Life and Love in Alaska: Volume 1

by Cherime MacFarlane, Designs by Dana

Genres: Short Stories

Synopsis

The Cheat
Francis labels herself as "fat and forty." How in the world she came to be living with the guitar player for a popular Alaska band is a wonder to her. Monte is a groupie magnet, and Francis is waiting for him to tell her it's over. The text message she gets from him after he returns home from a weekend gig, sets off a major fight when Francis accuses Monte of being a cheat. Monte did something, but what?
Homesteader Blues
Tina has been putting up with no running water on their farm for over twelve years. Jimmy gets her and the kids out of the house for a week. His aim is to build a bathroom for his wife. Nothing and no one will sidetrack his surprise for Tina, and that includes teen angst and broken equipment.
A self-described red-neck, dirt farmer, Jimmy is smarter than he looks. The country boy knows how to keep his wife happy, and Tina appreciates his efforts.
Life and love in Alaska can take some real twists and turns but nothing this homesteader can't handle.
Poppy
A young woman makes the terrible discovery that the man she idolizes is not her father. Worse, he won both her mother and her in a card game. Emma Kay is devastated and unable to handle the news.
Road Talk
Molly only takes chances while driving. Life burned her, and she isn't ready to open herself up to new wounds. Louis, Lou for short, knows more about the woman than Molly likes. When she discovers Lou crewed with her dead husband, Molly wonders how much Davis Lee told his shipmate about her.
He's supposed to be her muscle to facilitate an aircraft engine exchange. It's a business trip into the wilds of Alaska that has them cooped up in a truck for days. Where will their road talk take them?
A White Cat for Christmas
Mike has every reason to be careful. His business leaves him open to threats and possibly violence. He is suspicious of the woman hanging around the dilapidated old garage near the road. What is she doing on his property?
Angie saw the little kitten on the way to work. The poor little thing is living under the old shed. She wants to rescue it before the temperature drops so low it freezes to death. The big man is intimidating, but the kitten needs help, and she'll take on the irate homeowner if she has too.
Traffic Control
Ace knew it was her at first glance. Dressed in jeans and a neon yellow safety vest, the woman holding the traffic control sign was the grown-up version of the girl who ran out on him years ago. The stop sign in her hand said it all; stop thinking about her and forget her name.
Adele wanted another chance with the man. Would he even listen to her? Every time he sat in the line of cars she held in place waiting to use the one lane, she wanted to walk up to his truck. But how could she? Adele ran out on him.

Release date: February 1, 2019

Publisher: Paper Gold Publishing

Print pages: 213

Sample

 

I got the text message just before leaving Anchorage. Sitting at my desk, I closed out the last program on the computer. In another five minutes, I would leave work for the valley and home. Monte waited, and the message said for me not to worry about dinner as he had it covered. A second short cryptic thing from him pinged into my phone.

need 2 tell U something

The single line sat in a bubble under the first message.

I don't like surprises. I especially don't care for them from a man who has just returned home from a two-night gig in another city. Worse yet, when the man is one extremely hot guitar player with a dimple in his right cheek, those kinds of messages start all sorts of disturbing thoughts churning around in my brain.

After all, what on earth did I think I was doing with the man anyhow? Every female within fifty miles of any gig the band did seemed to be able to sniff him out. I couldn't ride herd on Monte all the time. I didn't want to be his keeper.

Men who needed keepers were a pain in the ass. I gave up the last pain to my supposed good friend, Lianne. The bitch could have him with my blessing. It would be interesting to see how long they lasted.

Monte and I discussed Lianne once. I made my position clear. If I ever found a hint of that lying, skinny sleaze anywhere near him, he was toast. And when I got done with her, no one would ever find the pieces.

I had heard rumors of Lianne's heading down to Seward for the weekend. The bass player's wife, Misty, worked at the insurance brokerage down the hall. She got pissed because she had to work on Saturday and couldn't make the gig. Misty was worried about Lianne's being there. Once the woman got a couple of drinks in her, any man was fair game.

My being with Montgomery Wendt was the odd paring of the century. I wondered now and then exactly how it all happened. Thieves and Liars was a very popular band in the state. Monte hadn’t been hurting for offers from women.

Everything, the text message, the Seward gig, put the thought in my mind that maybe he found a little honey to replace me. If so, I wanted him to spit the damn line out, whatever it was. No beating around the bush. A clean break and we both go our separate ways.

Sometimes after work, I needed the hour commute to ease down out of work mode. Today, an hour to imagine the worst was probably a bad idea. But that text left me wondering. Not good.