Praise for #1 New York Times bestselling author
DEBBIE MACOMBER
“When God created Eve, he must have asked Debbie Macomber for advice because no one does female characters any better than this author.”
—Harriet Klausner
“As always, Macomber draws rich, engaging characters.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Macomber is a master storyteller.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“It is easy to see why Ms. Macomber is a perennial favorite: she writes great books.”
—RomanceJunkies.com
“Ms. Macomber certainly has a knack for telling the story of small-town life.”
—Romance Communications
“One of Macomber’s great strengths is her insight into human behavior—both admirable and ignoble. Her ability to make her points about it without preaching is another…this book utilizes both skills.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“Debbie Macomber writes characters who are as warm and funny as your best friends.”
—New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs
“A wonderful slice of hometown America.”
—Romance Reviews Today
Also by Debbie Macomber
Blossom Street Books
THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET
A GOOD YARN
SUSANNAH’S GARDEN
BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET
TWENTY WISHES
Cedar Cove Series
16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD
204 ROSEWOOD LANE
311 PELICAN COURT
44 CRANBERRY POINT
50 HARBOR STREET
6 RAINIER DRIVE
74 SEASIDE AVENUE
8 SANDPIPER WAY
A CEDAR COVE CHRISTMAS
The Manning Family
THE MANNING SISTERS
THE MANNING BRIDES
THE MANNING GROOMS
Dakota Series
DAKOTA BORN
DAKOTA HOME
ALWAYS DAKOTA
Heart of Texas Series
VOLUME 1
(Lonesome Cowboy and Texas Two-Step)
VOLUME 2
(Caroline’s Child and Dr. Texas)
VOLUME 3
(Nell’s Cowboy and Lone Star Baby)
PROMISE, TEXAS
RETURN TO PROMISE
Christmas Books
A GIFT TO LAST
ON A SNOWY NIGHT
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
GLAD TIDINGS
CHRISTMAS WISHES
SMALL TOWN CHRISTMAS
WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS LETTERS
WHERE ANGELS GO
THIS MATTER OF MARRIAGE
MONTANA
THURSDAYS AT EIGHT
BETWEEN FRIENDS
CHANGING HABITS
DEBBIE MACOMBER
Midnight Sons
VOLUME 1
For Don and Mary Ann Adler
Don is my oldest cousin and Mary Ann one of my dearest friends and a fellow cameo collector
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Hard Luck, Alaska, a small community near the Arctic Circle. The town has a rich and interesting history that I hope you’ll enjoy. These books revolve around the three O’Halloran brothers—Sawyer, Charles and Christian—who own a flight service. The problem is, they keep losing their best pilots, until the brothers decide that the way to keep the men is to recruit women to their town. That’s when the fun begins.
My husband worked on the Arctic pipeline back in the mid-1980s and came to love Alaska. Creating this series was the perfect opportunity for me to explore it for myself. Our research trip in the summer of 1994 proved to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences of my writing career. I fell hopelessly in love with Alaska, the sheer magnificence of the landscape, the vastness and beauty, the friendliness of the small towns. Even now, all these years later, I have warm memories of our time there. Wayne and I flew with bush pilots, trekked across the tundra and talked with anyone who was willing to tell us about their lives.
The Midnight Sons series holds a special place in my heart. It was the prelude to the Heart of Texas series, the Dakota books and eventually led to the Cedar Cove series. (Keep in mind that the Hard Luck stories were written in the mid-nineties, before cell phones, DVDs and the Internet became part of our everyday lives.)
Now I invite you to sit back and allow me to introduce you to some proud, stubborn, wonderful men—Alaska men—and show you what happens when they meet their matches. Women from the “lower forty-eight.” Women a lot like you and me.
CONTENTS
BRIDES FOR BROTHERS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
THE MARRIAGE RISK
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
The History of Hard Luck, Alaska
Hard Luck, situated fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle, near the Brooks Range, was founded by Adam O’Halloran and his wife, Anna, in 1931. Adam came to Alaska to make his fortune, but never found the gold strike he sought. Nevertheless, the O’Hallorans and their two young sons, Charles and David, stayed on—in part because of a tragedy that befell the family a few years later.
Other prospectors and adventurers began to move to Hard Luck, some of them bringing wives and children. The town became a stopping-off place for mail, equipment and supplies. The Harmon family arrived in 1938 to open a dry goods store, and the Fletchers came soon after that.
When World War II began, Hard Luck’s population was fifty or sixty people all told. Some of the young men, including the O’Halloran sons, joined the armed services; Charles left for Europe in 1942, David in 1944 at the age of eighteen. Charles died during the fighting. Only David came home—with a young English war bride, Ellen Sawyer, despite the fact that he’d become engaged to Catherine Harmon shortly before going overseas. (Catherine married Willie Fletcher after David’s return.)
