Alaskan Holiday
Page 20

I should have known Jack was thinking about his stomach.
“Palmer isn’t here. He went to visit his sister and left Hobo with me. Hobo misses you, too, same as me.”
Palmer’s husky. I longed to wrap my arms around that dog and bury my face in his thick fur. I’d never had a dog as a kid—Mom was fond of cats. I’d grown attached to Palmer’s sidekick and missed him, along with everything and everyone in Ponder.
“No need to call back,” Jack continued. “I called to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and let you know Angie and Steve invited me to dinner with them.”
The call abruptly ended, and I leaned against the kitchen counter. A silly grin covered my face while I replayed the voicemail. Just hearing Jack’s voice was like a soothing balm to my tired body. I missed them all. I was willing to admit nothing felt the same since I’d left Ponder. Even being at home with Mom. I’d been away a little more than seven months, and things had changed here: I’d changed. Mom had, too. We’d always been close—still were. But things were different for some reason. I attributed it to missing Palmer, to the long hours at work, and to the pressure of working with Chef Anton.
“Everything okay, Josie?” my mother asked, joining me in the kitchen. She removed the foil-covered dinner plate from the refrigerator and set it on the counter in front of me.
“Everything is peachy,” I said, straightening. I should have known better than to try to hide my feelings from my mother. She knew me far too well.
“You miss Alaska, don’t you?”
This wasn’t the first time Mom had brought up the topic. Rather than answer verbally, I shrugged. The truth was, not a day passed that Palmer and his proposal weren’t front and center in my mind. I was surprised by how much of my daily life revolved around thoughts of him. The one bright spot in my days of late were the few text messages we were able to exchange. If I wasn’t completely wiped out physically, we used to chat on the phone, until I became consumed with my duties at the restaurant. I had it bad for Palmer.
The only time my head was free of thoughts of him was when I was at the restaurant. I didn’t have time to think about anything but getting the food out in a timely manner and serving it up in a fashion befitting Chef Anton’s high standard of perfection.
“Josie?” Mom repeated, cutting into my thoughts.
“Yes, Mom, I miss Alaska,” I confessed.
“Oh, sweetheart, this job with Chef Anton isn’t working out the way you wanted, is it?”
“Not at all.” I’d worked in a busy restaurant before I’d graduated from culinary school, so I knew the hours would be long, but working with a man so unreasonable and bombastic was more than I had bargained for.
Mom wrapped her arms around me and gave me a tight hug. “Why don’t you return Jack’s call? You’ll feel better.”
I looked at the clock, noting the hour time difference. Then I punched in Jack’s number that I found on the caller ID.
The phone rang five times before he answered.
“Jack, it’s Josie.”
“Josie!” he cried, sounding like I had risen from the dead to contact him. “Oh my goodness, it’s so great to hear your voice.”
“Yours, too. But I’m curious how you got my home number.” I’d never given it to him, although I knew the Brewsters had access to it.
“Ah…well, it might be best if you not know in case I get arrested for breaking and entering.”
His words alarmed me. “You broke into the lodge?”
“I have a key,” he explained. “It’s an old one and doesn’t fit as well as it once did. I’ll be able to fix the door, no problem. Brewsters won’t even know there was any damage.”
“Jack,” I exclaimed, aghast that he would do such a thing. I recalled that all the office files had locks on them as well. I was certain that Jack didn’t have a key to those, but that still didn’t explain how he’d managed to get my home number. I didn’t really care, though. Hearing his voice was just what I needed.
“Only way I could think to get ahold of you,” he explained, sounding more than a little chagrined. “I tried your cell, but that went straight to voicemail.”
“It’s turned off while I’m at the restaurant.”
“You worked today? On Thanksgiving?”
“Yes, it’s one of the busiest days of the year in the restaurant business. Is everything all right?” I asked, eager for information. “How’s Angie feeling?” My author friend and I kept in touch, too, but I hadn’t had time to answer her email from earlier in the week.
“Angie’s great. Cooked a good dinner. Lonely around here without you, though, and now with Palmer away, I’m sort of at loose ends. Thought hearing your sweet voice would help.”
“I miss you, too,” I said, and sincerely meant it.
“Palmer’s pretty miserable without you,” Jack said. “Don’t suppose you’d reconsider marrying him?” he asked, and then expelled his breath. “Don’t answer that. Palmer will have my hide for interfering.”
Jack had always been an endearing busybody. I could almost hear Palmer getting after Jack for intruding in his business.
“You happy to be back in Seattle?” Jack asked, changing the subject.
“Oh yes. There’s no place like home, right?” That was a slight exaggeration. I’d forgotten how noisy the city could be. The first week home, I’d barely been able to sleep with all the racket at night. If it wasn’t the late-night street traffic, it was sirens from emergency vehicles. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to appreciate the sounds of silence. I’d grown accustomed to the stillness of Ponder, where one could hear the snow being blown off the tree limbs by the wind, the distant cry of a caribou, and the crackle of the Northern Lights.
“Just curious,” Jack said. “You still cooking with that famous chef?”
It amused me the way his mind automatically went to food. “Sure am.”
“You ever make moose stroganoff for him?”
“Not yet.” I couldn’t imagine Chef Anton being interested in tasting my special recipe for moose.
“He’ll want to put it on the menu once he tastes it. You tell him I can supply him with the meat if he’s interested.”
“I’ll do that,” I said, grinning.
“Well, I best go now,” Jack said, appearing to have run out of things to say.
“Nice talking to you, Jack.”
“You, too.”
I didn’t want the conversation to end but I didn’t have anything more to tell him.
“Bye now.”
“Wait,” he said hurriedly. “Did I mention that I miss your cooking?”
“You might have a time or two.”
“Oh. Needed to make sure you know that I’m probably losing weight because of it.”
That I found hard to believe. “You ever get to Seattle?” I asked him.
He hesitated. “Not in a lot of years. Think I was in the Navy the last time I was there.”
“Well, the next time you’re in town, you have a standing invitation to come to dinner. I’ll cook up a feast you won’t soon forget.”
“In Seattle?” he asked excitedly.
“Yup. It’d be my pleasure.”
“You’re on, Josie.”
My smile was so big, my mouth hurt as we disconnected the call. I let my hand rest on the phone, my heart warmed by our conversation.
My cell beeped in my pocket. Anticipating it to be a text from Palmer, I quickly reached inside my pocket. It was from my friend Jessie. Not Palmer. Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard from him since this morning.
CHAPTER 11
Palmer
Wouldn’t you know it? The minute I stepped off the ski-plane in Ponder and waved Sawyer off, Jack was there to greet me. And who do you think he was talking about nonstop?
Chef Douglas Anton.
Jack had seen a YouTube video with the chef. Who could believe that the old coot even knew what YouTube was, but it was another thing Josie showed him. And who should the chef mention on that video? Josie.