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Dad's E-mail Order Bride
Candy Halliday


The greatest birthday present Rachel Morrison could give her dad, Graham, would be a life. Then she could have one, too. Because running a lodge in Port Protection, Alaska, is totally his dream, not hers. She wants to move back to New York–the most awesome city in the world for a teenage girl.Well, she's about to make that happen.Posing as her dad online, Rachel connects with Courtney Woods–a gorgeous, smart Big Apple ad exec. Perfect! But when Courtney steps off the float plane with a super birthday greeting, Graham isn't feeling the perfection. Okay, so Rachel tricked them into this situation, but they're made for each other. She just has to prove it to them!









“Do you want to teach your daughter a lesson?”


Courtney cocked her head in Graham’s direction. “Because you know the best way to do that would be to beat Rachel at her own game.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Graham admitted.

“I think we’ve both figured out the reason I’m here is because Rachel thought if we hit it off, you’d be willing to move back to New York City.”

He snorted. “Not likely to happen.”

“So what if we let Rachel think her idea worked when she gets home? Except instead of you going to New York, we’ll tell her I’ve decided to move to Alaska?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “To quote Rachel’s favorite expression, she would totally freak out.”

“Exactly,” Courtney said with a smile.




Dear Reader,

Like many authors, I also have a day job. One of the things I enjoy about being a dental hygienist is meeting interesting people.

Recently one of my patients married a man she’d met on an online dating site. The venue she used to meet her Mr. Right wasn’t what intrigued me. What intrigued me was that this man lived in a remote part of Alaska.

I thought of the drastic changes she and her teenage daughter would face living in such a secluded place, especially from her daughter’s point of view. Can you imagine telling a teenager she would be living with no shopping malls, no movie theaters, no fast-food and—gasp—no cell phone service?

That’s when my inspiration for Dad’s E-mail Order Bride was born. I decided to tell my story from a different angle. Fifteen-year-old Rachel Morrison isn’t going to Alaska—she’s there with her stubborn widower dad who has no interest in moving back to New York City. Rachel’s goal: pretend to be her dad on an online dating site and find him a wife from New York so he’ll have a reason to return to civilization.

Getting to know my characters in this book was great fun for me. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Cheers,

Candy Halliday




Dad’s E-mail Order Bride

Candy Halliday





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Multipublished romance author Candy Halliday lives in the Piedmont of North Carolina with her husband, a spastic schnauzer named Millie and an impossible attack cat named Flash. Candy’s daughter and son-in-law and her two teenage grandchildren live nearby. Candy loves to hear from readers. Drop her a line at www.candyhalliday.com.


This book is dedicated to the greatest group of dads I know: Tracy Cottingham, Eddie Clark, Chris Patrick, Steve Poe, Matt Miller, John Mathews, Mark Thomas, Mike Simmons and Jon Scott.




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thanks always to my super agent Jenny Bent, and a huge congratulations to Jenny for launching her own literary agency: The Bent Agency.

Immense thanks to my amazing editor, Wanda Ottewell, who has incredible insight and demands the best from me.

All of my love forever to my wonderful family: Blue, Shelli, Tracy, Quint and Caroline.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE




CHAPTER ONE


GRAHAM MORRISON heard the noisy motor long before the floatplane came into view. He stuck his ax into the top of the log he’d been splitting with a loud thwack, removed his gloves and watched the plane circle the cove and make a graceful landing on the water.

Like other homes and establishments in Port Protection, Alaska, the small community was accessible only by boat, or by floatplane. Most people would have found the extreme isolation on the northern tip of Prince of Wales Island unbearable. But never once had Graham regretted coming to Alaska to renovate the fishing lodge his grandfather had left him.

Port Protection was a safe haven.

For him—and for the daughter he was raising alone.

Graham shoved his gloves into the back pocket of his jeans and started down the path to the long dock stretching out below Trail’s End Lodge. His place was always the last stop for the bush pilot on Friday, but today Graham hoped Gil Hargraves wouldn’t try to amuse him with any of his escapades.

Women were always Gil’s favorite subject. And Gil never missed an opportunity to remind Graham what he was missing staying secluded in Port Protection where the population was less than one hundred people and where the only single woman in town was in her late seventies and had outlived three husbands.

On Gil’s last trip he’d supposedly been gearing up for an amorous weekend with twin sisters from Anchorage. Other men might enjoy hearing Gil brag about his conquests, but Graham didn’t.

Gil was thirty.

He needed to grow up.

The floatplane came to a stop alongside the dock. Gil switched off the loud engine, opened the door and swung himself easily out of the plane. Even Graham could understand why he didn’t have a problem with the ladies. Gil was better looking than most guys, kept in shape, and Graham had heard his fifteen-year-old daughter refer to Gil more than once as wickedly hot.

His daughter referring to any male as hot—wickedly or otherwise—always made Graham cringe. Graham prayed Rachel would stay away from guys like Gil who liked to kiss and tell before moving on to the next woman.

“You’re looking good, Graham,” Gil said as he bent down to secure the plane’s tie lead to the dock. He straightened with a menacing smirk on his face. “In fact, you don’t look a day over forty.”

“Don’t push it, Gil,” Graham warned. “I won’t turn forty until tomorrow. I’m holding on to thirty-nine as long as I can.”

“Well, I brought you one hell of a birthday present,” Gil said, “that’s for sure.”

“Yeah?” Graham assumed Gil was referring to the log splitter he’d finally decided to buy rather than continue splitting wood the hard way. This birthday served to remind him he wasn’t getting any younger. So he’d circled the splitter in the outdoorsman catalog, and he’d left his credit card in plain view for his daughter’s benefit.

Rachel had obviously taken the hint and made the purchase on the Internet the way they did their big-item shopping. Her last words before she left for school were to remind him to stay near the lodge so he wouldn’t miss Gil when the plane landed with his birthday present.

“Need any help?” Graham quizzed, offering to assist Gil in unloading.

Gil laughed. “No, but you probably will.”

Graham was puzzled by his answer. And he was even more confused when Gil walked back to the plane and opened the passenger side door. There were no fishing parties scheduled for the weekend—a promise he’d made to Rachel—even though May was a peak month for salmon.

Whether Graham liked it or not, his daughter was throwing him a big party on Saturday. And Rachel had been so proud of herself for making the arrangements he hadn’t had the heart to disappoint her.

But what the…?

A tall blonde stepped from the plane.

Skintight jeans tucked into high-heeled boots.

Legs that went on forever.

Gil winked at Graham when he reached for her hand. And Graham went from confused to downright stunned. She could have been a model on the cover of a fashion magazine. And now she was walking in his direction.

Graham didn’t say a word when she came to a stop in front of him. Her high heels brought them almost nose-to-nose, and her eyes were as blue as the fur-trimmed parka she was wearing.

She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips.

Graham was tempted to kiss her again.

Until she said, “Happy. Birthday. Graham.”

Her words were so stilted and robotic Graham took a quick step backward. And when he looked past her, Gil was standing at the rear of the plane grinning from ear to ear.

Just last month Gil had told him about a Russian hooker he’d met in Nome who could barely speak English. And he’d bragged he could fix Graham up with her on a moment’s notice.

So the joke was on him.

Gil had paid the hooker to kiss him for his birthday.

Graham was prepared to be a good sport and laugh the whole thing off—until Gil unloaded two matching pink suitcases and placed them on the dock.

“Hey!” Graham called out in a panic and hurried in Gil’s direction.

It would be just like Gil to take the joke too far—to pay the blonde to give him more than just a birthday kiss. But damn! Had Gil forgotten there was an impressionable teenage daughter to consider?

Graham made it to the plane just as Gil was reaching out to close the cargo bay door. He grabbed Gil by the arm to keep that from happening.

“Okay, Gil, the joke’s over,” Graham told him. “You seem to have forgotten I have a daughter. So pick up the luggage, get your friend back into the plane and—”

“Whoa!” Gil said, jerking his arm away. “She isn’t any friend of mine. I’ve never seen her before.”

“This isn’t funny,” Graham warned.

Gil looked past him for a second. “Your guest doesn’t seem to think this is funny, either.”

Graham glanced over his shoulder.

The frown on her face sent a shiver up his spine.

“Wait right here,” he told Gill.

