It seemed strange to wake up in his old room, back at the end of the hall upstairs. It had been a long time since he’d spent a night there; almost universally, on the rare occasions that he and Marsha had visited Spearfish Lake, they’d stayed at the Austenfelter cottage at the Club. Danny couldn’t put his finger on it for sure, but it wouldn’t have surprised him if the last night he’d spent in this room had been before he’d been married.

In reality, there was little evidence of him left there from those days. The furniture was the same, but all the little things that had made his room the center of his world were long gone, most of them at his own hand back nine years ago this coming spring. It had been repainted since, and the color didn’t seem right.

He’d shared this room with his older brother for a long time when he was small. Garth really hadn’t liked sharing his room with a considerably younger brother very much, but in the big shuffle after Jennifer left, and then a year afterwards when Garth left to go to college, it had become Danny’s room and stayed that way ever since. Danny had thought in recent years, when he’d thought about it at all, that Garth had gotten the short end of the stick in the deal, but in a family with five kids, there’s got to be some bending.

Still, there was a familiar rightness that came with waking up here that reached deep into Danny’s heart. This was home after all. Finally stirring, he pulled himself together and got up, wandered down the hall to the bathroom, took a shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs. It wasn’t real late; his father was still home, and his mother was cooking breakfast. For years, Saturday breakfast had been sort of a family time; his father had breakfast at one of the restaurants in town most weekday mornings.

"Well, you’re up," his mother said. "I was wondering."

"Felt good," Danny told her. "I guess I was a little road tired, and the game last night drained me. Sorry I faded out on you."

"Oh, no big deal," his father told him. "We didn’t stay up a lot later ourselves. Guess we’re not as young as we used to be. You got any plans for today?"

"Not really," Danny sighed. "If you don’t need me to come down to the store, I thought maybe I’d take a run out to Josh and Tiffany’s and check out Phil and his dogs. We were talking about it at the game a little last night."

"Might as well," his father shrugged. "There’s nothing today we can’t do at the store Monday. They’ll be off to Alaska in a month, and things are just going to get crazier for them the next few weekends. The next month is the core of the long-distance racing season locally."

"It’ll be interesting to check it out," Danny admitted. "Even though I used to hang out with Josh a lot, I was never around much when he was working the dogs in the winter. But I don’t exactly have the clothes to go out there. Where’s the best place to find that stuff these days?"

"Oh, I got that coat I said I can loan you," his father said. "And there’s a set of Carhartts out there that ought to serve, even though they might be a little tight on you. I don’t dress that heavy very often any more. I’m not out in the cold like I used to be."

"I’ll take you up on it," Danny told him. "I suspect my blood is still Florida thin, and I’d probably better dress pretty warm. I probably won’t be all morning, so I might as well figure on dropping by the store when I get done."

"Don’t be too late," his mother warned. "I expect Garth and Michelle and Tara here in the early afternoon."

"I’ll try not to be," Danny told her. "I’ll probably be frozen like a popsicle if I stay out there too long, anyway."

An hour later, he was driving up the dead-end road to Josh and Tiffany’s place with a little sense of déjà vu. The last time he had been there was in August, still trying to keep things together with Marsha, before Jennifer’s wedding started the train of thought that led him to breaking up with her, even before Sheena precipitated matters.

He and Marsha had been staying out at the Club, as usual, with her griping about his wanting to leave her to go off and hang around with his no-count old friends. The thought still irked him, since he’d spent darn little time with his friends in years, and plenty of time with hers, many of whom he couldn’t stand. Another good reason to have that past behind him, he thought.

Still, when he drove up the road the last time, he’d done it only with the thought of stealing a few minutes, just to say hello to his best high school buddy and his wife, thinking it might be years before he saw them again. Things had been lush and green then, now they were covered in white; a good deal had changed in his life in the time in between – and changed for the better, he devoutly hoped. Probably the next few days would be the major test of that, he realized.

Past the sign for "Run-8 Kennels," the driveway back to Josh and Tiffany’s place was well plowed out, and it was no problem to get the Lumina all the way back. The place was out of sight from the road, but Danny remembered well helping Josh and his brother-in-law Mark move the old mobile home into place on the lot, ten or eleven years ago this summer. They were still living in it, although Danny knew they’d talked for years about replacing the trailer with a new home on the site – there had just never been the time to do anything about it.

There was no sign of Josh or Tiffany or Phil around when he pulled his car to a stop in the yard. Down near the old barn there was a part of a dog team being made up, with the sled fastened to a tree near the barn and a gangline stretched out far in front, and fastened as well. Danny got out of his car, grateful for the heavy clothes he was wearing; it was clear but cold, and, as he’d told his father, he wasn’t used to it. The dogs were raising hell, just like they’d done the last time he was here; presumably Josh and Tiffany were long since used to it. He looked around and saw a strange woman coming around the barn holding on to a dog’s collar, presumably to go on the team. "Hi," she called. "Are you Dennis Page?"

