Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
As he spoke, Pete pointed here and there with his right hand while keeping his left on the yoke. I couldn’t help but stare at his hand, sun-browned and full of healthy, sexy veins. Even though he wore sunglasses, the edges of his eyes crinkled with humor when he said something funny or when I did.
I loved watching him talk about this area. It was clear he spoke from his heart. Even when explaining the science behind the mountains and glaciers, he interspersed it with personal anecdotes from the expeditions he and his friends and family had been on over the years in this area.
My heart beat faster while watching him, which was exactly what I’d been afraid of. I didn’t need more reasons to want Peter Valentine.
After he’d flown us around, pointing out several glaciers, ridges, alpine lakes, and meadows, he brought us in for a landing. It took me a minute to realize this wasn’t his lake. It was much smaller than the original one we’d taken off from. He steered us over to the end of a small T-shaped dock that had an old boat tied to the other end.
“Where are we?” I asked, swiveling around in my seat to look for landmarks I recognized. The only thing I saw was a green lawn leading up to a tidy log cabin.
Suddenly, Pete looked uncomfortable. “Um… my place? I thought… uh… maybe you’d want to see it. You know, like how a local really lives. And if not, that’s cool, but I needed to grab my chop saw for Ryan anyway. If you don’t mind. The one at the shop is busted.”
It was the first time he’d looked unsure of himself in the three days I’d been in his company.
“I’d love to see your place,” I assured him quickly. “But I didn’t realize you had to take a plane to get to it.”
He turned off the engine and flipped several switches before unbuckling and hopping onto the float. He used a funky hook on a pole to grab a cleat on the dock and pull us closer. Once he’d tied the plane off, he reached a hand out to help me climb out.
We stood awkwardly on the dock before he snapped his fingers. “Right, so… let me grab the saw before I forget the most important thing. Oh! And you asked about flying here. No, I don’t have to fly. It’s accessible by truck. It’s just quicker if I’m already in the air to stop here instead of town.”
He was adorably self-conscious, which made me wonder why. Did he care whether or not I liked his place? Did it matter?
“This is gorgeous, Pete,” I said, meaning every word. “Thank you for stopping here so I could see it. I’ve never landed on a water driveway before. Maybe it could go in my article.”
“Did you start writing it yet?” he asked over his shoulder as he led me toward the shore.
I followed him down the short dock to the grass and over toward a shed half-hidden in the trees. Inside was organized chaos. Tools, stacked storage bins, random lengths of lumber, and a lawnmower all seemed to have their own space at the edges while a huge, scarred worktable took up the middle of the space.
“I tried starting it,” I admitted, “but the words aren’t coming. Maybe I’ll try again with today’s glacier tour. It was amazing.”
The truth was, the words were coming just fine. Words weren’t my problem. I’d stayed up half the night writing thousands of words about my short experience in Alaska so far.
But none of them were for the article. They were too close to my heart, like an intimate journal. I didn’t dare share them in the state they were in. I needed something more publicly consumable. Less raw and revealing.
Pete grabbed the saw he needed and hauled it out to the plane before returning to the grass where I stood. “Want a tour?”
After I nodded, he led me up to the cabin while explaining where we were geographically compared to town and how he’d come to build a cabin out here.
“I love my brothers, but I needed space to myself. And if I ever want to stay in town, there’s plenty of room over the bar or at a friend’s place.”
We climbed the short staircase to the deck, but before he could open the door to the cabin, I stopped him. “You going to tell me about Sutton?”
Pete didn’t look at me. He rubbed his face with both hands before looking down at his boots. “It’s a really long story.”
Suddenly, I realized I didn’t want to hear it. The pieces came together in my mind and pointed with flashing neon lights to a previous relationship between the two of them. If Sutton had been flirting with me at the bar, that meant he was into guys. And I’d already heard from Maggie that Pete was gay.