Page 3 of Wind Valley

That was another reason Lachlan was staying the winter. He was curious about how the Korch Glacier had been affected, along with the ice dams and glacial lakes and especially the dangerous flooding phenomenon known as the jökulhlaup—his specialty.

Maura brought out her phone and leaned across the counter. He resigned himself to breathing in the fresh scent of her skin and peered down at the screen. Before she swiped to her photos page, he caught a glimpse of her lock screen photo.

In it, she was part of a couple, her arms wrapped around a man, both of them laughing into the camera. They looked carefree, happy, in love.

He seared the image into his vision to make sure he didn’t forget. Maura had turned him down. She wasn’t interested in him. Let it go.

Good thing there was an intriguing scientific puzzle to solve. Those, he could handle.

2

Maura wasn’t sure why Lachlan, who was always so kind and friendly, was now frowning at her phone. He was probably just focusing on the photos she was showing him. No need to overthink it.

She kept her focus on the photos as she flipped through them. “Here’s a short video too. I took it from inside the house because I didn’t want to scare them even more.”

She played the video, which showed a scattered procession of forest creatures loping, hopping, scampering, and scurrying across the snow. About a foot of it covered the clearing, but it was crusted over with an icy shell that allowed the animals to traverse it easily enough.

“Have you ever seen anything like that?”

After a moment, Lachlan said, “No.” He barely seemed aware of her. Or maybe he was ignoring her. Ever since she’d said no to a date, he’d kept a graceful distance from her. Not an angry one or a hurt one. More of a…thoughtful one. And he didn’t even know the whole story of why she’d turned him down.

In her book, that earned Lachlan McGowan many, many points.

“Pinky said he hadn’t either. What do you think we should do?”

“Go home,” he said absently.

She drew away, surprised. That seemed like a ruder comment than was necessary. “Right…now?”

He straightened up and ran a hand through his unruly brown hair. Lachlan never looked exactly tidy. Combs didn’t seem to have much effect on his shock of thick hair, or maybe he didn’t own one. It wouldn’t surprise her. He was an extremely attractive man with dreamy green eyes and a lanky build—but he didn’t pay much attention to his appearance, as far as she could tell.

“What? No. Not you. You don’t have to go home. I mean, it’s up to you, you can go home if you want. I meant that I have a map at home. I’ll go home, to my own home, and study that map.”

“I have one on my phone,” she offered.

“I need a detailed topographical map. I have several back at my place.”

“What will a map tell you?”

“I don’t know. I’m looking for some geographical context. Where they’re coming from, where they might be going.”

That made sense. She liked the way his brain worked. He liked problems, she could tell. He was already looking for solutions in an open-minded way, not jumping to conclusions or pretending he already knew the answers.

“Can I come with you?” she asked impulsively. She’d never been to Lachlan’s place, although Ani Devi had invited her once. Ani was the girlfriend of Gil McGowan, Lachlan’s twin brother. All three lived at Lachlan’s house, at least for now. She’d heard that Ani and Gil were trying to figure out their next move.

In the next moment, she realized that maybe it wasn’t cool to invite yourself over to someone’s house after you’d rejected them. But she really liked Lachlan. On her very first night in Firelight Ridge, he’d helped to rescue her from a snowbank. He’d been kind to her and taken her rejection in stride. Ever since then, they’d had perfectly good conversations. She didn’t want to give up on the chance that they could have a friendship. Men and women could be friends, she firmly believed that. Her best friend was a man, after all.

“Sure, come on over,” Lachlan was saying. “But I won’t be done here for another hour.”

“That’s fine.”

She glanced over at Pinky, who was deep in conversation with Old Solomon, one of his closest buddies. They were both former miners who’d scrabbled out a living in these mountains. Solomon was just as notorious for his barter method of survival as Pinky was for his rants and stories. The two of them looked to be settled in for the rest of the day.

Lachlan slid down to the other end of the bar to help a new customer—Martha the sheep farmer. Maura found Martha fascinating for her incredible independence. How many women could run a sheep farm deep in the Alaska wilderness, without access to an electrical grid or even cell service?

As Lachlan poured Martha a mug of ale, he listened closely to whatever story she was telling. That was one thing she’d noticed about Lachlan—when he listened, he really listened. He absorbed information as if by osmosis, as if it transferred directly into his brain. Once it was there, he assessed it fairly, then came to appropriate conclusions. But unlike many people, he didn’t block it from entering his brain in the first place.

Alone at the bar, she scanned through the photos of the fleeing wildlife again. She didn’t know if they were in fact fleeing. They could be heading toward something. She wasn’t sure which scenario would be stranger or more unsettling.

---