Mistletoe and Mr. Right (Moose Springs, Alaska #2) - Sarah Morgenthaler Page 0,55

just because she needed some time to think and the perspective of distance to do it in.

“Watch out over there,” Ash warned, jutting her head to indicate a loose bit of rock beneath Lana’s boots.

Nodding gratitude at Ash’s warning, she braced her feet wider for stability. Sometimes in business, one had to step back from the minutiae that could bog a project down. Stand back and really see the project as the whole it was supposed to be, not the individual parts.

Moose Springs was Lana’s project, and lately, she’d been far too bogged down in the tiny details. Tiny details were important, but Lana had been raised to see the big picture first. Thirty thousand feet worked better when one was in an airplane, but three thousand feet worked too.

“There aren’t a lot of roads in and out of town, are there?”

Ash glanced at her. “Not many, but we keep them clear. Why?”

“I’m trying to see this from a different angle,” Lana said. “I know what the group wants for Moose Springs, and I know what Moose Springs wants for Moose Springs. I’m trying to see if there’s another way to look at it. There’s nothing else around here, is there?”

“No,” Ash grunted, crossing her arms. “Just us and the rest of the mountains.”

“And Moose Springs used to be a mining town?”

“They closed the mines a long time ago. No one’s opening them back up, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Lana shook her head. “I’m trying to imagine what would be here if the resort was gone. Why people would be here. How far they’d have to go to find work.”

Opening her mouth then shutting it again, Ash must have decided to keep her thoughts to herself. At least initially.

“We’d find something,” she finally said. “We’re not that easy to take out.”

“In the meantime, how many of the town would you lose to Anchorage?”

A crease of concern crossed Ash’s brow. “I honestly don’t know.”

They fell silent, and Lana took in the scenery. Mount Veil remained a formidable monster in the distance. Maybe, somehow, the answer could be there.

Suddenly, Lana’s companion cleared her throat. “Hey, do me favor,” Ash said. “We’ll call this even on fuel and hours flown.”

“No special tourist rate?” Lana asked.

“I don’t know what you are.” Ash shrugged. “But you don’t count as a tourist anymore.”

She was making progress. Slow progress was still progress.

“You know my buddy Rick? The one you nearly took out with a tranq gun?”

His name brought a warmth that her cold weather gear couldn’t come close to comparing to. “I’ve had the pleasure of his acquaintance,” Lana said.

“If he ever gets up the balls to ask you out, let him down easy, okay? He’s had a tough time of it, and at some point, he needs to start putting himself out there again. The idiot has a thing for you, and we haven’t been able to talk him out of it. He’ll probably say something soon. Just don’t laugh in his face. Please.”

That “please” was quiet, the appeal of a worried friend.

“I wasn’t aware we came up here to discuss my love life,” Lana said.

“Trust me, it’s not high on my to-do list.” Ash dropped down into a squat, then folded her arms over her knees. “It’s not that I don’t like you. I do. I’m not sure why…” Eyeing her, Ash gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s a part of me that buys into the whole caring about what happens to all of us. The difference is, I think the town will be better if everyone else on the planet forgets we’re here.”

“The business owners might disagree.”

“Only half of them. The other half will breathe a sigh of relief. The way I see it, you have to adapt to stay alive. That’s what some people did. They adapted to adjust to the influx of tourists. It doesn’t mean we can’t adapt our way back to normal. It might be hard, but we’re tough. We can make it.”

“Trust me, the last thing I’d ever doubt is how strong this town is.” Lana meant it completely. In all her travels, she’d never met a group of people with half as much sheer grit as the townsfolk of Moose Springs.

“We’re tough, but we’re not bulletproof.” Ash took a deep breath in the thin, cold air, exhaling a puff similar to smoke. “Rick…he’s one of the great guys. But I’ve been watching him since his divorce, and he’s just not that adaptable. He won’t do