The Mountain Man’s North Star: A Modern Mail-Order Bride Romance Read online

  The Mountain Man’s North Star

  A Modern Mail-Order Bride Romance

  Frankie Love

  Contents

  Copyright

  About

  Prologue

  1. Sophie

  2. Sullivan

  3. Sophie

  4. Sullivan

  5. Sophie

  6. Sullivan

  7. Sophie

  8. Sullivan

  9. Sophie

  10. Sullivan

  11. Sophie

  Epilogue 1

  Epilogue 2

  Also by Frankie Love

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Edited by Zoe Nightengale

  Copyright © 2019 by Frankie Love

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  About

  The Mountain Man’s North Star

  When Alaskan native Sullivan orders a bride, he’s not planning on falling in love.

  A recent transplant to his childhood home in the middle of nowhere, he wants company.

  More than company—he wants a woman in his bed every damn day.

  Sully’s financially independent because of his own hard work and determination.

  His mail-order bride has other ideas.

  According to Sophie, the Universe dictates our path. In fact, it led her here.

  Even though she’s running from a not-so-distant debt collector, she’s letting fate decide how long she stays in this unfamiliar place.

  When they’re wrapped in one another’s arms these two are wilder than this untamed land.

  But you can’t stay in bed forever—eventually you have to step outside and look up at the sky.

  Trouble is, Sullivan and Sophie see very different things.

  Dear Reader,

  Sullivan is the alpha you’ve been waiting for.

  He’s strong, successful, and all kinds of sexy.

  His bride may be looking up at the stars, but he prefers using his telescope.

  It’s big. Huge, really.

  Capable of making a woman see things in a whole new way.

  The mountains are calling, and Sully is ready to show you something more magical than the North Star.

  #OhMyStars #NiceScope

  xo, Frankie

  Prologue

  Sullivan

  It’s been a long ass time since I’ve been up here—too damn long. And God, it feels good to be back at the family homestead. I look over the property, surveying the land, taking it all in. It’s one hundred and sixty private acres of scenic bliss. Far from Juneau where I’ve been living for the last decade.

  Now, I’m back here on my grandfather’s land. I’m not usually a sentimental man, and this inheritance wasn’t something I was expecting, but damn, it feels like I’ve finally come home.

  All it took was a ten-minute boat ride from Sitka Harbor to get away from the grind that had me tied to my company 24/7. Now I’m in a protected cove with a secure dock and a breathtaking blend of raw Alaskan wilderness.

  My brother Harrison hikes up to the bluff where I stand. “It’s a hell of a climb,” he says. “This new prosthetic is pretty sweet though.”

  “Working well for you?” I ask my brother, the war hero and recent newly wed. He hired a matchmaker who found him a bride, and damn, I’ve never seen him so happy. Deserves it — he’s been through hell and back.

  “Yeah, I’m lucky,” he says, running a hand over his beard. And I shake my head — only a good man would consider themselves lucky after the shit he’s suffered.

  I’ve been here a week, but he came in yesterday, his wife Hannah with him, to spread our granddad Sully’s ashes. And now we stand at the lookout where we said our final goodbyes, the memories clouding our vision as we look up into the clear blue sky.

  “You gonna do okay out here alone, Sully?” he asks.

  Hannah speaks up. “Yeah, Sul, there aren’t many women out here to date.”

  Harrison snorts, wrapping an arm around his wife’s waist. “I don’t think he’s dating them, honey.”

  “I’ve changed my wild ways,” I tell them. “I’m done with all that bullshit. I’ve been fucking around in the city far too long. I want to return to my roots,” I say, meaning it. I look over my property with pride. It feels good to be home.

  “Glad to hear it, still, I think you’ll be lonely up here,” Harrison says as we turn, heading back to the massive lodge I now own. “Before Hannah came home, I didn’t I know what I was missing. But now that I have an amazing wife, I couldn’t imagine going back in time.”

  Hannah looks up at my brother with adoring eyes and there’s no doubt they are the real deal.

  “Yeah, well you struck gold, Harry. Not every one marries for the right reasons.”

  “Maybe you should order a bride, Sullivan,” she suggests. “Isabela who does the match making, never makes a mistake. She knows what she’s doing.”

  “Right,” Harrison laughs. “As if Sully would take himself off the market for good. I bet he couldn’t last a week as a married man.”

  His words rub me the wrong way, but I’m in no mood to fight.

  Inside the lodge we pour ourselves drinks and head to the living room where a fireplace glows. It’s cozy here, comfortable—nothing like my place in Juneau. There, I have a new condo, modern and concrete. But it is missing something… and as I look over at my brother and his new wife, cuddling on the couch like two lovebirds, I know what that is.

  I’m missing a wife.

  “You’re wrong, Harry. I could settle down,” I tell them, swirling the whiskey in my tumbler.

  “Oh yeah?” Harry shakes his head. “I can’t even imagine what this woman would be like.”

