Dreamkeepers Read Online Free

insolently.
    “That was stinking of you!”
    “Yeah, wasn’t it?”
    “What other goodies didn’t you tell us?” Kelly asked in an exasperated tone. This was a game Mike played very well. In the old days he used to torment her and Marty with his “I know something you don’t know” attitude and they would follow him for days trying to wheedle information out of him. “You haven’t changed a bit!”
    “You have.” He leered, his eyes lingering on her soft, rounded breasts beneath the pullover knit shirt. He made a lecherous face. “Time has improved you! You used to be a skinny monstrosity with legs that came almost to your neck!”
    “Well, thank you, vile creature! I can remember when your front teeth looked like Peter Rabbit’s and your ears like Dumbo’s, the elephant. I suppose, now that you’ve grown so handsome, you have to carry a stick to keep the girls away.”
    “Let’s just say I don’t miss any opportunities,” he said wickedly.
    It was easy for them to fall back into the light banter. It was as if they had never been apart. The only thing missing was Marty.
    “Marty said she might come back if we open the resort,” Kelly said suddenly, with a fierce longing to have the three of them together again.
    “She mentioned it. I don’t want to give up my job with the utility company just yet. It’ll take a bit of money to put the old place back together again.” Mike got up and reached for his coat. “Wash out the pot, woodenhead, and I’ll fetch some coffee. Tomorrow I’ll run down to Talkeetna so you can stock up. That is if you’re sure you’re going to stay.”
    “I was never so sure of anything in my life. I don’t think I ever want to leave this place again.” She looked away, veiling her expression.
    “Five years,” he said softly. “You may be addicted to city life and don’t know it.”
    “Go get the coffee, mister know-it-all. I’m a big girl, now, and I know my own mind, at last!”
    “I hope so.” He grinned. “It’s taken you long enough.” To emphasize the point, he slammed the door unnecessarily hard when he went out.
    Kelly found the old blackened coffee pot, scrubbed it out, and filled it with water. She lifted a lid on the range and set the pot in the round hole so the flames lapped at its bottom.
    It was good to be home. Although it was dark, she could see in her mind’s eye the peaks of Mount McKinley dominating the skyline. Soon the snows would come . . . that breath of cold air Mike let in when he went out the door told her it could be any day now. The dark, drooping evergreens that shadowed the small settlement of three log cabins and a lodge seemed dreary and mysterious in the summer. But in the winter they appeared graceful and soft, skirted by snow.
    There was a lot of work to be done, more than Kelly could possibly do alone, before the lodge would be ready to receive guests. The scrubbing alone would take ages. Another time-consuming chore would be cutting wood for the mammoth fireplace and for heat for her own cabin. That’s about all she could depend on Mike doing. She had noticed the neat cords of wood beside his own cabin, probably not a winter’s supply, but a good start. Maybe she could hire someone in Talkeetna to help.
    Now that she was thinking about it, there were a million things to do and not much time to do them if they wanted to open when the season started. People liked a place to leave their snowmobiles before the highway got snowbound, because many of them would come up on the train, or by skiplane. They’d need a mountain of supplies, and a cook. A cook! That was one job she wouldn’t do. She could cook up a meal for herself, but she couldn’t on a large scale.
    Ideas for advertising began to flick through her mind. They could place ads in the Anchorage and Fairbanks papers. There had been a big change in the economy ever since the oil companies had descended on the state. New corporations had sprung up and young executives