Gil shook his head. “No way. I have a hot date with a redhead in Ketchikan tonight and I’m already behind schedule. The blonde is your problem. I’ll be back to pick her up on Monday when I drop off your guests for next week.”

Graham took a threatening step forward. “Don’t be a wiseass, Gil. I have no idea who this woman is. And she certainly can’t stay here all weekend.”

Gil peered around him again. “Don’t you be a dumb ass, Graham. Whoever she is, she’s a knockout, man. And you’ve got a big lodge with a bunch of empty rooms for her to choose from. If you don’t know her, get to know her. That’s what I’d do.”

“I’m not you,” Graham said between clenched teeth.

“Your loss,” Gil said and bent down to unfasten the tie lead.

“I mean it, Gil,” Graham said. “Don’t you leave this dock until I get this straightened out.”

Graham turned and walked in the blonde’s direction. He was midway to where she stood when the sound of the noisy engine coming back to life jerked Graham’s head around.

“Dammit, Gil!”

Gil’s reply was a final salute before he sped across the cove. Two seconds later the only chance Graham had of his birthday present leaving before Monday lifted into the air. Two seconds more and the plane flew around the cove and disappeared out of sight.

Graham looked over his shoulder again. Now she had her hands on her hips. And she didn’t look one bit happy.

That made two of them.



WHEN THE FLOATPLANE left without her, the first thought that crossed Courtney Woods’s mind was to jump off the dock and start swimming to the mainland. And she might have done just that had she not been so upset with the man walking up the dock in her direction.

She obviously didn’t measure up to Graham Morrison’s standards. She’d seen the shocked look on his face the second she stepped off the plane.

But did she really look so different in person than she did in her pictures? Or was Graham one of those guys who only got into the fantasy part of an online relationship? Now that she was actually standing on his dock in the flesh, all of the interest was gone.

But why send her the airplane ticket?

Why invite her to his birthday party tomorrow?

Why lie to her on so many different levels?

What a disaster!

Had her best friend Beth not given her a membership to an online dating service for her birthday as a joke, Courtney never would have known about a Web site called LoveFromAlaska.com. And she certainly wouldn’t have been suckered by the man walking toward her now, who had obviously changed his mind.

But turning thirty-five had hit her like the big wrecking ball she’d used in one of her most successful ad campaigns. And the catchy slogan she’d come up with for the career placement service had been: “Break out of your going-nowhere life.”

For once, Courtney had taken her own advice.

And what had it gotten her? A trip all the way across country only to be rejected by the very man who had invited her to come.

Still, Courtney thought, what a shame.

She’d been so sure Graham Morrison was the real thing.

He stopped in front of her. And as luck would have it, he was even better looking in person. Thick, black hair. Rock-hard body. Dark brown eyes she could easily get lost in.

He cleared his throat and said, “There’s obviously been some mistake here.”

“You think?” Courtney shot back.

He seemed surprised by her sarcasm.

“It’s also obvious you can hear every word I’m saying,” Courtney said. “Why would you lie about something so serious, Graham? Why would you say you lost your hearing in an explosion while you were clearing land for the lodge?”

“What?” he bellowed back at her.

Courtney’s eyes narrowed. “Well, isn’t this convenient? You miraculously have your hearing back, but now you’ve lost your memory!”

“Now, look here,” he began.

“No, you look here,” Courtney told him. “Are you really going to stand there and pretend we haven’t been corresponding on the Internet since February? That you didn’t invite me to your birthday party tomorrow? And that you didn’t pay for my airplane ticket to get here?”

Before he could answer, Courtney dug into her purse and pulled out the card that had finally made her decide to come to Alaska.

Don’t you think it’s time we met? Say yes, and come to my birthday party.

Love from Alaska, Graham.

Courtney shoved the card into his hands. “I guess you also didn’t send me this card when you mailed me the itinerary for my e-ticket.”

He frowned. “This is my daughter’s handwriting.”

“Rachel wrote that?”

Now he looked concerned. “How do you know Rachel?”

Courtney snatched the card back. “You know perfectly well how I know Rachel. She calls me every night.”

Or did he know that?

The thought made Courtney gasp.

He kept staring at her.

And Courtney said, “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”

“No,” he said. “Who are you?”

Courtney needed to sit down.

But there was nowhere to sit!

“I’m Courtney Woods,” she finally told him. “The idiot who’s been corresponding with your daughter pretending to be you.”

His expression said he’d figured that out already.

He headed down the dock for her suitcases. When he returned, he said, “I’m sorry, but that was—”

“The last flight out of here until Monday,” Courtney finished for him.

He nodded.

“And there aren’t any hotels in Port Protection.”

“No,” he confirmed, “there aren’t.”

“So, basically I guess that means—”

“It means you can stay at the lodge until Monday.”

He’d saved her from saying “you’re stuck with me.”

But they both knew that’s what he was thinking.

He motioned toward the path leading to the lodge. “Let’s go inside,” he said. “I’ll make some coffee while we sort this out.”

Lace my cup with strychnine, Courtney prayed. All she wanted to do was curl into a ball and die!




CHAPTER TWO


GRAHAM TOOK THEIR coffee cups to the kitchen for a refill, trying to process everything Courtney had told him so far. She said Rachel had contacted her on an online dating Web site. And the minute Courtney said she was an advertising executive from New York City, Graham knew exactly why Courtney was the one Rachel had picked.

Rachel had been furious with him for months now because he refused to let her return to New York to finish high school. She’d even dragged his parents and her mother’s parents into the fight. Both sets of grandparents promised she could live with either of them and they would take good care of her.

Graham simply wasn’t willing to take that chance.

Rachel was his responsibility. She was staying in Port Protection and that was final. Having his parents and his former in-laws irritated with him was old news.

But he blamed himself for not paying more attention to what his soon-to-be-punished daughter was doing on the Internet. And he also realized he shouldn’t have dismissed Rachel’s accusation that he didn’t want her to have a life because he didn’t have a life of his own.

That was the real reason Courtney Woods sat in the great room of the lodge now. Rachel obviously assumed if he had a girlfriend from New York City he would give in and move back.

He had news for Rachel.

He would never move back to New York City. And until Rachel reached eighteen and could legally do as she pleased, neither would she.

Graham walked out of the kitchen to where he’d left Courtney. Her chair faced the cathedral-style windows that made up the front of the lodge. The view of the cove and the snowcapped mountains in the distance was spectacular. Yet, Graham suspected the view was the last thing on Courtney’s mind at the moment.

She had to be disappointed that love was not waiting for her in Alaska as Rachel had led her to believe. Instead, all he had to offer Courtney was a promise that Rachel was going to regret the day she decided to play around with other people’s lives.

“Thanks,” she said when he handed her the cup.

Graham sat on the chair beside her, aware he should say something—anything—to lessen the gravity of such an awkward situation. He just couldn’t think of anything to say.

She saved him the trouble. “You have to give Rachel props for masterminding such a perfect plan. The hearing impaired excuse for why we couldn’t talk on the phone was brilliant.”

“Yeah, Rachel’s a real mastermind, all right,” Graham grumbled. “We’ll see if she can mastermind her way out of being banned from the Internet for the rest of her life.”

She laughed and said, “Well, she definitely used the Internet to her advantage. Your Web site for the lodge, for instance. Rachel backed up her hearing loss story by pointing out your phone number isn’t listed on your site.”

Graham shook his head in amazement. “The phone number isn’t listed any longer because I spent the first six months after I launched the Web site answering calls from people who were only shopping around for rates. I only contact people who are serious enough to e-mail me.”

He thought for a minute and said, “Rachel used the Internet to her advantage another way, too. I pay a flat fee for phone and Internet service, so she had no long-distance charges to worry about. And Rachel living with the phone glued to her ear is normal. I had no reason to suspect she wasn’t talking to her best friend instead of you.”

“Only one thing still bothers me,” she said. “Some of the e-mails Rachel sent were…” She paused. “Well, to put it bluntly, they were too mature for a girl her age.”

Mature?

Graham gulped.

Did she mean things of a sexual nature?

And how advanced was Rachel in that regard? They’d had the sex talk when she was twelve. To his relief, the subject had never come up again.

Graham was still trying to summon the courage to ask what she meant by mature, when Courtney placed her coffee cup on the end table between their two chairs, bent and picked up her purse from the floor. After pulling out a handful of papers, she unfastened the clip and handed them over.

