Water's Edge (Alaskan Frontier Romance Book 1) Read online

  “You’ll be better off in town,” he said firmly.

  “No.” Her stubbornness was getting the best of her.

  “Fine,” Jake said, pulling the skiff to shore. He quickly unloaded all of her belongings and helped her out of the boat. Picking up her suitcases, Jake led Nora up the slight incline toward the cabin. He sat the suitcases down beside the door and glanced at Nora. For the first time since meeting Nora, he felt sorry for her. He really did.

  Jake turned and opened the cabin door and walked into the darkness. Memory led him to the round wooden table at the far end of the room and then he groped around until his hands found the oil lantern he knew would be sitting in the center of the table. Jake reached into his pocket and withdrew a book of matches and expertly lit the lantern. Then he turned the knob on the side to lengthen the wick. The soft light grew a little brighter and illuminated the entire cabin.

  He turned around, then, and saw Nora was still standing outside the cabin, a blank expression on her face. She was doing everything she could to hide her disappointment. It wasn’t working.

  “No electricity,” she said dryly. “And no running water. That just figures.”

  “What did you expect?”

  Apparently too much. She’d anticipated a nice little house in town. When that hadn’t panned out, she’d at least expected to find a livable home on the water’s edge. Instead, all she had was a shack of a cabin with absolutely no utilities.

  “I don’t know. Something, at least. Plenty of people live off the grid with solar power.”

  “Well, out here most people use generators if they need power. Look on the bright side. No electric bills. No heating bills. Some people actually prefer living in a dry home like this. You’ll be free to come and go as you please and never have to worry about the water pipes freezing.”

  Nora looked at him skeptically.

  “Come on,” he said. “Check out the place.” He held out a hand to her, but she didn’t take it. Jake dropped his hand to his side as Nora walked past him into the cabin.

  The place was small, but not as bad as she had expected it to be from the outside. A lumpy, worn-looking couch sat along one wall, with a wood-burning cook stove sitting opposite it. A wooden ladder led up to a loft above and when Nora stood on her tiptoes she saw a bed perched up there, filling most of the loft space.

  Along the rear of the cabin, the wall was lined with shelves cluttered with books, plates and cups, and probably everything Pete had used to survive out there. On one shelf, Nora spotted a lone framed photograph. It was a family portrait taken when she was probably 4 years old. She sat in her mother’s lap and her father stood behind them. They were all smiling. That would have been before her parents divorced, a rare occasion when her parents weren’t fighting.

  “Pete talked about you from time to time, you know,” Jake said when Nora’s gaze lingered on the photograph. He had mistaken the look in her eyes, thought he saw sadness for her uncle’s death.

  That surprised her. “Really?” she said. “That seems so weird to me.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Well, I never met him,” she said simply.

  Jake looked at her, puzzled. “The way he talked about you, I always assumed the two of you were close.”

  “He talked about me? What did he say?”

  “Mostly about you as a kid. He said you had an adventurous spirit. He liked to think you got that from him.” Looking at her now, Jake had to wonder how Pete had been so wrong about his niece. As far as Jake could tell, Nora wasn’t the kind of woman who sought out adventure. Maybe at one time, she might have been different. But now, she looked fragile and delicate, more like the kind of woman that needed to be taken care of. “You really didn’t know him?”

  “All I ever knew of him was that he was my dad’s older brother. He never came to visit us and we never went to visit him.”

  “That’s not true. Pete showed me a picture once. It was of you and him. You were pretty young, though, so I suppose you might not remember it.”

  Nora shook her head. “I don’t. I don’t even know what he looked like.”

  “And yet, he left everything he owned to you,” Jake said.

  “I suppose he didn’t have anyone else to leave it to,” Nora replied. She said it casually, as if it didn’t mean anything to her. But deep down she was thankful he’d thought of her. He had been her lifeline. He had given her the means to walk away from a difficult situation, a bad relationship. Even if he’d only left her a dilapidated cabin in the middle of nowhere, it was still a chance to start over. It was a better alternative than what she might have become if she’d stayed with Conner. She would have tried to be the perfect wife, but she never would have measured up to his impossible standards. And it would have driven her crazy.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Jake said. Then he turned toward the door. “I’ll be right back.”

  Nora watched him trot back to the boat and bring the rest of her things up to the cabin. He brought the grocery bag in and sat it on the table and then hauled in the suitcases.

  When he finished, Jake turned to Nora, who stood there watching him. She honestly didn’t know what to do with herself.

  “Well, would you like me to show you around the place?” Jake asked, sensing Nora’s uncertainty.

  “I think I’ve seen it all,” Nora said unenthusiastically, “I could probably touch both walls if I stretched my arms out.” To prove her point, Nora raised her arms to her sides. The cabin wasn’t actually small enough for her to touch both walls, but it was close enough as far as she was concerned.

  Jake’s lips turned up slightly at the edges. “No, I meant the rest of the property,” he said. “You have five acres here and, like the lawyer said, there are a couple of outbuildings.”

  Nora was worn out from the long trip and exhausted at the thought of how hard life would be in a rustic cabin. She didn’t really feel like walking the grounds, but she followed him outside anyway.

