Melting His Alaskan Heart (8 page)

“Yeah, I’m sure. Too much light pollution. You’ll see them in a whole new way now.”

She certainly understood
remote
in a whole new way now, too. “Was that a dog mushing team I saw as we were landing?”

Travis glanced to Ethan as though he might answer her, but when he didn’t, Travis said, “Yes, that’s Vince Merritt’s team. Have you heard of him?”

“Actually I have. He was a top ten finisher in the Iditarod last year.”

“Yes, he was.” Travis said, “So you’re a sports journalist?”

“Yep.” They trudged through the snow a few more steps before they approached the Forrester Lodge. Carly glanced up at the enormity of the huge logs and deck that stretched out across one side. “Wow, this place is incredible.”

“What kind of stories do you write about, as a
sports journalist
?”

“Human interest stories mostly.” If Ethan wasn’t going to join the conversation and explain her presence here, neither would she. “You know, why people choose the sports they love or why the sports choose them.”

“Huh. Sports choose people?”

“Sure. I wanted nothing more than to be part of a team sport, but I lack the hand-eye coordination to make it beyond the recreational level. But I was determined to be in some kind of sport in college, so I ran cross-country. Don’t need as much coordination for that.”

“I was on a full-ride scholarship for hockey in college, until I blew out my knee. Then all my plans changed.”

“See. That’s the kind of human interest story I’m talking about. People want to know how you overcame that, how you persevered.”

“Ah, well, I couldn’t persevere. I had to choose another profession.”

Carly noted an edge to his voice. Bitterness, perhaps? There certainly was a story there. Ethan had mentioned that the whole family played hockey. She wondered at what level Ethan had played.

E
THAN SPENT
the entire flight contemplating how he planned to introduce Carly to everyone. The weekend was supposed to be a gathering for only his family. How was he going to explain this? Then she’d talked to Travis instead of him. It wasn’t like he was interested in chit-chat, anyway.

They stepped inside the lobby of the lodge, and the warmth of the fire in the three-story river rock fireplace radiated over him. The lodge had always felt like his personal cocoon of healing and rejuvenation. After his wife died, he moved away from Anchorage and made his permanent home at the lodge. However, he still fulfilled his firefighter duties in Anchorage, so he traveled back and forth on a regular basis.

The people of Gold Creek were like his extended family, and as much as the tourists annoyed him at times, they kept him distracted from constant thoughts of his wife and their previous life together.

His mother, Molly, emerged from the kitchen. She had been a pillar of strength for the family after his father had died of a heart attack when Ethan was seventeen years old. Ethan thought nothing could have been worse in his life, but he had been wrong. Things could always be worse. Always.

Ethan had never imagined he’d have to follow in his mother’s footsteps and learn to exist and move on without his spouse by his side, but somehow she had managed to do it much better than he had.

“There you boys are.” His mother smiled as she approached her two middle sons. “I heard the plane. I’m so happy you both arrived safely. And you must be Carly.”

His mother zeroed right in on his guest. “Hello, Mother. This is Carly Hughes.”

“Yes, I know. Zak told me you’d be bringing a guest.” His mother flung her arms around his waist for a quick embrace and then moved to Travis. Then she reached out and clasped Carly’s hand. “The entire family is here, except Fiona. She had classes she couldn’t miss. She’s a student, but Sabrina and I are delighted to have another woman amongst us for the weekend. Welcome to the Forrester Lodge.”

“Thank you,” Carly said. If his mother’s greeting overwhelmed her, she didn’t let on.

“I’ll show you around the lodge, but first let me introduce you to Zak and Sabrina.” His mother wrapped an arm around her and urged her toward the kitchen. “I have them working on a moose rump roast for dinner and since we let Cook off for the weekend, I need to supervise.”

Carly glanced back at him with dismay.

Ethan gave a miniature shrug in hopes of letting her know via body language that he was helpless in the face of his mother and her determination.

Travis turned to him. “You’re just going to let her take Carly like that?”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Mom is going to assume she’s your girlfriend, you know.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“You didn’t speak to her the entire flight. I think I got the no girlfriend part, but you’ve never brought a woman to the lodge before, so Mom might make an assumption.”

