“Since there is no barbecue or fireworks like we had last Friday for July 4, Chase and I will offer helicopter rides for $200 per passenger.”
“I don’t know how you keep it all going,” Tracy said.
“Sam, Kellie, and Jeff do their parts, but I’ll need to hire someone to run the lodge once it’s built.”
Tracy raised her hand and said only half-jokingly, “I’ll take that job.”
“You’re hired.”
“I accept.”
It wasthe middle of the night when Cash woke.
“Tracy?” he said softly, seeing that her cot was empty.
He blinked to make sure as his eyes adjusted to the moonlit darkness. She was gone. Images of her falling into the lake, facing a lone coyote, or stumbling over a snake shot through him. His heart pounded as he swung his legs off the cot. When his feet touched the ground, he realized Dude was inside the tent. Before they’d gone to bed, Cash had secured a ground stake outside the tent and Tracy had clipped the dog leash to it so that Dude could come and go.
“Where’s Tracy, Dude?”
The German shepherd sat up, but Cash noted Dude didn’t seem alarmed. And though the dog walked to the opening of the tent, he didn’t bark. Cash got off the cot and covered the few paces to join Dude. In the distance, emerging from a copse of trees, he saw her. She wore asleeveless white nightgown. However, this one wasn’t sheer like the one she’d been wearing the night her laptop had fallen and held her hostage. As she made her way toward them, her cinnamon hair tumbled around her shoulders and the white gown billowed around her cowboy boots. With the moon and stars overhead, she appeared like a cowgirl angel sent from heaven to rescue a lonely rancher. Was he lonely? He hadn’t noticed it until she burst into his life. Cash suspected he’d feel all alone, even in a crowd of people, if Tracy were no longer with him.
He glanced down at Dude, put his finger to his lips, and taking hold of Dude’s leash, moved him to the left of the tent opening. They waited mere seconds before Tracy silently dipped into the tent. She stood for a moment, no doubt letting her eyes adjust to the darkness as Cash had when he awakened. Hidden in the pitch-black corner, Cash carefully nabbed the back of her gown just as she took a step toward her cot. Hauled up short, she stood stock-still. To Dude’s credit, he didn’t make a sound. Tracy tugged on her gown, Cash held tight.
“Cash?” she whispered. “Cash, help. Something has a hold of me.”
Stepping out of the darkness, Cash let go of Dude’s leash in preparation for placing his hand over Tracy’s mouth in case she screamed. “Me.”
Tracy fainted. Cash caught her. Dude licked her hand. She giggled. He groaned. The dog curled up with a sigh.
“You scared me, Cash Cooper.”
“You scared me, Tracy Dalton,” Cash scolded. “Don’t you know you can’t go wandering around in the woods by yourself? Especially at night. What were you thinking?”
“I had to tinkle and the trees?—”
“You had to what?”
“Tinkle.” She sat on her cot and pulled off her boots. “Number one.”
“Next time you have to take a piss when we’re camping,you tell me. And why were you in the trees when we have outhouses?”
“Because the outhouses were too far away. I was afraid I’d wake someone tramping through the campsite to get there and back.”
Cash sat down on his cot, wondering when he’d ever been so personally concerned about a woman’s welfare. Never. “Come here.”
“No,” she said with one of her sexy giggles. “Why should I?”
“So I can turn you over my knee and spank you.”
“Ooh, okay,” she flirted, stepped over Dude and lay across his lap.
Cash flipped up her gown and placed his hand on her naked fanny. If only they’d been in his bed at home. “I’ll settle for your pinkie swear not to leave me in the dark like that again.”
Tracy sat up, shifted herself in his lap, and hooked his pinkie with hers. “I swear.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Chloe, I can’t thank you enough for taking time to show me your beautiful home,” Tracy said.
