“Is it Cameron Diaz?” Katherine said. She always started with her favorite actress.
“No,” Leslie said.
“Dwayne Johnson?” Eddie asked. He always started with the most unlikely.
“Why the hell would The Rock need private-security detail on a beach?” Leslie’s annoyance at this game never grew old.
“So, you’re on a beach,” he said.
“It’s California, Eddie. It’s one big beach. And I’m off duty.”
“Dating anyone?” Katherine asked.
“Next question.” Leslie was as tight-lipped about her personal life as she was about her job. She’d moved to LA two years ago and had only been home once. She took her NDAs seriously and revealed nothing to them. It was fun irritating her with questions, though.
“Are you coming home for Gran’s nuptials?” Katherine asked.
Leslie rolled her eyes. “It’s her third marriage. Why is she having a big wedding?”
“She likes the attention,” Katherine said.
“When you get to be my age, you need to pull these kinds of stunts to get your grandkids to come back from their famous clients to visit once in a while,” their grandmother suddenly chimed in. She had a unique ability to pop up when you least expected her, whenever she knew you were talking about her. In his rush to his seat, Eddie hadn’t noticed her and her fiancé, Melvin, seated on the other side of Katherine. He smiled warmly at them now as his grandmother leaned over to join in on the call.
“Hi, Gran,” Leslie said, lighting up at the sight of the older woman. “You know I’ll be at your wedding...again.” Their grandmother had practically raised Leslie, after their mother and her youngest daughter had had a falling out when she was fifteen and Leslie had gone to live with the matriarch of the family.
They’d all thought it was teenage rebellion, but the stubborn streak in the Sanders family ran deep. Neither woman would apologize, so Leslie stayed with Gran, and Mom pretended she was okay with it. It had been tough not having their sister at home, but the peace in the household with Leslie gone had been appreciated.
Having Leslie on FaceTime for this important milestone in their mother’s life but live in person for Gran’s wedding was just another way the two women continued to hurt one another, but...at least their sister had agreed to appear on the cell-phone screen.
“I didn’t book a photographer for the wedding,” Gran said. “Was hoping you’d do it.”
Leslie looked uncomfortable as she shook her head. “I’m not really doing much photography these days.”
“You’ll think about it?” Ultimately, his grandmother would get her way as usual, and she knew it. No one liked saying no to her.
As predicted, Leslie nodded. “I’ll think about it, but no promises.”
“You look tired. You sleeping?” Gran asked her.
“Yes, I am.”
“With someone?” their grandmother asked.
Eddie hid his grin. There was no question where their joy of razzing one another came from.
“Is the ceremony starting yet?” Leslie asked, checking her Fitbit on her wrist.
No one would tell their mom that Leslie had scheduled her run around the event.
“Any minute now,” Katherine said. Sensing Leslie had had enough family bonding and was ready to disconnect, she turned the phone toward the stage.
“Have you gone for your tux fitting yet?” Gran asked him.
“I’ll do it next week, I promise.” He’d completely forgotten and, well, part of him still wasn’t convinced his grandmother was going to go through with it. She was eighty years old and divorced twice already. She really did pull stunts like this for attention from all of them.
“Young man, if you show up to my wedding to give me away in your dirty uniform, smelling like the night before’s heat...”
“Oh, don’t worry, Gran,” Katherine interrupted. “Eddie’s not getting any heat. He’s still patrolling the ski resort.”
He sighed. Being around female members of his family always made him desperate for an escape. Sure, it had taken him several attempts to pass the police entrance exam, his dyslexia making the written component challenging. And sure, out of the three siblings, he had the least dangerous job on the force. But the lack of respect from his very female-dominated family drove him crazy.
“I’ll get the tux, and if you’re lucky, I’ll even get a haircut,” he told his grandmother with a wink. He wasn’t sure what the rush was. The wedding wasn’t until November. Plenty of time.
“Do you have a date yet?” Gran asked. “I need to confirm final numbers with the event organizers.”
As if one extra person either way would make a huge difference. She was just trying to get his relationship status out of him. Unlike Leslie, if Eddie was seeing someone, he’d be shouting it from the rooftops, not trying to keep it a secret. His dating life was also something he struggled with. Growing up and living in the small town of Wild River, everyone knew everyone. He’d dated just about every single woman in town. Once.
