Page 48 of Hunter

She’s wrong. I’m positive she’s wrong.

Isabella and I are enjoying an intense physical connection, and sure, maybe we’re becoming friends, too. That’s it! We’re becoming friends! Friends talk. Friends share. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s even a name for it: “friends with benefits.”

We’re friends with benefits,I tell myself.Nothing more, nothing less.

I pay the bill for breakfast and head back to the ship to start a new day ofThe Astonishing Race,but this time, in Skagway.

***

“Have you evertriedmining for gold?” Isabella demands, looking around the table at my family. “Oh my god, it’s so hard! My lower back is still aching, and finding actual gold was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was sure we’d be eliminated today!”

Reeve is delighted that Isabella’s joining us for dinner and keeps peppering her with questions about the show, the challenges, and the other teams.

McKenna smiles at Isabella like she can’t believe her best friend is here, and since Tanner is happy whenever McKenna is happy, he looks like a pig in mud.

Parker’s still up on the Chilkoot with the family she took this morning, and Sawyer’s up in Whitehorse with a family of six, so they’re missing. But Gran, Paw-Paw, Dad, Harper, and Joe round out our ten-person table, with Wren fast asleep in her car seat on the floor.

“Back in the day,” says Paw-Paw, “we used to offer a mining experience here at the campground. We’d sprinkle mica out back in the Taiya and let the lil’ ’uns pan for it.”

“Did you use antique mining equipment?” asks Isabella. “Because that’s what they made us use today. Gold pan. Grizzly pan. Sluice box. I’m an expert on obsolete mining equipment now. I could write a book.”

“But who’d buy it?” deadpans Paw-Paw, and we all laugh.

“Were you required to do the mining challenge?” asks Harper. “Did you have another choice?”

“We could choose between paddling or panning,” Isabella explains. “It was my turn to choose, so I decided on panning because it sounded easier.”

“Bet your back says differently now,” says Gran.

“On the nose, Ms. Stewart! I think I was squatting in that freezing river for three hours!” She looks at me, her tantalizing lips spreading into a teasing grin. “Meanwhile, Hunter was over at the paddling challenge. You want to tell them how that went or should I?”

“You weren’t even there!”

“I heard all about it when the teams got back to the boat,” she says, “and it sounded worse than panning for gold, if that’s possible.”

“Okay, so three out of eight teams chose paddling instead of panning,” I say. “We drove them up to Bennett Lake, just south of Carcross, then guided them through the woods to the lake where there were three prospector canoes waiting. Teams had to fill the canoes with five hundred pounds of items typical to the Gold Rush era, paddle their canoe across the lake, unload their cargo, then paddle back to the starting location, and hike back through the woods to the pit stop.”

“Five hundred pounds?” asks Joe. “Hard to keep the canoe from tipping over with that much weightandtwo people.”

“Whomp! There it is,” sings Isabella. “Apparently all three teams capsized at one point or another and had to start over. And the water wasnotwarm.”

“Who got eliminated?” asks Reeve, leaning forward with anticipation.

I’m about to say,Mom and Pop, when Isabella cries, “Can’t tell you!” She pretends to lock her lips and throw away the key. “You have to watch the show to find out!”

“Freezing water and aching bones. Why are you doing this, again?” asks McKenna. “Is it the money?”

“I’m not gonna lie…the money would be lovely,” says Isabella. “But the real reason is that my cousin asked me to fill in, and I said yes. That’s all there is to it.”

“You’re a good cousin,” says Tanner. “I would’ve said no.”

We all laugh again, and then a hush falls over the table.

“Hey, Hunter,” says Reeve, “are you gonna show Isabella your new house?”

Isabella turns to me. “You have a new house?”

“No,” I say. “I have a concrete foundation poured for a prefab modular cabin that’s coming in a few weeks.”

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