"No," he replied, heading over toward the woman. She was about his age, maybe a little older. She seemed lightly dressed in comparison to him and had long black hair with only an ear band to keep it under control. A good-looking, natural beauty, he thought. "I’m Danny Evachevski," he introduced himself. "I’m Phil’s brother-in-law."

"Oh, yeah," she said. "They said you might be around sometime this morning. Josh and Phil are out on a fifty-miler, they should be back in an hour or so. After they get back, Josh is going to go watch the store and Phil is going to head over for your family party. Then, Tiffany and I are going to run out about halfway to Warsaw with some of the younger dogs."

"Sounds like fun," he said.

"It’s a lot more fun than I ever believed it would be," she smiled. "I guess I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Candice Archer, I’m Josh and Tiffany’s sister-in-law."

"Josh told me about you," he laughed. "He said he was surprised to find that you had the heart of a true musher beating in you."

"No more surprised than I was," she shook her head. "I mean, I knew that Josh and Tiffany were doing this clear back when John and I got married, but I was never on a dog sled even once until a year ago, and never started running one till this fall. Now, I’m planning on taking a team on the Warsaw Run next weekend." She shook her head. "John still doesn’t know what to think about that."

"Under the circumstances, I hate to admit it myself," Danny said. "I was around when Josh and Tiffany got started with this, but I’ve never been behind a dog team, except on a training cart in the summer one time."

"It’s pretty different," she smiled. "I’ve got this guy coming out who wants an hour or so run through the woods, just to get the feeling of it. I thought you might be him, even though it’s still a little early. Help me get a couple more dogs and I’ll take you on a quick run around the patch."

"You’ve got a deal, Candice," he said. "Just remember, I don’t know the first thing about what I’m doing."

"No problem, you’ll just have to hold onto a couple dogs by the collar," she told him. "But hang on, they pull hard. If it starts to get too much for you, lift their front legs off the ground; that usually settles them down a little."

Candice led him around the corner of the barn to the dog lot. Although Danny had been out there before, it had been a long time, and there were an awful lot more dogs out there than he remembered. Literally, dogs all over the place, each chained to a stake in front of an individual house. Danny had no idea how many dogs there must be, but an acre or more of them, anyway. Some were raising hell, barking, doing four-off-the-floors at the end of their chains, others sat on top of their doghouses, joining in the cacophony; a few slept through the whole craziness. "Jeez, a lot of damn dogs," he commented.

"An awful lot," Candice said as she led him out into the middle of the mob, hardly noticing the noise. "About fifty serious racers, and half of them are out on the trail right now. Tiffany and I will have the rest out this afternoon. About that many young ones in training for the future, and several retirees kept around as breeders. It takes forever to feed them and clean up after them, and cleaning up this time of year is hopeless. There’s a new dog barn going in over the hill next spring that’ll speed things up, but they cooked it up too late last fall to actually get it built. It should cut the hours down an awful lot, though."

"Josh said you and your kids were doing the morning feedings," he said.

"Yeah, we have been," Candice said, picking out a dog – how she knew which one she was looking for, Danny had no idea. "I grew up on a farm, I always had to get up before dawn to do chores and help with the milking before I went to school. I’ve always been sorry that the kids never had a chance to learn that kind of responsibility. I think they’re taking to it pretty well. Shay just sort of does it, but I think Cody is going to be the musher when he gets a little older. They’re both just a little upset. Their Aunt Tiffany was running the Warsaw Run when she was Cody’s age, but they’ve changed the rules and they can’t run till they’re fourteen, now. They think that reeks, but I’ll bet they’re out there when they’re old enough. They let kids their age run two- and three-dog races at some of the sprints, and they’ve both done pretty well for rank beginners."

"Sounds to me like you’re really getting into this," Danny said as he held onto the one dog while Candice picked out another.

"Yeah, pretty good," she said, heading out across the dog lot leading the dog and Danny. "Back when I was their age, I was into showing horses; it’s not the same thing, but it seems to work out all right. Like I said, John’s not too sure what to make of all this. I guess most of the outdoor enthusiasm in the family went to his brother. John spends his time going to the ball games, or working on a model railroad layout down in the basement. Josh helps him out some with that, which I think is a scream, since Josh more or less runs a real railroad."

"That is pretty wild when you stop to think about it," he laughed. "Are these racing dogs?"

"Not anymore," she said. "After they get past a certain point, they start to fade and mellow a little. If they mellow out right, Josh and Tiffany keep them around to do tours. Some of them are breeders that need some exercise now and then. Here, hold onto Rags for a moment while I break out Morse. Morse is getting up towards eleven years old, but he went to Nome four times. Just a team dog, but a darn good one."

