Alaskan Sweethearts. Janet Tronstad

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СКАЧАТЬ what she expected, though. His face seemed soft and almost wistful.

      “I’m pleased to meet you,” she said, taking a step closer. She’d talk to him and ignore Hunter. She needed to be brave herself so Joey could see how it was done. The boy had grown more anxious since his father had left them. Scarlett knew life was not always easy. She’d lost both her parents when she was young, her mother to cancer and her father to desertion. That was probably whey she’d hung in with Victor for six long years. But she couldn’t believe there was any purpose in living a life of hesitation and fear. She suspected, though, that her ex-husband had taunted Joey about not being brave enough. Maybe that was the reason for his anxiety. He’d always wanted to please his father.

      Scarlett pulled a chair away from the table.

      She couldn’t help glancing over at Hunter again. This man certainly didn’t seem to have any fear in him. He still had his hands resting on the back of the wood-spindled chair in front of him and his steel-gray eyes were defiant and unrepentant. His face had a faint red mark on the left side. He wore a rancher’s long-sleeved shirt, open at the neck, and there was another red mark along his collarbone. They looked like burn scars. She could tell by the damp patches on his shirt that he had already done a full day’s work before coming here.

      She gave the man a frosty look before she sat at the table.

      She had patted a damp paper towel over her face when she was in the restroom, but she still wasn’t comfortable. It was hot in here, too. Her turquoise silk suit jacket felt tight across the shoulders and the humidity was making it worse. The band of her grandmother’s old engagement ring stuck to her skin as it hung around her neck on a chain. She probably looked younger than her thirty-two years of age.

      She’d made a mistake in dressing so formally, she realized. Denim jeans and Alaskan-made mukluks on her feet would have made this man look at her with more respect. Her fishing knife strapped to her belt wouldn’t have hurt, either, especially since anyone could tell it had seen plenty of use. At least the ring gave her confidence. Since childhood she had known her grandmother could always pawn that ring if times became too hard. It had been their family’s safety net.

      “Can I order you something to drink or eat?” the older man asked as he smiled.

      “Thank you,” Scarlett said. “We’ve come a long way. Coffee and maybe some milk for my son would be nice.”

      She hadn’t had time to buy breakfast when they’d gotten off the plane in Billings this morning. She’d given Joey a breakfast bar and an apple, but she hadn’t eaten anything.

      She finally noticed that Hunter was standing and looking at her son. “You must be hungry. Would you like a muffin with your milk? Taking a trip always makes me want to eat something.”

      Joey had always been shy with strangers, but he was so keyed up that he nodded vigorously. “We flew in a plane. It took a long time.”

      Hunter stepped around the table and crouched until he was at eye level with the boy. “I know. Nome, Alaska. My grandfather told me. Did you like the plane ride?”

      Scarlett stood, ready to demand Hunter stop talking to her son. But she realized she had no good reason. She doubted her son would say anything more in any event. Joey was much more likely to talk to a woman than a man. Still, she stayed by her son’s chair.

      Joey shrugged, his eyes cast down at the floor.

      Scarlett expected Hunter to move away since it was obvious her son had finished talking.

      Then she heard Joey’s voice. “My dad flew away in a plane. We watched him. He’s going to Florida ’cause he’s got himself a new boy. He ain’t ever coming back unless...”

      Scarlett was so astonished she barely noticed when Hunter looked up at her with panic in his eyes. At least he didn’t move away. Victor would have.

      “He says he’ll come back if I’m a brave boy,” Joey continued, his voice small and his eyes downcast. “But I’ve tried and he doesn’t come.”

      Joey had been eager to fly to see his father last month when the man had called and left a message asking him to do that. Joey’s father had even said he should bring his teddy bear, which made Scarlett think he was apologizing for the hard time he’d given Joey before he’d left. It hadn’t made any difference, though; her ex-husband had never returned the call after she’d left him a return message saying they could work out a trip.

      Finally she’d realized the invitation had been one more false promise from her ex.

      Joey had refused to talk to the grief therapist she’d taken him to. She had no idea why he was telling a stranger all of this, especially a man.

      She didn’t know what to do. But finally she nodded encouragingly at Hunter. She’d work with anyone who made Joey talk about his feelings.

      “And are you brave?” Hunter asked. “Like your father said?”

      Scarlett almost kicked him in the shins to make him stop talking. She was quite sure that’s not what someone should say to Joey. If the man said anything about how Joey needed to be a man and stop being afraid, she’d take her son out to the car and head back to the airport.

      “Sometimes I’m afraid,” Joey admitted, his eyes lifting to the man’s face. “I didn’t look out the window of the airplane. We were too high. I didn’t want to fall.”

      Hunter nodded.

      “My dad says I’ll fall lots if I do stuff and it’ll hurt.”

      Joey was watching Hunter intently.

      Scarlett wished she had Victor in front of her right now. She’d give him a piece of her mind. On the one hand he’d made her son afraid and then he’d scolded him for not being brave enough.

      “Maybe it won’t hurt too badly though,” Hunter said as though weighing the question.

      “You won’t ever fall,” Scarlett interrupted with some force. She didn’t want Joey to be any more afraid than he was. She didn’t want him to think he might have to survive a tumble.

      “My dad wouldn’t like it if I was afraid,” Joey persisted. “He says I’m a scaredy-cat. Not like the other boy. That one’s brave. The boy in Florida.”

      Scarlett held her breath. Victor had told her that he’d had a son with the ex-girlfriend he was planning to marry. She hadn’t known he’d also told Joey.

      “Sometimes men say things they shouldn’t,” Hunter said and patted Joey on the shoulder. “That doesn’t mean they don’t...uh—value you.”

      “He doesn’t know what value means,” Scarlett said, her voice desperate. Her son had finally opened up to someone and it would be nice if the man’s response made sense to him and was supportive in some measure.

      She wasn’t sure she could hope for anything more from a man like Hunter.

      “You’re a good boy,” the man said, obviously trying to say the right words. “Things will work out. You’ll see.”

      Joey nodded vigorously as though he agreed. “I’m going to get a new house. And a dog, too.”

      Maybe СКАЧАТЬ