The Alaskan Catch by Beth Carpenter

“And you never saw your mother again?”

“She’s probably dead by now.” His mouth tightened. “Doesn’t matter, anyway, as far as I’m concerned. She made her choice.”

“I guess she did.” Dana was silent, lost in her thoughts. This was the woman who wrote the letters demanding money? Were they just a scam? Or maybe she was mentally unbalanced, convinced someone owed her something. Dana had a hard time feeling any compassion for the woman. How could anyone just abandon a twelve-year-old? How must Sam have felt when he realized she wasn’t coming back?

Her thought must have shown on her face because Sam frowned. “Hey, don’t you feel sorry for me. I’m not into pity parties. I’m fine. I’m more than fine. I have a good job, a good life.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you.” Dana gave a wry smile. Maybe she did feel bad for that boy whose mother deserted him, but not for the man he’d grown into. “In fact, if I’m honest, this weekend when I saw you and Ursula hug, I was a little jealous. I’d love to have someone in my life who was that glad to see me show up.”

He shot her a questioning look. “What about your mom?”

Dana shrugged. “She’s kind of lost in her own little world of retail therapy. Dad never paid much attention. I thought once we started working together…” She trailed off before turning toward Sam. “Chris was the only one I ever felt close to.”

“Until he left?”

“Yeah. I missed him so much.” She gave him a tight smile. “But you’re right. No pity parties. Moving on.”

He nodded. After a few moments, he spoke in a quiet voice. “That’s the only way, you know. Moving on. Life moves forward, and you can either paddle your own boat, or you can throw up your hands and let the current carry you wherever it will. But you can’t stay where you are. It doesn’t work that way.”

“You’re quite a philosopher.”

“That’s me.” He grinned. “After my shift, I go to the gym and work out on the rowing machine for a while. Gives me time to think.”

“I suppose it would.” They rode in silence. Time to think. Maybe that’s what had been missing in her life. Between work and babysitting her mother and volunteering at the shelter, not to mention caring for Dad and then chasing after this will, Dana hadn’t taken the time to stop and think for a long while. Maybe she’d done it on purpose, kept herself busy so she wouldn’t have to think about where she was going, why she was doing what she did. “I believe you’re right.”

Sam glanced at her. “About what?”

“About moving forward. Maybe it’s time I did a little paddling of my own.”