“Rachel said you could read lips, but I was still worried we would have trouble communicating,” she said. “I printed out my favorite e-mails. I wanted to show them to you and tell you how much they touched me. Read them yourself. And then you tell me if those sound like the words of a teenage girl to you.”

Graham looked down at the first e-mail.



How would I describe myself?



He winced when familiar words began jumping off the page.



When I look back over my life, I see a man content to let life happen to him, instead of charting his own path. A man who believed by making everyone else happy, he would eventually find happiness himself. But I’ve come to the realization that life is too precious to leave to chance and life decisions are too important to hand over to someone else. My mistakes have taught me this: choose what you want out of life or life will choose it for you.



“Why, that little thief!” Graham shouted, refusing to bring his now-red face up to meet hers. “Rachel took that straight from my journal.”

He shifted the papers to the next e-mail:



There are times when such a solitary life leaves me lonelier than I care to admit. Especially on endless, sleepless nights when I gaze at the ceiling, trying to remember how it feels to have the warmth of another body pressed close to mine. Those are the times when I long for a head on my shoulder, another heart beating close to mine, simply enjoying the still of the night.



And the next:



Troubles melt away here in Alaska. Living in such an unspoiled environment renews my spirit, gives me strength, and reminds me of how truly remarkable God’s gifts to man really are. The only thing missing is someone to share such an amazing experience.



“Unbelievable,” Graham said, shaking his head as he thumbed through the remainder of the pages. He was still too embarrassed to look at her.

Maybe Courtney had been honest enough to admit how embarrassed and how gullible she felt. She’d even explained that if her demanding job had left any time for a personal life, she never would have been curious about the online membership her best friend had given her for her birthday. Still, Graham’s embarrassment reached a much deeper level.

A complete stranger had seen right into his soul.

Graham felt as gutted as a fresh fish fillet.

“Let me guess,” she said. “Everything I saved came from your journal. Didn’t it?”

She’d guessed right.

She reached out and touched his arm, an innocent gesture—unless you hadn’t felt a woman’s touch in years.

“I don’t blame you for being upset about your journal, Graham. Just don’t be too hard on Rachel, okay? Be angry with me. I should have paid more attention to other red flags that kept popping up.”

Graham finally looked over at her. “What other red flags?”

“Well, mainly the fact that Rachel only e-mailed me pretending to be you about twice a week. And she covered her bases by telling me how busy you were once fishing season started.”

“I am busy once fishing season starts,” Graham said. “But I’m still more at fault here than you are. I shouldn’t have been too busy to keep up with what my daughter was doing.”

“Thanks for trying to make me feel better,” she said. “But I insist on paying you for staying at the lodge this weekend. And I’ll certainly reimburse you for the plane ticket.”

“Absolutely not,” Graham said, shaking his head in protest. “If anything, I’m the one who should pay you for your inconvenience in flying all the way across the country. And for your mental anguish over all of this.”

“Mental anguish?” she repeated.

He’d obviously said the wrong thing. Her tone had changed from apologetic to terse. And the insulted expression on her face confirmed it.

“Look,” she said. “I don’t blame you for thinking I’m some desperate love-starved female because Rachel met me through an online dating site. But let’s not make this into some big catastrophe that it isn’t, okay?”

Graham started to say something, but she didn’t give him the chance.

“The way I see it, you and I are the adults here. And I’m pretty sure we’ll both survive the weekend without either of us having to go into therapy.”

Okay, she’d put him in his place.

Graham began backpedaling as fast as possible. “I don’t think you’re desperate, or love-starved, or anything else. All I meant by mental anguish was that no one enjoys being the brunt of a joke. I know I don’t. Rachel has embarrassed both of us. And I intend to teach her a lesson for being so thoughtless.”

She was making him extremely uncomfortable. First, saying how much the words he’d written had touched her. Then, her hand on his arm. Even her plea now to be easy on his daughter.

She was…dammit!

She was being too nice about the whole thing. Plus, she was a knockout. She was the type of woman who could knock him right out of his comfortable existence if he gave her half a chance—smart, sexy, bold enough to speak her mind.

But he’d been foolish to think she would spend one second lamenting the fact that Rachel had sent the e-mails instead of him. Career-focused or not, Courtney Woods was not the type of woman who had ever been lacking for male attention.

Graham tossed the e-mails onto the table, left his chair and walked to the window a safe distance away from her. It didn’t work. She walked up beside him.

They stood in silence, looking out over the cove.

“Rachel isn’t as brilliant as you think,” Graham said. “I inherited this lodge from my grandfather. He was the one who lost his hearing in one ear from an explosion clearing land for the lodge.”

He turned toward her and added, “But tell me the truth about something. Didn’t the hearing loss part bother you at all?”

“No,” she said. “In fact, I admired you. I found it heroic you hadn’t let the accident ruin your life.”

Graham let out a long sigh. “Well, at least you didn’t show up because you felt sorry for the poor deaf guy turning forty.”

“True,” she said. “I only felt sorry for the turning-forty part.”

They looked at each other.

And burst out laughing.

It was the icebreaker they’d needed to cut through the tension. And at that moment Graham realized Courtney could have been a real bitch about what Rachel had done. Courtney could have even threatened to sue him. And who would have blamed her? Instead, she was taking it all in stride, far better than he was at the moment.

“This whole thing really is funny when you think about it,” she said. “I can’t imagine what you were thinking down on the dock when I sounded out every word so carefully, making sure you could read my lips.”

Wisely, Graham didn’t mention the Russian hooker.

Instead, he said, “I know someone who’s going to be reading my lips when she gets home. I can promise you that.”

“And that’s what has me worried,” she said.

Graham looked over at her again.

Now she had her arms crossed, tapping the fingers of her right hand impatiently against her left arm. And that’s one thing Graham didn’t miss since he’d dropped out of society—the whole business of trying to figure any woman out.

It was exhausting.

However, if memory served him correctly, her ambiguous statement was his clue to say, “Meaning?”

She looked straight at him and said, “Meaning I’m not interested in being caught in the middle of a father-daughter fight all weekend, Graham.”

“So what are you suggesting? That I just pat Rachel on the head and laugh the whole thing off?”

“I’m suggesting you postpone any punishment until later,” she said. “Rachel has really worked hard on your birthday party tomorrow. And I shouldn’t tell you this, but she has a special surprise dinner planned for you tonight.”

“A dinner?” Graham repeated.

Courtney nodded. “Rachel planned out the menu herself, and I’m supposed to help her cook the meal. I hate to see all of her plans ruined.”

“You forget Rachel’s planning is the reason she’s in big trouble right now.”

An awkward silence passed between them.

She cocked her head in his direction. “You know, if you really want to teach Rachel a lesson, the best way to do that would be to beat her at her own game.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I think we’ve both figured out the reason I’m here is because Rachel thought if we hit it off, you’d be willing to move back to New York.”

“Tell me, Courtney,” Graham said. “Is there anything you don’t know about me and my daughter?”

She smiled. “I don’t know if you’re willing to play along with my idea yet.”

Okay, one thing he did miss since he’d dropped out of society was having a woman smile at him the way Courtney had done now—a flirty little smile, the type of smile only a dead man could resist.

“Keep talking,” Graham said.

“What if we let Rachel think her idea worked when she first gets home? But then we tell her instead of you moving back to New York, I’ve decided to move to Alaska to be with you?”

Graham laughed. “To quote Rachel’s favorite expression, she would totally freak out.”

“Exactly.” She smiled again.

It took Graham’s gaze right back to her moist, pink lips. Memories of that kiss on the dock didn’t help Graham’s common sense, either. And whether he liked to admit it or not, the knowledge that a beautiful woman like Courtney had flown across the country to meet him was a huge boost to his turning-forty ego.

Why not go along with Courtney’s idea?

She was right. It wasn’t fair to put her in the middle of their fight all weekend. The situation was already awkward enough.

He’d honor Courtney’s request and keep things civil for the weekend. He owed her that much after what Rachel had done. But after Courtney left, Rachel’s life was going to change drastically.

And that was a promise.

Graham stuck his hand out. “Okay, it’s a deal. Let’s show Rachel what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a bad joke.”




CHAPTER THREE


THE MINUTE GRAHAM closed the bedroom door after bringing her luggage upstairs, Courtney fished around for her cell phone. She tossed her purse onto the bed and headed for the sliding glass doors that led out to her room’s private balcony.

