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  The air was much colder than the inside and it took my body a minute to acclimate to the change. It was a little warmer here in Nome then where I was from, but there was dampness in the air that I wasn’t used to. It somehow seemed to make it colder than home.

  My mind went to Denise and I could see that I was going to be spending more time there. There were a couple other restaurants in the small, seaside town, but it was Molly’s that had the staff to take care of all of my needs.

  Pushing those thoughts from my brain, I couldn’t help but find it straying there time and time again while I took the short walk to the harbor. It wasn’t that far from the restaurant and it gave me some time to appreciate the views. I loved Alaska and travelling to all parts of it had always been a fun pastime for me. I wanted to see what was out there and the more I tried to see it all, the more I realized that there was just so much more to see and I wanted someone to share it with. Travelling alone became old after a while. I wanted someone to see the sights with me.

  “Hey Charlie, how’s it going?”

  Charlie was a man I’d met earlier in the day when I’d first gotten here and I didn’t know him well, but he seemed the type that would be a good choice to drink a beer and shoot the shit with.

  “Hey Ethan. Is it time for the meeting?”

  “About time. I don’t even have a watch, so I don’t have fast and hard times. Everyone will get here soon. It looks like almost everyone is here, so we will get started soon.”

  “Where you coming from?”

  “Molly’s.”

  “Good food. How was it? Is the special roast today?”

  I didn’t have the answer. “Just got some coffee and took in the view. Didn’t get anything to eat this morning.”

  “The view? Hell there is barely one window in that little shack. What view are you talking about?”

  “Denise.”

  Charlie chuckled and he agreed. “She sure is pretty to look at, isn’t she?”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It means that no one has had very good luck with her. She is pretty picky from what I hear and doesn’t put out for anyone. I mean no one.”

  He leaned in to say it and I didn’t believe him. I sort of thought that he was thinking of someone else, but I knew that he wasn’t. Was she really that way? She hadn’t given me that feeling at all. If anything else, she had seemed shy, but that was easily remedied. I figured then that she just hadn’t met the right man yet.

  I was going to be that man.

  “No one like me has tried Charlie. Wait and see. I will have her in my room before I leave here.”

  “Do you want to make a wager on that?”

  I didn’t like where it was going, but I was the one that had boasted. If I was going to be in for a penny, I might as well be in for a pound.

  “Sure.”

  Charlie practically giggled like a girl and that told me that maybe I was in over my head. I hadn’t ever had trouble before, so why would it be any different now? She was just a girl, like everyone else and no one yet had been able to resist my charm.

  “So we need to have a deadline. You’re so sure that you can change her mind when no one else could, so how long do you need Ethan to do the impossible?”

  The way he worded it made my anxiety level go up. Impossible huh? Nothing was impossible.

  “A month.”

  He whistled. “That’s a while, but even then I don’t think you will do it. A hundred bucks say that you won’t.”

  We agreed with a handshake and I moved back to see more people flooding in. It was time to get started, now that I had agreed to such childish terms. I needed the help of the locals and Charlie was a pillar of the community. That’s how I rationalized it all anyways. It was all going to be fine. I didn’t care to lose that small of an amount of money and I knew that I was going to go after her whether or not the money was on the line.

  I had decided before this that I was going to have Denise. She was ripe for the picking and the bet was just some fun between me and one of my new workers. It wasn’t like Denise was ever going to find out about it.

  Chapter 4

  Denise

  “Why did you tell him about the hunting ground behind my house Molly? You know that I don’t like guys back here shooting up by the house and spooking them all over the place.”

  I didn’t like the very idea of it and had gotten into a shouting match with a couple of guys because they wanted to do that very thing. I had refused and I was reminded that I was just an outsider. I’d been here five years and I hadn’t let anyone on the land since.

  “Well you didn’t say much when I was talking about it, so I figured that you didn’t care about Ethan going.”

  I closed my mouth to stop the obscenities that were about to come out of it. She knew that I was going to be mad, but it was hard to be mad at her when she was smiling in such a way. It was all part of her master plan and I knew that it was all going to be okay, even if at the moment I fantasized about ringing her neck.

  “You like him and he likes you. You’re the one that was talking about having to find a man. Well, here’s one, so practice on him.”

  “Ethan is better than just practice. He’s the type of guy that I’m looking for.”

  She smiled with this look that told me that she knew she was right all along. I had felt an immediate draw to him, but I was still trying to be mad at her for embarrassing me like she did. Molly had never done that before and I didn’t want it to be repeated.

  “There you go. Take the evening off and invite him over. You can romp around for the night and then let him go hunting in the morning. Then you can tell me all about it.”

  I groaned loudly to let her know that her idea was pure make believe. I didn’t even know the guy. I wasn’t going to do any of that. I was shy when it came to a guy that I really liked and I wasn’t ready to be around him again. I needed more time.

