One Snowy Night (Sweet Home, Alaska #1) - Patience Griffin Page 0,6
my know-it-all little sister, I don’t plan to see him at all.”
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DONOVAN STONE DROVE the several hours from Anchorage to Sweet Home feeling numb. Not from the cold, or the snow that littered his windshield, but because he couldn’t wrap his head around his grandfather being gone. Grief was only part of the problem. In his will, Grandpa had left Donovan both the hardware store and the lodge. Why? Donovan hadn’t called Sweet Home home since he was eighteen.
For the last month, he’d put off coming to Alaska. But if he wanted to sell the properties, he had to see them first and meet with the real estate agent with whom he’d set up an appointment for tomorrow. The sooner he got things wrapped up here, the sooner he could get to Florida.
It’d been a long time coming. Donovan had served his country by way of the Marines, then given his all to his business, which meant he’d had little time for family. To be fair, he’d flown Dad and Grandpa from Florida, where they’d retired, to visit him in San Jose for every holiday. When Donovan had sold his Silicon Valley consulting company, he’d promised his dad that he’d relocate to Florida. But he hadn’t moved quickly enough, and now Grandpa was dead.
Donovan drove around the final bend in the road and there sat Sweet Home. The new snow was plowed off to the sides, but that was the only thing he recognized. All the charm from the town was gone—the streets were deserted and most buildings were boarded up, but all of them looked battered, beaten, and run-down—including A Stone’s Throw Hardware & Haberdashery. It made Donovan sick. With paint faded and the windows dark, it felt like the hardware store was dead, too, just like Grandpa.
Something caught Donovan’s attention out of the corner of his eye. He saw a rack, then the beast coming toward him. He slammed on the brakes and veered to the side. As casual as could be, a moose strolled into the road. A moose acting as if he were trying to get a better look at the businesses—the Hungry Bear Grocery-Diner, the bank, the nailed-up medical clinic, and the churches—Baptist and Catholic—on either end of the town. Moose sightings were normal in Alaska, and Donovan should’ve prepared himself for it. But he hadn’t.
Seeing the huge bull was a disturbing reminder of why he’d left, and immediately, he felt the pain of losing his kid brother again. Beau had been Donovan’s best bud, best cohort in mischief, and best confidant. The two of them had been closer than most brothers. It seemed wrong, so wrong, that Beau’s vibrant life had been cut short at sixteen.
At the tail end of that gut-wrenching memory stood Hope. Hope, who had been his whole world. But that was before she killed Beau, and before Donovan left for good.
Although he was back now, he knew there was no chance of seeing her. Hope had always wanted to explore the world, starting with college in Boston. She was probably living somewhere in Europe by now.
He thought about their last fight, when he told her how his dad had convinced him that it was best for the family if he took the full ride he’d gotten to the University of Alaska in Anchorage.
Two hours later, the fight was pointless. Beau was gone. And a week after that, Donovan dropped out of high school and put Sweet Home in his rearview mirror for good. Or so he’d thought.
He pushed all the dark memories away. He never let himself think about Hope or the good times they’d shared together. He’d done fine without her for the past seventeen years. He’d even conquered his drinking problem, one day at a time. The ninth step in the program said he should make amends. He’d made amends with everyone else, but he wasn’t ready to take that step with Hope. He couldn’t forgive her, let alone ask her to forgive him for leaving. No matter how he looked at it, it was best if Hope wasn’t still in Sweet Home.
Donovan didn’t stop at the hardware store or anywhere else in town. Instead, he drove straight through, not wanting to speak to anyone who was left. Surely, being back in the familiar surroundings of his grandparents’ lodge would help acclimate him to being plunged into his past, plus help him get used to the far-north weather in the privacy of the lodge.