The next day, Elizabeth sat in April’s borrowed car with a pan of warm-out-of-the-oven Butterfinger cookie dough cheesecake brownies on her lap, trying to summon the courage to deliver them. She was parked on the street next to a fresh-plowed snowbank, debating whether to make the turn into Jack’s driveway. It was the last moment she could decide whether to go back into town and get on with her life or to take Sean Kelly’s advice and try to win Jack’s heart with her delectable dessert.

The previous night after hockey practice, Elizabeth had gone to work at the Sled Dog and made sure to have a long chat with Hayley March. It had been Singles Night, and Hayley always came early enough to visit with Elizabeth before kicking off her matchmaker hosting duties. Because Hayley was dating Josh Barnes, Jack’s younger brother, Elizabeth probed her for information about Jack. She learned that while Hayley thought Jack was a great guy, he had some mysterious rift with his father and had barely spoken to him in years.

Elizabeth had been surprised to learn there was bad blood between them because her impression of both Jack and Bruce was that they were unfailingly decent men. A tiny, shameful part of her was glad to hear of the rift because it meant the Barnes family wasn’t perfect.

Coming from the most imperfect of families herself, she always felt a bit awkward around happy, loving families. Even when her family had still been together, things hadn’t been great. Her parents fought often and loudly, and reasonable disagreements were not something she’d often seen. As a result, she frequently found herself cringing when discussions got prickly because she expected explosions similar to what had occurred in her own family. To that day, she was amazed when disagreements smoothed themselves out, when life went on without a mean word or raised voice. Happy families didn’t seem real—even as she wanted desperately to be part of one.

As she sat in the car, Elizabeth found herself shaking from nerves. She could see Jack’s house from the road, and it was intimidating. She’d expected it to be like Chris and April’s—middle-class modest of the sort a police officer or firefighter typically owned. But his home and property were substantial and seemed to contain a small business, too. A hand-carved wooden sign dangled from a post at the front of the driveway welcoming guests to the Caribou Vacation Cabins.

The main house was a large modified A-frame style, definitely of the log-cabin luxury sort. Set somewhat close to the road, it made a commanding sight, especially when she looked at the older home next door, which was part of Pickens Stables. Jack’s was the last house on the road, and the property’s long line of pine trees provided the land behind with a sight buffer from the road and had clearly been planted to do so. Beautiful though the trees were, they just proved how established he was in comparison to her. He’d been living here long enough to plant the trees and for them to grow tall.

Jack was definitely out of her league, and she was embarrassed anew that he’d seen her dilapidated house.

“He’s a Barnes, and you’re an Armstrong,” she lectured herself aloud. “It’s never going to happen between you, so just take him the stupid brownies and thank him for being so kind when he could easily have been cruel.”

She pulled the car into the driveway, knuckles gripping the steering wheel, determined to go through with her gesture and be done.

* * *

The previous night, Jack had dreamt of Elizabeth.

In the dream, snow had been falling. The northern lights glowed behind her, purple and blue, and stars sprinkled the sky. She stood alone on the highway in the vastness of the world, and unlike the night of the accident, there was no crippled SUV in the ditch and no firefighters to the rescue and no deception in her eyes.

It was just Elizabeth, and she looked different—softer, older somehow, maybe a future version of herself, and he sensed she was someone essential to him. In the dream, she looked up at the northern lights and said, “Take me home, Jack.”

He’d woken with a start, both touched and terrified, and when he turned over in bed to find an empty expanse of cold sheets, he felt a peculiar sadness. Like he’d been expecting Elizabeth to be there beside him.

But why would she be there?

His family’s secret had destroyed her family, broken it apart.

He’d stayed silent on something that was impossible to forgive, and Elizabeth had no idea.

* * *

Elizabeth applied fresh lipstick, fluffed her hair, and got out of April’s car. After a few deep breaths, she went to Jack’s front door, noting the tidy salted walkway, and rang the doorbell.

Here goes nothing, she thought wanting to turn right back around. But then she remembered Sean’s borrowed Wayne Gretzky truism about missing one hundred percent of the shots you didn’t take, and she rang the bell again.