  “Maybe soon.”

  Molly looked disappointed and I didn’t know what to tell her.

  “Don’t wait too long. Someone else around here will snatch him up if you do. He is a good looking man. I’m with someone I love and I can still see that.”

  She had a point, even if I didn’t like it. I didn’t know about tonight, but I was going to try to make it soon for Ethan’s invite. Hopefully I wouldn’t be too late when I finally got the nerve up to invite him.

  ***

  I made it about a week and I saw Ethan every day. He was fast getting to be known around town and it was only a couple of days in that he was sitting with some of the locals. He was taken in quickly and I liked that he was so well adapted to here. Everyone liked him and since he was now the boss to many of them that had picked up some temporary work in construction, there was no one in the restaurant that had a problem with him. Since the town of Nome was notoriously unwelcoming to most newcomers, I was happy to see that the transition had gone so well. Maybe I wanted him to stay around a while if he liked the place and this was just another clue that maybe we were supposed to meet and be together. Or I was just looking into it too much. All of which were a possibility.

  Ethan wasn’t the only one that was new to Nome. Every day there were more and more new faces. Most of them were men. A few brought girlfriends, but mainly it was tough and rugged men from all around the state and beyond. Many of them were quite easy on the eyes, but it was Ethan that I was drawn to, no one else in that same way.

  Ethan had a smile that made me melt inside and our eyes would meet from across the room several times a day. We were having a conversation without words and he finally came up to me and asked if I was busy this weekend.

  “I would like to get some hunting in and I hear that your place is the best place because you won’t let anyone hunt on it.”

  He knew that he was special and I didn’t like the smug look on his face. I wish he wouldn’t have asked around and found that out. I didn’t like him thinking he had some sort of upper hand over me. />
  “Yes, I will be. It has been a while since I’ve hunted back there. I think I will join you.”

  Somewhere along the line, it had become a competition. It hadn’t taken long to talk him into and Ethan seemed to be prone to gambling. I wasn’t one to shirk a challenge, so I agreed and we shook hands. I wasn’t sure what the winner got, but I was sure that I was going to win.

  It also occurred to me suddenly that he was coming by tomorrow and we were going to be alone. Molly had set it up and now it was coming to fruition. I could barely speak around him and now I was going to be out in the woods, alone with him. I could only see it ending one way and that way made me a little nervous because it had been a long time. A really long time.

  Chapter 5

  Ethan

  I called a few moments before I pulled up at Denise’s house. It was smaller than most of the ones in town and I could tell that she had lived there awhile. It also told me without having to ask a thing, that she lived there alone. There wasn’t enough room for anyone else to actually live there with her. The place was downright tiny.

  Knocking on the front door, even that looked puny when I stood next to it and I had to bend down a little bit to get through the threshold. I was only a few inches over six feet, so it wasn’t me, but this small place where she lived.

  “Hey, come in for a minute. I have to finish getting dressed.”

  I agreed and my eyes took in the woman. She was in a towel and her red hair was wet and dripping down her shoulders. No, no prude here. I would have categorized her a tease before a prude. She was gorgeous, but I had a feeling that she didn’t know how she looked in my eyes. There was no flirting in her or beguilement. She really just acted like she was oblivious to it all and I don’t know why I found that so irresistible.

  Walking in, there was a candle burning in the corner of the room that smelled like flowers and the aroma was the first thing that I noticed. I had smelled it before when she would pass me in the restaurant. I’d thought that it was a perfume, but it must have been from being here. The place was even smaller on the inside, but every inch was used well. I wanted to ask her about it, but I didn’t know where she had gone. She was here one moment and gone the next.

  I called out her name and she popped her head out from a canopy bed up top. It was a tall part of the house where she could stand up and she turned her back to me as the towel dropped. The top part was bare and I could see her smooth, milky white back, but nothing more. She already had some shorts on that I hadn’t even noticed before because the bottom hem wasn’t showing from underneath the towel.

  The shirt was on and she was jumping down from the loft quickly. There was a ladder, but it was clear that it was Denise’s preferred way to get down.

  “Sorry, I’m running a little late today. Molly took off with her old man and wasn’t answering her phone for a while. She does that a lot lately.”

  Denise giggled a little to herself and I was too worried about what I’d seen and how she looked in front of me, more than I was worried about anything else. She didn’t look like she was ready to go hunting, but there was a case and a gun out, as well as a little backpack that I assumed had her life saving gear in it. She was not at all like any hunter that I’d ever seen before. Denise was a woman all her own.

  “So are you ready?”

  I sounded incredulous to my own ears because she looked like she was going to the beach or something, not deep in the woods to hunt a very spook-able animal. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her long legs. It was impossible not to.

  “Yeah, I got everything I need. How about you?”

  I felt a little silly with everything that I had on and was bringing with me. It was just normal gear, but I was far less comfortable because of the layers and extra bits.

