Hayley tidied her small, second-story apartment facing the town square and tried to see it through Josh’s eyes.

It was just a rented one-bedroom, but it was all she needed, and it suited her perfectly. It had remodeled fixtures—and energy-saving insulated windows—but maintained its early-1900’s architectural character. Fresh out of a relationship when she’d moved in, Hayley had wanted a dwelling which reflected the adult she wanted to be.

And it did. Her furniture was comfortable, high quality, and well-chosen. She had silk bedding and a cashmere throw. A bear-skin rug in front of the electric fireplace. Candles, good chocolate, fine wine. The best bath salts and body lotion her paycheck would afford. All paid for on credit, which she’d then paid off by working extra hours and budgeting hard, but it had been well worth it. It was her cozy little nest, and the previous winter she’d spent there had passed pleasantly, which was more than she could say for any of the crappy rundown rentals in which she’d lived as a college student.

There was a small balcony off the living room which had a perfect view of the town square. In a few weeks would be the holiday tree lighting, and the entire square and the rest of downtown beyond it would be decorated with festive lights. During the holiday season, Christmas music played not only in the shops but on Main Street itself, and if the wind blew just right, Hayley could hear it from her balcony.

She stood on the balcony in her new emerald dress and her new metallic heels with the bear-skin rug wrapped around her and thought, not for the first time, how much she loved Golden Falls. She’d come as a messed-up eighteen year-old, and the town had shown her nothing but kindness—Claire, in particular. Through her matchmaking business, she was trying to show it kindness in return. Trying to keep it from succumbing to the fate of many small towns that found their younger people leaving for the big cities. Alaska was demographically challenged to begin with when it came to the male-to-female ratio, and if the pool of available women dried up, the men often left, too, heading down to Anchorage, or even Seattle or Portland, for a better chance at romance.

But where was more romantic than Golden Falls? Where was a better place to fall in love? The men might be Alaska-gruff, but the school system was great. There were good jobs at the hospital and university, and the steady influx of tourists meant the town’s many small businesses thrived. It had an adorable downtown and a forward-thinking city council that refused to get stuck in their ways. Again, much of the credit went to Claire, who was such a positive inspiration.

This is my home, Hayley thought, looking out on the wintry white city park in front of her house. These are my people.

The only thing missing was a special someone with whom to share it.

Get thee to the networking event, she told herself, and reluctantly went back inside. She usually enjoyed these events, but the likelihood of anyone comparing favorably to Josh was low. Surely he had personal flaws—everyone did—but Hayley had yet to see them. His only flaw was his unwillingness to commit. Sadly, at this stage of her life, she couldn’t waste her time on men who wouldn’t commit, no matter how wonderful they otherwise were.

However, spending the night with him wouldn’t be a waste of time.

It would be a night to remember, and she wanted him to remember it, too. Petty though it might be, she wanted Josh to someday regret not pursuing her. She wanted to be the one who got away.

She dug to the back of her lingerie drawer and pulled out a pair of sheer black thigh-highs. They had a seam going up the back and were held up by a lace band. No garter belt, but she paired them with a matching black lace thong. After taking care to line up the back seams, she put her silver heels back on. Then she tried out a few poses, taking selfies with her phone. The one she liked best was taken in the mirror from the side showing just her legs, knees pressed together, left calf and heel forming a sexy, playful little kick. She’d pulled her dress up nearly to her waist, but included a tiny bit of emerald in the picture.

It was flirty and fun, and she’d never known a man who didn’t like thigh-high stockings paired with fuck-me pumps.

She decided to send the photo to Josh. When she uploaded it to their text message thread, she felt herself becoming aroused at the thought of sending him such a racy shot. Her heart pounded with daring.

She wrote, You like?

Then she pressed Send.

Practicality set in, and she took off her heels and put on her five-year-old poofy blue Patagonia parka and clunky Ugg boots. Cold and ice were not friends to the woman trying to be seductive, and Hayley was willing to wear a short dress in the name of attracting a man, but she wasn’t willing to chance slipping on ice on the walk over. Carrying her new heels in one gloved hand, she made her way around the town square feeling more like an Eskimo than a woman on the prowl.

She was so focused on walking without slipping that she didn’t see the front door of the Arctic Skies Bed & Breakfast open.

