I didn’t want to move. Couldn’t, in fact. Not with Eli’s body pinning mine. I’d rolled over at some point and, like normal, had my knee out. He’d moved in close, putting his leg in between mine and using my body as a pillow. His hand cupped my breast as he slept, and I smiled when I felt his fingers twitch.

Noni wouldn’t be up for at least another hour or so, I judged by the lack of lighting around the bedroom curtain. We had nothing pressing to get to. Maybe if I wiggled enough, he’d wake up and…

“Do you need to go to the bathroom?” he asked, nipping my shoulder. “Or are you trying to get away so you can go roll around in the snow again?”

I snorted, keeping the truth to myself. I hadn’t gone anywhere near the snow. I’d opened the bathroom window and stood in front of it dripping wet, hoping the frigid air would put out the fire consuming me.

It hadn’t helped. If anything, the icy blast made me crave the heat of his touch even more. I’d bolted from the bathroom, run down the hallway, and jumped into bed with him. Living with Noni had taught me a lot, but the biggest lesson was the knowledge that life was short.

And then it hit me. The window was still open. The heat had probably worked itself to death all night trying to keep the house warm. “Bathroom!”

It was freezing. Ice formed on the windowsill and the floor, and the window didn’t want to close.

“Damn… damn… damn it,” I muttered.

“Need some help?”

The sound of his voice startled me and I pitched sideways, slipping on a small patch of ice on the linoleum floor right into the tub. There was thin layer of slush on top of the water. I broke through it when I fell and shot up with a gasp, body numbing almost instantly.

Eli had me out of the water and tucked back under the covers in a matter of seconds. By the sound of it, he got the window closed next while I shivered hard enough that my teeth clicked.

He was back in bed beside me, body pressed to mine, and we trembled like two ice cubes in a glass.

“It would have been easier if you’d have just went out and rolled around in the snow,” Eli said once the hard chills had settled into tremors.

I felt like an absolute fool. It was one thing to get caught up in a moment, but it was quite another to be dumb enough to leave the window open all night. “You must think I’m a complete idiot.”

I felt his chest move on a silent laugh. “You’re not the first one to leave a window open. Won’t be the last either.”

“Not in Alaska.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, you learn early on not to be so foolish. Something as silly as leaving a window open could screw up so many things. You saw the bathroom. A pipe could have burst. The heat could have went out because it was overcompensating to keep the house warm. Any number of things could happen. And they’re never cheap to fix,” I explained, wanting to kick myself all over again.

His shoulders bunched and relaxed, but then he pulled me closer. Getting both arms around my back and not missing a beat, he changed the subject. “Jared and Murphy will be here in a few days.”

“Oh?” Could he hear all the questions packed into that one little word?

He sighed. “There’s more.”

Moving from his chest, I settled on my stomach beside him, elbows propping my arms up so that my chin rested in my palms. I forced myself to smile as I said, “I’m listening.”

He rolled onto his side, propping his own head up. “Ace and Aiden have been sent out already. The medic team is on standby.”

“And you’re part of the medic team,” I said, feeling a lump form in my throat. I swallowed it down, forcing myself to deal with the situation like an adult. Even though it felt like he was slipping away right before my very eyes.

“And I’m part of the medic team,” he echoed.

“Is this a long-term thing?” Would they pull him from Nome and reassign him?

“I have no idea how long I’ll be gone, but I will be back, Nova,” he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I won’t leave you again.”

Tears gathered on my bottom lashes. “Is it always like this with Cole Enterprise?”

“For the most part, yes. But it’s never permanent. Agents get sent out into the field a whole lot more often than the medics do. We’re on standby a lot, and sometimes we get moved into location if there’s need for us to be close at hand. Every mission is different,” he explained.

“And your friends, do you see them all that often?” I asked, wondering if the lives of agents and medics allowed them to cross paths often.

“I see them a whole lot more now than I would have if we’d gone our separate ways after graduation. We’re all based out of Chicago, which was Jared’s parent’s main location the whole time we were growing up. Now that we’re there, they’ve moved to the one in Scotland,” he said, shifting to get out of bed.

I watched him strut around the room naked as he gathered his clothes. “You said that you were here to look at property. Is that why they wanted you to come and offer me a job, so I’d fill a medic position once the facility was built?”

