Let There Be Love: The Sled Dog Series, Book 1

by Melissa Storm

  While working with the dogs back at the cabin, she’d only ever taken one out at a time, so she wasn’t quite prepared for the intense speed, for how fast the world moved around her.

  Prepared or not, the best way to learn was by doing. She gripped the handlebar tight and shifted her weight to the left or right as needed, occasionally stepping on the foot brake to slow the dogs at a turn and keep the line tight. She’d spent so much time practicing for this that her body seemed to know what to do before her brain had the time to figure it out.

  Faster, faster, freer, freer.

  Now she saw the outline of another musher farther up the trail. She was gaining on him. Could she actually match Shane’s time—or better yet, beat it?

  She was going to try.

  She shouted “Hike, hike, hike” over the wind to encourage the dogs to pull harder, then hunched down low to minimize any wind resistance caused by her erect posture. She was smaller than the other racers, which meant the dogs could devote less energy toward pulling and more toward reaching top speeds.

  “Mush, mush!” she cried to encourage the dogs further. She didn’t know if that was the right command, but her words encouraged the dogs nonetheless.

  They reached another turn in the trail and she leaned into the turn like she’d seen motorcycle riders do to help the sled take a sharp turn and maintain as much of their speed as possible on the curve.

  Whack!

  Lauren landed on a fresh bed of snow, her cheek and side stinging from the impact, but more than that, her ego. She watched as the dogs continued to pull the sled down the trail—not needing her to continue on their path.

  Her entire side ached from the impact, but it didn’t matter. She had to catch that sled!

  She ran as hard as she could, but it was difficult in all the thick layers she’d bundled herself in, especially considering how much of her energy she’d already used on the sled.

  The dogs rounded the track. The last trace of the sled, disappearing around the bend.

  Shane was going to kill her.

  Lauren turned around and walked back to the starting grounds. Surely there was someone there who could help her. She thought about calling Shane, but he had only just begun to believe in her and she didn’t want to ruin that already.

  As she tromped the long way back to the trail head, the sky began to darken. Days were ridiculously short here. No sooner had the sun come up than it went back down. Would she be stuck lost and alone out here? And what of the dogs?

  Her toes grew cold despite her fancy new boots from Lowood’s in town. She had no idea how the dogs not only did it, but loved it.

  Just as she was about to give up and call Shane, a four-wheeler approached head-on, slowing to a stop just a few yards ahead of her. “Hop on,” the man said, and she happily complied. He mumbled something back over his shoulder, but she was so cold and so tired she couldn’t make out the words. Instead, she just cozied into the welcome warmth of her rescuer’s body.

  A few minutes later, they were back at the starting line, and Lauren spied her whole team tied up outside the truck. A few other teams were also tied off as their mushers recapped the runs they’d just completed.

  “Th-thank you,” Lauren mumbled, not wanting to move from the warmth of the kind stranger.

  “Ain’t nothing,” the man said. “Happens to the best of us. Maybe not the best of us, but you get my meaning.”

  She smiled and accepted a metal thermos from another racer. The hot coffee woke her right back up, made her feel human again.

  Both men watched her as she drank, chatting with each other and leaving her mostly to recover on her own. When she’d finished the full thermos, she thanked them again and asked the question that had weighed heavily on her mind for hours now. “You won’t tell Shane about this, will you?”

  The men laughed, and Lauren thought that one of the smaller ones might actually be a woman, but it was hard to tell with how bundled up everyone was, especially with the sun already part-way down.

  “Your secret’s safe with us, but you hang tight to that bar. Yeah? You can’t see when some bumps are coming and that’ll throw you every time if you aren’t ready.”

  “How did you know that’s what happened?”

  “It happens more than you might know to rookie racers. Most especially cheechakos.”

  “Wh—?” Lauren began to ask, but the woman stopped her with a hearty laugh.

  “People outside of Alaska. Like you, I’d wager. Anyway, even the best mushers get tossed from time to time. Lucky for you, you came to this track, and when we saw your team coming in without you, we figured you might need a pickup.”

  “So they sent me out with the four-wheeler to go find ya before dark sets in,” her rescuer chimed in.

  “And the rest of us corralled your dogs, unhooked ‘em, fed ‘em. Look at ‘em now, curled into happy little husky pucks, ready to go home and take a long rest.”

  Lauren glanced toward the dogs, who definitely appeared contented, much to her relief. But who was she kidding thinking she could beat Shane’s time? She hadn’t even managed to finish the track, let alone earn a good time. So much for racing being her blood. Lauren wondered if her father had ever been tossed from the sled, or for that matter, if Shane had. Despite what the other men had told her, it seemed unlikely that anyone besides her could make such a foolish mistake.

  “There, there,” the small racer, who was definitely a woman, said as she patted Lauren’s shoulder with a mittened hand. “It’s how you learn.”

  “Did you ever fall?” Lauren whispered, feeling more at ease with the woman racer than the larger mixed gender group.

  “More than once.” She winked, and Lauren smiled. “And I’ll tell you something else as long as you promise not to let anyone know it’s me who told you.”

  Lauren nodded and waited for the big reveal.

