Head over Heels for the Holidays E-Book

Jennifer Bernard

• Herausgeber: Jennifer Bernard
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Lost Harbor, Alaska
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 404

Beschreibung

Ever since her ex-boyfriend dumped her on Christmas Eve, the holiday season has been tough for Maya Badger—especially since Lost Harbor, Alaska, pulls out all the stops for the holidays. Sure, she could focus on her police work and her father’s recovery from heart surgery. But when her dad’s home healthcare nurse turns out to be her childhood buddy—all grown up and the stuff of her naughtiest fantasies—she may have a solution to her holiday blues. After all, Jay-Jay always was the perfect playmate!

Rune Larsen hasn’t been skinny little Jay-Jay in a long time…not since he and his teen sister were forced to change their names to avoid Cara’s stalker. Taking a job in tiny, remote Lost Harbor seems like the perfect way to stay one step ahead of danger. The fact that his childhood friend is the town police chief is a bonus. Not to mention the fact that Maya has grown into a beautiful bronze goddess. Hell, even her serious cop side is a turn-on…though he’s up for the challenge of bringing some fun back into her life.

In fact, if they can navigate a stalker, a runaway yak, eleventy-billion holiday parties and a criminal investigation into the dark side of Lost Souls Wilderness, Rune just may convince Maya to fall Head over Heels for the Holidays…and beyond.

Leseprobe

HEAD OVER HEELS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

JENNIFER BERNARD

JENNIFER BERNARD

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

About the Author

Also by Jennifer Bernard

CHAPTERONE

About four months before Christmas …

Above all things, Maya Badger prided herself on keeping her cool. All of Lost Harbor would most likely agree that she had no trouble bringing order and authority to any situation, including drunken brawls and stray moose wandering into traffic. That was why she was the youngest police chief in Lost Harbor history.

But she’d never faced someone quite like the extremely fit man in the Lost Harbor holding cell with her. He wore a gray cable-knit sweater and jeans, along with work boots. He’d introduced himself as Rune Larsen, her father’s new nurse. But he looked more like a ski champion or an extra in a Thor movie. He just had that physicality about him that screamed “athlete.” Maybe that was why he looked vaguely familiar. Maybe she’d seen him in a movie or on TV competing in the Olympics.

He glanced around the tiny jail cell with eyes the color of a green lake on an overcast day. “Do you normally hold meetings in here?”

“No. We’re short on space. You said you wanted to meet privately and right now, this is the best I got. So you’re the travel nurse the agency assigned?”

“That’s me. I just arrived in town.”

“Welcome to Lost Harbor.” She gestured around the holding cell. “Sorry for the lack of a fruit basket or whatever. But I sure am glad you’re here. My dad’s apparently running for Worst Patient of the Year.”

He smiled slightly. Again that tug of recognition blinked at the edge of her mind. “I hear that a lot. No worries.”

His voice was deep and somehow very reassuring. But when it came to her father, “no worries” didn’t apply. “Sorry, but of course I’m going to worry. It started with heart surgery, but it cascaded from there because he refused to just rest. He got an infection, then he sprained his wrist. If you’re going to work with him, I need to know you’re taking it seriously.”

His eyebrows lifted slightly. “Of course.”

She wondered if this was how parents felt when they handed over their children to daycare. Fretful and nervous. “I mean, I didn’t think I’d need a private nurse. I thought I could take care of him myself. But I’m the police chief around here and that means I have a lot of serious responsibility and—”

A knock sounded at the reinforced metal door. She opened it; Bob Hollister, one of her five sergeants, held up a flyer. “You want to approve this before I post it, Chief?”

Of all things to impress the hot nurse, a flyer of a missing yak would not have been her top choice.

The Tibetan yak belonged to Mrs. Holt, who was close friends with the mayor. Maya had caved to political pressure and opened a case on the missing yak. A reward was being offered. Flyers were being posted.

She glanced at the flyer, which featured several shots of the yak—two closeups from different angles, one of the yak chewing some grass, another of him posing in a field, even one with Mrs. Holt riding him in the winter parade.

“You can drop the photo with Mrs. Holt. The yak is missing; she’s not out there riding it.”

“Someone else might be.” Hollister stroked his fringe of white beard, which made him look vaguely like Santa. “Got to cover all the bases.”

“Did she send you that photo?”

“I got it from the archives. Winter parade two years ago.”

She sighed. “Clear it with her. Make sure she’s good with her face showing up all over town.”

“Yes ma’am. Good thing I checked. That’s why I interrupted whatever you’re doing in here.”

He glanced curiously at Rune Larsen—by her count, at least the third time he’d done so.

“Back to work, Sergeant.”

“Yes, Chief.” He whisked himself back to his desk, but left the door open. She saw that the other people in the office—another sergeant, a citizen filing a complaint, and a state trooper—were also peering into the holding cell.

Firmly, she closed the door and faced Rune again.

He looked highly amused. A crease dented his cheek, which was covered in a nicely trimmed layer of beard. Normally she wasn’t crazy about facial hair on a guy, but she could make an exception in his case. He pulled it off.

