When Elizabeth woke to find Jack gone, she didn’t like it. She felt a touch of abandonment, softened by the note he’d left, but more than that, she’d missed the chance to tell him what their night together had meant to her.

Growing up, she hadn’t had much of a model of what a good relationship should be. There had been a lot of tit-for-tat behavior between her parents. He did this, so she’d do that. Not a lot of togetherness. No sense of partnership. Not many small kindnesses. Elizabeth often thought that even if her dad hadn’t gone to prison, her parents would probably have divorced at some point.

Elizabeth had dreamt of a relationship where she could indulge in small kindnesses to her heart’s content and have them reciprocated. Until Jack came into her life, she’d always been the giver in relationships. That’s just how it was when you mostly dated losers and jerks. But Jack had been kind to her from the first time they’d met, and his decency had fed her soul.

As she lingered in his bed, cocooned in his soft sheets, she resolved that every moment would be special between them. She’d make sure of it. They’d have proper hellos and goodbyes. A kiss, a warm hug, a stay-safe or a welcome-home. She’d get up early and make Jack breakfast before he went to work. He might rub her feet after a long nursing shift. There would be candles at the dinner table and slow-dancing in the kitchen and love notes left in jacket pockets.

She decided to start that very morning. She’d left her phone at her cabin and was already late to care for Charlene, so although she was in a rush, she made Jack’s bed and then drew a heart on the note he’d left her before going to her cabin and letting Rugby out to do his dog business. She took a quick shower and then headed over to Charlene’s.

It was hard to keep the secret smile off her face, and she caught Charlene looking at her keenly a couple times, but for now, she wanted to keep her night with Jack to herself. She knew Charlene would be ecstatic about it, but her relationship with Jack was like a precious tiny plant that had only begun to grow, and it needed to be sheltered from outside scrutiny.

At three-thirty, Elizabeth left to get ready for her bartending shift, just as Rob Pickens came in from working in the stables.

Unfortunately, her boss at the Sled Dog wasn’t nearly as fun and kind as Charlene Pickens. As soon as she walked in the door, Mark Volkoff shouted at her for being late—“Two minutes,” she snapped back—and then he launched into a complaint about how the vegetable delivery truck hadn’t arrived that day, so they were low on lettuce and onions and entirely out of tomatoes. Big loss, Elizabeth thought. Vegetables in Alaska that time of year were pathetic anyway, and most people knew better than to expect them to be otherwise.

She kept busy—and ignored Mark as best she could—by getting into her rhythm of pouring and cleaning and taking orders, including from a large table of students ordering copious amounts of beer and reindeer dogs. She’d cut back her hours in order to help Charlene and in the process found that three shifts per week were the right amount for her. She hoped to keep it once she started taking classes, although, from the way Mark had put up a fuss about it, she would probably end up working more.

About six o’clock, she felt the buzz of her phone in her back pocket and pulled it out. Smiling, she saw it was a text from Jack. She opened it right away.

Hi. Are you at work?

She texted back, Yep. At the Sled Dog. You want to come by for a drink? On me.

He wrote back right away. Better not. I’m on shift starting early tomorrow morning for forty-eight hours. But I was hoping you’re free on Thursday or Friday for dinner. There’s something I need to talk to you about.

Elizabeth stared at his message, a bit flustered. Dinner was good, but talking … well, in her experience, “I need to talk to you” usually meant a breakup was forthcoming.

But he wouldn’t wait so many days to end their fledgling romance, would he? Plus, she couldn’t imagine that was his intent, not after the night they’d just had. She was working on Thursday and was about to write back that she was free on Friday, but then she remembered she wasn’t.

On Friday afternoon she was flying to Oregon because the next day Nate was getting released from prison. She was going to pick him up and bring him home.

I can’t, she texted. I’m going to be in Oregon for a couple days. My dad is getting released from prison, and I’m flying down to be there when he gets out. But I’d love to have dinner when I get home!

Jack didn’t text back immediately. Elizabeth waited for his reply but eventually had to put her phone away to serve a fresh crop of customers who sat down at the bar. She also chatted with Rebecca Miller, co-owner of the North Star Café, who came in with Colin Schneider, the Sled Dog’s brewmaster, whom she’d met at one of Hayley March’s Singles Night events. Elizabeth was glad to see a couple brought together by her friend, and Colin was a sweet guy.

