Sometimes to escape the drama, you have to create a little of your own.
Anne Kirby is the queen of suck-it-up-itude. Thanks to her unreliable, drama-llama mama, it fell to Anne to raise her three little sisters. Now that the youngest is off to college, it’s her turn to spread her wings.
She’s looking forward to three solid weeks cruising Alaska’s Inside Passage, with plenty of kayaking, hiking, and ice climbing. Until her tour guide turns out to be not—repeat, not—her type. A scruffy bum who can’t hold down a real job. Never mind he’s the only man who’s ever kept up with her trademark, rapid-fire sarcasm.
Thanks to some timely computer programming patents, Gabe Warren is free to live his life as an adrenaline junkie. But nothing has ever gotten his blood pumping like the beautiful, smart, sassy PE teacher.
When their spirited arguments land them in bed, passion flares like the Northern Lights. Soon he can’t imagine life without her. Now if he could only convince her that her perfect job isn’t safely inside a school gym. And that a vagabond like him is the perfect travel—and life—companion.
Note: this book was previously published as Alaskan Adventure by Crystal Jordan.
The final confirmation email had arrived.
It was official: she was booked on an adventure cruise through Alaska’s Inner Passages. Three solid weeks of sailing, camping, hiking, kayaking, and ice climbing in some of the most gorgeous wilderness the US had to offer.
This was going to rock.
Even an hour later, a huge grin still curled Anne Kirby’s lips. She did a little dance step as she crossed Main Street and bounced into the Moonside Café, where she was meeting her three best friends for their weekly dinner.
Karen pressed a palm to her burgeoning belly, using her free hand to wave Anne over. Anne slipped into the seat next to the blonde, where they faced Julie and Meg.
“What’s up?” Anne asked. There was an air of tension over the table that made her a bit wary.
“Wedding planning,” replied all three of her friends at once.
READ MOREYikes. There was a topic guaranteed to give Anne hives. Not something she was ever doing. No way, no how. Hell, no. Even if she ever took the fall for some lucky guy, she was eloping. Somewhere far, far away. Period. She shuddered to think of the mileage for drama her mother would get out of a wedding. Yep, she’d leave that pain and suffering to her little sisters, if they decided to do the full event.
A waitress came by to fill Anne’s coffee cup, and she nodded her thanks.
“Back to our conversation.” Making an agonized face, Karen glanced at Meg. “The ceremony is still a month away, girlfriend. Look at me. I’m huge and I still have seven weeks to go! I can’t believe you want a woman who’ll be eight-and-a-half-months pregnant as your maid of honor. Not that I’ll upstage the bride in prettiness, but I might eclipse you if I turn sideways.”
Anne snorted but tried to cover it by taking a sip from her mug. Not that she fooled anyone—her friends knew her too well for that.
“I don’t care,” Meg replied, her tone emphatic. “I want my friends there with me, even if we have to roll you down the aisle. We’re keeping it short, so you won’t have to be on your feet long. Besides, I think Finn might die if we did a big, formal, dragged-out ceremony.”
“Please,” Anne shot back. “That man would crawl over broken glass for you. If you wanted a long, fancy-ass ceremony, he’d let you have it.”
A satisfied grin tugged at Meg’s lips, and a happy sighed soughed out. “Yeah, he would. I think I’ll keep him.”
“Blech.” The annoyed noise was out of Anne’s mouth before she could stop it, and her three friends stared at her. She waved them away. “You guys are just so disgustingly in love. All three of you. It’s nauseating.”
Julie’s look was sly. “Jealous, little orphan Annie?”
Oh, now there was a surefire way to piss her off. The fact that she had bright red hair had led to more teasing in her childhood than she cared to recall. Orphan Annie, Anne of Green Gables, Carrot Top, Big Red. The list went on, some more perverted and insulting than others. Her hair couldn’t even be a nice shade of auburn like two of her three younger sisters. Nope, Anne’s was red. In-your-face red.
She scrubbed a hand over her short locks and glared at Julie. “Don’t be a jerk.”
Julie opened her mouth to retort when Meg poked her in the arm. “Quit antagonizing.”
“But that’s what I do.” Julie’s eyes widened. “Someone has to egg you guys on or we’d never have any fun.”
“Too bad. You’ll adjust,” Karen replied unsympathetically, patting her rounded belly.