As it chimed throughout the house, Elizabeth fidgeted from one foot to the other, gripping the foil-covered plate of brownie bars with both hands. The front door held a large pane of glass, and the door on the other side of the arctic entry was open enough to see that the entire back side of the house had a massive ceiling-to-floor window that gave a sweeping view of the woods beyond.

When no one came to the door, she rang it a second time. It was two o’clock, sunny and bright-ish outside with another hour of daylight remaining, and it looked to her that Jack should be home because parked in front of the garage was a big red pickup truck with a fire department decal, along with a smaller white pickup next to it.

Finally, she saw movement, and then a woman crossed by carrying a pile of folded towels.

Elizabeth gasped. The woman was youngish, with a head of long brown hair that fell in waves down her back. It was the kind of hair you remembered, and Elizabeth did, trying to place her. Did she frequent the bar? Work somewhere Elizabeth shopped? The woman wore earbuds that connected to a device in the back pocket of her jeans, and just as Elizabeth decided it had all been a mistake and she should leave, the woman caught sight of her and startled, stopping in her tracks and nearly dropping the towels. Then, smiling sheepishly, she came to open the door.

“Have you been ringing the bell?” she said. “I’m so sorry. I had my headphones in. You must be freezing. Please, come in out of the cold. Is Jack expecting you?”

“No, no, he’s not,” Elizabeth said quickly. She wouldn’t have gone inside except the woman beckoned her. “He helped me the other day, and I just wanted to drop these off as a little thank you. Sean Kelly gave me the address.”

“I know you,” the woman said. “You’re Emmett Armstrong’s little sister, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m Elizabeth.”

“Emmett and I used to work together at The Greasy Spoon. Come on through to the kitchen. You can put those on the counter. I’m Kristy, by the way. Kristy Barrow. ”

Kirsty Barrow, right. Emmett had always been infatuated with her, but she’d been dating someone back then. Was she seeing Jack now? Elizabeth’s heart cratered at the realization that Jack might have lied to her about being single.

“Are you Jack’s—?”

Wife?

Girlfriend?

“Cabin keeper,” Kristy said, and then smiled, probably at the relief that must have crossed Elizabeth’s face. “I run the cabin rentals and do the housekeeping in the tourist season. This winter, I’m also managing interior renovations and upgrades. Which includes new towels!”

So that explained the large property. Like a lot of Alaskans, Jack must have a side business during the tourist season. Elizabeth wondered how he’d gotten started doing that, and her admiration—and sense of intimidation—rose still higher.

“How’s your brother?” Kristy asked. “You know, I always had a little bit of a crush on him. How he stepped up when your family fell apart? That was hot.”

Elizabeth laughed. Of all the ways she’d describe Emmett’s actions—dutiful, mature—Kristy’s description would have never occurred to her, not in a million years. Then again, she was his sister, and sisters didn’t generally think of their brothers in such terms.

“Emmett’s doing pretty good,” she said, not because it was true but because she didn’t want to give Kristy a bad impression. “He works at CoCo’s now. He’s trying to get into their management training program.”

That wasn’t true, either. Elizabeth was trying to get him into the management training program, but thus far the manager had told her in no uncertain terms that Emmett wasn’t a good candidate. That, in fact, he was hanging on to his entry-level job by a thread.

“I always thought he’d head down to California,” Kristy said. “He talked about it all the time.”

“Nope. He’s still here.”

Elizabeth said it cheerfully, although the reminder made her feel bad for Emmett. He’d fallen in love with the idea of California from watching Baywatch as a young teenager. But he’d committed to staying in Golden Falls until she graduated from high school, and by then Elizabeth thought his dreams and ambitions had been buried for so long it was as if he’d forgotten all about them.

The open kitchen was to the left of the entry, and Elizabeth set the plate of sweets on the large kitchen island, admiring the classic pale granite countertop as she did. The island was long enough for five bar stools. Her own cramped kitchen had only about three feet of counter space, and while she often watched cooking shows and yearned to develop her skills as a baker, her kitchen just didn’t lend itself to it.

If I had a kitchen like this, I’d bake all the time, she thought.

“So Jack’s out horseback riding right now, but he should be back any minute.” Kristy studied Elizabeth with a gleam in her eye. “Have a cup of tea with me while you wait for him.”

“Oh, I don’t need to wait.”

