Alaska Skies: Brides for Brothers / The Marriage Risk

Ben, he noted, was pleased as a pig in...mud to be doing such a brisk business. The cook wove his way between the mismatched tables, refilling coffee cups and making animated conversation.

He lifted the glass pot toward Sawyer with a questioning look.

Sawyer shook his head. He sure didn’t need another coffee. In fact, he shouldn’t have had the last one.

He saw that Abbey was surrounded by four of his pilots. They circled the table where she sat with Pearl and her children, like buzzards closing in on a fresh kill. You’d think they’d never seen a woman before.

His crew was a mangy-looking bunch, Sawyer mused, with the exception of Duke, who was broad-shouldered and firm-muscled. One thing he could say about all of them was that they were excellent pilots. Lazy SOBs when the mood struck them, though. He didn’t know anyone who could love flying as much as a bush pilot and still come up with the world’s most inventive excuses to avoid duty.

Everyone plied Abbey with questions. Sawyer half expected all this attention to fluster her, but she handled their inquisition with graceful ease. He was astonished by how quickly she’d picked up on names and matched them to faces.

Ben sauntered over to his side. His gaze followed Sawyer’s. “Pretty, isn’t she?” Ben said. “I wouldn’t mind marrying her myself.”

“You’re joking.” Sawyer’s eyes narrowed as he studied his longtime friend.

Ben’s heavy shoulders shook with silent laughter. “So that’s the way it is.”

“Which way is that?” Sawyer challenged.

“She’s already got you hooked. In no time, you’ll be just like all the others, fighting for the pleasure of her company.”

Sawyer snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous! I just hope we don’t have any more women arriving with families in tow.”

Ben’s mouth fell open. “You didn’t know about the kids?”

“Nope. Christian didn’t, either, from what she said. Ms. Sutherland claims she didn’t get a chance to tell him.”

“Well, no one’ll have a problem with a couple more kids in Hard Luck,” Ben commented.

“That’s not the point.”

Ben frowned. “Then what is?”

“The cabins. Abbey can’t live in one of those cabins with her children.”

Ben leaned against the wall with Sawyer. “Yeah, you’re right. So, what are you going to do?”

“No idea.” Sawyer shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “It isn’t like there’s a house available for us to rent.”

“Catherine Fletcher’s place is vacant.”

Sawyer shook his head. He wouldn’t even consider approaching Catherine’s family, and he doubted his brothers would be willing to do so either, regardless of the circumstances.

The bad blood between the two families ran deep. It would take a lot more than needing an empty house to wipe out forty years of ill will.

Catherine Harmon Fletcher was in poor health now, and in a nursing home in Anchorage, close to her daughter.

Ellen, Sawyer’s mother, had suffered so much unhappiness because of Catherine. But she no longer lived in Hard Luck either. She’d remarried and had relocated to British Columbia, as happy as Sawyer had ever known her. He didn’t begrudge his mother her new life. He figured she deserved it after all the miserable years she’d endured.

“What about Pearl’s? She’s going to be moving in with her daughter,” Ben reminded him.

Sawyer hated to see the older woman go, but she’d told him it was time for her to move on, especially now that her friends had mostly left.

“Pearl’s not leaving until we hire a replacement and she’s had the opportunity to train her,” Sawyer said.

Ben mulled over the problem for several minutes. “What about the lodge?” he asked. “I know it’s been years since anyone’s stayed there, but—”

“The lodge?” Sawyer repeated. “You’re joking!”

“It’d take a little work....”

“A little work!” Sawyer knew he was beginning to sound like a parrot, repeating everything the other man said, but the idea was ludicrous. The lodge was in terrible shape. It would take months of hard work and thousands of dollars to make it livable. If it hadn’t been so much trouble, they would have refurbished it, instead of dealing with the cabins. But those, at least, were in one piece.

A fire had burned part of the lodge the year their father died, and not one of the three brothers had ever had the heart to get it repaired.

Their mother had always hated the lodge, which had become a symbol of everything that was wrong with her marriage, and she’d used the fire as an excuse to close it completely. If it’d been up to him, Sawyer would’ve torn the place down years ago. As it was now, the largest building in town stood vacant, a constant reminder of the father he’d loved and lost.

Ben wiped his forehead. “Yeah. The lodge wouldn’t work. It’s a shame, really.”

Sawyer wasn’t sure if Ben was talking about the abandoned lodge or Abbey’s situation.

There was no easy solution. “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he muttered.

Ben was silent for quite some time, which was unusual for him. He studied Abbey and the children, then turned to Sawyer. “I guess you could send her back.” His voice was carefully casual.

“I know.”

“Is that what you plan to do?”

Sawyer felt a twinge of regret. “I can’t see that we have any choice, do you?”

“It’s a simple misunderstanding,” Ben said. “No one’s to blame. She should’ve told Christian about the kids.”

The twinge had become an ache, and it didn’t want to go away. “Maybe Christian should’ve asked.” But it didn’t matter; she was here now, there was no place for her to live and he had to deal with it.

Better Abbey should return to Seattle immediately, Sawyer reasoned, before he found himself making excuses for her to stay.

Four (#u632d220d-9b46-537b-b657-dc2bf1d9206e)

Sawyer knew he wouldn’t be winning any popularity contests around Hard Luck if he announced that Abbey Sutherland and her children had to leave. The best way to handle the situation, he decided after giving it serious thought, was for Abbey to back out of the contract on her own—with a little help from him.

He waited until everyone had finished eating before he worked his way over to the table where she sat with Pearl. “I’ll show you to your cabin now,” he offered.

She looked up at him uncertainly, as if she wasn’t quite sure of his motives. “I’d appreciate that.”

“Sawyer,” Pearl said, placing her hand on his forearm.

Sawyer already knew what the older woman was about to say. Like him, Pearl must have realized immediately that Abbey and her children couldn’t live in a dilapidated old cabin outside town.