She folded her arms across her chest.

“Obviously, I’m extremely busy with a lot of earthshaking duties. My dad needs more than I can do for him right now.”

“Understandable.”

“He doesn’t like me fussing over him.”

“Of course not. Too independent, right?”

“That’s one way to put it. Stubborn works too.”

Another knock. She let out a frustrated breath and opened the holding cell door. “What?”

This time it was Jessica, her best friend. She, too, shot a wildly curious glance in Rune’s direction. “We’re, uh, taking off now.” She gestured at the tall man behind her—Ethan James, her new love and a private investigator. They’d taken over her office to fill out some paperwork, which was why she’d brought Rune Larsen in here. “Your office is free if you’d rather meet there.”

“Thank you. You could have just texted me.”

Jessica shrugged, offering a merry smile. “We wanted to say goodbye in person.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye. And hello.” Turning to Rune, she offered her hand. “I’m Jessica Dixon, owner of the Sweet Harbor Bakery and B&B. We have the absolute best walnut-cinnamon sticky buns in town, so stop by any time between seven and two-ish, depending on how busy we are.”

“Jess,” Maya said in a warning tone. “Little busy here.”

“Of course. Sorry. Everyone has to eat, though, right? And sleep. Do you need a place to stay?” she asked Rune. “I mentioned the B&B part, right?”

“We have a place for now,” he said in that deep, sexy voice.

We.

For some reason, that word disappointed Maya. That “we” meant he was married, or partnered up with someone.

Sometimes it seemed she was the only one who wasn’t a “we.” Especially now that Jess had hooked up with Ethan, the only “we” in her life was her and her father.

“Gotcha. Okay, I’ll get out of your way. Call you later, Maya. Kate wants to get together for some dancing now that the peony harvest is over. Do you dance?” Once again, she directed that question at Rune.

He didn’t get a chance to answer because Maya manhandled Jessica out the door and shut it behind her.

“I’m really sorry,” she told Rune. “Just a little taste of my life right there. And it’s still early.”

“I hope with everything going on, you still make time for dancing.”

She shot him a surprised look. Did he mean that in a medical-advice type of way? “It’s not at the top of my list.”

“I guess you’re a lot busier now that you’re grown up.”

Now that was an odd thing to say. Her forehead creased as she looked at him.

And then looked again.

“Wait…” Why did he look so familiar? Who was he?

He smiled broadly for the first time, a full-on grin that set off another round of bells in her brain. She did know him from somewhere. But where?

He tugged his hair into unruly spikes so he looked like a mischievous kid.

Her jaw dropped open. “Jay? Jay-Jay from Hawaii?”

With a laugh, he smoothed his hair back down as best he could. “That took you a while. And here I thought you were a detective.”

“Yes, but…” She blinked at him as if he might vanish like some kind of mirage. “What are you…I never expected…why didn’t you… Oh my God, it really is you, Jay-Jay!”

He opened his arms wide and she didn’t hesitate. She launched herself at him and flung her arms around her old friend.

Jay-Jay Breton. From Oahu. Her savior during the year her father had been stationed in Hawaii. She meant that literally; he’d saved her life in the ocean one day. He’d been spearfishing while she’d been sitting on a rock, feeling homesick. An extra-big rogue wave had knocked her off into the water. He’d abandoned his gear and swum to her rescue. She’d been so outraged by her dunking that she’d yelled at him about how much she hated Hawaii.

They’d fought about it, facing off on the sand after he towed her to shore. Then a crab had crawled up her leg and she’d shaken it off with a shriek. It had landed in his hair, which had struck them both as so funny that they’d burst out laughing and wound up in hysterics on the sand.

That was how they’d become friends. Jay-Jay was a sunshiny, scrappy kid with a knack for trouble. They were so different; he was friendly, she was reserved. He was reckless, she was responsible. He loved the ocean, she much preferred solid ground. But somehow it just worked and they were inseparable until she went back to Alaska.

He sure hadn’t had the muscles that now surrounded her. Or at least they’d been much, much smaller.

The door to the cell flung open and a laugh of surprise rang out. “Chief Badger?”

She pulled herself away from Jay and whirled around to face Lucy Krakowski, who was a reporter from the local weekly newspaper.

Lucy wore the same look of wild curiosity Maya had seen three times now. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m on a deadline and—“

“I know, I know, the police blotter. Doesn’t anyone text or email anymore?” Maya couldn’t help but grumble. She hadn’t seen Jay-Jay in twenty years. They hadn’t kept in touch after she came back to Alaska. She hadn’t even known he was in the state.

“We can do this later,” Jay said. “I’ll give you my number.”

“No. No. Stay where you are. Lucy, Sergeant Hollister can help you out. This is a very old friend of mine.” She took care to emphasize the word so Lucy wouldn’t go spreading anything false around town. She was about to say his name when she remembered that he’d used a different name at first.

When—and why—had Jay Breton become Rune Larsen?

