A Sweet Alaskan Fall Read online

  A split-second decision could change both their lives for the better...if they let it

  Montana Banks moved to Wild River, Alaska, for a fresh start. Adventure has always been in her blood, but while an injury leaves her unable to participate in her favorite extreme sports, Montana settles for teaching base-jumping classes at her friend’s tour company. Settling in has been almost too easy: a great job, her family’s acceptance and her own apartment—right next door to straitlaced police officer Eddie Sanders.

  Eddie has been attracted to Montana since she arrived in town, and now that he’s leaving for a new job in Anchorage he wonders if he should’ve taken a chance with her sooner. Then a moment of violence the night of his going-away party leaves him badly wounded. Seeing Eddie’s job opportunity lost and self-confidence following close behind, Montana is determined to show him all the reasons he has to pick himself up again.

  Praise for USA TODAY bestselling author Jennifer Snow’s Wild River series

  “Heartwarming, romantic, and utterly enjoyable.”

  —Melissa Foster

  “Jennifer Snow’s Alaska setting and search-and-rescue element are interesting twists, and the romance is generally smart and sexy... An exciting contemporary series debut with a wildly unique Alaskan setting.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “The big-city girl choosing between her career and loving a small-town boy is a romance staple, but the nail-biting search-and-rescue scenes save Erika and Reed from being a cliché. Readers will enjoy the mix of sexy love scenes, tense missions, and amiable banter. This entertaining introduction to Wild River will encourage fans of small-town contemporaries to follow the series.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “An Alaskan Christmas, the first book in the Wild River series, drew me in from the first page to the last. I tried to read slower so that I could savor the story and feel every emotion. I reveled in every nuance, felt the cold, the wind and snow, and loved the small town and the mountains... I can’t wait to return to Wild River.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “This first title in the Wild River series is passionate, sensual, and very sexy. The freezing, winter-cold portrayal of the Alaskan ski slopes is not the only thing sending chills through one’s body.”

  —New York Journal of Books

  “Set in the wilds of Alaska, the beauty of winter and the cold shine through.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  Also by Jennifer Snow

  Wild River

  Under an Alaskan Sky

  An Alaskan Christmas

  Wild River Novellas

  A Wild River Retreat

  An Alaskan Wedding

  For a complete list of books by Jennifer Snow, please visit www.jennifersnowauthor.com.

  Jennifer Snow

  A Sweet Alaskan Fall

  Table of Contents

  A Sweet Alaskan Fall

  A Wild River Retreat

  Excerpt from Stars Over Alaska by Jennifer Snow

  To all the Adrenaline Junkees who’d rather soar through the air than keep their feet safely on the ground—I see you, I envy you, I am definitely not you. :)

  A Sweet Alaskan Fall

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PROLOGUE

  10 years earlier...

  SHE’D DONE SOMETHING TERRIBLE.

  Fear wrapped around her heart the minute Montana Banks opened her eyes and only tightened its grip as she scanned the familiar surroundings of her bedroom. How’d she get here? She had no idea. Hours of her life had disappeared.

  She shut her eyes tight, clenching her fists at her sides.

  Remember... Come on, remember!

  The last memory that flashed in her mind was driving into the parking lot of the grocery store. A familiar song played on the radio. She felt good. Happy. The sun had been shining, and the mountain air blowing in through the open windows was warm and mild. She parked the car and glanced in the rearview mirror...

  “Kaia!” She sat up straight in bed. “Kaia!” She looked around the room but she was alone. Where was the baby? Where had she left her little girl?

  Footsteps sounded down the hall and drew closer, then the bedroom door opened and Tank entered. Montana jumped out of bed, dizziness and nausea hitting her like an ocean wave. She swayed off-balance, the room swimming around her, the floor wavy beneath her feet.

  The feel of Tank’s arms around her as her legs gave out from beneath her didn’t provide the comfort and security she was desperate for. “Kaia... I left Kaia...”

  “Hey. Relax,” he said, soothingly, but there was fear and pain and unease in his voice.

  It terrified her. Struggling to focus, to rebalance herself, she gripped his arms and stared up at him. “I left her in the car. In the parking lot.” How long? Outside it was now dark. The clock numbers blurred. What day was it? Where was Kaia?

  Tank held her close, but his sigh was deep, resolute. “I know. She’s okay. We found her.”

  Before it was too late. Before something terrible had happened to her baby girl. Her precious baby girl.

  A sob escaped her, and her tears quickly left a large pool on Tank’s shirt. She’d done the unforgivable. She could have lost Kaia. This wasn’t the first time her injury had caused her to black out. To not remember. She wasn’t getting better since her fall out of the sky, she was getting worse. She couldn’t keep pretending to be okay. Or that she wasn’t a danger to her daughter.

  “I’m not okay,” she whispered.

