When he drove around the bend to pull into the turnout near the canyon, a brown Forest Service vehicle sat parked, its driver leaning against the door with her arms crossed in a casual slouch that indicated she’d been waiting a while.
Noah grinned and swerved into the spot behind her, spraying gravel in his haste to hit the ground running. Which he did so he could sweep her up in a hello kiss.
The moment his lips touched hers, his body settled, as if he’d slid into a favorite pair of jeans. Not to say the kiss wasn’t the best kind of magic. Her essence, the things that made her Sabrina, that exploded inside quicker than a lit fuse on dynamite.
But the recognition of this beingexactlywhere he should be…that he felt at a bone deep level.
It was like this was a missing piece too, one he’d never registered the absence of until it slotted into place.
She pulled back well before he was done. Way before he’d had his fill.
“Hello to you too,” she murmured, her fingers threading through the scruff at his neck that he hadn’t had time to get trimmed in months. “Is that my reward for beating you here?”
“Absolutely. And when I’m the first to arrive, I expect the same in return.”
Her smile widened. “That seems fair. Hope you’ve had your coffee, because I’ve been going over the scene in my head since we talked about it last night. There something I want to check.”
“No coffee needed here.” He shook his head, warding off the disappointment that she didn’t want to say hello a bit longer. For like an hour. In his truck with the heater blasting. “Caffeine just wears off. I run on adrenaline and hope.”
She lifted a brow. “That’s a new one for me. Hope for what?”
“You know. That the next adventure is just around the corner. Or the next answer. The next experience that might be unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” He shrugged. “It’s all fuel.”
Nodding slowly, she gave him a once-over that tingled his toes. “Just when I think you can’t get any more intriguing. I like the way you approach life, Colton. It’s refreshing. But fair warning. I drink coffee, and you’ll pry it from my cold, dead fingers.”
He laughed and released her with reluctance, but only because Dancer sat patiently in his crate waiting to be liberated, and the dog had been cooped up long enough. He jogged back to the truck and released the lab, who picked up on his energy, prancing as he kept his perfect heel position—even with the line of Noah’s jeans, like he’d been taught.
“We’re both ready to roll,” he told Sabrina and, yeah, he might be prancing a little too. “Lead the way.”
She moved with confidence through the difficult terrain, obviously familiar with every twist of the rocky path. He didn’t have any trouble keeping up with her, and frankly, he enjoyed the view. There was something extremely affecting about Sabrina anyway, but put her against the backdrop of a rising sun, craggy peaks and expansive sky?
His chest hurt every time their gazes connected.
He loved every second of whatever was happening between them. And he had just enough working brain cells to understand that, generally, people didn’t fall in love at first sight.
It happened though, right? Why couldn’t this be his epic love-at-first-sight story?
Near the area where the excavation team had sifted through the rockslide debris, Sabrina climbed a few feet up, away from the trail, and shaded her eyes as she evaluated the surrounding area.
“This is what I wanted to see. Most people stick to marked trails,” she said, gesturing at the rugged landscape ahead. “But whoever dumped Jane here had to have carried the body from somewhere without a lot of eyes.”
“Or they know the area well enough to navigate at night,” he suggested, earning a glimmer of approval in Sabrina’s expression.
“Right. There are old hunting paths, game trails that locals use. We should check those.”
Noah had learned to trust his instincts during investigations, and right now they were telling him to follow her. Dancer seemed to agree, perking up as Sabrina pointed out a barely visible track between two rock faces.
“It’s going to be rough going,” she warned, but her eyes sparked with a challenge that he couldn’t imagine not rising to. “These paths connect to different access points, but they’re not maintained. Hunting season’s been over for months. Are you up for this?”
“Trying to scare me off, or is this the welcome spiel everyone gets?” he asked with a wink.
She laughed and then very quickly proved her point. The woman was a machine.
They spent excruciatingly long minutes scrambling over rocky outcrops and navigating steep inclines. The winter wind picked up, driving bitter cold through Noah’s coat, but Sabrina never flagged, pushing forward, a leader in every sense of the word as she glanced back occasionally to tell him to watch his footing. Her knowledge of the terrain kept them moving, even as Dancer struggled to pick up any scents in the harsh weather.
Noah’s legs burned from the effort, but witnessing Sabrina in her element made up for it. She navigated through the wilderness like she’d been born amongst the scrubby vegetation, shadows and stone. Each time she pointed out another hidden path or concealed vantage point, he found himself more impressed.
“Hold up,” he called as Dancer’s posture suddenly changed, nose working the air near the edge of a steep drop. Years of working together had taught him to read every subtle shift in his partner’s movements.