It was hard to find a spark with women he’d known his entire life, and he wasn’t like some of the other guys who could hook up with tourists for a few nights. Therefore, his Facebook status said Relationship Single. He’d give anything just to be able to change it to It’s complicated. “Nope. No date yet,” he said.
“Shh. Ceremony is starting,” Katherine said.
They all turned their attention to the front of the auditorium, and a silence fell over the room as the ceremony began.
His mother sat on the stage dressed in her uniform, her medals and badges of honor proudly displayed as the head of the State Troopers of Alaska talked about her many accomplishments over her forty-year career.
His mother has been the second female state trooper in Alaska. Graduating from the academy top of her class in the sixties, she was a trailblazer for all women in the force. His sisters owed their own careers to the work their mother had put in.
Growing up without their father, who’d died of cancer when Eddie was ten, meant his mother held double duty as both parents. She worked long hours on the job, but she was always there for her kids. She may have missed birthdays or Christmases or softball games, but she was there in the ways that really mattered, raising her kids to be respectful, considerate people who gave back to their community. Her pride in her family had made them want to be people she could be proud of.
On the cell-phone screen, even Leslie’s face beamed with unconcealed admiration as their mother was inducted in the State Trooper Hall of Fame and handed her plaque commemorating the event.
His mother was a true hero. One who had no trouble giving him shit.
“Why are you still in uniform?” she asked first thing, when she joined them after the ceremony.
“Hey, look! Leslie’s on FaceTime!” Deflect. It was a defense mechanism they all employed with their tough-as-nails, take-no-shit mother. If she was focused on someone else, she left you alone.
And it worked.
She took the phone from Katherine, but Eddie couldn’t listen to the strained conversation, quickly announcing his exit. “I’m out. Got to get back to Wild River before my evening shift.”
Katherine checked her watch. “That’s eight hours from now.” She glared at him.
He shrugged. “Traffic might be bad.”
His grandmother looked disappointed. “I thought you were joining us for lunch.” She looped her arm through Mel’s, and the older man’s expression screamed Don’t leave me alone with the three of them. But Eddie could only handle the women in his family in small doses.
“Next time.” Eddie hugged his grandmother tight and shook Mel’s hand. Then he hugged his mother quickly while she was still distracted by Leslie.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to let him sneak off.
“Hey, hold u
p,” she said, and Eddie sighed, slowing his pace.
His mother said goodbye to her youngest daughter and fell into step with him as he walked across the parking lot. “Have you heard anything about your transfer yet?”
“How do you know about that?”
His mother pointed to the badges on her uniform. “I’m retired, Eddie, not dead. I still have my finger on the pulse of things around here.”
As long as she wasn’t using that pulse/finger thing to pull strings to secure his transfer. He’d applied to the Alaska Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Enforcement division without telling his mother and sisters precisely for that reason...and to avoid their disappointed expressions if he didn’t get the promotion.
But it had been weeks since his last written exam and physical, and still no word. “Not yet.”
“When did you first apply?”
“Two months ago.”
“It’s taking longer than usual, but give it another few days. Keep me posted.” She touched his shoulder.
A simple, casual gesture to most people. In his family, that gesture meant Don’t get your hopes up. He wasn’t even sure if his mother realized it was her tell when she didn’t have faith in them for something. She’d done it since he was a kid. When he wanted to play football but didn’t make the team. When he wanted to ask Carla Spicer to the winter formal and she said no. When he’d failed his written driver’s-permit test twice. Each time, his mother’s shoulder touch had predicted the outcome. Or was it the negative energy he associated with it that became a self-fulfilling prophecy?
He hoped this time its predictive powers and ability to upset his karmic balance were wrong.
“Will do. Enjoy lunch.” He hugged her again. “Congrats, Mom. I’m proud of you.” He waved to the rest of his family as he headed toward his car.
Someday, he hoped his mother would finally have a reason to say those words to him.
A Sweet Alaskan Fall
by Jennifer Snow
Look for it August 2020 from HQN Books!
Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Snow
ISBN-13: 9780369700209
A Wild River Retreat
Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Snow
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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