Falling

by Jolene Perry

  “Your brother called me last night! And as of this morning, I still hadn’t heard anything from you.” His voice is full of concern.

  It makes me sad that I have this strain over our relationship because I love my dad. I’m just desperate for him to be proud of me. To be proud of me like he is of my brother. Sibling rivalry sucks—especially when I’m the one who’s behind. A business degree, even from Northwestern, isn’t enough to keep me on top right now. Throw in my need to get away from school and the big city for a year, and I’m not simply stuck behind my brother, but lagging.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I’m on my way to my house now. I’ve already called my insurance. They have a car waiting for me, everything’s taken care of. There’s nothing for you to do up here.” Please, please don’t come.

  “Hmm.” He doesn’t sound completely convinced, but I know he’s busy at work, and I know coming up here will put him behind. He doesn’t like being behind. It cuts into his golfing time.

  “Really, Dad, I have money and my job is waiting for me. There’s nothing for you to do. Leann’s already at the hospital to pick me up, and she can help out when I get home.”

  “How is that house of yours coming?”

  I sigh. In his mind a house should be flipped in under a month, two months max. I’ve been there for six. I like the house, and am not sure when I want to go back to college for my master’s. I know already that I’m going to miss the place when I’m done—though, I’m still on the fence about being in Alaska. “It’s great. I like living there or it would be sold already.”

  “You’re never going to get anything going like this, Dana.” He sounds like my boss now.

  My chest sinks. “I know. I might find something else and do it faster. You know, more your style.” I’m really struggling to sound normal, but it hurts to talk like this.

  “You like your house, I can tell. It’s the number one rule.” His voice is full of disapproval.

  “Don’t get attached,” I say with him.

  “I know, Dad.” I smile. Things are good. He’s not mad at me, and he’s going to stay where he is.

  “I love you, Dana Bear.”

  I have to laugh at that, but just a little. He’s called me that since I was a baby.

  “I love you too, Dad.” I sigh and hang up the phone. Well, the hardest call is over. Now I just need to get out of here.

  Is This a Date or Are You Just Being Nice?

  Two knocks on my hospital door and Craig enters. This is…unexpectedly perfect.

  He makes his way the side of my bed. “How is Dana today?” He looks at me longer than he has to, and I can feel myself switching modes, from pathetic patient to young single woman, preparing to have a little fun with him. Something good needs to come from this mess.

  “Better.” I look at him closely. I want him to be confused as to whether he has something to do with that.

  “Can you check a few pictures for me?” His head tilts a little. “That way I can be here on official business.”

  “So you don’t want to be here on unofficial business?” I smile at him like I want him to be here on unofficial business.

  He laughs a little and pulls out a few sheets of paper with photos. All the guys have neck tattoos. I’m amazed he has access to so many. Seriously. Who gets a tattoo on their neck? I pick out the man I saw the night before easily.

  “Is that it?”

  “That’s it.” He nods.

  I don’t believe him. “So, you drove all the way to the hospital so I could point out someone in a picture?” I’m suddenly glad it’s taking Leann forever to get us coffee.

  “It’s close to work.” His eyes haven’t moved from mine.

  I still don’t believe him, and I hope he sees the disbelief in my face. My guess is he’s pretty good at reading people.

  I throw my long legs over the side of the bed, ready to be gone, but it makes me immediately dizzy.

  “Whoa.” Craig catches my arm, his grasp is firm and his hands are perfectly warm. “Careful there.”

  “Thanks.” I’m imagining his muscular arms around me. Imagining can’t hurt anything. I reach out my other hand and use his shoulder to pull myself to standing. He’s solid. Solid enough to make my stomach flutter like a kid.

  “How are you getting back home?” he asks.

  “Leann.” Only now I wish I wouldn’t have taken a ride from her because maybe he’d take me home.

  “I’ll wait for her with you.”

