Northern Escape by Jennifer LaBrecque Read Free Book Online Page B

she’d created in her head through his work.
    â€œWhen.”
    Gus snapped out of her reverie and looked at Jenna. “When what?”
    â€œYou said to tell you when, so come on over.”
    â€œRight.” Gus slid into the seat across from Jenna who took Gus’s hands in hers and frowned over what she saw. “Don’t worry. We can fix this.”
    Gus obviously didn’t know what she was looking at because she hadn’t been worried in the least. She contented herself with saying, “Work your magic, Jenna.”
    Once Jenna had Gus’s feet in the spa bath—which felt heavenly—she started on her hands. “Gus?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI, uh, have a favor to ask?”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œDo you think you could make up a special recipe for me?”
    Gus hadn’t known what to expect but it hadn’t been that . “A recipe? What kind of food are we talking about?” Gus said cautiously. It was a bit of a strangeconversation, well, even stranger than some conversations with Jenna could get.
    â€œYou know how those wolves marked Tessa?”
    Tessa Bellingham had come to Good Riddance to record video footage. She’d hired Clint as her guide. Everyone knew interracial marriage was frowned upon by the natives in the area. But when wolves had “marked” Tessa by appearing before her three days in a row, she’d been accepted as a native and she and Clint were now engaged.
    Gus had a bad feeling she knew where this was going. “Uh-huh.”
    â€œWell, I’ve been going out behind the cabin every day, hoping something would mark me.” Jenna looked so sad Gus wanted to pat her shoulder in sympathy. “Nothing has. I need to be marked, so if you could come up with some kind of recipe I could put outside, ya know, to attract a wild animal so I’d be marked….” Jenna trailed off hopefully.
    This definitely wasn’t good. “Nelson?”
    The other woman nodded, a mixture of adoration and despair reflected on her face. “I’ve never met anyone like him before. He’s just so…so…cool and…sexy.”
    To borrow one of Merrilee’s phrases, sweet mercy. In Gus’s opinion Nelson was cool, but he’d never struck her as sexy. Regardless, he was one hundred percent barred from dating anyone outside his native heritage, marked or not. And Jenna, with her surgically enhanced breasts and blond-in-a-bottle, was obviously head over heels and equally obviously didn’t stand a chance.
    Gus laid it on the line. “You know he can’t be involved with a white woman.”
    â€œThat’s why I want an animal to mark me, like it did Tessa.” Jenna looked so hopeful, Gus simply couldn’t bring herself to crush her.
    â€œI’ll see what I can come up with for you,” she said, having absolutely no clue what else to do.
    â€œAwesome.” And just like that Jenna’s train of thought jumped to another track. “Now let’s give you some nice nails since you’re going to have a hunky helper tonight.”
    Gus wasn’t surprised Jenna knew. That was Good Riddance for you. There were no secrets here. Well, except for her secret…
    And she fully meant to keep it that way.

4
    C LINT WAS A NICE GUY, Nick thought as they drove down the snow-crusted road. So was his dog, Kobuk, sitting in the seat behind them, tongue lolling out as he looked out the window as if watching the evergreens lining the road. But then again, Nick had liked everyone he’d met so far, particularly the group he’d joined for dinner last night. They were all good people and intelligent with interesting stories. Of course, most people that wound up in out of the way places like Good Riddance had interesting stories.
    â€œSpruce?” he hazarded a guess as to the evergreens.
    â€œYep. Right in one.” Clint glanced briefly in Nick’s direction.