Alaska Heart (26 page)

“As someone who races, downhill is good.” He picked up his fork and took a bite.

Downhill is good. Okay. That comforted me, because I’d been tumbling downhill, head-over-heels, since I’d met Dale.

But what was waiting at the bottom of the hill?

Selia owned an enormous, colonial-style house that harkened back to another time. Four thick columns spanned from the ground to the roofline in the front of the house, and a wide pair of black doors welcomed guests beyond the front steps. Painted a tidy white and adorned with black shutters, the house looked well maintained and cozy at the same time.

“I hope you’re ready for this.” Dale’s hand hovered before turning the knob on the front door.

“I met them all already.” Gypsy and Zynk were on either side of me, like bodyguards.

“Yeah, but they were on their best behavior,” Dale said. “Now we’re on their turf. Their true colors will spill out all over the place. It could get ugly.”

“Afraid embarrassing stories might slip out?” I pecked Dale on the cheek. He caught me around the waist and tugged me against him. I almost dropped the pastry box I carried.

“Downright terrified.” Dale’s kiss kindled a fire that had burned brightly since after dinner last night. Even if every firefighter in the nation came together, they couldn’t extinguish this blaze.

Suddenly, the front door swung open, and I leaped away from Dale, leaving him hanging mid-kiss.

“Micky!” Dale recovered far quicker than I was able to. He shot me a sly smile that said, “We’ll pick this up later.”

I nodded dumbly. My lips still buzzed, but I managed to find my voice.

“Hi, Mick.” I smoothed the front of my rumpled ski jacket to keep my free hand—one that had been all over Dale a moment ago—busy.

“Alanna’s here,” Mick called over his shoulder as he reached out and pulled on my hand.

“Hey, what about me?”

“Sorry, Uncle Dale.” Mick giggled. “Uncle Dale is here too.”

“That’s more like it.” Dale stepped inside and scooped Mick off his small feet.

Mick hooted as Dale lifted the boy to his shoulder and carried him like a rag doll down a hallway. I stepped into the foyer, letting Gypsy and Zynk follow me until they shot to a corner of the hallway.

“What’s got into them?” I asked.

“Bora,” Mick shouted from his captive spot on Dale’s shoulder.

“Gypsy, Zynk,” Dale said in a stern voice. The two dogs backed off to reveal a black and white kitten. “See. She’s all right.”

“Save her, Alanna,” Mick pleaded.

“Roger.” I knelt and scooped up the kitten. It rubbed against my fingers and purred. “You’re adorable. Why Bora?”

“For aurora borealis.” Dale arched his brows as if to say,
These crazy kids.

As I cradled Bora’s warm little body against me, two cannonballs resembling Riley and Noah shot down the stairs. They threw their arms around a dog’s neck.

“Hey, Ugly and Uglier,” Dale said to each of them.

“Hey, Uncle Stale Dale,” Riley and Noah said back in unison.

I laughed, and four pairs of eyes turned toward me. The three pairs of small, brown eyes laughed along with me. The one pair of sultry green, however, narrowed in mock disgust.

“Let’s see…” Dale tapped his whiskered chin with his index finger. Mick still squirmed in his grip, but Dale didn’t let that distract him. “What rhymes with Alanna?”

“Banana?” Riley offered. “If you say it funny.”

“Banana,” Dale considered. “Banana Alanna. Yes, that’ll work, Riley. Good job, my boy. You’re my favorite for today.”

“Banana Alanna! Banana Alanna!” Noah and Mick chanted. Dale and Riley joined in as they marched toward the kitchen.

“What’s all this noise about?” Ram said from his seat at a round kitchen table.

“Banana Alanna and Uncle Stale Dale are here, Pop.” Noah slipped his hand into mine after I let Bora jump to the floor.

I looked down to him, and his brown eyes glinted at me. I gave his hand a little squeeze, and he snuggled against my leg.

“Hey, you two.” Selia turned from her post at the stove. Her chestnut hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her comfortable jogging suit, a soft peach color, fit her perfectly. She stepped over to Dale and planted a sisterly kiss on his cheek, then did the same to me. Jake, also in sweats, took our jackets, shook hands with Dale, and noticed the cast.

“What the hel—” A dishtowel slapped into the back of his head, and he bit his lip. “Ouch. I mean, what the
heck
happened?”

Dale let Mick slip off his shoulder while the boys all gathered around to inspect his cast.