“I honestly don’t know. They never said. Plus, they wouldn’t place you just anywhere while you trained.” He pulled a long-sleeved Henley on and then a pair of thick joggers.

“And, hypothetically speaking, where would I train?” I asked, sitting up and gathering the comforter close.

“Chicago,” he said, crooking his finger at me.

“No way, it’s cold,” I said, refusing to give up the pocket of warmth surrounding me.

“Have it your way then.” He lunged for me, rolled me up like a burrito inside the quilt, and then slung me over his shoulder. He dropped me on the bed in my room and then left me there to fight my way free of the comforter.

“A little help?”

He shook his head. “Good cardio. Now, get dressed and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

“Eli!” I called his name, but he didn’t come back.

I managed to wiggle free without too much effort and then darted around the room, pulling clothes on so as to not lose any body heat before looking for him.

Eli was in the kitchen, cracking eggs into a bowl. I elbowed him out of the way of the coffee pot, shrieking when his hand latched onto my backside and hauled me against him.

He nipped at my lips, then kissed them gently. “Good morning, Nova.”

I turned into a mushy pile of feelings and kissed him back. “Morning.”

“Did you see the look on the cashier’s face when she saw us?” I asked, giggling when Eli mimicked it almost perfectly.

“I thought she was going to kick us out,” Eli said, pulling out of the parking spot.

“She wouldn’t have kicked us out. Although she might have been worried that we’d wipe out the rest of the supplies to last the rest of Nome for the winter,” I said jokingly.

“I never thought about that. Do you think it could happen? I hate to be responsible for someone going without,” he said as a look of concern etched his brow.

Eli really was one of a kind. How many people considered the needs of others the way he did? Not many, I thought. I’d witnessed so much selfishness in my own lifetime. It was what made Alaska so refreshing. Besides the smaller population, it was also a different way of life. Homesteaders lived off the land and worked together as a community, if they were close enough to. I’d always wanted to live further inland and away from the port city of Nome.

“Have you thought about looking further inland for a facility site?” I asked, catching Eli in his own thoughts.

He shook his head. “I thought about it, but logistics wise it makes more sense to be closer to the coast. Especially in the winter.”

There were a lot of valid points to his thought process, but he failed to understand that, like any small town, when a big company came in and purchased land, the people would demand to know who was purchasing it, and what they were purchasing it for. Small towns didn’t stay small otherwise. I repeated that thought to Eli.

“As far as the people of Nome are concerned, it will look like a storage facility for a clothing manufacturer out of Norway,” he said as we unloaded the back of the truck and carried the last of the bags inside.

“Really?” That was pretty ingenious.

Eli took the folded paper bag from my hand and stacked it with the others. “And said facility will donate clothing and other winter gear to the local churches under the guise that the merchandise doesn’t meet their quality control standards.”

“Will it create jobs?” I asked once we were back inside the truck and headed to Stanley’s.

“A few, but there will be a pretty intense screening process before anyone is hired. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” he said, changing the subject.

“Does it seem like we spend just as much time in this truck as we do out of it?” I asked, turning the conversation again.

He chuckled as we came to a stop at the four-way stop sign and waved to a couple pulling a snow sled between them. Smack in the middle of the groceries was a small child bundled up to the eyes in a snowsuit, plus a quilt. At the sound of the truck, its fur-outlined face turned just enough so that I saw the ski goggles he, or she, wore. They were too big for such a small face. The plastic was fogged, making it impossible to see out of, but they protected the delicate skin of someone so young, and kept the bitter wind from taking their breath away.

“We could always take turns pulling each other around on one of those,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the couple’s direction.

I rolled my eyes. “That would be a sight.”

“Nova, Stanley was just telling me that our neighbor’s house caught fire. We’ll need to go and check on the house to see if there’s any damage,” Noni said as soon as I walked into the living room.

She was sitting in Stanley’s recliner with a throw blanket over her lap. Beside her sat a steaming cup and a plate with a half-eaten sandwich.

It never got easier no matter how much I braced myself for it. “Eli and I just came from checking out the house, Noni. Looks like you’ll have to get used to Stanley’s company for a while.”

“And who is Eli?” Noni asked, catching sight of him as he came to stand beside me.

He didn’t miss a beat. “I’m a friend of Nova’s. It’s nice to meet you.”

I wanted to run out the door screaming.

I wanted to shake Noni until her memory came back.

I wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

But most of all, I just wanted my Noni back.

