“You got it,” I replied, relieved they let me drop the burning-hot topic of Kendall.
When the happy couple moved along, Asher glanced over, one brow rising.“Looking for Kendall, aren’t you?”
“Oh, shut the fuck up.I’m giving her a ride home.”
Asher chuckled, but then his gaze sobered.“I won’t tease you.”He paused.“I mean, just a little.”He held up his thumb and forefinger with a tiny space between them.
“Fuck you,” I teased before turning and threading my way through the crowd to find Kendall.
The space inside my truck was unusually quiet as I drove her home.I contemplated whether I should discuss what happened.Then, like an idiot, I started the conversation.“So should we talk about that, or…”
“No, we shouldn’t talk about that.In fact, why don’t you just forget what you saw?”
I almost choked.“Well, that’s impossible, Kendall.”
When I glanced her way as I parked my truck, her eyes were wide.“Why is it impossible?”
“Because you’re fucking beautiful, Kendall.And now I know you have perfect breasts,” I said flatly.
ChapterThree
Kendall
Several months later
“Don’t you dare,” I said firmly, wagging my finger.
My husky, Travis, let out a howl of protest.
“Travis?”I scolded.He spun in circles, letting out this roo-roo sound that I could swear meant,I don’t want to.
“You behave yourself,” I ordered again.
He roo-rooed right back at me with a sigh following.I opened the kitchen door, and out he went, yipping happily.Travis had three legs, which was the only reason he likely hadn’t ended up a sled dog, and honestly, the dog had missed his true calling.
I was gathering up my purse, stuffing my feet into boots, and throwing my jacket on when I heard him howling up a storm.I raced out to find him chasing a coyote.My apartment might’ve been in downtown Willow Brook, but we were on a side street with a big empty field behind the building.The concept of “downtown” in Alaska was different than that of most places.
“Travis!”I hollered as I scrambled through the snow.
There were coyotes around here because, well, there were coyotes pretty much everywhere.But this was Alaska, so there were plenty.I let out a sigh.
“You idiot,” I muttered to myself as I began tromping through the snow, chasing my foolish dog.
“Travis!”I called a few more times, and he finally came loping back, his tongue lolling as he happily galloped through the snow.
“You!”He stopped beside me, looking just so freaking happy with himself, I couldn’t help but laugh.“Come on.”I gestured for him to follow me.
Moments later, he sat alert in my front seat, my little co-pilot, as we drove over to the animal rescue program where I worked.I loved my job.
I ran the large animal rescue, separate from the usual menagerie of dogs, cats, and small animals.We had horses, goats, a donkey, and recently, a moose that had been injured and ended up with us.We kept them all.Blessedly, there was plenty of space.In between romping around outside, Travis basically shadowed me as I went about my work, his funny little hop-along gait never slowing him down.
I would never know what happened to his leg, but he’d been dumped at the animal rescue when he was only about a year old.Although he drove me crazy half the time, he owned my heart.For the moment, Travis was outside, and I was finishing up cleaning one of the stalls for an elderly horse that had been abandoned when I heard a loud thump.
Glancing over my shoulder to the aisle between the stalls, I eyed the hay bale that had fallen from above.“I’m just gonna fix it myself,” I announced to no one, unless you counted the mice that were for sure living in droves in the corners of this barn.Although wedidhave a barn cat who helped with mouse management.Rusty flicked his tail and eyed me.It felt like he was actually wishing me luck in a sarcastic tone of voice.That was hisentirevibe, watching me work and judging me.He was joined in judgment with a raven who often sat sentry outside, where she could see into the barn.I was convinced the raven had picked that location solely to observe and judge me.
I glanced over at the raven in question, who I’d named Ebony for obvious reasons.“I’m gonna fix it,” I announced to Rusty and Ebony before I tromped upstairs.
This was an actual barn, and we even had an old hayloft.The problem was the railing was a littlenot sturdy.All I needed to do was fix the smaller bars to hold it up.I quickly assessed what I needed and went back downstairs to get a ladder.