“Fractured.” Dale gave the same shrug he’d given me. His disgust at the news had worn off, though.

I had tried my best last night to help him forget his wrist troubles. I did a mighty fine job of it too.

“God dammit,” Ram hollered from his seat, groping at the pocket of his flannel shirt and extracting a pair of glasses.

“Dad,” Selia scolded. “We’re keeping those words out of the boys’ vocabularies for as long as possible.”

“Oh, a little swearing makes men of them.” Ram stood and donned the glasses to see Dale’s cast.

“Dad, they’re five. Long way to go before they’re men and a longer way to go before they can cuss like men.” Selia shot Ram a fierce look, and he bent his head in apology.

“Sorry, Selia. I’ll keep it clean.”

“Thank you.” She patted her father on the shoulder, and he rested his massive hand over her slender one. The gesture and the conversation wrapped around me like a hug. I missed family stuff.

“How long you going to have to heft that around?” Jake pointed to the cast.

“At least three weeks. Then I have another appointment, and the doctor will see how it’s doing.”

“Does it hurt, Uncle Dale?” Noah said with a sad little face.

“A little bit.”

Noah rushed forward as did Mick and Riley. All three of them hugged Dale’s legs.

Dale looked up at me, his face gone soft at his nephews’ compassion. I wanted to hug his legs—and the rest of him—too.

“Thanks, guys.” He peeled the boys back from his jeans and crouched to be eye level with them. “Maybe it doesn’t hurt as much now.”

Jake shook his head in sympathy. “I suppose it could be worse. You could have hurt something real important.” He ran his gaze over me and then back to Dale. Both of them sported smirks as if an unspoken joke had passed between them. Unspoken, perhaps, but not unnoticed.

“Definitely. At least I’m left handed.” Dale wiggled his left hand to show it was in working order, and the two of them knocked knuckles.

“Such male bonding.” Selia rolled her eyes at me. “Here, Lefty,” she said to Dale. “Take this into the dining room, will you?” She pushed a basket of bread toward him across the kitchen counter.

“And you,” she said to Jake. “These bowls need to go to the table too. Dad, will you carve the turkey?”

All three men hopped to their duties as Selia ushered the boys into their seats at the dining room table. When she returned, I was admiring a lovely bouquet of bright orange lilies in a crystal vase on the table. Their soft fragrance mixed nicely with the scent of roasted turkey in the kitchen.

“These are gorgeous.”

“Thanks, we got them in the shop yesterday.” She fingered the velvety petals.

“The shop?”

“I own a flower shop. Used to be my mother’s.” She traced the flower, traveling somewhere else for a moment before looking at me.

“What can I do to help here?” I looked around the organized kitchen.

“Drink this with me.” Selia snapped out of her memory and poured us each a glass of wine.

I picked up the wine glass. Selia peeked into the pastry box I’d set on the counter and nodded.

“Got to love Sikik, huh?” she said.

“She’s helped me out on my short stay here so far.”

“Dessert is the way to get in good with my brother,” she said. “For an athlete, the kid can eat his weight in sweets.”

“He does have an appetite,” I said before I could stop myself.

Selia laughed into her wine glass. “I’ll bet.”

My face grew hot. “I mean…I…uh…”

Selia raised her glass in salute. “I know what you meant, Banana Alanna.”

****

“C’mon, Uncle Dale. Please,” Riley whined.

“I don’t know, Riley.”

“But it’s our favorite.” Mick joined in.

“Yeah, and it’s more fun to watch it with you,” Noah added.

“A little help here,” Dale said to Jake.

“Sorry, man. The people have spoken. You’ve got to give the crowd what they want.”

“Traitor. I remember a time when you used to be on my side.”

“What can I say?” Jake held his hands out. “I’ve built my own team here, and I’ve got to stick with them.” He looked at me. “Besides, I bet Alanna will enjoy seeing this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s Uncle Dale mushing,” Mick squealed.

“Yeah,” Riley said. “In the I-did-a-road.”

“Iditarod, sweetie.” Selia ruffled her son’s sandy hair.

“That’s what I said, Mama,” Riley said.

Selia rolled her eyes as Noah climbed onto the couch to snuggle between Dale and me. I surprised myself by wrapping my arm around Noah and scooching him a little closer. As a rule, I generally didn’t hang out with kids. Didn’t know many of them. Something about Dale’s nephews, however, made thoughts of having my own children flit across my mind. Dale’s entire family had me thinking about things I rarely thought of. Things that didn’t fit my lifestyle.

