where my dad plays a lot of golf and my mom, um, shows off pictures of their grandchildren.”
“Grandchildren?”
“My sister and her husband have two kids, a boy who’s five and a girl who’s four.”
“Those are sweet ages. My nephew is only a year.” Unable to look away, she watched his big capable hands stoke the logs with quick efficiency. “His name is J.T. Most days I get to spend extra time with him, since we have a day care at the gym that my brother uses while he work—”
She stopped short before she spilled her whole flipping life story. What was it about this guy that made her babble on?
Glancing back over his shoulder, Wade stared at her so long she looked behind her… and found nothing.
“Do I have something caught between my teeth?”
He shook his head, dusting bits of bark from his palms as the logs crackled with building heat. “Nah, I’m just enjoying the view. And before you get nervous or offended, I’m about ready to fall on my ass from exhaustion and blood loss.” He winked. “I’m not a threat to your virtue any more here than I was in the cave.”
All the same his words stirred images of what they could have done in that sprawling bed of his two steps up under the skylight.
When she looked back, he’d opened a drawer on the dresser, all the wood light colored with a simple sealant over the natural maple.
He pulled out a couple of perfectly folded items. “T-shirt and drawstring exercise pants for you to sleep in.” He tossed the pile on the counter, the words Air Force stamped in blue across the front. “I’m gonna change into some sweats, in case you were wondering. And I’m gonna clean up again. The shower at base was rushed, to say the least. After I finish, we can talk about where to go next in the morning.”
He was making it too easy to lie to him.
“May I use your computer?” She scooped up the large T-shirt that smelled like him. “I need to email my sister so she can let my family know I’m okay.”
“Of course.” He leaned in the open doorway to a roomy bathroom with a spa shower.
She hauled her eyes off the glassed-in shower and the steamy fantasies it evoked. “Thanks.”
At least she didn’t have to explain the whole phone issue in detail, how they had local telephone service available, but long-distance connections were harder to come by. And most people didn’t want either.
Being out here, things that had once seemed normal now seemed… not so normal. “Thank you. I won’t monopolize it.”
“I’m good. I won’t go through withdrawal if I go another hour without checking messages.” His smile squeezed the guilt inside her all the tighter.
He closed the bathroom door behind him and she rushed to the kitchenette. Dropping into the chair, she stared at the keyboard and screen for a minute to familiarize herself, then logged on to her community’s home page.
Sunny: Misty? Are you there?
She watched the cursor blink, blink, but nothing happened. Her sister must have left the computer logged on while she stepped away.
Sunny: Wanted 2 let U know I’m okay. Got caught by the storm. Safe in Anchorage. Have help from guy who rescued me. Will b home soon.
The next part was tough and didn’t seem right to pass along in an instant message.
Sunny: See my email. Have sad news 2 long to explain here. Love U.
Composing that email was even tougher than she’d expected. Breaking the news of a death this way was unimaginable. But she had to be sure Misty did not leave with the deputy. Heaven only knew why he’d gone off the deep end, but she’d be damned before he got near her sister. And she wasn’t trusting the sheriff to do the job for her in a timely fashion. The deputy was in law enforcement too, after all…
God, she sounded like a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
She logged off. There was nothing more she could do tonight. Even if she found a way to magically get back to the Aleutian Islands before morning, she was simply too dog-tired to start the climb home. Hopefully tomorrow, in the broad daylight, she could construct a logical plan to return as quickly as possible.
The back of her neck prickled with awareness, the sense of being watched. She pivoted in her chair fast to find Wade standing in the bathroom doorway again, sweatpants slung low on his narrow hips. Curly dark