As the door closed and her figure disappeared in the dusk, he missed a chord. In fact, he couldn’t even remember what tune they’d been playing.

In the gathering twilight, Bull’s grin flashed white. “Guess the naughty lyrics drew her out, hmm?”

Caz snorted. “The other side of the lake is too far away to hear more than faint music.”

Good thing, Gabe thought, considering how innocent she was. Although she’d been yielding in his arms. Giving. Responsive.

He wanted to hear her voice again. Hear her laugh. Take her mouth and pull her against him and…

When he looked away from her cabin, his brothers were watching him.

“Pretty little thing, isn’t she?” Bull said. “I like her.”

Gabe shot him a look that made his brother’s big laugh bust out.

“Got it.” Bull lifted his arms, palms forward, in a “hands-off” gesture, the way the brothers acknowledged a claimed woman.

Grinning, Caz duplicated the movement despite the fact that Gabe hadn’t said anything.

Dammit. With the experience of years of diverting them, Gabe started singing a song they couldn’t resist. “O, America!”

And…he had to say, it was nice to be home.

Across the lake, Audrey perched on her picnic table. The walls of the cabin had seemed to be closing in on her, so she’d come out to enjoy the quiet evening.

It was so different here. In Chicago, the city hummed with noise all night. Was never really dark.

In Alaska, sunset came so late the sky never turned completely black. Even so, the stars were still huge and brilliant and so close it felt as if she could reach up and touch.

There was no hum of traffic or people or horns or sirens. The stillness wrapped around her until she could hear each lap of the lake water against the shore. There were singing insects in the shore grasses. The more distant hooting of an owl.

She blinked as another sound whispered across the lake.

Music? That was music. Almost too soft to hear, but beautiful. Men’s voices in harmony. Someone had found a pleasant radio station.

Then the music stopped, and she’d heard Bull’s big booming laugh.

Wait… The music started again, playing a few seconds and broke off. That wasn’t a radio station, but real people. Her boss and some friends. Singing together. Playing real instruments. Guitars and a drum.

Wow. The only people she’d ever heard creating music were people in church or teenagers wanting to start a band.

These guys were just…having fun.

A deep laugh made her nerves jump to attention. That was Gabe.

He was over there, too. Sitting and talking. Occasionally singing with the other two. Just having fun.

She bit her lip against the ache of loneliness, the longing to be over there with people.