“Hello!” someone called. “Are you going to the networking mixer? Want to walk together?”

Hayley looked up. It was none other than Shannon Steele, Josh’s ex-girlfriend. They’d exchanged a few quick greetings over the past months as Hayley walked by the B&B several times a day on her way to and from Main Street.

“Of course!” Hayley called back. “I’d love to!”

She had actually been wanting to get acquainted with Shannon, but now knowing Shannon was Josh’s most recent ex-girlfriend, she felt a little weird about it.

Hayley waited on the sidewalk as Shannon came down the steps, similarly carrying a pair of heels and wearing snow boots.

She couldn’t help doing a quick assessment of Shannon’s looks and comparing them to her own. Shannon was slim, bright-eyed, with short black hair styled in a trendy, messy-on-purpose fashion. Her fur-lined Canada Goose parka was classier than Hayley’s old one by far, and Hayley made a mental note to start saving money for a new parka for herself.

“It’s Hayley, right?” Shannon asked.

“Yep. And you’re Shannon.”

Side-by-side they began walking toward the Sled Dog.

“Some friends of mine have been going to your Singles Night,” Shannon said. “I might start going myself, since I’m finally getting over my last relationship.”

Hayley knew Shannon was talking about Josh, but she was too unsettled to mention she not only knew Josh, but planned to have sex with him in a few hours—information which would likely kill Shannon’s friendliness in a heartbeat.

“A rough breakup?” Hayley said because she thought she should.

“Not really,” Shannon said. “I basically picked him up in a bar one night and it wasn’t intended to be anything more than a one-night stand, but—” she sighed. “I was vulnerable—my mom had recently died and I’d just moved back to town, and he was a good listener and a lot of fun when we’d all go out. He’s a firefighter and so’s my brother, so they usually hang out in a big group, which is always a blast.. Being with him, I got a whole new set of friends—which I kind of needed at the time.”

“There were a bunch of firefighters at the last Singles Night,” Hayley said, looking for a way to slip in that she knew the man in question. “And you’re right, they do know how to have a good time. Do you mind if I ask which one it is?”

“Josh Barnes,” Shannon said. “You know him?”

“I do,” she said, thinking of their time in the booth at Shackleton’s earlier that day and the through-the-clothes stroking she’d teased him with. Did she know him? Yes, although not as much as she wanted to. Not carnally … not yet. “He was at Singles Night, although I remember he said he wasn’t looking for a relationship.”

“I can attest to that,” Shannon said.

“But you’re okay now?” Hayley asked.

“I am!” Shannon said. “I’m hoping to meet someone tonight, actually.”

“Hey, so am I!”

“Shoot,” Shannon said. “What if we like the same guy?”

If you only knew, Hayley thought.

Just then, she felt the vibrating buzz of her phone through her clutch purse, indicating an incoming text. She hoped it was from Josh. Her heart quickened at the thought of him sending a sexy photo in return. She’d already seen much of his body—Thank you, Mr. December!—but she couldn’t wait to see more.

“If we like the same man, then I guess we’ll just have to take turns,” she said to Shannon with a grin.

But she had dibs on Josh, for that night, anyway.

* * *

As Hayley and Shannon crossed Main Street, Hayley mentioned she knew Cassie, and they talked about how the three of them should have a girls’ night out.

“Let’s go straight for the bar,” Shannon said when they arrived at the Sled Dog.

“Excellent idea,” Hayley said.

They spent a few minutes removing their coats and boots and putting on their high heels. Shannon whistled when she saw the emerald green dress.

“Damn! That’s a hot dress. You look great.”

“Thanks,” Hayley said. “You look pretty hot yourself.”

It was true. Shannon’s black pantsuit was belted to show off her thin waist, and she wore heels as high as Hayley’s four-inch ones.

“Do you have a lipstick I could borrow?” Shannon said. “I forgot to put some on.”

“I do.”

Hayley pulled out her lipstick tube of a mauve shade and handed it to Shannon. While her purse was open, she couldn’t resist checking her phone to see if Josh had been the one to text her during the walk over.

He had.

She lifted out her phone and surreptitiously shifted so Shannon couldn’t see her screen, even though Shannon was focused on applying the lipstick in the wall-length mirror of the arctic entry.