Beth would laugh her ass off at this situation.

But Courtney’s mother?

Courtney couldn’t even go there.

In fact, coming to Alaska was the first time she’d ever truly crossed her mother, who also happened to be her boss and the owner of The Woods Advertising Agency, where Courtney was vice president. Her VP title, however, had nothing to do with being the CEO’s daughter. Courtney had earned that title by following faithfully in Lisa Woods’s workaholic footsteps.

And she had no life to prove it.

When she couldn’t get a signal, Courtney closed her phone and leaned against the railing, thinking back to the night of her birthday party—the real reason behind why she was in Alaska now. They’d celebrated at Courtney’s favorite restaurant; Beth, her mother and her mother’s constant entourage—the other executives at the agency.

Beth had saved her gift for last. She’d stood to get everyone’s attention—as if that were necessary. Avant-garde described Beth in every sense of the word; her dark hair in a buzz cut; her jewelry and wardrobe so outrageous she turned heads everywhere she went.

“Courtney likes to claim her being born on Valentine’s Day was Cupid’s idea of a cruel joke,” Beth had said. “She also likes to claim that the reason she’s still single is because there aren’t any real men left in the world.”

Everyone had laughed.

“So I decided to prove her wrong on both accounts,” Beth had announced proudly. “Love is out there waiting for her if she’ll look for it. And where better to look for real men than the last frontier?”

That’s when Beth had held up a printed-out page with Courtney’s picture on it—a full-body shot Courtney had forgotten about. Courtney had posed for it when she did an interview for a magazine about the changing trends in advertising—dressed for success and leaning casually back against her desk with a confident smile on her face.

“This,” Beth had said, handing Courtney the sheet, “is your new profile page on LoveFromAlaska.com. And when I checked the site an hour ago, you had thirty-five real men dying to meet you.”

Courtney had thought Beth’s gift was hysterical. So had everyone else.

Except, of course, Courtney’s mother.

Her mother had remained silent all through dinner. She’d remained silent through the birthday cake dessert. She’d even remained silent during a heated debate about the direction they should take with a new ad campaign when they were having brandy later—and her mother remaining silent during any debate was unprecedented. It wasn’t until they were alone in her mother’s private town car on the way home from the restaurant, however, that Courtney had received an earful.

“I expect you to cancel the membership to that disgusting dating site immediately before anyone sees it,” her mother had demanded. “If word gets out you’re peddling yourself on the Internet like some cheap tramp, it would be a total embarrassment to the agency.”

“News flash, Mother. Online dating is the norm today.” Trying to appease her, Courtney had added, “Besides, it isn’t likely any of our clients will be checking out some dating site from Alaska.”

“It isn’t a risk I’m willing to take,” her mother had snipped. “As vice president you have a reputation to uphold and I expect you to do that.”

Courtney had assumed the discussion was over.

She hadn’t been that lucky.

“What I don’t understand,” her mother had said, “is where Beth got the idea you wanted some man in your life. If your so-called best friend knew you at all, she’d understand the agency will always be your first priority.”

Like mother, like daughter.

The thought had scared the hell out of Courtney.

Within minutes of being dropped off in front of her apartment building, Courtney had her laptop open. And that’s when she’d found the first e-mail from Rachel.

Reading what Graham had written about defining what you wanted before life defined it for you had been the equivalent of grabbing Courtney by the shoulders and shaking her until her teeth rattled. In every aspect of her life, in and out of the boardroom, she had the reputation of being assertive and confident—except when it came to her mother. At that exact moment, Courtney knew it was time to cut the cord.

That’s why she’d really come to Alaska. She’d come hoping to find herself.

But talk about material for a daytime talk show! She could already hear Dr. Phil now. “And how’s online dating working for you so far, Courtney?”

Still, things could have been worse.

Graham could have been a real ass about the whole situation. And who could really blame the poor guy? A crazy e-mail female from New York City had shown up on his dock, not only unannounced, but even demanding to know why he’d lied to her.

Courtney groaned just thinking about it.

At least Graham had agreed to a truce for the weekend. And she would do her best to make sure he didn’t regret that decision. She could handle being the peacekeeper, but she didn’t want to be the referee.

Especially since, in spite of everything, she was completely smitten with the man she’d come to meet. Graham had touched her deeply with his journal entries: his sensitivity; his appreciation of the type of assets you’d never find in some financial portfolio; his insight in being able to look back over his life and identify his mistakes. Plus, now that she’d actually met him, Courtney was so physically attracted to Graham the only way she knew how to describe it was freakishly scary.

And that was so unlike her.

Beth had always accused her of being too picky. Of always finding something not to like about the guys she dated, rather than focusing on things she could learn to like about them.

And maybe she was too picky. She’d just been holding out for that one guy who would make her heart pound, her palms sweat and who completely took her breath away. Courtney had never met such a man.

Until now.

Her thoughts went back to that kiss on the dock. Her heart had definitely been pounding. For a second she’d thought Graham was going to kiss her again. She’d seen a little flicker of desire in his eyes signaling there might be some fireworks between them.

Of course, that was before they both knew the whole situation. Now Graham would spend the weekend worried she was some cyber stalker. And she would spend the weekend pretending she wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t send the e-mails—which, in fact, she was.

But she’d get over it.

The ever-changing world of advertising had taught her one valuable lesson: when things aren’t working, take them in a different direction and make them work. Courtney couldn’t think of a better time to stick to that principle than now.

She let out a long sigh and remained standing on the balcony, looking out at the shimmering water. She could certainly understand how troubles could melt away here.

Or maybe it was being somewhere so different from New York City. No horns blowing. No streets packed with cars stuck in gridlock traffic. No sidewalks filled with anxious-looking people all scurrying about, cell phones to their ears, hurrying to make that next important meeting or make it to and from work on time.

The only things moving below the lodge were several boats tied to the dock, all bobbing in the water like corks tied to a fishing line. Rachel called the boats skiffs, and Courtney knew Graham used them for his fishing expeditions and for local travel to other communities around Port Protection, since this part of Prince of Wales Island had no road access whatsoever.

She’d been intrigued by the quaint community from the moment she visited the lodge’s Web site: the elaborate boardwalk system running throughout the rain forest; the steps called The Stairway to Heaven leading from the boardwalk up to the ridgeline; the pictures of the scenic view from the ridge so beautiful they took your breath away.

Courtney had even imagined climbing that stairway with Graham. She’d fantasized about Graham taking her into his arms and…

Stop it!

No point in going there now.

But Port Protection had captivated her. Almost as much as the picture of Graham that Rachel had chosen for his profile—him standing in the front of the lodge, the look on his face somber, a hint of loneliness in his eyes he couldn’t quite hide from the camera.

When Courtney thought about it, loneliness was one of the main reasons she’d kept up the correspondence with Rachel. Her mother had given her the deep-freeze treatment after she’d refused to cancel the membership. But instead of that making Courtney want to reconsider, being estranged from her mother only reinforced how much of Courtney’s time her mother truly demanded.

Then Beth had temporarily deserted her.

Beth just had to pick the exact same time to fall madly in lust with a stand-up comic in Atlantic City where Beth ran off to every weekend. Without Beth or her mother demanding her time, Courtney had felt at loose ends.

Had it not been for Rachel, she probably would have caved and begged her mother’s forgiveness before they reached some common ground. In a sense, Rachel had saved her from making a grave mistake.

The truth was, Courtney had thoroughly enjoyed being Rachel’s mentor of sorts. She had no siblings, no nieces or nephews. Playing the role of a big sister or an aunt to Rachel had been a fun and new experience for her.

And that’s why Courtney hoped if she and Graham played a joke on Rachel, they could all laugh about it, call it even and salvage the weekend. Regardless of what Rachel had done, Courtney couldn’t wait to finally meet her.

With that thought in mind, Courtney walked into the bedroom where Graham had placed her suitcases on the foot of the bed. Rachel would be home from school within the hour. If Courtney was going to play the role of the happy new girlfriend, she needed to look the part.

But as she headed into the bathroom with her makeup bag to freshen up, Courtney couldn’t keep from thinking that being Graham’s pretend girlfriend was not the role she’d envisioned when she set out for Alaska. Even more disturbing was another thought.