“How about some lunch?” Stanley said, putting his hand on my shoulder and guiding me into the kitchen.

I pulled out the closest chair, landing in it with a dull thud.

Eli’s hands settled on my shoulders, thumbs digging into the knots that never seemed to go away as he and Stanley kept a running conversation, touching on lighter subjects that buzzed through the air around me. And while they chatted away, I collected my thoughts and cleared my mind. Getting upset over things I had no power to change only made the situation more unbearable. All I could do was be there for Noni, even if there came a time when she couldn’t remember me at all.

I’d promised her a long time ago that no matter what, I’d take care of her, but damn it all if it wasn’t breaking me to witness the deterioration of her mind.

Was it worse since we’d had to leave the house? I tried to compare how she’d been before the fire and realized that it hadn’t been. Not really. Then again, it had only been a handful of days. Her confusion was there, and she’d slipped into the past a bit, but it hadn’t lasted all that long. It led me to more questions I couldn’t answer, but Stanley could.

“How many times would you say you’ve had to remind Noni about the fire?” I asked, interrupting whatever Eli and Stanley were talking about.

He pursed his lips, winter blue eyes narrowing as he thought about it. “I’d say at least two or three times, but it’s only in the morning. After that she seems to settle in and go with the flow once you’re here.”

“And is she remembering to take her medications in the morning?” I asked, reaching for the weekly pill box and then peering down inside it.

“We’re still working on a morning routine, but for now I remind her when she sits down at the table with her coffee,” Stanley said, setting a thick sandwich in front of me.

That reminded me. “Who’s taking care of the cafe?”

“It’s being handled,” he answered over his shoulder as he gathered the sandwich ingredients and gestured for Eli to open the refrigerator.

“But—”

“How’s the sandwich?” he asked.

“Don’t try to throw me off topic. I live with Noni. I know how to stick to a subject, repetitively, too, I might add.”

Stanley laughed. “There’s no doubt about that, Nova. Most days you act just like she did at your age.”

I bit into the sandwich, chewed, swallowed, and all the while gave him a look that said we weren’t done talking about how Noni living with him had affected not only his life, but his business.

He met me stare for stare and then shrugged. “If it came down to being at the cafe, or taking care of Noni, I’d close it down and stay here with her.”

“But you can’t do that!” That was his only income. Not to mention that he loved that cafe.

A look of surprise rolled over his face. “And why not? Aren’t you doing the same thing? Giving up everything, including your own happiness, in order to take care of her?”

I sputtered. “I haven’t given up anything. Besides, she’s my grandmother. She’s my responsibility.”

He gave me a look that rattled me to the core. “Nova, you’re more responsible than any person I know. Who would give up their career to come back to Nome for an ailing relative?”

It felt like I was being chastised and placated at the same time. “I didn’t give up a career. I was a pair of hands and nothing more.”

He snorted.

Eli snorted right along with him.

For a split second, I wondered what sound they’d make if I smacked their heads together.

“My point is, if I want to give up the café, that’s my decision. But just so you know, I haven’t. Someone else is running it for me, like I should have done years ago. I didn’t then because there wasn’t anything else to fill my days. Now, as for you…”

“I feel like I’ve been scolded and sent to my room without dinner,” I told Eli as we hung our jackets up.

“He cares about you. Both of you, come to that,” Eli said, bending down to pull my boots off while I kept one hand on the wall to stay upright.

“I know, but it’s weird. Not in a creepy way, though. I just mean that ever since I came back home, it’s been Noni and me. We saw Stanley long enough to eat at the cafe and chat, and then we were back home. And now…” I lifted my other foot when he took hold of my boot before continuing, “Noni’s living at his house. I’m living here. Everything’s changing.”

When he stood, it hit me. “You just took off my boots for me.”

He toed off his own, smirking. “And now I’m taking off mine. He did have a good idea, though.”

“And what’s that?” I asked.

“I’ve never seen the northern lights. Seems a shame not to be able to take in that phenomenon with the most beautiful girl in Alaska.” His hand cupped the back of my neck, then he leaned in and kissed my forehead as I blushed furiously.

“Are you asking me on a date?”

“Me? I thought you’d have some ideas. I was just throwing it out there,” he said, sidestepping when I went to punch him in the arm.

“Kidding, Nova. Just kidding,” he said, catching my hands in his.