Something Wild In Anchorage (Alaska Adventure Romance Book 5) Read online

  Something Wild

  In Anchorage

  Alaska Adventure Romance Novella

  Book Five

  RENEE HART

  Impassioned Romance Books

  Copyright © 2017 by Renee Hart

  All rights reserved, worldwide.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned

  or distributed in any printed or electronic form.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

  places and incidents are either the product of the

  author's imagination or used fictitiously, and any

  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

  events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Alaska Adventure Romance Books By Renee Hart

  A Single Year

  The Summer Nanny

  The End Of The Road

  Together In The Wild

  Something Wild In Anchorage

  Yesterday Island

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Excerpt from Yesterday Island

  About The Author

  Alaska Adventure Romance Books By Renee Hart

  Something Wild In Anchorage

  An Alaska Adventure Romance Novella

  Description: Wherever Lissa goes, minor disasters are sure to happen.

  She moved to Anchorage from Texas to start her new job with the Fish and Game Department. Not much has gone her way, except for meeting new friends at Java Nutz, the local coffee stand she frequents.

  A sweet, funny adventure romance, Alaska style.

  Chapter One

  “Excuse me, that’s “Lissa” with two s’s, not one! I clearly wrote my name with two s’s on the application form. Why did you change the spelling of my name?”

  “I didn’t change it. Our computer doesn’t recognize “Lissa” with two s’s. It only understands the name “Lisa”,” the clerk said clearly annoyed.

  “Well, my name’s not “Lisa” and I’m not going to change my name just because your computer can’t spell. What kind of computer can’t spell someone’s name anyway,” Lissa said in frustration.

  She’d been waiting in line at the DMV for three hours to get her Alaskan driver’s license. If she didn’t get it today, there’d be big trouble tomorrow when she showed up at her new job without a state license. She might even get fired on her first day!

  “Here! Take a look at my Texas driver’s license. Their computer didn’t have a problem with my name.”

  “That’s cause they’re used to stupid names in Texas,” the man waiting behind her mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear. A couple of people standing nearby made noises giving the impression they were in agreement with him.

  Lissa turned around to stare at the man for a moment, wondering if it was illegal to spray someone with bear spray in the DMV.

  The clerk was typing as fast as her fingers could fly, but no amount of effort was going to budge the computer from its programming. She’d tried every combination of letters to get around the problem at this point.

  “Look…ma’am…”

  Lissa winced.

  “You’re just going to have to file a name change with the courthouse to get this straightened out. There’s nothing I can do for you here.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Lissa was considering how the clerk would feel about bear spray when she realized that getting arrested would make her late on her first day, which would probably get her fired. She grabbed the misnamed license off the counter and turned to stomp away, but her umbrella sticking out of her bag caught the rude man behind her clearly in his midsection. He crumpled to the floor with a sissy scream that would have done a second grade girl proud.

  Casting a look around the small room, Lissa could see everyone staring at her as if she was some kind of threat to them. Tossing a very insincere ‘sorry’ at the man on the floor, the young woman all but ran out of the office. There was no point in sticking around to find out the penalty for jabbing someone with an umbrella, even if it was an accident, she thought to herself. Besides, he deserved it for making fun of my name.

  Walking down the street in search of a coffee shop, Lissa fumed at the stupidity of giving computers control over everything. Her entire four years at college were marred with computer glitches, failures and breakdowns at critical moments. She was especially irritated by the way computers resisted her name. It was probably the source of all of her computer problems.

  Her new college friends quickly learned of her talent for destruction within the first semester, and developed long lists of plausible excuses to avoid sharing their computers with her. It became more cost effective to pay someone to type her papers than to keep up with the expense of computer repairs.

  She’d even managed to avoid having a smart phone that would put the power of a computer in her pocket. It was her motto to hang onto her flip phone till death parted them, (of course, hoping this meant the death of the phone and not her!).

  She’d walked several blocks before she realized there apparently weren’t any coffee shops in this part of town. In fact, she’d gone so far that she was nearly out of town and the thick underbrush was beginning to press in alongside the road. Stopping to get her bearings, she was startled to hear something moving in the bushes next to the road. She’d barely turned in the direction of the sound when a moose came crashing out of the brush. The deranged beast was running right at her as a large funny looking dog gave chase.

  Diving out of the moose’s path, she found herself lying in the middle of a thick growth of wild rose bushes. Their thorns poked and scratched her as she scrambled to see where her “attackers” had gone, but they were nowhere in sight. Her bag with the offending umbrella and one shoe lay smack dab in the middle of the road. Attempting to disengage herself from the thorny shrubs, she slowly backed herself towards the road. The sudden scream of brakes close at hand frightened her out of her wits and she dove back into the brush.

  Lissa lay there in stunned silence wondering how many close calls she was going to survive during her first week in Alaska. Maybe her mother was right and she should have taken that job at the pet store back in Texas. Even selling someone pet snakes and spiders might have been better than getting killed before her new job even started.