Lucy turned to go, and Maya called after her, “We’ll have a flyer for you soon too.”

“The yak, I know.” Lucy waved her hand. “Don’t worry, we’re doing a front-page spread on it. Janet Holt sure has some major pull around here. I’m off to interview her now, actually.”

The door clanged shut again. Maya and Jay/Rune stared at each other.

“Looking forward to reading that,” he said mildly.

They both started laughing at the same moment. Just the way they used to.

“Let’s get out of here,” Maya told him. “I’m gonna put out the ‘gone fishing’ sign and let them all fix their own problems.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“Nope. You know me and the ocean. We still haven’t really warmed up to each other.” She swung open the door, saw that everyone in the bullpen was watching with google eyes, and shut it again. “This place has lost its damn mind. They always want to know my business.”

A slow wicked smile spread across Jay-Jay’s face. “Should we really give them something to talk about?”

Oh lord. Here comes trouble. When had he gotten so freaking sexy? Twenty years sure changed a lot of things in a man.

“I think we’ve already got that covered. I have to look out for my reputation. I know my dad’s going to want to see you. How about I drive you over there and we can catch up on the way?”

He nodded, but his face went serious again. “It’s more than catching up. There’s a situation I have to talk to you about. In private, not around your father. It’s why I came to see you as soon as we got to town.”

There was that “we” again. She scolded herself to stop getting carried away just because her old friend had grown into a stone-cold fox.

“I get it. But not here, too many interruptions.” She put her hand to the door handle again, then hesitated. “So which is it, Rune or Jay-Jay?”

“Rune, if you can remember.”

“Rune.” She repeated it silently to herself. At least it suited him, but it would be weird calling him by a different name. Maybe it would help that he looked so damn different. “Rune Larsen, RN.”

“LPN,” he corrected. “Practical nurse. Also a paramedic, but I’ll explain all that later.”

“Let’s go, then. We only have about twenty years of catching up to do.”

He touched her on the shoulder, a gentle touch that made her remember how strong his arms had felt when they’d hugged. “I always knew you’d grow up to be something special.”

Her face heated, and she braced herself to meet the collective stares of the department after she opened the door. “I bet you never thought I’d be a police officer though.”

“I didn’t have a clue what you’d be. Just that you’d knock it out of the park, whatever it was.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You didn’t say that when I fell off every paddleboard you tried to put me on.”

“Anything land-based,” he corrected with a grin.

“You’ll find lots of other ocean lovers around here. It’s a fishing town, though we tend to fish from boats instead of swimming around with spears.”

His smile faded. “I won’t be staying, Maya. I only take short-term assignments. Six months at most.”

Right, he was a travel nurse. In Alaska, there was a big demand for travel health care workers, since so many villages weren’t big enough to support a full-time dentist or physical therapist or ophthalmologist.

Important to remember that he was just passing through Lost Harbor.

Also that he was a “we.”

“That must be hard on a relationship.”

He looked at her blankly. “Excuse me?”

Had that come across as blatantly fishing for information? And was that allowed? They hadn’t seen each other in so long. He could be married for all she knew. Her Jay-Jay—married. Such a strange thought.

Considering the possibility, she found she didn’t like it much. She pushed down the door handle. “Whoever you’re traveling with,” she explained.

Just as the door swung open, he said, “Oh, you mean my sister.”

Which meant that the entire department got a good look at her suddenly delighted grin.

CHAPTERTWO

Rune tried to ignore the gawking onlookers as he followed Maya through the police station. They must not be used to strangers around here. He sure wasn’t doing anything to draw special attention. That was the last thing he wanted, as a matter of fact.

Maybe it was Maya who was sparking all this interest. Maybe she didn’t have people from her past showing up very often.

“You’re in charge, Hollister,” she called to the roly-poly white-haired sergeant. “But don’t put out that flyer until I see it again.”

“Cross my heart.”

Obviously her staff respected her, but that was no surprise. Even at age nine, Maya had commanded respect. She didn’t get into scrapes like he did. In fact, he could always count on her to explain to the adults that they hadn’t intended to get lost in the lava tube, or to forget to pay for the shave ice, or to lose his brand-new deep-water fins.

His mother—a flighty, surf-mad teenage mom raising him on her own—had loved Maya because she was twice as level-headed as either of them. If she knew Maya was going to be with him, Mom didn’t worry. They’d get together after school and hang out at the beach, or play cards, or sometimes do art together. They both liked to read. They laughed a lot. She’d complained about the weird Hawaiian food—poi and loco moco. Maya liked to dance, he remembered that. They used to make campfires on the beach and dance around them to music from her iPod.

Then she’d moved back to Alaska and that had been the end of that.

Now…wow.

He didn’t quite have the words for how she looked now. In his memory, she’d had some baby fat and clear braces. Awkward wasn’t really the right word, but shy might be. She was generally pretty reserved, until she let down her guard while dancing around a bonfire or something.

Twenty years later, that quiet manner of hers had transformed into something much more magnetic. She came across as the kind of person that you automatically looked toward in a crisis—the person you knew would think fast and be able to handle anything.