Dale looked to me for help. “Alanna doesn’t want to watch this.”

“Sorry, Dale. Alanna does want to watch this.”

A chorus of
hurrays
resounded in the comfortable living room as I nestled deeper into the leather folds of Selia’s couch.

Dale’s shoulders slumped as he rested his head on the back of the couch.

“Outnumbered again, huh, son?” Ram gave Dale’s kneecap a squeeze as he passed by to sit in the matching leather recliner.

Jake turned on the flat screen TV on the wall above a quaint fireplace across the room. He popped in a DVD and sat next to Selia on the love seat perpendicular to the couch. He took her feet into his lap, and the two of them swapped grins.

“It started with a dream…One man’s dream…” Jake began before Dale hurled a pillow from the couch at his brother-in-law’s head.

“Just play it, Jake.” Dale folded his arms across his chest and scowled, but his eyes focused on the screen just the same. Mick climbed onto his lap, ready to watch, while Riley planted himself at Ram’s feet.

“You’re such a faker,” I whispered into Dale’s ear. “You love that we all want to watch this.”

His lips turned up to reveal the dimple in his cheek. “Shhh,” he said. “You’re going to miss it.”

Again I worried about the stains I was going to leave on the couch post-meltdown. Was there a limit to how many consecutive days a woman could walk around completely aroused by a single man?

Shaking my head, I focused my attention on the screen as Bora crept into my lap. She kneaded my thigh before settling down, her little body warm and fluffy. Noah petted her as an assortment of dogs filled the TV screen. Dale’s dogs. They were all attached to the towline by their harnesses and eager to pull. Their yaps were full of energy, power.

Gypsy looked confident in the lead position on the screen, just as she had when I’d ridden with Dale. In the living room, she raised her head at the sight of herself and poked her nose into Riley’s cheek as if to tell him to pay attention to how good she looked. From his position at Dale’s feet, Zynk barked at the dogs on TV.

“Yeah, boy.” Dale reached a hand down to rub the dog’s ear. “You look great.”

In the background, a figure in an army green snowsuit bent over the section where the sled connected to the wheel dogs. A white bib displaying numbers and the word “Dodge” was slung over the figure’s shoulders.

“There’s Uncle Dale,” Noah sang out, wiggling beside me.

“Or the Abominable Snowman,” I joked.

“It’s cold out there, Alanna,” Mick said. “You could freeze your ball—”

“MICK!” Selia and Jake said together.

Dale brought his hand up to his mouth to stifle the laughter ready to bubble out. I hid my face behind Noah’s head, but couldn’t stop my body from shaking.

“Sorry, Daddy,” Mick said. “That’s what Uncle Da—” Again the boy’s words were cut off as Dale’s hand covered Mick’s mouth, clamping down solidly.

Selia shot Dale a look, but the corners of her lips turned up, and Jake tried to hide his amusement as well.

“We’re gonna turn these boys into scoundrels whether you try to stop us or not,” Ram finally said, nudging Riley with his toe.

“I’m not gonna be a scoundrel, Pop,” Riley said.

“Oh no?” Ram trapped the boy between his stocking feet. “What are you gonna be then?”

“I’m gonna be a detective, like Daddy,” Riley said, sitting up a little straighter.

“Gonna catch the scoundrels, huh?”

“Uh-huh.” Riley’s attention was back on the TV.

Jake watched Riley with glossy eyes. I supposed there could be no greater tribute for a son to give his father than to say he wanted to be like Daddy when he grew up. I turned my focus to Dale and found myself wondering what a son of his would be like. Would he want to raise dogs? Be a musher?

A writer?

What are you doing, Cormac?
I forced myself to tune back into the conversation in the room.

“I don’t want to worry about
two
detectives,” Selia said, rubbing her eyes.

Jake gave her feet a squeeze. “Look at it more as two detectives working to keep you safe.”

Selia ran her hand along Jake’s cheek, and he brushed his lips along her palm.

“Jake’s working on the most recent string of…” Selia mouthed the word
murders
so the boys couldn’t hear. The worry sent creases around her brows.

The dogs’ behavior today and the footprints Dale had discovered beyond the fence in his yard wormed back into my mind. A shiver worked its way down my back, and Noah cuddled a little closer to me. His wide brown eyes looked up to my face.