True North (Golden Falls Fire Book 1)

by Scarlett Andrews

  “They should be, given the name! So what’s good here to drink?”

  “Let me guess—you’re more of a fancy girly cocktail drinker?”

  “I am,” she said. “But when in a brewery, I’m happy to drink beer.”

  “Good, because it’s excellent craft brew and has funny names.”

  When Elizabeth came around, Cody ordered them each a beer flight to start, and two cups of salmon chowder.

  “Does that sound okay by you?” he asked Cassie, who assured him she loved all food.

  The beer flights came out first, along with a loaf of fresh Dutch oven bread.

  “Start with the one on the left,” Cody said. “It’s the lightest, Balto’s Lager.”

  “These are so cute,” Cassie said.

  He’d never thought of the beer flights as being cute before. There were five miniature beer glasses nestled in a long, varnished natural wood piece.

  Cassie took a sip of the Balto’s Lager. Cody waited for her to make a face, but she didn’t.

  “I think …” She tilted her head in an adorable way and gazed at a point above him. “I think I like it? I mean, it tastes like beer, but it’s not really strong.”

  “Keep drinking. The more you drink, the more you like it.”

  When their salmon chowder arrived, Cody ordered them each a reindeer dog for the next course and said they’d finish up with the lingonberry Akutaq.

  “I’ve never heard of whatever it was you just said,” Cassie said after Elizabeth left.

  She was already onto the Anna’s Amber, which was named after Anna the sled dog, a litter runt who became the dog leader of the team pulling the first woman to cross the Arctic solo.

  “Akutaq is Eskimo ice cream. Berries, sugar, and …” Cody debated whether to tell her the other ingredients were fish and caribou fat and decided to wait until after she ate it. “And a few other delicious things.”

  “Excellent.” She looked at him. “I’m so glad you texted me the other day.”

  “I’m glad, too.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  The booze. The buddies.

  “I’m trying to live more in the moment,” he said. “And yeah, we don’t have a future, but that doesn’t mean the present has to suck—which it would if we were just friends when we both want something more.”

  “Hear, hear.” Cassie raised her glass. “To living in the moment.”

  “Is that your philosophy?”

  “To tell you the truth, not really. I’ve always been more of a planner type. People say ambition is a flaw, but I’ll admit to being ambitious.” She sighed. “But sometimes life doesn’t go according to plan. So now I’m trying to accept where I am, take it as it comes, and not dwell on … negative things.”

  That surprised him.

  “I would never have thought you were the type to dwell on negative things.”

  “You think I’m all sunshine and roses?” She shrugged, which drew Cody’s attention to her bare shoulders.

  “I think you have the sexiest shoulders I’ve ever seen. I like that no-shoulder top thing.”

  “Which is funny, because I’m getting cold.”

  “Well, your flimsy little sweater isn’t going to cut it,” Cody said, standing and placing his own softshell jacket around her. As much as he’d liked seeing her bare skin, he discovered he wanted more for her to be warm and comfortable. Taken care of.

  “So where do you think you’ll move to next?” he asked as he sat back down.

  “I’m not even thinking about it,” she said. “I’m living in the now, just like you.”

  “But you like Alaska so far?”

  “I do,” she said. “I’m surprised by how much I like it, actually. This is going to sound snobbish, but coming from New York City, you’re really brought up to believe it’s the center of the universe and the only place that matters. But I’m loving the slower pace. And the quiet—I don’t think I’ve heard a car horn the entire time I’ve been here, when it’s all you hear all day long in the city. I like how when you pass people on the street or encounter them in stores, they actually look you in the eye and say hello. It’s amazing!”

  “New York City sounds awful,” Cody said, laughing. “What do you miss?”

  “Abby,” Cassie said immediately. “My best friend and former roommate. She makes me laugh and keeps me sane.”

  She went on, describing their friendship, and Cody could tell how much Abby meant to her.

