Rising onto her toes, she kissed him lightly.

“Lesley…”

“Shhh.”

He stood perfectly still, and with his eyes closed, allowed her to continue kissing him. When she was satisfied with his lips, she kissed the underside of his jaw, moving her mouth down his neck, then up to his ear. After what seemed like the longest moment of her life, he threaded his fingers through her hair and raised her face to his.

“I want you to be very sure.”

“I am,” she whispered. “I am sure.”

He looked into her eyes. “A hot bath and chocolate sounds like an excellent suggestion,” he said.

Lesley smiled contentedly. Marriage was far better than she’d ever imagined.

“Where are we going?” Lesley asked. They’d left Victoria that afternoon and had traveled down the Kitsap Peninsula, boarding the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. Lesley had assumed they’d be heading directly back to her house. If so, Chase was taking an interesting route.

“There’s something I want you to see.”

She glanced at her watch and swallowed her impatience. They’d gotten a later start than they’d expected. Their morning had begun with a hot bath. At least the water had initially been hot, but by the time they finished, it had cooled considerably. Because their schedule was off, they’d been forced to wait for a later ferry.

Their flight to Alaska was leaving early the next morning, and Lesley had a hundred details she needed to take care of before then.

“There,” Chase said, pulling into an asphalt parking lot.

“Where?” She didn’t see anything.

“The billboard,” he said.

Looking up, she saw the original billboard Chase had used to advertise for a wife. The sign had been changed and now read, in huge black letters, THANK YOU, LESLEY, FOR SHARING MY LIFE.

“Well?” he asked, waiting for her to respond.

“I… Oh, Chase, that’s so sweet and so romantic. I think I’m going to cry.” She was struggling to hold back the tears.

“I want to make you happy, Lesley, for the rest of our lives.” He brought her into his arms and kissed her.

Happiness frightened her. Every time she was truly content, truly at peace, something would go wrong, her happiness ruined. The first time it happened, she was a child. A six-year-old. She’d never been happier than the week before they were supposed to leave for Disneyland. Not only had the trip been canceled, but she’d lost her father.

She’d been excited about her wedding to Tony, planning the event, shopping for her wedding dress, choosing her clothes. But he’d broken their engagement, plunging her into depression and then numbness.

Lesley was happy now, and she couldn’t help wondering what it would cost her this time.

Ten

Lesley’s hand reached for Chase’s as the airplane circled Fairbanks, Alaska, before descending. She’d found the view of Alaska’s Mount McKinley, in Denali National Park, awe-inspiring. After living in Seattle, between the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, she thought being impressed by Denali was saying something. The tallest peak in North America rose from the land far below, crowned by a halo of clouds.

“Is it all so beautiful?” she asked as the plane made its final approach.

“There’s beauty in every part of Alaska,” Chase told her, “but some of it’s more difficult to see. More subtle.”

“I’m going to love Twin Creeks,” she said, knowing it would be impossible not to, if the area was anything like the landscape she’d seen from the plane.

Chase’s fingers tightened around hers. “I hope you do.”

They landed and were met by a tall, burly man with a beard so thick it hid most of his face. Beneath his wool cap, she caught a glimpse of twinkling blue eyes.

“Pete Stone,” Chase said casually, placing his arm around Lesley’s shoulders. “This is Lesley.”

“You done it? You actually done it?” Pete asked, briefly removing his wool cap and scratching his head. His hair was shoulder-length and as thick as his beard. “You got yourself a wife?”

“How do you do?” Lesley said formally, holding out her hand. “I’m Lesley Goodman.” Pete ignored her proffered hand and reached for her instead, hauling her against him and hugging her so tightly, he lifted her three feet off the ground. Lesley wasn’t offended so much as surprised. She cast a pleading glance at her husband, who didn’t look any too pleased with this unexpected turn of events.

“Pete,” Chase said stiffly. “Put her down. Lesley’s not accustomed to being manhandled.”

“You jealous?” Pete said, slowly releasing her. His grin would’ve been impossible to see beneath the mask of his beard, but his eyes sparkled with delight. “That tells me you care about this little slip of a girl.”

Being nearly six feet tall, Lesley didn’t think of herself as a little slip of anything. She couldn’t help liking Pete despite his bear-hugging enthusiasm.

“Of course I care about her. I married her, didn’t I?”

“You sure did, but then you said you was coming back with a wife if you had to marry yourself up with a polecat.”

“Lesley’s no polecat.”

“I got eyes in my head,” Pete said. “I can see that for myself.”

“Good. Now, is the plane ready or not?” Chase asked, picking up two of their suitcases. He didn’t look at Lesley and she sensed that Chase was annoyed by Pete’s remark about his determination to find a wife. She hadn’t accepted his proposal under any misconception. If she’d turned him down, he would’ve found someone else. She’d known that from the first.

