Had to be a trick. Had to.

He thought of the first and last woman he’d fallen for. Well, “fallen for” was the wrong phrase. But he’d been mighty sweet on Adria Young every time he went into town. Tried to go out of his way to say hi to her. She always gave him welcoming smiles and flirted with him when he went to the bar. One night, he’d had a few too many to drink, Adria had been real friendly, and the next thing he knew, they were in bed together. It had been his first time with a woman—twenty-six was old for that sort of thing, and it was bothering him, but remote Alaska wasn’t crawling with eligible ladies. He’d thought Adria was amazing. Stunning. Maybe a little too sly for his taste, but that didn’t matter after a few beers. She’d curled up in bed with him, and in the morning she’d asked for money for a pack of smokes. He’d offered her his wallet and she’d smiled cutely and took a couple hundred.

And because he was an idiot that had gotten laid, he let her.

That went on for about a week before he realized she was always taking money out of his wallet the moment he had his back turned. One of the drunks at the bar had commented on how she’d done that to him last season—how she picked a mark and cleaned him out when he came into town with his savings—and Hank realized he’d been made a fool. She’d cleaned out his savings, sure enough, a few bills at a time out of his wallet.

He’d packed up his supplies and left town that same day, spent all winter at his remote cabin, throwing himself into daily chores and wishing he’d never met Adria. He’d piled up more pelts than ever before, worked harder, and repaired the log cabin so many times that Caleb and Jack got irritated every time he picked up a hammer. Eventually it was time to go back into town, and he had . . . and had woke up one morning to Adria on the doorstep of his motel room with a fat baby in her arms.

“This is yours. I don’t want it. She’s cramping my lifestyle.” She’d dumped the baby in his arms and left.

Hank hadn’t known what to do. Adria wasn’t at her apartment and he didn’t know where else to find her. He’d gone down to the police station with the infant in his arms and they’d chuckled at him because they all knew Adria. They’d politely suggested a DNA test.