Chapter 8
TWO MONTHS LATER
“It’s done,” Meghan said, raising her glass of Alaskan Amber to the party. “It’s done at last.”
They had all gone together to the nearest post office—which was not very near—to mail back the divorce papers by certified mail, with signature required. On their way back, they stopped at a bar in Tok to celebrate.
“I still think you could have gotten more money out of him if you’d taken it to court,” Jessie groused, clinking her glass around the table. “There’s no way that was half that asshole’s assets.”
“I never wanted his money,” Meghan assured her, taking a frothy sip. “I just wanted my freedom.”
“And damn, Jessie, she’s got enough to buy Ruby’s if she wanted to.” Henry had already downed half his glass. “No reason to be greedy.”
“She could have bought all her friends mansions,” Jessie suggested. “And I’m sure that wolf-boy here could use a diamond-studded collar.”
The four of them joked easily about Trevor’s peculiar nature, and he always took it cheerfully in stride. “I’d rather have spikes,” he teased.
Meghan took another sip from her beer.
“Be right back,” she said, slipping down off the bar stool.
Trevor found her a few minutes later, leaning against the porch railing outside.
She looked up at him. “You know, I actually came out here to let Sheppard out of the car. I…still haven’t gotten used to not having him around.”
“I could go pee on some bushes if it would make you feel better,” Trevor offered. “Maybe sniff around those car tires and chase a rabbit?”
Meghan giggled as he sidled up next to her and put an arm over her shoulders.
“You know, it’s okay to miss him,” he added. “It’s okay that you loved him.”
“He was safe to love,” Meghan said thoughtfully. “He didn’t ask anything out of me except food and rides in the car.”
“That’s a good life,” Trevor said, voice thick with mock envy. “You made me get my own place and my own car and cook for you.”
It turned out that his pack wasn’t a poor pack.
Now that he had a credit card and a wardrobe, he was proving to be more than suitable boyfriend material.
He loved to cook and did it well, and since his cabin even had running water, Meghan found herself spending more time there than they did at her cabin.
“What are you going to do with your money?” he asked quietly.
Meghan honestly believed that it was a question, not a presumption.
“I’m not spending it until it’s here,” she said firmly. “And the check clears. And then I’m waiting a year because these things can be reversed.”
“Then?” He was kind enough not to comment on her paranoia.
“I want to invest most of it,” Meghan said.
“I know, it sounds stupid, but I’ve never worked a legitimate day in my life.
I’m almost forty, and I don’t have any retirement, haven’t paid into social security.
And I want to buy my own place. Nothing fancy.
It doesn’t need water, but power would be nice.
Maybe something in Tok, or even Fairbanks.
I like Alaska. And if there’s any left over…
I might travel. I’ve always been scared to go anywhere there were people or cameras, and I couldn’t use my ID to buy tickets anyway.
I can apply for a credit card now! Get utilities in my own name! ”
She gave Trevor a sidelong look. “You must think I’m the most boring person in the world.”
He was looking at her with utter adoration. “Haven’t you figured out by now that I love you too much to find you boring?”
Meghan looked at him thoughtfully. “You know, when you told me I was your soulmate, I thought you meant that you were my other half, that I needed you. I didn’t want to need anyone. I was done with that. I wanted to be whole, all by myself.”
“And?”
“The whole me kind of likes you,” she admitted.
Trevor’s face lit up. “We both kind of like you,” he agreed. “Kind of a lot.”
“Because of destiny?”
“Because of you. Because of who you are.” He bent and kissed her forehead. “Because of the whole you.” He drew back at a sudden thought. “Hey, you’re divorced now.”
“Thank God,” Meghan agreed.
“Want to marry me?”
Meghan considered, looking at his eager, handsome face fondly. The question would have terrified her a month ago. “Ask me in a year,” she decided.
Trevor drew out his phone. “I’m putting it in my calendar right now. Ask. Meg. To. Marry. Me.”
“Trevor...”
“Should I put the time in, or am I allowed to ask any time that day?”
“Trevor…”
“Oh, wow, I should make a reminder to get a ring a few weeks before that.”
“Trevor…”
“How long does it even take to get a ring? What’s your size?”
“I might say no,” Meghan warned him.
“That’s okay,” Trevor said solemnly. “I’ll love you anyway.”
“Trevor…”
This time he was silent, waiting.
“I love you, Trevor.”
He dropped his phone to kiss her, wrapping strong arms around her and lifting her onto the porch railing to properly make love to her.
“We can’t…have sex…on…the porch…of a…bar,” Meghan protested during breaks in his kiss.
He paused. “Are you sure?”
Meghan buttoned her shirt back up. “I’m sure.”
He pouted a moment, then grinned. “How about a ride in the car?”
Orson comes to Alaska to take over a business for his family and finds it running fine without him at the hands of a woman his bear wants to claim.
A hot and hilarious tale of two people trying to be someone they aren’t on a road trip with only one bed.