“You are the world’s biggest idiot,” Sean told Cody. “You had a verifiable sex goddess who wanted you—you!—and you dumped her? Idiot.”

They were at the home of Jack Barnes, who was hosting a Station One A-shift get-together, something he did regularly. His A-frame log house was large, with unique octagonal elements in certain areas like the kitchen and the great room. A massive river-rock fireplace was the focal point of the great room, and the large back deck, in full use that day, had a hot tub, a grill, and a built-in bar. Jack’s was the go-to place for big gatherings of firefighters and their families.

In fact, the place must have been built with a family in mind, although Jack was single. He and Tom Steele, his counterpart on the ladder crew, embarked together on extended international travels at least once year, choosing to have intense vacation flings with female fellow travelers, which left them single by choice the rest of the time.

Sean and Cody were in the back yard with intentions of tossing a football around. However, when Cody told him what had transpired with Cassie the previous day, Sean dropped the football and began to lecture him about the error of his ways.

And now Josh Barnes joined in, clamoring down the stairs of the deck and catching up with them.

“Idiot,” he echoed Sean’s insult and then looked at Sean. “Why is he an idiot?”

“Because Cassie Holt, the hot TV reporter, wants him. And he dumped her. He didn’t even have sex with her first.”

“What’s wrong with you, man?” Josh said. “Have you lost your friggin’ mind?”

“She’s a Cheechako,” Cody said, feeling defensive. He was already questioning his decision, and the guys weren’t helping. “She’s not gonna stick around.”

“All the better!” Josh said. “She leaves; it’s over; clean break. Sex while it lasts.”

“That’s not me,” Cody said. He bent and picked up a large stick, throwing it so the numerous dogs on site, including his own, would have something to chase. Timber won this round and came trotting proudly back to Cody, stick-in-mouth.

“Winter’ll be here before you know it,” Josh said. “Those nights can be awful long without a woman in your bed.”

Josh was a serial monogamist. He liked short, intense relationships, but he wasn’t looking for love. Women were a hobby to him, and they fell far below his other, all-consuming hobby of racing sled dogs.

But Cody didn’t want just any woman in his bed. He wanted Cassie.

It scared him how much he wanted her.

When they’d kissed at the fire station, electricity had shot down his spine as if every nerve ending was on fire. He felt a primal connection to her, a primal longing, yet he hardly knew her.

That didn’t stop him from fantasizing. Sexually, of course, but that wasn’t what had frightened him. The fantasies that scared him were the love-and-marriage kind. He’d been working around the cabin like he always did, chopping wood to prepare for the coming winter, and every stroke of the ax had him pretending she was there watching him, wanting him. And then it veered into the ridiculous, in which it was her cabin, too—they were together, married—and she went into the cabin and brought him a cold beer and one for herself, which they drank as they sat on the back porch and watched the dogs play.

He even imagined a couple of little kids running around with the dogs, covered in mud and laughing. He imagined Cassie watching the scene, delighted, mock-annoyed at the mess, and then hosing the kids down before they were allowed inside.

He knew then he needed to end things before they went any further. Cassie Holt wasn’t the type to get her manicured hands dirty out in the boonies with him. He thought maybe he’d been lonelier than he realized and that maybe it was time to take Sean up on his invitation to head down to Anchorage for a weekend of wild women. Maybe he was too pent-up.

And yes, as Sean and Josh suggested, he probably could have had a fling with Cassie before ending things, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to separate sex from emotion where she was concerned. Josh could, Sean could—but he couldn’t and didn’t really want to.

But several beers later, at Sean and Josh’s coaxing, it seemed like a good idea to text her anyway. The combined force of their insistence and the loosening of inhibitions made it all that much easier to press “send.”

Confession—I don’t want to be just friends, he wrote.

A few minutes later, Cassie wrote back. Confession—me neither.

I want YOU, he replied.

There was no immediate response. He put his phone in his pocket, hyper alert to its vibration, but it stayed silent and still. He wondered if he’d misinterpreted everything, if his original just-friends rationale had made sense to her, too. That she’d already moved on to some other guy in town, maybe that too-smiley male co-anchor of hers. Cody clenched his fists just thinking about it.

He regretted sending the texts. It couldn’t end well.

He decided another beer was a good idea. He walked across the deck to the huge cooler, fished out a bottle, and popped it with his belt buckle. He found Sean talking fly fishing to a firefighter from another shift and joined the conversation without much enthusiasm. It made him remember his day fishing with Cassie.

Feeling stupid, he brought out his phone again and checked it. No messages. He opened the thread with Cassie and saw his own last reply, hanging there, all alone.

