Northern Rebel: Daring in the Dark Read online

  “Well, that’s good news.” Lars closed the door behind him and dropped his dirty laundry over in a corner.

  “I delivered your chow for you.”

  “That’s even better news.” He grabbed the foam box off the nightstand. “So, what’s up?”

  Dirk leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “I thought I might talk to you for a few minutes.” Lars was usually easy to talk to. Liam was so dead-ass serious about everything.

  Lars swallowed and paused between bites. “Uh, sure thing. What’s on your mind?”

  “Natalie.” Dirk didn’t see a whole lot of point in pussyfooting around the subject.

  “Natalie who?” Lars asked around a mouthful of stew.

  “Do we both know more than one? Natalie Reinhardt.” He’d learned that she hadn’t changed her name when she and Liam had split.

  “Liam’s ex?” Dirk nodded and Lars looked surprised. Liam must’ve not mentioned the whole thing to Lars, which suited Dirk just fine. Liam was a man who knew how to keep his mouth shut. “Okay, what about her?”

  “Well, I’m not sure what to do.” Lars listened attentively while Dirk filled him in. “So, how do I get over her?”

  Lars placed the now-empty container on the nightstand and propped against the wall. “You’ve dated other chicks, right?”

  “Some.” There’d only been a handful.

  “And that didn’t work out for you?”

  They’d all been a total wash. “If it had, I wouldn’t be sitting here bellyaching now.”

  “Then maybe you need to be figuring out how to get her instead of get over her. Hell, you’ve never even kissed her.” Lars shook his head as if Dirk was a lost cause. “You might sleep with her and find out she doesn’t really float your boat.”

  Dirk stood, curling his right hand into a fist. He liked Lars, so the guy at least deserved some warning. But he needed to understand when enough was enough. “Be mindful that you’re respectful when you talk about her.”

  “Easy there, Big Guy.” Lars gestured for him to calm down. “There’s not a damn thing disrespectful about sex. I like Natalie so let’s just get it straight that I haven’t and I wouldn’t disrespect her.”

  Dirk relaxed his fist. “Okay. It’s just, you know...” He trailed off.

  Lars shrugged. “No, I can’t say that I do. I haven’t carried a torch like that.”

  “What about Denise Palmer?” It had been no secret that Lars had been crazy about Denise and he’d been pretty torn up when she’d broken up with him.

  “I got over her and learned my lesson. But I’m damn sure not still carrying anything for her. But then, I don’t really understand why Liam has to marry Tansy.” He shook his head and shrugged again. “But I don’t have to get it. All I can tell you is if you’re going to be miserable without her, you better figure out how not to be without her.”

  Dirk sank back onto the mattress and once again rested his arms on his outspread knees and studied the floor. “Well, I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I like my job with Liam and I’m here and she’s there—”

  Lars cut him off. “So, invite her here.”

  Dirk looked up. He hadn’t expected that. “Don’t you think it would be awkward, considering she and Liam were married once and now Liam’s going to have a new wife?”

  Lars grinned. “There’s only one way to find out. Ask her and see what happens. It’s not as if she and Liam parted on bad terms.”

  “What if she says no?” The thought of it tied Dirk’s guts in a knot.

  “Why would she?”

  Lars made it sound so simple. “Why wouldn’t she? And what if she’s only coming because she wants to see Liam again and check out Tansy?”

  “Liam hasn’t exactly been in hiding. If she’d wanted to see him again, she’d have shown up sometime in the last year.”

  That was true enough. It was time to lay out on the table what was really eating at him. “What if she comes and she doesn’t, you know, like me?”

  “Then that’s the way it rolls. But at least you’ll know. It’s a chance you have to take. And you know, there’s an equal chance she will like you.”

  “But I’m not like Liam. I’m big and rough around the edges.” He laughed and shrugged self-consciously. “I’ve never accomplished much of anything.”

