Sky High (Alaskan Frontier Romance Book 2)

by Jennifer McArdle

  “There’s nothing you could have done about it,” he muttered as he reached down and patted Bernie on the head. “But I could have saved him.”

  That simple truth hurt Mason more than anything else. He’d felt it in his heart, but this was the first time he’d ever spoken the words aloud. And even though a dog was the only one who heard his admission of guilt, Mason felt a little better telling someone else.

  Two months had passed since Mason found his brother dead. The shame was just as strong now as it was the first day. There was no doubt in Mason’s mind. It was his fault. It had been a bad decision to leave his brother there alone.

  Sure, they’d been arguing. Mason said a few things he wasn’t too proud to admit. He called Dalton a loser, told him he was wasting good oxygen. Hell, he basically told Dalton that he might as well kill himself. He wasn’t contributing anything to the world. He was only making it worse. They were awful words, words he should have regretted instantly. But Mason didn’t care. He was so angry with Dalton, repulsed by the mere sight of him. Mason couldn’t stand to see his brother getting high all the time. It was disgusting to watch Dalton throw his life away.

  Instead of trying to do something about it, though, Mason had stormed off.

  If only he’d tried to get Dalton off the drugs. If only he’d stayed in Anchorage instead of joining the military, so he could keep an eye on his brother and keep him out of trouble. If only they’d never left Heron in the first place. If only he had never broken up with Lily. There were too many if onlys in his life.

  Mason went to the window and looked out. The sun was going down and had begun to shroud the inlet in darkness.

  Only a thick stand of trees stood between his house and the cove he and Lily had called their own. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there. Just beyond the pines, was a small beach lined with shale. It was nothing more than a pool of water that filled when the tide was high. But it was the place where they’d first kissed, where he told her he loved her, where he had hoped to ask her to share her life with him.

  Was that why he’d been so insistent that Gus sell him this house? Was it because he wanted to be close to their special place, their secret cove?

  It didn’t matter. His parents had been right. Mason and Lily had been too young. What did a 17-year-old know about love and marriage, anyway?

  Chapter 4

  The pub was quiet. As usual, the interior was dimly lit, with small lamps on each table giving off a red glow through the lamp shades. A bar ran almost the entire length of one wall and the rest of the building was filled with dining tables. The back wall was made up of tall windows, allowing an unobstructed view of the harbor and the inlet.

  All but one of the tables were empty. And that one table held a single occupant, Lily’s sister-in-law.

  Nora’s long amber-colored hair was pulled back into a fancy braid. That morning she’d spent a pain-staking half-hour trying to get the braid just right. It was tied it off at the end with a piece of blue ribbon that brought out the color of her eyes. Her usual attire included a t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown rubber boots, but that day Nora wanted to look nice. She had no choice but to wear the brown rubber boots, but instead of jeans and a t-shirt, she’d chosen a pink cashmere sweater paired with a long, flowing skirt. The clothes were remnants of a past life, one filled with social engagements and high society events. Since coming to Heron, though, Nora found she didn’t have much use for fancy, designer clothes. And, without the constant pressure to be perfect, Nora was happier than she’d ever been in her life.

  Her hands were folded in her lap as she waited patiently for Lily. They had a standing date to meet every Thursday at noon for lunch. Sometimes they got together more often, but living so far out of town made it difficult. Still, these lunch dates were the highlight of Nora’s week. They were a chance for her to catch up on all the latest news, which usually only took a few seconds, and to enjoy the company of her best friend.

  Nora glanced across the room at the clock on the wall. Lily was late, which was unusual.

  Off in the distance, she heard the sound of a horn blowing. It was the Alaska Marine Highway, the ferry system connecting Heron to the rest of Southeast Alaska. Unlike the larger island communities, where the ferry arrived several times per week, service to Heron was limited. Twice a month, the M/V LeConte delivered passengers to the remote town, staying docked for exactly two hours before beginning the trip back to Juneau, by way of Hoonah and several other towns tucked in along the shores of neighboring islands. And now that it was October, with the onset of winter, the ferry run would be reduced to once a month, making the isolation of the remote town even more perceptible.