When Hayley opened his text, first she saw the photo she’d sent him. Then his words, I do like. I can’t wait to remove those stockings later.

“What are you grinning at?” Shannon asked, seeing Hayley’s expression in the mirror.

“Nothing.”

“It looks like a naughty grin.”

Hayley kept smiling, but said nothing.

The stockings and heels stay on, she texted back, and then tucked her phone back in her purse. It was turned to silent but would vibrate if he texted back.

Shannon handed back the lipstick. “Thanks! Ready for our grand entrance?”

“Definitely.”

Ordinarily, she would have felt a slight dread at the idea of having to mingle and trying to attract a man knowing full well it might amount to nothing, but Josh’s text had excited her. It gave her confidence, like she could seduce any man in the room.

As Hayley crossed the main part of the bar to get to the private room where the mixer was being held, she basked in the attention she got. She’d wanted every head to turn, and heads were turning. Granted, some of the glances might have been for Shannon, but still, she saw plenty of admiring smiles directed at her.

As planned, she and Shannon went straight to the bar, and not fifteen seconds passed before a pair of men approached and offered to buy their drinks. This might happen all the time to Shannon—she seemed like that type of girl— but it seldom happened to Hayley. In fact, with the exception of the drink Josh had bought her at the previous week’s Singles Night, a man hadn’t bought her a drink in the year since her breakup.

What was wrong with the men in this town?

What was wrong with her?

Sexiness really was a state of mind, she realized, one she hadn’t been in until Josh came along and made her feel it again.

She’d have to thank him properly.

She felt the buzz of her phone and decided to hold off checking it as long as she could. Josh would have to wait while she was busy flirting with other, potentially more available, men.

“I’d love a drink, thanks,” she said smoothly, as if it was an everyday offer. She turned to Mark Volkoff, who was tending bar. “I’ll have a Rob Roy, please, Mark.”

“You clean up good, Hayley.” Mark gave her a once-over, then eyeballed Shannon. “Who’s your friend and what’s she having?”

“Her name’s Shannon,” she told Mark, then tapped her on the arm. “Shannon, what do you want to drink?”

“A whiskey neat, please,” Shannon said. “Hayley, these two guys are military contractors out of Seattle.”

“Colin,” said the shorter of the two, offering Hayley his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Bobby,” said the other. He held her hand a beat too long, trying, Hayley suspected, to show he was interested. “Wow. Killer dress.”

“Thanks.” She smiled in a way she hoped conveyed a friendly disinterest in anything further. She wasn’t sure if Shannon was after a hookup, but she wasn’t interested in men who were merely passing through town on business, and so she chatted with them for a few minutes as she sipped her Rob Roy and excused herself as soon as she could, stepping away to a corner of the bar. She retrieved her phone from her handbag, her heart fluttering when she saw Josh’s name on her screen.

Stockings & heels can stay on. Your wish is my command.

Hayley looked around the room, feeling that new prowess. She wanted to use it to her advantage. Was there anyone toward whom she could direct her lustful energy?

Most of the people in the room were familiar to her. In a small city like Golden Falls, social circles tended to be compact, especially in the business world. She tried to look at some of the men she knew to be single in a new light, but when her eyes landed on a man she’d never seen before, she decided he was the one she wanted to meet.

But first, she had to send a text back to Josh.

She studied the stranger as she tried to think up a clever, flirtatious reply. The stranger was tall, as tall as Josh, and clean-shaven with dark hair. He was lean like Josh, too, only not as strong-looking. He wore black-framed glasses and was nerdy in a handsome way. Not nerdy, exactly, but more coffee house writer than firefighter extraordinaire. She liked what he was wearing—nice jeans, black loafers, a black t-shirt, and a brown blazer. She especially liked his expensive-looking belt.

Smiling to herself, she typed a response to Josh.

Can you feel my fingers tugging on your belt in my haste to get you naked?

She sent it and waited, hoping for a fast reply. She was not disappointed.

Cannot wait. Text me your address before you leave and I’ll be there when you get home.

The stranger across the room caught her eye and smiled. He raised his glass in a greeting, and Hayley, who’d finished her drink and set her glass on the bar, gave him a little wave.

