Debra Brown - Northern Exposure

He didn’t want to admit it, but she was right. He couldn’t stop her. This was state land, and she had a valid access permit. The only way to stop her now would be to judge her incompetent or unprepared. He had the authority to do it, against her will, if it came to that.

“Why did you come after me?”

The question caught him off guard. He ignored it. He’d been thinking about just how competent and prepared she actually seemed to be.

An old but expensive compass hung from her neck by a nylon cord. Her topographic map was expertly folded into the kind of configuration a seasoned hiker would use and was protected by a plastic cover, peeking out from an easily reachable overhead pocket on her pack.

Though the backpack itself was a blinding electric blue—that’s how he’d spotted her so easily—and was ridiculously big for her petite frame, it was high quality, as was her down sleeping bag, her tent and the short ice ax hanging from a loop near her liter-size water bottle.

“You’re probably not going to need that,” he said, nodding toward the ax.

“It’s August,” she shot back. “And this is Alaska. You have to be prepared for everything.”

He shrugged but had to hand it to her. She was in good shape, was well equipped and had managed, so far, not to get herself lost or killed.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Hmm?” He caught himself staring at her mouth. Her lips had relaxed again, and she’d wet them unconsciously with her tongue.

“Why…are…you…here?” Enunciating each word, Wendy pantomimed sign language in his face.

He snapped to attention, irritated at himself for noticing her mouth at all, and her eyes, not to mention those cute little feet encased in top-grain leather. He wondered how her blisters were doing. “I…I’m here because you can’t go in there alone, permit or no permit.”

“Why not?” She stiffened, every muscle in her face taut, daring him to come up with a reason that would hold water.

He couldn’t. At least not any reason that wouldn’t sound stupid or steeped in emotion. Like the fact that she was a woman, alone. Whether a person was well equipped or not, the reserve was one of the wildest, most rugged places on the planet. There were animals, bears—

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