Starry Night

me really excited, but mother and son have been estranged since Finn was ten years old. All she really knew was that he was living in Alaska, and that it was close to Fairbanks. Unfortunately, her directions were too vague to help.”
    “What happened when you got to Fairbanks?” Sophie hopped up onto the corner of Carrie’s desk as though she intended to stay awhile.
    “Well, for one thing, I discovered I wasn’t the only reporter who’d arrived out of the blue searching for the elusive Finn Dalton.”
    “Who did you ask?”
    “Bush pilots. From what I heard, Finn is a pilot himself.” Carrie had learned from Sawyer on their flight back thatFinn owned a plane, which was currently in Fairbanks for a routine maintenance check.
    “How do you know that?”
    “Word of mouth.”
    “Whose word?”
    “Does it matter?” Carrie was growing irritated with Sophie’s questions. In retrospect, she wished she hadn’t said anything. At the time, she’d been too excited to keep the information to herself.
    “Did any of those pilots give you anything you could use?” Sophie seemed obsessed with this, and Carrie was finding it difficult to give her friend ambiguous answers.
    “Don’t you have work to do?” Carrie asked instead.
    “Yes, but it seems to me the bush pilots must know Finn and would tell you something, anything.”
    “Wrong. Finn has very loyal friends.”
    “You could have bribed them; did you think of that?”
    “Sophie, please, it’s my first day back and I’ve got a ton of stuff to catch up on.”
    “All right, all right. I just hope you aren’t too disappointed.”
    She sighed. “I’m not. I gave finding him my best shot and turned up empty. I can’t do anything more than that.”
    “So you’re going to give up just like that?” Sophie appeared stunned. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. Whenyou left Chicago, you had that bloodhound look in your eyes, your nose to the ground with a determination to go above and beyond to find this guy. Now it seems like you hardly care at all.”
    “Maybe that’s because I’m looking to keep the job I already have. Now, please leave me alone, would you?” Carrie was fast losing her patience. Sophie made it nearly impossible to continue this charade.
    “It’s not like you to be so secretive.” Sophie leaped off the desk and stood staring at Carrie as though she no longer recognized her friend. Then she sadly shook her head and returned to her own cubicle.
    The tension between Carrie’s shoulder blades gradually relaxed. She’d passed the first test—at least she hoped she had. Now all she had to do was concentrate on putting her energy into the society page and making the most of her current position. She couldn’t help being disappointed. When it came to Finn, she’d made her decision, and right or wrong, she was sticking to it. She cared too much to betray him.
    Her morning was completely eaten up by answering emails. She worked straight through lunch and grabbed coffee and a muffin around two. Her phone rang just as she sat back down at her desk. She reached for her extension with one hand and her coffee with the other.
    “Carrie Slayton.”
    “Hi.” The lone word sounded as if it had come from the moon.
    Carrie nearly came out of her chair. It was Finn. “What are you doing calling me here?” she whispered in a near panic. She leaned halfway over her desk and kept her voice as low as possible.
    “I wanted to see if you got back okay.”
    “I did.” Carrie cupped her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece. “You shouldn’t phone me here; it’s dangerous.”
    “Do you want me to phone you?”
    “Yes, oh, yes.” She didn’t bother to hide her enthusiasm. The sound of his voice washed over her, warming her, filling her with a rush of joy.
    “Give me your cell number, then,” he suggested.
    She rattled it off and had him repeat it to be sure he’d written it down correctly. “Are you on the satellite phone?” she asked, her heart hammering wildly.
    “Yes.”
    “I thought you said it was expensive.”
    “Very.”
    She smiled and closed her eyes at the happiness that settled over her. “Does that mean you miss me?”
    He grumbled a phrase she didn’t understand. “It must,” he muttered. “Does that make you happy?”
    “Very.”
    He chuckled. “Can I call you tonight?”
    “Yes,” she said automatically, then realized she was covering an art gallery opening. “No, sorry. I’ve got an assignment this