“I’m not gonna hurt you.” She gently stroked his coat with her fingers before reaching up to scratch the spot behind his ear that all cats, no matter their size, loved.
“What’s that?” Jake asked.
Annie smiled at the low, rumbling sound coming from the animal’s chest. “He’s purring.”
“You mean he’shappy?”
“No.” Annie shook her head. “It just means his vocal cords are relaxed. Even dying cats purr sometimes.”
His breathing slowed, his eyes closed, and Annie reached out to lift one of his massive paws in her hand. A wound, badly infected beneath a tattered scab, marred the pad under his toes.
“That explains the limp.” She rested the paw back on the ground.
Annie looked over her shoulder. Jake was standing back with his hands on his hips, staring at the animal with narrowed eyes.
“I can’t just collar him and let him go. He needs to be transported down to the center in Portland to have this wound treated. They have a rehab-and-release policy. We’ll give them our coordinates and they’ll release him back up here, since he’s claimed this valley as territory and isn’t close to any neighborhoods or livestock. Come on, we’ll take him in the Jeep.”
Jake’s mouth tightened, twitched. “How long will he be out for?”
“Six hours at least.”
He looked doubtful. “You sure?”
Annie nodded.
“Better be.” He stepped forward to join her.
Annie freed the cougar’s foot from the snare, and she and Jake each took a fore and hind paw in one hand.
“I’ll come back for the traps later,” she said as they lifted the heavy cat and started back toward the shore.
Getting the animal to the boat took long minutes, with Jake and Annie resting the dead weight of his body on the forest floor several times. When they finally made it back to the lake, they loaded him into the boat and climbed in after.
Jake manned the oars and didn’t take his eyes from the cougar for one second. Annie had to speak up twice when the skiff angled away from the boathouse, but they made it to the dock at last and slid the cat into the back of the Wagoneer.
Annie secured his paws together with a set of buckled straps, thenclimbed in beside Jake. She drove slowly down Lake Lumin Road, wary of jostling, though she knew even a meteor strike wouldn’t wake the cat from his slumber. They were nearing the bottom of the road when Daniel’s truck appeared, climbing toward home.
Annie sat tall in the driver’s seat, watching for Daniel through the glass as a smile broke across her face. There he was, grinning just as brightly, his hand lifted as they passed each other on the gravel road.
“Will you just look at that smile,” Jake said, laughing. “Man, I tell ya, I’ve never seen such a change come over someone in a month’s time. You know he’s seeing someone?”
Annie pressed her lips together as she turned left onto the paved two-lane road. She hadn’t told Jake about the relationship yet. She hadn’t told anyone, actually. The rodeo would have been the place to do it, but it hadn’t worked out that way, and a small part of her was glad. Half the fun of a new relationship was the cocoon, keeping it a secret from the rest of the world.
“Is that right?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Jake nodded. “Jamie Boyd.”
A moment of silence passed between them. A moment when Annie was certain she must have misheard.
“What?”
“You know, Jamie?” Jake said as Annie turned to stare at him blankly. “The girl that came up to swim when we sawed up the cedar? From the blue house with the fence, Ronnie and Debra’s daughter?”
Annie’s heart dropped into her stomach. She dragged her eyes back to the road, growing lightheaded as a little laugh passed her lips.
“No”—she shook her head—“no, you’re wrong.”
“I know, I know.” Jake lifted his hands in the air. “We talked a little about the age difference yesterday, but the truth is, she’s nineteen now. She’s an adult. And he’s only twenty-three. My dad was eight years older than my mom when they met. It happens. Honestly, Annie, I’m just glad to see him happy, he’s been isolated up there by himself for too long.”
