“He is, mostly. He was dry for most of the winter, but this thing with Idaho, and of course he worries about me when I’m on the trail, and . . . well, that can be a bad thing. He sort of channels it all toward Elsa.”

“I don’t blame him,” Peyton said. “People go missing in the bush every year. Alaska is a dangerous place.”

“I can take care of myself, I have for years now. But you’re right—anything can happen in the bush.”

“Do you think we should go back?”

“No.” Echo blew on her soup, took a sip. “He knows I’ll be gone for ten days. I asked him to wait until I got back to do anything about Elsa. This is good soup.”

“I added my traveling spice packet to it. Oregano, parsley, basil, and thyme. Speaking of spice, did you hear that Dodge Kingston is back?”

And just like that, Echo choked. She put her hand on her mouth to stop her soup from escaping. Coughing, she grabbed a towel.

“Sheesh. I guess that’s a no. Sorry.”

Echo was still coughing, but she put up a hand. “No. It’s fine.” She took a drink of her tea. Put it down and cleared her throat. “When?”

“A few days ago. Showed up, and according to Winter Starr, he’s flying his father’s homestead route until Barry gets back in the air.”

So it had been Dodge who Echo had seen on the street.

Wow, he looked good. Changed, but good. Maybe, hopefully, also healed.

“I heard about Barry’s crash from Otto. That’s rough. Clipped a tree coming into the Copper Mountain FBO,” Echo said.

“Weird, right? They’re saying it might have been structural, but Winter said the wind was less than five knots that day, so . . .”

“How badly was he hurt?”

“Broken arm, a few broken ribs. His pride.”

“I’ll bet.” She took another sip of her soup. “How’d Dodge get into the picture?” See, her voice didn’t shake at all. No more coughing, choking, or general seizing up of her heart.

“Dunno. I think Larke called him. But I did hear from Moose Mulligan that he was joining Air One, so maybe he’s been in Alaska for a while.”

For a while?

She put down her spoon, no longer hungry. For a while and he hadn’t bothered to contact her.

Not that she expected it. After all, he hadn’t answered even one of her letters. She leaned back and picked up her cup of tea. Outside, the wolves mourned again, and with it, Granite sat up, perked his ears.

“It’s okay, buddy,” she said.

“Winter said he was still single.”

Echo cut her gaze back to Peyton. Lifted a shoulder.

“Please. Not even a little perk of interest?”

“That’s long over. Never started, really.”

“Echo—he asked you to marry him.”

“It was a mistake.”

“A mistake?”