Unsafe Haven (10 page)

Oh, but when he found his errant bride-to-be, and she once more came under his influence . . .

Conroy Herington stared at himself in the rearview mirror, smoothed a stray lock of hair, and smiled.

Kendall unlocked the front door of The Last Outfitter Post and stepped outside. In the sunlight the ‘Grand Opening’ banner she’d affixed over the entrance flapped in the brisk morning breeze, accompanied by the occasional caw of a raven. On each side of the portico, hanging baskets of petunias, fuchsia, and lobelia grew a bit more each day, adding a nice splash of color. The urge to clap in delight proved too much to resist, and she didn’t care if anyone saw her. Even so, she checked out the parking lot, just to make sure she hadn’t been observed, then shook her head at her silliness.

Her first two weeks open for business had surprised her with its success. A steady, daily flow of customers reinforced her certainty she’d done the right thing by moving to Staamat and starting a new life. It amazed her how many local people planned hiking and fishing adventures and came to her for their supplies.

They weren’t all local. Tourists now flocked to Staamat, some staying in New Mina, Aniak, or Bethel, and others vying for a reservation at the Four Hills Inn. They zipped around on rented bicycles or on foot, cameras clicking away, willing to pay for a quick airlift to some of the villages sporadically scattered from here to Bethel. Several enterprising locals who owned vehicles hired themselves out as impromptu cabbies and even a few boat owners ferried visitors up and down the Kuskokwim.

One of the mushers, retired and living fifteen miles north of Puffin Circle, brought his dogs into town and offered dogsled rides, substituting special wheels for the standard sled skis. Tourists loved it. The bustle of activity and commerce added life to the usually quiet Staamat streets.

Summer had come to Southwestern Alaska and Kendall found herself utterly charmed by the longer days and the sun’s welcoming warmth. Much of her nervousness about hordes of tourists streaming into Alaska had diminished, too. Perhaps the
cheechako
was slowly becoming a sourdough, after all.

With the exception of a few high school students nosing around without buying anything, she’d had decent sales every day. Now, on Saturday, she anticipated another six hours of hearing her cash register ring.

Moving to the main counter, she straightened a display of teriyaki jerky and refolded a stack of sweatshirts emblazoned with a grinning mosquito and the words, ‘Alaska State Bird.’ The goofy-looking, bloodsucking insect—wearing bunny boots, no less—reminded her to spray her arms with Deet when she ventured outside. Otherwise, she’d end up with plenty of bites.

The string of bells over the doorway jingled and Kendall smiled with pleasure as Luna ran in. “Kennie, Denn says you’re putting me to work.” She threw her thin arms around Kendall’s waist and gave her a breath-stealing squeeze.

“Umph.” Kendall made suffocating noises while Luna giggled and squeezed harder. When she could inhale again, she dropped a kiss on Luna’s head. “How are you feeling today? Denn said you had a rough evening.”

“I’m okay. I had a reaction to some salad dressing Jo gave us. She puts fireweed honey in it, and I kind of spooned too much on my bread.” Luna pulled away and prowled the nearest rack, flipping through tee shirts and hoodies. She sent Kendall a mournful look. “It was so good, I took twice as much as I should have. But I felt a lot better after I puked.” Her grin back in place, she dashed to the counter and swiped a piece of jerky. “See, I’m good to go.” She bit in with enthusiasm.

“Drink some water after you eat that, you nimrod.” Denn stepped into the store, a stern expression on his face. He winked at Kendall. “Make sure you dock her pay for snacking on the job.” He closed the door and removed his cap, shaking his hair loose.

Kendall’s pulse stuttered at the sight of that fall of black silk. He caught her stare and a languid smile broke over his face. She blushed, and the smile widened.

His advance toward her set her heart to pounding. Dressed in his uniform, his rolled-up sleeves a concession to the warm day, Denn cut an imposing figure. Yet his size seldom intimidated her, not after a month of getting to know him. He reached her side and curled his arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her forehead, as comforting as the one she’d given his sister.

“Hi. I’ve brought you slave labor. Please wear her out so I can strong-arm her into bed right after supper.” His low words teased the stray hair at her temple. The heat from his lower lip, as it caught one of her curls and brushed it aside, would have buckled her knees if she hadn’t been holding the edge of the counter.

He chuckled softly in her ear, an acknowledgment of what his nearness did to her. When she reared back, the gleam she spotted in his amber eyes couldn’t be mistaken for anything but desire.

