Wild At Heart (Wild 2)

I drag my fingernail across Jonah’s beard, reveling in the scratching sound. “Jack seemed nice.” I met the man briefly. He was quiet, soft-spoken. Not at all what I imagined the big game hunter to be.

“He’s a good guy,” Jonah agrees. “Smart. I’ve heard he’s a helluva hunter.”

“Did he mention working for him?”

He hesitates. “Yeah.”

“And?”

“And … nothing. It doesn’t work for me.” Jonah studies his hand as he skims the surface of the water with his palm.

“What’s the job?”

“He wants me for three weeks in September. Seven days a week, doing runs every day and being available on call for game pickups. I’d basically be catering to rich politician assholes from the Lower Forty-Eight.”

“And you’d get paid really well doing it.”

Jonah nods somberly.

“But you’d have to stay in McGrath.”

“Sounds like you already know all about this.” He frowns. “Muriel tell you?”

“No. Surprisingly, that is one thing she didn’t mention.” She told me everything about everyone else, though—births, deaths, marriages, divorces, scandals, bankruptcies, windfalls. “Toby told me.”

“Yeah, well …” Jonah sighs. “Stationing out of McGrath is the only way to do it. It’s too far to fly back and forth every day, and he can’t risk bad weather through the mountains keeping his pilot from being there. The hunters are paying a ton of money to have one on call.”

I take a deep breath and say what I’ve been preparing to say all night. “If you want to take the job, then you should take it.”

His head’s already shaking. “I promised you I wouldn’t leave you out here alone like that.”

“I’ll be fine.” I hope I sound more confident than I feel. “I’m sure Muriel will be here every day, anyway, whether I want her here or not. And I can always fly home.”

“This is your home.” He glowers.

“You know what I mean. I can fly back to Toronto for a couple weeks.”

He seems to consider this. “What about Bandit and Zeke?”

“I don’t know? I’ll ask Toby or Muriel to help.” I can’t believe I have to consider a raccoon and a goat in my plans. I barely even see Bandit, now that the weather’s warmer and he’s off climbing trees. “We’d make it work.”

Jonah slides the elastic from my ponytail. My hair tumbles down over my shoulders, the ends dipping into the water. “If Jack’s impressed, he’ll want to lock me in every September going forward.” Which would lessen some of the pressure to earn money through the long, dark, unpredictable winter months—something I know weighs on Jonah.

“Of course, he’ll be impressed.” I hear what Jonah’s really saying, though—that this isn’t just for this year. I’ll have to be ready to spend every September without him.

He chews his bottom lip. “It’s not like you’ll be stuck here, anyway. You’ll be able to drive whenever and wherever you want, to visit people.”

I nod and smile; meanwhile I’m wondering, what people? I don’t know anyone. Agnes and Mabel are all the way on the other side of the state, and I can’t get to them by car.

I was right, though. Jonah wants to take this job.

He seizes my chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing my gaze to his. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? Because once I commit, it’s a done deal. For this year, at least.”

I smooth my hand over his chest. That’s twenty-one days and twenty-one nights, unable to touch him like this. Out here alone, possibly. I look out over the vast, quiet space.

This is what Jonah does, though. Off-airport landings are his specialty and he enjoys it. It doesn’t feel right, holding him back. I couldn’t live with him resenting me for it down the road. “It’s only three weeks.” Muriel introduced me to a man tonight who’s gone for months in winter, up to the North Slope building ice roads for the oil rigs, leaving his wife and kids at home to fend for themselves. When I hear stories like that, it makes me feel silly and weak to fret over three weeks.

Beneath the water, he runs his palm back and forth over my thigh. “Maybe I don’t wanna be without you for that long. Ever thought of that?”