The Alaska Sunrise Romances: A 9-Book Sweet Romance Collection

by Melissa Storm

  "Can you believe our five days are already up? It seems like we just landed yesterday, and now we're going home."

  "Yeah, I know." Louise looked down the street, half expecting to see Brady—but they had already said their goodbyes early this morning. He'd just dropped her off a few hours ago, in fact. They'd spent the entire night driving to and from Fairbanks so that they could grab dinner at the Frosty Peak and soak in every last moment they had together. It had been a beautiful evening to remember him by, one she wouldn't be forgetting soon, or ever for that matter.

  And he'd given her the greatest gift of all—closure. They'd talked through everything that had and hadn't happened all those years ago. They'd been honest with each other and with themselves. It had been the perfect ending to something that never really got the chance to begin.

  Because now real life was calling.

  She had a meeting with her boss and the partners the next morning and would have to cram in at least eight hours of work on the Kleinmann case before then. Not to mention, checking in with her neighbor to collect her mail, going to the store to restock her fridge, and somehow finding a way to adjust herself back to East Coast time. Maybe she should get a cat to keep her company—now that her time with Brady had reminded her how much she loved having animals in her life. She'd have to do her research on that as well.

  Thinking of all she needed to do made her tired, and not just because she hadn't managed to grab much shut-eye the night before. Now that she'd taken a few days to slow down, she didn't know if she was quite ready to speed up again.

  She and Missy stopped by the local realtor's office to drop off the key to Aunt Maddie's ranch. Another shame.

  Sure, Brady had given her closure on their past, but a whole new crop of regrets had sprouted up during her brief stay in Anchorage.

  It's for charity, she reminded herself. It would be selfish to keep it. Aunt Maddie couldn't have expected I'd stay.

  "I feel like I understand you a little better, now that I've seen where you come from," Missy said as they rolled through the mountain-lined streets one last time.

  "Me, too." And she really did. She'd discovered parts of herself that she'd long since forgotten. Burying the bad memories also meant forgetting the good. And this trip had reminded her of both sets. It had reintroduced her to who she had been so many years ago, who she still was deep down on the inside.

  "Was it weird coming back so many years later?" Missy asked.

  "Yeah, but a good weird, I think."

  They drove in silence for a few minutes as both looked out at the scenery that flew by the windows.

  "What will you do when you get back?"

  "Work."

  Missy slumped back in her seat and looked out the window. "Figured."

  "How about you?"

  She smiled, but she didn't seem happy. “Jordan.”

  "Yeah."

  Several more minutes passed.

  “Missy?”

  "Yeah?"

  "What's wrong? Are you mad at me for abandoning you all week? I feel horrible."

  She sighed. "No, it's not that."

  "Then what?" Louise drummed her fingers on the steering wheel while she waited for her friend to work out an answer.

  "It's just… I thought… well, I just really thought you and Brady were going to work things out."

  "Why?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know exactly. You just seemed right. I thought things were supposed to work out no matter what when they were right."

  Louise grimaced. Leaving Brady behind was hard enough already; she didn't need Missy throwing it back in her face before they'd hardly had a chance to make it out of town. "Maybe for you and Jordan they did, but we can't all be so lucky."

  "Maybe."

  Still, her friend seemed genuinely upset.

  "Hey, chin up. I'm fine. You should be fine, too."

  "Maybe I just need a distraction. Mind if I drive?"

  "It's a stick shift, remember?"

  Missy frowned. "I know. I—I kind of lied about not being able to drive one."

  "Why would you do that?" Louise turned to study Missy. Lying was not like her at all.

  "So that you would give Brady a chance. It was just a feeling I had. Clearly, I was wrong. I'm so sorry, Weezy—I mean, Louise."

  She relaxed her grip on the steering wheel, noticing her knuckles had started to turn white. In a way, what Missy had tried to do for her was sweet. "It's okay, you can call me that. I don't mind it anymore. And, thank you, I'm glad you pushed us together. It helped me sort out a few important things."

  "But you're not together."

  "So what? Relationships don't have to last forever to be special. Maybe Brady and I already got what we needed." Even as she said the words, she knew she didn't believe them. She doubted Missy would either.

  "Maybe we're ready to move on to bigger and better things now. Maybe my prince charming is already waiting for me in Manhattan. You never know, right?"

  Missy shifted toward the door, leaning away from Louise in a way that felt like an insult. "I guess."

  “Missy, seriously, can you please stop? Leaving is hard enough already, and you're kind of making things harder."

  "Because he's right for you, and you know it, too."

  "Can we please talk about something else? Anything?"

  "Fine. Tell me about your big meeting tomorrow," Missy said, but Louise noticed she had tears welling up behind her eyes.

  They chatted idly as they finished their drive to the airport, but Louise didn't have her heart in it. The whole confrontation was so unlike Missy, she had to stop and wonder if she'd been too hasty in saying goodbye to Brady. Did Missy know something she didn't? If so, what?

  Actually, what did it matter? She'd already made her decision. They both had. And it was too late to change it. She'd lived the last dozen years without Brady; she could easily move forward without him again.