I want YOU.

Just as he was about to put it away as a lost cause, a new message popped up. Cassie wrote, Then let’s not waste any more time.

* * *

A few days later, they met at the Sled Dog Brewery for the beer and reindeer dogs they’d rain-checked after their fire-building lesson. Cody arrived early to secure a table on the heated patio overlooking the Nanook River.

While he waited for Cassie he passed the time nursing a beer at the bar, chatting with Elizabeth Armstrong, the bartender who pretty much ran the place. She had some kind of baggage, Cody had heard, something awful her father had done, but he’d never paid attention to the talk. He knew full well parents could mess you up, even when they didn’t want to, and anyway he was the type to judge people on their own merits, not what their parents were like.

It was early, and the brewery wasn’t busy. Cassie arrived on time, looking alluring in high heels, black skinny jeans, and a sexy off-the-shoulder top. When she smiled at him, Cody felt like the luckiest man in Alaska.

He stood, leaving his beer on the counter, and met her halfway. He’d been thinking of this moment ever since they made their plans—what he’d say, what he’d do.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He could literally hear his heartbeat as it pounded with pleasure at how good she felt in his arms.

“Fuck the friend zone,” he said.

She nuzzled her nose against his and giggled.

He took both of her hands in his own and grazed his thumbs across the softness of her bare knuckles. Then he kissed her gently, savoring the sweet softness of her generous lips for just a moment longer than was appropriate for a public space. This is a woman I could love, he thought.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

Her face was flushed, and her smile was open and inviting, beaming promises of more to come. Cody was already getting hard from one kiss … although he expected that with Cassie, the anticipation would be half the fun.

“I got us a table on the patio,” he said. “It’s a little more private out there.”

She waited while he went to the bar and picked up his beer.

“We’re moving to a table on the patio,” he told Elizabeth. “Can we get service out there?”

“We’re down a waitress, but I’ll take care of you.” She gave him a knowing wink. “Getting it on with the new reporter, huh? Good for you, Cody. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in here with a date.”

“A guy needs to grow up sometime,” he said.

“Amen to that.”

Cody led Cassie to where he’d draped his jacket, a cozy table in the corner beneath an overhead space heater, with a good view of the river. The daytime temperature had been in the high sixties, but it was now in the mid-fifties and falling fast. Cody was prepared, dressing in layers that included a T-shirt and a flannel shirt left open; he still considered this weather relatively balmy. Cassie, on the other hand, had only a light fashion sweater to wear over her off-the-shoulder top, but she kept it in her lap.

“No dogs tonight?” she asked.

“No, I left the ragamuffins at home. This place is really dog-friendly, though. They’re always welcome on the patio.”

“They should be, given the name! So what’s good here to drink?”

“Let me guess—you’re more of a fancy girly cocktail drinker?”

“I am,” she said. “But when in a brewery, I’m happy to drink beer.”

“Good, because it’s excellent craft brew and has funny names.”

When Elizabeth came around, Cody ordered them each a beer flight to start, and two cups of salmon chowder.

“Does that sound okay by you?” he asked Cassie, who assured him she loved all food.

The beer flights came out first, along with a loaf of fresh Dutch oven bread.

“Start with the one on the left,” Cody said. “It’s the lightest, Balto’s Lager.”

“These are so cute,” Cassie said.

He’d never thought of the beer flights as being cute before. There were five miniature beer glasses nestled in a long, varnished natural wood piece.

Cassie took a sip of the Balto’s Lager. Cody waited for her to make a face, but she didn’t.

“I think …” She tilted her head in an adorable way and gazed at a point above him. “I think I like it? I mean, it tastes like beer, but it’s not really strong.”

“Keep drinking. The more you drink, the more you like it.”

When their salmon chowder arrived, Cody ordered them each a reindeer dog for the next course and said they’d finish up with the lingonberry Akutaq.

“I’ve never heard of whatever it was you just said,” Cassie said after Elizabeth left.

She was already onto the Anna’s Amber, which was named after Anna the sled dog, a litter runt who became the dog leader of the team pulling the first woman to cross the Arctic solo.

“Akutaq is Eskimo ice cream. Berries, sugar, and …” Cody debated whether to tell her the other ingredients were fish and caribou fat and decided to wait until after she ate it. “And a few other delicious things.”

“Excellent.” She looked at him. “I’m so glad you texted me the other day.”

“I’m glad, too.”

“What made you change your mind?”

The booze. The buddies.

“I’m trying to live more in the moment,” he said. “And yeah, we don’t have a future, but that doesn’t mean the present has to suck—which it would if we were just friends when we both want something more.”