After the war, David qualified as a bush pilot. He then built some small cabins to attract the sport fishermen and hunters who were starting to come to Alaska; he also worked as a guide. Eventually he built a lodge to replace the cabins—a lodge that later burned to the ground.
David and Ellen had three sons, born fairly late in their marriage—Charles (named after David’s brother) was born in 1960, Sawyer in 1963 and Christian in 1965.
Hard Luck had been growing slowly all this time and by 1970 it was home to just over a hundred people. These were the years of the oil boom, when the school and community center were built by the state. After Vietnam, ex-serviceman Ben Hamilton joined the community and opened the Hard Luck Café, which became the social focus for the town.
In the late 1980s the three O’Halloran brothers formed a partnership, creating Midnight Sons, a bush-pilot operation. They were awarded the mail contract, and they also deliver fuel and other necessities to the interior. In addition, they serve as a small commuter airline, flying passengers to and from Fairbanks and within the northern Arctic.
In 1995, at the time these stories start, there were approximately 150 people living in Hard Luck—the majority of them male….
Now, almost fifteen years later, join the people here in looking back at
their history—particularly the changes that occurred when Midnight Sons invited women to town. Women who transformed Hard Luck, Alaska, forever!
BRIDES FOR BROTHERS
Prologue
June 1995
“What you really need are women.”
Sawyer O’Halloran made a show of choking on his coffee. “Women! We’ve got enough problems!”
Ben Hamilton—the Hard Luck Café’s owner, cook and just about everything else—set the coffeepot on the counter. “Didn’t you just tell me Phil Duncan’s decided to move back to Fairbanks?”
Phil was the best pilot Sawyer had. He wasn’t the first one Midnight Sons had lost to the big city, either. Every time a pilot resigned, it was a setback for the Arctic flight service.
“Yes, but Phil’s not leaving because of a woman,” Sawyer said.
“Sure he is,” Duke Porter piped up. Still clutching his mug, he slipped onto the stool next to Sawyer. “Phil quit because he couldn’t see his girlfriend as much as he wanted. He might’ve given you some phony excuse when he handed in his notice, but you know as well as I do why he quit.”
“Joe and Harlan left because of women, too. Because they couldn’t meet any, not if they were living here!” It was Ben again. The ex-Navy “stew burner”—as the O’Halloran brothers called him—obviously had strong views on the subject. Sawyer often shared his opinions, but not this time. He had half a mind to suggest Ben keep his nose out of this, but that wouldn’t be fair.
One of the problems with living in a small town, especially if you’d grown up there, was that you knew everyone, Sawyer reflected. And everyone knew you—and your business.
He might as well set up the Midnight Sons office right here in the middle of the café. His pilots routinely ate breakfast at Ben’s, and the cook was as familiar with the air charter’s troubles as the brothers were themselves.
Christian, the youngest O’Halloran, held his mug with both hands. “All right, if you won’t say it, I will,” he began, looking pointedly at Sawyer. “Ben’s right. Bringing a few women to Hard Luck would keep the crew happy.”
Sawyer didn’t really disagree with him. “We’ve got a new schoolteacher coming. A woman.” As a member of the school board, Sawyer had read over Bethany Ross’s application and been impressed with her qualifications, but he wasn’t sure the state should have hired her. She’d been born and raised in California. He still hadn’t figured out why she’d applied for a teaching position north of the Arctic Circle.
“I just hope this teacher isn’t like the last one,” John Henderson grumbled. “I flew her in, remember? I was as polite as could be, circled the area a bit, showed her the sights from the air, talked up the town. The woman wouldn’t even get off the plane.”
“I’d still like to know what you said to her,” Christian muttered.
“I didn’t say anything,” John insisted. “I mean, besides what I told you.” He squinted at Sawyer. “The new teacher’s not coming until August, is she?”
“August,” Ben repeated. “One woman.” He readjusted the stained white apron around his thick waist. “I can see it now.”
“See what?” Fool that he was, Sawyer had to ask. It went without saying that Ben would be more than happy to tell him.
“One woman will cause more problems than she’ll solve,” Ben said in a portentous voice. “Think about it, Sawyer.”
Sawyer didn’t want to think about it. All this talk of bringing in women made him uncomfortable.
“One thing’s for sure, we’re not going to let John fly her in this time,” Ralph said scornfully. “I got first dibs.”
He was answered by a loud chorus of “Like hell!” and “No way!”
“Don’t squabble!” Sawyer shouted.
Ben chuckled and slid a plate of sourdough hotcakes onto the counter toward Ralph.
“See what I mean?” the cook said under his breath. “Your men are already fighting over the new teacher, and she isn’t even arriving for months.”
Ralph lit into the hotcakes as if he hadn’t eaten in a week. Mouth full, he mumbled something about lonely bachelors.
“All right, all right,” Sawyer conceded. “Bringing a few women to Hard Luck might be a good idea, but how do you suggest we persuade them to move up here?”