  “What else do you miss?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” She sounded surprised. “Maybe because everything is so new here, and I’m getting so much experience at work … and spending time with you … I have yet to be bored. I thought I would be, but I’m not. Even at night, when in the city I’d usually go out dancing or to a concert or whatever, here I’ve been watching documentaries, which I love. Oh, and I even started reading one of those books you said you liked.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Cody was pleased, and touched. “Which one?”

  “Alaska by Michener. The one you said was your favorite.” She smiled at him. “Anyway, I’m not bored at all. Golden Falls is perfect for right now.”

  You’re perfect right now, Cody thought.

  “I have to say it’s nice to hear you say that.” He raised his glass to acknowledge it with a mini-toast. “To be honest, I’d pegged you as a city girl, one hundred percent, who’d be homesick by now for sushi and nightclubs and shopping and whatever else it is people do in cities.”

  “You’re not wrong,” Cassie said, clinking glasses with him. “I am a city girl. And I do miss those things, sure. Just not as much as I thought I would. And hey, Golden Falls has a sushi restaurant!”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “You don’t think you’ll ever want to leave Alaska?” she said. “I suppose you’ll stay a firefighter and when you retire … move out to the wilderness again?”

  Her green eyes were wide, curious, searching. He could get lost in them. The way she was looking at him made him want to confess all his thoughts, his dreams, his desires—especially his desire for her, which was alarming how it occupied his mind. At least eighty percent of the thoughts running through his head were a low, simmering contemplation of the things he wanted to do to her when she was naked.

  But Cody thought carefully about his answer to her question. She seemed to be testing his waters, seeing how invested he was in his home state. And the true answer was very.

  “I love Alaska,” he said. “I love being a firefighter here. I love the people and the culture and most of all the land, the wilderness. If I’m single when I retire, I’m sure I’ll go and build a cabin somewhere with no one around.” He paused and took a long sip of the third beer in the flight, the Musher’s Brown Beard Ale. “But in an ideal world, I believe in marriage. I want kids someday. And I understand those things go a lot easier with conveniences around. If it comes to it, I could live in Golden Falls the whole rest of my life and be very happy.”

  He wished he could have told her his lifelong dream was to move to New York, to get out of this small town and into the “big” world. If he were a less honest person, he might have said what he thought she wanted to hear. But the truth was that Alaska was the biggest, grandest part of the world in all the ways that mattered to him.

  “It’s weird how a place can have such a hold on us, isn’t it?” she said. “Every square inch of Manhattan holds a memory for me, of my childhood, of college, of friends or family or just me on my own. I was on my own a lot.” She took a hearty swallow of the brown ale. “My parents worked all the time. Neither of them would come home until nine or ten at night. I spent time at my grandmother’s house—she was a retired book editor—or more often I would just go wandering the city. Take the subway to a stop I’d never been, make a game of talking to someone on every single street in a certain neighborhood.”

  “The start of your interviewing career.”

  She laughed. “I guess it was!”


  “It sounds like you were raised to be very independent.”

  “That’s an understatement,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like my parents just threw me to the wolves. Not in a literal, Alaska sense, but a metaphorical one.”

  Her eyes darkened, and Cody could tell it was a sore spot for her.

  “How do you like the chowder?” he asked to change the subject.

  “I love it.” She tipped her bowl to show him it was empty. “It went surprisingly well with the beer.”

  “Next up, reindeer dogs.”

  Elizabeth arrived as if on cue, setting down two plates in front of them. The buns were fresh-baked sourdough, and the sausages were smothered in grilled sweet onions.

  “This is phenomenal,” Cassie said between bites.

  “Better than a New York hot dog?”

  “It’s hard to admit it, but yes.”

  They moved on to the fourth beer, the Polaris IPA, which Cassie didn’t like.

  “IPAs are a bit of an acquired taste,” he said.

  “Like Alaska,” she said, then added, “Just kidding. I liked it right away.”

  But not enough to stay, Cody thought sadly. Not enough to even consider staying.