“Carly is a reporter. A nosy sports journalist wanting an interview with Dane. She’s nothing more than that.”

“Is that so? With the way she looks at you, I think she’s more interested in writing your story.”

“She doesn’t look at me any way except for a way to get to Dane.”

“So, no hook-up?”

“Shut up.”

“See. Your bad attitude goes to show I’m right.”

“I always have a bad attitude.”

“That’s true, but I have to wonder how this girl convinced you to let her talk to Dane.” His brother’s blue eyes narrowed.

Travis wasn’t stupid. Under normal circumstances, Ethan would never bring a reporter to the lodge. “It wasn’t my choice. I owed her this. Or Dane owed me. Whichever.” He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “Anyway, just let it rest. She’ll get her interview with Dane, then she’ll be out of here on the first flight in the morning.”

“Mom is going to assume she’s staying for the entire weekend, but whatever you say.”

“I say.” Ethan grumbled before looking up at Zak, Sabrina, his mother, and Carly returning from the kitchen. Zak gave him a warning look, that silent code that only brothers can understand.

Molly Forrester had a way of manipulating, a way of bending people to her will, that Ethan never fully grasped. He just accepted it. She looked like a border collie rounding up her sheep, steering them into the pen of her choosing. “Ethan, Carly was just telling me she has two brothers who taught her how to skate. So your girlfriend will fit perfectly into our family.”

“Mom, she isn’t my—”

“I told her we haven’t been seeing each other long,” Carly interrupted and gave him a glare. “I was so thrilled to get the invitation to visit your family, and she said you’ve never invited a girlfriend here before.”

That’s because I haven’t had a girlfriend, Ethan thought. “Listen, Mom, it’s not like—”

Before he could say another word, Carly appeared at his side slipping her arm around his waist and whispering in his ear. “She’s so happy that you’ve brought a woman to the lodge, just let her think we’re together. What is it going to hurt?”

What’s it going to hurt?
It was a lie for one thing. Ethan didn’t lie to people, especially his family. He didn’t dress up in a costume and pretend to be his brother, either, but he’d done that, too. Ever since he’d met Carly, deception seemed to be prevalent in his life and he didn’t like it one bit. It didn’t feel right letting his mother think they were together.

From the look in Zak’s eye, he knew the true story or had guessed. But of course he did, Carly had called the lodge and spoken with him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know Carly and Ethan were nothing more than acquaintances. Well…acquaintances that had slept together under the guise of his brother, but he’d repented of those sins. Or at least, he thought so.

Under his breath, he responded to Carly, “I don’t make a habit of lying to my family, especially my mom.”

“She was so thrilled to know you’d have someone with you for the weekend,” Carly whispered back. “I just couldn’t bring myself to—”

“The weekend? You’re only staying one night,” he grumbled.

“I’m staying until I get my interview, however long that takes.”

Ethan’s mother interrupted their whispered conversation. Her face beamed with sparkly light as she smiled at them. “Why don’t you two take your bags to Ethan’s room while I set the table?”

Fine. Whatever. But she was not staying the entire weekend. He’d get his payback from Dane, then she’d leave. He lifted Carly’s bag in one hand and his in the other. He glanced up at Sabrina; she wore a smile plastered on her sunny, blonde-hair, blue-eyed California face. Was this what they’d all been reduced to? Doing whatever it took to keep their mom happy even if it meant deceiving her? He had a few choice words in his head for Sabrina, too, but he kept them to himself, and instead said to Carly, “This way. Follow me.”

CHAPTER 9

Carly wasn’t sure what had come over her, except she wanted to be with Ethan. His mom had been so nice. His brother and sister-in-law stood there not correcting Mrs. Forrester. It seemed so easy to let her assume. No one interrupted to say she wasn’t with Ethan, not in that way. Zak and his wife, Sabrina, had to have known. She had talked to Zak when she called the lodge and asked to speak to Ethan. Certainly, if Ethan and she were close, she would have his number and wouldn’t have been calling the lodge asking for him. It felt like a conspiracy. Like everyone in this lodge wanted her with Ethan, except for Ethan.

