I squeeze her fingers, lifting her hand in mine to press my lips to her knuckles. She deserves to be the center of this world right here.
My world.
The falls run high after the late-summer rains, the edges still green. The early snows and frost never arrived, granting us golden afternoons and chill air without the slush factor. Lanie walks to the edge, where water cascades to the rocks far below.
“You might need an extra jacket,” I call to her, noting how late the day has grown. Dammit, I thought we had more daylight hours. The corner of my lips pull up.Story of my life.
“I’m good.” She faces me with rosy cheeks, excitement blazing in her gaze. “Alaska, remember?”
My chest tightens all over again. “It’s not like I’ll forget.”
When Lanie arrived at Coyote Falls, she thought I meant for her to be a temporary side piece in my life, a replacement buckle bunny, thanks to my sister’s loose lips. Now, it’s turned out to be me who is the temporary fixture in her life. I’m a hell of a sucker for role reversals.
I swallow a scalding mouthful of coffee from her thermos, but it sticks in my throat halfway. I splutter, eyes watering. Lanie helpfully whacks at my back. When I emerge from my sinus-induced haze, tears track my cheeks.
She giggles. “You’re so human, it’s funny.”
“I’m not normally human?” I don’t give her a chance to answer, distracting her with the drones. When we arrived, I set up a little way from the falls while Lanie wandered about the area, exploring. “Any tracks?”
“No. I thought I saw something there, but…” She stares hard between the trees.
I follow her gaze, but I can’t see anything. Maybe she’s picked up some of the wolfish tendencies, because the light between the trunks as I stare into the shadow is utter shit.
“It’s pretty rocky here. You won’t see as much as you might further down the mountain. We can try there later if we have no luck up top.”
She mutters something to herself, reorganizing the controls and the landing pad. “Maybe. Let’s try this first?”
The first drone launches, hovering high above us. Lanie directs it out over the cliff face. A stiff breeze takes it off course almost immediately. She cusses up a storm but gets a handle on the tech while I watch, my arms draped loose around my knees as I sit next to her on the cliff edge beside the other two black cases. Every now and then, the drone picks up movement. But after a lone mountain cat, a coyote that surprises me, and two bears, thankfully a whole lot further out, there are no wolves to be seen on the radar.
“You have your own free-range zoo.” Lanie gazes at me in awe. “This place is incredible. Every time I think I know something about it, or you, I get a hell of a surprise. Just call me Jon Snow.” She hiccups a laugh as the second drone returns to its base. “Last one.”
“You’ve got this,” I murmur, watching her fingers hover over the screen. “Come on, you furry-ass—ah, critters. Show yourselves.”
Lanie covers a snort, directing the drone past the limits of her last pass.
“Where does Coyote Falls end? I don’t want to cross over intoJed’s land.” She clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head, muttering what sounds like an apology.
I lean in and kiss the corner of her mouth. Lanie stops talking. Actually, it looks like she’s stopped breathing. I kiss the corner of her lips again, brushing my mouth lightly over hers.
She shivers. I recall that same shiver coursing over her body as she came beneath my touch. Maybe we can explore her reactions together a little later on. After the rodeo. Work on building a new set of memories then, if I can convince her to stay.
“See that ridge there?” I lean closer into her, keeping my voice level by a miracle, my heart racing. I trace the drone’s trajectory. “Jed’s land starts about three mountains after that one. I think we’re probably safe.”
She nods, shifting a little closer into my side. My hand slides around her waist, settling on her denim-clad hip. The drone circles to the next ridgeline.
“And how far this way?”
“I’m not sure you’ll see it from here.”
Lanie stops, her face hidden in shadow as the sun drops behind a cloud. “That’s miles away.”
“Yeah.”
The sameyeahI gave her the day when she asked me how big Coyote Falls was back at Valiant Peak, and she laughed.Hell, that feels like a million years ago.I was a different man then. We were different. The day she ripped Jenkins a new one. I knew then that I wanted her.
Lanie’s hair whips out behind her on a chill wind. She returns to the screen, muttering. I grin, leaning over her shoulder, and brush my lips across the tiny inch of skin at the back of her neck where her jacket and hair don’t quite meet.
She shivers again, shifting as my arms wind around her. “Cord, I can’t think.”