Graham Morrison wouldn’t be an easy man to forget.



GRAHAM PLACED A TRAY of appetizers on the dining table in the main room of the lodge—cheese, crackers, some dried dates and figs. He would have done the same for any other guests, making sure something was available to sustain them until time for dinner.

Except Courtney wasn’t any other guest.

She was a vibrant, beautiful woman who had him hurrying to his bathroom after she went upstairs, making sure his hygiene wasn’t lacking. What shocked Graham was the fact that he’d felt the need to do that.

He’d been so convinced he had everything he needed living in Port Protection. That a woman was the last thing he wanted in his life. Yet, all Courtney had to do was smile at him a couple of times and he was scurrying off to shave and brush his teeth and change his shirt.

But then, Graham reasoned, maybe if he had female guests at the lodge on a regular basis, he would have automatically done the same thing. He’d never been a slob, but shaving in the middle of the day for a bunch of smelly fishermen was plain laughable.

What wasn’t laughable was the knowledge Courtney had flown all the way from New York to meet him. Talk about putting pressure on a guy.

Plus, who knew what Rachel had been telling Courtney about him for the past three months—other than the fact he was deaf, and Courtney had claimed she found that heroic. It only made sense he would be a little self-conscious, maybe even a little intimidated.

Courtney had come expecting to meet a hero who had overcome all the obstacles in his life. She’d found instead a clueless father who wasn’t even savvy enough to realize what his teenage daughter was doing on the Internet.

In fact, the woman upstairs was basically a complete stranger, yet she knew more things about him than most people ever would. Private things. Things he never would have shared with anyone else. And he knew virtually nothing about her.

Except she was an advertising executive from New York.

And he liked the way she kissed.

But he wasn’t going to revisit the damn kiss again. She’d caught him off guard, that’s all. And brushing his teeth didn’t mean he hoped she would kiss him again.

After Courtney found out what a disaster she’d walked into, she’d made it clear all she wanted to do for the rest of the weekend was fly under the radar until she could head back to New York City on Monday. And Graham intended to do his best to see she did just that.

He’d be a gracious host. He’d be a charming conversationalist at dinner. He’d even be the life of his own damn birthday party if that’s what it took to get them through the weekend.

But after Courtney left, he was going to kill his daughter. Not literally, of course. He was only going to make Rachel wish she were dead.

No TV. No Internet. No iPod. No phone.

No anything fun or entertaining.

Not until Graham was fully satisfied that Rachel was truly sorry for the stupid stunt she’d pulled. Whether Rachel liked it or not, he was still her father. And whether Rachel liked it or not, until she turned eighteen, he made all the rules.




CHAPTER FOUR


RACHEL JUMPED OUT OF her seat the second the bell rang. She didn’t wait to walk home with her good friend Tiki Iya the way she usually did.

Today, Rachel left her classroom and hurried outside to the wide boardwalk meandering through Port Protection like a railroad track. She smiled when she found her absolute best friend waiting for her in his usual spot.

The Alaskan husky wagged his tail as Rachel approached. Rachel bent down and rubbed the big dog’s ears affectionately when she walked up beside him.

Her father had surprised her with her own puppy shortly after they’d arrived in Port Protection. It was his way of proving there were things she could have in Alaska that she couldn’t have back home. She’d named the pup Broadway—her message to her father that no matter where he made her live, her heart would always belong to New York City.

That had been five years ago.

Rachel was still as homesick as the day she left.

“Let’s go, boy,” Rachel told the dog.

With Broadway in the lead she headed for the lodge, a prayer on her lips that this would be the last year she spent in a school with only twenty-one students. Even worse was being the only high school sophomore.

That meant she would also be the only high school junior next year. And unless someone her own age moved to Port Protection—about as likely as her dad agreeing to let her have her nose pierced—her graduating class would consist of a big whopping one!

Available boys?

Forgetaboutit!

Boys her age in Port Protection were nonexistent. Just like her totally nonexistent social life.

“Rachel. Wait up.”

Rachel turned to find Tiki running toward her. Her friend had the black hair and eyes and coloring of her Haida ancestors. Tiki’s Haida name was dukdukdiya, which meant hummingbird, because she was so little. Although Tiki was two years younger, the age difference hadn’t kept them from becoming close friends. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Tiki, Rachel knew she never would have survived living in Port Protection.

She was, however, beginning to regret confiding in Tiki about her plan to get her father to move back to New York. Tiki had warned her from the beginning the online dating idea was crazy.

And Tiki did so love being right.

Taking a second to recover from her race to catch up, Tiki said between breaths, “Why are you in such a big hurry to get home, silly? You know your dad is going to kill you.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“I’d be terrified,” Tiki said, pretending a shudder. “I can’t even imagine what my dad would do if I charged a plane ticket on his credit card.”

“Oh, please,” Rachel said. “The charge on Dad’s credit card is the least of it. What will totally freak him out is me pretending to be him and inviting Courtney to his birthday party.”

“But aren’t you worried Courtney is going to be mad at you, too? You lied to her from the beginning.”

“I know,” Rachel admitted. “But Courtney really likes me. We’ve spent hours talking on the phone. And when I explain I was only trying to get Dad to move back to civilization, I think she’ll forgive me.”

“For your sake, I hope you’re right.”

“Of course, I’m right,” Rachel said, trying to convince herself more than Tiki. “Courtney isn’t some phony, shallow person or she would have lost interest the second I told her Dad had lost his hearing. She doesn’t even mind Dad having a teenage daughter. I’m telling you, Tiki, the woman is a saint.”

“Let’s just hope your dad thinks so.”

“Yeah, I can always hope,” Rachel said with a snort. “But if I know Dad, all he’s going to do is be mad at me and sulk. And then he’ll spend the whole weekend stomping around like an old bull, ignoring me and Courtney completely.”

Tiki looked over at her. “And that’s what I’ve never understood about this plan of yours, Rachel. If you didn’t think your dad was going to like Courtney, why even bother?”

“Because I’m desperate, Tiki. And if I push a gorgeous woman like Courtney in front of Dad, maybe he’ll remember what it’s like to have a real life.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

Rachel sighed. “Then at least I’ve shown Dad what it feels like to have someone else make decisions for him without his consent.”

“But what if your dad started stomping around like an old bull when Courtney got here and she got back on the plane and left?”

Rachel scoffed. “Do you really think I’m that stupid? I’ve been planning this day for months. I made Gil promise that under no circumstances would he let Courtney get back on that plane.”

They stopped walking when they reached the fork where the boardwalk divided. Broadway obediently sat to wait. A left turn led to Trail’s End Lodge. A right turn led to one of the more populated sections of Port Protection where Tiki lived.

Rachel shifted her book bag to her shoulder. “Well, at least wish me luck.”

“Luck?” Tiki laughed. “Forget luck, Rachel. What you need is a freaking miracle.”

Still laughing, Tiki headed off down the boardwalk.

“So not funny,” Rachel called after her.

But as Rachel headed home, the situation was becoming less funny with every step she took. Sure, she knew her dad was going to be furious with her—that was a given. She was just counting on her dad’s good manners not to make a scene with Courtney there.

Only now Tiki had put other doubts in her mind.

What if Courtney didn’t forgive her for lying? What if instead of being a saint, Courtney turned out to be some screaming psycho chick and really did flip out over what she’d done?

Rachel didn’t have to pretend a shudder.

She slowed her pace, wondering if maybe Tiki was right. Maybe she shouldn’t be in such a big hurry to get to the lodge. Maybe she should be late on purpose and give both her dad and Courtney more time to calm down.

Yes.

Maybe she should let her dad and Courtney think she was too afraid to show up. That should gain a little sympathy—hopefully, from both of them. And if her dad and Courtney were worried about her, maybe they’d be less likely to be so angry.

Pleased with her new plan, Rachel looked down at Broadway. “Want to go on a long walk, boy?”

The big dog barked and wagged his tail.



COURTNEY NIBBLED FROM the appetizer tray she’d found waiting for her when she’d come downstairs. Graham had arranged everything perfectly—even had a glass of white wine waiting for her. It had been the exact pick-me-up she needed after her long trip.

She’d been impressed by the gesture, even if catering to his guests was part of Graham’s everyday life. But who was she kidding?

Everything about Graham Morrison impressed her.