  When Missy disappeared into her phone, Louise let her. It was hard being alone with her thoughts, but it was even harder feeling like her best friend disapproved of a decision that she had no choice but to make.

  They returned their truck to the rental shop and then took a shuttle to the main terminal. As they waited in line to check their baggage, Missy continued to type furiously on her phone.

  "What's up?" Louise asked. Missy wasn't usually much of a texter.

  “Jordan. Making plans for tonight. Sorry, I'll just be a few more seconds."

  "Hey, don't worry about it." She took out her own phone and scrolled through her work emails. At least ten more regarding the Kleinmann case had arrived since she'd last checked. It was going to be a very long night, indeed.

  The line moved forward, and Louise placed her phone into her briefcase. When she looked back at Missy, her friend was wearing a huge smile.

  "I knew he'd make it!" Missy wrapped her arms around Louise and turned her to look in the opposite direction. "I told you it wasn't over! Look!"

  Brady rushed forward, carrying a bouquet of wild flowers and a small, shiny gift bag in his hands.

  Louise looked from Brady to Missy. "What's going on?"

  "What's going on is that you get your own happily ever after, Louise. He came for you.”

  "But—"

  "But nothing, you have to talk to him. Go!" She pushed Louise out of the line, then whispered, "Good luck."

  Luck? Did luck really have anything to do with what happened in their lives? Louise had worked hard for everything she had. She'd fought for it. To say things came down to luck was insulting.

  No, luck couldn't make your success, but it could certainly unmake it. She and Brady had been plagued by one stroke of bad luck after another.

  It had been bad luck that Rosie had taken up such a hatred for her, especially when Louise had never done a single thing to hurt her. And it had been bad luck that Rosie had maintained that hatred for years, deciding to spread that rumor just as she and Brady were about to give things another try
in high school. It had been bad luck that her dad had taken a new job across the country before she could decide whether she wanted to give him another chance.

  And it was bad luck now that neither of their careers were transportable, that they had no real way of making things work when they so clearly wanted to be with each other.

  She watched Brady as he wove between the endless streams of travelers and made his way over to her. A huge grin lit up his handsome face.

  "These are for you," he said, placing the flowers into the crook of her arm.

  "Brady, what are you doing here? I thought—"

  "I know I said I wouldn't ask for more than you could give, but I just couldn't let you get away again. I couldn't."

  He bent down to kiss her, and all the feelings she'd convinced herself she'd put to rest came rushing back.

  Reluctantly, she shook off his embrace and turned toward the ticket counter. "Brady, my flight… I have to go."

  "I know, but not without letting me give you this first." He placed the gift bag in her empty hand.

  "What is it?" She peered at him, unsure.

  But he only greeted her with a childlike smile, every bit as excited as he'd been the first time he'd asked to kiss her on the playground. "Open it and see."

  She pulled a very old dog-eared paperback book from the bag. Little Women. Her favorite book.

  "How did you…?"

  He took the book from her and thumbed through it to show her all the notes he had taken in the margins. "I picked it up years ago. When you told me about it that day, I knew I had to read it for myself. And I've read it many times since then. I always thought we were a lot like Laurie and Jo."

  "But Laurie and Jo don't end up together."

  "Yeah, but I always thought they should have.”

  Louise shook her head and looked away. "Brady, I can't."

  "Just promise me you'll think it over. Can you do that?"

  Just think it over. There was nothing just about it. She'd been wracking her brain the whole way to the airport, trying to think of some scenario that would allow them to be together, but there weren't any. They lived in two different worlds. She couldn't give up all she'd worked so hard for, especially not when she was so close to achieving partnership status.

  "Thank you for coming to say goodbye." She gave Brady a long hug, then turned around and headed toward the security check with Missy stumbling behind her.

  Chapter 12

  Louise walked down the narrow aisle of the plane. She couldn't believe she was actually going through with this, but she also knew that she needed to go forward with no regrets, no second thoughts. She jammed her carry-on into the overhead bin and smiled at the person occupying the window seat next to her.

  "An eight-hour flight. Please tell me you have an interesting story to tell. By the way, I'm Claire," the woman said, offering Louise a candy from her box of Good n' Plenties.

  Louise held out her hand to accept the candy and smiled at the kindly stranger. “I’m Louise. And as a matter of fact…"

  The plane sped up down the runway and lifted into the sky. Louise had thought long and hard about all that happened with Brady, and she finally felt ready to put it into words.

  So, she told the old woman the story of her big return to Anchorage, of running into Brady again, of their amazing night en route to and from Fairbanks. Claire's attention never wavered as Louise went into all the details of how her story had unfolded. When Louise told her about how Brady had caught up with her at the airport, Claire's eyes glistened with intrigue.

  "And then what happened? Did you get on the plane?"

  Louise nodded, and Claire let out a gasp of horror. "I did."

  "After all that you two didn't even end up together? No offense, but that's a terrible story."

  "Well...." Louise smiled. "I didn't say it was over."

  She clapped her hands lightly against one another. "Oh, goodie. Please do continue."

