Her Alaskan Hero

by Rebecca Thomas

  “Why does the lodge only cater to men? Why not to women?” She added half the amount of cream she normally would and took a sip. “Mmm…this is good.”

  “It probably tastes good because you have real cream in it that’s got some flavor. Or fat, however you want to look at it,” he said.

  “You have a point.” She laced her fingers around the warm mug and glanced at him over the rim, waiting for his answer to her question.

  “We don’t cater to women because, generally speaking, women don’t like the woods.”

  Very deliberately, she set down her mug. “That’s not true. I’m about as city as they come, and I enjoy the woods. I like the rustic-ness of Alaska.” She gave her shoulder a half-shrug. It wasn’t a complete lie. “Well, as long as I have someone to protect me from bears and other wildlife.”

  He grinned and she smiled back at him. Her heart beat a couple extra times. His green-gray eyes held sincerity and honesty she’d not seen in many people. She’d grown up in politics. She knew the look of honesty. Or maybe it was more than honesty—wholesome, that’s what Zak Forrester was, wholesome. Untainted by big city life, he was as real as the snow outside and as big as the mountains surrounding the lodge.

  She felt hopeful about her future. These surroundings were magnificent and she hadn’t even gone outside yet.

  “Do you like eggs?” He slid out from the oak bench and strode toward the green, granite-covered island. “And no, they aren’t fat-free.”

  “Just the egg whites for me, thanks.”

  He shook his head. “So if I chop up some peppers and asparagus to go in the scrambled egg whites, you’re okay with that?”

  “Of course. Do I have time for a quick shower? Or I’d be happy to help you.”

  “No, no. You go right ahead and shower. By the time you’re done, breakfast will be served.” Zak took a red bell pepper out of the refrigerator, then pulled out a cutting board and knife from a drawer.

  “Thank you, Zak. I’ll be right back.”

  Thank goodness he didn’t take her up on her offer to help cook. She’d never cooked a thing in her life. Her family always employed people to do that.

  As she passed by the window, the weight of so many things seemed to magically lift off her shoulders. Maybe she should learn something about cooking, not be so dependent on others. She deemed it a new mission in her new life.

  She took a five-minute shower before returning to the kitchen. Zak looked at home and comfortable with a spatula in his hand. His blue jeans clung to his thighs. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure how much she’d ever learn about cooking from Zak Forrester.

  She entered the kitchen. “Smells wonderful.”

  “Thanks. Perfect timing. Take a seat.”

  “Do all your guests get this kind of personal attention?”

  “Nope.” He placed their plates on the table, along with a platter of scrambled eggs and bacon. “You’re the first.”

  She guessed he probably didn’t cook turkey bacon, but she willed herself to eat everything he placed in front of her.

  Zak pointed to the edge of the platter. “That side is yolk-free.”

  “It looks delicious.”

  They ate in silence for a time, except for the sound of silverware scraping on plates. She wondered if she’d get used this.. No traffic noise, no jets flying overhead, no C-SPAN playing on the television.

  Zak interrupted thoughts. “After we’re done eating, I can take you to the airport and we can see about changing your tickets.”

  Dumbfounded, she stared at him for a split second. “Changing what?”

  “I assumed you want to fly back home. This place isn’t what you expected, I’m sure.”

  “How do you know what I expected? And as I recall, we already had this conversation last night.” She deliberately set her fork on the edge of her plate. He couldn’t make her leave. In fact, who was he to make assumptions about what was best for her? This sounded like something her father would do. “I don’t want to leave and I’m not going to.”

  He visibly swallowed. “Sabrina, I can’t entertain you, I have work to do. And you can’t travel outside the town limits, not this time of year.”

  “I never asked you to entertain me.” The weight that had lifted off her shoulders now sat squarely back on them.

  He narrowed his eyes. “Well, you made the comment about someone protecting you—”

  “I was joking.” She hadn’t been, not really, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “You can’t be outside by yourself. There are bears and wolves in the area. I’m not trying to scare you, but you really do need to be careful. You can’t go to town alone.”