Also, she was stunningly beautiful, in his biased old-friend opinion. Her rich brown skin glowed with an extra sheen of dark gold. Her eyes were a few shades lighter, warm and sparkling. She moved with confident grace through the station—it was her domain, after all, and it showed.

Outside, she gestured toward a patch of birch woods behind the station. A signpost marked the start of a walking trail. “We can walk for a bit if you need some time to tell this story of yours before we see my dad.”

He checked his watch. Cara was waiting back at the hotel they’d checked into—the Eagle’s Nest Resort. He’d splurged so she could have some fun before school started up in a few days.

“Sounds good,” he agreed. She tucked her hands into the pockets of the jacket she’d pulled on over her police uniform. Even though it was late August, the chill of fall added a bite to the air, especially on an overcast day like today.

“So, your sister…” Maya screwed up her face, obviously searching for a name.

“Cara. She wasn’t born yet when you were in Hawaii.”

“Oh. Good.” She smiled at him. “I can skip feeling guilty for not remembering her name. So she travels with you for your job?”

“Sort of. She’s going to start at Lost Harbor High in a few days.”

“Oh yeah? Junior, senior?”

“Senior.”

Maya’s eyebrows lifted. “Usually kids like to finish high school with their friends.”

The trail wound through a stand of birch forest that stretched between two neighborhoods. On either side, he could see houses through the dappled woodlands. Nice backyard for a police station.

“Yes, but that’s not an option.” He hesitated, then decided there was no need to delay this explanation any longer. “The past five years or so, I’ve been working on the mainland as an EMT and paramedic. Two years ago, Cara came to visit me. I was living in Montana at the time, and she wanted to see the snow. The only time she’d seen snow was when we went to the Big Island one winter and it snowed on Mauna Kea. We drove up and filled the bed of our truck with snow, but it melted by the time we got back.”

“That sounds like something Jay-Jay would do. We have snow here,” she pointed out. “You could have reached out to your old friend.”

“I didn’t know if you’d even remember the rascally boy you had to keep out of trouble.”

“You mean the one who saved my life?” She nudged him with her elbow, making his muscles tighten in reaction. Even though it was a playful gesture, it still had an impact on him.

“So you finally admit it. It only took you twenty years.”

She gave that rich, bubbly chuckle that he’d always loved inspiring. It sounded like sea water rushing over lava rocks.

“Anyway, go on. Cara came to visit you.”

“Yes. She was fifteen. It was the end of summer and I was working. When I was on shift, she was on her own. She used to go to a coffee shop down the street. She’s very social, very friendly, heart of gold, but a little bit naive. When this older man started talking to her, she was kind to him. He would come to the coffee shop and rant about politics and other stuff.”

“I know that kind,” Maya said. “Not entirely all there, is that what I’m getting?”

“Worse than that. He started following her around. He’d lurk outside my apartment all night long. He was obsessed, even though obviously there was never anything more than a conversation between them.”

“You called the police, right?”

“We talked to them. There wasn’t much they could do. They talked to him and warned him off, but he made up some story. He knew how to talk to police. I think he was former military. I sent her back to Hawaii early. She never even got to see the snow.”

This was the part where it got truly scary.

Maya was listening closely. “Don’t tell me he followed her back there.”

“Oh yes. He turned up at my mom’s house when she was at work. Grabbed Cara and put her in a car. She got away from him with the help of a bottle of body spray she had on her.”

“That was quick thinking.”

Rune nodded. He’d heard the story later, and been amazed at how a fifteen-year-old could keep her head like that.

“My mom, on the other hand, lost her shit. You know how she is; she went straight for the white wine spritzers. Cara’s father left a few years ago, so he wasn’t much help either. We all agreed that she’d better come back to the mainland where I could watch out for her. But since he knew where I lived, I left my job and moved cities. My life changed overnight. I went from a fun-loving EMT to a full-time bodyguard. I finished my LPN certification. The two of us changed our names. Her birth name is Torrey, by the way, but she likes Cara better. She started going to school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Then he showed up again out of the blue.”

“Some stalkers are very persistent and clever.”

“I don’t know his background. I don’t even know his real name. All I know is that he told Cara his name is Chad. That’s it, Chad. I do have a picture of him but it’s blurry.” He dug out his phone and pulled up the photo of the asshole.

Maya stared at it for a long moment, then sent it to her own phone and handed it back. “Chad. Such a white-bread name for a scary stalker.”

“We don’t know his real name. The ID he gave the police in Montana was fake.”

“He’s younger than I pictured.”

“I’d guess he’s in his mid-thirties. I believe he has military experience, like I said. He’s able to blend in really well. Maybe he had undercover expertise too, I don’t know. I’ve tried to find out more about him but he’s a wily bastard.”

“So you’re afraid he might follow you here?”

“Yes. There’s a good chance. After he found us in St. Paul, I signed up for the travel nurse agency. That way we have a chance to stay ahead of him. It takes him some time to locate us when we move. This is my fourth assignment since I signed up with the agency.”