  "I got on the plane and went back to New York. I worked through the night to catch up on my case, and went to my law office the next morning to meet with the partners."

  "And?" Her eyes were wide as she waited for Louise to continue.

  "And I was right, they did offer me the new partner position." She accepted another candy from Claire's outstretched palm. This time it was a Twizzler.

  "Oh, that's wonderful."

  Louise shook her head as she chewed. "I thought it would be, but when they offered it, I realized I didn't want it. Not really." Her whole life she had been working hard to get ahead, and she'd finally made it, but the victory felt hollow.

  "So, what did you do?"

  A huge smile took over Louise's face. "I quit, right then and there."

  "You didn't?" She gasped again. "Oh, I bet your bosses weren't pleased."

  "They weren't. In fact, they even told me that old cliché, you know the one. You'll never work in this town again. So, I said fine. I'm through with this town anyway."

  "And your fella?"

  "Will be pleasantly surprised when I show up at his door tonight."

  "You mean he doesn't—?"

  "Nope."

  "Oh, that's so terribly romantic. But, tell me, what are you going to do for work?"

  "That's easy. I'm going to follow my dreams, my real ones. Coming back to my hometown reminded me of who I was before I became a big shot city lawyer."

  "And who might that be, dear?"

  Louise held up the dog-eared copy of Little Women that rested upon her lap. "I was a girl who more than anything else loved to read."

  Claire squealed. "Oh, are you going to write your story?"

  "No, I still love the law, but I don't love the corporate stuff I've been doing. I'm going to start my own practice to help authors and publishers navigate their literary rights."

  "In Anchorage?”

  "With frequent trips back to New York. My friend Missy’s agreed to let me crash at her place whenever I need to."

  "That sounds perfect," Claire said, rubbing Louise on the shoulder.

  Louise nodded. "Even more perfect is the fact that Bill Ringstead offered me part-time work at his office in Anchorage. That way there's no pressure for me to make it or break it right away. I can take my time, do things right."

  "And you'll have your aunt's ranch?"

  "I will, and I'm planning to get a couple horses of my own, too."

  "Now isn't that just lovely? I do wish you the best, dear."

  The captain's raspy voice came on over the airplane's speakers. "We're now making our final descent into Anchorage. Should be just a few more moments here, folks."

  "Would you look at that? With you to keep me company, it was like no time had passed at all. Thank you for telling me your story. It's a good one."

  Louise laughed. "Yes, I think so, too."

  They both rose to collect their luggage from the overhead bins, and while they waited for the passengers in front of them to get a move on, Claire turned to Louise once again. "By the way, my daughter is an author, and, well, she could use a good person like you in her corner. Here's her card. I'll let her know you'll be in touch."

  When Louise saw the name that was printed in bold across the white business card, her eyes popped. Maybe there was such a thing as good luck, after all. "Your daughter's…?" she asked, unable to believe that she'd just met and spent an enjoyable afternoon with one of her favorite author's mothers.

  The old woman beamed with pride. "None other. Goodbye now, dear."

  Louise really couldn't believe her good luck. She hadn't even officially started her own practice yet, and already she had a lead on a mega bestselling client. She felt like she was floating as she exited first the plane, then the airport, then the expressway on her way to Anchorage.

  She found Brady at Jake's Watering Hole, sitting by himself at the bar.

  "Why, hello, good lookin'," she drawled, taking a seat beside him.

  "You." His breath seemed to catch in his throat as he loo
ked her up and down, almost as if he couldn't believe she was real.

  Louise wore what must have been the biggest smile of her entire life. "Me."

  "I just… I can't believe you're really here. What are you doing back…?"

  She reached forward and cupped a hand around each of his cheeks. "Making a life. And I'm hoping it can be with you."

  "I'd like that," he said, rising to his feet and picking her up in a strong embrace. "I'd like that very much." He bent down to kiss her, and she let herself melt into his arms.

  There would be no more goodbyes. In fact, this was only the beginning. They still had so much more life to live, and they'd finally be doing it together.

  Must Love Miracles

  Sam & Heidi

  Author’s Note

  2016

  Why do we read, write, learn, live? For me, the answers are all one and the same. I write in order to explore deeper questions, in order to think and get others to think, in order to stretch the bounds of my imagination, in order to grow.

  Life is a journey and it’s one that each of us can only take for ourselves. Sure, others can travel alongside us, but no one can step into your shoes and do it for you. And an important part of life to me and to many others is spirituality, finding how we relate to the larger world, and figuring out why we’re even here to begin with.

  This brief afterword isn’t about my personal beliefs, but it is about some dangerous assumptions people have made about me and other authors who choose to address moral and spiritual issues.

  It is so, so important to address these beliefs outside of a traditional Christian Fiction model. For me, spirituality doesn’t happen within the confines of a church, a temple, or mosque. It doesn’t follow a specific course of rules and regulations, and faith is something we must exercise in all aspects of our lives, not just when dogma dictates or when it’s convenient, or expected, or safe.

  Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes it’s ugly. But every new situation is a chance to grow in your faith and to grow in all the great things that make you you, and tie you both to God and to your fellow man/woman.