Alaskan Adventure (Destination: Desire)

Sometimes to escape the drama, you have to create a little of your own.

Destination: Desire, Book 4

Anne Kirby is the queen of suck-it-up-itude. Thanks to her unreliable, drama-llama mama, it fell to Anne to raise her three little sisters. Now that the youngest is off to college, it’s her turn to spread her wings.

She’s looking forward to three solid weeks cruising Alaska’s Inside Passage, with plenty of kayaking, hiking, and ice climbing. Until her tour guide turns out to be not—repeat,
not
—her type. A scruffy bum who can’t hold down a real job. Never mind he’s the only man who’s ever kept up with her trademark, rapid-fire sarcasm.

Thanks to some timely computer programming patents, Gabe Warren is free to live his life as an adrenaline junkie. But nothing has ever gotten his blood pumping like the beautiful, smart, sassy PE teacher.

When their spirited arguments land them in bed, passion flares like the Northern Lights. Soon he can’t imagine life without her. Now if he could only convince her that her perfect job isn’t safely inside a school gym. And that a vagabond like him is the perfect travel—and life—companion.

Warning: Outdoor adventures that lead to subterranean rescues. Two stubborn people butting heads, then doing very naughty things to each other in bed and out of it…all while hoping the matchmaking parents don’t find out.

Alaskan Adventure

Crystal Jordan

Dedication

For all the fans who celebrated the life, love and travel of the four amazing friends in this series.

For the Professor Moriarty and the Mad Madam M. Life as I know it would not exist without my best friends (though I only sleep with one of you).

For Grams. You are missed. Now, always and forever.

Chapter One

Half Moon Bay, California

The final confirmation email had arrived.

It was official: she was booked on an adventure cruise through Alaska’s Inner Passages. Three solid weeks of sailing, camping, hiking, kayaking and ice climbing in some of the most gorgeous wilderness the US had to offer.

This was going to
rock.

Even an hour later, a huge grin still curled Anne Kirby’s lips. She did a little dance step as she crossed Main Street and bounced into the Moonside Café, where she was meeting her three best friends for their weekly dinner.

Karen pressed a palm to her burgeoning belly, using her free hand to wave Anne over. Anne slipped into the seat next to the blonde, where they faced Julie and Meg.

“What’s up?” Anne asked. There was an air of tension over the table that made her a bit wary.

“Wedding planning,” replied all three of her friends at once.

Yikes. There was a topic guaranteed to give Anne hives. Not something she was ever doing. No way, no how. Hell, no. Even if she ever took the fall for some lucky guy, she was eloping. Somewhere far, far away. Period. She shuddered to think of the mileage for drama her mother would get out of a wedding. Yep, she’d leave that pain and suffering to her little sisters, if they decided to do the full event.

A waitress came by to fill Anne’s coffee cup, and she nodded her thanks.

“Back to our conversation.” Making an agonized face, Karen glanced at Meg. “The ceremony is still a month away, girlfriend.
Look
at me. I’m huge and I still have seven weeks to go! I can’t believe you want a woman who’ll be eight-and-a-half-months pregnant as your maid of honor. Not that I’ll upstage the bride in prettiness, but I might eclipse you if I turn sideways.”

Anne snorted, but tried to cover it by taking a sip from her mug. Not that she fooled anyone—her friends knew her too well for that.

“I don’t care,” Meg replied, her tone emphatic. “I want my friends there with me, even if we have to roll you down the aisle. We’re keeping it short so you won’t have to be on your feet long. Besides, I think Finn might die if we did a big, formal, dragged out ceremony.”

“Please,” Anne shot back. “That man would crawl over broken glass for you. If you wanted a long, fancy-ass ceremony, he’d let you have it.”

A satisfied grin tugged at Meg’s lips, and a happy sighed soughed out. “Yeah, he would. I think I’ll keep him.”

“Blech.” The annoyed noise was out of Anne’s mouth before she could stop it, and her three friends stared at her. She waved them away. “You guys are just so disgustingly in love.
All three of you
. It’s nauseating.”

Julie’s look was sly. “Jealous, little orphan Annie?”

Oh, now there was a surefire way to piss her off. The fact that she had bright red hair had led to more teasing in her childhood than she cared to recall. Orphan Annie, Anne of Green Gables, Carrot Top, Big Red. The list went on, some more perverted and insulting than others. Her hair couldn’t even be a nice shade of auburn like two of her three younger sisters. Nope, Anne’s was red. In-your-face
red
.

She scrubbed a hand over her short locks and glared at Julie. “Don’t be a jerk.”

Julie opened her mouth to retort when Meg poked her in the arm. “Quit antagonizing.”

“But that’s what I
do.”
Julie’s eyes widened. “Someone has to egg you guys on or we’d never have any fun.”