Out of habit, he scanned the bit of road he could see through the trees. For the last two years, he’d gotten used to scoping out every place he went as if he were in the secret service.

“How did you get assigned to Lost Harbor?”

“I chose it because of you. I don’t always trust law enforcement to deal with the situation, but I trust you.”

She quirked her eyebrows at him. “Based on fourth grade?”

“You were a pretty badass fourth-grader.”

They reached a fork in the trail; one path headed up a hillside, the other paralleled its base.

“How’d you even know I was the police chief here? Are you stalking me?” She made a face at her own joke as soon as it left her mouth.

But he chuckled at it anyway. He’d always liked her dry, understated sense of humor. “I saw Lost Harbor on the list of locations the agency services. I remembered that’s where you lived, and did a little digging. Your photo on the town website doesn’t do you justice.”

In the photo, she was staring directly into the camera without smiling—a stern, no-nonsense keeper of peace and bringer of order. There was no hint of the dance-crazy girl he remembered—the one who had once laughed so hard when he got a blueberry stuck up his nose that she’d peed her pants.

“That’s my don’t-mess-with-my-town Police Chief Badger look,” she told him. “Never fails to get people’s attention.”

“It got mine.”

She shot a curious glance up at him. “In a good way or a bad way?”

“A good way. I want to keep Cara safe. I might be a nurse—and a damn good one, don’t worry—but for now my main job is protecting my sister. That’s why we chose Lost Harbor. Not only is it very far away from…everywhere…but I have a personal connection with the police chief. Cara’s very excited to meet you, by the way. I told her about our bonfire dances.”

She sighed. “Like I said, I don’t have much time for dancing lately. Between my job and my dad—”

He lifted one hand to stop her there. “Rune Larsen to the rescue. I can handle Mr. Badger, so long as he doesn’t still think of me as that skinny little kid.”

“He has eyes,” she said dryly. “His heart surgery hasn’t affected his vision. You are definitely not that kid anymore. So what else can you tell me about this dude? Stalker Chad?”

“I think he’s more comfortable in larger towns. He can hide better there. I think he has skill with vehicles. Cara said he drove like a race car driver. He’s also very good at blending in and disappearing into the background. He’s savvy about avoiding cameras. I don’t think he would hurt Cara, but I’m not sure. I’ve learned not to underestimate him. He’s good at earning people’s trust.”

She frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. This is a pretty welcoming community. We’re all the way at the end of the Misty Bay Peninsula. The road doesn’t go any further. And for some reason that makes people relax, like nothing bad can happen here.”

“You do have a very low crime rate,” he pointed out. “But maybe that’s because you have such an outstanding police chief.”

“Flattery, Jay? Really?”

“Rune,” he corrected. “It’s my middle name. My mom chose it for good luck, so I’m hoping it helps.”

She shook her head at her mistake. “Sorry. Rune. Now that I know why you changed your name, it’s even more important. I’ll remember, I promise. You’re Rune from now on. Anyway, we do have crime here. I can show you a whole police blotter full of calls. And then there’s the theft of Mrs. Holt’s yak. Crime of the decade right there.”

He laughed. “You’re sure it didn’t just wander off, right?”

“It’s a possibility, especially since Mrs. Holt is convinced that her dead husband has somehow been reincarnated into the yak. They used to fight a lot, so maybe the poor beast just had enough.”

He snorted as they passed a gap in the trees, sunshine filtering through in a golden haze. He took a breath of the air—so pure it felt like liquid crystal—and a tiny bit of his habitual tension released.

“I think I’m going to like my time here.”

“It’ll be interesting, I can pretty much guarantee that.”

Even more interesting now that he’d met the fascinating all-grown-up version of his long-lost friend.

CHAPTERTHREE

When they returned to the shared police and firefighter compound, Maya spotted a crew of volunteer firefighters cleaning the ladder truck in the back lot. It sparkled in the sunshine like a neon-yellow play-toy.

“You should get to know these guys,” she told Rune. “They’re all first responders. And I’m sure they’ll want to meet you.”

Already the firefighters were glancing their way. Awesome—more fuel for the rumor mill. The firefighters were notorious gossipers, rivalling the legendary stitch-and-bitch group of crafters.

“Hi Chief,” called Darius as he emerged from behind the engine.

“Hi Chief,” she answered in their traditional greeting.

Honestly, being called “chief” never got old.

“That’s our fire chief.” She lowered her voice for Rune. “Darius Boone. It’d be smart to bring him up to speed on the situation with Cara too. When calls come in, you never know where they’ll get routed.”

“If you think it’s best.”

A guy respecting her advice; another thing that would never get old.

Maya beckoned to Darius, who loped over to them, washrag in hand.

“Darius, this is Rune Larsen. He’s an old friend of mine. Rune, Chief Boone.”

Maya caught the speculation in Darius’ glance as he surveyed Rune. Why was everyone so surprised by Rune’s presence? Just because she’d lived most of her life here in Lost Harbor didn’t mean everyone knew everything about her.

