Read Online Iditarod Nights by Cindy Hiday - Free Book Online Page B

interruptions, just the uncomplicated task of tending
to the dogs. His sled packed and his team ready, he went to look
for Claire.
    He found her in the classic stooped-over
musher's position, putting booties on one of her dogs. "Hey," he
said.
    She looked up and smiled. "Hey yourself."
    "How'd it go yesterday?"
    "Great. Only a thousand more miles to go."
She gave her dog – all four paws sporting florescent orange booties
– a pat on the shoulder and straightened. "And you?"
    "Brian took a dive off the tag sled on
Cordova."
    "I heard about that. Is he alright?"
    "Yeah. He's with the dog truck, being
consoled by a cute young lady who goes to his high school."
    Claire put her hand over her heart and
sighed. "I'm crushed."
    Dillon grunted. "I'm sure you are. So," he
moved closer and she did the same, "does this mean you're available
once we get to Nome?"
    "What did you have in mind?"
    "Dinner and dancing at the Bering West."
    "You have dancing?"
    He frowned, pretending to take offense at her
surprise. "Of course." She'd find out soon enough the music came
from a jukebox and the dance floor was a space the size of a
tabletop. A very small tabletop.
    "What's on the menu?"
    She may have been asking about the dinner
special, but the look she gave him said otherwise. He stood half a
step from her, close enough to keep his answer between them.
"Whatever you want." He couldn't help himself. None of the reasons
he'd recited in his head for not getting tangled up with the lady
lawyer mattered a damn when she fixed him with those dark whiskey
eyes.
    Her smile stopped his breath. "I'll be
waiting."
     
     

Chapter 12
     
    Tailgate partiers along the trail heading out
of Willow shouted encouragement to the mushers, but they also
required caution. Ginny shied whenever a snowmachine buzzed too
close, while Mama's Boy and Groucho attempted to track each
delectable food odor. "No junk food for you guys," Claire told
them. "On by."
    She'd seen this part of the trail before,
running the Willow Tug 300 as one of her qualifying races. An easy
stretch of flat to low rolling hills along the frozen Susitna
River. The dogs, still jazzed from the excitement of the restart,
set a fast pace. Claire road the drag occasionally to keep them
from burning out, but she had to admit the speed felt
invigorating.
    Two and a half hours after the restart, she
stopped trailside to snack her athletes, the first of many stops
she'd make every two or three hours. Keeping the dogs hydrated and
loaded with calories – a minimum of ten-thousand per dog per day –
was critical. Other teams glided past as she doled out frozen fish
and high-density kibble. She grabbed an energy bar for herself and
washed it down with a fruit drink.
    The last of the day's sun faded the sky
stonewashed violet as she and her team arrived at Yentna Station
checkpoint, located on the confluence of the Susitna and Yentna
rivers. Iditarod volunteers helped her remove her bib and recorded
her check-in time. The log showed Dillon had blown through the
checkpoint fifteen minutes ahead of her. The two-story Yentna
Station Roadhouse tempted with a warm fire and a hot meal, free to
Iditarod mushers, but staying at the crowded checkpoint wasn't in
her race plan. She and her dogs pushed on.
    Bonfires along the banks of the Yentna River
laced the evening air with wood smoke and the smells of wiener
roasts and charred marshmallows. Fans settled in for an all-night
vigil of race watching and partying. Claire pulled her team over to
let another team pass and a short woman bundled in fur handed her a
hotdog still warm from the fire.
    "You need to keep up your strength," the
woman stated, flashing a broad smile.
    "Thank you. It looks delicious." And it was.
Mustard. Ketchup. Onions. The best hotdog she'd ever eaten.
    As she drove into her first night on the
Iditarod, the temperature dropped to ten below. Stars too numerous
to count pulsed in the clear sky. She turned her headlamp on then
off again because it