Alaskan Mountain Pursuit Elizabeth Goddard (best short novels .TXT) 📖

things were tight. Most of that weight was on Tyler’s shoulders, but Summer didn’t want him to have to shoulder that alone.

Besides, whether Clay understood or not, it was her family’s lodge and family mattered, so it was her responsibility too. Did Clay not understand that? Maybe not.

She didn’t know enough about him. Didn’t know if he even had a family. She shuddered at the very thought of being alone in the world. She didn’t know what she’d do without her family. They had never let her down...even if she hadn’t been able to return the favor.

Pushing the past from her mind, something she felt like she spent too large a portion of every day doing, Summer stared down at her favorite hiking boots. They were covered in dirt, now not just from enjoyable adventures in the woods, not just a visible symbol of how she loved to push herself, but also from running for her life.

Summer wasn’t sure how she felt about that. It seemed wrong, somehow. Another thing her mystery attacker had tainted. Nothing about this situation seemed right though. Right down to the fact that as protective as Noah was, her brother didn’t have the time to invest in keeping her safe one-on-one, not if he was going to make any headway in solving the case and making something like a protective detail unnecessary.

So she had a stranger keeping her safe.

That was something she needed to get over sooner rather than later. The way she’d behaved toward Clay wasn’t something she was proud of and it needed to change.

Summer took a deep breath at the trailhead as she eyed the woods. “‘Lovely, dark and deep,’” she muttered under her breath, reminded of a poem she’d studied in high school.

“Robert Frost, right?”

She jumped, not having realized Clay was right behind her. She nodded. “I think so. You read a lot of poetry?” She wouldn’t be surprised if he said yes. There was more to him than she would have assumed.

“Not since high school English—I think that’s when I read that poem.”

She laughed. “Me too.”

“It must be required across the country or something.”

Summer nodded, having forgotten in the seconds of kinship there that they came from different ends of the country, different worlds if you thought about it. This corner of Alaska was familiar to her, where she was raised—the mountains that were her home. She’d looked Clay up online and learned that he was from South Georgia, near the beach. They couldn’t be more opposite if they tried.

“You nervous about going back in the woods?”

The perception she’d noted as being part of his character seemed to be coming out even stronger now. But she didn’t see a need to answer. He could take that however he wanted to.

“Alright,” she said, raising her voice to be heard by the small crowd, “if everyone will meet me here by the trailhead I need to go over some rules.”

She went through her spiel the way she did before every single hike she led—some tourists underestimated the terrain or Alaska itself, and she liked to make sure they understood the risks as well as how to minimize them before they started. Among other things, she reminded them of how to act during a bear encounter and to make sure they stayed with a hiking partner.

“Does this mean you’re my hiking partner?” Clay drawled softly as she walked by.

Summer whirled and caught the smile in his eyes. This playfulness was a new side of him. She smiled back for a split second, welcoming the more lighthearted interaction, before realizing she really couldn’t afford to let her guard down. For the sake of her safety and her heart. “I guess you don’t have much choice right now, do you?”

Not waiting for a reply, Summer started down the trail. Of course, a quick glance over her shoulder not many seconds later, which she told herself was to check on the hikers she was leading, confirmed that he’d caught up and was directly behind her. From the little she knew about him, she was certain he wasn’t going to let her go far from him. He took keeping her safe seriously, something she appreciated.

“On the right in just a few more minutes you’ll get your first glimpse of the falls,” she called back to the group. “We won’t reach the base of the falls for another two miles because of the way the trail twists and turns through the forest.”

Some appreciative murmurs behind her from the tourists confirmed to Summer that she’d made a good decision for this hike. Of course, it wasn’t long after that that she remembered why it wasn’t one of her favorite trails—the mud could get slick on some of the uphill sections.

She made it up one particularly steep section and then turned to the group. They seemed to be doing okay so far. She saw more smiles than frowns—so far this hike was a win. She felt her shoulders relax a little as she prepared to deliver her next fun fact about this trail. That was something that made her hikes more enjoyable than people just wandering through the woods by themselves. She was able to offer tourists her expertise about the area and help them recognize some of the unique elements they were seeing.

“I’m sure you’re noticing the mud helping you break your hiking boots in.” Summer kept her voice light. “For those of you who don’t already know, both Moose Haven and the nearby town of Seward are in the farthest north rain forest. I know when you think rain forest you probably don’t picture spruce trees but it’s true.”

“Explains the mud,” Clay muttered under his breath. Summer glanced at him, catching his smile. He did have a nice smile. More than nice.

They kept hiking.

“Just about another mile to the falls.”

Most of the people had stopped talking by now. This was the most intense part of the hike. Thankfully the wind had shifted, bringing some of the cool moist