Alaska Home: Falling for Him / Ending in Marriage / Midnight Sons and Daughters

He guided Mariah away from the gathering crowd. She looked back only once at what had been her home.

Dotty got there a little later. “They weren’t able to save anything,” she said sadly.

Christian nodded. He couldn’t seem to stand still. And Mariah could barely move; she didn’t have the strength. It felt as though someone had sucked the very life from her. It was an effort just to keep her head up.

“Mariah,” Dotty said in a gentle voice, “you’ve had quite a shock.”

Christian paced the clinic. “She was on the floor when I found her,” he said. “If I’d arrived a minute later I might never have reached her. She came so close to dying in the fire.”

“Christian, you’ve had a scare, too.”

“The woman hasn’t got a brain in her head. Just how important can a purse be?” With rough, angry movements, he rubbed the back of his neck. “She shouldn’t even have been living in that cabin. The place is a firetrap! But she was so damn stubborn, insisting this was where she had to stay—”

“Christian!”

“She should go back to Seattle!” he exploded. “I’ll personally pay for her ticket. At least there she won’t be dealing with fires and a bunch of women-hungry men.”

She should be back in Seattle. The words penetrated the haze in Mariah’s mind, and a sob erupted from deep in her throat. Christian had never made a secret of how he felt about her, but the fact that he could be so cruel now, when she’d lost everything, was more than she could bear.

“Christian O’Halloran, what a rotten thing to say!” Dotty snapped. “I think it would be best if you left. The last thing Mariah needs now is you haranguing her.”

Mariah watched Christian stomp out of the health clinic.

Leaning her head against the wall, she sighed and closed her eyes. Tears were close to the surface, but she held them at bay, concentrating, instead, on the pain in her hands. They’d started to throb, and she was grateful when Dotty returned.

Soon Dotty had taken care of her burns and bandaged her hands. Shortly after that, Abbey and Lanni O’Halloran came by with Karen Caldwell and Bethany Harris to check on her.

“Are you okay?” Abbey asked, sitting next to Mariah and placing an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m fine,” Mariah assured her friends. But she wasn’t. The sense of devastation hit her again, bringing fresh tears. Everything she’d worked for in the past year was lost. The man she secretly loved was furious with her. Now her hands were burned and bandaged and she was unable to work. She had no home, no place to live.

“If I was smart, I’d do what Christian said,” she mumbled, forcing herself to smile.

“What did Christian say?” Bethany asked, glancing at Dotty.

“He suggested she return to Seattle,” the nurse answered, her lips pinched disapprovingly. “Someone needs to have a talk with that young man.”

“He said what?” Lanni demanded, outraged.

“How dare he!” This came from Karen.

The atmosphere in the room crackled with indignation.

“Just a moment,” Abbey said, stroking Mariah’s back. “Let’s not be so quick to condemn him. I had a chance to talk to him just now, and you know what? I’ve never seen Christian so upset.”

With me, Mariah added silently.

“He’s had the scare of a lifetime. Think about it. Christian almost lost Mariah, and he couldn’t handle that.”

“Then why would he say something so terrible to her, especially now?” Lanni asked, her eyes flashing at the insult.

“In my experience, a man will express what he fears most, rather than let it sneak up on him. Women do the same thing, but not as often.”

“You’re making excuses for him,” Bethany said.

“No,” Abbey insisted. “I think he’ll be back to apologize to Mariah the minute he realizes what he said. Christian no more wants Mariah to move back to Seattle than he wants to live there himself.”

“And if he doesn’t apologize, then I know a number of women who’ll be more than happy to assist him in seeing his mistake,” Karen said meaningfully.

Dotty chuckled. “You know, I almost feel sorry for that boy.”

“Now listen, Mariah, we’ve got this all figured out,” Abbey assured her, again with gentle firmness.

“Right.” Karen stood in the center of the room, arms akimbo. “You’re going to need someplace to live until you rebuild. I’m sure that with all the new construction in town, you could find someone to do it quickly.”

“Rebuild. Yes. I—I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she whispered, grateful for her friends. Her mind remained confused, her confidence in the future badly shaken.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Karen continued. “You’re going to come and live with Matt and me at the lodge.”

“The lodge.” Mariah knew she must sound like an echo, but making decisions, even simple ones, was beyond her.

“We’re going to take care of everything,” Abbey promised. Somehow Mariah doubted that anyone could help her repair the mess she’d made of her life. It was too late for that.

* * *

“Are you going to the Labor Day community dance?” Ben asked Christian when he arrived for breakfast a couple of days after the fire.

“The dance?” Hard Luck routinely celebrated Labor Day with a festive get-together. Because of all the problems at the office and the chaos following the fire, Christian hadn’t given the matter more than a fleeting thought. “I guess,” he said with little enthusiasm. He attended every Labor Day dance and didn’t expect this year to be any different.

“Will you be taking Mariah?”

Christian noticed that Ben had saved that for the punch line. At the sound of Mariah’s name, it was all Christian could do to keep from clenching his fists.

Every time he remembered the fire, he became so angry he couldn’t think straight. The woman had nearly lost her life! A chill ran down his spine again at the realization. He averted his gaze, not wanting Ben to know how intensely all this had affected him.

“Uh, how’s she doing?” Christian cut the sourdough hotcakes with his fork.

“I hear she’s staying at the lodge.”

Christian nodded; he’d already learned that much.

“With her hands all bandaged up, she can’t work. She felt real bad about that,” Ben said, “but I’ve been running this café on my own close to twenty years now. I told her I could manage for however long it takes her hands to heal.”

“Was she badly burned?”

“Nah. Dotty seems to think she’ll be good as new in a week or so.”

Christian was relieved to hear it.