Page 46 of Burning Hearts

She sipped her drink, then reached for a fry. They were gone.

The drink was gone too.

Her server set down a full one and took the empty. “If you sit here much longer, I’ll have to give you the dinner menu.”

“Sorry for taking up a table.” She glanced around, but only a couple others were occupied, and one older man sat at the counter drinking coffee.

“Not a problem.” The young woman smiled. “You someone important or something?”

The nametag saidAnna.Jamie had to give her credit; she was interested but she didn’t peek at the laptop screen. “I’m good at math. I made it into my job, and now I basically have homework every day for the rest of my life.”

Anna wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t sound like fun.”

“Is your job fun?”

“Good point.”

Jamie smiled. “Fun is what you do with the money you make at work.”

“And the more you make, the more fun you can have.” Anna snorted, gently nudging Jamie’s shoulder. “Right?”

“As long as it’s legal and nobody gets hurt.” At least, that was a start.

If she got into the weeds of how a person should live their life, she’d probably be hypocritical, considering how she barely lived what she was supposed to believe.

Why was it always easier to tell someone else what to do than to actually follow your own advice?

“Legal fun?” Anna snorted. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”

She wandered off. Jamie pulled a fifty from her wallet and got a pen. She wrotesafe fun onlyon the bill and tucked it under a glass. She gathered her things, and right when she lifted her phone, it rang.

Logan calling.

“Hey.” She smiled, pushing open the door and stepping outside again. This time a red pickup truck passed her.

“You’re in town? Tucker said the deputy came by.”

“And I’m stuck in Copper Mountain with no way to get back.” Not that she hadn’t considered a tourist ride in a chopper. That could be cool. She hadn’t seen much of Alaska since she got up here.

“We’re driving through on our way back to base. We can pick you up.”

She was just about to answer when he continued, “Actually, everyone wants to go to the Midnight Sun Saloon and grab dinner to go first. Their wings areamazing.”

She said, “I’m outside the pizza place.”

“Go south toward the gas station. Keep walking. We’ll pick you up.”

Jamie held the phone to her ear and started in that direction, raising the zipper on her sweater to beat the afternoon chill. “The roast beef sandwich at Northstar is excellent. Not sure I’ve got room for wings in me.”

“Shame. I would’ve shared with you.”

She smiled at the warmth of his voice in her ear. “Shame.”

A white van pulled into the gas station and parked up at a pump on the opposite side from a truck packed with tools. A guy in jeans, boots, and a neon sweater paced up and down, talking on his cell phone.

“You know, this town is nice.” She wouldn’t call it quaint, but it had backwoods charm. “Not that I’m going to open a new branch of the company up here, but maybe I’ll get a vacation cabin. Something by the river.”

“I’d like that.”

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