“I’m a former EMT myself,” said Rune as they shook hands.

“Is that how you know Maya?”

“No, Maya and I met when we were kids.”

Darius’ eyebrows lifted. “Huh. Are you from Lost Harbor?”

Maya interrupted this completely irrelevant conversation. “Can we keep on track here? Rune has a situation he needs to discuss with the law enforcement community. What does it matter where we met?”

“Is it a secret?” Darius asked. “Because that’s really going to get tongues wagging around here.”

“It’s not a secret. It’s just irrelevant. Can we stick to the facts? He’s a friend, we met a long time ago, and now he’s here and he’s got a problem.”

“Touchy.” Darius looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. He turned to Rune. “Go ahead, fill me in.”

As Rune recounted the same chain of events he’d told Maya, she watched him covertly, marveling over how much a person could change. If she’d seen him walking down the street, she would have noticed that he was a beautiful hunk of a man. And then she would have kept walking, assuming they had absolutely nothing in common.

And maybe she didn’t know him anymore. Obviously his life had changed a lot since the age of nine. So had hers. Police chief? Hello?

But as she watched him talk to Darius, she kept noticing little things that felt familiar. The shape of his mouth, for one. The way he bent his head at a certain stubborn angle. The scar on his chin had survived the journey to adulthood. So had his friendliness and his sense of humor.

That was what had drawn them together in the first place. That and the fact that they both felt like outsiders.

Jay-Jay—no, Rune—had been one of the kids who hung around the base but didn’t really belong there. His mother worked in the commissary, and they’d lived in a little abandoned beachside shack until it got torn down by the county. And then there was his size—at that time, he was smaller than other kids their age. He liked to wear his hair long, to his shoulders. That had changed, but maybe that was because he was hiding his appearance from Stalker Chad.

Despite his size, he was a scrapper, and he was constantly getting into fights with bullies and other kids who were bigger than him. Sometimes she got dragged into it too, trying to defend him, which always got her in trouble with her dad.

Eventually, Harris had sat them down and laid down the law. “If you get Maya into any more fights, you can’t come around here anymore. Got it?”

“But they keep saying shit about my mom.”

“You think that’s bad? You should hear what got slung at me all these years. Brush it off, kid. Or no more hanging out with Maya.”

Rune had torn at his hair in that funny way he had, gone for a quick jog around the block—he always had to work off his energy—then come back and plopped back down at their kitchen table. “Okay, Mr. Badger.”

“Okay, son. I’ll be watching.”

“Maya? You with us?” Darius was addressing her. She shook herself back to attention.

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Rune’s going to volunteer for a few shifts with us. It’s great to have another trained paramedic in town.”

She glanced at the grownup Rune, with his strong build and long, powerful legs. He could have used all those muscles back in his skinny-kid days. With all his excess energy, it made sense that he’d chosen to work as a first responder. In Hawaii, that probably meant a lot of ocean rescues.

“Sounds good. We can always use help.”

Darius snapped his fingers. “Hey, you should bring Rune to the party.”

“What party?”

“Kate’s calling it the ‘Never Want to See Another Peony Party.’ It’s to celebrate the end of the harvest.” He turned to Rune. “My girlfriend has been helping her grandmother at her peony farm. I’ve barely seen her for the past month. I know she’d love to meet any friend of Maya’s.”

Maya could see where this was headed already. All of her friends would be micro-analyzing Rune and trying to figure out what their relationship was. She had to put this to rest before it snowballed out of control.

“I probably won’t be able to make it,” she told Darius. “I’m very busy between the Lost Souls investigation and my dad’s recovery, and some new cases that have come in.”

“Sure, sure, I get it. You’re probably burning the midnight oil trying to locate that missing yak.”

She glared at him while Rune chuckled softly.

“You’re invited whether or not Maya can make it,” Darius told him. “If you’re new in town, it’s a good opportunity to meet some people. Now that the summer’s just about over, people have time for their social lives again. From now until New Year’s, it’s one party after another.”

Maya’s heart sank at that reminder. Everyone else loved the holidays, but for the past five years—ever since her ex dumped her on Christmas Eve—they’d been nothing but depressing.

Rune glanced at Maya and must have read her ambivalence on her face. Without her having to say anything, he picked up on that cue. “I’ll be busy getting settled in. I have to find a place, get my sister enrolled in school, meet the patients I’ll be working with.”

Darius didn’t push it, which Maya appreciated. If Kate had issued the invitation, it would have been a whole different story. She would have approached it like the lawyer she was and interrogated poor Rune into accepting the invite.

“We need to get going,” she told Rune. “My dad’s nap is going to start soon. If there’s one thing he’s always on time for, it’s that nap.”

After a few more words with Darius, she led Rune to her beloved Chevy Silverado crew-cab truck. She’d bought it when she got the police chief job and loved it like a firstborn.

At this rate, it might be the only kind of firstborn she’d have.

