Alaskan Sweethearts by Janet Tronstad Read Free Book Online Page A

grandfather is such a cheat, why isn’t he in jail?” she asked.
    “One of these days he’s going to step over the line and I won’t be able to bail him out. Then he will be. I don’t know what we’ll do then.”
    Something about the tone of his voice made her suspect he was telling the truth. She heard his reluctance and his shame. This was hard for him.
    “It could even be today,” Hunter added.
    Scarlett pondered that for a moment. “I don’t see how. I’m not paying him anything for the land. I read the contract he sent. It sounded solid. I even had my baby sister, Carly, who’s a paralegal—well, almost a paralegal—take a look at it and she thought it was fine. My other sister, Fiona, thought it looked good, too. She’s taken over my wilderness guide business, so she knows contracts. It’s hard to cheat when everything is laid out in black-and-white. Besides, I don’t trust anyone these days, so I can’t be taken in.”
    He grunted. “You should have your attorney look at something like that. People can twist things and still be legal. You need to protect yourself.”
    She didn’t say anything.
    “You mentioned that you had an attorney,” he reminded her. “At least you said you’d sue.”
    “I was bluffing.”
    “You need to get one, then.”
    “Attorneys cost money.” Scarlett felt her cheeks warm. She hadn’t meant to tell him she was broke, but she supposed she had.
    “I don’t want you to be disappointed,” Hunter replied and then looked down. “Things like this never turn out good with my grandfather involved.”
    “He seems like a nice old man,” she said. “Looks a lot like Santa Claus.”
    “He could look like the Easter bunny,” Hunter agreed, his voice sounding tired, but at least he was making eye contact with her again. “Doesn’t mean he can hop worth beans. He is a nice man, but he should stay home and...and play solitaire or something. He’s past ninety. What’s he doing things like this for?”
    Scarlett suddenly felt a jolt of empathy for Hunter. He was worried about his grandfather doing himself harm. She knew how that felt after her concerns about her grandmother. The older woman no longer listened to reason, either, but Scarlett had to try. When children lost their parents and were raised by their grandparents, the older ones were everything to them. She would have reached over and touched Hunter’s arm in understanding, but he was staring past her, down the road again.
    “My granny told me to watch my step around your grandfather,” she said to comfort him. “That if he couldn’t sweet-talk me out of something, he’d trick me into giving it to him. But I’m not going to let him have a chance to do either. A person has to trust the con man before she can be swindled and I don’t trust anyone but my grandmother—and maybe my two sisters.”
    Hunter looked at her for a moment, his eyes changing from caution to astonishment.
    “You have to trust more people than that,” he finally said. “Believe me, I’ve tried—” He stopped and took a breath. “What I mean is that you have neighbors. Friends. A woman needs—”
    She shook her head. “Being a woman has nothing to do with it. I don’t see why I need to trust anyone.”
    “Being a mother means you do, though,” he said. Then he paused for a minute, just looking at her.
    “I’m surprised you don’t have Joey accompanied by more than a teddy bear,” he added finally, shaking his head. “I’d think you’d have guard dogs.”
    She acknowledged his words. “Don’t think I haven’t thought about it.”
    “Surely your grandmother...” he began.
    “She’s the reason I haven’t gathered those guard dogs,” Scarlett said, relieved to tell the man what kind of a person he was up against. “She believes no one is so bad that they can’t change. It agitates her if I say otherwise.”
    “I know a woman who says the same—that with the good Lord’s help any of us can start