Ginger ran her finger under the phone number on the Montgomery Wilderness Guides advertisement in the Yellow Pages. She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open, quickly dialing the number with the last of her cell phone minutes. On the third ring, someone answered.

“Brock Montgomery,” a gruff masculine voice said on the other end of the line.

“Hi, my name is Ginger Allen. I need someone to take me out into the backcountry to my father’s old hunting lodge. He just passed away, and there’s something out there he wanted me to retrieve. I need to get out there as quickly as possible. Would you be able to help me?”

“I don’t have any other tours scheduled for the next couple of days, so I’m free to take you out there. Meet me out at the Montgomery Lodge in forty-five minutes and we can set up the details. You’re welcome to stay at the Lodge overnight, and we can leave in the morning. Does that work for you?”

“Sure, I’ll meet you out there in forty-five minutes,” she said, having no idea how she was going to make it out to the Montgomery Lodge or how she was going to pay for any of it. Babs Bula seemed to think that Brock was the right guide to take her out to her father’s land and that he would be willing to make a deal with her, so Ginger just kept her budget to herself for the time being. She would find a way out to the lodge somehow, even if she had to walk there.

Brock gave her the address and she quickly wrote it on a paper napkin she still had from her lunch. When she got off the phone with Brock, her heart was making these bubbling sensations she’d only experienced when she had a crush on someone. That had been a very long time ago.

Ever since her father got sick, and she had to leave school and move back to Seattle, Ginger’s life had revolved around taking care of her father. Now that he was gone and she had nothing left, the bubbling feelings in her heart caught her completely off guard.

She looked down at the address on her napkin and had absolutely no idea how to get there. She no longer had any minutes on her phone. Even if she could get Internet reception through her network in Juneau, Alaska, she didn’t have any data left to look it up. She went inside the restaurant, stepped up to the hostess counter, and showed her the napkin.

“Do you have any idea how to get out to the Montgomery Lodge?” Ginger asked.

“Oh yeah, take the main road south out of town for about two miles. Take a left on Montgomery Way, and a mile up the road you’ll find the Montgomery Lodge. You can’t miss it. Just don’t turn off onto any of the other roads along Montgomery Way because that will lead you out to one of the other Montgomery homesteads.”

“Okay, I’ve got it. Thank you,” Ginger said, shoving the napkin into her pocket and turning out the door onto the sidewalk. It was already late afternoon, but the sun was still shining brightly in the western sky. She took a deep breath and let it out, realizing that she was going to have a long three-mile hike ahead of her just to make it out to the lodge. Once she actually hired the wilderness guide, she would have to make the trek all the way up to her father’s homestead. As far as she knew, that was twenty miles through rough terrain. Even though Ginger was completely unequipped to make a journey like that, she had to do it. It was the only way to salvage any of the life she’d once believed she could have.

She began walking down the sidewalk until it disappeared into the shoulder of a two-lane highway leading out of town. Cars zoomed by in either direction, and the sun began to slip lower on the horizon. The chill came back into the air and it cooled the sweat inside Ginger’s thin jacket, making her even colder. She hugged herself tightly, placing one foot in front of the other.

She finally came to a signpost that said Montgomery Way, and took a left up the well-maintained gravel road. Twilight was descending quickly, and the cold was already getting under her skin when a pair of headlights came up quickly behind her.

She turned to see a brand-new pickup truck stopping on the side of the road behind her. The driver’s side door open and a man stepped out in front of the headlights. In the dim light of the setting sun, with the headlights glaring behind him, the man’s body was in silhouette. She could see that he was incredibly tall with broad shoulders and a slim waist. He wore form-fitting jeans that tapered down to heavy boots, and an insulated all-weather jacket that must’ve kept him plenty warm.

As he stepped forward and her eyes adjusted, she could make out the features of his face. He had high cheekbones and a square jaw covered in dark, day-old stubble. Ginger sucked in a breath when his forest green eyes came into focus, and he flicked his tongue over his full, sexy lips.

“What are you doing walking down the road like this?” he asked, inspecting her from head to toe. He leaned forward slightly and sniffed the air, at which point his eyes grew wide and he leaned back again, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head.

“I’m Ginger Allen. You asked me to meet you out here in forty-five minutes. I’m afraid I’m a little bit late.”

“You’re not late. You’re right on time. I’ll give you a ride the rest of the way. Climb in the truck.”

Ginger was so grateful to get out of the cold she didn’t ask any further questions or make any further comment. She just climbed into the passenger side of his truck, put on her seatbelt, and sighed in the warm air from the heater.

Brock drove for the rest of the way to the Montgomery Lodge and parked in front of a big log building that looked like it had been retrofitted and remodeled from a century-year-old cabin. She got out of the car and took in the surroundings in the fading light from the sun.

“Come on inside,” Brock said, trotting up the stairs to the front porch of the lodge. She followed him inside to an entrance hall that was full of comfortable couches and tables and chairs.

“It’s used as a meeting hall and as a hotel for our wilderness guide guests. Would you like a cup of tea?” he asked, pouring himself a cup of hot water from a stainless steel urn. He dipped the teabag into the water and set it on the table where this urn was housed.

“I’d love one,” she said with a sigh as she sat on one of the couches beside a fireplace with a flickering fire inside. He made her a cup of tea and set it on the side table beside her chair, and then sat across from her with his own cup.

“So, Ginger Allen, why did you walk all the way out here? There are plenty of buses and taxis in Juneau that could have brought you to the Lodge.”

“Well, the thing is, I only have two hundred dollars, and I need that to pay for your services.”

“And you intend to go twenty miles out into the backcountry in that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You are ill-equipped to make the journey. Those shoes will be chewing up your feet in no time. I can’t carry you in or out. You’re going to need to be able to make the hike yourself.”

“I can make it. I have to make it. There’s no other choice. Will you take me out there for two hundred dollars?”

“Two hundred dollars is about half my fee for what you’re talking about. But since your father owned land out in the backcountry for so many years, I’ll do it for the two hundred. We take care of our own around here. Where are you planning to stay tonight?”

“I don’t know. I have a sleeping bag in my backpack. I was just going to sleep in the woods.”

Brock shook his head and then looked at her seriously. “Okay, I don’t usually do charity. But I need to get out of town, and your situation is a bit intriguing to me. We’ll get you outfitted from the wilderness supply store here in the lodge, and you can sleep in one of our guest rooms tonight. I’ll do all that for two hundred bucks. Only because you’re the daughter of Frank Allen and want to go out to the Allen hunting cabin. I knew your father when I was a kid. He was good man.”

“Thank you,” she stuttered. “I don’t know how to repay you.” Ginger was cold and exhausted, still hungry even after her lunch. Brock was giving her more than she could have ever expected. A tear broke from the corner of her eye and slid down her face. Brock looked taken aback. His face softened and then his eyes became distant again. 

“You can repay me by not getting yourself killed out in the backcountry. I’ll take you up to your father’s land. You can take care of whatever it is that he needed to take care of up there.  Helping you out is all the payment I need. Aside from the two hundred bucks.”