  “Here,” Cassie offered. “Do you want mine?”

  “Sure.” Cody wasn’t one to let good beer go to waste.

  “So who’s your most recent girlfriend?”

  “Her name was Heather,” Cody said. “We broke up when she got a job offer in Juneau where she had family, and things kind of petered out.”

  “So you’re not one to follow a woman, even to Juneau?”

  “It was drawing to a natural end anyway. Our relationship was pretty laid back. How about you? The guy from back home who doesn’t want to let you go?”

  Cassie nearly spit out her beer.

  “Not a boyfriend,” she said. “Just a guy who refuses to take no for an answer.”

  “That’s all I’m going to get, isn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid so. I don’t want to spoil the moment by talking about it.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Elizabeth reappeared with the ice cream, served in little hand-carved wooden bowls. They were on their last beer, the Caribou Snout Stout. Its mild coffee-and-vanilla undertones went perfectly with the fresh ice cream.

  “Oh, wow,” Cassie said, taking her first bite of the Akutaq. “This is amazing. It almost reminds me of gelato, both light and rich at the same time.”

  “I’ve never had gelato, but I’ll take your word for it.”

  Her fingertip traced the edge of the small glass of stout, and she gave him a sensual smile.

  “The only problem is the ice cream made me even colder. Any ideas on how I can warm up?”

  Now that he was getting to know her better, he understood it was an invitation. He also noticed they were totally alone on the patio, and stood, offering her his hand.

  “Let’s go over here under the heater.”

  They stood beneath a large heater along the railing, overlooking the river. Cassie snuggled into the crook of his arm. The sound of the Nanook River was soft and whispering; Golden Falls upriver to the west was a deeper growl.

  She nudged him with the side of her hip, and Cody drew her against him. The feel of her curves pressed up against him set his desire to a boiling point. They kissed, tongues entangling. She tucked herself closer, and he moved his hands to press lightly against her taut rear, and she moaned softly, wantingly, as her jeans-clad hips ground up against him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the silky softness of her hair tickling his cheek. Her nails grazed his neck in tantalizing patterns. Every time her tongue slid against his, his erection throbbed until he thought he was about to burst.

  “Do you want to go back to my place?” she murmured.

  Cody indeed wanted to take her back to her place and fuck her until she screamed his name, but he felt hesitation, too, as if they were walking a narrow, short-lived path.

  “What are we?” he said, pulling back a little. “Are we together?”

  “We can be if you want that,” she said. “Or maybe we don’t have to put a label on things.”

  “I want the label,” he said. He was a traditional guy, dammit, and she needed to know where he stood. And he needed the same from her. As badly as he wanted sex from Cassie, he wanted her fierce, stubborn, independent mind, and her heart, too. “This isn’t just playing around. I want you to be my girlfriend.”

  “Don’t worry, Cody, you’re not just my Alaskan fling,” Cassie said, teasing. “But … okay. Yes. I’ll be your official girlfriend.”

  Until you leave, he thought sadly as he caressed her cheek and kissed her again, gently, taking his time.

  “You want to take things slow, don’t you?” she said, guessing from the manner in which he kissed her.

  “Not too slow,” he said. “In fact, I want to ravage you, but at a time and place of my choosing.”

  “It better be soon,” she said, stroking his rock-hard erection through his jeans.

  He groaned from how good it felt.

  “It will be,” he promised. “And I guarantee it’ll be worth the wait.”

  13

  Brows plucked. Nether regions waxed. Sexy new lingerie purchased. And plenty and plenty of fantasizing about what sex with Cody would be like.

  That was how Cassie spent the days leading up to her next Alaska lesson.

  In her fantasies, their coupling would be primal, not polite. She liked lovers who took what they wanted and pleasured her, too. Who understood bodies had been made to be used and pleasured. That sex was a physical thing first and foremost. For a man who didn’t say much verbally, Cody said a ton with his kisses, and she could hardly wait to see what he said with his lovemaking. She wanted him to play with her. To possess her. And then to hold her afterwards.

