Julianna Morris - Callie, Get Your Groom

His brows drew together in a scowl. Everything Callie was saying should make him feel reassured and comfortable with her. Only, it didn’t.

“Why absurd?”

She chuckled and curled her legs beneath her. “I don’t know…you’re six-two and I’m five-four. We’d look silly together. Besides, we’ve known each other forever. No thunderbolts here.”

Her lingering smile annoyed him even more. How could she say that? They’d barely spoken since he’d moved north. After college a few hurried hellos and goodbyes were the sum of their so-called friendship since he’d left home. There hadn’t been time for thunderbolts.

Not that he was interested. His curiosity was purely academic. Actually…his curiosity was masculine—no guy liked to be dismissed by a woman, no matter what the situation might be.

All at once Callie gave herself a little shake and sat up. “Now that we have that settled, I was wondering…You made it sound as though I won’t have any time off. This isn’t a seven-day-a-week job, is it?”

“Er…no.” He relaxed. “Unless there’s an emergency, you’ll have a standard schedule—five days on, two off.”

“Oh, good. I want to do some sightseeing, maybe even climb a glacier. And I understand there’s a lot of hiking around here…even in the immediate area. Do you think I’ll see any grizzlies? I’d love to see a polar bear in the wild, but I guess they’re only around the Arctic ice cap. I’ll have to go farther north to see them.”

Subtle tension crept back into Mike’s body. Why couldn’t his sister have come instead of Callie? Elaine wasn’t curious about fifteen-hundred-pound bears, and she’d been to Alaska often enough that sightseeing wasn’t a high priority.

“You shouldn’t go hiking by yourself,” he said shortly. “It isn’t safe.”

“I wasn’t planning to go by myself.”

Mike sighed. “I don’t have time for hiking, Callie.”

“That’s not a problem…you weren’t invited.”

Her obvious lack of interest made the rejection all that more stinging, though why he felt rejected he couldn’t have said. He glanced at her as he started the engine. While visibly sleepy, she gazed eagerly at the scenery as they pulled onto the gravel road that led into town.

Mike cleared his throat. It was pointless to be so unsettled. This was good old Callie, even if she did look like a beach babe from sunny California. “We don’t have any hiking clubs, kiddo. And the tours are pretty expensive.”

“I don’t need any tours.” She gave him a sunny smile, apparently forgiving him. “Donovan is taking me to the Kenai Wildlife Refuge and—”

“Tonight?” Mike almost stomped on the brake so he could shake some sense into her. “You didn’t buy that line, did you? We might have longer hours of daylight up here, but it’s a long drive down and you couldn’t possibly visit the refuge so late.”

“Of course not,” Callie said patiently. “We’re going on the first day we’re both available. Tonight we’re just going to dinner.”

Mike grunted.

She patted his arm. “Not feeling well?”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s good. Anyway, Travis Black said he loves hiking and he’ll follow me anywhere. But I think he was just being polite.”

Another line, Mike thought sourly, though Travis was an expert wilderness guide. “How did Travis get into this?”

“On the radio. He asked Donovan to describe me, and when Donovan said I had buck teeth and was wrinkled like a walrus, Travis immediately offered his services in showing me around. I don’t think he believed Donovan about the teeth.”

I wouldn’t, either.

Donovan had been protecting his turf—one look at Callie’s skimpy tube top and he’d gotten the complete wrong impression about her. But while Mike couldn’t do anything about his two partners’ social calendars, he could certainly ensure Travis’s days off didn’t coincide with Callie’s. Travis wasn’t a partner—not yet.

“Of course, Ross McCoy offered to fly me across Prince William Sound so we can climb Worthington Glacier. That’ll probably be a two-day trip,” she mused. “But he said he knows a nice place we can stay in Valdez.”

“Really?” Mike felt the urge to loosen his collar, when all he was wearing was a black T-shirt. “When did you talk to Ross? The radio?”

Ross was his other partner in the business—a great guy, but not for a homebody like Callie. Besides, Ross had gotten burned by his ex-wife and had avoided women ever since. He definitely wasn’t interested in getting married.

Callie bit her lip to keep from laughing. Poor Mike. He didn’t look at all happy. “I met Ross in Anchorage. He was taking a load of fresh veggies to Nome, so he stopped by to say hi. I like Ross. He’s really cute and he’s awfully charming.”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

“That’s because you’re not a woman. He said I could go to the Arctic Circle on one of his junkets. We might even land on the ice floe so I can get some pictures of polar bears.”

“Terrific. Sounds like you’re all set.” Mike sounded quite disgruntled and she hid another smile.

“Yeah, I’m going to have a great time. At least Donovan and Ross and Travis are glad I’m here, even if you’re not.”

“They think they can get away with more…that I’ll let them because you’re not my sister.”

Callie stretched languidly, aware of Mike’s long sideways gaze. For the first time in her life she felt entirely feminine and sexy.

“You worry too much. They won’t get away with anything I don’t want them to.”

“Oh? How much is that?”

She mused for a moment. “Enough, Mike. Enough.”

“I see.”

From the iron set to his jaw, Callie didn’t think he liked her answer very much…which pleased her to no end.

Enough?

What did she mean by that?

Remembering Callie’s old-as-Eve smile, Mike was afraid he knew. She hadn’t come to catch him as a husband; she’d come to spread her wings. It was natural, really. He’d never realized it before, but Callie was rather attractive. And thirty-odd years of living in Crockett as “the preacher’s daughter” would have been frustrating for anyone.

Swell. Now he’d have to spend his summer making sure she didn’t do something he knew she’d regret. It was instinctive to protect her. Even the toughest kids in Crockett had watched their mouths around Callie. He’d seen street toughs pummel their buddies for stepping out of line around Preacher Webster’s daughter.

Don’t say that. She’s holy, you jerk.

And there was Callie…looking utterly disgusted at being called holy.

Mike had to grin, remembering those days. He’d done it, too, cleaning up his language, making sure nobody stepped out of line with little Callie, and lumping her into the same category as kid sisters who were more trouble than they were necessarily worth.

He could strangle Elaine for doing this to him. He’d phoned her right after getting back to the house, and received an innocent “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Callie is doing us both a favor. And this way she gets to see part of Alaska.”

Favor?

Right. His baby sister was matchmaking and he didn’t want any part of her little plan. Of course…it was nice that Callie could have a trip. She probably didn’t get a chance to travel very much.

Sighing, Mike continued working. He’d been cutting the next winter’s supply of firewood before leaving to meet Elaine…and getting Callie instead. He would have flown to Anchorage himself, but Donovan had been returning from a hop to Fairbanks, so it hadn’t made sense to make an extra trip. Now he wished he’d gone. He could have turned Callie around and put her on a flight back to Seattle. But no, instead she was here, taking a nap in one of his bedrooms.