He guided her past the front of the prow-fronted lodge where a huge rock fireplace stood. He wasn’t saying a word. Typical. She’d find a way to make him talk. Even if she had to look at him as a business project, the subject of her next article, whatever she had to do to get him to speak.

She craned her neck up, looking at the rock-covered chimney. It went up three stories. The ceiling had large natural wood rafters and what looked like knotty pine wood paneling. The comfy-looking leather sofa covered with blankets called to her. Maybe if she buried herself under a blanket, her deception would magically disappear. Ethan’s mother had made the assumption she was more than a guest, and she’d let her believe it.

She glanced around the gigantic room with its log walls, and decided it was more than a lodge, it was a retreat. “This place is amazing.”

Ethan set down the bags while she took in every aspect of the lodge’s aesthetic appeal. “It is, isn’t it?”

A tingling sensation crept over her skin, as though they weren’t speaking about the lodge at all. Or maybe she secretly hoped they were talking about more than the lodge. She wanted to speak rationally about the issue at hand. It wasn’t every day she became someone’s fake girlfriend for the weekend. “It seems I read somewhere that you and your brothers built this place yourself?”

“Yes, we did most of the log work, the basic structure of the building. We had to hire out the electrical and plumbing, but we did a large part of the work ourselves.”

“How did you do it? I mean how did you come up with this idea? You know, for a lodge out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Gold Creek was a town before we moved here. We thought it was an ideal location. It has hunting, fishing, a hot springs, a lake. It’s perfect for outdoor recreation. We hired a designer, but the log work itself took a lot of trial and error. We went through a lot of chain saws.”

She kept noticing the details of the logs, the track lighting, the colors of the stones. “Not all the logs are the same size.”

“That’s because they aren’t manufactured logs. They’re cut from Alaskan spruce trees. The trees were cut, peeled, and varnished by my brothers and me. The notches fit together because we took chain saws and made them fit.”

“Wow. There really is such a rustic appeal to the place. I was trying to put my finger on why it feels so…so warm and welcoming, part of it has to be the logs themselves. Every single one of them is unique. Not put through a mill and made to all be the same size and look alike.” She hummed in quiet appreciation. “I can’t imagine all the work and time that went into this. How long did it take you to build it?”

“We worked on it over the course of three summers. The first summer we cut all the trees. We let them dry a year, then the next summer peeled and varnished them, the next summer put them all together. We also gathered river rocks to build the fireplace. That was a job, too.”

She noticed the pride in his voice, the determination. “I’ll bet. You and your brothers working together like that…it must have bonded you.”

Ethan shrugged. “Yeah, you could say that. We managed to not kill each other.” He gave a half-hearted smile. “Nobody has mentioned it quite like that before.”

“Working together toward a common goal, especially over the course of several years bonds people, especially a family.” It would be nice if Ethan and she worked together toward a common goal other than an interview with Dane. She could think of other goals that had nothing to do with hockey.

“We are pretty tight.”

“It’s obvious by the way you all interact with each other.” They reminded her of being home with her brothers and the banter that went on between them.

“Now the only brother you have left to meet is Dane. And he’s the reason you’re here,” Ethan said matter-of-factly and picked up the bags.

Mentioning Dane was like splashing cold water on their conversation, which she hoped had begun to turn warmer. Obviously, Ethan had other ideas and she took his cue to keep moving. She reached for the wooden rail of the stairs that were open to the living room areas and three-story windows. She looked outside as the sun sank behind the mountains.

The second story had an open loft area and small sitting room with a spectacular view. The frozen lake and the Brooks Range became shrouded in darkness as the sun dipped out of sight. “I can’t get over this place. I have to say again how amazing it is.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and see the Northern Lights tonight.”

Carly took note he said
we
and a shiver dribbled through her limbs. Could there be any kind of
we
for Ethan and her?

She glanced over her shoulder at the determination on his face. Reaching beyond the walls he’d erected would be no small task. The fact that he’d had a short conversation with her about the lodge was a start. She’d like to find a way to talk. Really talk about things, rather than being angry at each other over half-truths.