Elizabeth’s phone buzzed again, and she ducked into a corner to read the text from Jack.

Of course, good luck with your dad. Let’s meet up as soon as you’re back and I’m off work.

It wasn’t the declaration of love Elizabeth had been hoping for, nor did it have the kind of sweet nothings that she wanted to hear from Jack … like the things he’d said to her the night before. She flushed at the memory, feeling pleasant tingles of arousal at the mere thought of how things had been with Jack just hours ago.

The first time of many times.

Elizabeth hoped it was, anyway.

* * *

Three days later, on Saturday, Elizabeth stood beneath an umbrella outside the gate of the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Oregon, the medium-security prison where her father had been residing for the past fifteen years. She’d been there many times before, but she was nervous in a way she’d never been before. That day was different. That day, Nate was walking out a free man.

Emmett, still a new employee at CoCo’s Emporium, had been unable to get the time off to make the trip to welcome their dad back to society. It was just as well; Emmett was now willing to try and rebuild a relationship with Nate, but there had been years of anger, simmering at times and boiling at others, and Emmett had never come to visit like Elizabeth did.

Elizabeth was, in many ways, the only one that Nate had on the outside, and she felt the responsibility acutely. She’d brought along new clothes for him. A new-used parka from the consignment store. A new wallet, filled with a few hundred dollars, comprised of the last couple weeks’ worth of tips, which she’d taken to the bank and exchanged for crisp twenty dollar bills. Back at the house, Emmett and Bruce Barnes had made good progress, and the roof was fixed, the carpets replaced, and the kitchen almost finished with new cabinets and fresh vinyl flooring. Elizabeth had bought all new bedding and even a new mattress for her father, but she was nervous to bring him home to Golden Falls just the same.

The truth was that Nate wasn’t an easy man. He’d had a domineering personality before he went away—he’d loved his children completely, no doubt about it, but his was the voice of authority in the household. You did what daddy said, and she just couldn’t predict how the relationship dynamics between her, Emmett, and Nate would play out once they were all back together in Golden Falls. She hoped he understood they were independent adults who’d had their childhoods ruined because of his criminal behavior. Forgiveness hadn’t come easily for either of them. For all intents and purposes, they’d lost both parents because of Nate’s actions: him to prison, and their mother to booze and boyfriends.

But Nate had paid his debt to society, and Elizabeth hoped more than anything that he’d be able to pick up the pieces of his life.

When she saw him come out of the prison building and walk toward the gate, head down against the rain, her heart surged with anxious excitement. She couldn’t bring herself to run to him, but she walked, and they shared a heartfelt, tear-filled hug.

“Welcome back, Dad!”

“Thanks for being here, honey.” He gripped her tightly and wouldn’t let go. “You have no idea how good this feels. To be free. To see you. To give my daughter a hug without being monitored.”

Nate pulled back so he could look into Elizabeth’s eyes.

“You never stopped loving me,” he said. “You stuck by me this whole time, and I’m so thankful for you. You’re such a beautiful person. It’s nice to know I’ve done one thing right in my life.”

Elizabeth smiled for his sake, but she disagreed that he deserved credit for anything in her life. Whatever she’d become, it was in spite of him, not because of him. Still, she had no intention of saying that.

“Hey, let’s get out of here, huh?” she said, patting his back and then stepping away so he could gather himself. “Our rental car’s right over here.”

“Let me breathe the air first.”

She watched as he faced away from the prison, toward brown-gray fields and the distant tree line, and took big gulping breaths of chilly, drizzle-filled air. The temperature was in the mid-forties, a heat wave as far as Elizabeth was concerned, but she worried about Nate being outside in just a denim shirt. She popped open the trunk and pulled out the parka she’d gotten for him.

“Here, Dad. You probably need this,” she said. “I thought maybe we could go out and grab something for an early dinner. I wasn’t sure what time you’d be ready today, so I’ve already booked us a couple rooms at a hotel outside of Portland for our flight home tomorrow morning. What do you think?”

“That sounds great, honey. It sounds perfect.”

