Alaskan Sweethearts. Janet Tronstad

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 a dog would at least make him stop carrying around that old stuffed bear, Scarlett thought. Her son looked at her sideways and Scarlett bent to pull him into a hug. “We’ll have to see about the dog.”

      She hadn’t realized that by going down to her son’s level she would be so close to Hunter, who remained at Joey’s side. She could smell pine and wondered if it was from aftershave or if the man had been around trees. She looked up and his eyes were riveted on her face. All she could do was stare back at him. To her surprise, he looked concerned.

      “My dog will be a collie, just like Lassie on the TV show,” Joey said as he twisted out of her arms and turned to the man, his father forgotten for the moment. “She was a real nice dog.”

      The man took his eyes off Scarlett and focused on her son.

      “That she was,” Hunter agreed. Then he grinned.

      The look on his face took her breath away. She sensed it was uncommon for him, but quiet delight showed in his eyes and smile.

      “She never left her boy.” Joey nodded as he kept talking to the man. “Not when he needed her. She always found him.”

      “I have some cats like that,” the man said, his tone solemn. “Very loyal.”

      Joey was watching Hunter, and Scarlett wished she knew what to say. Of all the men to pour his heart out to, Joey had picked the wrong one. That man did not want them here. That fact would wound her son when he realized it. No one wanted to be rejected by their hero. She almost promised a dog just to get her son’s attention away from him.

      “My dad doesn’t have a dog or a cat,” Joey finally whispered to Hunter as though he had secretly outwitted his father. “He doesn’t have my teddy bear, either.”

      Then his smile crumbled and defiance mixed with despair. “My dad’s coming back someday, though. I’ll be his boy again then.”

      Scarlett could only rub his back.

      “Your father’s a fool,” Hunter murmured, all traces of humor having left his face.

      But Joey was looking at her now.

      “It’s okay,” she whispered. “We’ll do everything we can to get a dog.”

      Hunter looked directly at her again. The compassion in his eyes was her undoing. It was as if he knew. It was mostly for her son, but she knew the loss deeply herself. She had trusted her husband—had thought she’d known him—and he’d been someone completely different. When the grief subsided, all that remained was the knowledge that she’d been duped.

      The tears in her eyes blurred her vision so she didn’t see Hunter reach out until he brushed a tear off her cheek. She felt the imprint of his thumb long after the tear had dried.

      “You don’t need to worry,” she said more sharply than was warranted. “I learned my lesson.”

      She didn’t want him to think she was as vulnerable as Joey. She would think twice before she got close to a man again. This one might know more ways to soften up a woman than most, but he was set against her. He had a purpose in what he did.

      Hunter rose and offered her a hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet.

      The waitress had already set two more cups of coffee and a glass of milk on the table, along with a plate of warm pumpkin muffins.

      Scarlett sat and stirred some cream into her coffee. It steadied her.

      At least I’m done with Victor, she thought. When he’d left, he’d said he wanted Joey to come visit him, but that had not happened despite his phone call. She doubted he really wanted visitation rights. He was going back to his real family, he had informed them, as though she and Joey were cheap imposters. The old girlfriend had found him through the internet and he had proposed marriage to her before he’d even mentioned divorce to Scarlett.

      “It’s time for Joey and me to look to the future,” she said, putting as much optimism into her voice as she could. “I’m ready to see the contract your grandfather has drawn up.”

      “Contract?” Hunter asked.

      She nodded. The divorce had wiped out her savings while she supported herself and her son without Victor’s help. The cost of living in Nome was high. A loaf of whole-wheat bread was five dollars. A can of fruit juice, eight. After Victor left, she’d started working the counter in a sandwich shop and taking a business course at the local extension college. She hadn’t been able to go back to guiding wilderness trips since some of them were overnight and she’d had no one to take care of Joey. She usually had to fly to Fairbanks or the base of Mount McKinley to meet up with the groups in the summer. The trips were all several days long. In the winter, only the Bering Sea and a nearby native village served as wilderness destinations.

      When Colin Jacobson had written to her grandmother and offered this land, it had seemed perfect for them all. Her grandmother had health issues and could live more comfortably with her and Joey in this house than the one they had now. They could raise chickens and maybe grow vegetables.