  Jake led her toward a smaller building immediately behind the cabin. It looked to be in about the same condition as the cabin, and it held a variety of fishing poles, nets, fishing tackle, some large metal traps, a couple pairs of snowshoes, and a couple axes and metal wedges for splitting wood, as well as a collection of old burlap sacks. Alongside the shed, an aluminum skiff sat upside down.

  “Well, this isn’t going to work,” Jake said as he looked over the boat. A hole about three inches wide had been torn through the underside. He looked up at Nora and saw the look of disappointment on her face. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get you another boat. You’re not going to be stuck out here.”

  “Come on,” Jake said, leading her away from the supply shed and the useless boat. He pointed out a stream flowing through the rear of the property, as well as the outhouse that stood well away from the cabin. Then he walked Nora over to the woodpile. Thankfully, there was a good supply of wood already split and stacked.

  “It looks like the axe and maul are still in good shape. If you start now, you’ll be able to store up enough for the winter.”

  “Start now?” Nora had no idea what he meant.

  “Chopping wood,” Jake explained.

  Nora’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as she began to understand the reality she was faced with. She was going to have to chop wood. She’d never done anything like that before. As a child, she’d gone camping a few times with her parents, but the wood they’d used for campfires had been bought at the store, already neatly chopped and bundled.

  Jake chuckled at her expression.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s not that hard, once you get the hang of it. Just swing the axe hard and straight. And if you need help, there’s always someone willing to lend a hand.”

  Help. Just looking at the place, Nora knew she was going to need help. No running water, only a wood stove for heat. She was going to need a lot of help, if she could bring herself to ask for it. There was only one problem. Nora didn
’t want to ask for help. For the first time in her life, she had a chance to do something on her own, without anyone else stepping in and taking charge. She desperately wanted to prove she could do it, not only to everyone who had ever doubted her, but to herself.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Nora said stubbornly, not willing to admit that she was in over her head.

  “If you say so,” Jake said, unconvinced.

  Grabbing an armload of wood, Jake led Nora back to the cabin and stacked the wood beside the stove.

  “You know how to build a fire, right?” Jake asked her.

  Nora lied and said she did. She felt inadequate enough as it was and she didn’t want to admit she couldn’t do something as simple as build a fire. Everywhere Nora had ever lived, all she’d had to do was turn a little knob on the wall to adjust the temperature. And on those camping trips with her parents, her dad had always been the one to build the fire. All of her life, Nora had stood by while someone else took care of the details. But not anymore.

  “Anyone can build a fire,” she said, cocking her chin up in defiance.

  In spite of Nora’s insistence that she’d built fires plenty of times before, Jake still showed her how to load the wood into the stove on top of the kindling and how to light it so it would stay lit.

  “Even though it gets up into the 40s and 50s during the day, it still gets chilly at night, so you’ll have to add more wood later on to keep it going,” Nora vaguely heard Jake say. All she could think about was how different their definitions of “chilly” were. All day long Nora had been cold. She was expecting it to be downright freezing at night, not just a little chilly.

  With Nora delivered safely to the cabin and a fire roaring in the stove, Jake figured he’d done his job. But he was still a little reluctant to leave her there.

  “Well, I guess that’s everything,” Jake said. “Is there anything else you need help with before I go?”

  Nora put on her bravest smile. “No. I’ll be fine,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as him.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you back into town? We have a spare room…”

  “No,” Nora cut him off. “I’ll stay.” She was determined to make a go of it. Like it or not, this was her home now.

  “Ok,” Jake said grudgingly.

  Nora walked him out to the skiff. The tide was at its lowest and the boat now sat far up on the tidal flats, a good distance from the water.

  “Thanks for bringing me out here,” she said.

  “No problem.” Then Jake picked something up out of the skiff. “Oh, I almost forgot. Lily said you probably didn’t have too many supplies, so I picked up a few canned goods and some other things I thought you might need.” He handed her the cardboard box full of food. Then he quickly pulled the skiff out into the water, jumped in, and started up the motor. He waved one last time before he turned the boat toward town and sped away.

  Nora, shocked at receiving yet another welcome gift, stood there holding the box and watching until his boat disappeared from sight. Alone, she walked back up to the cabin. She sat the box down on the table alongside the grocery bag and then looked around. It all looked so depressing.

  The fire Jake had built was roaring in the fireplace and the cabin had grown rather toasty in a matter of minutes. Nora still couldn’t believe she was going to have to chop wood in order to keep warm. She’d only ever seen people chop wood in movies, the ones about early settlers in the west. Is that who she was now? A pioneer?

  At least she had a roof over her head, Nora reminded herself. In a way, it was like those camping trips she’d taken with her parents. It wouldn’t be so bad to “rough it” for a while in the cabin. That’s what she tried to tell herself, anyway.

  Not knowing what to do with herself, she curled up on the small couch and laid there. Everything felt so foreign. She didn’t want to unpack her things, not yet anyway. It didn’t feel right, like she was taking over her uncle’s home, edging him out before she even got to know him. No, for now Nora would leave things as they were.