  “Are you all right?”

  The male voice coming from over her right shoulder caused her to freeze in dismay. He clearly sounded young and she suspected ‘handsome’, but there was no way to know unless she turned around.

  “Should I call 911?” came the voice again as she continued to lay there without moving.

  Regaining her senses, well, at least her pride, Lissa tried without much success to sit up without getting scratched any more than she already was. Her ‘yips’ had the effect of motivating her ‘rescuer’ to help, but she waved him off. Best to try and minimize the damage on her own terms.

  Once she was free of the roses, she tried to sneak a quick look at the owner of the voice. Much to her dismay, she was right on both counts. He was most definitely young and handsome. His face was deeply concerned and he appeared to be equally surprised at her appearance.

  “I nearly ran you over,” he said. “What are you doing crawling around in the brush? By the way, my name’s Ryan, Ryan Jackson.”

  “I wasn’t cr
awling around in the brush,” Lissa retorted through gritted teeth as she tried to untangle a particularly sticky branch out of her hair.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” Ryan said as he reached out and gently disengaged the thorns.

  She found herself enveloped in the warm smell of donuts that seemed to saturate his clothes.

  “Umm… you smell like donuts,” she said in a dreamy voice.

  He took a step back and looked at her carefully.

  “Did you hit your head or something,” he said suspiciously, “because that last line sounded like you were about to pass out.”

  Shaking off her momentary lapse in concentration, Lissa looked around for her bag and her shoe.

  “Noooo!”

  Ryan jumped backwards at her scream and looked over to see what had elicited such a cry of horror. Falling to her knees next to the wheel of his pick-up truck, Lissa was pulling on her bag, trying to free it from the crushing weight of the tire.

  “You’ve run over my bag,” she groaned trying to get it out. “You better not have wrecked my phone!”

  “Wait! Wait! Just let me back the truck up a bit and then you can get it out.”

  Ryan jumped into the driver’s seat and put the truck in reverse. Slowly inching it backwards a bit, he was rewarded with a shout as the bag pulled free. Throwing the truck back into park, he jumped out to see the result and found her sitting on the ground. She was cradling the smashed remains of her flip phone in her hand and moaning softly.

  The young man stood there scratching his head and wondering what was going to happen next. This woman was obviously in need of some serious help. He knelt down next to her and reached for her shoe.

  “Here’s your shoe,” he stammered. “Sorry about your bag. Can I give you a ride somewhere? How’s about I buy you a cup of coffee? I know a really good place….”

  At the sound of the word, ‘coffee’ Lissa looked up at him hopefully.

  “Do they have donuts?”

  “Donuts? Sure! Yes, of course they have donuts. I’ll even buy you a donut to make up for your phone.”

  Looking down at her phone sadly, Lissa said quietly, “Nothing can make up for this.”

  “What do you mean? It’s a flip phone. Everyone I know has two or three of them in a drawer somewhere. I’m sure I can hook you up with another flip phone if that’s what you need.”

  Ryan held out his hand to her and helped her to stand up.

  “By the way, I didn’t get your name. As I said, I’m Ryan.”

  “Lissa. Lissa, with two s’s,” she said.

  ***

  They hadn’t driven very far when Ryan pulled into a parking lot next to a cute little coffee shack.

  “Welcome to Java Nutz,” Ryan said. “The best coffee and donuts in Anchorage, if I do say so myself.”

  “And why do you say that?” Lissa asked.

  “Actually, because I work here part time and my sister owns the place,” Ryan confessed with a grin.

  “Aha! That explains why you smell like donuts,” Lissa laughed. “I bet that works great when you’re trying to pick up girls!”

  Ryan gave her a funny look before getting out of the truck and coming around to open her door. It was apparent her remark wasn’t taken as a joke to him. Offering her a hand, he helped her out of the truck and walked over to the serving window.

  “Ryan, what are you doing back here,” the dark haired woman said from the window. “I thought you had a class?”

  “I did! I do! Oh no, I’ve got to go,” Ryan stammered. “I’m going to be late. Sis! Can you take care of Lissa with two s’s here? She’s badly in need of some coffee…and donuts!”

  Ryan was shouting over his shoulder as he ran back towards his truck.

  “And get her name and phone number…uh, e-mail so I can get her a new flip phone. I ran her other one over…”

  The two women watched Ryan’s hasty departure in stunned silence. He drove over the curb in his haste and bounced around a bit before straightening the truck and roaring off.

  “Does he always drive like that?” Lissa mused. “No wonder he nearly ran me over.”

  “He nearly ran you over!”

  Lissa turned to the woman.

  “Well, no. I don’t know. I think it was partly my fault,” she said with a sigh. “Is he a student?”