  Through the window, Nora saw the ferry coming into port and she was reminded of her own arrival on the same ferry not too long ago. She’d been completely out of her element when she walked into the pub for the first time five months earlier. She was fresh off the boat, wearing the most impractical outfit and tall black boots with stiletto heels, looking for her uncle’s house she’d just inherited. She had no idea the “house” was actually a rustic wilderness cabin, or that it was a good ten miles outside of town and accessible only by boat.

  It had taken time and perseverance, but eventually Nora learned the ways of the bush. Now, she fit right in… or she was at least beginning to fit in.

  It helped that she married a strong, strapping Alaskan who took care of all the manual labor, like chopping firewood. The fact that he was the most handsome man in town didn’t hurt, either.

  She sure did make a fool of herself at first, though. It was a spontaneous decision, her move to Alaska. When she found out she’d inherited her uncle’s home, she booked passage on the first boat out of Bellingham, WA, without bothering to research her destination. If she had simply done a quick internet search, she would have known there were no roads in Heron – with the exception of an old logging trail that snaked its way inland over dangerous mountain terrain – and could have saved herself the humiliation of bringing a vehicle to a road-less town. It was embarrassing, for sure. The car, a practically brand new Prius, still sat in the parking lot at the Alaska Marine Highway dock, exactly where she’d parked it when she disembarked the ferry the previous spring.

  At half-past twelve, the door to the pub opened and Lily hurried in.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Lily said, striding over to the table where Nora waited. “You’d think I’d have more time since I have the month off from work, but it seems like I’m busier than ever.”

  Lily slid into the booth across from Nora and, almost simultaneously, a young girl walked over to their table to hand them menus.

  “Thanks, Sandra,” Lily said, taking the menu. It was strange to be on the receiving end of things. Usually, Lily ran the pub single-handedly and she liked it that way. Sure, she took on some extra help in the summer, when things were busier. But the rest of the year, it was all on her shoulders. Except for now. For the first time ever, Lily wasn’t working behind the bar and she wasn’t serving customers. It was nice being able to devote her full attention to the fall production, but it was still a little unnerving to hand the reins over to someone else, even if it was only for a few weeks.

  Lily didn’t bother looking at the menu. She knew everything on it by heart.

  “Chicken salad for me.”

  The girl scribbled Lily’s order onto her notepad and looked expectantly at Nora.

  “I’ll have the Rueben with onion rings,” Nora said, handing the menu back to the girl. Lily smiled pensively, remembering the first time she’d met Nora. She’d stared at the menu like she’d never had to choose her own meal before. She hadn’t been able to decide what to order. Now Nora knew exactly what she wanted. “And we’ll need two pieces of the chocolate cake I saw in the cooler. The one with the fudge topping. Bring the cake first.”

  “Cake?” Lily looked at her curiously after the server walked away.

  “To celebrate,” Nora said, taking a sip of water. �
��I have news.”

  The girl came back a second later with two small plates. She sat one down in front of each of them, then turned and left. Nora reached down and slid her finger across the fudge topping and stuck it in her mouth.

  “Don’t make me wait,” Lily said impatiently.

  Nora licked the frosting off her finger. “Jake’s over at the store ordering more supplies for the house.”

  “Yeah, so?” That was nothing new. Just about every time her brother came into town, he stopped by the store to order lumber, windows, doors, or plumbing fixtures. For the past two months, his sole focus had been on building a house for his new wife. The tiny cabin she’d inherited from her uncle was too small for more than one person. Together, they designed a modest one-bedroom home they planned to build right next to the old cabin. So far, Jake had the foundation in and the sub-floor laid. The walls were going up and he was working hard to get the entire thing enclosed by winter.

  “Well, the house plans have changed.” Nora looked at her, grinning excitedly. “We have to add another bedroom.”