  She lay there for a long time. Night eventually set in. The shadows from the lantern flickered against the walls, giving the cabin a spooky feel and Nora had second thoughts about staying there. But with no boat, no roads, and no trails, there was no way out. The cabin was her only refuge.

  Chapter 3

  Nora was still lying on the couch when she heard a knock on the door. She must have dozed off again, she decided in a half-awake state. She’d been dreaming about being back in the 5,000 square foot home she’d shared with Conner. It was Thanksgiving Day and Nora was trying to make a nice dinner for herself. Conner was too busy at work and had chosen not to take the holiday off. But Nora was okay with that. She told herself it would be good for her to be alone on the holiday, and instead of choosing to wallow in self-pity, she had rolled up her sleeves and started making a Thanksgiving dinner for one. The pie was cooling in the window, the turkey was almost finished, the potatoes were mashed, and everything was coming together nicely when a stream of people she didn’t know started showing up at her door. They barged in without being invited and quickly filled the living room. Nora didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have enough food for everyone, but the strangers were intent on having dinner with her. They were all dressed like they were ready for a red carpet event, making Nora feel inadequate in the everyday clothes she was wearing. To make matters worse, every time she went back to the kitchen to finish the meal preparation, more people showed up at her doorstep. Things kept getting more hectic and more out of hand. Nora was about to boot them all out of the house, when she heard another knock on the door. The last knock awoke her from the dream, thankfully.

  She had been lying there on the couch for hours, dozing off and on despite the fact that the sun was up and she knew she should get up. Instead she lay curled up under a throw blanket Pete had left slung over the back of the couch. The blanket smelled of smoke and something else Nora couldn’t identify. Frankly, the stench of the blanket was nearly unbearable. Nora could have gone through her things and pulled out the blanket she’d brought with her to Alaska, but she didn’t feel like moving. In spite of the smell and her discomfort, she was too tired to move. That’s the way she’d been all night long. She felt a growing ache in her back, no doubt from lying on the lumpy old couch for too long, and shifted slightly to relieve the pain.

  Her first night in the cabin had not gone well. Nora wasn’t usually the type of person to be afraid of the dark, but for the first time in her life she had felt frightened of the unknown. There were so many unfamiliar things lurking outside the walls of the cabin, so many unusual noises in the night. And then there was the blasted lantern that kept casting spooky shadows on the walls. No, Nora had not slept much the entire night. And so, when daylight came, she didn’t bother getting up. She was exhausted and all she wanted to do was sleep. Unfortunately, sleep was the one thing she seemed to be incapable of doing. All she managed to do was drift off for a few minutes at a time, so she wasn’t getting the rest she so badly craved.

  The fire had gone out hours ago. Even though Jake told her she would need to add more wood every few hours, Nora hadn’t bothered. Initially, the cabin had been roasting. The fire had rapidly warmed the small space up to an unbelievably hot temperature and Nora had laid there sweating. When the fire finally died down a little, Nora was thankful for the relief. Hours later, the warmth completely dissipated and Nora pulled the throw blanket over her in an attempt to stay warm. Now, she pulled the blanket over her head to block out the sun peeking through the window. She was determined to get some sleep.

  But sleep wasn’t in the cards. A knock at the door brought her the rest of the way out of the half-awake state she’d been in all morning. Maybe she hadn’t been dreaming when she’d heard the knocking before, Nora thought as she threw back the blanket and sat up. The last thing she’d expected on her first day at the cabin was a visitor. Who in the heck would be all the way out
here, anyway? Lily had told her there were only three neighbors, and none of them lived close by.

  “Nora?” she heard from the other side of the door. She recognized the voice. It was Jake. He knocked again and Nora jumped up from the couch.

  “Um, just a second,” she hollered. Nora looked around frantically. Was there seriously no mirror in this place? Of course, there wouldn’t be a mirror. A backwoodsman like Pete would have had no use for such things, Nora thought, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to fix her appearance. She’d slept in the same clothes she’d worn the day before. They were wrinkled and probably smelled, but she didn’t have time to change. Grabbing her jacket off the peg on the wall, Nora slid it on to hide her wrinkled clothing. She knew she must look horrid, but she did her best to tidy herself up before opening the door.

  When Nora opened the door a few seconds later, she found Jake leaning casually against the door frame, gazing in the direction of the water... and looking extremely attractive. The sight of him made Nora even more self-conscious about her disheveled appearance. Did he look this good yesterday when I first met him? Sure, Nora had noticed his firm build, but she hadn’t noticed the way his hair glinted in the sunlight. Maybe he only looked so good because she’d spent the night alone and scared, and now she practically had a knight in shining armor standing at her door. Or maybe she’d been a bit self-absorbed the day before, to the point where she didn’t even think twice about the hunky guy taking her out to the property. But who could blame her – after such a long trip and the disappointment of finding out she’d inherited a shack instead of a house – for being a little preoccupied?

  If she hadn’t noticed what was right in front of her the day before, she certainly did now. The way his arms were crossed over his chest, his biceps bulged out through the cotton t-shirt tucked neatly into his faded blue jeans. He wasn’t wearing a coat and he looked perfectly comfortable without one.