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Chapter Nine
     
    Kate started to walk down toward the docks without thinking
about what she was doing, but she stopped herself. It had been seven miserable
days since she had seen Carter, but it seemed like an eternity.
    She couldn’t stop thinking about the man. She wanted to see
him again, wanted to touch him, but she couldn’t. Not after the way he looked
at her, the way he let her know he didn’t approve of the work she was doing
with Opal. He wouldn’t take her back. The sooner she accepted that fact, the
better.
    Kate needed to focus on making enough money to get home. She
shouldn’t be thinking about Carter at all, let alone letting thoughts of him
torment her the way they were. She hadn’t known him that long, but her heart
didn’t seem to care about that. Her heart had attached itself to the idea of
keeping him. It was silly.
    “Is everything okay?” Opal’s voice behind her startled Kate.
    “Yes. Everything is fine,” she lied.
    “You are thinking about him again, aren’t you?” Opal jutted
her chin in the direction of Carter’s store.
    Was it that obvious?
    “Yes.” She might as well admit it to the one person who knew
her entire pathetic story. Not that she could hide anything from Opal anyway.
She could read people, knew what they were thinking, what they wanted. It was
uncanny.
    “You might as well go down and talk to him. What would it
hurt?” Opal said simply.
    But there was nothing simple about Kate’s situation, nothing
simple about the emotions that engulfed her every time she saw him and nothing
simple about how another rejection from him might just kill her.
    “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Kate said the words Opal
probably expected.
    Talking to Carter was the sensible thing to do. Kate should
go and talk to him, should see if he shared any of the feelings that grasped at
her heart. Knowing wouldn’t really kill her, and not knowing felt pretty
horrible. It really couldn’t get much worse than this torment. And it could
make things better.
    “Thanks, Opal, for the good advice as always.” Kate took a
deep breath and set down the boardwalk. She could do this, could face up to the
mess she’d made with Carter.
    The closer she got to his store, the harder her heart
pounded. He shouldn’t have this much of an impact on her. Just going to talk to
Carter shouldn’t be this scary.
    But it was.
    She walked slowly, barely resisting the urge to turn around
and run back up the boardwalk and jump under the covers of her bed and never
come out again.
    Kate couldn’t do that. No matter how tempting it was to play
it safe, she had to take the chance, had to know what he thought about her, had
to talk to Carter one more time before she left Alaska.
    She had enough money to leave now, but there was something
holding her back. Maybe clearing things up with Carter would stop that feeling.
Or make it worse.
    She paused in front of his door, leaning her back against
it, mustering up the will to raise her hand and knock, but the door opened
before she had the chance and Kate fell right into solid arms.
    “Sorry. I was upstairs looking out the window when I saw you
coming down the hill.” His words were hot, tickling the hairs at the top of her
head.
    He didn’t release her even when it was obvious she had
regained her footing, but Kate didn’t want him to either. It felt too good, too
right to be in Carter’s arms again. Made her want to stay there forever.
    But she didn’t know if he had any interest in her. Not after
what she had done, not after she had ruined her reputation by selling booze to
Opal’s customers.
    “No, I shouldn’t have…” Hesitated? Come down here at all?
There were a lot of things she shouldn’t have done lately. Would coming here
tonight be another thing to add to that list?
    Probably.
    The way her body was warming under his touch, becoming so
wanton so fast made her definitely rethink the decision.
    “You should have come a lot sooner.” Carter