The next few hours went smoothly enough. At Nate’s request, they stopped at a popular chain restaurant he’d always liked, where he ordered nachos for an appetizer, a cheeseburger and fries for dinner, and chocolate cake for dessert. He ate it with pure-heaven enjoyment. It’s the little things, Lizzie, he said several times. Never take the little things for granted.

He’d clearly missed booze, too. He washed his meal down with a couple of draft beers, and then he had a shot of whiskey. His tolerance was nonexistent, and as the alcohol hit him, his mood of gratefulness toward Elizabeth shifted to bitterness for all those he felt had betrayed him.

By the time they arrived at the hotel outside Portland, Elizabeth had a massive tension headache. After she got her father settled in his room, she excused herself to track down some aspirin at the nearest drugstore. Coming back, she found Nate parked at the small hotel bar, using the crisp new bills she’d given him from the new leather wallet she’d also given him, to buy himself a third beer and a shot of Jack Daniels.

She felt more than a little angry.

“This isn’t how you should behave,” she told him. As a bartender, she had little patience for people who got drunk on purpose. “I didn’t give you money so you could spend it on booze. It’s to help you get your life together. To start fresh. Not to drink it away and leave me to babysit your hangover in the morning. I’m going to go up to my room now and get some sleep, and I’d suggest you do the same. It’ll say something if you choose not to.”

As she turned away from him, he grabbed her forearm.

“Elizabeth, please. Stop. I’m sorry.” He stood and picked up his drinks. “Here, I’ll put these back on the bar. But can we sit here and talk? We’ve got a lot of years to make up for, and I want to get to know my daughter again. I promise I’ll only drink water.”

Her heart softened.

“Okay,” she said. “But only if you do really switch to water.” She paused. “And only if you stop bitching about the past. No one wants to hear it, least of all me. You did the crime, and you did your time. Now you’ve got to just let it go.”

“Let it go?” Nate’s eyes flared. “I’m not letting anything go!”

“You have to,” Elizabeth said. “Emmett and I and Bruce Barnes have been fixing up the house, getting it ready to sell. And we found a program down in Anchorage that helps ex-cons get back in the workforce, and Emmett’s going to move down there with you. And—”

Nate’s expression was guarded, not as receptive as Elizabeth would have hoped. “And you?” he said. “What will you do?”

“I’m going back to school to be a nurse,” she said. “My first classes actually start Tuesday. And I’ve taken a job as a caregiver to a woman who just broke her leg, and I’m staying at a rental cabin next door. The cabin is owned by Jack Barnes, actually. Bruce’s son.”

Elizabeth hadn’t intended to mention Jack to her dad, at least not right away, but she found that she couldn’t help bringing him up if only to say his name.

“I remember Jack,” Nate said. “He’d just started on the police force. Isn’t he a little old for you?”

“He’s eleven years older, but no. He’s not too old for me. And we’re not dating. I’m just staying at the cabin on his property while I care for his neighbor. He’s a firefighter now.”

“I see.” Nate’s eyes were cool. “It sounds like you’ve got it all worked out, then. You want to ship the old man off to somewhere so he can’t embarrass you. Get rid of your troublesome brother in the process. Sink your claws into one of the Barnes boys and leave the Armstrong family behind so you can become respectable again.”

“Dad.”

“It’s a good plan,” he said. “And I wish you well, Elizabeth. I really do.”

He took a deliberate sip of his water, and the look in his eyes made her remember back to her childhood. He got that same look whenever someone crossed him. Or made plans for him or decisions on his behalf. Nate Armstrong was as independent as they came. Always had been, always would be.

“I’d welcome a fresh start,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea to sell the house and move to Anchorage. And the good Lord knows I can’t wait to get a job and be useful again.”

“Well, good!” Elizabeth said tentatively, hoping she’d misread his earlier look. “That’s great!”

“There’s just one problem.”

Damn it. She hadn’t misread him.

Nate set his glass on the table and crossed his arms, giving her a familiar, challenging look that, quite frankly, she hadn’t missed at all.

“I’m not going anywhere until I clear my name.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Dad, that’s never going to happen.”

“Yes, it will,” he said. “You wait and see.”