I’m not ready for this.
Her brain admitted the truth even as her body relaxed, leaned into his, and made itself at home. The moment lengthened into seconds as she enjoyed his warm strength, refusing to further question her need for caution. He would never hurt her, she knew this.

Luna skipped closer, wearing a camouflage baseball cap boasting a set of stuffed moose antlers. “I don’t think this cap’s gonna fool any moose.” She viewed herself in a nearby mirror, striking a pose. “You should send me to Anchorage, Denn. I could be a model.”

“For what? Bullwinkle?” Denn yanked the cap over her eyes. “Get real. You’ll go into the mines with a pick and a shovel and give me all the gold you find,” he hissed, twirling an imaginary mustache.

“Ha, as if.” Luna danced around him, caught random locks of his hair and yanked them, fast and sly.

He lunged after her and stuffed her under his arm.

“Let go! I have to work for a living, you know.” She wriggled like a slippery eel, her brows scrunched in a mock frown. “Let go, or I scream police brutality.”

“You watch too much
CSI.
Go make yourself useful.” He released her with a swat to her jeans-clad bottom, and she ran toward the back storeroom where Kendall had left the door unlocked. Luna would spend the afternoon unpacking and pricing several boxes of Alaskana souvenirs.

He turned to Kendall. “What a screwball. You might have to handcuff her to the storeroom to get any work out of her.” His comment and their antics had made her grin even as the residual tenderness for his sister, reflected in his eyes, simply melted her.

“She’s your entire world, isn’t she?” Kendall heard the catch in her voice.

Denn nodded. “Yes, she is. Luna is the only family I’ve got left. Her health problems scared the crap out of me when we first discovered she had diabetes. Try explaining to a five-year-old why she can’t eat grape jelly or a Hershey bar. She tried my mother’s patience not only daily, but hourly. I still shudder to remember what it was like to give her insulin shots.” He leaned against the counter, his mind obviously dwelling in the past. “When I left for UAA, it was hard on Mom even though she knew it was best for me to go. Luna had only been on insulin for maybe six months. I honestly don’t know how Mom got through it.”

He scraped a hand through his hair in the gesture of frustration she’d come to recognize. “I’d fly home between semesters and they’d both be wrecks. A couple of times I thought, what the hell, I’ll just quit school and come back to help Mom. But whenever I brought it up, she’d get mad and forbid me to drop out.”

“She sounds like an amazing woman.”

“Yeah. Mom was one in a million. Her faith in me kept me in school. But then she died, and I had to quit, anyhow.”

“Oh, Denn.” She didn’t know what to say. Five years wasn’t nearly long enough to get over such a tragedy. He still dealt with the pain of his mother’s passing. She could sure relate, even if the words wouldn’t come so easily.

Kendall moved closer and laid a hand on his arm. Quietly, she said, “Your mother would be proud of the life you’ve made. The way you are with Luna, loving and devoted . . . If your mother were here, she’d tell you what a wonderful job you’re doing, parenting your sister. Not everyone could handle her health issues, either.” Her hand slid up his arm, curved over his shoulder, and reached his cheek to cup it gently. “You should be proud, too. Coming back here was the right thing to do and you never hesitated. Did you?” She searched his eyes as she spoke.

“No. I never hesitated. I packed it all up and I’ve never once regretted it. Well, maybe a little,” he admitted. “It was hard to say goodbye to a college degree, only eight months away from the damned diploma.”

“Well, nothing says you can’t take some online courses, or whatever’s available out this far and get your diploma. Right?”

He smiled at her, one heart-stopping, breath-stealing smile. Taking her hand from his cheek, he brought her palm to his mouth and pressed his lips there. Against her skin he murmured, “Nothing at all.”

For Denn, the afternoon slogged along. He did his rounds, broke up a couple of fights, issued several tickets, two for speeding and one for fishing without a license. A call from New Mina had him heading out there to investigate a theft at Baltos. One of their salesclerks, new and inexperienced, allowed a crafty customer to load up the back of his truck with several small pieces of furniture. The customer-turned-thief drove off without paying. The panicked salesclerk hadn’t thought to look at the license plate. Denn took down what information he could before he left the store.

At the diner, he grabbed a bowl of caribou chili and fielded Betty’s inevitably nosy questions about his love life. Before leaving town, he bought some groceries next door at the Save-U-Cash. All the while, he thought of the evening ahead, and his date with Kendall. Their fourth.

