  She’d always dated clean-cut, perfectly shaven men wearing suits. She guessed this one was late twenties, maybe thirty, and since when had she found a hotel desk attendant appealing she couldn’t begin to guess. Maybe, as a newly jilted bride with a huge sense of failure riding on her rain-soaked shoulders and no sleep, she couldn’t see clearly.

  “May I help you?” the man asked with a gruff tone.

  It figured that his voice was deep and growly. It fit the remoteness of this place. And he looked to have all his teeth, so that was good. Soaked to the skin, she shivered despite her efforts to hold still. “I’d like a room.”

  The man gave her a scrutinizing look. “Do you have a reservation?”

  Her teeth chattered. “No.”

  “Maybe the more appropriate question is do you have anything warmer than that thin little windbreaker to wear?”

  She shook her head.

  “Are you wanting to catch pneumonia?” He swung around the side of the counter and in two quick strides stood beside her. “If so, you’re well on your way.” He was tall and lean, with a trim waist beneath his dark blue jeans. This guy was twice her size. She had the urge to ask him if he chopped down trees for a living.

  “No. I just need a room.” He looked like a hard-working Alaskan man should look, but she wondered if they were all so sarcastic.

  He gestured beyond the lobby. “Take a seat in the front sitting area. We have a fireplace. You need to get warm.”

  “Thank you.” Maybe there were some manners beneath his brawny exterior, although he was kind of demanding. Sabrina clutched her purse in one hand and rolled her suitcase behind her. A take-charge kind of guy. Well, that was okay with her, better than Kyle and his weasel-esque exit from their wedding.

  He stared down at her feet. “You’re wearing flip-flops?”

  Did the man always state the obvious or did he want some kind of answer? “Um, yeah,” she said.

  “It’s September in Alaska. Do you know it can snow this time of year?”

  It wasn’t like she’d spent time researching her destination. She had been darn lucky to get connecting flights without having to overnight anywhere, and although she didn’t like his tone, she assumed he was trying to be helpful. “I guess I didn’t know that. But you’re right. Could I buy better footwear somewhere?”