“I guess we could advertise,” Christian said thoughtfully, then brightened. “Sure, we’ll advertise. It’s a good idea. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner.”
“Advertise?” Sawyer glared at his brother. “What do you mean, advertise?”
“Well, we could put an ad in one of those glossy magazines women like to buy. You know, the kind with lifestyle articles.” He said the word almost reverently. “What I heard, it’s gotten to be the thing to place an ad about lonely men in Alaska seeking companionship.”
“A friend of a friend sent his picture to one of ’em,” Ralph said excitedly, “and before he knew it, he had a sackful of letters. All from women eager to meet him.”
“I want you to know right now I’m not taking off my shirt and posing for any damn picture,” Duke Porter said in an emphatic voice.
“Getting your photograph in one of those magazines isn’t as easy as it sounds,” Ralph warned after swallowing a huge bite. He shrugged. “Not that I’ve tried or anything.”
“Things are rarely as good as they sound,” Sawyer pointed out reasonably, pleased that at least one of his employees was thinking clearly.
“Those women aren’t looking for pen pals, you know,” John said. “They’re after husbands, and they aren’t the type who can be picky, either, if you catch my drift.”
“So? You guys aren’t exactly centerfold material yourselves,” Ben was quick to remind them. He pushed up the sleeves of his shirt and planted both hands on the counter.
“As far as I can see,” Sawyer said, “we don’t have anything to offer women. It’s not like our good looks would induce them to move here, now is it?”
John’s face fell with disappointment. “You’re probably right.”
“What would work, then?” Christian asked. “We need to think positive, or we’re going to end up spending our lives alone.”
“I don’t have any complaints about my life,” Sawyer told his brother. Christian’s enthusiasm for this crazy idea surprised him. Sawyer was willing to go along with it, but he didn’t have much faith in its success. For one thing, he wasn’t convinced there’d be any takers. And if there were, the presence of these women might create a whole new set of problems.
“You’ve got to remember women aren’t that different from men,” Christian was saying, sounding like a TV talk-show expert.
The others stared at him, and Christian laughed. “You know what I mean. You guys came up to Hard Luck, didn’t you? Even though we’re fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle.”
“Sure,” Duke answered. “But the wages are the best around, and the living conditions aren’t bad.”
“Wages,” Christian said, removing a pen from the pocket of his plaid shirt. He made a note on his paper napkin.
“You aren’t thinking about paying women to move to Hard Luck, are you?” Sawyer would fight that idea tooth and nail. He’d be darned if he’d see his hard-earned cash wasted on such foolishness.
“We could offer women jobs, couldn’t we?” Christian asked. He glanced around to gather support from the other pilots.
“Doing what?” Sawyer demanded.
“Well…” Frowning, his brother gnawed on the end of his pen. “You’ve been saying for a long time that we need to get the office organized. How about hiring a secretary? You and I have enough to do dealing with everything else. It’s a mess, and we can’t seem to get ahead.”
Sawyer resisted the urge to suggest a correspondence course in time management. “All right,” he said grudgingly.
The other pilots looked up from their breakfasts. They were beginning to take notice.
“What about all those books your mother left behind after she
married Frank?” Ben asked. “She donated them so Hard Luck could have a library.”
Sawyer gritted his teeth. “A volunteer library.”
“But someone’s got to organize it,” Christian said. “I’ve tried now and then, but whenever I start to get things straightened out, I’m overwhelmed. There must be a thousand books there.”
Sawyer couldn’t really object, since, unlike Christian, he’d never made any effort to put his mother’s collection in order.
“That was very generous of your mother, giving the town her books,” Ralph said. “But it’s a shame we can’t find what we want or check it out if we do.”
“It seems to me,” Christian said, smiling broadly, “that we could afford to pay someone to set up the library and run it for a year or so. Don’t you agree?”
Sawyer shrugged. “If Charles does.” But they both knew their oldest brother would endorse the idea. He’d been wanting to get the library going for quite a while.
“I heard Pearl say she was thinking of moving to Nenana to live with her daughter,” Ben told the gathering. “In that case, the town’s going to need someone with medical experience for the health clinic.”
A number of heads nodded. Sawyer suspected now was not the time to remind everyone that Pearl regularly mentioned moving in with her daughter. Generally the sixty-year-old woman came up with that idea in the darkest part of winter, when there were only a couple of hours of daylight and spirits were low.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ben said, turning to Sawyer. “But did it ever occur to you that Pearl actually would leave if someone was here to take over for her?”
No, Sawyer hadn’t. Pearl had lived in Hard Luck for as long as he could remember. She’d been a friend of his mother’s when Ellen lived in Hard Luck, and a peacemaker in the small community. Over the years Sawyer had frequently had opportunity to be grateful to Pearl. If she did decide to move, he’d miss her.