The lady was damned hard to pin down. Denn would be happy to see her every night of the week, but Kendall had other ideas. For most single guys, three dates in a month wasn’t much to write home about. But each date had been fantastic. They’d gone to New Mina for an evening meal. She’d come over again for dinner and insisted on doing all the cooking, spoiling him and Luna with lasagna and homemade garlic bread. For their third date, he’d arranged for a picnic out near Little Staamat.

Those outings contained lots of laughter and swapping childhood memories, learning things about each other; favorite colors, favorite films. The lasagna dinner, with Luna present, cemented Kendall’s friendship with his often difficult baby sister. It thrilled him to no end. Each time he hung out with Kendall, he found something else he liked a hell of a lot.

He’d yet to kiss her on the mouth, but not because he didn’t want to.

She wasn’t ready for anything heavy-duty. He kept himself on a tight rein around her, sensing her reticence and determined not to scare her off. She freely shared youthful anecdotes, and he already felt as if he knew her parents, as much as she talked of them. But there were gaps in her past, sections she kept private. He hadn’t pushed for more. It didn’t take a genius to figure out her secrets were painful and the direct cause of her uneasiness every time he got too close. One of these days, she’d trust him enough to tell him, and when she did, he’d guard those secrets well.

His business done in New Mina, Denn headed back to Staamat. He’d swing by The Last Outfitter and collect Luna, finalize evening plans with Kendall, maybe get in a quick snuggle with her before she locked up for the evening. Her schedule for moving into the apartment behind the store had taken a back seat to her grand opening, but he knew it was only a matter of days before she’d leave the Four Hills and settle into her new place. He planned on spending a lot of time out there with her.

Or just bringing her home with me.
He broke out in a wide grin at the thought.

Denn whistled under his breath as he caught the turn onto Puffin Circle. Tonight he’d handle dinner, chicken breasts on the grill and baked potatoes. He pulled up to her store and parked in a spot next to a Honda Rancher hauling a trailer loaded with mountain bikes. He took in the lot, half-filled with various four-wheelers and a couple of trucks, unsure if Kendall would even make it out of the store on time. Exiting the Suburban, he strode to the door and opened it, to organized pandemonium.

Luna darted back and forth behind the counter and chatted with customers as she rang up sales like a pro. About a half dozen people stood in line, all holding merchandise. He searched for Kendall and found her helping an elderly man choose fishing gear. By the glow on her face, it must have been a good sales day.

He’d pitch in and work alongside his sister if it got everyone out of there faster. Denn stepped up to the far end of the counter, smiled at a couple, both weighed down with items, and said, “I can take those off your hands. Did you find everything you needed?”

As he shoved purchases into bags, Luna caught his eye and gave him a cheery thumbs-up. When he returned his attention to his customers, the woman smiled at him and inquired, “Is she your daughter?”

Luna overheard the question and broke into gales of laughter interspersed with obnoxious gagging. Denn rolled his eyes. “No, my baby sister. She’s for sale, too.” Both customers snickered, as well as a few others close enough to hear.

Within twenty minutes, the customers had cleared out. Denn flipped the door sign over and took down the outside banner, while Luna cleaned finger smears off the glass countertops and Kendall made up her bank deposit. Outside, the wind had calmed and the sun had dipped in the sky but still shone brightly. He wended his way through racks and displays, folded here and straightened there, until he reached Kendall’s side.

She smiled at him as she stacked the last of the checks. “Best day yet. Now I can afford toilet paper.”

“Thank God for that. I was getting tired of ripping pages out of your magazines.” He stepped behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, then nudged her soft curls aside and placed a kiss on the curve of her neck. Her responsive shiver pulsed through him.

“Must you do that stuff around impressionable kids?” Luna demanded. She dropped a handful of used paper towels into the trash and stretched, balancing on her toes. Her eyes flicked over Denn and the way he snuggled Kendall, then she gave a dramatic sigh. “I’m starving and all you two can do is get mushy.”

Kendall took a single step forward. Though her eyes held warmth when she glanced at him over her shoulder, Denn knew he’d made her uneasy. A flush rode high on her cheeks.

Those sweet blushes got to him every time.

Without making too much of it, he dropped his arms and moved away, picked up his cap from the end of the counter, and set it on his head. “Okay, the kid is starving. That’s my cue.” He nabbed Luna’s hand and dragged her toward the door. “Dinner’s at six, Kendall. I hope you like chicken.”