  Lars thought about it for a few seconds and then spoke. “You know you are what you are, Big D. But I don’t see how you can say you haven’t accomplished anything. You support yourself and you do what you want to do. There’s not a damn thing wrong with that. And as for you not being Liam... Well, that’s probably a damn good thing ’cause that didn’t exactly work out for either of them.”

  Dirk had never looked at it that way. Feeling better than he had in a long time, he got up. Maybe he did stand a chance with Natalie after all.

  * * *

  LARS HAD JUST finished putting away his gear when a knock sounded on his door. Liam had said he’d come up in a few minutes. They’d, of course, seen one another all evening during the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner afterward but there hadn’t been any time for them to just hang out with one another. Now it was time to connect with his brother.

  He opened the door and Liam stood in the hall, two longnecks in his hand.

  “Thanks,” Lars said, grabbing one of the beers as he stood aside for Liam to enter.

  “Thought you might be ready for a cold one before the bachelor party starts.”

  The bachelor party consisted of a get-together downstairs at Gus’s to shoot pool and throw darts in about an hour. Gus’s had also been the site of the rehearsal dinner earlier tonight. The place reminded Lars of the base rec room.

  “You thought right.” He hoisted the bottle in Liam’s general direction. “Here’s to ya.”

  Liam grinned and returned the gesture. “Here’s to you.”

  They’d been doing that since they were kids. Lars took a long pull of the barley pop. It was smooth and cool going down.

  “So, what do you think of Tansy?” Liam asked, settling on the bed and propping up against the headboard. You’d think it was his room.

  Lars pulled out the straight-back chair, turned it around and straddled it.

  “I like her. She’s classy and spunky.” Lars grinned. “She’ll keep your ass in line.” It would’ve been impossible for him to lie to his brother about something so important so he was relieved he honestly liked the little brunette.

  “Yep, she is and she does.”

  Liam was happy, and for a kind of serious dude, that wasn’t said lightly. Lars had never seen his brother like this. He could “feel” his brother’s joy.

  “It’s all good, then,” Lars said. “It sounds like your business is rocking. When I checked out your website, hell, I wanted to sign up for a week.”

  Liam laughed. “No need. You’re still living it. How’s work going?”

  Lars filled him in on the job-related stuff that couldn’t be discussed via email. And neither one of them was big on video chat.

  They’d emailed, talked on the phone a couple of times, but this was something that had needed to wait until they were face-to-face. To be a marine was all either of them had ever wanted. Liam had married when it was something Lars had no interest in but they’d both always been marines at their core. Liam’s discharge had been the first time Lars couldn’t really relate to what was going on with his twin. Now was the time to talk.

  “You miss it?” Lars asked. There was no need to define “it.”

  Liam shook his head. “At first I did, but now...no, man. I’ve adjusted. In fact, now that some time has passed, I’d say it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to me. Life goes on and you can go on with it or not. I like running the survival camp. Every group that comes through presents a new challenge. Dirk’s doing a damn fine job as my second-in-command. And, of course, Tansy’s great.” He took a swig from his bottle. “You sound as if you’re still happy in the corp.”

 
Lars felt temporarily disappointed. That was it? Apparently so if they were back to talking about him. And why wouldn’t Lars still be happy in the Marines?

  “I am.” Still, he felt better about Liam now. “I’ve just been concerned about you.”

  “I’m not going to lie.” Liam shook his head. “I was madder than hell when I showed up here. Bull helped me through a lot of it and so did Tansy. Tansy’s the one who came up with the idea of putting together survival camp.” Liam had told him that before. “She wasn’t about to let me wallow in anything.”

  “No, she doesn’t strike me as the type that would.” Lars broached the next topic even more cautiously than the first. It, too, was one of those things you had to discuss man-to-man. “And speaking of Tansy... Don’t get me wrong, she seems like a great gal. But marriage? I mean, you tried that once before and it didn’t exactly work out. If it was anyone other than you, I’d keep my mouth shut but...”

  “We’ve always had a different attitude about women. You know that crap with you and Denise went down a long time ago. You’ve got to let it go.”

