“Joanna sent me. She was worried when you didn’t return.”
“I was on my way back but then I saw a baby hare. I thought it had been injured in a trap and tried to follow it. But I guess it didn’t want to be followed, as it led me over this embankment.”
“I guess not,” he agreed. He paused and thought for a moment. “How do you know which rabbit is the oldest?”
It only took her a moment to catch on before she smiled. “I don’t know.”
He grinned. “Look for the gray hare.”
She giggled, and then scrunched her nose. God, he loved it when she did that. He always had.
“That isn’t a very good one.”
“And yet you laughed,” he pointed out. “But if you think you can do better, be my guest.”
“You’re trying to distract me.”
“Is it working?”
One side of her mouth curved up. “A little.”
“I need you to try to concentrate now—and I need you to trust me.”
“All right.” She agreed without hesitation, and it made his already compressed chest squeeze a little tighter.
There was a tree at the bottom of the ravine with sturdy branches that overhung just a few feet from where they were on the hill. He told her what he wanted her to do, and her eyes went perfectly round.
“I can’t jump!”
“Yes, you can. It’s only a few feet, and I’ll help you. We’ll do it together. I’m going to come toward you, you let go of the tree, grab on to me, and I’ll do the rest.”
“What happens if it breaks?”
“It’s too thick to snap, but if it bends we’ll ride it all the way down to the bottom. All right?”
She didn’t say anything, just stared at him mutely as if he’d lost his mind.
“El? I need you to do this. The ground is too slick with too many rocks. It’s too risky to try to slide down.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “And jumping on a tree limb isn’t risky?”
His mouth twisted. “Lessrisky.”
He’d kept an eye on the tree she was holding and saw it move another inch. She must have felt it, too, because her face suddenly drained again, and she nodded. “We better do it quickly.”
He looked into her eyes. “Don’t think, just look at me.” He held her gaze. “We go on three. Ready? One... two... three.”
He moved, she let go, latched on, and together they leapt. He needed both hands to grab the upper branch, but as soon as he felt the lower under his feet, he let go one hand and drew her in tight against him, until both the branch they were standing on and the one he was holding on to for support steadied. But the wild fluttering of her heart beating against his took a little longer.
Her eyes held his the whole time, and the knot in his chest grew and grew.
He knew she was still scared, but a small smile had started to work its way up the corners of her mouth. “I seem to recall being in a similar position once before, except at the time you weren’t quite so tall.”
He feigned a struggle to hold her. “And you weren’t quite so heavy.”
Her brows shot up in outrage. “Heavy! I may have put on a few extra pounds the past couple of years”—she sent him a glare—“but you would, too, if you lived with Joanna and all her sweets. I swear, every time I turn around there’s a new cake that I ‘must try.’ ”
He was trying not to laugh, which only served to further infuriate her. The lass was ridiculous. The only “heavy” places on her body were in exactly the right places. Two in particular were temptingly crushed to his chest. If he looked down...
