“That sounds good,” Josef said. “Fiona?”
“You don’t have to take time off for me. You have a business to run,” Fiona objected. “I can book a tour and maybe do a helicopter flight.”
“Fiona, mine,” Arve said. “We want to do this. If you’d prefer a tour, say so, but we’ll be able to find the wild bears for you. You have a better chance of seeing them with us. Josef has excellent eyesight, and he can spot animals long before most humans. Kirk reads the weather, and best of all, we’re safe. No one will hurt you with us around—human, wild bear or shifter.”
Fiona blinked at the end of this long speech from Arve. She noticed his brothers seemed astonished too. She studied each of their earnest faces before nodding.
“Thank you. That sounds awesome, but only if you’ll let me work in the shop with you again. That was fun. Oh, and you’ll need to buy me a pastry from Gypsy’s. I have a mind to try them all before I leave.”
Silence fell and their smiles of approval faded.
“What? What did I say?” Fiona demanded.
“We don’t like to imagine you leaving,” Leif said.
“I…I…” Fiona shook her head. In truth, she didn’t want to think about leaving either. “I’m hungry. Where is my bacon?” Not a smooth change, but it worked better than thoughts of departing Churchill.
* * * * *
The locals queued the minute they saw the SUV with the sled park in front of their temporary shop.
“What do you have today?” a woman called. “Do you have more apples? I fancy an apple pie for supper.”
“Give us time to unpack, and I’ll put up a sign with what we have in stock,” Fiona said.
The woman tugged the sleeve of Fiona’s heavy jacket. “You understand they’re different, right?”
Fiona considered playing dumb, but decided it was quicker to admit the truth. “They’re shifters. Hot with a side ofrawrrr, right?” A quick glimpse of the woman’s shock had her biting her bottom lip to stem her amusement. She hustled into the store, leaving the woman gaping after her.
Josef gave her a hip bump. “I heard that,” he murmured. “We put therawrrrin hot and sexy.”
Fiona laughed and squeezed his biceps. “You do.”
Between the six of them, it took no time to unpack the sled and set up the store interior for customers.
Fiona rewrote her chalkboard sign, and they opened for business. Business was brisk with both locals and visitors snapping up the fruit and vegetables in less than two hours.
“Who is that tall dude with the mirror sunglasses?” Josef asked. “I haven’t seen him before.”
“We figure he’s a new guide or volunteer,” Leif said. “He came in yesterday.”
“Lucky I have manners,” Arve rumbled. “Because he didn’t take his eyes off Fiona, mine.”
“Well, she is pretty,” Kirk commented as he collected the empty boxes to stack in the storeroom until they decided what to do with them.
“No,” Leif said. “She’s beautiful and sexy and—”
“Ours,” Stig stated.
Fiona listened to them as she helped clean up the empty store. “You made a good profit.”
“We did,” Leif agreed. “Are you ready to explore the tundra?”
She patted the camera hanging around her neck. She’d already taken a heap of photos today. They’d stopped at the polar bear jail for her to take photos of the exterior and the mural of the bear painted on the side. Leif had explained that no one except the people in charge entered to see the captive bears. They released most back into the wild, and they wanted to keep them calm and relaxed.
“I can’t wait to explore more of Churchill,” she said. “I want to take a group photo of you all too. Out on the tundra is best.
They piled into the SUV and drove back to the house where they grabbed a few supplies, including flasks of tea. Fiona sat in the front, next to the window to make it easier to take photos while they played tour guides.