  “Okay.” Another smile creeps across my face. Now I hope Leann gets lost on her way back to my room.

  After all that work to get to standing, I slowly sit on the edge of my bed.

  Craig sits next to me, and the fun kind of nerves settle in. The ones that make me wonder—is he into me? Is he not? Can I touch him?

  Talking with Craig is easy. I learn he grew up in Alaska and is just as athletic as I imagined him to be, doing everything from rock climbing to snowmachining. His blue eyes are unreal, and they hardly waver from mine as we talk. Driving off the road and ending up in the ditch might have some perks.

  Our conversation feels like a first date. A really good first date.

  His knee bumps slightly into mine, and he leaves his leg there, practically burning a hole through my pants. I can’t be too far off—he’s definitely into me. Is he totally off limits? Or do I just go with whatever he’s into? And am I a horrible, horrible person for thinking this? He said his marriage was rough. Practically over. He’s not wearing his ring… We’ve been totally flirting for the past few minutes.

  “I don’t want to go, but I really should run.” He stands up, but doesn’t move away from me.

  “Well, maybe I’ll see you again sometime when I’m not all busted up.” I smile, testing his reaction.

  He takes a small step closer. Just close enough that his leg rests against mine again. It’s okay as long as I don’t make the first move. I think. I’m in new territory here. I do know I have butterflies in my stomach again—something that hasn’t happened to me in a long time.

  “Yeah, maybe.” His eyes search mine.

  I don’t even remember what I said to elicit this response because he’s looking at me more intently now, and I don’t want to miss it.

  “I’m feeling conflicted,” he says quietly, his voice lowered.

  “About what?” I smile, tilting my head to the side and leaning toward him, just slightly, in anticipation.

  “You.” He reaches down and rests his hands on my face, and then bends lower, kissing me softly.

  He pulls back just far enough for our eyes to catch.

  Wow. That was fast. And really good. Single kisses aren’t supposed to float through your body that way.

  Instead of letting him move away, I scoot closer. This is adult. Grownup. I’m not in high school anymore. Not in college.

  The moment I tilt my face, he doesn’t hesitate in covering my mouth with his, sliding his tongue against mine, and wrapping his large hand around the back of my neck to keep us together. The strength and sureness of him is overwhelming. This is definitely not like kissing a college boy.

  He breaks apart suddenly, leaving my head spinning. We’re both out of breath and trying not to show it. I’m only sort of sitting on the bed, and as he straightens up, we’re farther away again.

  “I’m sorry.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know what that was.”

  I raise an eyebrow, smiling again. “That was great.” My side aches, but totally worth it. We’re still close—still hovering like magnets trying to pull away from each other. I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort. My eyes scan over his chest, his abs…

  “I should go.” He’s still looking at me and his feet haven’t moved.

  I nod and carefully lean back.

  “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

  “Leann will be here any minute. I’m good.” I’m doing my best to look relaxed, as if that kiss wasn’t one of the best of my life. Unfortunately, I’m
not sure how well I do because I can’t seem to catch my breath.

  “Well, I’ll be seeing you.” He clears his throat. “About the case.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  Leann steps in, and he immediately backs up, turns and walks through the door with a quick nod her direction.

  “Who was that?” Leann’s eyes are wide as she glances back at the closing door. She runs to where I’m sitting, immediately placing my vanilla mocha in my hands. Her long blond hair is a frizzy mess around her freckly face and her eyes are full of questions.

  “That,” I say, “is the man who pulled me from my car and carried me up a steep incline, through the snow to his car, in the middle of the night. Apparently.”

  “Wow.” She sighs. “Some people have all the luck.”

  “I know.” I take a long drink of my coffee, high on both Percocet and my small victory over Sexy Cop.

  I wonder when I’ll get to see him again.

  JASON

  Alone. Busy. Alone.