She glanced in his direction again as she finished off her last bite of cheese, and she couldn’t help but smile inwardly over the fact that he’d changed his shirt and shaved while she’d been upstairs. Her only regret was that he’d hardly said a word to her. Instead, he’d been pacing back and forth at the lodge’s front window for the past thirty minutes.

He looked at his watch for the fiftieth time, frowned and finally looked in her direction. “I’m getting worried,” he said. “Rachel should have been home by now.”

Courtney didn’t want to pooh-pooh Graham’s concern, but common sense told her Rachel was dragging her feet coming home on purpose. That’s what she would have done had she been in Rachel’s teenage shoes.

“I’m sure Rachel’s okay, Graham. Broadway wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

She’d been trying to assure him Rachel was safe, but now he was frowning again.

And this time he was frowning at her.

“You just mentioned Broadway,” he said. “I was joking earlier, but Rachel really has told you everything about our lives here, hasn’t she?”

Courtney didn’t blame him for being upset that she knew so much about him—even the name of his dog. In his situation, she would have felt violated, too. Particularly over his journal entries. She wouldn’t bring up the e-mails again.

But maybe if she gave Graham the opportunity to ask a few questions about her, he might not feel so exposed. Deciding to give him that opportunity, Courtney left her chair and walked over to where Graham stood.

“I can understand how unsettling it must be for me to know so much about you when you know nothing about me,” she said.

Was it her imagination, or was he staring at her lips?

“So?” Courtney offered. “Is there anything you do want to ask about me, Graham?”

“Yes,” he said. “Why would a successful career woman from New York want to get involved with some deaf guy from Alaska and his bratty teenage daughter?”

Courtney laughed. “Well, when you put it that way, it makes me wonder why myself.” She paused before she added, “You have an amazing daughter, Graham, even though you’re upset with her right now. In fact, for the past three months, Rachel has been the one bright spot in my day.”

His expression softened slightly. “Even when she was complaining about her horrible life here?” he asked.

Is that what was bothering him? Was Graham worried Rachel had aired all of their dirty laundry? If that was the problem, she could clear that misconception up real quick.

“You have my word, Graham,” Courtney said, “never once has Rachel said anything but wonderful things about you.”

He didn’t look convinced. “Only because she was trying to sell you on me.”

“Believe me,” Courtney said, “it wasn’t a hard sale.”

The words just hung there.

Courtney couldn’t take them back.

And Graham didn’t seem to know what to say.

Thankfully a loud bark defused the situation.

“Showtime,” Courtney said, moving closer to Graham and sliding her arm around his waist.

“And how far are we going to take this?” he asked.

“Far enough to be convincing until you tell her the truth.”

Graham put his arm around her shoulder. And his arm did feel good around her—too good. Courtney breathed in his scent—all manly and intoxicating. And though she knew she was only torturing herself, Courtney couldn’t help but notice how perfectly they fit together.

“Now what?” he asked, snapping her back to reality.

“Smile and look happy,” Courtney said.



BROADWAY BOUNDED THROUGH the front door first and ran straight to her father. Rachel stopped dead in her tracks. She simply couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Her dad?

Smiling from ear to ear?

In a clutch with a woman he’d just met?

Unfreakingbelievable!

All Rachel could do was stare.

“Well, aren’t you going to say hello to Courtney?” her dad asked as if she weren’t late getting home.

“Hi,” Rachel managed, but it came out as a squeak.

“Come here, you,” Courtney said.

Before Rachel knew what was happening, Courtney flew across the room and engulfed her in a big hug. And when she let Rachel go, she stepped back and smiled.

“I’m so happy to finally meet you, Rachel,” she gushed. “You’re even prettier in person than you are in your pictures.”

“Thanks,” was all Rachel could think to say.

Although Rachel doubted Courtney really cared. Miss So-Happy-To-Meet-You had already hurried back across the room to wrap herself around dear old Dad again.

“We have every right to be angry with you, young lady,” her father said.

Rachel held her breath, expecting the worst.

What she got instead was another big smile.

“But how can we be angry,” he added, “when you’re the one responsible for bringing us together?”

“It was love at first sight,” Courtney said.

“Totally,” her dad agreed.

Huh?

Rachel couldn’t believe it. Not only was her dad still grinning like some silly buffoon, but he had just said totally for the first time in his life. Had he completely lost his mind? That was the only explanation Rachel had for his goofy behavior.

“In fact,” he said, “Courtney and I have already decided now that we’ve found each other, we don’t want to be apart for a minute. Right, Courtney?”

“Absolutely,” Courtney said, smiling up at him.

And then he kissed her.

On the mouth!

In a flash, Rachel was mentally packing her bags. She could see herself running through Central Park with Broadway. And she would take Broadway back to New York with her. Millions of people had dogs in the city no matter what her dad said.

Other images quickly filled her head.

She could order Chinese takeout any hour of the day or night—and man, how she had missed Chinese takeout. She could shop on Fifth Avenue. She could go to the Met anytime she wanted. She could see a musical on the real Broadway. And attend the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center for the first time in years. She could even be in Times Square for the big ball drop on New Year’s Eve.

Rachel was on the verge of jumping up and down. She couldn’t wait to tell Tiki. She really had been granted a freaking miracle. Finally, she could go to a regular high school with boys and girls her own age. Finally, she could experience what it was like to be a normal teenager.

“Courtney’s agreed to move to Alaska to be with us. Isn’t that great?”

“What?” Rachel shrieked.

And that’s when she saw her dad’s expression change before her eyes. Now his jaw was rigid—his smile gone. And the reaction Rachel had been expecting all along quickly followed.

“A lie isn’t so funny when you’re on the receiving end of that lie, is it, Rachel?”

Rachel balled her fists together. He was using his serious father-knows-best voice. She hated when he did that.

“And save yourself the trouble of thinking up any more schemes,” he warned. “We are not moving back to New York under any circumstances. And that’s final.”

For one brief second, Rachel truly hated her father.

“You can’t control my life forever!” Rachel screamed back at him. “When I turn eighteen I will move to New York City. And I’ll never come back to this miserable place again. Ever. That’s final!”

Sobbing, Rachel ran from the room.

Faithfully, Broadway trotted after her.




CHAPTER FIVE


COURTNEY FLINCHED WHEN a door slammed in the distance. Slowly, she and Graham untangled themselves, then quickly stepped away from each other.

“That went well, didn’t it?” was all he said.

He didn’t mention that second kiss.

Neither did Courtney. She’d analyze the kiss later. At the moment, her only concern was Rachel.

“I had no idea Rachel would be so upset when I talked you into teasing her, Graham. I need to go apologize.”

“Apologize? Don’t be ridiculous. Rachel’s the one who needs to apologize to you.”

“And I’m sure Rachel will,” Courtney said. “But I’m not very proud of myself right now for making her cry.”

He started to object again, but Courtney stopped him.

“Please, let me talk to her. If you don’t, it’s going to be a miserable weekend for all of us.”

Graham kept staring at her.

Courtney held his gaze.

“Go through the kitchen,” he finally said, pointing across the great room to the saloon-style doors. “There’s a hallway off the kitchen. Rachel’s bedroom door is the first door on the right.”

“Thank you,” Courtney told him sincerely.

“But when you’re through talking to her,” he said, “tell Rachel I want to see her in my office. No excuses.”

Courtney nodded and started toward the kitchen. When she reached the hallway, she could have found Rachel’s room without Graham’s directions. Broadway was stretched out on the floor, guarding the door.

Courtney bent and gave the big dog’s head a fond pat. And only after Broadway wagged his tail in permission did she stand up and place a gentle knock above a sign that read: Teenzilla Inside—Enter at Your Own Risk.

The first knock failed to produce a response.

Courtney knocked again. “Rachel, it’s Courtney. Can I come in for a minute?”

“Go away!”

This time Courtney turned the doorknob and Broadway saw his chance. By the time Courtney stepped inside the room, Broadway had already launched himself onto the bed beside his mistress.

Rachel’s tearstained face made Courtney wince.

“I owe you an apology, Rachel. It was my idea to play a joke on you, not your father’s. It was a mean thing to do and I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rachel said, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I played a mean joke on you. I deserved it.”

Courtney walked across the room. Without being invited, she sat on the edge of Rachel’s bed. “If it makes any difference, I’m still glad I came. I wouldn’t have missed meeting you for anything.”

