Free Summer of the Midnight Sun by Tracie Peterson Page B

Leah a chance, you might have learned that for yourself. You might not have had to spend all this time alone.”
    “What about you? You’re alone.”
    Jacob shook his head. “Not by choice. If I’d had a woman that loved me as much as Leah loved you, I would have married her on the spot. Anyway, just leave her be—I don’t want anything to mess up our friendship, but I won’t see her hurt. Besides, we’ll soon be leaving, and then you won’t have to concern yourself with her.”
    “What if I want to concern myself with her?”
    Jacob eyed him warily. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean . . . well, I’ve been thinking about Leah since I first left Ketchikan. I guess I’d like to know if we couldn’t find a way to put the past behind us—if she might feel the same for me now that she felt then.”
    “Are you serious?”
    Jayce ran his fingers through his hair. “I think about her all the time.”
    “Jayce, you’d better think hard before you say a word to her.” He took a step closer, as if to reinforce his next statement. “I’ll deal with you myself if you hurt her again.”
    “I promise you, I have only the best of intentions. I don’t want to hurt anyone, especially Leah.”
    This answer seemed to satisfy Jacob, who then dismissed the conversation as though it were nothing more important than detailing the weather. “A bunch of us are going hunting tomorrow. Want to come along?”
    “Ah . . . sure . . . I guess so,” Jayce replied, his voice sounding distant even in his own ears.
    “I’ll get you up at three and we’ll head out. After we get back we can work the dogs.”
    “Three in the morning?”
    Jacob grinned as though the entire evening had been nothing but carefree. “That’s why I’m going to bed now.”
    Jayce let Jacob go with that. He was still so surprised by the turn of the conversation—surprised, too, by the warning Jacob had given. Walking away from the settlement, Jayce tried to reason through the things his friend had said. He honestly hadn’t given any credence to Leah’s feelings ten years ago. He had figured her to be a love-struck child—nothing more.
    His heart back then had been focused on Alaska, the land being his only focus. Leah had been fun and good to spend time with. Her quick wit and intelligence had helped to pass the time. Her love of God and strength of spirit, however, had been intimidating to the free-spirited Jayce. He hadn’t yet come to understand the importance of a life lived trying to please God.
    Leah had tried to help him see the truth of it, but Jayce hadn’t cared for the truth. He preferred living for the moment—for himself. But things were different now. He had come to accept Christ after spending a long, lonely week in an isolated camp in Canada. Nothing had gone right in his life for months. In fact, he’d gone to Canada after a trip to New York where he’d run into several unsavory characters. Including the man he’d thought he’d seen earlier in the day.
    That trip had been a waste of time and energy. He’d hoped to put some things to rest—to mend some fences and see his family’s miseries put in the past once and for all. Instead, he’d nearly gotten himself arrested, and all because of . . . him.
    He blew out a breath and stared across the vast, open field. The snow was patchy and melting under the intensity of the sun. Would that it could melt the ice around Leah’s heart.
    He looked back to the house where Leah was now departing with several of her friends. She was laughing and obviously enjoying their company. She didn’t see him, and Jayce was glad to be ignored.
    “I can’t change the past, Leah,” he whispered. “I can’t right the wrongs of yesterday, but maybe I can make the tomorrows better.” But then again, such a thing would require her giving him a second chance, and that might be impossible. Jayce was set to leave for a summer’s worth of exploration. Not only that, but he was taking her brother too.