“Sure you do. Plus, I’m ready for a break. Is Earl Grey okay?”

“Sure,” Elizabeth said, grateful for Kristy’s efforts. Now that she’d worked herself up to see Jack, she did want to stick around until he returned.

She climbed onto one of the stools Kristy gestured to and spun around to take in more of the house, equally drawn to the floor-to-ceiling windows that gave the snowy outdoors a scenic, winter wonderland impression and to the massive stone fireplace that had a roaring fire going. Both practically beckoned Elizabeth over.

“This house is really something,” she said.

“Isn’t it? Jack built it himself.”

“No way.”

“Yep, and he built all the cabins out back himself, too. He’s a pretty handy guy.”

“I’ll say,” Elizabeth said. “How many cabins are there?”

“Five. Jack built the first and lived in it while he built the second, then started renting it out to pay for the third, and so on.”

“How long have you worked for him?”

“A little over two years,” Kristy said. “It’s great because I still have plenty of time to work another job—this time of year, the cabins almost never get rented—plus I’m finishing up community college to transfer to the university in the fall. I’m an older student, but better late than never, right?”

“For sure,” Elizabeth said. “I always wanted to be a nurse, but …”

“But what?”

She shrugged. “Life.”

“Oh, look! There’s Jack.”

Kristy gestured toward the windows in time for Elizabeth to see Jack riding in from the woods on a horse, holding the reins with one hand, wearing insulated snow gear but still looking like a wintery Marlboro Man with a felt wool cowboy hat. The sight of him gave Elizabeth a surging warmth in her body, a sense of his refined-yet-rugged manner, and it made her think of what he’d be like in bed. A good horseman was commanding. Assured. Intuitive. All those qualities were great for a lover to have.

She thought about running her hands across his broad shoulders and about gripping his trim torso, pulling his hips to hers. He would have chest hair, she felt sure, and a tantalizing trail down his abdomen.

“Girl, you’re drooling,” Kristy said.

Elizabeth laughed, embarrassed. “What can I say? The man looks good on a horse.”

“Why don’t you go meet him at the barn?” Kristy said.

“You don’t think I’d be interrupting?”

“That man needs a little interrupting.”

Elizabeth didn’t need any more convincing. She climbed back into her winter coat and boots. “Can you point me to the barn?”

“Sure.” Kristy led her to the back door and pointed to the big barn on the property next door. “There’s a trail. He keeps his horse at Pickens Stables because with the shifts he works as a firefighter, it’d be too hard for him to take care of it himself.”

“Makes sense.” Elizabeth summoned her courage. “Thanks, Kristy.”

“Sure thing! Tell Emmett I said hi.”

Since it hadn’t snowed in a couple of days, Elizabeth had a well-stomped path from the house to the stable, which was a distance of roughly three hundred yards. Jack had dismounted from his horse and was talking with a middle-aged woman outside the weathered barn. They turned to watch her, and she felt very conspicuous as she trudged her way over.

When Jack recognized her, an expression crossed his face that Elizabeth knew she’d never forget. It was one of surprise and gladness. Maybe even elation, and there was yearning, too. As if his heart was tethered to hers and seeing her was like a homecoming of the heart.

She knew at that moment—absolutely knew, felt it in the very core of her being—that she and Jack would become lovers. And more than that, she knew they’d fall in love, and that it would be a great and everlasting love.

This is the man I’m going to marry, she thought. And it’s going to be a good marriage and a great love.

She knew it like she’d never known anything else in her life before. She felt it all the way across the distance between them.

Jack smiled at her, and it was like his whole heart was in his smile. He waved, and as his love raced toward her, she gave him a big return wave of joy. At that exact moment, the pure force of his love crashed into her like a wave on an ocean shore, and it knocked her to the ground.

Others would say Elizabeth slipped on a hardened patch of slick snow and fell flat and ungracefully on her ass, but she knew what had really happened. Lying back in the snow, she looked up at the pale winter sky and started laughing. It was a message from the universe: Yes, Elizabeth, you’ll get your great love, but don’t think for a minute it’s going to be easy.

As if she didn’t already know that. As if anything in her life had ever come easy. At this point, she wouldn’t trust it if it did.

Silly universe. She didn’t need it to be easy.

She just needed love.

Jack’s love.