Free Tricks & Treats: A Romance Anthology by Alexis Abbott, Candace Osmond, Kate Robbins, JJ King, Katherine King, Ian Gillies, Charlene Carr, J. Margot Critch, Kallie Clarke, Kelli Blackwood Page A

flip-side?”
    “Uh-huh. It's something I noticed, as soon as you appeared in my room actually. The guy you look like, Glenn McArdle, he was one of the most upbeat, happy-go-lucky guys I've ever met. Which is why you just don't match. There's a sadness about you. You wear it lightly, but it's there. An old wound you've tried to forget but it's right there, right through the middle of you.”
    “Samantha, how do you know all this?”
    She shrugs. “I've lived a long time, I guess. Seen a lot of heartache. I know my way around old wounds.”
    He doesn't reply, but he keeps her words in mind while he accompanies her down through the forest, within earshot of the young couple, who cling to each other and laugh as they slip-slide on the soft snow.
    “I miss her too,” says Tom, putting an arm around Renee's shoulder. They stop. She glances back through the trees.
    “I think she's still here,” Renee whispers. “I think she's watching out for me.”
    Her roughneck boyfriend, who in his full dark beard and Klondike hat bears a strong resemblance to Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter, doesn't look the type to be easily spooked. “That's what she told me to do, the last time I saw her. 'Make her feel safe', she said. 'Renee's a worrier. If you give her cause to worry, she'll drive you crazy. But if you make her feel safe, she'll make you the happiest guy alive.'”
    Renee gives a wistful sigh. “She liked you, but she didn't like how much time you spend away. I think that's what she meant by that. The whole worry or feel safe thing. I think that was her way of telling you...”
    “That her daughter wouldn't be happy with a roughneck?”
    “I guess. Something like that. I am, though. Happy, I mean. It's just...”
    “You don't ever want to go through what you've been through today. I totally get it. I don't want to put you through that again.”
    “It's not even the worrying,” she adds. “It's just that...I can't lose you too. I'm not strong enough for that.”
    “You won't have to be.”
    “Promise me?”
    “Way ahead of you, babe. I made that promise when we had to bail out of the chopper this morning. Freezing water, fifteen foot seas, the storm getting worse all the time: it took forever for the lifeboat to reach us, and all I could think about was getting back to you. So from now on, I aim to stick around. My roughnecking days are done.”
    “You really mean that? You won't resent me for it someday?”
    “Never. It's not like it was my calling or anything.”
    “I don't deserve you.”
    “True,” he replies with a wink. “But you're getting me anyway.”
    She kisses his cheek. “I will, you know.”
    “Will what?”
    “Make you the happiest guy alive. You just see. Mom was right about that.”
    “I know.”
    They hold each other close while they make their way across the footbridge over the icy stream that winds down through the valley toward Skagway. Samantha elects not to follow them any further. She turns to Bellamy instead. “I'm ready. I've seen everything I needed to see.”
    “It turned out the way you foresaw?”
    “Close enough.”
    “I knew there was a touch of destiny about you,” he says.
    “Look who's talking, Mr. Grim Reaper.” To his surprise, she takes him by the hand. Another first. “Well, maybe not so grim after all. I'd say there's hope for you yet.”
    “Hope for what?”
    “I'm not sure. Maybe you can figure it out.”
    He doesn't reply. But everything she says strikes a chord in him, notes echoing from his former life into a tune he can't quite place but which fills a hole inside him. It awakens a longing. A desire to be close to someone. To have what Renee and Tom have. What Samantha has had in her life. What he lost long ago.
    “So what happens next?” she asks, wide-eyed.
    “Now we take a journey.”
    “Is it arduous?”
    “Not for such as you.”
    “What is it like...this other place?”
    “I've never seen it.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I don't belong