Too Close For Comfort. Colleen Collins
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Juliet?” asked Harry, his blue-green eyes glistening in a face that was all beard with room for a nose.
“You’ve known me for years, and suddenly you’ve forgotten my name?” She motioned to Charlie, the owner of the Mush Lodge, who was working the bar.
“Yep, known you for years, but never seen you have so much trouble getting out of a damn sled….” Harry let the sentence dangle as he took another sip of beer.
“Yeah?” Charlie said, wiping his hands on a towel. Charlie had been in these parts as long as Cyd could remember. Some people said he’d landed here in the sixties in a psychedelic-painted school bus. Others said he’d gone to Canada to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam war, then relocated to this remote region of Alaska when he met May, his wife.
He never explained his past. Or his future, for that matter. He seemed pretty content to just live in the here and now, tend the bar, play his favorite music. Grateful Dead, Neil Young, the Stones.
“Coffee, don’t be stingy with the cream,” Cyd said. “Please.” She’d gotten so riled up over the last few hours, she was losing her manners. Again. If she didn’t stay in practice, try to be polite, she’d get another of those etiquette lessons from Jordan.
“Coffee, white. You got it, hon.” Charlie nodded and turned away.
“Jul-i-et,” Harry sang under his breath before taking another swig.
Cyd fought the urge to give him a piece of her mind. She was one of the guys, dammit, not some girly Juliet. One of the items on Jordan’s customer relations cheat sheet flashed through her mind. Don’t respond to criticism or taunts. Stay focused on the problem. Stay calm.
She’d never thought about it before, but those rules were good for real life, too. She’d let Harry’s comment go…but damn, it was hard trying to be good. If Jordan didn’t want to win that Alaskan Tourism thing so bad, she’d blow off practicing being “polished” and just be her usual, feisty self.
Charlie set a steaming mug of coffee in front of her. “Hungry?”
“What’re you grilling?”
“You,” Harry chortled. Several of the guys laughed.
Cyd pursed her lips, determined to ignore him.
“Got some moose steak,” answered Charlie, darting a glance at Harry, then back to Cyd.
“Get me some. Don’t be stingy with the fries, either. And a salad.” She almost forgot. “Please.”
“Please?” Harry guffawed. “Where the hell you pick up them manners?”
That did it. Cyd swiveled on her bar stool and faced Harry. But just as she opened her mouth, Charlie cut in.
“Harry, May baked your favorite apple pie,” said Charlie. “Wanna slice?”
Harry groaned like a bear. “May’s apple pie? I’ve died and gone to heaven. Make that two slices.”
“You got it.” Charlie turned to go.
“Wait, Charlie,” Cyd called out. “You seen Geraldine?” Geraldine, her aunt, lived on the outskirts of Katimuk.
“Yeah,” Charlie answered over his shoulder. “About two hours ago. She picked up supplies and headed back to her place.”
Great. That meant Aunt Geri was home. Cyd wrapped her hands around the coffee mug, letting the warmth seep into her hands as she contemplated the carved names in the old oak bar top. Once upon a time, Harry had carved their names here, although both of them pretended to have forgotten.
The bar grew oddly silent.
She turned her head and looked down the stretch of worn oak.
Jeffrey stood at the end of the bar, looking like some kind of fancy thoroughbred surrounded by buffalo. He’d doffed his parka so everyone got an eyeful of his blue-and-white pin-striped, button-down shirt. She squinted. Were those cuff links?
“What’ll you have?” asked Charlie. He’d paused halfway through the swinging kitchen door.
“Mind if I run a tab?”
“Brother, half of Katimuk does. What’ll you have?”
“I could use a double martini, up, Bombay, twist.”
“Bombay?” One of the guys snorted. “You got the wrong part of the world, buddy.”
Everybody laughed. Somebody slapped the surface so hard, the entire bar rattled.
Charlie released the door and stepped back to the bar. Picking up a bottle of whiskey, he poured a shot and set it in front of Jeffrey. “Best I can do for a martini,” he said, “unless you’re a beer man.”
“Thanks, this’ll be great.” Jeffrey downed it, then glanced down the bar and made friendly, but direct, eye contact with each man.
Cyd released a pent-up breath. It appeared Jeffrey was up to the challenge and could handle this group.
“Anyone know where I can get a hotel room?” he asked.
On second thought, he couldn’t.
As though a dam had burst, the entire group erupted in laughter and more table slapping.
“Yeah, there’s a Hilton right down the road.”
“Wait, let me call you a taxi.”
“No, a limo!”
“Neither option is acceptable!” a guy yelled, evoking another explosion of laughter.
Jeffrey frowned in confusion. “Did you guys overhear?”
More laughter and bar thumping.
And Cyd thought the sled dogs made a hell of a racket.
Charlie returned from the kitchen, holding two plates of steaming apple pie in one hand. With the other, he poured more whiskey into Jeffrey’s glass. “This one’s on the house.”
Jeffrey raised his drink. “To the great North.” He tossed back the whiskey.
One by one, the guys raised their drinks, some muttering “to the North,” some nodding solemnly. Cyd smiled. Mr. Jeffrey Bradshaw was showing that a thoroughbred could run with the pack. Damn if she wasn’t more than a bit impressed. He might be all city slicker on the outside, but he almost seemed to have the soul of a Northerner. As though he knew what it was like to be fierce, independent, tough.
Jeffrey strolled down the bar and sat on the stool at the very end of the bar, next to Cyd.
Harry, sitting on the other side of Cyd, glanced over, but before he could say anything, Charlie plunked down the plates of pie in front of him. Harry inhaled as though he’d never sucked in a decent breath in his life, groaned something about May deserving sainthood, then dug in.
Relieved that Harry was distracted for the time being, Cyd turned to Jeffrey. She glanced down. “Got the boots on, I see.”
He just looked at her, a twinkle in his eye. “Took me a while to figure them out.”
She shot him a questioning look.
“I never have to lace up my Italian loafers.”
She continued to stare at him, unblinking.
“I’m joking, Cyd.”
She rolled back her shoulders. “I knew that.” Her insides did a funny fluttering thing when Jeffrey flashed her that crooked, Harrison Ford-like smile.
Fortunately dinner arrived. The aroma of grilled meat and fries almost brought tears to Cyd’s eyes. She hadn’t eaten in hours, and it was all she could do to pick up a knife and fork and not dig into the meal with her bare hands.
“Looks good,” Jeffrey commented. “What is it?”
“Mooth,”