  “I know.” Tank sighed, holding her tight.

  And they both knew what that meant.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Present day...

  “HELLO, I AM Montana Banks. And I am addicted to BASE jumping.”

  Obviously not what they’d expected her to say. Eighteen pairs of eyes stared at her with varying degrees of judgment.

  Safe space, my ass.

  “Um...okay. Well, welcome, Montana,” Jane, the director of the addiction’s support group, said in the awkward silence. “I’m not entirely sure you’re in the right place.” She gestured to the manual on her lap as though searching for the rules. Or a reason to ask Montana to leave.

  “This is a group for people addicted to things they shouldn’t do, right?” Montana asked.

  Jane glanced around the room. “Not things we shouldn’t do. More like things we are trying not to do, things that negatively impact our lives or the people around us.”

  “Well, I’m in the right place, then,” Montana said. Whether she’d come back next week was still up for debate. It had taken three months of living in Wild River, Alaska, for her to get enough courage to walk into the addictions support group, and this reception was precisely why. No one was going to take her challenges seriously. Not when her issue seemed a lot less serious than everyone else’s. />
  Unfortunately, there was no group to support extreme athletes with brain injuries that prevented them from fulfilling their life passion.

  As different as the demons of everyone in this room were, they all shared the same storm cloud over their heads every day. One no one else saw. One they constantly battled against to find a ray of sunshine. Montana wasn’t so different.

  For her, that ray of light was Kaia, her ten-year-old daughter. Staring at the picture of the two of them on her cell phone, Montana released a deep breath. Moving to Wild River had been the right thing to do. She’d let her injury keep her from her daughter long enough. No matter how hard living in the small ski-resort town got, she would not abandon the little girl again.

  But maybe the group wasn’t the right place for her. She gathered her things. “It’s okay. I’ll leave.”

  “No, please stay,” Jane said, her warm, welcoming nature returning. “Everyone, meet Montana.”

  “Hi, Montana!” the group said in unison.

  “Why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Jane said. She checked her watch.

  Everyone was given the floor for ten minutes and pressure to sum up thirty-four years of life made Montana’s heart race. Where to start? With the BASE-jumping injury ten years ago that derailed her future? Or further back to the incident that rocked her existence?

  “I’m new to Wild River,” she said. “I have a daughter here, and I am trying to reintegrate back into her life.”

  Nods. They all understood that. Alienation from family members and the struggle to find a way home again was a common thread in the group.

  “I’ve started a new career with an amazing business partner, and I’ve made a lot of new friends here in town.” Settling in had been disturbingly simple. Her new apartment was cheap and close to everything in town, and her landlord had no problem with her not signing their usual one-year lease, instead allowing her to pay month by month. Her new job at SnowTrek Tours launching a new legalized BASE-jumping location in Wild River had gone a lot smoother than she ever could have predicted, thanks to the local mayor who was an extreme junkie himself. She’d made friends—including Cassie, her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend and the owner of SnowTrek Tours. And she was coparenting like a superstar with Kaia’s father, Tank. Life was...simple. And easy.

  Unfortunately simple and easy weren’t enough for her.

  “But every morning when I wake up, the first thing on my mind is jumping off a cliff.” Wide eyes made her add quickly “With a parachute.” A wingsuit actually, but she knew they didn’t care about the details. “And the persistent temptation doesn’t go away. It used to be a big part of my life. It was everything, actually. An adrenaline rush like no other, it was highly addictive.” She’d started skydiving at age thirteen with her grandmother, then BASE jumping at eighteen when she was barely old enough to sign a waiver. She’d traveled all over the world with other extreme athletes and had soared over the most breathtaking scenery. She was among the top jumpers in the world and had even done a short stint in jail for an illegal jump off a city building...until the accident changed everything.

  She cleared her throat and continued. “But I know it’s not the right path for me anymore.” Her unpredictable brain with its rare form of transient global amnesia and impaired judgment couldn’t be relied on for a safe jump anymore. “What’s that saying? Those who can’t, teach? Well, that’s where I am.”

  With her BASE-jumping fundamentals course booked solid all month long at the cost of $3000 a week, SnowTrek Tours no longer had to worry about the competition, North Mountain Sports Company, opening their big new chain store and claiming some of SnowTrek’s usual adventure-tour clients. Cassie’s business was thriving in the larger store’s shadow, and Montana was happy that she’d been able to help Tank’s girlfriend and the woman who’d been her daughter’s primary role model in Montana’s absence all these years. But she couldn’t deny the ache in her chest whenever she stood at the top of Snowcrest Peak, staring down into the breathtaking valley, knowing she’d never be able to soar over it again. It was too much of a risk when she wasn’t sure what triggered her random bouts of amnesia, and if one were to happen midjump, it could be devastatingly dangerous.