Rune stopped to check a message that had come in on his phone. “Cara’s getting bored in the hotel room. I’ll pick her up and meet you at Harris’ house.”

She felt a twinge of disappointment that they wouldn’t be driving together. Being with Rune brought back a time in her life that she’d completely forgotten about. Hawaii had been such an adventure. Going to a place where no one knew her had been wildly freeing. In Lost Harbor, everyone knew the Badgers. In Hawaii, she could be anyone she chose. She’d even told one kid that she was a Haitian princess.

Rune had done everything he could to spread that rumor, figuring it gave him an extra bit of clout.

But this wasn’t Hawaii. This was Alaska, and she was just plain old Maya Badger, filling the unglamorous shoes of a police chief.

“You have the address?” she asked Rune.

“I already looked it up on GPS. I’ll see you there.”

They parted ways and she swung herself into her Chevy. Before she started the truck, she checked her phone, which had been beeping periodically during their walk.

Ten messages from various friends and acquaintances—all asking about Rune and inviting the two of them to some social event or other.

Once he realized what he was in for, he was going to request a transfer.

Or hell, maybe she should. Why was everyone in Lost Harbor so interested in her personal life?

She started up her truck and headed for her father’s house.

Sad to say, she knew why people found her personal life so fascinating. Because she didn’t have much of one as far as they knew. She had a strict policy of not dating anyone she might have to arrest someday. Which meant no one in Lost Harbor, which kind of limited her selection.

Since high school, all of her boyfriends had lived either in Anchorage or somewhere even farther away. Long distance was the only kind of relationship that worked for her. The only time she’d broken that rule was with Jerome Morris, and look how that had ended up. Dumped on Christmas Eve for another Lost Harbor girl. Utter humiliation.

Since then, she’d kept things simple. When she needed some fun, she headed to Anchorage, where she had a long-time “friends with benefits” arrangement with Tyler, a workaholic civil rights lawyer.

Maybe she should schedule another trip pretty soon. She might need a distraction with Rune around, being so unexpectedly hot.

She approached a group of teenagers walking down Main Street, goofing around, passing a joint back and forth.

She should stop and lecture them. Give them the stern glare that might make them think twice about flouting the law against underage smoking. Scare them with the threat of a night in the holding cell.

But she was on her personal time now, so she just slowed down as she passed and gave them all a wave.

The joint went flying onto the sidewalk as the teenagers turned innocent, nervous faces in her direction.

Wow. She hadn’t even frowned at them. Apparently she had the youth in this town very well-trained.

Since she was the police chief, that was good, right? Then why did it feel so irritating? As if for most of the town, she had one mode: stern and authoritative. And only a select few saw her other sides. With Jay-Jay, in Hawaii, she used to run around barefoot and dance around a bonfire and stargaze past her bedtime.

She made a note to text Tyler to see what kind of time he had in the next few weeks.

CHAPTERFOUR

Rune found Cara taking selfies on the balcony of the Eagle’s Nest Resort and Spa. None of those selfies would ever see the light of day, since she was strictly banned from using social media.

But at least she’d have a very thorough family album to look back on some day.

She leaned an elbow on the railing and angled her hip as she snapped the photo. Beyond her, the mountains of Lost Souls Wilderness looked almost violet under a heavy cloud layer. On the far horizon a perfect cone of a mountain rose from the ocean; a volcano, part of the Ring of Fire that linked Alaska to the Pacific Rim. It gave him a sense of home, since he’d grown up on a volcanic island in the middle of the ocean.

Maya used to tell him stories about Lost Harbor, about the mountains and the glaciers and the bay that filled with fog. But the reality was so much more spectacular than he’d pictured. He didn’t know if this place was remote enough to evade the stalker, but it felt like it was.

“Hello brother,” Cara greeted him cheerfully. “I think I like this place. These photos are fricking amazing.”

“Yeah, that’s the most important thing to look for,” he said dryly. “What kind of background a place offers for your selfies.”

She made a face at him and straightened away from the balcony. Even though she was his little sister, he knew perfectly well that she was magnetic with her thick butter-blond hair and loving nature. It was irritating because it made his life more difficult. She wanted to make friends with everyone. Which was why they were in this mess to begin with.

“Are we going to meet Maya?” she asked eagerly.

He’d told her all about his long-ago friend. She loved his Maya stories, and had been delighted at the thought of living in Lost Harbor for six months.

“Yes, let’s go. Not just Maya, but her father. He’s my patient, so be cool.”

“You’d better be cool, or Maya will know you used to have a crush on her.” She stuck her tongue out at him as she danced past him, back into the suite.

“Cara,” he warned. “You say anything like that and I’ll toss you off that balcony.”

“No one should be punished for telling the truth,” she said virtuously, crossing her heart like some kind of mischievous nun.

“It’s not the truth, and you definitely will be. I’ll start by leaving you here. I’ll tell Maya you weren’t feeling well because you fell off the balcony.”

She giggled and grabbed a neon-pink hoodie off the table next to the door.

