If Not For A Bee. Carol Ross

firewood.” Bering tipped his head toward the pickup, where most of the wood had already been tossed into a large haphazard pile ready to be split and stacked. “The boys helped me get a load while we were out.” He looked at his nephews. “You guys can call it a day. I sure appreciate your hard work, though.”

      “No problem, Uncle Bering,” Gareth said proudly.

      Reagan asked, “Mom, is it okay if we go down to the river?”

      “Sure.”

      She and Bering watched the boys head toward the river that bordered Bering’s vast property. Bering removed his baseball hat, ran a hand through his dark brown hair and then rearranged the cap back on his head. “Aidan is in the house with Emily and Violet. Have you seen them yet?”

      “No, but Gareth and I ran into Aidan yesterday.” She hadn’t actually seen him just now—only heard his insensitive comments.

      “You did?”

      “Yep, in town. I didn’t recognize him at first, and we didn’t really have time to visit.” She vaguely related the occurrence, not wanting to rehash the finer details of the event.

      “Oh...” Bering looked confused. “Aidan didn’t mention that he’d seen you guys.”

      “Yeah, well—it was pretty brief.” Not surprising that Aidan hadn’t thought their encounter significant enough to mention, Janie thought, considering what she’d heard. That pretty much sealed her belief in her level of importance on Dr. Hollings’s scale.

      “Do you like him?” Janie asked. She desperately, and yes, selfishly, wanted her brother to say no.

      Bering rubbed his chin. “I don’t really know him very well, either. I mean—I haven’t seen him since the cruise and I was pretty single-minded then. All I really cared to see was Emily.”

      Janie chuckled. “We were quite a pair, weren’t we? You lovesick and me...grief-sick.”

      Bering grinned. “He seems like a good guy, though. Emily is crazy about him, so that means I want to be, too. We’ve talked on the phone here and there, used Skype a bit, but I’m looking forward to spending some time with him to get to know him better. He’s already crazy about Violet—of course.” Bering paused to widen his grin and then gestured toward the house. “Come on, let’s go in and say hi.”

      “Sure,” Janie said quickly, “but why don’t I help you with this wood for a few minutes first? Get a jump on that pile.”

      Janie knew Bering would never pass up her help and she wasn’t ready to face Aidan when she was still so angry and...deflated. Touching, she thought cynically, how Dr. Hollings was so intent on saving bees yet had no qualms about killing a person’s self-esteem. She felt a fresh spike of anger. Bering handed her a pair of gloves. She slipped them on as she walked over and picked up an ax, now counting on the physical exertion to calm her ire.

      Chopping wood always helped ease her anxieties, like some primitive form of therapy. Although, it probably wasn’t all that healthy from a psychological point of view to imagine what she began to imagine about Aidan as she gripped the ax, and began chopping the thick circles of wood into wedges small enough to fit into the woodstove.

      * * *

      “SOUNDS LIKE BERING’S chopping wood,” Emily said a while later as she and Aidan stepped out the back door. “Come on, we’ll go say hi.”

      As they walked toward one of the outbuildings, Emily pointed here and there and recited what Aidan was sure were some very interesting facts about their property, Bering’s business and Alaska in general. But he’d quit listening because he was mesmerized by the sight that had suddenly materialized before his eyes. Bering and a...woman? Who was skillfully chopping wood like some kind of tiny, female Paul Bunyan. Suddenly she stopped and lowered her ax, apparently to laugh at something Bering said. She grabbed ahold of his arm and doubled over. The throaty sound carried all the way over to him and he wondered why Emily wasn’t scratching this woman’s eyes out for pawing at her husband.

      “Oh, good.” Emily smiled in their direction. “Janie’s here.”

      Janie? Aidan felt a stab of surprise as they drew closer and he realized that it was indeed the woman he’d encountered the day before. She looked so...different—lively, vibrant and...happy.

      But as they approached something shifted in her eyes, like a curtain being drawn or a sheet draped over a surprise. Aidan knew he was likely the cause and he almost cringed at the awkward moment about to unfold. Not that he was a stranger to awkward moments, but for some reason he particularly dreaded this one.

      “Aidan, Janie, you guys remember each other, right?”

      “Of course,” Janie said. “I was just telling Bering about how we ran in to each other in town yesterday.”

      “You did?” Emily shot a baffled look in Aidan’s direction. “Aidan, you didn’t mention that you saw Janie?”

      “Yeah, um...” he said, feeling tongue-tied. “It wasn’t...”

      “Gareth and I were in a huge hurry,” Janie explained smoothly. “We didn’t really have time to chat.”

      With quick little tugging movements, Janie removed the gloves she was wearing and smoothed the delicate-looking fingertips of one hand across her brow. Aidan stared at those same hands that had only moments ago been grasping an ax and chopping wood like an experienced logger. His eyes traveled over her as he searched for words to explain...

      Emily commented on the pile of wood growing against the side of the barn. She and Bering began to discuss how much wood they’d need for the coming winter. The banal exchange slowly drew him back to reality. Winter seemed to provide an unlimited source for conversation around here he’d noticed. Some people he’d met at the Cozy Caribou yesterday had been talking about their winter preparations, too, which he found funny because it was only just spring. He commented on it jokingly.

      Janie stared back at him, stone-faced.

      Bering grinned.

      Emily frowned. “You can’t believe how cold it is here in the winter, Aidan. It looks like heaven now, but I can guarantee this is a cold like you’ve never felt before. I almost froze to death the first winter I arrived.”

      “Yeah, I’ve heard those fluffy little snowflakes can be downright deadly,” he quipped.

      Janie’s face twisted with something that looked like disgust, reminding him of the woman he’d encountered the day before.

      Emily plopped her hands on her hips, and when she spoke her tone was teasing, but Aidan felt the passion she had acquired for this remote locale that was now her home. “Laugh it up now, buddy, but you would probably last about thirty seconds in one of our snowstorms before hypothermia set in.”

      Janie did laugh at that, before tossing Aidan a determined look. “Yep, it’s all about survival of the fittest up here. You’d be surprised at how many transplants we get from the lower forty-eight who come here in the summertime thinking they’ve found paradise, and then winter sets in. Only the hardiest manage to last until the spring thaw.”

      The way her eyes flicked over him had Aidan suddenly feeling the need to defend himself, and to prove he was tough enough for this charming little hole-in-the-wilderness even when it was iced over. Tough people lived in warm climates, too, he wanted to say, but for some reason he felt the need to provide proof.

      His brain ran through a quick catalogue of his adventures, trying to settle on the most dramatic example to recount; he had endured a near-deadly snakebite in the Brazilian rain forest, an infected baboon bite in Borneo and a scorpion sting in Africa. He’d been nibbled on by fish even scarier than piranhas in the Amazon, suffered a torturous jellyfish sting off the coast of Queensland and had so many vicious insect bites he’d lost count. He’d experienced heat so intense it had melted the rubber soles of his sandals to his feet. He’d battled malaria,