Page 37 of An Alaskan Wedding (Alaskan Grooms 1)

Grace wrinkled her nose. Her eyes flashed with surprise. “I kept my word. We didn’t go treasure hunting. Jasper just showed me some old maps and a few diagrams. I acted as a sounding board. Nothing more.”

“You’re encouraging him.” Boone knew his words sounded like an accusation, but more and more it was beginning to sound as if Grace might actually believe in the legend herself. That would only make things worse.

Grace cocked her head to the side and gazed at him curiously. “Boone, you seem upset with me, and I don’t know why. We were having fun. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a little joy in the middle of a humdrum day.”

“Grace, this might be some fun little diversion for you, but it means a whole lot more to him.”

Grace visibly bristled. “Oh, I know what it means to him. He’s made it very clear to me...along with the fact that no one in his family listens to him or takes him seriously. Jasper thinks by finding the treasure he can help the town financially. He wants to save his hometown. That’s his big dream.”

Boone shook his head in disbelief. Was she suddenly an expert on Jasper? Was she really trying to make it seem as if she knew more about his grandfather than his own family? And to suggest that no one listened to him, when they’d been doing so for decades. She had no clue, he imagined, how close they’d come to losing him with his cardiac episode last year. He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying something he might regret.

“What you don’t know is that Jasper has been chasing this legend ever since he was a kid. His obsession with it was one of the reasons my grandmother left him. He’s lost a lot because of this single-minded pursuit. Last year he had a heart attack. And having a little fun shouldn’t place his health in jeopardy,” Boone explained in a curt tone.

Grace’s mouth swung open. “I would never place him in harm’s way. You’re blowing this all out of proportion. I care about your grandfather. “

“If you cared about him you wouldn’t be sitting here on the floor scanning maps with him!” he snapped. “Isn’t it bad enough Jasper broke his ankle? What’s next? Toppling down some stairs or another heart attack?”

All the color suddenly leached out of Grace’s peaches-and-cream complexion. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”

“Well, Grace. Something already happened and you couldn’t stop it. Could you?”

“It was an accident,” she said in a soft voice. She paused for a moment as if she was struggling to keep her composure. “I know you want to protect everyone in your family from getting hurt, but you can’t lock them up in a tower to do it. Jasper isn’t an invalid, and he’s not a child. You need to let him live his life.”

Boone felt his chest getting tight. An accident was how Liam had lost Ruby. His own father had been severely injured in that same avalanche rescue operation. “Were you here when Jasper had his heart attack? Or when he got so consumed by legend hunting that my grandmother left him? You can’t just show up here in Love acting like you have all the answers.”

A look of hurt passed over her face before she quickly shuttered her expression. After grabbing her notebook, she scrambled to her feet and snatched her purse from the edge of Jasper’s desk. Without a word of goodbye, she stalked out of the room, leaving a huge void in her wake and a feeling of discord lingering in the air.

As soon as Grace left, Boone propped himself against Jasper’s desk, his entire body sagging as he exhaled. Although it had felt good in the moment to unleash all his worries, he didn’t feel right about lashing out at Grace. She’d been a scapegoat for all his pent-up feelings about Jasper’s health and the angst of his siblings. Now, with a few careless words, he might have ruined the best thing that had ever happened to him. And he had no idea how to make things right.

* * *

Returning to the Moose Café and finishing her shift took all the composure in the world for Grace. She should have been awarded an Oscar for smiling and making pleasantries with customers while her mind was swirling with chaos. In a few sentences Boone had reduced her to a careless, thoughtless airhead, who butted her nose in his family’s’ business and placed Jasper in danger. And she’d barely fought back. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to push Boone’s words out of her mind.

So much for the romantic kiss they’d shared or the feelings that were blossoming between them. Why in the world had she fallen for one of the most arrogant,

opinionated men in Alaska?

“What’s wrong, Grace?” Sophie cornered her in the kitchen, placing her arm around her shoulder and peering into her eyes. “You don’t look so hot.”

“I don’t feel so good,” she said, placing her hand across her belly.

“Did something you ate disagree with you?” Sophie asked, concern etched on her face.

“Something disagreed with me all right,” she mumbled. “I’m going to lie down for a bit as soon as we get back to the cabins.”

The whole ride back to the Black Bear Cabins, Sophie and Hazel tried to engage her in conversation, but Grace couldn’t focus on talk of ice fishing and sledding at Deer Run Lake. A slow fury was building up inside her like a volcano on the cusp of bubbling over. With a halfhearted wave to her friends, she let herself into her cabin.

Anger beat a fast path through her as she stalked backed and forth across the hardwood floors in her cabin. Tears of frustration pooled in her eyes, but she wouldn’t allow herself to cry. Frankly, Sheriff Boone Prescott and his high-handed attitude weren’t worth a single tear. Just when she thought she’d gotten a true glimpse of the real Boone Prescott, he’d reared his ugly head and bared his fangs.

Humph! What a joke! He hadn’t even listened to what she’d had to say. He’d acted as judge, jury and executioner. What a fool she’d been to think she could ever love a man like him. It had been a ludicrous idea in the first place to even consider settling down with a sheriff who lived in a remote fishing village in Alaska. There wasn’t a single shoe retailer in this town that could keep her in the shoe style to which she’d become accustomed.

Not that she’d pinned her hopes and dreams on Boone or anything, but she’d allowed herself to imagine what the future might hold in store for them as a couple. Holding hands as they walked down Jarvis Street. Riding snowmobiles. More ice skating lessons at Deer Run Lake. Against her better judgment, she’d allowed herself to dream of building something lasting with Boone. They’d been foolish dreams! Unrealistic and fanciful. It would take more than a gorgeous sheriff to make her give up the life she’d built for herself in New York.

Humph! It was a moot point. Sheriff Boone Prescott was a cad. It was an expression her mother had always used to describe someone low-down and mean. It was the perfect word to describe the know-it-all sheriff.

Shame on you for taking your eyes off the prize, a little voice buzzed in her ear. Instead of batting her lashes at Boone, she should have been concentrating on the reason she’d traveled over three thousand miles to come to Love. It had been the one thing in her life that didn’t make her feel like a failure—her job as a journalist.

Taking a soothing breath, she counted to ten in her head. She needed to calm down before her blood pressure went sky-high. Focus, Grace. She reached for her computer, knowing that the only thing to do at this moment to center herself was write. Tony had been pestering her to send him something about life in Love. Well, she was going to write until her fingers cramped up. If Tony wanted a juicy article on this town, then she’d give him one. No holds barred. Before she knew it she’d written the beginnings of an article and the tension she was feeling had eased up some.

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