“Hear, hear.” Cassie raised her glass. “To living in the moment.”

“Is that your philosophy?”

“To tell you the truth, not really. I’ve always been more of a planner type. People say ambition is a flaw, but I’ll admit to being ambitious.” She sighed. “But sometimes life doesn’t go according to plan. So now I’m trying to accept where I am, take it as it comes, and not dwell on … negative things.”

That surprised him.

“I would never have thought you were the type to dwell on negative things.”

“You think I’m all sunshine and roses?” She shrugged, which drew Cody’s attention to her bare shoulders.

“I think you have the sexiest shoulders I’ve ever seen. I like that no-shoulder top thing.”

“Which is funny, because I’m getting cold.”

“Well, your flimsy little sweater isn’t going to cut it,” Cody said, standing and placing his own softshell jacket around her. As much as he’d liked seeing her bare skin, he discovered he wanted more for her to be warm and comfortable. Taken care of.

“So where do you think you’ll move to next?” he asked as he sat back down.

“I’m not even thinking about it,” she said. “I’m living in the now, just like you.”

“But you like Alaska so far?”

“I do,” she said. “I’m surprised by how much I like it, actually. This is going to sound snobbish, but coming from New York City, you’re really brought up to believe it’s the center of the universe and the only place that matters. But I’m loving the slower pace. And the quiet—I don’t think I’ve heard a car horn the entire time I’ve been here, when it’s all you hear all day long in the city. I like how when you pass people on the street or encounter them in stores, they actually look you in the eye and say hello. It’s amazing!”

“New York City sounds awful,” Cody said, laughing. “What do you miss?”

“Abby,” Cassie said immediately. “My best friend and former roommate. She makes me laugh and keeps me sane.”

She went on, describing their friendship, and Cody could tell how much Abby meant to her.

“What else do you miss?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She sounded surprised. “Maybe because everything is so new here, and I’m getting so much experience at work … and spending time with you … I have yet to be bored. I thought I would be, but I’m not. Even at night, when in the city I’d usually go out dancing or to a concert or whatever, here I’ve been watching documentaries, which I love. Oh, and I even started reading one of those books you said you liked.”

“Oh, yeah?” Cody was pleased, and touched. “Which one?”

“Alaska by Michener. The one you said was your favorite.” She smiled at him. “Anyway, I’m not bored at all. Golden Falls is perfect for right now.”

You’re perfect right now, Cody thought.

“I have to say it’s nice to hear you say that.” He raised his glass to acknowledge it with a mini-toast. “To be honest, I’d pegged you as a city girl, one hundred percent, who’d be homesick by now for sushi and nightclubs and shopping and whatever else it is people do in cities.”

“You’re not wrong,” Cassie said, clinking glasses with him. “I am a city girl. And I do miss those things, sure. Just not as much as I thought I would. And hey, Golden Falls has a sushi restaurant!”

“Yes, it does.”

“You don’t think you’ll ever want to leave Alaska?” she said. “I suppose you’ll stay a firefighter and when you retire … move out to the wilderness again?”

Her green eyes were wide, curious, searching. He could get lost in them. The way she was looking at him made him want to confess all his thoughts, his dreams, his desires—especially his desire for her, which was alarming how it occupied his mind. At least eighty percent of the thoughts running through his head were a low, simmering contemplation of the things he wanted to do to her when she was naked.

But Cody thought carefully about his answer to her question. She seemed to be testing his waters, seeing how invested he was in his home state. And the true answer was very.

“I love Alaska,” he said. “I love being a firefighter here. I love the people and the culture and most of all the land, the wilderness. If I’m single when I retire, I’m sure I’ll go and build a cabin somewhere with no one around.” He paused and took a long sip of the third beer in the flight, the Musher’s Brown Beard Ale. “But in an ideal world, I believe in marriage. I want kids someday. And I understand those things go a lot easier with conveniences around. If it comes to it, I could live in Golden Falls the whole rest of my life and be very happy.”

He wished he could have told her his lifelong dream was to move to New York, to get out of this small town and into the “big” world. If he were a less honest person, he might have said what he thought she wanted to hear. But the truth was that Alaska was the biggest, grandest part of the world in all the ways that mattered to him.

“It’s weird how a place can have such a hold on us, isn’t it?” she said. “Every square inch of Manhattan holds a memory for me, of my childhood, of college, of friends or family or just me on my own. I was on my own a lot.” She took a hearty swallow of the brown ale. “My parents worked all the time. Neither of them would come home until nine or ten at night. I spent time at my grandmother’s house—she was a retired book editor—or more often I would just go wandering the city. Take the subway to a stop I’d never been, make a game of talking to someone on every single street in a certain neighborhood.”