  “She’d have to be patient,” Hannah says.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She laughs. “You’re just, kinda strong-willed.”

  “That’s her nice way of saying you’re an ass,” Harry chimes in.

  “I’m not an ass.” Frowning I take a drink. “Just because I own a company and make the right decisions—always—doesn’t mean I’m an ass. I can’t help it if I’m always right.”

  That makes Harry and Hannah crack up.

  “You aren’t exactly flexible, is all,” Hannah says. “You do things your way.”

  I lift my eyebrows. “Because my way works.”

  “Whatever you say, Sully,” she says lightly. “But honestly, do you want a wife?”

  “I took leave for the next year,” I tell them. “I figured I’d come here and work with my hands, decompress, fucking enjoy the fresh air. I’ve spent too many days in an office.”

  “You didn’t answer the question,” Harry says.

  “I was getting there. The point is,” I say, running a hand over my jaw, “I figured I would be fine out here alone. But now that I’m here… I’m not so sure. Maybe I should get a wife.”

  Harry shakes his head. “You’ve only been out here a week, Sullivan. Maybe it’s not about a wife, it’s about being where you belong. Maybe you’re more of a city boy than a mountain man.”

  That gets me all fired up. “You wanna go head-to-head?” I ask. “Hell, you don’t know what I am.”

  “Getting a wife because you don’t want to be alone isn’t the right motive.”

  I lift my eyebrows to my brother. “Oh yeah, and why di
d you get Hannah?”

  That shuts him up. But Hannah clears her throat. “Sully, listen, if you get a wife, make sure you really want one. Because it’s not like a girl you meet on a dating app—if you do this, it’s a real marriage.”

  Maybe it’s because I hate the idea of Harry thinking he knows me better than I know myself, or maybe it’s the pair of them thinking this is a bad idea — but it makes me want to do it all the more.

  “Can you give me the number of this matchmaker?”

  “Seriously?” Harrison asks.

  “What’s it to you?”

  Him and Hannah share a look.

  “What?”

  Hannah bites her bottom lip, but Harry clears his throat. “You haven’t had a real girlfriend before. Are you really ready for a wife?"

  This pisses me off. “You’d never even slept with someone before you ordered your bride, Harry. Not sure you’re the one to judge.”

  Harry lifts his hands. “I don’t want to fight. I just want you to be happy.”

  I stand to stoke the fire. “I think I know whether I could handle a wife.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you could handle one,” Hannah says with a smirk. “The issue is we’re not sure you really want one.”

  Chapter One

  Sophie

  The phone rings. Again. I know who it is. Who is calling.

  Again.

  I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing I could run from this whole mess. Scooping out the last of the loose tea from the canister, I add it to a teapot full of hot water. While waiting for it to steep I look at the kitchen table—regretting it as I do. The mountain of unpaid bills is stressing me out.

  The phone rings again.

  Dammit.

  Slamming it into the junk drawer, I scream. This isn’t how my life was supposed to go. None of it is going as planned. Those feelings of not being good enough are creeping back into my thoughts.

  I’m here in this situation because I spent too much time trusting myself instead of the Universe. Turns out, when I follow my gut I end up in the totally wrong place. But when I follow the signs; the stars— I’m never led astray.

  Which is why the pile of bills is so frustrating. If I’d just gone to the hospital after getting my appendix removed and explained the situation, maybe I could have been put on a payment plan. Instead, I let my co-worker Todd introduce me to this loan shark Robby, thinking I needed help paying the bill in cash, up front.

  These are the things I might know if I had a family, a mom and dad … anyone in the world looking out for me, or having my back.

  Instead of getting advice from my non-existent parents, I figuratively signed on the dotted line and Robby gave me the sixteen grand I needed.

  But there is interest. Ten points each week.

  And it’s accumulating. Quickly.

  The amount due is double what I initially borrowed.

  When I don’t pay, he comes to the coffee shop where I work. Not threatening, not exactly. More like intimidating. And so instead of going to the cops to explain … what exactly? That I took this crook’s cash and owe him all this money? I hand over my paycheck. Give him my tips. As for my own checking account?

  I’m too scared to check the balance.

  “Sophie?” I hear my neighbor Fiametta calling to me from the front door.

  I walk to the door, past the fairy lights strung to ceiling and the burning essential oil in the diffuser. I try to gather my thoughts. She probably thinks I’m a crazy explosion, slamming drawers and screaming over the never-ending string of debt collectors.

  “Hi,” I say, hating what a mess I must appear to be in front of the sweet old lady who always has a friendly smile on her face and something delicious cooking in her apartment.

  “Are you okay, bellisima? I heard screaming.”

  “Scream,” I correct. “It was one scream. And I don’t know. I’m …” Well, then I’m crying. Full on tears. I don’t even know this woman very well, but next thing I know she’s in my kitchen pulling out two teacups.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I tell her. But she’s already pouring us tea and telling me to sit, sit.

