A week had passed since our night in Anchorage. In the intervening time, we had fallen into a rhythm. Ella insisted she couldn’t stay with me every night. So about every other night, she would be at my house and at her parents’ place in between. Meanwhile, she was actively looking for her own place to stay, which rankled me.

I knew what I wanted—for her to stay with me. Yet, I knew she needed to come to that conclusion on her own without pressure from me.

In the meantime, sporadic bursts of texts from Lance, or the asshole as I called him, continued to come in every few days. I had to give it to the guy, what he lacked in creativity, he tried to make up for with persistence. Rex had let me know the emails also came in similar bursts.

My patience with Lance’s bullshit harassment was wearing thin. I’d vented to Rex about it the other day. He was just as frustrated as me, but he thought he had some movement with the help of his buddy in Anchorage. It galled me to no end that he kept repeating it would be easier to pin something on Lance if he had physically harmed Ella. As if stalking her via text and email for over a year wasn’t enough.

Cade kept tabs on the situation as well. Yet again, Ella encountered us once talking in her father’s office. Her annoyance had been obvious. Her eyes had narrowed, and she chewed the corner of her lips, a sure sign of her frustration.

With those thoughts in mind, I drove home, hoping to see her that evening. We didn’t plan ahead much. It was more happenstance that she would text and see what I was doing. I would invariably invite her over. Her parents had invited me over for dinner as well. That was nothing unusual, and nothing I hadn’t done even while Ella wasn’t living here. Cade was a friend, and Rex had become one in ways now that I’d been working on one of the crews at the station for a while.

That night, I arrived home to find my refrigerator empty and no text from Ella. I considered texting her, but decided to wait. I was hanging back more than I would like, if only because I saw how annoyed she got with any sort of pressure. I didn’t know how much longer I could hang back like this, but I was trying to play it slow.

Creamsicle leapt down from the windowsill and onto the counter. I snagged a bottle of beer from the fridge, and he rubbed his cheek on the serrated edge of the cap where I set it on the counter. I stroked his back while he purred up a storm.

After a few minutes, restless, I strode to the windows and scanned the view. Autumn was a brief season in Alaska—a burst of color and then rapidly shortening days with winter nipping at his heels. Winter would be making itself known soon.

After another drag on my beer, I decided to go outside and chop some wood, needing something to do to burn off my restless energy. Within minutes, I was absorbed in the task, the force of the axe cleaving into the wood easing the tension bundled inside.

This thing with Ella was so unexpected and so intense, it was throwing me off. I wanted everything, all at once. More than anything, I want to erase her uncertainty, her tendency to hold back and her insistence on keeping me at bay in some ways.

With every thwack of the axe into the wood, I reminded myself it was worth the wait. As impatient as I might’ve been, there were years between us and more than enough baggage. Not to mention everything she’d been facing on her own.

As I chopped away, letting myself get into the rhythmic activity, Creamsicle meandered over and stationed himself on a stump nearby. He did that often—following me about the yard and observing whatever I happened to be doing from a safe distance.

After a solid hour of chopping wood, when I was good and tired, I returned to the house, feeling more settled inside. Creamsicle followed me back inside, bounding across the yard and dashing in through the door immediately. After a quick visit to his water bowl, he returned to his favorite perch in the windowsill.

A series of insistent buzzes on the counter caught my attention as I came out of the shower. I’d forgotten to bring my phone outside with me. I hoped it was Ella. But it wasn’t.

It was another series of texts from the asshole, including two pictures of Ella and me when we had dinner last week in Anchorage. Hot fury raced through me, and then went cold. I was so fucking relieved she didn’t have this phone. I did not want her see this. As much as it infuriated me, it scared the hell out of me.

Not for myself, but for her. Because it meant Lance was around and he wanted to push the envelope. For the first time tonight, I was relieved she wasn’t here. Because I knew if she were here, I wouldn’t be able to hide my tension. I didn’t want her to know about this. Not until we had a plan.

Rather than texting Rex, I called him. He picked up on the second ring. “Hey Caleb. You don’t call often, so cut to the chase,” he said by way of greeting.

He was right about that. Though Rex and Ella’s mother were good friends with my parents, and he had become a friend of sorts since I’d been stationed at Willow Brook Fire & Rescue, social chatting was something I saved for group situations.

“I wanted to call and give you a warning before I sent you these. I gotta tell ya, the only reason I’m not replying is because you told me it would be best if I didn’t. I’m ready to hunt this guy down. But he’s around and he has been since last week.”

