"Well, then," Colton said with a smug note.
She gave him a half-hearted glare. "Okay, but if we see anybody, we hit the deck, all right?"
"Absolutely. And we'll switch it up between walking and flying anyway, because I don't want to half kill you again."
"That wasn't your fault!"
"Think of all the years of mileage you'll get out of me nearly killing you." Colton's tone sounded like he wasn't entirely kidding, and Jo blinked up at him, horrified.
"Are you crazy? No! Jeez, what kind of jerk do you think I am? If anything, think of all the years of mileage you'll get out ofsavingme, but no! We call it even, Colton! Neither of us thought it through, and luckily you knew what do when things got scary!"
"Oh." He smiled a little, looking almost embarrassed. "I should have known you wouldn't pull that kind of thing. Using it against me, I mean."
"Never! And I hope nobody else in your life does either!"
"No, my parents are good examples." His smile got softer yet, before he shrugged. "But, you know, I have a lot of friends in relationships that seem to work that way, and sometimes I think my parents are the exception, not the rule, you know?"
"I do know, but even if theyarethe exception, they're the way it should be! No guilt trips! No meanness!" Jo was tempted, again, to stomp her foot, but remembered at the last moment they were still on the lip of a glacier, and glared at the snow-covered ice beneath her feet. "Let's get onto stable ground before I kick a hole in the glacier."
"All right. A short hop, no more than thirty minutes, okay? And you'll tell me if you're getting too cold before that?"
"I will," Jo promised. "I don't want to do that again. I mean, parts of it were fun…" She slid a grin toward Colton, whose eyes sparkled in response.
"Yeah, but I bet the fun parts will be even more funwithoutthe terrifying hypothermia beforehand."
"I bet you're right." Jo climbed on Colton's broad back after he shifted, and huddled down low against his mane as they flew. He stuck close to the ground, heading steadily northwest as the snowy earth grew smoother, with fewer trees littering it as they reached the plains. It was much warmer than flying through the mountains had been, but notwarm, and Jo was just about to thump his shoulder and let him know she needed to walk for a while when he came to a landing and shifted to check on her.
"I'm good," she promised through chattering teeth. "Walking will be good, though. We've covered, what, maybe five miles?"
"Probably about that, yeah. You need food or water?"
"Not yet. You?"
"I'm okay." He shifted back to chimera form and forged a path while she walked behind, warming up and thinking about their speed. Forty miles taken in half hour jumps and hour-long walks in between… "It's going to take us until tomorrow to get home, isn't it? Unless we want to fly at night, which will be even colder."
"I think we shouldn't, yeah." Colton changed back to human and kept knocking snow out of the way as he spoke, although their pace instantly slowed to a crawl. "I don't want to keep people waiting any longer than we have to, but it would be stupid to make it this far and then freeze to death tonight. Besides," he added hopefully, "we might pick up signal out here somewhere."
"Maybe, although I tell you what, the back forty of the ranch is a great place to go if you want to disconnect for a while."
"I've lived in New York too long. I forget there are places where wifi doesn't reach."
"For too long? Aren't you from there?"
Colton glanced over his shoulder with a smile. "I grew up in Redding, in northern California. A bunch of the family still live there. It's pretty good," he said, going back to breaking snow. "Close to the mountains, which is great for a bunch of chimeras. But I met Jerry's son in college down in Sacramento?—"
"Jerry?"
"Oh! My boss."
"Oh. Okay. Go on." Jo waved her hand like she was the Queen giving someone permission to continue, and Colton snickered as they worked their way forward.
"Anyway, so I met Matt, who was going to college in California because it was as far away from his family as he couldget and still stay in the country, and he told me about his dad's law practice in environmental law. I got interested, so I ended up out in New York for law school and I've been there ever since."
Jo laughed. "So his parents couldn't have been that awful."
"Nah. They just had different interests. This is alotslower, isn't it?"
Jo looked back at the twenty or so feet they'd traveled since he shifted back to human, and made a face. "Yes, but it's nice to talk to you, too. Or rather, it's nice to have you talk back. But if we travel at the speed of chat, your case will be over before we even get home, and I don't want that to happen. We'll talk more later."