  “Thank you for sharing that,” Jane said. “So, what do you do to help get you past the tougher days? The challenging times when you’re tempted to give in?”

  I see my dead sister, and she talks sense into me.

  “I’m still figuring that part out,” Montana said, taking a seat quickly before she could verbalize the thought and have them think she was even crazier than they did already.

  Half an hour later, the meeting wrapped up, and she collected her things to head back to the office. The next day was the first day of her BASE-training program. The four-day course would teach wannabe jumpers the fundamentals, while keeping them safely on the ground. It was the best place to start with the new venture. Fall was only two months away, and winter would shut them down until spring, so Montana would have at least a year before the advanced courses started and she’d have to actually watch other people jump. Cassie thought her idea to use their first few months in operation to introduce athletes to jumping, hooking them early for their first jump next year, was a brilliant way to build their business. Montana accepted the compliment and didn’t reveal that she just wasn’t yet ready to see other people doing what she loved.

  She tied her hair into a ponytail, laced her running shoes tighter and set off at a fast pace through town toward Main Street.

  Breathe in. Breathe out. Exercise was supposed to help with the pent-up energy she had inside, but five miles a day and an hour of weight training barely took the edge off. The mountain air and the breathtaking view of the wilderness just made the itch stronger. Her parents had thought moving back to Denver was the best thing for her. They hadn’t been supportive of her decision to come to Alaska, hesitant to believe she was well enough to live completely on her own, a million miles away from them. And some days, she wanted to agree with them, but after reconnecting with Kaia, she couldn’t leave her. Skype chats and phone calls and letters may have worked in the past, but now that she was there, actually spending time with her daughter, she didn’t want to lose that closeness they were forming.

  Kaia was almost eleven now. She was growing so fast. Montana had spent years trying to get well enough to be in her life without putting her safety at risk. She wouldn’t live another day without knowing Kaia and being there for her in whatever capacity she needed.

  Even if it meant struggling every day to face her own limitations and eventually learn to accept them.

  Ten minutes later she opened the door to SnowTrek Tours.

  “No, I’m sorry, that course is full until May of next year,” Cassie said, the landline phone pinned between her shoulder and ear, while she typed on her laptop. Several other lines were lighting up, and she shot Montana a desperate look through a veil of short blond hair falling across her face.

  Dropping her things onto her desk, Montana picked up the phone and hit one of the lines. “Thank you for calling SnowTrek Tours. Can you hold for just a moment?” Twice more she repeated the action, then returned to the first caller. “Hello, sorry about the wait. How can I help you?”

  “Hey, I’m calling about the Fundamentals of BASE course.” Who wasn’t? She’d been right about her prediction that legalizing the sport in Wild River would have SnowTrek Tours turning adventure-seekers away. But even she hadn’t known how much things would have exploded for the small, local company.

  The site wasn’t even officially open yet, and they were booked solid for tour groups with professional, experienced jumpers in the spring, her advanced courses were already full and the Fundamentals course was even more popular.

  Who knew there were so many adrenaline junkies in the world?

  She was happy that things were going well, but being surrounded
24/7 by talk of the sport she loved and couldn’t do was making her crazy. But at least she was involved somehow. It was the next best thing, and she couldn’t complain. For nine years in Denver, she’d gone completely insane, holed up in the city, being treated like a child by her overprotective parents.

  Baby steps.

  She was living on her own and hadn’t burned the place down yet.

  She answered the third call. “SnowTrek Tours. How may I help you?”

  “Well, you could start by going to dinner with me Saturday night.”

  Montana felt her face flush at the sound of Lance’s voice. In the last three months, she’d been out with the local snowboarding god three times—two dinners and a coffee date. But he’d been away for three weeks and had obviously been so busy he’d forgotten to text. She wasn’t that woman—the one who couldn’t take a hint. Clearly, he just wasn’t that into her. Yet, here he was calling again. “I’m sorry, who is this?”

  He laughed. “I deserve that.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said.

  “I’m sorry I was MIA. New York was insane. Back-to-back meetings and promotional events...”

  Dates with countless groupies, casual hookups with no strings attached... She knew the lifestyle. She’d once been a professional athlete, traveling the world, meeting new people, getting involved temporarily, then moving on. Hell, Kaia had been the result of that lifestyle. For her, at least. Tank, on the other hand, had been in love with her back then, but Montana hadn’t had a real connection with anyone, not allowing anyone in her life to get too close in a very long time. Not even her daughter’s father.

  Maybe more than just her brain was broken.

  “And I left my cell in a taxi,” Lance was saying. “That’s why I’m calling you at work.”

  Lost cell phone. Not exactly the most creative excuse. “It’s fine. I get it.” It was fine. She did get it. They’d had three dates. They weren’t exclusively seeing one another.