  “Then I’ll stay here.”

  “There isn’t anything for you to do inside the lodge. We cater to hunters and fisherman.”

  “I can do yoga, can’t I?” Was he really going to kick her out? He had mentioned another place in town where she might be able to stay. She would check there. She wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet.

  “Well…”

  “Okay, then, that’s what I’ll do. Don’t let me disrupt your routine.” She slid out from the bench seat and placed her dishes in the sink. “I won’t bother you at all.”

  Zak followed her for a few steps across the tiled kitchen floor. “You aren’t bothering me.”

  Sabrina swung around. “Obviously I am if you want me to change my plane reservations. Just to let you know, I do have to be back home in two weeks. I’m putting on a fundraising event. So I’ll be leaving soon enough.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “Didn’t you?” She stood her ground. She wanted her adventure and she intended on getting it. “I’ll call Betsy and see if I can stay with her. I’m obviously in the way here.” She strode out of the kitchen.

  “Please stop, Sabrina.” His wounded voice touched a sensitive nerve in her soul. “I didn’t mean to make you feel unwelcome. I doubt Betsy has rooms available. Not this time of year.”

  “I’ll fly back to Fairbanks then. That’s a bigger town, they should have rooms there.” She willed herself to keep walking, but she stopped anyway. Keeping her eyes downcast, she refused to turn around and admit defeat. Maybe she had to leave Gold Creek, but she wasn’t leaving Alaska.

  “My brother is gone right now, but I don’t know when he’ll be back. He could return later in the week or maybe as early as tomorrow,” Zak said. “Everything depends on the weather and the hunting.”

  Relief welled up in her. He wasn’t going to kick her out. He was implying she could stay as long as his brother’s room was available.

  “I’ll stay out of your way,” she said.

  “I’ve got work to do.” He clenched his hands before shoving them in his pockets.

  In her heart of hearts she knew this is where she should be, where she was supposed to be. “I completely understand.” She met his eyes. “I’ll do my yoga and read a book. You won’t even know I’m here.”

  He let out a long sigh. “Sabrina, I’m really not sure—”

  She couldn’t let him change his mind. “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”

  He fixed his eyes on her and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. He visibly swallowed before saying, “We have a small library. It’s down the hall from the bathroom where you changed yesterday.”

  “Thank you, I’ll take a look.” She walked away, dodging the invisible bullet that nearly sent her out of the lodge.

  * * *

  ZAK RECOILED from what felt like a blow to his midsection. He cleaned up the kitchen and tried to get her voice out of his mind. I won’t bother you at all. And that was the crux of the problem wasn’t it? Just by being, she bothered him.

  He’d had it all planned how he’d gently insist she fly back home—this wasn’t a place for women like her. His logic told him she needed to leave, but when it came right down to it, dammit, he wanted her to stay.

  Purposefully, he’d tried to intimidate her, but it hadn’t worked. However, he
did have work to do, invoices to send out, bills to pay, and a couple bids to finish for corporate retreats. He’d been working hard to increase their winter traffic by convincing companies to spend the weekend in the arctic for coworkers to bond, or simply enjoy the mental space. The northern lights abounded, and if it was too cold for snowmobiling, there were always the hot springs. The physical space at the lodge made a great getaway. Sometimes a typical office had too many distractions.

  His father had had a creative mind and was so intelligent. So many times Zak wished he could talk to his father. He’d never appreciated him when he was a teenager. He’d just been an annoying dad who asked too many questions.

  However, Sabrina asking why they didn’t cater to women did get him thinking. They focused most of their advertising dollars on men: hunting and fishing magazines, as well as the Outdoor channel on TV.

