Page 8 of One Night in Alaska

He chuckled under his breath and asked, “Want a beer?”

“More than anything in the world.”

5

BEAU

I’d thought we’d gotten lucky when the place cleared out of locals, giving the few cruise ship explorers that had wandered by the indication that West Wharf was closed. A few of them had stood outside for a moment but then moved along. Then, I’d heard the door open and braced myself.

I never expected to see a beautiful woman with flowing blonde waves of gold framing her angelic face and the softest brown eyes I’d ever seen standing there.

When she’d literally fallen into my arms, it had given me a start, but now that she was sitting next to me at the bar, I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. Ryan was always trying to tell me that the universe would drop the right woman into my life whenever I was ready. Well, if he’d been here to see that, my best friend would’ve said it was a sign.

Unfortunately, he was still MIA, and I had been getting tired of drinking alone. Maybe Trippy over here would be up for a little conversation. “Where are you from?” I asked her, noting the floral tones of her perfume.

“Seattle,” she said, staring down at her beer. “I’ve never been to Alaska before.”

“Oh, well, Seattle’s not that far. You should’ve dropped by sooner.” She looked up at me, raising an eyebrow, and we both laughed. So she had a sense of humor. That was good. I wasn’t quite sure what my angle was. Just making conversation, I told myself, but she sure was good-looking. The voice in the back of my head that always warned me of getting too close to anyone was raising alarms, and for a moment, Kaylee’s face flashed before my eyes, but I pushed it away. This wasn’t like that. This was a tourist, a woman I’d never see again once that cruise ship pulled away in an hour or two. They never stayed long, not here. There wasn’t much to see. So it wouldn’t hurt for me to practice being charming. It was kind of fun actually. I missed having a woman to talk to.

“Thanks for keeping me from splitting my head open on the floor,” she said, looking down at the offending wooden slats. “Man, it’s slicker than I would’ve thought.”

“Well, a lot of the locals split right before you got here. Some of them hadn’t been here long enough to dry off. I think the floor’s probably wet,” I explained.

The bartender, a guy named Rusty who hated his job, didn’t even turn around from his important work of cleaning glasses with a rag to see if the floor really needed to be mopped up or not.

“Do you live here?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder in the general direction of my house. “Not too far away.”

She nodded and picked up her glass, taking another sip. “Do you like it?”

Shrugging, I said, “I do. Summer is a lot easier to handle than the dead of winter, of course.” I didn’t bother to tell her I owned properties all over the world and traveled a lot during the harsher months. In my experience, people were more genuine when they didn’t realize how much money I had. Even Ryan didn’t know for sure. He understood that I was wealthy, but he had no idea my net worth was in the billions.

I noticed her eyes going to the maps on the walls. “Those are so cool,” she said, gesturing with the top of her head at the map of Alaska from the 1800s. “That’s what drew me in.”

“Yeah, I love the maps and the other memorabilia in here,” I admitted. “It’s one of the reasons why I prefer this bar over the other few in town.”

“Do you come here a lot?” she asked.

I grinned, thinking of the cheesy pick-up line, “Do you come here often?” But that wasn’t what she’d said. “Yeah, I do,” I told her. My eyes went to the door. Not a glimpse of Ryan anywhere. “I was supposed to be meeting my buddy here, but it looks like he’s not going to show.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry.” She seemed to genuinely mean that, like it hurt her heart to know my friend wasn’t coming.

I shrugged. It wasn’t like it was a date. “Knowing Ryan, he got a message from the universe that he was supposed to go to the woods and find a particular squirrel to commune with instead.” I laughed when she raised her eyebrows, and her face broke into a smile.

“So your friend is one of those types?” she asked me, and I nodded. “Got it.”

“What about you? Are you on the cruise alone, or did you go with a friend?”

“Um, no, I’m on my own,” she said. “It’s actually a singles cruise.” She said that last sentence like it was laced with poison.

“Oh.” That opened a can of worms in my mind. Why the hell would someone who looked like her need to meet a guy on a singles cruise?

“My friend sent me on it without telling me.” Her eyes rolled so far back in her head, all I could see was white for a moment.

I didn’t mean to laugh, but I did. “I’m sorry. That sucks.”

“It really does,” she agreed. “If I’d had some sort of a clue what I was getting into, I would’ve prepared, but that’s how Lucy is. She thinks she’s helping, and she’s really just making it worse. Well, maybe not worse, but not better.” She seemed flustered and finished her beer.

---