Chapter Two
Jamison
Ilean over the rail and tap my beer bottle against the wood. The sun is setting behind the snow-capped mountains, but there’s still at least two more hours of daylight left since we are edging further into spring now.
“Yo, Jamison, why the fuck are we hanging out on your porch like old ladies drinking tea?” Chadwick asks. “Let’s go play some cards.” Even twenty-three years of friendship doesn’t make me not want to punch him sometimes when he opens his mouth.
“We have one of the best fucking views in the world, and you want to hang out inside my cabin?” I return, and my jaw tightens. I shift to my other foot, my hiking boot sliding between the wood slats of my railing, my knee bouncing.
Claire hadn’t even spared me a second glance when I saw her earlier. That gorgeous blonde hair of hers was whipping in the wind as she made a sharp left, heading toward her parents’ home and away from me. It was a smart move, turning away. I won’t pursue Claire because my life’s a mess, but I want to know her. I want to communicate with the woman who has stolen my thoughts lately.
“I get better views than this every time I take off. Tonight I want to take Finn for all he’s worth,” Chadwick states, humor lacing his words.
“Fuck you, Chadwick,” Finn says. I haven’t known Finn for long, only five years, but I always agree with him.
I ignore my friends, more concerned with how Claire hardly acknowledged my presence when I saw her earlier. I froze up, and by the time I caught her eye, she was turning away. I’ll see her one more time, and that’s all thanks to her father. I have offered more than once in the last six months to pick up the rent check for them, but he says it’s no problem, he’ll bring it by. Which always ends up being Claire instead.
It’s the only way I get to interact with Claire when she makes the trip north, so I stopped offering. But that’s about to change, I hope. I’m going to communicate with her. It’s taken me four months of practice and giving up my mother’s old treasure maps, but Billy has finally given in to my requests to teach me how to have a conversation with his daughter.
“That right there is why we’re tea sipping.” Finn’s statement causes me to jerk up and set my beer bottle down. It wobbles on the old wooden deck. Claire takes the short path toward me as I wipe my hands on my old jeans.
“Damn right, it is. She’s hot,” Chadwick says with a low whistle. I should have called off the game night tonight, but we needed it today, and I’m never sure what day she’ll stop by.
“Dude, she’ll hear you. Shut the fuck up,” Rylee says. She’s always the most sensible of the group. I send a quick prayer upstairs that my friends will behave while Claire’s here. But it’s asking a lot of Him.
I start down the stairs. I need as much space as possible between us so they don’t distract me. When Claire’s head rises, I have a moment with the full force of her azure eyes on me. They have always reminded me of gliding my float plane across a frozen lake. The way the sun reflects off the lake is blinding; so is she.
Her eyes move over my shoulder, and her steps falter. She’s crested the hill and can now see my friends sitting on the porch. I’ll only get a minute of her time if I lose my shit, and I’ve been desperate for more time with her since I first laid eyes on her. I want to know every facet of this woman.
Hello, I sign.
My friends murmur, but I bolster my confidence. I resist the urge to let my gaze travel lower to take in the way the snug denim encases her body or how her sweater hugs her gorgeous curves.
I hope the drive was good.Shit. She hadn’t driven this time because she didn’t have her car. I have to pull myself together and focus. My heart hasn’t beaten this hard in a while.
She’s frozen but eventually nods. Her hands fly quickly before me.
You know signing?she asks. I focus on the way her hand slides from her raised brow and then how they smoothly rotate around.
I’m learning a little signing. My hands are shaky, stiff in return.
Why? Her hand sweeps by her temple, and her brows lower. I try to not focus on soaking her up while we communicate, but the way her lips dip down when she wets them catches my attention.
Billy told me to focus on her hands and always make eye contact, and I still might not catch everything she’s trying to tell me. Her facial expressions and body language will say just as much as her hands do.
“You aren’t going to introduce us?” Chadwick comes down the stairs and slams a hand on my shoulder. He turns to Claire. “Hey, I’m Chadwick. Nice to meet you.”
She shakes his extended hand, her body coiling tight. I don’t want to do this for the first time in front of everyone, but if I don’t, it’ll be another month before I can try again.
After last week’s shitty rescue trip and the hard day today, I’ve been impatient. I don’t want to wait more time to get to know her.
Chadwick punches my shoulder just as Rylee jumps down and offers Claire her hand. “I’m Rylee. I haven’t seen you around before. This is Finn.”
Claire runs a hand through her blonde hair as she shakes Rylee’s hand. She reaches for her back pocket, and I work to quickly distract her from handing the check over.
I make sure her gaze is on me before I sign, Sorry. I rub my right fist on my chest. These are my friends.
Claire pauses, her breathing unsteady as her chest rises and falls.
I point to Rylee first. She’s watching us with curious eyes and a bright smile. She has her long brown hair twisted high, her bangs almost hiding her eyes, and she wears a casual flannel and jeans. This is Rylee.
I point to Chadwick next. He’s got his ball cap on, and he’s strutting around with a smirk. His usual attire. This is Chadwick. I crudely fingerspell each name.
Lastly, I point to Finn. The most straight-laced of us. He doesn’t smile often, but he’s at least not glaring at her. That’s a win tonight. This is Finn.
“Since when do you know sign language, dude?” Chadwick nudges my shoulder again, and I swear to God, I’m going to punch him if he doesn’t stop.
I turn to him and shove him away. “Go away, guys. I’ll be inside in a minute.” The last of my patience wears out. I want to do this right and just have a fucking conversation with her. Every month I have the shortest glimpses of Claire, and this longing to know her has overpowered me.
