“When are you going back?” Uncle Ennis asked, curious.

“Calving’s done,” Jack said. “We can train up whoever you need first, of course, but . . . soon? We need to get back to Foxtail before the snows hit.”

He wasn’t wrong. They’d need time to get supplies, get their gear in working order, and repair anything out of order. Living outside of Foxtail wasn’t an easy life, that was for sure, and you had to be prepared.

Caleb leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t think I’m going back this year.”

Jack threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. “Here we go.”

Caleb shrugged.

“It’s because of that woman, isn’t it?” Jack pestered him. “The one you won’t shut up about?”

Caleb just stared off into the distance, but there was a hint of red on his cheeks.

Hank watched his brother in surprise. A woman? Caleb? And he wouldn’t shut up about her? He tried to think of women his brother had met . . . and only came up with one. “Not that schoolteacher?”

Caleb turned redder. He jerked to his feet and put his mug in the sink, then silently headed out to the barn.

Jack just gave Hank a look of disgust. “This is your fault, you know.”

“How is this my fault?”

His brother jerked to his feet and shook his head. “You’re changing everything. You know we were just supposed to come down here for a year or so, stock up on some cash for supplies, help out Uncle Ennis, and then head back north. Now Caleb’s pining away for some schoolteacher he ain’t never said one word to, and you’re all over the local hairdresser, and I’m starting to think we’re never going back to Alaska.” He gave Hank a look of disgust. “Do you even want to go back home?”

“Of course,” he said automatically, a scowl on his face. “The plan hasn’t changed.” He just . . . hadn’t thought about the plan much lately. It hadn’t seemed all that important.

“So you’re leaving here with me in a few months? Once Uncle Ennis gets a few new hands and we get them all situated?”

Hank glanced over at his uncle, who mildly sipped his coffee, clearly trying to stay neutral. Was he going to leave in a few months? He hadn’t thought hard about it—hadn’t thought about it at all in a while, really. “If Libby’s done with school,” he began.

Jack made a noise of disgust. He grabbed his hat off the hook on the wall and turned to glare at Hank. “Is that what you want or is that what she wants?”

“Libby?”

“Becca,” Jack spat. “All of this is you changing just to make some woman happy and—”

“Watch yourself,” Hank said quietly.

Jack made a sound of disgust and turned and walked out to the barn.