  Walking across the front room to his office, Zak stopped to watch Sabrina on her yoga mat, stretched out in some kind of pose with one leg bent and the other straight. She faced away from him, looking out the bank of windows. Her arms reached in a straight line, palms down, then palms up, then up toward the ceiling and straight again. Gone were the baggy sweatpants, and in their place were painted-on black tights and a flimsy, barely-there pink tank top. If she turned around, he’d probably be blessed with another look at the butterfly tattoo on the swell of her left breast. Her feet were bare minus the toe ring. None of her curves could be missed. The heat in his groin rose, and he quickly realized his mouth was hanging open.

  Snapping his jaw shut, he hurried to his office and shut the door. How was he supposed to work knowing she was outside looking like that, posing like that, stretched out like that? The woman was seriously flexible. And a lot of other things Zak refused to think about.

  He had work to do.

  He wasn’t entirely sure if he shouldn't give Betsy a call to see if she had rooms available. He didn’t need this kind of distraction. He needed to stick to work. He immersed himself in calculating bids for an hour before a light tapping sounded on his door. “Come in.”

  “So sorry to disturb you, but yesterday, didn’t you say you had boots and coats for guests who came unprepared? Do you mind telling me where they are? I was hoping to take a walk around the lodge,” Sabrina asked.

  Zak pushed back his chair. Her face was flushed pink with exercise and he glimpsed half of a wing on her butterfly tattoo. Without thinking, he said, “I’ll go with you.”

  “But I thought you had work to do?”

  “I do, but I could use a break. I’ll show you the mudroom where we keep our outdoor gear.” He shuffled his papers and put them in their appropriate stacks, skillfully avoiding a glimpse at her bare feet and calves. Women in Alaska, especially visitors, wore several layers of clothing this time of year, but not Sabrina Tate.

  “I’m bothering you.”

  “No, you’re not.” He placed his pen back in the top drawer and turned off his laptop. “Follow me.”

  In the mudroom, Zak fitted Sabrina up with a pair of his sister’s boots, gloves, jacket, and hat. She looked a little out of place with her California tan, but maybe she fit in better than he’d originally thought. Maybe he’d been too quick to size her up.

  “Let’s go,” she called out from beneath the knit hat.

  “Right behind you.” He opened the mudroom door and they stepped onto the deck. The light dusting of snow had started to melt, but still left a unique crunching sound underfoot.

  “Oh, my gosh, this snow is amazing!” Sabrina swept a bunch of snow from the deck railing into her gloved hand to form a snowball. She ran down the stairs and across the snow-spattered lawn, swung around, and threw the snowball at him.

  He easily dodged it and listened to her laugh as she ran around the side of the lodge with amazing swiftness. Scraping up his own pile of snow from the deck, he followed her tracks. He’d never been out-witted in a snowball fight before and wasn’t about to start now.

  He’d have to move faster if he was going to catch up to her. Her tracks went behind the oversized shed where they kept the snowmobiles. He continued to follow her tracks into the woods. Grinning like a child, he ducked under a tree branch and felt the impact of snow hit his back with a thud.

  Sabrina’s laughter sent a ripple of amusement through the layers of his clothes to his very core.

  “I backtracked,” she yelled. “Gotcha!”

  And just as she said the words, he observed the end of her tracks. He’d been so intent on following her he didn’t spot the irregular shape to her steps as she’d retraced them. Smart girl.

  He launched a snowball at her, hitting her squarely in the stomach.

  She doubled over and fell to the ground.

  Fear ripped through him. He ran toward her. “Sabrina, I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”

  In a fetal position, she moaned.

  He kneeled beside her. Worry stabbed his gut. He rolled her over.

  She was holding her belly and laughing so hard tears filled her eyes.

  “I thought you were hurt,” Zak said, relief washing over him.

  “It takes more than a snowball to hurt me.” She laughed, then grew serious. “You didn’t really think you hurt me, did you?”

  “I didn’t know.” He shook his head. “You had me fooled.”

