Hmm. Naturalist. Botanist. Forest ranger. Yeah, one of those. A guy who lived in the mountains, alone. His company was the landscape, the animals. His name was…Julian narrowed his eyes, reached for the first thing that came to mind. Paul, Peter, Matthew, Jake. Huh. Jake, yeah. Manly name for a guy with a broken heart. Matthew McConaughey–style, that Texas jaw and strong blue eyes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.
He sipped a cup of hot, strong spice tea, his only beverage when he worked. The wine with supper had lubricated his thinking a little, but he didn’t really like drinking much anymore. It slowed his brain down, which was probably why some people liked it.
And if he were honest with himself, he was thinking of checking on Elena and crew later.
Jake in the mountains. Maybe Jake was too clichéd, too. Think about that. Jack, Mack. No, Jake for now. Fix it later.
Putting his cup down, he typed: brokenhearted Jake in a cozy snowfall. A fire. A blanket in front of the fire. He’s waiting, but we don’t know for what. A woman appears, wearing a diaphanous robe that reveals and hides all at once. A beauty, sexy and strong, and she slides down behind our hero and begins to kiss his neck. A knock comes at the door. Camera zooms in on Jake’s face, showing nothing. He glances over his shoulder, gets up to answer the door—
There was a sudden bump against his leg. Julian, heavily engrossed in his writing, startled. He looked around the laptop screen to see Alvin.
“Oh, it’s you, Dog,” he said, reaching out to scratch the red-gold head. It was as silky as it looked. “Where’s my daughter?”
Alvin leaned back, throat exposed, a most obvious invitation. Julian grinned and kept scratching the side of his face. Alvin reached up and put a paw on his wrist: lower. He licked his jowls, looked over his shoulder toward the stairs to the basement, and worriedly looked back to Julian.
“Problem?” Julian asked.
Faintly, he heard Portia yelling. Into the phone, probably. “You don’t like yelling, do you? You want me to go check on her?”
Alvin leapt up and pranced toward the stairs, watching to see if Julian was smart enough to actually follow. They went down the stairs, and as Julian always did, he passed his hand through the strings of water falling in perfectly straight lines from the ceiling two stories above.
As they got to the bottom of the steps, Alvin slowed. Portia’s voice, slightly hysterical, came to him clearly. “Mom, you can’t just keep doing that! I can’t go from school to school, back and forth, it makes me crazy. You won’t even be there—you’re always on some stupid movie.”
Julian paused. This was a new angle. He squatted to put a gentling hand on Alvin’s back. The dog stopped agreeably, waiting for a cue.
“If you miss me so much, just come visit me. How hard is that?”
Another pause. His heart lifted.
Portia’s voice was absolutely solid when she said, “I will not come live there. Plain and simple. I like it here.” The sound of something hitting a wall. He suspected it was a phone.
Julian trotted the rest of the way down the stairs, coming around the corner just as Portia let go of a growl of aggravation. Alvin rushed over to lick her fingers. “Your charge doesn’t much like shouting,” he said mildly.
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey!” She dropped down to her knees and kissed Alvin’s face all over, scrubbing his neck, the fluff of thick hair around his neck. On the floor, her phone began to trill. “Don’t answer that,” she warned her dad. “My mother is a selfish, clueless …child.”
Julian lifted his index finger. “Watch this.” He picked up the phone and punched the green button. “Hello, Ricki. How are you tonight?”
“Julian. I’m fine. Do you have a new movie yet?”
“No. Listen, Portia is settled and happy in the school here and I want her to stay put for the whole school year.”
“I miss her, Julian. It’s not fair that you have her all the time.”
“There’s plenty of room here. You’re welcome to come visit any time you like.”
“But I’m living with someone now, you know that.”
“There’s room for him, too.”
Ricki paused. “Really?”
“We’re adults. There’s seven thousand square feet in this house. Doesn’t he ski? We’re getting our first snow tonight.”
“Well, I suppose that’s one answer, isn’t it?” She sounded hopeful, if a bit perplexed. “I’d love to, Julian, if you really mean it.”
“I really mean it, Ricki. In fact,