Pete grabbed the two additional pieces of luggage and winked at Lesley. “The plane’s been ready since yesterday. I flew down a day early and raised some heck.”

“Okay, okay,” Chase muttered. He turned to Lesley. “Do you mind leaving right away?” he asked as they approached the four-passenger plane.

“No,” she assured him with a smile. She was eager to reach her new home, and she knew Chase was just as eager to get back. It would’ve been nice to spend some time in Fairbanks, but they’d have plenty of opportunity for that later.

“So,” Pete said to Chase after they’d boarded the plane, “are you going to tell me how you did it?” The two men occupied the front seats, with Chase as the pilot, while Lesley sat in the back.

“Did what?”

“Got someone as beautiful as Lesley to marry you.”

Chase was preoccupied, flipping a series of switches. “I asked her.”

Lesley was mildly insulted that he’d condensed the story of their courtship into a simple three-word sentence.

“That was all it took?” Pete seemed astounded. He twisted around and looked at Lesley. “You got any single friends?”

“Daisy,” she answered automatically, already missing her neighbor.

“Daisy,” Pete repeated as if the sound of her name conjured up the image of a movie star. “I bet she’s beautiful.”

“She’s divorced with two boys,” Chase said, “and she recently started dating a guy she works with, so don’t get your mind set on her.”

Pete was quiet for a few minutes; silence was a rare commodity with this man, Lesley suspected. “I figured you’d get yourself a woman with a couple kids, liking the little rascals the way you do,” he told Chase.

“Lesley suits me just fine.” Chase reached for the small hand mike and spoke with the air traffic controller, awaiting his instructions. Within minutes they were in the air.

Chase hadn’t told her he was a pilot; Lesley was impressed but not surprised. There was something so capable about him. So skilled and confident. She guessed that he was the kind of man who’d be equal to any challenge, who could solve any problem. Maybe that was typical of Alaskans.

“Won’t it be dark by the time we arrive?” she asked.

Pete laughed as if she’d told a good joke.

“The sun’s out until midnight this time of year,” Chase explained. “Remember?”

Pete twisted around again. “Did Chase tell you much about Twin Creeks?”

“A little.” Very little, she realized with a start. All she knew was that Twin Creeks was near the pipeline and that Chase was employed by one of the major oil companies. The town was small, but there weren’t any exceptionally large cities in Alaska. The population of Fairbanks, according to some information she’d read on the plane, was less than forty thousand.

“You tell her about the mosquitoes?” Pete asked Chase, his voice low and conspiratorial.

“Mosquitoes?” Lesley repeated. She’d considered them more of a tropical pest. There were plenty in the Seattle area, but the air was moist and vegetation abundant. She’d never thought there’d be mosquitoes in the Arctic.

“Mosquitoes are the Alaska state bird,” Pete teased, smiling broadly. “You ain’t never seen ’em as big as we get ’em. But don’t worry, they only stick around in June and July. Otherwise they leave us be.”

“I have plenty of repellant at the cabin,” Chase assured her, frowning.

“Twin Creeks is near the Gates of the Arctic wilderness park. Chase told you that, didn’t he?”

Lesley couldn’t remember if he had or not.

“We’re at the base of the Brooks range, which is part of the Endicott mountains.”

“How long does it take to drive to Fairbanks?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Pete admitted, rubbing his beard as he considered her question. “I’ve always flown. We don’t have a road that’s open year-round, so not many folks drive that way. Mostly we fly. Folks in Twin Creeks mainly rely on planes for transportation. It’s easier that way.”

“I…see.” Lesley was beginning to do just that. Twin Creeks wasn’t a thriving community as she’d originally assumed. It was a station town with probably a handful of people. All right, she could live with that. She could adjust her thinking.

“Twin Creeks is on the edge of the Arctic wilderness,” Chase said absently, responding to Pete’s earlier remark about the town’s location.

It was difficult to read his tone, but Lesley heard something she hadn’t before. A hesitation, a reluctance, as if he feared that once she learned the truth about living in Alaska, she’d regret having married him. But she didn’t. It wasn’t possible, not anymore. Their honeymoon had seen to that.

“What about the wildlife?” she asked, curious now.

“We got everything you can imagine,” Pete answered enthusiastically. “There’s caribou, Dall sheep, bears—”

“Bears?” She refused to listen beyond that.

“They’re a nuisance if you ask me,” Pete continued. “That’s why most of us have caches so—”

“What’s a cache?” Lesley interrupted.

“A cache,” he repeated as if he was sure she must know.