  She lay before him, stretched out with her knees propped up and a clever smile on her face. The snow and grass framed her compact little body. Her hat had slipped off and blonde hair spread around her like rays of sunshine. Her chest rose and fell. Their breath intermixed. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  “I don’t know…” she said, biting the inside of her cheek. “I’m feeling a little breathy from all this exercise. I might need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

  Zak leaned back on his heels. Some distance was needed for him to think. How could she be so intuitive, so carefree, and so damn sexy all at once? “I ought to throw you in a snow bank.”

  A tremor moved between them. The joking was gone and something more serious settled in. The silence stretched between them and he tried to remember the reasons why he wasn’t going to do this. She was leaving, she was vulnerable, there were lots of reasons they shouldn’t be going down this road. “Sabrina, I’m a serious kind of guy. I don’t generally kiss women unless I really mean it. If you really did mean…for me to kiss you. This can’t happen because...”

  She sat up and hugged her knees. “Because, why?”

  “Because you’re supposed to be married.”

  “But I’m not. I’m single—just like you.” She shook the snow out of her golden locks of hair.

  “I don’t take a backseat to anyone or anything.”

  “Are you talking about Kyle?” She propped her elbows on her knees. “He saved us from making a terrible mistake.” She stood up. “This…” She moved her hand back and forth between them in a brushing motion. “This isn’t a mistake. I’m supposed to be here. I was supposed to meet you. Fate has intervened on our behalves.” Her voice cracked. “Sometimes things don’t make sense, but I intend on making you see what I see.”

  “So Kyle realized in time, but you didn’t.” His tone took on an edge he didn’t like. An edge he had no right to. He barely knew this woman.

  Her blue eyes looked defeated and sad. “I did…but I didn’t do anything about it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I let other people influence my decisions too much.” She kicked at the melting snow. “I care about Kyle as a friend, but that’s all.”

  “Then why are you still carrying around your wedding dress?”

  “My wedding dress?” Her voice raised an octave. “You went through my things?”

  “You left your bag open. I saw it. If you care so little for your fiancé, then why are you still carrying around the dress you were supposed to marry him in?”

  “I…I…took it off in the limo. I didn’t know what else to do with it.” She stared at him
with accusing eyes. “It doesn’t mean anything to me, but I couldn’t see throwing it away in an airport trash can.”

  “Sabrina, I can appreciate what you’re saying about how you’re supposed to be here and fate and all that, but you don’t know me. I don’t make commitments unless I intend to keep them, and I don’t believe in psychic mumbo jumbo,” Zak said.

  “Psychic mumbo jum—?” She stood still as stone. “I’m sorry. I’ve gone too far. I shouldn’t have said half the things I said. I’m just…can we go back inside now?”

  “Sure.” He motioned his arm for her to go ahead of him. She’d implied she wanted him in the hot springs and again now. He wasn’t against having a fling, or a weeklong affair, but not with her. Not with someone who’d just been left at the altar. She had baggage—and lots of it. “Listen, you’ve been through a lot. I can appreciate—”

  She swung around and stood inches away, peering up at him from behind thick lashes. “Yes, I’ve been through a lot, but I know my own mind and I know what I feel. And I know you feel it, too.”

  He wasn’t admitting to anything. Not one damn thing. “Let’s get back inside. We can have some hot cocoa, if you’d like.”

  She squinted her eyes at him. He could see the wheels of her brain turning. “Perfect. Sounds great.”

  Why did her tone give him the distinct impression that she didn’t think it would be great at all?

  CHAPTER 5

  Sabrina should have kept her mouth shut. People always thought she was nuts when she talked about being psychic, and Zak was no different. She should have called off her wedding. In her gut, she knew that. She deserved more. Whatever more was.

  The frustration she felt toward herself and the decisions she’d made grated at her, but that was the past. Moving forward was the most important thing. She needed time to figure out how she’d managed to make such poor choices in California. She had to get her life back on track.

  In that regard, coming to Alaska was one of the best decisions she’d ever made. Regardless of what happened with Zak, she had a good feeling about this place. Mumbo jumbo or not.