  “I’m good.”

  “You got enough?”

  Another smirk and I tried to ignore her. “We’re just going out back. It doesn’t have to be that far before you will start seeing tracks. I say that we can be out and back with something within an hour.”

  That was a lot to say and I doubted that it would happen that way. I don’t know about Denise, but I didn’t have those kinds of days very often, certainly not enough that I would count on it. Was she going to smoke me out of the water? Should I give up now?

  I dug in instead of giving up. I don’t know why, but I was sure that I was going to have to prove myself to her. She was not like most girls. I had heard story after story about her and no one said anything about her being easy. I’d heard rumors that she was gay, but I didn’t get that vibe off of her either. I was starting to think that everything assumed and heard about her wasn’t very accurate.

  All I had heard was that Denise was the one in town that no one could resist. But at the same time, she didn’t give anyone there the time of day. For a small town, that news was perplexing because she was so pretty, I can’t see how no one was able to entice her. I wasn’t having any trouble getting that look of need in her eyes that would turn to action soon enough. I could see it evolving as we spent more time together.

  “You’re sure of it?”

  “Pretty much. I never have to be out long. I don’t like to hunt, not really at all, but I’ve had to on one or more occasions. Last winter my freezer went out while I was gone and the house was too warm. Lost everything so I had to do a lot of hunting, even though so many people sent me meat. There were some things missing that I wanted.”

  “Well we will see. It usually takes me a lot longer.”

  “If you would hurry up and do it, you wouldn’t have to walk around with all of this stuff on. I think you’re scaring them away.”

  “I do okay.”

  She grinned and held her hands up like she didn’t mean any harm. I didn’t like to be the butt of a joke and I knew then that I was going to have to win this little bet of mine. I thought about the other one I had made a couple of days ago. I was going to win that one too.

  Chapter 6

  Denise

  “You’re being really quiet. You aren’t going to see anything out of the way yet. It’s too close to the house. They know better than that. I feed them further on so that they don’t get into the garden during the summer.”

  He shook his head.

  “What?”

  “I should have known that I had gotten myself into a jam. You know these woods very well, don’t you?”

  I agreed.

  “And the animals?”

  I agreed again and smiled back at him. He knew now that he wasn’t going to win. I knew the land and where to find them. Even if we came in side to side, I was still going to have an advantage over him and I was okay with that.

  He walked a little faster and I let him get ahead. He was starting to go the wrong way and we were getting close to the action, so I didn’t holler out at him. Instead I walked the way I knew best and waited to see something and end this charade. I don’t know why it was so important for me to beat him and kill something first. He had acted like he had control over me and I hated the feeling. I hated even more that he may have been right and there may have been something to it. With all of the new arrivals and my lack of interest in them, he may be right and I disliked that idea very much.

  I heard a shot from the side of me and since it was only the two of us out here, I knew that it was Ethan. I worried that he had won and I hoped that he had missed and I would still be in the game. I moved towards the sound and in the direction that the man had went and stopped when I saw him in the clearing.

  He hadn’t missed. He had won and Ethan had the biggest smile on his face than I had ever seen. It was like he had just won the Olympics on his favorite event. Now I needed to know what the stakes were. I feel like it should have been brought up before I agreed. Now I was stuck trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.

  Ethan had downed a deer and by the look of it, it was a pretty good sized one. There was a part of me that wanted to congratulate him, but I kne
w that there was a bigger part of me that wasn’t happy about his win. He was beaming and instead of saying a word, I pulled it to me and started to gut it so that we could field dress it and take it back with us. I wasn’t going to let it go to waste and I was still a little miffed that I had lost. It was not the expected outcome.

  “Wow you really know what you’re doing. It was pure luck, really it was.’

  He didn’t have to give an excuse. It was making the loss worse and I wanted him to shut up. I really hated to lose, really bad. It was the worst part for me and when he was smiling back at me, I finally had had enough.

  “Yes you win, I got that. So what did you win? We never talked about stakes.”

  His eyes gleamed and I wished that I hadn’t worded it quite that way. It felt like a mistake and the more I tried to push it away, the more Ethan rubbed it in. I was regretting the bet wholeheartedly at the moment.

  “My choice?”

  “Within reason.”

  Considering that I was horny and turned on by his good boy charm and bright blue eyes, it would have been more apt to tell him that the sky was the limit.

  “Hmm, can I think about it a little while?”

  I told him that he could. I didn’t want to pay up anyways, so I didn’t mind prolonging it as much as he wanted to. It would have been better if he got busy and forgot about it all together, but that didn’t seem to be an option.

  Once I got the deer dressed out, I was about to lift it up when he took it from me and hoisted it up onto his back.

  “I got it from here. At least we don’t have that far to go.”

  “No, and we should be back in a little while. I will make some dinner and help you package it up. It looks like you will have enough venison to last you through the harbor project.”