“The start of your interviewing career.”

She laughed. “I guess it was!”

“It sounds like you were raised to be very independent.”

“That’s an understatement,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like my parents just threw me to the wolves. Not in a literal, Alaska sense, but a metaphorical one.”

Her eyes darkened, and Cody could tell it was a sore spot for her.

“How do you like the chowder?” he asked to change the subject.

“I love it.” She tipped her bowl to show him it was empty. “It went surprisingly well with the beer.”

“Next up, reindeer dogs.”

Elizabeth arrived as if on cue, setting down two plates in front of them. The buns were fresh-baked sourdough, and the sausages were smothered in grilled sweet onions.

“This is phenomenal,” Cassie said between bites.

“Better than a New York hot dog?”

“It’s hard to admit it, but yes.”

They moved on to the fourth beer, the Polaris IPA, which Cassie didn’t like.

“IPAs are a bit of an acquired taste,” he said.

“Like Alaska,” she said, then added, “Just kidding. I liked it right away.”

But not enough to stay, Cody thought sadly. Not enough to even consider staying.

“Here,” Cassie offered. “Do you want mine?”

“Sure.” Cody wasn’t one to let good beer go to waste.

“So who’s your most recent girlfriend?”

“Her name was Heather,” Cody said. “We broke up when she got a job offer in Juneau where she had family, and things kind of petered out.”

“So you’re not one to follow a woman, even to Juneau?”

“It was drawing to a natural end anyway. Our relationship was pretty laid back. How about you? The guy from back home who doesn’t want to let you go?”

Cassie nearly spit out her beer.

“Not a boyfriend,” she said. “Just a guy who refuses to take no for an answer.”

“That’s all I’m going to get, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so. I don’t want to spoil the moment by talking about it.”

“Fair enough.”

Elizabeth reappeared with the ice cream, served in little hand-carved wooden bowls. They were on their last beer, the Caribou Snout Stout. Its mild coffee-and-vanilla undertones went perfectly with the fresh ice cream.

“Oh, wow,” Cassie said, taking her first bite of the Akutaq. “This is amazing. It almost reminds me of gelato, both light and rich at the same time.”

“I’ve never had gelato, but I’ll take your word for it.”

Her fingertip traced the edge of the small glass of stout, and she gave him a sensual smile.

“The only problem is the ice cream made me even colder. Any ideas on how I can warm up?”

Now that he was getting to know her better, he understood it was an invitation. He also noticed they were totally alone on the patio, and stood, offering her his hand.

“Let’s go over here under the heater.”

They stood beneath a large heater along the railing, overlooking the river. Cassie snuggled into the crook of his arm. The sound of the Nanook River was soft and whispering; Golden Falls upriver to the west was a deeper growl.

She nudged him with the side of her hip, and Cody drew her against him. The feel of her curves pressed up against him set his desire to a boiling point. They kissed, tongues entangling. She tucked herself closer, and he moved his hands to press lightly against her taut rear, and she moaned softly, wantingly, as her jeans-clad hips ground up against him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the silky softness of her hair tickling his cheek. Her nails grazed his neck in tantalizing patterns. Every time her tongue slid against his, his erection throbbed until he thought he was about to burst.

“Do you want to go back to my place?” she murmured.

Cody indeed wanted to take her back to her place and fuck her until she screamed his name, but he felt hesitation, too, as if they were walking a narrow, short-lived path.

“What are we?” he said, pulling back a little. “Are we together?”

“We can be if you want that,” she said. “Or maybe we don’t have to put a label on things.”

“I want the label,” he said. He was a traditional guy, dammit, and she needed to know where he stood. And he needed the same from her. As badly as he wanted sex from Cassie, he wanted her fierce, stubborn, independent mind, and her heart, too. “This isn’t just playing around. I want you to be my girlfriend.”

“Don’t worry, Cody, you’re not just my Alaskan fling,” Cassie said, teasing. “But … okay. Yes. I’ll be your official girlfriend.”

Until you leave, he thought sadly as he caressed her cheek and kissed her again, gently, taking his time.

“You want to take things slow, don’t you?” she said, guessing from the manner in which he kissed her.

“Not too slow,” he said. “In fact, I want to ravage you, but at a time and place of my choosing.”

“It better be soon,” she said, stroking his rock-hard erection through his jeans.

He groaned from how good it felt.

“It will be,” he promised. “And I guarantee it’ll be worth the wait.”