“What?” Rex asked, his tone low and cool.

Pulling my phone away from my ear, I quickly forwarded him the texts. “The pictures are going to show up in a sec. Ella and I had dinner there last week,” I explained.

I heard a distinct chime through the line, indicating the arrival of my texts.

“Oh, this is bullshit,” he muttered. “Ella’s here, and I don’t want you to talk to her about this.”

“Trust me, I don’t want to talk to her about this. We only have one problem. We know where she’s staying. It’s either there or with me,” I said, abandoning any effort to ignore that detail. “But she goes to Anchorage once a week now. Somehow, we need to tell her he’s around.”

Rex was quiet for a beat. “Fuck.”

Rex wasn’t one to swear much, not as much as I did that was for sure. He saved choice words for moments when he was really pissed off.

“Well, you’re right about that, but she doesn’t go to Anchorage for another few days. I’m going to talk to Cade and see if we can come up with a reason for him to need that truck again. One of us can give her a ride. I’ll do it or you can do it, but we’ll figure it out. If I need to be at the station and Cade’s crew is on duty…”

I cut in. “I’ll talk to Ward. I’m sure he’ll let me take the day off if I need to.”

I knew we needed to figure something out, but I didn’t feel comfortable lying like this. But I also didn’t want Ella to get stressed knowing Lance was around. The only upside to all of this was if we could track him down, we could finally do something about him.

“Ella will be furious if she finds out we’re doing this behind her back, but I don’t want her to worry.”

“Damn straight. I’m gonna call Cade right now,” Rex replied.

I didn’t like keeping this from Ella, but even more so I was furious Lance came all the way to Alaska. It turned my gut to think he was this obsessed with her. Within minutes, Rex called me back. He and Cade concocted a story where Amelia‘s truck was going to be broken down, so she would need to borrow Ella’s for a few days.

According to Rex, Amelia wasn’t thrilled about the plan and was only agreeing as long as we told Ella by the end of the week. After I finished my call with Rex, I called Cade.

“Hey man, I’m not so sure this is a good plan? Ella’s gonna be pissed.”

Cade’s sigh was heavy. “Amelia’s already cranky about it. She doesn’t want to keep it from Ella and insists we have to tell her even if she gets stressed. But my dad is livid. He’s worried that if we say something, Ella’s gonna fight us on it, and she’s damn stubborn.”

I heard Amelia‘s voice in the background. Cade chuckled. “She’s reminding me we get three days and that’s it.”

“Look, I’ll just tell Ella I’m going to go to Anchorage for the day anyway. It’s easier.”

“That’s probably better,” Cade replied.

“I ordered some stuff for the station at the gear shop the other day. It’s due in at the end of the week anyway. Ward was supposed to pick it up, but I know he’ll let me do it if I explain why.”

“Oh yeah. Forgot about that. I’ll mention it to Ward tomorrow morning. He’ll be doing us both a solid.”

After I got off the phone with Cade, I called Rex back and explained the update. He agreed, thinking it was an easier fix.

Then, I called Ella. I felt silly knowing that she’d been in the house the entire time I’d been calling back and forth with Rex, but he’d explained she was busy grading papers in her room.

“Hey, what’s up?” she said when she answered.

“I was just wondering the same of you,” I replied.

“Grading papers. I meant to text you earlier and tell you I’d be working tonight, but I got busy.”

“I figured. Thought I’d call anyway, I have to go back to Anchorage on Friday. I thought maybe we could ride in together. Isn’t that the day that you have to go in for work?”

“Yeah,” she said, pausing. I heard the sound of papers rustling. “You sure you don’t mind? I’ll be there from nine until three.”

“If I minded, I wouldn’t be offering. I need to pick up the order at the gear shop, and my mom needs me to pick a few things up at the hardware store.” That was true, except for the fact that there was absolutely no rush. But I’d take whatever excuse I could. “If you want, we can just stay the night again,” I added.

“Let’s stay at your place. I feel bad leaving Creamsicle there alone.”

I chuckled, glancing over at Creamsicle. I knew he was perfectly fine when I wasn’t here, but he seemed to like Ella, so now she had a soft spot for him. “Whatever you want. I’m on a training rotation tomorrow, so I’ll be tied up most of the day. How about I just pick you up Friday morning?”

“Perfect.”

I hesitated as I held the phone against my ear, the words I wanted to say caught in my throat. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t told her many times that I loved her. But that had been in our first iteration—ten years ago. I wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear it right now. So I swallowed the words and said good night.