  And how sweet was it that he’d only have sex if they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend? It was a quaint concept where she came from, where throwing oneself into bed with someone you just met wasn’t out of the ordinary—but she found she liked Cody’s slow deliberateness. Liked knowing where she stood with him, liked that he was unapologetically traditional in his ways. He’d held back, even as his desire for her had been evident.

  It was hot. And frustrating. And so fucking exciting.

  In fact, Cassie hadn’t felt this giddy about a guy since high school. Every moment was thick with possibility: when would Cody call? Would she run into his fire crew while she was out reporting on a story? Yesterday she’d been on the scene of a bicycle accident and a fire truck had been parked there. Her heart had gone into overdrive and she’d gawked, looking for Cody. Her cameraman asked her what she was looking at, and did she see something she wanted him to film? But it had turned out to be Engine Two, not Cody’s company.

  There was one thing that was unusual, though. With most guys she’d dated in the past there had been flurries of texts throughout the day. Cody hadn’t texted her once, although he’d called the night after the brewery dinner to schedule their next “lesson.” Only if it includes having sex with an Alaska man, she’d told him. And he’d grunted and said it was definitely on the agenda, as was a homemade dinner and the viewing of an Alaska documentary he thought she would like, called Alone in the Wilderness.

  In the meantime, she kicked ass at work. Steve told her their ratings were up since she’d started, and in staff meetings he took her story pitches as seriously anyone else’s. Having learned a bit about how hard the winters could be for people—and thinking of what Cody had told her about his mom—she suggested a weekly segment on how to avoid depression during the long winter months, and she ran several stories having to do with the upcoming moose hunting season, which would begin the third week of August.

  Steve told Cassie that if she wanted the pulse of Golden Falls, she would need to interview businesswoman and town council member Claire Roberts. Claire owned the Sled Dog Brewery, along with half of the buildings on Main Street, and
had spent most of her adult life building her business interests in Golden Falls.

  Cassie hadn’t expected it, but in interviewing Claire, she’d made a friend.

  Fifty-something—Claire was coy about her exact age—and attractive, with sharp blue eyes and a trim, fashionable figure, Claire had the energy of someone half her age and a quick, sometimes-ribald wit that made Cassie lose it with laughter. They started meeting up to take the same Pilates class, and occasionally to have breakfast at the North Star Café on Main Street, famous for good food and gooey cinnamon buns.

  Their first morning over breakfast, Cassie confided that she was seeing Cody. Claire clapped her hands in gossipy, friendly glee.

  “They’re fine men,” Claire had said. “And trust me, I understand the appeal.”

  “Oooh, really?” Cassie had asked. “You with a firefighter?”

  Claire nodded, smiling a huge smile.

  “Who? Not Chief Moran?”

  Claire roared with laughter. “Oh, come on! Please! With his old-fashioned handlebar mustache? That just tells everything you need to know about what he’s like in bed. Besides, he’s been married for the past hundred years or so.”

  “Then who? You must be doing the cougar thing.”

  But for all Cassie’s probing, Claire refused to tell about her own firefighter story, except to say she wasn’t a cougar. That gave Cassie the impression the relationship must have been in the past, since firefighters tended to retire by fifty.

  Beyond that, Cassie unpacked a few more boxes she’d had shipped from New York. Since the pace of life in Golden Falls was glacial in comparison to back home, she wasn’t used to having free time to fill, but she’d begun doing yoga at home daily, reading actual novels for the first time in forever, and working her way through the huge binder of a film library she’d brought with her. She loved documentaries, loved going in-depth with true stories. They imparted a scope of understanding and emotion that a three-minute news piece couldn’t touch. She’d initially wanted to go to film school, not journalism school, but her parents refused to pay for it. Not that she didn’t love reporting—she definitely did—but it hadn’t been her first choice.