He eyed it unhappily. “Really? Have you learned nothing about laying low in the past two years?”

A shadow came over her face. “Yes, I’ve learned that for six weeks, I can do whatever I want because it takes him time to find us. After that, I have to tone down what I wear for a month. Then I have to change the color of my hair. Then I have to avoid going outside until the day you come home and tell me it’s time to move on.”

His heart wrenched at the sad resignation in her voice. Why had he done anything to bring down her mood? He should be grateful for every moment that Cara was her normal joyous self.

“Fine,” he said. “You can wear the hoodie. But you still have to behave yourself.”

She brightened, like a sailboat regaining its equilibrium after a gust of wind. “No, you have to behave yourself or I’ll show Maya your old diary.”

He made her wait to exit the suite—that was one of the rules. He always went first to scope out the surroundings. With a jerk of his head, he indicated that the coast was clear. “You don’t have my diary.”

It wasn’t a diary so much as a few drawings in an old sketchbook. But there was certainly some incriminating material there. Luckily, Cara had only seen it once.

“No, but I memorized it.” She breezed past him. “I can recreate it.”

“Better stick to selfies, kiddo.”

Still bickering, as was their habit after two years of living mostly on the run, they made their way down to the boring Toyota they’d bought in Seattle, then ferried to Alaska. He missed the days when he could drive flashier cars.

“Can we drive past the high school?” Cara asked when they’d buckled themselves in.

“Don’t you want to see the sights? The boardwalk, the harbor, all the fishing boats? This town is one of the most scenic locations in all of Alaska, or so they say.”

Cara shrugged, ignoring the panorama unfurling out her window. Here at the tip of the boardwalk, the backdrop of snow-peaked mountains loomed like a majestic reminder that humans were short-timers here. “I just want to see the high school.”

Since he knew that the prospect of being able to attend an entire semester at one school was overwhelmingly exciting to her after so much home-schooling, he nodded. “We can swing by there. But it wouldn’t kill you to take in some scenery on the way.”

They’d reached the harbor, where storefronts and restaurants were jumbled together on either side of the boardwalk. Some were perched on stilts sunk into the mudflats, some were covered in weathered shingles, others painted bright colors—purple and green and blue.

Cara looked out the window just in time to see a young fisherman, about her age, emerge from the top of a ramp that led to the harbor. He carried a cooler on one shoulder and wore nothing but a muscle-baring sleeveless shirt under his oilskins.

“Okay, fine, I’ll look at the scenery,” she said, eyeing the kid. “I wonder if he’ll be going to my high school?”

Rune was only thirty, but in that moment he felt at least ten years older. On top of everything else, teenage hormones? Lord help him.

CHAPTERFIVE

Harris Badger lived in a tidy one-story home on the edge of Trumpeter Lake. From the house, a lawn sloped down to the shore, where a dock extended into the water. A cedar-shingled cabin—maybe a fish house—squatted at the top of the dock. Rune could imagine Harris sitting on the end of the dock, fishing on a sunny afternoon.

Everything on the property looked well-kept, despite the usual Alaska decor of old cars and piles of lumber.

Maya paced across the lawn near the front door, talking on her cell phone. She waved at them in greeting, then held up a finger to indicate she was almost done with her conversation.

She still wore her police chief uniform, but that didn’t take away from the confident grace with which she moved. Her hair was flattened close to her head, with a few pins keeping stray strands under control.

A quick flash of insight told him she spent a lot of time keeping things under control generally.

He knew the feeling.

“Wow, she’s really pretty,” said Cara, sounding kind of awestruck. “And a little bit scary.”

“That’s right. She’s terrifying. You’d better behave yourself.”

He didn’t find Maya terrifying at all, but he didn’t mind spreading the legend.

“If she tells me to, I will,” Cara vowed.

Yesss. He’d done the right thing, moving them here.

But then Maya ruined everything when she ended her call and aimed a radiant smile at his little sister. “You must be Cara. I’m Maya, old old old friend of your brother.”

“I know who you are.” Cara looked as starstruck as if she’d just met Beyonce. “Rune told me all about you.”

“Uh oh. Don’t believe a word of it,” Maya said cheerfully. “Unless he mentioned that I’m a Haitian princess. That’s completely true but I’m here incognito so don’t tell anyone.”

Rune laughed at the expression on Cara’s face—as if she was perfectly willing to believe that Maya was royalty.

“Sorry to make you wait, there’s a big investigation going on that’s suddenly getting a lot more complicated.”

“The yak?” Rune asked, dryly.

“No, not the damn yak. This is about Lost Souls Wilderness and some shit that’s going on over there. I’m trying to get the FBI to pay attention, but to them it’s like that wilderness is a no-man’s-land. They want nothing to do with it. Anyway, you’re not here for that. Dad’s excited to see you.” She ushered them toward the front entry, which had a boot brusher to one side and a welcome mat that said, “Enter in Friendship.”

“I had to remind him who you are,” she said in a lower voice, before opening the door. “The surgery took the juice out of him for a while. But he remembers now.”