I won’t make you wait too long, she texted Josh, followed by her address, and put her phone away.

The man started toward her.

Before they could connect, he was stopped by Misty Rhodes, a friendly middle-aged realtor. Hayley continued with her approach, but she, too, was stopped and waved over by Claire, who was standing with a small group near a window.

Hayley sidled up to Claire and slid an arm around her waist, squeezing her to say hello. She knew everyone in the group—there was Charlie Parker, who owned a flightseeing tour company called Northern Flights; Alice Abbott, editor of The Golden Falls Gazette; Steve Kopacik, news director at KFLS; and Gail Fleming, the feisty eighty-year-old owner of Gail’s Bride and Tux, Gail Fleming.

They were discussing suspected political shenanigans involving that year’s annual Permanent Fund Dividend Payment to residents of Alaska, which had been paid out the previous month. Hayley had heard it all before. She sipped her drink and let her gaze wander.

The good-looking stranger’s gaze was wandering, too, and Hayley smiled at him.

“What did you spend your PFD money on, Hayley?” Charlie asked her.

“This dress, for one thing,” Hayley said.

“A wise investment,” Charlie said, admiring it. “Are you going out dancing after this?”

“I wish,” she said.

“I’ll take you,” he said. “I haven’t gone dancing in years.”

“I’m going to hold a line dancing event soon with my singles group,” she told him. “You should come.”

“Line dancing. Pfft.” He did a little parody of it but then said, “Tell me about this singles group. Are there any gals my age?”

Hayley told him a little about it, and Charlie vaguely promised to attend an event at some point. At the next opportunity, Hayley excused herself and took Claire with her. They walked away slowly, heads huddled together, Hayley’s arm still around Claire’s waist.

“So explain this magnificent dress,” Claire said.

Hayley smiled. “It’s been pointed out to me by friends that I dress too old for my age if I have any wish to pick up a man, so I went shopping with a guy friend of mine and he helped me pick out a few things, this being one of them.”

“Well, your friend has an eye for what suits you,” Claire said, taking a seat at an empty table. “And I’m thrilled to hear you’re interested in dating again. I never like to ask, as I’ve always hated people asking it of me, as if there’s something wrong with being single. But there is a young man I’ve had my eye on for you, and he’s here tonight if you’d like me to introduce you.”

“Oh, yeah? Make me a match, Claire!”

Claire scanned the room until her eyes landed on Misty Rhodes and the man with her. Clyde Harrison, who wrote a gossip column called the Grapevine for the newspaper, had joined them.

“There he is,” she said. “With Clyde and Misty.”

“I’m intrigued,” Hayley said, pleased that it was the same guy she’d noticed before. “Who is he and what’s his story?”

“His name is Evan Taylor, and he’s the new manager over at the Moondance.”

Hayley perked up. The Moondance Theater was the town’s indie movie theater and also served as the largest music venue in the area. Claire had been part of an effort a few years back to raise the funds to restore the theater to its former glory, a project which had been completed a few months back.

“The board brought him up from Seattle,” Claire said. “He’ll also be teaching film studies as an adjunct at the university starting next semester.”

“And he’s single?”

“And he’s single,” Claire said.

Hayley’s smile broadened. “How long has he been in town?”

“He arrived last week.”

Hayley studied him. She liked how animated he was as he talked to Misty and Clyde. His demeanor was outgoing and he looked interested in their conversation and interested in life in general. But he was a newcomer, which could be a problem. So many newcomers couldn’t handle Alaska’s short days and long, dark winters. Few locals took them seriously until they’d spent a full year in Alaska, experiencing all its seasons, because people tended to either love it and stay forever, or hate it and leave within their first year.

“Do you think he’ll last until spring?” she asked.

Claire squeezed her hand. “There’s no guarantee when it comes to love, Hayley. Sometimes you’ve got to leap and pray the net appears.”

“Will you introduce me?” she said.

“I thought you’d never ask!”

Hayley felt her phone vibrating in her purse, her next text from Josh, but she ignored it and instead let herself be introduced to Evan Taylor. As she went to him, she focused on lifting her chest and swaying her hips, trying her best to make him think of her in a certain wanting way.

From the wide smile that crossed Evan’s face as she approached, Hayley was pretty sure she’d succeeded.