It hadn’t felt like a mistake when she’d accepted the job. It had felt decidedly right.
The problem was that she didn’t want to leave Hard Luck. She’d painted a fairy-tale picture of the town in her mind, and when it fell short of her expectations she’d floundered in disappointment. Well, she’d been disappointed before and learned from the experience. She would again.
No matter how eager Sawyer O’Halloran was to be rid of her, she was staying.
Really, she had no one to blame but herself. Her father had told her the free cabin and twenty acres sounded too good to be true. She was willing to concede that he was right. But it wasn’t just the promise of a home and land that had drawn her north.
She’d come seeking a slower pace of life, hoping to settle in a community of which she’d be a vital part. A community where she’d know and trust her neighbors. And, of course, the opportunity to set up and manage a library was a dream come true. She’d moved to Hard Luck because she realized being here would make a difference. To herself, to the town, to her children most of all. She’d come so Scott and Susan would only read about drive-by shootings, gang violence and drug problems.
Although her children’s reactions to the cabin had been very much like her own, Abbey was proud of how quickly the two had rebounded.
“It isn’t so bad here,” Scott had told her when he’d returned to the O’Halloran homestead with Ronny Gold. Susan had met Chrissie Harris and they’d quickly become fast friends.
The sound of an approaching truck propelled her off the bed in a near panic. She wasn’t ready for another round with Sawyer O’Halloran!
Sawyer leapt out of the cab as if he wanted to spend as little time as possible in her company. “Your luggage arrived.” Two suitcases were on the ground before she reached the truck bed. Pride demanded that she get the others down herself. He didn’t give her a chance.
Despite the ridiculous accusations he’d made, despite his generally disagreeable nature, Abbey liked Sawyer. She’d seen the regretful look in his eyes when he’d shown her the cabin. It might be fanciful thinking on her part, but she believed he’d wanted her to stay. He might not think it was practical or smart, but she sensed that he wanted her here. In Hard Luck.
He might provoke her, irritate her, accuse her of absurd things; yet she found herself wishing she could get to know him better.
That wasn’t likely. Sawyer O’Halloran had made his views plain enough. For whatever reasons, he wanted her gone.
All the suitcases were on the ground, but Sawyer lingered. He started to leave, then turned back.
“I shouldn’t have said that, about you duping Christian. It wasn’t true.”
“Are you apologizing?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Then I accept.” She held out her hand.
His fingers closed firmly over hers. “You don’t have to stay in Hard Luck, Abbey,” he said. “No one’s going to think less of you if you leave.”
She held her breath until her chest began to ache. “You don’t understand. I can’t go back now.”
Frowning, he released her hand. “Why can’t you?”
“I sold my car to pay for the kids’ airfare.”
“I already told you I’d buy your tickets home.”
“It’s more than that.”
He hopped onto the tailgate and she joined him. “I want to help you, if you’ll let me,” he said.
She debated admitting how deeply committed she was to this venture, then figured she might as well, because he’d learn the truth sooner or later.
“My furniture and everything I own is in the back of some truck on its way to Alaska. It should get here within a month.”
He shook his head. “It won’t, you know.”
“But that’s what I was told!”
“Your things will be delivered to Fairbanks. There’s no road to Hard Luck.”
She wasn’t completely stupid, no matter what he thought. “I asked Christian and he told me there’s a haul road.”
“The haul road is only passable in winter. It’s twenty-six miles to the Dalton Highway, which doesn’t even resemble the highways you know. It’s little more than a dirt and gravel road. A haul road’s much worse. It crosses two rivers and they need to freeze before you can drive over them.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, Abbey, but your furniture won’t go any farther than Fairbanks.”
She took this latest bit of information with a resigned grimace. “Then I’ll wait until winter. It’s not like I have any place to put a love seat, do I?” she asked, gesturing at the cabin.
“No, I guess you don’t.” He eased himself off the tailgate, then gave her a hand down. “I need to get back to the airfield.”
“Thanks for bringing our luggage.”
“No problem.”
“Mom. Mom.” Scott came racing toward her. Keeping pace with him was a large husky. “I found a dog! Look.” He fell to his knees and enthusiastically wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck. “I wonder who he belongs to.”
“That’s Eagle Catcher,” Sawyer said as his eyes widened in shock. “My dog. What’s he doing here? He should be locked in his pen!”
* * *
That evening, Sawyer sat in front of a gentle fire, a book propped in his hands. Eagle Catcher rested on the braided rug by the fireplace. The book didn’t hold his attention. He doubted that anything could distract him from Abbey and her two children.
In all the years he’d lived in Hard Luck, Sawyer had only known intense fear once, and that had been the day his father died.
He never worried, but he did this June night. He worried that Susan or Scott might encounter a bear on their way to the outhouse. He worried that they’d face any number of unforeseen dangers.
He couldn’t help recalling that Emily O’Halloran, an aunt he’d never known, had been lost on the tundra at the age of five. She’d been playing outside his grandparents’ cabin one minute and was gone the next. Without a sound. Without a trace.
For years his grandmother had been distraught and inconsolable over the loss of her youngest child and only daughter. In fact, Anna O’Halloran had named the town. She’d called it Hard Luck because of her husband’s failure to find the rich vein of gold he’d been looking for; with the tragedy of Emily’s death, the name took on new significance.
Worrying about Abbey and her children was enough to ruin Sawyer’s evening. Surely by morning she’d see reason and decide to return to Seattle!
Eagle Catcher rose and walked over to Sawyer’s chair. He placed his head on his master’s knee.
“You surprised me, boy,” Sawyer said, scratching his dog’s ears. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Eagle Catcher and Scott had acted as if they’d been raised together. The rapport between them had been strong and immediate. The first shock had been that the dog had escaped his pen and followed Sawyer’s truck; the second, that he’d so quickly accepted the boy.
“You like Scott, don’t you?”
Eagle Catcher whined as if he understood and was responding to the question.
“You don’t need to explain anything to me, boy. I feel