Movement rippled beneath the surface, which always fascinated and horrified Anne at the same time. She set her palm next to her friend’s and felt the baby kick. “The belly alien lives.”
The creepy, ominous tone she used made Meg and Julie chortle. Karen just rolled her eyes. “Yes, and the belly alien wants feeding. So unless you want me to sic him on you, you’d better flag down the waitress so we can order.”
Anne arched an eyebrow, glancing across the table at her friends. “You know, I think she means it. Pregnancy has turned her cannibalistic. The belly alien’s terrifying bloodlust is taking over her body.”
Meg flagged down the waitress. “I think it’s vampires who have bloodlust, not cannibals.”
“Yeah.” Karen’s smile was not at all reassuring. “Cannibals like their food cooked. They roast ’em live over an open fire first.”
Julie raised a finger in the air, her tone turning as pious as any priest’s. “Note that I am not the one antagonizing here.”
“You’re such a good girl,” Anne cooed. “We’ll be sure to tell Lukas to reward you tonight.”
“No need.” Julie’s grin was positively sinful. “I’ll tell him myself.”
The waitress appeared with a breadbasket and took their orders. Karen fell on the rolls like she’d never eaten before in her life. She moaned, closing her eyes.
“Okay, while she has a private moment with the bread…” Anne let that thought trail off and reached into her messenger bag. Pulling out the printed email, she slapped it on the table. “Check that out.”
Meg and Julie leaned forward. After a moment of silence, Julie squealed. “No way! You did it?”
“What?” Karen craned her neck to see. “Oh my God, you finally booked a trip to Alaska? You’ve been saying you wanted to go there forever!”
She threw her arm around Anne’s shoulders for a quick hug, and Anne couldn’t stop a stupid grin from spreading across her face. While she’d been on a million weekend trips to Yosemite, Big Sur, Mount Shasta, and the Sierra Nevadas, she’d always had to stay close enough to home so she could ensure her younger sisters got to school Monday morning. But her youngest sibling had just finished up her freshman year in college and had a summer job in San Francisco, which meant Anne was free to leave town. She’d be back in time for Meg and Finn’s wedding at the end of July and the start of the school year in mid-August. She was a gym teacher at the local middle school, so these summer months without any responsibilities were a first. Normally, she spent the whole time refereeing the squabbles between the diametrically opposed personalities of her sisters. But not this year.
“Three whole weeks,” she said with relish. “I was going to take the ten-day trip, but they had a last-minute Memorial Day sale and I jumped on it. Three. Freaking. Weeks.”
Her friends squealed and enthused and asked questions and Anne could feel a little of the dissatisfaction that had plagued her lately begin to fall away. Yes. This was exactly what she needed. Time to get the hell out of Dodge.
Meg hesitated for a long moment. “I hate to ask but…what did your mom say?”
Ah, yes. Her mom. There was a topic guaranteed to burst her bubble. Dinah Kirby was the biggest drama queen who’d ever lived, and Anne had no idea how she was going to break this to her in a way that wouldn’t cause a meltdown. Her mom was codependent on a level that suffocated Anne. It hadn’t been so bad with her sisters there to help deflect, but now?
Anne sighed. “I didn’t want to tell her until I had something to tell. Until I pushed the buy button, I wasn’t sure I was going to do it. So that’s what I get to do after dinner.”
Julie’s expression was compassionate. “My couch is available if she goes atomic on you.”
“Thanks. I’ll be fine.” Or at least, Anne hoped she would. Dinah and she rarely fought—mostly because Anne kept her mouth shut—so this might be a novel experience. Not a fun experience, but a novel one. “Really, it’ll be fine.”
Meg cocked her head. “As long as you don’t let her drive you into staying in Alaska forever. I expect you to be back for my wedding.” She poked a finger in Karen’s direction. “If pregnant lady and the belly alien can’t escape, you can’t either.”
Kicking back in an exaggerated pose of relaxation, Anne folded her hands behind her head. She grinned. “Honey, I’m not just going to be back in time for the wedding, I’ll be back in time to make sure you have a bachelorette party you’ll never forget.”
“If it’s anything like the one she threw for me…” Karen’s voice trailed off, her eyes rounding with horror.
Anne just let her smile widen in a way she knew would worry them. As it should. Really, there was nothing quite so fun as yanking her best friends’ chains.
COLLAPSE