  “You’re pregnant!” Lily guessed.

  Nora nodded happily. She and Jake had only been married three months, and they were already expecting.

  “I’m going to be an aunt.” Lily clapped her hands together and squealed with delight at the prospect, already envisioning all the ways she would spoil her new niece or nephew. “Oh, this is wonderful. You have no idea how happy I am for you two.”

  Nora beamed. She couldn’t stop smiling, hadn’t been able to stop since she took the pregnancy test and saw the positive result.

  “When are you due?” was Lily’s first question.

  “Sometime around the end of May, according to my calculations.” Nora was still grinning. “I have a doctor’s appointment in Juneau next week. Do you think you could come with us?”

  “I’d love to.” Lily felt touched Nora wanted to include her in such a special moment. “What day?”

  “Friday. A week from tomorrow. The appointment is at 2 o’clock. We’re going to spend the night at your mom’s house and do some shopping on Saturday. I can’t wait to start picking out baby clothes.”

  As Nora prattled on, Lily’s expression changed.

  “I can’t,” she said regretfully. “The drama workshop is next Saturday.”

  “Oh, that’s okay. We don’t have to stay overnight. We can come right back after the appointment so you won’t miss the workshop,” Nora assured her. “I can always order baby stuff through catalogs.”

  Lily heard the disappointment in Nora’s voice.

  “Don’t be silly. Spend the weekend, like you planned, and buy a ton of baby things. Just make sure you bring back a picture of the ultrasound if they do one. I want to see the baby.”

  “I will,” Nora agreed.

  When the door of the pub opened a second later, Nora glanced over to see if it was Jake. He said he’d meet her at the pub after he placed the lumber order. But it wasn’t him.

  A tall, slender man walked in, instead. He stopped just inside the door, looked around, and then moved in the direction of the bar. His dark reddish-colored hair was trimmed neatly, military style. He walked erect, his shoulders squared and his back straight.

  “Who’s that?” Nora wondered aloud. She’d never seen him before. “Someone off the ferry?”

  Lily turned in her seat and glanced toward the bar. When she saw who it was, she quickly turned back to Nora, sinking down into the booth a few inches so Mason didn’t see her.

  “No one important,” she said dismissively.

  “He’s cute.”

  “No, he’s not.” Puppies and babies were cute. Men like Mason, who could knock a woman out just by looking in her direction, were most definitely not cute.

  “I think he is,” Nora said, shoving a big bite of cake into her mouth. “He doesn’t compare to Jake, but he’s got a certain… something… about him. He looks dark and brooding. Mysterious.”

  Nora glanced back at Lily and noticed she was hiding from the man.

  “You know him, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I know him,” Lily said. “Or I used to. He didn’t see me, did he?”

  “I don’t think so,” Nora said, glancing back at the man. He was still standing by the bar, his back turned to them. “So, are you going to tell me who he is?”

  “His name’s Mason.”

  “Mason,” Nora repeated. “Good name. Kind of sexy, don’t you think?”

  “His name? I never thought much about it.”

  “So what’s his story?” Nora asked.

  “He lived here a long time ago. Now, it seems, he’s back.”

  Nora could tell by the tone of Lily’s voice, something had happened between the two of them. She wanted to ask her about it, but she decided not to press the issue.

  When the server arrived at their table with their lunches a few minutes later, Lily grabbed her fork and poked at her chicken salad. She didn’t take a bite.

  Nora ate her sandwich in silence, watching her sister-in-law intently. She looked subdued, lost in thought.

  Finally, Lily spoke.

  “Is he still here?”

  “No,” Nora said. “He got something to-go and left a few minutes ago.”

  “Good.” Lily relaxed a bit, sat back up in her seat, and took a small bite of the salad.

  “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

  Lily wasn’t sure if she wanted to explain it. But, she reminded herself, she’d always wanted a sister, someone she could confide in. Now she had one.