  He dips his head lower and slides the nine-millimeter out of his shoulder holster, legs already aching from his crouched position as he walks slowly toward the gate. His heart pounds so hard, he’s sure he’ll drop of a heart attack any second. This isn’t why he joined the force in a small town. He joined the force in his hometown to make sure he was never in this position.

  But the girl was inside, and he didn’t have time to wait for backup. He grasped the gun over and over as his palms began to sweat. Just as he rounded the front entrance, he—

  The sound of snowmachines pulling into the “parking lot” of the lodge drags me from the story. This is how the weekend starts, and I know there will be no more time for writing until they all go away. If I hadn’t had Justine, and didn’t need the money, I’d live out here alone. No lodge.

  “Jason?” Brock calls. He’s a regular. Owner of one of the snowmachine shops in town. Definitely a guy that I need to keep happy.

  “Brock!” I flip my laptop shut, and toss it into my apartment behind the kitchen on my way to the door. “How are you this weekend?”

  “Jason.” He smiles wide. “Filled up the cabin.”

  Brock rents one of my small cabins almost every weekend. When he fills it up, I make a lot more money selling beer and food. Yes. Definitely someone I need to keep happy.

  “Want me to start up a few pizzas for you?” I try to let go of the story I’m writing so I can focus on the job.

  “Absolutely.”

  Brock walks out just as Boz walks in. “In lodge-owner mode yet?” Boz’s deep laugh fills the room. “Always takes you a while. Don’t forget you love it.”

  I follow Boz’s massive form into the kitchen. “Yep. Every weekend, it takes me a bit.”

  “Good for ya.” Boz slugs my shoulder. “You spend too much damn time up here alone—especially with that little sister of yours gone.”

  “You’re one to talk.” I glance over my shoulder as I step into the walk-in freezer for a pizza crust. My beard is almost, but not quite, as long as Boz’s curly red hair.

  “What you do is legal. You’re supposed to have more friends.” Boz chuckles again as he starts doing food prep—chopping veggies and grating cheese.

  He makes a good point.

  It’ll take the rest of today for me to get used to talking to people again. Happens every weekend. The two to three days of solitude I get each week really turn me into a recluse.

  This Doesn’t Sound as Much Like a Solution as it Does a Problem

  “Hey, cous!” Craig says the moment I answer my phone. He always talks to me like this. Like we’re pals or something because he married my cousin. Or more likely because I give him a discount when he comes up to the lodge with his asshole cop friends. Or maybe I just think they’re assholes because they run with Craig.

  “Hey, Craig.” I flip burgers while Boz runs tables. This place without Justine waitressing is a nightmare. “I’m kinda busy, man. It’s the weekend. What can I do for you?”

  “I’ve solved your problem.” Whatever he’s about to propose, he thinks is the best idea in the world, I can tell already. Self-righteous ass-hat.

  “Which problem is that?” I cringe as I ask, knowing he’s come up with some lame ass scheme that I’ll need to get out of.

  “The Justine thing.”

  “Justine thing?” I sigh as I reach for the cheese and try to remember how many are cheeseburgers, and how many are regular. Shit.

  I spin around and flip through Boz’s scrawl again as I balance the phone and the spatula in one hand.

  “I have a witness in a case.”

  The pause is long. Did that need a response? “Oh-kay?”

  “The guy got out on bail and then showed up at her work. She’s on her way to me right now, but I don’t think she’s safe.” He sounds so damn serious, but I can’t help but wonder if this is yet another “Craig girl.” Sucks because after all the marriage counseling a year or so ago, I thought he’d left that behind him. Surely he wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring a girl he likes up here, when he’s married to my cousin. I don’t think.

  “What does this have to do with Justine?” Five burgers need cheese, and two don’t.

  “I thought she could stay up there and help out on the weekends, you know? I don’t think she wants to go home to St. Louis or wherever she’s from, and we’ll need her up here for Grand Jury and the trial and all that anyway. She was in a nasty car wreck, but she seems to be healing up fast.” He makes this sound like the most reasonable thing in the world when all I can think is that I don’t want to share my quiet weekdays with anyone but Boz, who occasionally comes over to watch football. And the real kind. Not American football.