Rachel’s chin came up. “Really?”

“Really,” Courtney said, reaching for her hand. “After all, you and I have more or less been dating for three months now.”

That comment at least got a half smile out of her. Then Rachel’s face clouded over again, reminding Courtney how much she looked like her father. Same ink-black hair. Same brown eyes with the same hint of sadness if you looked closely enough.

Rachel sniffed and said, “Dad’s really pissed at me, isn’t he?”

Courtney nodded. “And I’m afraid I only made things worse. I’m sorry, Rachel. I printed out some of the e-mails you sent me that I thought were from your dad.”

Rachel gasped. “And you showed them to him?”

“Sorry.”

Rachel flopped back against her pillow with a loud groan. “Now he really is going to kill me. I took stuff from his journal.”

“I know. Graham told me,” Courtney said. “And I hope you realize how wrong that was. Everyone deserves the right to privacy.”

Rachel sat up. “And what about my rights? Every day Dad keeps me here he’s violating my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Courtney smiled knowingly. “How’d you do on your American history test, by the way?”

“Aced it, of course,” Rachel said, but her tone was still surly.

“Do you really hate living here so much?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Courtney shrugged. “Actually, I think living here might be a nice change from the city.”

Rachel snorted. “Yeah, but we’re not talking about a nice change. Dad would keep me here permanently if he could.”

“Only because he loves you, Rachel. And he wants to keep you safe.”

“I’m sick and tired of being safe!”

But neither of them mentioned what had led up to Graham moving them to Alaska. It was easier to talk about things like that on the phone than it was in person. The phone provided the barrier a person needed to keep anyone else from seeing their pain.

In one of their more serious conversations, Rachel had told Courtney that her mother had been shot and killed in a robbery outside their apartment building when Rachel was only ten. She’d said Graham had quit his brokerage firm on Wall Street, put their apartment on Park Avenue up for sale and had moved them to Alaska immediately after the funeral, despite strong objections from Graham’s parents and his in-laws.

In fact, now that Courtney thought about it, not once had losing his wife been mentioned in any of the e-mails that were supposedly from Graham—another red flag that should have warned her something wasn’t right. Instead, Courtney had assumed talking about the tragedy was still too painful for him.

But now Courtney understood.

Rachel hadn’t tried to express her father’s feelings because she had no idea how her father felt about her mother’s death. Graham obviously hadn’t shared those feelings with his daughter.

“You don’t really agree that Dad should keep me here all through high school, do you?”

The question pulled Courtney back from her thoughts.

“Something could happen to me right here in Port Protection, you know. I could get eaten by a bear. Or attacked by a wolf. Or I could drown if a whale turned the skiff over and spend eternity in a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean. I could even have my eyes pecked out by a hungry eagle.”

Rachel sighed a dramatic sigh.

“Or,” she said with a pitiful look on her face, “I can continue to die a slow and painful death the way I’m doing now.”

Courtney had to laugh. “You certainly know how to paint a grim picture.”

“Living here is a grim picture,” Rachel mumbled.

“Then let’s change that. At least for this weekend. I came for a party. And I’m not going to let you or your dad cheat me out of that. You’ve told me so much about all of the colorful characters in Port Protection, I’m really going to be upset if I’ve come all this way and I never get to meet them.”

Finally, Rachel smiled.

“Like Snag Horton with his big gold front tooth?”

“Yes,” Courtney said. “I want to meet Snag.”

“And what about Fat Man Jack?”

Courtney laughed. “Were you teasing me? Or did he really have to have a special boat built to hold him?”

“Wouldn’t you if you weighed six hundred pounds?”

“I’d love to meet Fat Man Jack,” Courtney said. “And your friend Tiki.”

“You’re really going to love Tiki’s parents,” Rachel said. “Tiki’s dad has been my dad’s best friend since they were kids when dad spent all his summers here. Yanoo doesn’t say much, but you’ll like him. And Tiki’s mom is way cool like you. Hanya really gets Tiki just like you understand me.”

“And your adopted grandparents are still okay with you having your dad’s party at their general store?”

Rachel nodded. “I told Peg and Hal we’d come early tomorrow and put up all the decorations.”

“We aren’t going to have a party or your surprise dinner tonight unless you go make peace with your dad. He wants to see you in his office as soon as we finish talking.”

“Great,” Rachel grumbled. “I can’t wait.”

“You owe your dad a huge apology, Rachel,” Courtney said. “And you know it.”

A deep sigh escaped Rachel’s lips.

“And he could have been nasty to me, but he wasn’t.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“And if I didn’t adore you, I could have been nasty about this whole situation, too,” Courtney reminded her. “Do you realize how embarrassed I was when your dad had no idea I even existed?”

“Okay, okay.” Rachel groaned. “I’ll go make peace with Dad. But only because I owe it to you.”

Courtney reached out and gave Rachel a big hug.

To Courtney’s relief, Rachel hugged her back.

“Could you do me one more favor?”

Rachel nodded.

“Do you still have any of the e-mails on file that I thought I was sending to your dad?”

Rachel got up from the bed and walked over to her dresser. Seconds later, she pulled out a folder from her bottom dresser drawer. “I was afraid Dad might catch me, so I always printed them out before I erased them and waited to read them later.”

“Devious of you,” Courtney said, “but perfect for what I have in mind. Would you give them to your dad for me?”

Rachel looked concerned. “But why?”

“Because I wrote those e-mails thinking I was writing them to your dad. And Graham has the right to see them.”

Rachel grinned. “Tell me the truth. Are you crushin’ on my dad, Courtney?”

“I’m just trying to even the score a little. I know a lot about Graham. It’s only fair he should have a chance to know who I am. If he wants to know anything about me, of course,” Courtney added quickly.

“Adults are so weird,” Rachel said. “But whatever.”

“And one more thing,” Courtney said. “I know you want to dress up for dinner tonight, but I really wouldn’t push your dad about that. I think he’s had enough of both of us for one day. Let’s just concentrate on making him the really nice dinner you’ve planned.”

Rachel shook her head. “No way. We are dressing up for dinner. And Dad will just have to get over it.”



GRAHAM LEANED BACK in his chair, his feet propped up on his desk. He’d been waiting for Rachel for—he checked his watch—thirty-five minutes now. If she didn’t show up soon, he’d walk down the hall and get her himself.

He still wasn’t sure how he felt about Courtney’s obvious affection for his daughter. She’d defended Rachel at every turn. And though Graham admired Courtney for doing that, it puzzled him.

What was the common bond there?

She skirted around the question when he’d asked earlier, saying only that Rachel had been a bright spot in her day. Not that he questioned her honesty. She’d already proven she was blunt enough to tell him how she felt.

Like telling him he wasn’t a hard sale. Graham smiled, thinking about it.

Until he looked down at his watch again. Five o’clock already. If Rachel didn’t get her butt in gear soon, they were going to be having her big surprise birthday dinner for breakfast.

Rachel’s planning dinner was another mystery to Graham. His daughter had never shown any interest in the kitchen. Not even when her mother was alive.

A wave of guilt suddenly washed over him. He wasn’t being fair, and Graham knew it. Rachel never had the opportunity to have any time in the kitchen with her mother and Julia hadn’t been the in-the-kitchen type.

In fact, both of their careers had been so demanding they’d always had a live-in housekeeper even when they were first married—him the new face on Wall Street, Julia the brilliant new prosecuting attorney determined to make a name for herself. And later, after Rachel was born, a daytime nanny had been added to the staff to care for the child who didn’t quite fit in with a busy and successful couple’s schedules.

And that’s what Graham didn’t understand about Rachel’s damn insistence to return to New York. Why would Rachel want to go back to a life like that? A life so busy you had no time for family? Seeing each other only in passing? Losing sight of yourself and the people most important to you?

Well, not him—not ever.

What had appeared to be the good life on the surface had been far from perfect, regardless of the happy childhood memories Rachel had about living across the street from Central Park. He’d never tarnish those memories. Just as he’d never tell Rachel that her parents’ marriage had been on shaky ground from the very beginning.

As with the rest of his past life, he and Julia had sort of happened to each other. They’d both moved in the same social circle, and their parents had been good friends. Marriage had seemed like the next logical step, and they’d taken it. But their marriage had always been based more on what everyone else expected of them than on any true love for each other.