  “Your boss? Shane?” Her eyes sparkled like the untouched snow at the edges of the field as she whispered, “He has, too.”

  “The snow machining accident, you mean?”

  “Not just that. He’s made every mistake there is to make. He’s lucky he didn’t get hurt before now. But you know what?”

  Lauren took a deep breath to make space for whatever secret this woman could tell her. “What?”

  “It’s good for you, taking a tumble like that. If you’re not willing to take some risks, you can never be good at it.”

  As the sun sank further toward the horizon, Lauren couldn’t help but wonder if that same advice applied to life every bit as much as it applied to the art of racing.

  Lauren made it home past dinnertime despite their early start that morning. Shane was nowhere to be seen, so she grabbed a quick meal on her own and headed off to bed early, completely exhausted from the hectic day.

  Before she drifted off to sleep, she debated whether to tell Shane what had happened at the track. If she couldn’t be honest with him, then she couldn’t expect him to ever tell her his hidden truths, either. She would tell him, and if he gave her a hard time, she’d point out that he had once made the same mistakes, too.

  Having made up her mind, she was able to enter into a deep, exhausted slumber.

  Lauren dreamed of camping that night—of stargazing and swimming, singing songs around the campfire and stuffing her face with gooey s’mores. Shane was there, as was her father. Even Briar Rose had come with them to the campsite and ran excited circles around them, pouncing and leaping at the flames but not getting burned.

  They sang Lolly Winston’s latest hit song, and Shane surprised her with his smooth, baritone voice. She’d never heard him sing before, but had no doubt that this was truly his singing voice—and it was beautiful.

  He moved closer to her so that their hips were touching. His voice dropped to a whisper as he murmured the lyrics, his face just inches from hers.

  Closer, closer.

  She could feel the soft syllables caress her cheek. Any minute now he’d kiss her, and
the entire world would change for both of them.

  He’d be healed. She’d be healed. They’d take their first steps toward happily ever after, together hand in hand.

  She leaned forward and closed her eyes, waiting for what came next…

  But it was not what she’d expected. Briar Rose shrieked as she burst through the fire and leapt between them. The scene split in half like an old scrap of paper, and Lauren watched helplessly as her father, Shane, and Briar Rose drifted one way and she the other.

  The woodsy scents of smoke and earth lingered, filling her nostrils until she felt strained for breath. Briar Rose continued to bark, whine, howl, and screech.

  Only it wasn’t just Briar.

  All the dogs were there now. And though she could no longer see them in her dream, their whimpering reached a fever pitch, an alarm that woke her from her sleep.

  She sat up with a start. Was she dreaming? Or…?

  The dogs continued their desperate cries from outside. The air still smelled of smoke, but the campsite was nowhere to be seen. Lauren sat alone in her bedroom, confused and scared.

  Then her senses returned, and she finally understood what was happening.

  “Fire!” she screamed, tugging on her boots and coats and flying toward the yard. She had to do something. She was the one who could move quickly. She needed to save Shane and the dogs before it was too late.

  The dogs strained against their kennels, their eyes fixed on the source of the fire.

  The garden shed stood partially ensconced in flames lapping tall and bright against the night sky. And she ran toward it, grabbing a discarded snow hook near the kennels, then returned to the fastest sprint she could manage.

  Shane yelled something from behind her, but she didn’t have time to make out the words. All her energy went toward moving her feet ever forward against the cold. Until it wasn’t cold at all, and the heat of the flames brought beads of sweat to her brow.

  Crash!

  She knocked the heavy metal hook through each of the windows and reached through the broken glass to turn the knob from the inside. Luckily, the lock only kept people out, and she was able to turn it easily from the other side.

  Having at last gained entry to the forbidden structure, her eyes darted toward the source of the fire. Curtains that had been singed to bits, pink, floral wallpaper obscured by soot, and plastic storage containers had melted, unable to protect the contents kept within.

  What was this place?

  No time to figure it out. She needed to extinguish the flames somehow. Would the hose reach all the way over here? Only one way to know for sure.

  She was running again, and as she did, she passed Shane limping toward the shack with a fire extinguisher held clumsily in his hands.

  They reconnected, she with her fire-fighting method and he with his. Together, they put out the flames and managed to save a small bit of the treasures inside.

  Lauren turned toward Shane, not knowing what to say. She’d spied enough of the secret place to finally understand. He’d lost someone important to him, a woman, and this was his shrine to her memory.

  No wonder he kept people out. He’d been hurt in the worst possible way, and now the little he had left of this lost love had vanished into the night. She nearly cried on his behalf, but no… He needed her to be strong, a source of comfort in this impossible situation.

  For he likely felt as if he’d lost his loved one all over again, and now nothing could ever bring her back.

  Lauren reached her arms around Shane, but he didn’t return the hug. His body was rigid. Not even a tremor vibrated through his hands and arms, as it often did when he felt stressed.

  Everything around them went still. Even the dogs quieted now.

  “What did you do?” he said flatly. “What did you do?” he repeated it again and again, each time eerily devoid of emotion.

  He still didn’t trust her.