  “No, Craig. But thanks.” I start sliding burgers off the grill and onto buns.

  “Jason, you’ve got all that cop training that’ll help keep her safe if needed, and it won’t be for long. Just until we can pick up this guy for violating bail conditions, which we will, because he’s a total douche.”

  You’re a total douche, is what I want to say, but I hold my tongue. “Just for a little while?”

  “Couple weeks, tops.” There’s a pause. “Maybe just a teeny bit longer.”

  “I don’t know…” No! is what I want to scream, but at the same time I do need the help, and if this is a girl that Craig likes, the least I can do is keep an eye on him for my cousin, Taylor. Not that Taylor will do anything about it, because she never does.

  “Oh. She just walked in the door. I gotta run. We’ll see you sometime tomorrow?” He mumbles something to someone in the room with him.

  “No, Craig. Not tomorrow. I need to think about this, okay?” I barely save the last two burgers from being burnt, and just when I’m about to say something else…

  “Thanks, Jase!” And he hangs up.

  Fuck.

  DANA

  There is an Upside to Having a Stalker, and he Reminds me a Bit of 007

  Craig’s office is a glorified cubicle with pictures of guys with guns and dead animals and snowmobiles, no, snowmachines tacked on the walls. My hands clutch together, still a bit shaky after my run-in.

  “Just a sec,” Craig whispers over his phone as I step into his office.

  I nod and glance around, trying to shake off the panicky feeling that followed me on the drive from work.

  “Thanks, Jase,” he says before he hangs up and grins at me in a way that I definitely like, and in a way that makes me smile back because even though we’ve only talked on the phone since the kiss at the hospital, it’s been really, really good.

  “Well.” He sighs, still on the opposite side of his desk. “I’d love a repeat of the hospital, but it’ll have to wait until I’m off shift.”

  I raise a brow as I sit down, feeling a little more confident, and a little less shaky over Matthew showing up in the parking garage at my work. He even parked behind me. In my rental car. He knows me. Who I am. Where I work.

  “So, Mr. Workman was
just sitting in the bed of his truck?” Craig says as he starts typing into his computer. “I’m going to get all this down so the DA can add it to the file.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t even see him until I was in my car.” A shiver runs through me again. “He was parked right behind me, and was sitting there grinning, legs swinging.”

  I almost choke on the last words because he was so damn relaxed. Like he could do anything. And he could have. I wasn’t looking.

  “Hey.” He pauses for a moment and grasps my hand across his desk. “You did good by coming here. This’ll all help, okay?”

  “Okay.” I soak up the warmth of his hand, and the way his thumb traces my palm sends goose bumps up my arm.

  “I’m off in fifteen, but I don’t think you should go home alone.” A corner of his mouth pulls up. “I swear I’m not trying to sneak myself into your house, but I think it would be smart if I went home with you.”

  “With me, or followed me?” I ask, wondering how close we are. One kiss and a few flirtatious phone calls isn’t exactly…well, anything.

  “I guess that’s up to you.” He cocks a brow before turning back to his computer.

  So. Craig’s letting me make the next move. Same car, meaning he’ll be staying at my house, or different car, meaning I’ll probably send him home.

  I’ve made up my mind, because spending most of college with one boy didn’t turn out all that well, and I have some lost play time to make up for.

  “We can ride together.” I try to sound as relaxed as possible.

  Keeping his eyes on his computer screen, his mouth quirks into another crooked smile.

  Perfect.

  He does a drive around the block before parking in front of my house. His hand rests on his gun, and he looks around carefully as I lead him inside. I don’t normally get off on being the damsel-in-distress girl, but right now with Craig’s broad shoulders as my protection, it’s feeling pretty good.