Sadly, it had taken Julia’s death before Graham realized what a meaningless life he had fallen into. He’d had his priorities completely out of order. He’d placed his career and the almighty dollar above his ten-year-old daughter, whose care had been the responsibility of a long string of housekeepers and nannies instead of her own parents.

He’d failed at marriage.

He would not fail as a father.

He’d left New York and never looked back. And he’d come to the one place where he’d always felt centered even as a kid, thanks to his grandfather Morrison. His grandfather had been an unpretentious man who firmly believed that nature and the simple things in life fed a person’s soul and shaped their true character.

Graham had wanted Rachel to experience those same values. And he knew Rachel had been happy the first couple of years, when having her father’s full attention had been a novelty instead of a curse. Graham also knew most of Rachel’s attitude about being stuck in Port Protection now was simply her being a teenager. Still, the thought of Rachel returning to New York turned Graham inside out.

He wanted to keep her safe.

And not only from the type of crime everyone faced living in a large city. Graham wanted to keep Rachel safe from getting caught up in the whole gotta-have-it-all-regardless-of-the-cost madness that skewed a person’s outlook on life.

He’d lived that type of phony existence.

He’d also been raised by a long string of housekeepers and nannies, and he’d been born to parents who still believed money, power and social standing were the measure of a person’s worth. In turn, he’d married a woman who met his parents’ approval and who shared those same beliefs.

Had he stayed in New York, Graham knew he wouldn’t have stood a chance against interference from his parents and from his former in-laws. Had he stayed, it would have been too tempting to fall back into his old routine instead of taking full responsibility for his daughter.

Before Rachel set out on her journey through life, Graham wanted to do for her what his grandfather had done for him. He wanted to teach his daughter that there was so much more to life than an impressive salary, or a luxury penthouse apartment, or a closet filled with designer clothes. He wanted Rachel to know who she was as a person. And the longer he kept Rachel in Alaska, Graham believed, the better chance she would have of learning to appreciate the things that no amount of money, power or social standing could buy.

A loud knock brought Graham upright in his chair.

Speak of the devil.

He prepared himself for another shouting match.

Instead, the first thing Rachel said when she closed his office door was, “I’m so sorry, Dad. For everything. Especially for copying text from your journal.”

“Sorry is a good place to start.”

Her chin came up in defiance. “Well, at least Courtney has forgiven me.”

“Courtney’s a nicer person than I am.”

Rachel mumbled something under her breath.

Graham let it go. “What were you thinking, Rachel? Did you really expect me to take one look at Courtney and fall in love with her?”

“Well, I…uh—” She looked down at the folder she was rolling and unrolling nervously in her hands. When she looked back up she said, “Okay, yes. I did think you would fall in love with Courtney. How could you not fall for her, Dad? She’s smart. She’s pretty. She’s funny. She’s perfect for you. Just like Meg Ryan was perfect for Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail.”

At least one mystery had been solved—where Rachel had come up with her insane e-mail idea.

“But real life isn’t a movie, Rachel,” he lectured. “In real life people pick their own partners. And if I ever decide to fall in love with someone, I’ll decide who’s perfect for me.”

She tossed her hair and said, “In other words, you don’t like someone else making decisions for you, right?”

“Right.”

“Neither do I, Dad.”

He’d walked right into that one. But Graham wasn’t about to let Rachel take control of the conversation.

“The difference,” Graham pointed out, “is that I’m the father, you’re the child, and it’s my duty to make decisions for you until you’re old enough to make them for yourself.”

“No, Dad,” she said. “I was a child when we first moved here. But I’m not a child anymore. And that’s the problem. As long as I stay here, my life isn’t going anywhere. And you don’t seem to care.”

Graham swallowed the big lump in his throat. Is that what Rachel really thought? That he didn’t care how she felt?

“You’re wrong,” Graham said. “I do care. You’re the most important thing in my life, Rachel, and I love you. And because I do love you, there are going to be times when I have to do what I think is best. Can’t you understand that?”

“No,” she said, crossing her arms stubbornly. “But obviously there isn’t anything I can do about it.”

“I’m glad you’ve figured that out,” Graham said, his voice stern now. “Because what you did to Courtney is inexcusable. I hope you’re ashamed of yourself.”

Her head dropped as she looked down at the floor. “I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough,” Graham said. “But you have Courtney to thank for me postponing any punishment until after the weekend. You invited her, and I expect you to bend over backward to make sure she has a good time while she’s here.”

She looked up again, her expression more repentant this time. “I will, Dad, I promise. And thanks for being so nice to Courtney in spite of being mad at me. She really has been a good friend to me.”

“That’s what has me concerned,” Graham admitted. “I don’t need another woman agreeing with you that you should move to New York. Both of your grandmothers do enough of that already. It only makes you more unhappy living here.”

“But Courtney isn’t like MiMi and Gram at all, Dad. Courtney tells me all the time I should stop worrying about New York and focus on making life in Port Protection work for me while I’m here.”

“Excellent advice,” Graham said a little too quickly.

“Shocker.” Rachel snorted. “Of course you would think Courtney’s advice is excellent.”

Graham grinned in spite of himself.

Rachel only rolled her eyes.

But they both knew this storm had passed—at least for now. And like all parents and children who instinctively know when it’s time to move on from an argument, Graham stood and held his arms out. Rachel stepped around his desk and walked into them.

“Don’t ever think that I don’t care about your feelings,” Graham said, pulling his daughter close as he kissed the top of her head. “But for now you and I are going to have to agree to disagree on you staying in Alaska. Is that a deal?”

“Maybe,” Rachel said, pushing away from him. “I’ll agree to disagree, if you’ll agree to something.” She stuck her hand out. “Deal?”

Graham looked at her outstretched hand, then back at Rachel. “Agree to what?”

“I’m making you a special birthday dinner tonight,” she said proudly. “And I want to dress up as if we were going out to some fancy restaurant in New York. If I can’t go to New York, I’ll bring New York here to Port Protection.”

Graham shrugged. “Okay. Dress anyway you want.”

He reached out to shake on the deal. Rachel jerked her hand back.

“I meant I want you to dress for dinner, too, Dad. That’s the deal. And don’t say you don’t have anything nice to wear.”

“I don’t have anything to wear.”

“Yes, you do. You have a tuxedo in your closet.”

“And what were you doing in my closet?”

Rachel grimaced. “Sorry. But I saw the tux when I was looking for your journal.”

She ran for the door after that confession, but she stopped, hurried back and placed the folder she’d been mutilating on his desk. “I almost forgot. Courtney wanted me to give you those. They’re the e-mails she wrote when she thought she was writing them to you.”

Graham was still staring at the folder when Rachel reached the door. He didn’t look up until she said his name.

“Dinner will be ready at seven.” She flashed him a big grin. “That gives you plenty of time to clean up and put on your tux.”

“I am not wearing a tux!” Graham called out as the door closed behind her.

What the hell?

Graham shook his head. His day kept getting crazier by the minute.

First, Courtney had kissed him senseless the second she stepped off the plane. Then, he’d learned his own flesh and blood had put him up for auction on the Internet. Next, he’d been informed Rachel had suddenly decided to become Martha Stewart. And now he’d been told he had to wear a tux to dinner.

Rachel had brought New York to Port Protection, all right. Up close and personal! Glancing at the folder again only made Graham wonder why Courtney wanted him to read the e-mails. Was she trying to give him a better idea of who she was? Or had that second kiss sent her the wrong message that he was interested?

Graham sat behind his desk.

And why had he kissed Courtney that second time? He hadn’t meant to kiss her. He’d just been standing there, his arm around her, and she’d been smiling at him. And dammit, he just couldn’t help himself.

Is that what turning forty did to a man?

Did hitting the big four-oh unleash some hidden gene that suddenly made a man feel the need to prove his virility? Or had he only been fooling himself all along? Had he really come to Alaska for Rachel’s protection? Or had he been protecting himself by making sure he wouldn’t have the opportunity to feel anything for a woman again?

He needed a clear head. He had to stop overanalyzing every little thing—worrying about his reaction to this and his reaction to that. Of course, he was attracted to Courtney.

He had eyes, didn’t he?

His reaction was no different than any other healthy man’s reaction to a good-looking woman. He’d been out of circulation so long he’d forgotten what was normal and what wasn’t.




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