“And miss this?” Chadwick says. “No fucking way. You learned to sign for her.” I’ve known Chadwick since I was seven. My mom and his dad were both bush pilots for Thorne Air. Since I’ve been in the cockpit of a float plane, he’s been there with me. He’s never pissed me off like this before.
“Guys, just give me a fucking moment, please?”
He raises his hands in surrender and starts to back away. “You’d better get moving, brother, she’s walking away.” Chadwick turns and climbs the stairs.
“Shit.” I curse and turn around. By the time I get rid of my friends, Claire’s at the end of my driveway. I rush after her.
Billy told me to never grab her arm to get her attention. She hates it. You get into her line of sight or wave your hand to let her know you want to speak. So, I run. I chase her down and get ahead so I can get her attention. I’m thankful Billy showed me the proper way to do it, even if he did this with a smirk and a shake of his head.
I extend my hand, letting her know I want to sign something. She halts, her body jerking again.
I’m sorry.
Her face falls, then she’s signing. I watch her face, her hands, her body, that gorgeous mouth of hers. The way the sun reflects off the blue flecks in her eyes. The smooth column of her neck. Shit.
What? I ask, then shake my head. She signed so quickly, and I wasn’t focusing hard enough. I don’t understand. I made sure I learned that phrase first because I knew I’d fuck this up.
I have to pull my shit together. She shoves past me and disappears down the road. I have a feeling this time she doesn’t want me chasing her down again.
I drag my fingers through my long hair and tug. I’m resting my hands on the back of my head when my name is called.
I turn and walk back to my porch, my boots crunching on the rough terrain, then I grab my beer to take a long swig. The coolness helps my dry throat. I fucked that up so badly. It shouldn’t have been so difficult. I’ve never been one to get distracted, but Claire does that to me.
“Jamison, did you really learn sign language just to communicate with that woman?” Rylee asks, her brows scrunched. I’ve known her as long as Chadwick’s been madly in love with her. She escaped from Texas to Alaska a few years ago and hasn’t looked back since.
The support of my friends is everything to me, but I kept this one thing from them. “Yeah,” I admit, not that it went how I planned.
“You fucked that up as bad as Finn did landing last week.” Chadwick shoots me a smirk.
Okay, that was bad; we had to repair the landing gear, but he made it home in one piece. That’s really what matters for bush pilots. The bush country is some of the harshest land, so making it home safely is always our goal.
“I landed just fine,” Finn growls.
I let them bicker. With a beer in hand, I walk inside, leaving my friends behind.
They follow me anyway. “What I don’t get is why did Miss Hottie come over to begin with? She seemed shocked as shit you did all that with your hands.”
“It’s called American Sign Language.” Rylee rolls her eyes. “The fact he knows it is amazing.”
“The question remains, my good buddy.”
“Her parents rent Mom’s old place.” I sit at the table and grab the deck of playing cards. The deck is old and worn, poker being something we play often to relax. I set my beer aside and start shuffling.
“I heard about that. Since when do you rent Daisy”s place?”
This is the first time someone’s lived there since I lost her. But when an old fishing buddy of Mom’s asked if I knew of a place in Casper, I couldn’t say no. The place was sitting empty anyway.
That’s just how we do things up here in Alaska. If a friend needs something, we all help out. Besides, we got to talking about the old times when he hunted for treasure with Mom, and we ended up spending the entire day together. It was nice to catch up with someone who knew her like I did.
“It was time, and they wanted out of Anchorage,” I say.
“And they have a hot daughter,” Chadwick adds, sliding a chair opposite mine. He pulls some money out of his back pocket and rests his beer on my kitchen table.
“I hadn’t met her then. What’s wrong with you?”
“I haven’t seen you go crazy for a woman like that in years. Well, not since Lizzy fucked you up.” The problem with close friends is that they know all your shit and don’t forget. The last thing I want to discuss is my ex. Maybe this is why I’ve kept everything from them.
I toss in my ante. “She comes by once a month to drop off her dad’s rent check. I wanted to be able to thank her.” To just share a conversation with her. Maybe get to know her. Ask her out on a date as a friend. Although it’s obvious, I’m really fucking out of practice and don’t need to be dating anyone.
“Well, then, brother, you didn’t get paid.” They all laugh, but I jerk my head to the window. I’ve still got a bit of daylight left, but not much.
“That”s perfect!” Rylee tosses in some cash and steals the stack of cards from my hands, then shuffles them between us. “Now you have a reason to go to her.” She passes us our cards for a game of Texas Hold’em.
“This time, try not to fuck it up so bad,” Finn says as he picks up his cards, tapping his hand on the table. Worst card player ever. He just gave away that he’s got a good hand to everyone.
“Fold.” I toss my cards down without looking and take a swig of my beer. My friends are right; she forgot to pay me. It’s the perfect in.
“Hey, don’t stay out too late, Casanova! We”ve got work in the morning.”
I flip Chadwick off over my shoulder, then take off, leaving my friends to occupy themselves.
I’m not about to give up on Claire that quickly, and this gives me a reason to go to her. It’s going to take more than turning away from me to stop me from communicating with her. If Claire thinks that’s the case, she hasn’t met an Alaskan man on a mission. I’ve fought the harshest terrain in the bush country and come face to face with death, staring back at it, unflinching. I’m going to ask this girl out on a date. As a friend, of course.
My heart is pounding as I make up the distance from my cabin to her parents’ place. Giving up all those treasure maps and practicing every day until I grasped the language was worth it if I get the chance to know this woman.
There’s a longing and something fierce I see every time those blue eyes lock with mine, and I’m not giving up on her that easily.