“Too bad. You’ll adjust,” Karen replied unsympathetically, patting her rounded belly.

Movement rippled beneath the surface, which always fascinated and horrified Anne at the same time. She set her palm next to her friend’s and felt the baby kick. “The belly alien lives.”

The creepy, ominous tone she used made Meg and Julie chortle. Karen just rolled her eyes. “Yes, and the belly alien wants feeding. So unless you want me to sic him on you, you’d better flag down the waitress so we can order.”

Anne arched an eyebrow, glancing across the table at her friends. “You know, I think she means it. Pregnancy has turned her cannibalistic. The belly alien’s terrifying bloodlust is taking over her body.”

Meg flagged down the waitress. “I think it’s vampires who have bloodlust, not cannibals.”

“Yeah.” Karen’s smile was not at all reassuring. “Cannibals like their food cooked. They roast ’em live over an open fire first.”

Julie raised a finger in the air, her tone turning as pious as any priest’s. “Note that I am not the one antagonizing here.”

“You’re such a good girl,” Anne cooed. “We’ll be sure to tell Lukas to reward you tonight.”

“No need.” Julie’s grin was positively sinful. “I’ll tell him myself.”

The waitress appeared with a breadbasket and took their orders. Karen fell on the rolls like she’d never eaten before in her life. She moaned, closing her eyes.

“Okay, while she has a private moment with the bread…” Anne let that thought trail off and reached into her purse. Pulling out the printed email, she slapped it on the table. “Check that out.”

Meg and Julie leaned forward. After a moment of silence, Julie squealed. “No way! You did it?”

“What?” Karen craned her neck to see. “Oh my God, you finally booked a trip to Alaska? You’ve been saying you wanted to go there forever!”

She threw her arm around Anne’s shoulders for a quick hug, and Anne couldn’t stop a stupid grin from spreading across her face. While she’d been on a million weekend trips to Yosemite, Big Sur, Mount Shasta and the Sierra Nevadas, she’d always had to stay close enough to home so she could ensure her younger sisters got to school Monday morning. But her youngest sibling had just finished up her freshman year in college and had a summer job in San Francisco, which meant Anne was free to leave town. She’d be back in time for Meg and Finn’s wedding at the end of July and the start of the school year in mid-August. She was a gym teacher at the local middle school, so these summer months without any responsibilities were a first. Normally, she spent the whole time refereeing the squabbles between the diametrically opposed personalities of her sisters. But not this year.

“Three whole weeks,” she said with relish. “I was going to take the ten-day trip, but they had a last-minute Memorial Day sale and I jumped on it. Three. Freaking.
Weeks.
”

Her friends squealed and enthused and asked questions and Anne could feel a little of the dissatisfaction that had plagued her lately begin to fall away. Yes. This was exactly what she needed. Time to get the hell out of Dodge.

Meg hesitated for a long moment. “I hate to ask but…what did your mom say?”

Ah, yes. Her mom. There was a topic guaranteed to burst her bubble. Dinah Kirby was the biggest drama queen who’d ever lived, and Anne had no idea how she was going to break this to her in a way that wouldn’t cause a meltdown. Her mom was codependent on a level that suffocated Anne. It hadn’t been so bad with her sisters there to help deflect, but now?

Anne sighed. “I didn’t want to tell her until I had something to tell. Until I pushed the buy button, I wasn’t sure I was going to do it. So that’s what I get to do after dinner.”

Julie’s expression was compassionate. “My couch is available if she goes atomic on you.”

“Thanks. I’ll be fine.” Or at least, Anne hoped she would. Dinah and she rarely fought—mostly because Anne kept her mouth shut—so this might be a novel experience. Not a
fun
experience, but a novel one. “Really, it’ll be fine.”

Meg cocked her head. “As long as you don’t let her drive you into staying in Alaska forever. I expect you to be back for my wedding.” She poked a finger in Karen’s direction. “If pregnant lady and the belly alien can’t escape, you can’t either.”

Kicking back in an exaggerated pose of relaxation, Anne folded her hands behind her head. She grinned. “Honey, I’m not just going to be back in time for the wedding, I’ll be back in time to make sure you have a bachelorette party you’ll never forget.”

“If it’s anything like the one she threw for me…” Karen’s voice trailed off, her eyes rounding with horror.

Anne just let her smile widen in a way she knew would worry them. As it should. Really, there was nothing quite so fun as yanking her best friends’ chains.

Despite her bold words about everything being
fine
, trepidation filled Anne as she unlocked the front door and walked into the four-bedroom ranch-style house she’d shared with her family since she got hired at Half Moon Bay Middle School. The Kirbys had moved more times than she cared to count, but once she’d had steady income of her own, she’d made sure her sisters had a stable home.