"Do you know all these dogs by name?" he asked as she unfastened another dog from its chain. She took Rags back, handling two dogs, while Danny only handled one. It was enough.

"Most of them," she sighed as she led them back toward the waiting sled. "Of course, it helps when you feed them. There’s still a few that I can confuse, but either Josh or Tiffany can pick out any dog on the lot, tell you its birthday, who its parents were, usually its grandparents, what races it’s run, how well it did, whether their feet ice up, lots of little quirks. You really have to spend some time with them to know all that. That’s Ogden you have there, by the way. I have no idea where they come up with names for some of these dogs."

"I can see how it would be a pain," he shook his head. He’d known, of course, that Josh and Tiffany had been into this for years, and he’d had quite an education in it while riding with Josh in the cab of an SD-40 railroad engine one summer years before – but the whole operation had been considerably less developed than it was now. Clearly, Josh and Tiffany had come a long way since those days. Even though he knew better, it was still hard not to think of Josh as being a high school kid, and Tiffany being a pre-teen who was absolutely nuts about dogs.

In a couple minutes, they were back at the waiting dog sled, and Candice fitted harnesses and fastened the dogs to the gangline, while Danny just stood watching. She looked like she knew what she was doing and had done it for years, although she protested that she was a novice next to her in-laws. "I don’t know when this Page guy will show up," she said, grabbing from inside the barn a sign saying ‘Back in 1/2 hour’ and placing it against a tree. "So we better keep it in pretty close. Just hop in the basket there, and hang on."

In a minute, Danny was seated on the sled. He saw Candice run up and remove the line leading to the pair of lead dogs, then felt her on the runners of the sled. "OK guys, UP!" she yelled. "MUSH!"

The dogs took off fairly quickly heading across the yard. Using some voice commands, Candice guided them toward a well-beaten trail that led off into the woods. Danny’s first impression was how quiet it was – the schuss of the snow on the runners, the occasional creak of the sled as rawhide and hardwood tried to reach a balance of force, the occasional clank or jingle of a harness snap or pin, the footfalls of the dogs muted by the snow, and the occasional comment or command that Candice made from behind him. They were moving right along down the narrow trail; he watched the team snake in front of him as it went around the curves.

They went through a patch of green cedar swamp, then up into some more open woods. The trail was well beaten out, so little command of the dogs was required, only at intersections, and then a simple "Gee" or "Haw" or "On By" was about all that was needed. The trail wound out into an open field, where there was a complex of trails. Danny knew this; he remembered being out there, back when Mark and Mike and Josh and Tiffany were first learning to run dogs and spent an awful lot of time in the summer on the training trails that Mark had cut into this field with the bush hog on his tractor. In ten years, it had become more grown up, and now there were small, scrubby trees about. In a few minutes, they reached the top of a low hill. From it, Danny could see Mark’s house off to the left, Mike’s in front, and Josh and Tiffany’s mobile home and dog lot to the right. "It’d be fun to run some more," Candice said. "But I suppose we better stay around the lot in case that Page guy shows up."

"Fine by me," Danny said. "Don’t get me wrong, this is both fun and exciting, but I’ve spent most of the last nine years in Florida, and even though I grew up here, it’s cotton-pickin’ cold!"

"I suppose," Candice shrugged. "If you’re not used to it, I suppose it is a bit uncomfortable. Josh and Tiffany and Phil say it gets a lot colder in Alaska, and they have trouble adjusting to it, too, so I guess you don’t have to feel alone."

All too soon, they were pulling back onto the dog lot, and Candice whoa’d the team to a stop, then hopped out and tied off a line to keep them from running away. "Thanks, Candice," Danny told her. "That was special, and something to remember."

"No big deal, it helps if they’re warmed up a little anyway," she said. "Glad you could go with me. I guess maybe I’d better hang around here, this Page guy should be along any minute."

"I remember Josh saying that you moved up here last spring," he said, trying to move the conversation around a little. "Are you getting settled in pretty well?"

"Oh, I guess," she said. "I’m still an outsider, and I will be for a while. But Brandy dragged me into coaching the girls’ JV basketball team last fall and I met a lot of people I didn’t know then. I’m not much of a coach, I was just holding a place for Brandy, but since I’m from out of town I was safe, not on either side of the basketball hassle."

"Yeah, I had some friends tell me a bit about it last night," Danny said as he climbed out of the sled. "It sounded a little weird to me."

"It was," she shook her head. "I don’t know the whole history of it myself, but it sounds like small-town small minds at work. I know what that’s all about. I grew up a country girl after all, the same sort of thing went on."

"Where was that?" he asked.

"Arvada Center," she smiled. "Same class as Phil, we were pretty good friends. I hadn’t seen him for years when I ran into him out here, just before Christmas last year. I think it’s pretty weird that we wound up in the same town, doing the same thing. But, I’m not complaining. John and I left a pretty crappy situation with the schools down in Decatur, and our jobs had blown up in our faces at the same time, so we haven’t regretted moving up here for an instant."