  He didn’t know what Liam was thinking, but if he thought Lars was still holding on to the pain he’d felt when Denise dumped him...uh, no, not by a long shot. “I have let it go. I let it go back in the day years ago. But I won’t make the same mistake again.” And he didn’t want to talk about himself. This was about Liam. “You look happy and content. I guess I didn’t expect to find you this way.”

  “Yeah? You thought I’d be miserable right before I got married?” Good thing he knew Liam, because his brother didn’t crack a smile.

  Lars shrugged.

  “You should’ve seen my sorry ass when I first showed up here. That’s probably the guy you were expecting to find.”

  “I’m just as glad I missed that part. You gonna be able to handle those dark winters here?” That would be Lars’s undoing.

  “It’ll make it interesting. I’ve already got bookings for the ‘extreme survival trip’ in dark, cold conditions. I’ve been working with a guy you need to meet before you leave. His name is Clint Sinuket. He’s a trail guide and a wilderness expert. I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s out on a trip right now, but you should run into him sometime in the next week.”

  “Sure thing. I’ll look him up.”

  Liam continued. “This is what I figured out. When I was in the military, it was great and it totally defined me. By God, I was a Marine sharpshooter. Nuff said. But after losing all of that...I had to dig deep and figure who and what I was beyond the military. I found out there’s a whole lot more to me and a whole lot more out in the world.”

  That was all good. Whatever Liam needed to do to work through his discharge, Lars was all for it. “You’re different. I’ll give you that.”

  Luckily for Lars, he didn’t need to go through all of that. He knew exactly who he was and what he was.... He was a marine and it was enough.

  “And as for marriage...” Liam shot him a level look. “Some of the best advice I’d ever heard came from Bull. He said that when you find a good woman, you hold on to her.”

  Something twisted and shifted inside Lars and it wasn’t a particularly comfortable feeling. An image of Delphi flashed through his thoughts. Liam was getting way too intense for Lars. Time to lighten things up. “I do, all night long.”

  “Okay, Ace.” Liam laughed. “I’m just going to sit back and watch because your time is coming.”

  It was a helluva time for Delphi to come to mind again.

  * * *

  “IT’S BEAUTIFUL,” DELPHI said to Skye and Dalton as she stood in their home and looked around. The open floor plan boasted pale wood floors, linen-tinted walls and an off-white leather sectional with a companion recliner. It could’ve been boring but it wasn’t. The varying shades of off-white were soothing. Framed prints on the wall provided the room’s color. Delphi walked over for a closer look. “These are fantastic.”

  “It’s a hobby,” Dalton said with his ready grin. It had taken all of two minutes for Delphi to see just how perfect Dalton and Skye were together. Skye’s somewhat brash husband had loosened her up. Delphi had always liked Skye and gotten along well with her, but the other woman had been buttoned up tight, compliments of an overachieving family with impossibly high expectations. Good Riddance and Dalton had been the best things in the world for her friend.

  “If you ladies will excuse me, I’ve got a project I need to check on out back and I’ll leave you two to gossip...uh, I mean, catch up before dinner.” He dropped a casual kiss on the top of Skye’s head and headed for the back door with a spring in his step. The simple exchange filled Delphi with a longing for the same thing. She thought of the kiss she’d shared with Lars. He, too, was brash. However, while Dalton was cute, Lars was dangerously sexy.

  “He’s a nice guy,” Delphi said to Skye as the door closed behind Dalton.

  Skye plugged in an electric kettle for tea.

  “He’s a thorough pain sometimes,” Skye said, while her indulgent smile and sparkling eyes proclaimed her thoroughly smitten, “but he is wonderful. I thought he was the most obnoxious man on the planet when I first met him.”

  “How’s that?” Lars again popped into the front of her mind, which made him doubly annoying—she couldn’t totally put him out of her mind.

  “Green tea?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “He was arrogant,” Skye continued as she prepared the cups, “and bold, and personal boundaries...forget it.” Yes, yes and yes. Skye smiled. “And too sexy for words.”