  Lauren jerked away, shocked that he would blame her for the fire. “No, I woke up and it was… No, I didn’t do this.” She had a hard time defending herself. The act was indefensible, but it was not one she had committed. Who would do such a horrible thing, and least of all to a friend?

  “You weren’t supposed to go in there,” he said, staring straight ahead at the charred remains of his once secret place.

  “Shane, are you serious right now? It was on fire. If I didn’t do something, it could’ve spread to the house or the kennels. Is your secret really more important than our lives? The dogs’ lives?”

  He shook his head for longer than was natural of such a gesture, saying nothing, staring straight ahead but seeing nothing. At last he murmured, “You started the fire. There was no one else. No one else could have, and you’ve always been nosing around my business. You couldn’t pick the lock, so you set it on fire. Maybe you were frustrated with me. Maybe it was the only way you could get inside, but you did it. You.”

  Lauren felt as if she’d been punched in the face, and honestly, she wished he would hit her. It would hurt less, and it would make what needed to happen next that much easier. “Listen to yourself! That’s crazy!” she cried. “I would never do this. Shane, I’m your friend, remember?”

  He laughed bitterly. “Some friend you are. I should’ve sent you back when I had the chance, but no. I thought it could work out. I thought I should give you a chance, and now the only part I had left of her is gone. It’s gone, Lauren! You took it, you took her away from me!”

  She stepped backward, her chest heaving as she struggled under the weight of his accusation. “No, no, it’s not like that. I don’t even know who she is. I would never hurt you, Shane. Never.” How silly she’d been, assuming he could return her feelings. He could never love her because he still carried a torch for some ghost. That was obvious now, and if she’d done a better job reading the clues, it would have been obvious sooner, too.

  “Stop talking to me like you understand.” His voice grew distant as he crept into the damaged shed and examined what little remained. “You could never understand,” he said as she joined him.

  “Maybe I could if you opened up to me. I want to help.” She placed a placating hand on his arm, but he ripped himself away from her touch.

  “What a way you have of showing it,” Shane sneered.

  “I lost someone important to me, too. My father, he—“

  “This isn’t the same,” Shane snapped. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  “Then tell me,” she said gently, observing the shed’s contents more closely now. Everything in the front was covered in soot and ash, but toward the back, a few bins remained unscathed. They held what looked like bolts of fabric—clothes maybe, most of them pink. She couldn’t figure out any of the other items without stooping down to take a closer look, and she knew Shane wouldn’t want her to do that. She stayed at his side, waiting for him to take back the hurtful accusation, to explain.

  Something. Anything.

  His voice sounded hoarse now as if it were single-handedly holding back a dam of tears. “You want me to tell you? Is that what you want?”

  She looked over to him, but he continued to stare blankly ahead. She wanted to wrap him in her arms, to take away all the pain, but only if he would let her. He needed to let her help him. They could move past their losses together. “Yes, I’m here for you. I care about you, Shane. I want to help.”

  “Nobody asked you to do that.” His eyes scanned the shed again, and when they landed on her, he grimaced and paced back out into the open yard.

  Lauren followed him a step behind. They couldn’t just act like this hadn’t happened. He couldn’t continue to disguise his hurt, to let it fester in his heart.

  “I told you to stay away,” he grumbled. “Play with fire and you’ll get burned. Isn’t that how the saying goes? But you couldn’t stop there. You had to burn me, too. It’s all ruined.” He choked back a sob and, rather than continuing forward, fell to his knees in the snow, screaming in pain as he made
contact with the ground.

  “Is that what you really want?” she asked as she retrieved the crutches and tried to help him up.

  He bullishly refused her, and it felt as if he were rejecting her for the first time all over again. As if they hadn’t shared a single special moment, a single happy time. “That’s what I want.”

  “Then I’ll go, but please let me help you back inside first. Please let me make sure the dogs are okay.”

  “You’ll go. And never come back.” His words could have been a question or a command, Lauren didn’t know. All she knew is how much this hurt.

  Now it was she who cried into the night air. “I promise,” she said, turning her back to Shane Ramsey and walking away into the unknown.

  Lauren locked herself in her bedroom while trying to figure out what she would do next. She’d already sold her father’s house, broken her apartment lease, quit her job, and left everything she’d had in New York behind to start anew in Alaska. Some good that had done.

  Now her job and home had been pulled out from under her again, and other than the small inheritance her father had left her, she had nothing.

  She hated calling on her friends in the middle of the night, but it seemed unlikely she could catch a cab at this hour, and she just needed to be gone before Shane could hurt her any more than he already had.

  In the wake of their fallout, she had only one friend remaining in the whole state: Scarlett.

  They’d exchanged a few texts and gone out for dinner a couple times, but their friendship hadn’t been fully cemented yet. Lauren hoped her new friend would forgive her the imposition of a midnight call for help, because she truly had no other option.

  “Of course I’ll come get you,” the librarian said almost before Lauren even had to ask. “Text me the address, and I’ll leave in five.”

  When Scarlett arrived, Lauren slipped out from her room, praying she wouldn’t run into Shane as she made her great escape. But he’d already taken his car and left for some unknown place.

  “What happened?” Scarlett asked, staring out at the burnt shed.