Alaskan Holiday
Page 21

That man was the last person I wanted to hear about, and I’d shut Jack up with a snarl and a cold shoulder. I collected Hobo and speed-walked to my cabin, leaving Jack in the dust. After I cooled down, I felt bad about the way I’d treated him and decided to apologize later.
I’d always known. From the moment I did an Internet search on the chef, I’d sensed he was nothing but trouble. Josie had never hidden the fact that she was thrilled for the chance to work with him. I’d lost count of the number of times she’d told me how lucky she was for this unbelievable opportunity. Not for a minute did I doubt her culinary talents, but in my heart of hearts, I suspected it was more than her cooking abilities that had attracted the chef to Josie.
He wanted Josie. My Josie.
My cell dinged with a text message from her.
Everything OK? Haven’t heard from you.
I hadn’t answered her for a while now. I needed time to think about the Facebook post I’d seen of her with the almighty chef. To hear Josie speak of him, which she’d done plenty of while in Ponder, the man walked on water.
Are you back in Ponder?
It was petty of me to keep ignoring her, so I kept my response short and to the point.
Yes.
Can you talk?
I weighed my options. Earlier I’d been the one to insist that she tell me nothing about the chef, and if Josie had fallen for him, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know it. Mentioning to her that I’d seen the post would be a mistake. The way I currently felt, I’d come off sounding like a jealous fool. Okay, fine. I was a jealous fool, and unreasonable, too, but I couldn’t help how I felt. I had the sinking feeling I was losing her, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
I stared at her text again, afraid my attitude would bleed into our conversation.
Sorry. Busy.
Later then?
Sure.
I stuffed my phone back into my pocket, thankful for the delay. My excuse not to chat had validity. The commissioned replica Civil War sword was almost complete. All that was required was putting the finishing touches on the handle.
With my heart heavy, I set to work, welcoming the distraction. Hobo sat on the floor in the workshop, giving me curious looks. Still, my mind refused to let it go. If the photo of Josie and Chef hadn’t been bad enough, I’d made the mistake of checking out the chef’s Facebook page as well.
That had sent me over the edge. There were photos of the modern interior of the restaurant and the water view. The kitchen staff was highlighted, including some pictures in which the chef stood next to Josie with a proprietary look about him.
On a positive note, he wasn’t holding her against his side like he had every right to lay claim to her, unlike in the photo she’d posted on her Facebook page. My jaw clenched at the memory of her smile in that photo. I wanted to shout at him to remove his arm from around her. Jealous fool that I was, it made me uncomfortable, and that was putting it mildly.
It was a good thing I wasn’t talking to Josie just yet. I needed time to process my next move. A plan, I decided. I needed a plan. My hand stilled as I admired my work on the sword. I was proud of how it’d turned out and knew the owner would be happy. It was a special Christmas gift that a woman had commissioned for her husband, who was a well-known Civil War historian and Gettysburg battlefield guide. I was confident this beautifully crafted sword would become a family heirloom, passed down from one generation to the next.
Although I’d rarely done it in the past, at Josie’s urging, I’d decided to hand-deliver the sword. Flights out of Fairbanks often required a plane change in Seattle. She and I had discussed me visiting her several times, and Josie seemed eager to see me. Obviously, I felt the same—and then some—about seeing her again, too. This layover in Seattle would be brief. How was I going to prove how serious I was in such a short time span?
I loved her and wanted to build a life with her if she was willing. In my mind I’d given her a year to think about my proposal, but I realized now that a year was too long. She needed to make up her mind, and soon, and I was determined to do my best to persuade her to marry me.
Setting aside the sword, I went into the house and logged on to my computer. I was staring at the screen when Jack let himself in. He didn’t say anything at first, and I knew he was probably gauging my mood after the way I’d snapped at him when I’d first arrived back from Fairbanks.
“Sorry about earlier,” I mumbled.
“No problem.”
“You understood what I was trying to tell you, right?”
He pantomimed zipping his lips shut. “You don’t want me to talk about…who?”
“Right.” I grinned, letting him know I appreciated that I didn’t need to explain further.
Jack had never been one to hold a grudge, and he easily accepted my apology.
“What you doin’?” He plopped himself down in the kitchen chair next to me.
“I’m booking a flight,” I returned absently, pretending not to notice his behavior.
“To where?”
“Pennsylvania. I’m hand-delivering the sword.” My gaze didn’t waver from the computer.
“When you leaving? Soon, right? You going to layover to see Josie? You probably should; her working with that—” He stopped abruptly, embarrassed. He zipped his mouth with his fingers again.
Feeling the way I did, the last thing I needed was Jack reminding me that Josie spent time with the chef every day while I was over two thousand miles away, twiddling my thumbs and jealous as hell.
“I’m not sure yet when I’ll leave. Why?” Jack stretched his neck to get a better view of the screen. He seemed overly curious about my travel plans.
“I got big travel plans myself,” he stated casually. “Might work best if we left and returned around the same time. Save costs that way, with Sawyer needing to get us into Fairbanks.”
Jack booking a flight? In all the years I’d known him, he’d never gone farther than a couple hundred miles from Ponder.
“Where are you going?” I asked, unable to hide my curiosity.
He rubbed his hand down the side of his beard. “I’d rather not say.”
I turned to look at the old coot. “What?”
“My lips are sealed,” he reminded me.
If he wanted to keep secrets, that was fine by me. He was welcome to fly wherever he wanted to without my approval. My lack of curiosity was driving him nuts. Jack was practically jumping out of his long johns in his eagerness to tell me. Letting him stew would do him good, so I continued to torment him. “If you want to plan a trip, great; we can coordinate with Sawyer.”
He narrowed his eyes until they almost disappeared into his bushy eyebrows. “Thing is, I’d be happy to give you a few details if you really wanted to know.”
I shrugged. “Up to you, my friend.” I was beginning to think he’d met a woman online and they had planned a rendezvous.
He leaned toward me and lowered his voice to a whisper, acting like someone might be listening in on our conversation. “I’m going to visit Josie.”
“Josie?”
“We talked on Thanksgiving.”
“She called you?” She’d reached out to me and I’d let the call go to voicemail. She might have assumed something was wrong and reached out to Jack for information. I’d always answered her calls, no matter what.
Looking smug, Jack leaned back in his chair. He crossed his arms and smiled. “Nope. I was the one who phoned her at her home number, since I couldn’t reach her on her cellphone.”
“You called Josie?”
“Not telling you how I got her house number, in case the authorities are brought in to investigate later.”
“What?” I was convinced he said that for shock value.
“Not going to involve you.” The self-satisfied look was back on his face. “Don’t want you serving time because of something I did.”
I raised my hands in a gesture of complete disbelief. I’d known Jack all these years and didn’t think there was anything he could do to surprise me. Well, I was wrong. I stared at him, utterly speechless.
“You want to know what she said?” he asked, with a grin that would rival that of the Cheshire cat. I could see that he wasn’t willing to give up any more information without me digging for it.