  I do as she says. It feels good, someone else taking control. We walk into my living room, and I see her taking in the place. My tarot cards are spread out on the coffee table, my stack of books on astrology and energy work piled on the floor next to my couch. The throw pillow on my couch, a birthday gift from my co-worker Charlotte, embroidered with the Aries constellation. As we walk into the kitchen, we pass the poster on my wall that reads Ready To Retrograde. If Fiametta has any opinions on my interests, she doesn’t mention it.

  When I was younger, and living in foster homes, I always read my horoscope, saved my pennies to see a palm reader, always looking for a sign … a sliver of light in the midst of so much darkness. But as I got older, and my situation never changed, I stopped looking for those glimmers of hope. Honestly I never thought I’d get my happy ending.

  So I stopped relying on all things mystic. I became a cynic. Bitter and alone. But after making the deal with Robby, and quickly realizing how bad of a decision it was, an astrologer happened to be a customer. I was in tears, she had advice—look to the stars when you feel lost, when you feel confused, she said. So I did… and for the first time in so long I felt at peace. Like I wasn’t in this alone.

  Now, I’m not alone either. Fiametta is here trying to comfort me too.

  “Now tell me, what is the problem, ma bella,” she says, stirring sugar in her cup.

  My cheeks burn with embarrassment as she glances around my table. Overdue notices and an eviction notice cover the surface. I scoop them up, but it’s too late. She has seen; she knows.

  “Money problem, is it?”

  I nod, explaining the stupid surgery, the piling bills. I don’t tell her about Robby the loan shark though—because admitting that is just too embarrassing and fills me with shame.

  “I just feel like such a fool,” I tell her.

  “You don’t have a family to lean on?”

  “I was a foster kid, my parents left when I was five. Holding down a job felt like an accomplishment, but I didn’t have health coverage, and now…” I shake my head. “I feel like everything is spiraling out of control.”

  “What is it you want?” she asks, taking a sip of the tea. She pulls in a face written with disgust. “Sophie, what kind of tea is this?”

  I smirk, wiping my eyes. “Not the good kind.”

  She pats my hand. “It’s all going to be okay,” she says.

  “How do you know that?” I thumb through the bills. “Because from where I’m sitting, I don’t see it.”

  She nods. “I have an idea, but I need to make a phone call first. Why don’t you go on a walk, clear your head, and then come back in half an hour?”

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Don’t you worry,” she says, leading me out of the apartment. “Come back and I will make you an espresso. And throw out that tea, will you?”

  * * *

  Stepping outside the smoggy city I’ve lived in my entire life, I decide to hang a left and walk down toward the cafe where I work. Snagging this apartment a few months ago had been a big break—I had finally landed a job as a receptionist, but after the bus ran late two days in a row, my new boss wasn’t very forgiving of his new employee being late. So I went back to looking for work, before finally getting a job at a coffee shop.

  As I walk there now, I can’t help but notice the massive billboard advertising vacationing in Alaska. GO NORTH! TOUR ALASKA!

  I smirk, thinking —if only it were so easy to run away. Walking toward the coffee shop, I stop as I pass the courthouse. Outside, there is a woman in a white dress holding a bouquet, and a man in a tuxedo, kissing her.

  A photographer is there capturing the moment and I watch them, wistfully, thinking that finding my own happily ever after feels ages away. I don’t even know where I’ll be living at the end of the month, a relationship is the
last of my concerns.

  Finally, I pull myself away, trying to focus on being positive, on looking ahead to my future, not regretting parts of my past that I can’t change. Once inside the cafe, Charlotte, my co-worker, offers me a piece of some fancy dessert they just started serving today called Baked Alaska.

  As I’m waiting for her to serve it, I grab a newspaper on a table and flip it open to the horoscopes page. I’ve already read my online predictions for the day, but I always like to get a second opinion.

  ARIES: Take a risk like you’ve never imagined. Step out in faith and watch your problems disappear. Take on a new name and embark on a fresh chapter of your life! The mountains are calling!

  Frowning I take the dessert as Charlotte offers it to me.

  “Good, right?” she asks as I take a bite.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to try it, but as the creamy dessert hits my tongue I know the spontaneous decision is one of the best I’ve had all week.

  “Delicious,” I finish the dessert and wave goodbye to my co-worker, then head home, wondering what in the world Fiametta might have up her sleeve. As I turn into my apartment building, I notice the sun shining on a sliver of gold buried in the dust and dirt of the sidewalk. Leaning down to get a better look, I find a long forgotten ring on the ground. A golden wedding band. Picking it up, I look around, wondering who might have lost, feeling an odd sense of ownership. I tuck it in my pocket.

  At Fiametta’s door, I knock, inhaling the rich scent of espresso as she ushers me inside her enchanting apartment. It’s nothing like mine, but cozy nonetheless.