"Glad it worked out for you," Danny said. "Spearfish Lake has some goofy ones, you know that, but the people are pretty good, most of them."

"I’ve learned that," she smiled. "And I’ve done some things up here I’d never dreamed I’d do. This is one of them." She glanced down the driveway, where a car was heading toward them. "This might be the Page guy now," she said.

"Hey, thanks, Candice," he said. "Like I say, I never did that before, but maybe another winter I’ll have to con Josh into letting me try it from in back."

"It is a lot of fun," she smiled. "And Josh and Tiffany are always looking for fresh meat to help with the training. Good to meet you, Danny. I suppose, considering all the connections, we’re going to trip across each other again sooner or later."

"Probably," he said. "It is a small town, after all."

"That’s true," she nodded. "Hey, if this is Page, you’re welcome to hang around. I expect Josh and Phil to be back sooner or later, half an hour at a minimum, but it could go two hours, if they get a wild hair to run farther. It’s a nice morning; if the dogs are going good they might do that."

"I might hang around a bit," he said. "But I really should be heading back before a couple hours, too. But, I’ll have other opportunities, I guess."

"We’ll catch you around," she smiled. "Good to meet you, Danny."

It turned out that the visitor was the touring customer Candice had been waiting for. Danny stood around for a couple minutes while she got him seated in the sled, then she loosened the tie line, gave Danny a wave, and mushed off down the trail. By then, Danny was getting pretty cold, in spite of being dressed heavier than Candice had been, so he was grateful to head for his car, where the heater waited, and, with any luck, might still be a little warm.

It was; in a couple minutes, the heat was roaring out of the heater, taking the edge off the shivers a little bit. He decided to wait a while longer, and if Phil and Josh didn’t show up, there’d be other times. While he was waiting, he just let his mind roll a little.

What a pleasant woman Candice was, he thought. Good-looking, friendly, interested in what she was doing and enthusiastic, obviously happy with her family. He only slightly remembered John, but thought him a lucky man to have a wife as nice as that one. John had obviously had a lot of good luck, definitely different from Danny who had not had much that had been good. It wasn’t fair, and a lot of it was his own damn fault, he conceded. He’d let himself get blinded by family ties, and volleyball, and trying to do the right thing, and if he’d just stepped back and looked at the whole thing critically, he should have seen trouble coming. But, no, he hadn’t done that.

Yesterday, his mother had been teasing him about getting a girlfriend. Well, he was pretty sure it was teasing, but with his mother it was always a little hard to tell. She’d teased at all the kids for years that out of five kids, she’d figured on more than two grandchildren, but now at least there was a third on the way. Danny and Marsha had taken some of that teasing, but Marsha had been reluctant to have kids, and that had disappointed Danny, then. Now he was darn glad she’d put her foot down. Point for Marsha, he thought. She’d been wiser than he’d realized. Darn it, it still would be nice to have kids; Candice was obviously proud of hers, and was spending a lot of time and effort to make sure they grew up into responsible adults. Maybe someday, he thought, but it seemed pretty unlikely.

At his age, the odds seemed pretty unlikely that he could come across as nice and personable a woman as Candice appeared to be, at least one who hadn’t been married before. Well, that was all right, he had been too, but it seemed to him that any woman who had been thrown back into the pond at his age might well have been for good reason. Oh, that wasn’t necessarily true; she could have thrown a jerk back, like he had. But it was a lot more of an iffy proposition than the first time around, or at least it seemed that way to him, and there wouldn’t be a lot of opportunities in a small town like Spearfish Lake. And, the odds were strongly in favor that such a woman would already have kids, with all the complexities that would involve – and maybe no real desire to have more.

But, while he would still like to be able to start a family, there was no real rush, he thought. Sit back, get the lay of the land, get used to being a local again. If he wound up taking over his dad’s business, which was not a done deal by any means since they hadn’t really even talked about it except in the vaguest generalities, then the question of a local woman might become more acute. But, there was no need to rush, no need to let his mother push him into something he wasn’t ready for. After all, he still had plenty of Marsha-induced sourness to get out of his system, and it would take time.

Getting right down to it, he thought, sex wasn’t that big an issue, not right now, anyway. And, if it did become one– well, it wouldn’t be cheap, but Las Vegas was only a plane ride off, and Antelope Valley was a cheap car rental from there. It wasn’t anything that needed to be done soon, maybe not ever – but the option was there. He shook his head – it was less than a week ago, it was hard to believe. Less than two weeks since he’d put Amy on the plane back to Florida, and if he wanted a horny woman, there she was, even though the potential for problems seemed limitless, even compared to Marsha. He’d come a long way, but he could see he still had farther to go.

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