Page 97 of Second Chance Alaska

“Dwayne, this compass was a sign. He left it there on purpose, knowing I’d go searching for it...” Normally, she’d have walked away from him the moment he’d started questioning her or making her feel ridiculous, but a part of her was still clinging to that connection she’d felt in their kiss—that moment where she’d felt she’d found someone special, someone different.

He ran a hand over his face. “I’m not sure I can believe in hidden treasures and all that.”

Her spine stiffened and self-preservation took over. She’d been wrong about him. She hadn’t found the one person who might come on this life journey with her. “But you can buy into serpent sea creatures?”

“I don’t exactly believe in the Sealena myth either,” he said, as though that made things better.

All it did was make her feel bad for him. What kind of boring life would it be if there were no adventures? No taking leaps of faith on the unknown and impossible?

She nodded slowly. “Then what do you believe in, Dwayne?” she asked, not waiting for an answer as she turned and headed back to her waiting taxi.

CHAPTER SIX

AWEEKLATER, Dwayne expected to feel relief as he entered the coast guard station for his first shift back. No more tour groups. No more forced time on the ground. And no more hours of free time staring at his cell phone, hoping to hear from Anna. She’d gotten what she’d come for and now she was moving on.

He needed to as well...except the job offer she’d casually thrown out—which he knew she was serious about—played on his mind. So did the fantastic kiss...and her question about what he believed in.

He’d had nothing but time the last five days to sit and contemplate it all. He wasn’t any closer to answers, but he knew there was definitely something missing in his life, something lacking...something for a brief moment, he’d felt like he’d found.

“Hey, man, good to have you back,” Aaron said as he entered the station locker room.

“Thanks,” Dwayne said, pushing all other thoughts aside as he opened his locker and reached for his gear.

“You good?” his friend asked, studying him with a look of concern.

“Yeah...great. Training exercise today?” Once he was back in the air and back to being busy, he’d shake off the nagging regret he was feeling over the Anna situation. He’d only known her a day. These intense feelings couldn’t possibly be real. He just needed to fill his time and thoughts with something else.

“Chopper leaves in ten,” Aaron said with a grin.

“Not without me,” Dwayne responded with his usual banter as he shut the locker.

Twenty minutes later, they flew over the coast toward the south mountain ranges and Dwayne’s chest tightened as he saw the area where he’d explored with Anna. Of course, fate would be messing with him like this. Just when he’d started to push her out of his mind, the reminder was there.

He couldn’t believe they’d actually found her grandfather’s crash site...or the caves or the compass. What were the odds? Especially after all this time...

He knew he’d hurt her with his disbelief of the legend about Winters Lot, but it was a lot to ask—to believe in the old stories. Or that her grandfather had actually found it and moved it.

If there really were hidden treasures around the world, wouldn’t more of them be found? He’d read about a few discoveries over the years—old sunken ships and gold panning successes...but an actual treasure?

He shook his head. It was a little much to wrap his mind around and Anna deserved someone who was all in—who believed as strongly and passionately as she did.

Focusing on the training mission, he pushed all other thoughts aside as he operated the helicopter through the narrow openings between the mountains. Since Isla Wakefield’s emergency the Christmas before, falling into a glacier cave, the team was really focused on training for the tougher rescues they might encounter. His team needed his focus and concentration right now.

But an hour later, training exercise over, he turned the chopper around to head back and something in the scenery below caught his attention. A river running north of the caves where the compass had been hidden. That hadn’t been on Anna’s map. Must be a glacial river formed due to climate change. Before there would have been just a sunken valley...

One that would have been accessible from the caves and not too far of a distance...

He shook his head. This was ridiculous. He couldn’t actually be entertaining this...

Yet the image of Anna’s determined expression had him indeed entertaining it.

So much so that in the locker room half an hour later, he reached for a draft pad and pen and sketched the area as best he could from memory, adding in the coordinates and location.

“Whatcha got there?” Aaron asked, coming up behind him.

Dwayne tucked it away. “Nothing...” He might be willing to suspend disbelief and follow through on a hunch, but expecting Aaron to would be asking way too much. “Hey, do you think Isla would mind if I go through some of the old Wakefield photo albums and scrapbooks?” Isla’s family had kept amazing records of the town generations ago. News clippings, photographs, documents from the town’s claiming of the Sealena myth... Stories about the smuggling and the search for Winter Sullivan.

Aaron nodded. “I’m sure she’d be happy to help you find whatever you’re looking for.”

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