  “No, my brother teaches night classes over at the community college. He’s working on his doctorate part time and working the rest of the time to pay for it. I’m Jessie, by the way. What can I get for you?”

  “Coffee, please, with extra cream and sugar,” Lissa said with a dreamy look on her face, “and a donut. Ryan smells like donuts and now I’ve got the thought in my head that I’ve got to have a donut.”

  “I know what you mean,” Jessie laughed. “I was like that too for a while, but I can tell you the effect wears off pretty quick. Otherwise, I’d be buying a new wardrobe in bigger sizes every few weeks.”

  The two women laughed at the thought and found themselves feeling like old friends. After all, they had a few things in common, Ryan, coffee and donuts. They chatted over coffee interrupted only by the few customers stopping by for their own java needs.

  By Lissa’s third cup, Jessie knew all about the young woman’s move to Alaska and her new job.

  “So, you’ve come to Alaska from Texas to be a game warden,” Jessie laughed, “and you know nothing about dealing with moose or bears?”

  “No, but I’m really good with rattlesnakes and wild boars,” Lissa laughed back. “I figure that kind of experience has got to be worth something.”

  Jessie scratched her cheek as she tried to figure out how those animals had anything in common with what Lissa was going to have to face up here. She and Ryan were born Alaskan and their experiences with the local wildlife hadn’t always gone well for them. A lot of encounters with large animals ended up badly for one side or the other. Sometimes it was like living in a zoo without cages, even in the cities. Moose and bear walked about freely and while they generally avoided humans, no one ever counted on that kind of behavior.

  “So, tell me again what happened before Ryan nearly ran you over?”

  “Well, I was looking for a coffee shop, and my idea of a coffee shop doesn’t match what passes for a coffee shop here in Alaska,” Lissa began, “and I got out of town a ways. I knew I’d gone wrong somehow so I stopped to get my bearings when this moose came running right at me, with a big dog on its heels and nearly ran me down.”

  “You say it was being chased by a big dog,” Jessie asked. “Was the dog barking?”

  “Uh, no. It was just running after the moose. There was no barking or I would have heard it coming,” Lissa said in confusion.

  Jessie started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Dogs around here don’t usually chase moose because most of the moose wouldn’t bother running from them. Moose can be pretty hazardous for dogs. What you saw was a mama moose and her baby running after her.” Jessie laughed some more at the look on Lissa’s face. “And we don’t actually have a lot of ‘coffee shops’ here in Anchorage. We have ‘coffee stops’.”

  Lissa joined her, albeit a bit weakly at being the source of the comedy. It was clear she had a lot to learn about the local wildlife and Alaska in general. She hoped she’d be around long enough to do so with her luck running against her lately.

  “So, where are you staying?” Jessie asked.

  “Right now I’m at one of those long stay motels, but I’m hoping to find a small apartment or even a decent room I can rent. My new job at Fish & Game starts tomorrow and I haven’t been able to find anything yet.”

  “I might be able to help you out,” Jessie ventured. “My parents live up this road a short ways on “Snowmagedan Hill”. Well, that’s what we call it anyways. When there’s two feet of snow on the ground down here, there’s five feet up there cause of the wind currents. Anyway, they’ve got a small apartment over the garage. I was living
there for a while, but we moved into the little cabin next door when the renters moved out.”

  “We?”

  “Oh, my son, Trey and I,” Jessie answered pulling out her cell phone. “See, here he is!”

  Lissa gently took the phone and looked at a snap of a cute nine year old with his mother’s dark eyes and blond hair.

  “He’s cute,” she said before handing it back.

  “Anyway, like I was saying, the apartment’s empty and no one’s gotten around to putting out an ad for it so if you’re interested, I’d be happy to show it to you.”

  “That would be great! I was really hoping to find something a little different than the four walls and a bed kind of place,” Lissa said. “I don’t have any kind of furniture or even much in the way of ‘stuff’.”

  “No worries! There’s all the basic furniture in the apartment already and some great thrift stores in town. We can figure out how to get you plenty of stuff to fill in the empty spaces.”

  “Wow! My day certainly has turned around,” Lissa said. “Maybe my luck is changing. When would I be able to see the place?”

  “I close up the coffee shop at six. That’s when we start ‘rolling up the sidewalks’ around here,” she laughed. “You can ride up with me then and I’ll show you around. How’s that?”

  Lissa nodded her head and grinned. She had a very good feeling about all this. Things seemed to be falling into place and it looked like she was on her way. She couldn’t wait to call her mother and fill her in on her good fortune. That thought reminded her of the crushed flip phone in her pocket and her face fell.

  “What’s wrong?” Jessie asked.

  “I was thinking about calling my mom, but my phone is history.”

  “Don’t worry. You can use mine to call her. I’ve got to do some clean-up inside to get ready for tomorrow. Go ahead and give her a call.”

  Jessie laid the phone on the table and headed inside.