Rustling noises came from the kitchen, and Anne followed the sound to find her mother kneeling on the floor amidst a pile of packing materials, lipstick tubes and make up cases.

Dinah glanced up with a smile. “The company released their new line today. The colors are
gorgeous
.”

At the moment, her mom was trying her hand at being a cosmetic sales person. She was throwing a party this weekend for her friends and some of their neighbors. Anne hoped it was more successful than the time Dinah tried to be a real estate agent, or a massage therapist, or a waitress, or a delivery truck driver. Yeah, right. She’d been fired from more jobs than most people knew existed. And she was such a spastic flake that it was pretty doubtful this new jaunt into beauty consulting would go anywhere but failure either.

Frustration bit at Anne.
Why
couldn’t Dinah hold down a job like a normal person?
Any
job? Why was Anne always the one who had to pick up the pieces and hold everything together?

Jesus, but she needed this vacation. After sucking in a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “Hey, Mom. Have a minute to chat?”

Dinah nodded, running a pencil down a list of inventory. “I just need to check off the persimmon lip slick. Ah, here it is. Okay, what’s up?”

Best to just be up front with it. Prevaricating only gave her mom time to get suspicious, paranoid and panicky. “I’m going to be taking a trip.”

A pause. Dinah blinked. “To where?”

“Alaska.”

“Did you meet a man on the internet?” A huge smile wreathed her face and she pressed a hand to her chest, tears beginning to well. She whispered, “I’m so happy for you, baby.”

“Um…” Anne shifted from foot to foot, acute discomfort knifing through her. As usual, her mom had gone sideways with a conversation, and there was no way to get back to normal without upsetting her. It was pretty telling that the only human being on Earth who regularly rendered her speechless was her mother. “Uh…there’s no guy. I’m going on one of my outdoor trips. Kind of.”

Her mother’s expression quivered, and then fell into a frown. “You’re going camping? In Alaska?”

“They have some really pretty wilderness there. Orca whales, mountains, trees… I’ll get to see it all. And take lots of pictures.” Okay, not that Anne really cared about the photos, but her sisters loved the nature shots she took when she went hiking.

Dinah’s mouth tightened, her eyes narrowing. Ah, yes. The suspicions had been aroused. Now came the guilt. “When do you leave? How long will you be gone?”

“At the end of June.” Anne went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. “There was a flash sale online. I’ll be gone for a little over three weeks.”

“Why do you have to go so far away? California has great wilderness.” Her mom waved her hand as if encompassing the whole state.

Aiming for a casual shrug that felt more like a spasmodic jerk, Anne said, “I know, but the girls are all working or interning this summer and they’re in college now, so I figured I could take some time for myself.”

“What about me?”

You’re a grown-ass woman and you need to start acting like it. Your
youngest
child is in college, for fuck’s sake
. Anne swallowed those bitter words. “What about you?”

Tears pooled in the older woman’s eyes. “I’ll be lonely.”

So, get a cat
. More words she didn’t say. If her mom got a cat, Anne would the one taking care of it. Much like she’d been the one taking care of her little sisters. Not that she held that against her sisters. She was glad she could be there for them. She did, however, hold it against her mother. Drama queen I-am-so-helpless-please-save-me extraordinaire. Anne had found it harder and harder to keep her mouth shut since her baby sister, Cami, left for college a year ago.

For once in her life, Anne wanted something that was
just
for her. Call her selfish, but she’d been raising someone else’s kids since age sixteen, when her dad died and her mom went from lovably flaky to completely unreliable with bouts of unstable thrown in for extra fun. She deserved a break.

The problem was, she’d expected things to improve once all the girls were out of the house. But, nope, her mom was still living with her, still only sporadically employed. And it was all Anne could do these days not to lash out and say the horrible things that would damage their family forever. Because the girls would get dragged into a fight between Dinah and Anne, and Anne wouldn’t hurt them for the world.

So she needed to get out. Just for a while. Just…
out
.

“I’m going to check my gear so I’m ready when it’s time to pack.” She turned around, exited the kitchen and walked down the hall to her room.

Her mother trailed after her, sniffling. “But…I don’t do well on my own, Annie. You know that.”

“So go and stay with Aunt Terri.” Anne glanced back.

“Arizona is awful this time of year. Hotter than hell.” Dinah twitched the limp hand that was still holding her inventory sheet. “And I’m trying to start my new job.”

“Well, that should give you something to keep you busy and focused.” Yanking her massive backpack out of the closet and dumping it on the bed, Anne avoided meeting her mother’s eyes. But she could still feel Dinah’s gaze boring into her skin, and knew her mom wanted her to feel guilty. Anne threw up her hands. “I don’t know what to tell you, Mom. You’re an adult and I expect you to be able to entertain yourself for a few weeks.”