  Double yes. Skye could’ve been talking about Lars. Delphi pushed aside the thought. “Well, that certainly turned around for you, didn’t it?”

  Skye laughed. “Dalton can be pretty persuasive, kind of like a steamroller. And, of course, he had the hot factor in spades.”

  Delphi could certainly relate to all of that. “How does he get along with your parents?”

  “Believe it or not, they like him.” Skye laughed as she poured the hot water. “I know my parents are snobs.” Oops, Delphi’s thoughts must’ve been showing on her face. “They didn’t take to him at first but they came around pretty quickly. How’d your parents handle you coming here?”

  She and Skye had joked a couple of times that if their respective parents could be blended to meet somewhere in the middle, they’d be the perfect parental unit. Skye’s mom and dad were neurosurgeons who’d looked down on their daughter being a lowly general practitioner. On the other hand, Delphi’s folks were blue-collar all the way and were constantly cautioning her not to “get above her raising.” Her redneck familial roots ran deep. “I never told them about the whole thing with DeWitt. It would’ve been a disaster.”

  “Your daddy would’ve wanted to settle it with a double-barrel.”

  “You got that right. So they think I’ve come here to experience the splendors of the Alaskan wilderness instead. They vaguely approve of the idea because they’ve seen all those reality TV shows about the truck drivers on ice and the one about the Alaskan town. Daddy said at least I was coming to a place where there are ‘real people,’ which is kind of ironic considering he’s basing that on scripted television, but whatever.”

  “Well, you’ve come to the right place. You’ve left all of that behind for a while and you can regroup here. But you do need to be prepared for the onslaught of men that will come calling. Make no mistake, age won’t matter. They’ll beat down your door—all shapes, sizes and age, once they know you’re available. Trust me. You won’t know a moment’s peace until you’ve told each of them no innumerable times. At the clinic, we’ll have a rush of men once you start, simply because you’re new, pretty and single.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. Expect to deal with feigned illnesses from men from twenty to eighty-six so they can check you out and ask you out. It’s just as well you’ll be at the bed-and-breakfast for the first week or so. That’ll keep them from peering in the windows.”


  Skye passed her the cup filled with steeping tea. “What?”

  “The first time Dalton and I were, you know, getting intimate, I looked up and a would-be suitor was looking through the window. It scared the life out of me.”

  Delphi laughed. Skye had always been so reserved and the idea... Oh, my goodness. “You didn’t mention that when you were telling me about this place.”

  “I’d really sort of forgotten about it. It was when I first got here. Men were lining up until Dalton was kind enough to sacrifice himself by pretending we were together.” She rolled her eyes. “One thing led to another and pretty soon we weren’t pretending.”

  “Which is when the man looked through the window?” Delphi pulled out the tea bag.

  “Exactly. And then he killed and dressed out a moose and had it delivered to Dalton as remuneration for poaching.”

  Delphi had never, ever actually heard anyone use the term remuneration in a sentence. “Fantastic,” she said regarding the moose payment.

  “You’ll see soon enough.”

  “About going to the wedding tomorrow—”

  “It’s great timing. It’ll be fun. Liam is Merrilee and Bull’s nephew and with Merrilee the town founder and mayor, well, they’re the version of Good Riddance royalty. Everyone will be there.”

  “All I have is a very casual dress.”

  “That’s all you need. You can meet everyone and you’ll see dishes there you never imagined—moose stew, caribou jerky, smoked halibut. You must be exhausted with the travel and the time change. I’ll run you back into town after dinner so you can get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be another big day for you.”

  Apparently it would be. Because apparently Delphi was going to a wedding.

  5

  DELPHI SHIFTED ON the wood pew to get a better look around.

  It was the oddest thing to be sitting at a wedding of people she’d only just met, surrounded by people she mostly didn’t know. She’d been given accurate information—there was a wide range of dress attire, from jeans and T-shirts to formal dresses and coat and tie. It was, however, all lovely.