TRIXIE
H unter was glowering at her like she’d just grossly overstepped and Trixie wondered if she’d imagined the moments where she thought he was standing just a little closer than he needed to watch her do something and maybe his gaze was lingering just a little longer than it ought to.
“You don’t have to,” she said quickly. “It’s been a long morning, and I thought it was just a friendly thing to do.”
“Just friendly.” Hunter’s voice was sexy and low, even when he was dashing her hopes.
“Fast Eddy’s is a local standby, but there are also a few other food trucks that are still open for the season if you’d rather pick up something and come back,” Trixie said, trying not to sound disappointed.
“Fast Eddy’s is fine.” Everything Hunter said sounded like a growl.
“We can take my truck,” Trixie offered. Then she remembered that she was storing stuff in her passenger seat, so there was an awkward moment while she had to throw everything in the back to make room for Hunter and he stood there looking down at his boots like he was bored.
Even after a morning of hard work, he looked like he’d just stepped out of an advertisement for the jeans he was wearing.
“Music?” Trixie asked inanely, once she had turned on the truck and caught her Taylor Swift disc before it could start and kill her with embarrassment.
Hunter gave a grunt that sounded like a shrug and Trixie found a local classic rock station.
Hotel California got them without conversation into the main drag that called itself Tok and Trixie pulled up in front of the bar.
“It doesn’t look like much, but they’ve got great food,” she said apologetically, meeting him at the front of the truck.
“My treat. I often take new recruits out on their first day, to break the ice a little.” I’m not flirting , she wanted to insist, but she knew that she was a mess of mixed signals.
She couldn’t stop herself from gazing at Hunter’s gorgeous muscles, or trying to suss out what he was feeling behind his facial hair.
She never would have guessed herself to be weak for a beard, but most of the bearded locals looked homeless and Hunter looked like he ought to be on the cover of GQ.
They were seated at a bench by the window. It was fairly crowded with the regular Sunday morning crowd, and Trixie nodded to a number of familiar faces.
“We should have a cover story for you,” she said in a low voice when Hunter requested a cup of coffee and the waitress had left them with the menus. “Where do I tell people I found you?”
“I’m a tourist from Colorado, up to visit my brother in Anchorage.
His new girl knew you were looking for help, and my brother dared me to do it.
I thought it would be a chance to challenge myself and didn’t have anything else going on.
Part favor, part desire to stay out of their way and see the real Alaska. ”
“A nice mix of the truth and believable fiction,” Trixie said approvingly. “I don’t think we could contrive a convincing existing relationship, and no matter what kind of teacher I am, I don’t think I could pass you off as a career carpenter.”
“You’re a good teacher,” Hunter said unexpectedly. “I bet you could.”
Trixie flushed happily. Hunter didn’t seem like the type for empty flattery. “You’re a good student,” she said.
“Can I take your order?”
Trixie realized that she hadn’t looked at the menu yet. “Halibut burger,” she said from memory. “Salad with ranch. Sprite.”
“Same,” Hunter said, passing over his menu.
Trixie squinted at him, trying to decide if it was a cop out, a weird suck-up, or just a coincidence. The waitress topped off his coffee and left with a chatty observation about the weather.
“So why did you really come to Alaska?” Trixie wanted to know.
“My family owns Grizzly Protection Services. We bought out Snafu River Security and sent my kid brother, Orson, to run the place. He found it capably managed by Alex Vex and is now answering phones for her. I came up to make sure he hadn’t been led around by his libido and fix any mistakes he’d made. ”
“Had he? Been led around by his libido?”
“No, he’d met his soulmate.”
Trixie held her breath. Hunter didn’t say it like he thought it was a joke or an exaggeration. He said it like he believed it, and he was looking intensely at her while he said it .
Not that he looked particularly smitten. Trixie wasn’t sure the man had an expression beyond scowl. Was he attracted to her and mad about it?
Trixie honestly wasn’t sure what to make of him. “So, did the two of you grow up in Colorado?” she asked, instead of following that particular line of thought.
The waitress brought their drinks, and Hunter only grunted.
Trixie suspected that she was not going to draw childhood stories out of him easily.
“I grew up in the Bush,” she offered. “Out in the wilderness off the road system. Went to a few years of college in Minnesota, but came back and went into trade school instead of finishing.”
She waited for Hunter to ask what she’d studied, and when he didn’t, she volunteered, “I was studying economics. Thought I could solve the world’s financial problems when I was young and naive.
But you can’t fix greedy people, so I thought maybe I could change the world by building useful things.
And here I am, making impractical houses for people with more money than morals. ”
Trixie had hoped that opening herself up would invite Hunter to do the same, but he didn’t offer any help. “Did you go to college?” she prodded. “I usually get a resume with that kind of information to start from at least. I’m kind of at a disadvantage here.”
“Degree in business. U of M.”
He didn’t even bother to tell her which M it was. Montana? Missouri? Maine?
“And your family owns a string of security companies, I guess?”
“Yup.”
“Oh, there’s our food. ”
Still unsettled by Hunter’s unexpected soulmate revelation, Trixie was delighted to have food to distract her.
Hunter ate his salad and burger with the same grace and precision that Trixie had come to expect from him on the job site, and she watched him curiously, not sure how he managed not to get food in his beard. In her experience, that was the major inconvenience to a face mop.
Once they had settled into the point of the meal where conversation was possible again, Trixie asked, “Is there anything I can do to help your investigation?”
“I’ve got some ideas,” Hunter grunted. “But first, who might want the project to fail?”
“You don’t honestly think it’s anything more than casual theft and vandalism, do you?
” The idea surprised Trixie. “I mean, there are a lot of people who might target this guy; his ex for one. He’s not popular in the area, and there’s been some negative gossip about him.
You don’t move into a relatively poor rural area and build a mansion without getting some sour press.
Hiring locals for my crew helped, but he’s also got an environmental group all up at arms. You probably saw the signs. ”
“Does the house threaten salmon streams?”
He’d seen the signs. “Not even close. There’s a seasonal draw that we rerouted that a few loudmouths are screaming about, but we’re filed with all the appropriate agencies. They aren’t navigable waters or wetlands. It’s just people looking for things to be outraged about.”