  “You might as well know,” she said, setting her fork down. “I’m sure you’ll be seeing him around quite a bit from now on. Apparently he bought the house on the south end of town from Gus.”

  “And I’m guessing you two have a history together,” Nora prompted, eager for more details. “Or do you always hide from handsome men?”

  Lily shot her a look of mock-annoyance.

  “No, I generally don’t hide from men, handsome or not. But you’re right. There is a bit of history between us.” She paused for a moment, sorting her thoughts. “I fell in love with Mason when I was just a kid.” A trace of sadness crept into her voice as she spoke. “It took him quite a few years to even notice me, the way I wanted him to notice me, anyway.” She paused again, trying to figure out how to explain it.

  “There weren’t any cliques in our school. Not enough kids to be able to break off into factions, not when there are only four or five in each grade. So, everyone hung out together. One summer, a bunch of us kids found a cave. We went there to hang out and drink. The usual stuff teenagers do. There was one girl, Aspen, who was about the same age as us. She’d worked her way through every guy in school, which wasn’t very many, and she had her sights set on Mason next. So one night we were all hanging out in the cave. We had a little fire going and we were all sitting around it. Aspen started working her magic on Mason. You know, flirting with him, touching his hair… that sort of thing. I couldn’t take it, the thought of her and Mason together.”

  Lily chuckled a little at the memory.

  “They were sitting together on the other side of the fire and Mason didn’t look interested, but Aspen was being really persistent. I knew if I didn’t do something, anything, she would get him. So, I stood up, marched over there, and took Mason by the hand. I led him out of the cave, toward this hidden cove I used to go to sometimes when I wanted to get away from everything. I didn’t know what I was going to do with him. I just knew I couldn’t let Aspen have him. I couldn’t explain it.

  “I remember thinking, as I pulled him along behind me, it was strange he didn’t say anything. He didn’t ask where we were going or why I had pulled him away from Aspen. He just followed me. By the time we got to the cove, my heart was racing. We stopped on the shoals, where the tide had already receded, and I realized I was still holding his hand.”

  Lily stopped talking long enough to take a drink of water.

&n
bsp; “I was embarrassed by that point, and I let go of his hand, but he grabbed it again. He asked me why I had dragged him away, but I didn’t have an answer. I couldn’t speak. My voice was stuck in my throat. The next thing I knew, he kissed me.”

  “First love,” Nora said quietly.

  Lily nodded her head.

  “We were always together after that, for almost a year.” A reluctant smile crept onto Lily’s face, revealing just how happy she had been at that point in her life. “Every day after school, we met at the cove. It was our secret place. We spent every minute together, from sunup to sundown. It actually hurt to be apart from him. I mean, it physically hurt.”

  “I know how it feels,” Nora said. She felt the same way about Jake. “So what happened?” she asked.

  “I’m still not really sure. I thought he felt the same about me as I felt about him. But one day, completely out of the blue, he broke it off. He said I was just a way to pass the time, that he felt sorry for me and that’s why he’d been spending so much time with me.”

  Nora gasped.

  “You didn’t believe him, did you?”

  “How could I not? I was 16 and I thought I was in love. I was devastated.” She stopped talking long enough to shove a bite of cake into her mouth.

  “So what did you do?” Nora asked, caught up in Lily’s heartbreak.

  “The only think I could think of. I went to spend the rest of the summer with my mom. I didn’t know what else to do. I thought if I got him out of my system, by the time school started I might be able to walk past him without breaking down.”

  “Did it work?”

  Lily shrugged.

  “He was gone by then. They moved away.”

  “So that’s it? You never talked to him again?”

  No. That wasn’t exactly where the story ended.

  “I got their new address from Barbara. She was forwarding their mail on to Anchorage. I wrote him a few times. I needed an explanation, something to give me a little closure. But I never got a response. Finally, I gave up.”

  “Oh, Lil. I’m so sorry.” Nora reached across the table and squeezed her hand gently.