Read Online Northern Fires by Jennifer LaBrecque - Free Book Online

women call a hunk?”
    It took Juliette a second to realize Logan was actually asking her; the question wasn’t merely rhetorical. “Um, yeah, I guess he is sort of a hunk.”
    That was like saying Mount Everest was a hill. She couldn’t imagine there was a woman alive whose pulse wouldn’t pound if they simply shared breathing space with Sven Sorenson.
    “I’m glad he wasn’t interested in Jenna because that would’ve been some stiff competition.”
    Juliette smiled and felt a tug of wistfulness inside her. Jenna Rathburne Jeffries was so obviously head over heels in love with her husband it was both inspiring and painful to witness. “It doesn’t seem as if you have any competition where Jenna’s concerned.”
    Logan’s grin verged on goofy. He was equally smitten with his wife. “Yeah, that’s pretty cool, huh? I’d say I’m about the luckiest guy on the planet.”
    It’d be nice to have someone feel that way about her, but she just didn’t think those cards were in the hand she’d been dealt, so she was simply playing her own game of solitaire. And happy to do so.
    Juliette brought the plane down, braked to a stop and killed the engine. “I’d say you and Jenna are both pretty lucky…and that baby.” A longing stirred inside her for the family she’d never had. Oh, she’d technically had a family, but somewhere within was the yearning for that Hallmark-card home unit, not the dysfunctional wreckage she’d grown up with. She’d just accepted, after her childhood and her subsequent disastrous marriages, that what Jenna and Logan had, with baby about to make three, simply wasn’t in the cards for her.
    “Yeah, we are.” Logan opened the door and started climbing out. “Thanks for the ride,” he said with a smile as he swung his travel bag over his shoulder and set off with a long stride. “I’m going to check on my family,” he said over his shoulder. “Tell Sven I said hello.”
    What? Was she the man’s messenger service now? She pasted on a smile and called out, “Will do. Give Jenna my regards, as well.” She hadn’t seen Jenna in a couple of days, but then Jenna had been wrapped up in the spa and Juliette was plenty busy with her job and the set. Flights were always up this time of year with the influx of tourists and folks coming out for fishing and backpacking.
    Juliette crossed to the air terminal door and walked in. Merrilee, sitting behind her desk, looked unusually harried.
    “Hi, Juliette. I swear it’ll be the first time anyone ever dies from a broken arm.”
    Juliette had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing. Merrilee was so seldom out of sorts, and hardly ever with Bull, but this was obviously about Bull as he was the only person in town with a broken arm. “What’s wrong?”
    “I may kill him just to put us both out of our misery if he’s this kind of patient the entire time.”
    Juliette simply smiled. Merrilee and Bull were devoted to one another without being sickening. Sort of like Jenna and Logan…and Nelson and Ellie…and Clint and Tessa…and Dalton and Skye…and Petey and Donna…and well, the list seemed rather endless these days. It was almost enough to give a sensible woman foolish thoughts of happy-ever-after not just being a pipe dream.
    “Sorry things are so iffy,” Juliette said. “I hope Bull shapes up. Curl’s pretty busy with his taxidermy business now. Having to move into mortuary mode now would throw him for a loop.”
    “You’re probably right. If Curl had to take care of a human dead body during the middle of tourist and taxidermy season, that’d throw a kink in his hosepipe. I’ll give Bull another day to pull himself out of his doldrums. I’ve suggested he collaborate with Sven, but no, he’s got to sulk. Says he’s not interested in armchair quarterbacking.” She shook her head in disgust and then waved a hand as if dismissing Bull. “How’d it go with Sven last night?”
    Talk about a loaded question. Juliette,