Inga’s face was flushed from the heat, her hair sweat-damp, and there was a smudge of flour on her nose. She looked delicious, and Luke only belatedly managed to register her answer. “We’re not sure how he is with small kids. He seemed okay down at the dock, but we didn’t want to wind him up too much.”
“We’re going to have to let them play together sooner or later, unless we tie Rogue up.”
“Doyouknow how he is with kids?” Inga asked pointedly, and Luke remembered that Rogue was supposed to be his dog.
“Uh, I haven’t seen him interact with kids, so I’m not sure. He’s been great with the baby griffins, though, hasn’t he? I think he’s fine with small, cute things.”
Nita looked blank. “With the what?”
Inga took the pancakes off the fire to avoid scorching, and they all trooped outside, to Rogue’s delight, so Nita could see the baby griffins. The chicks were out of the nest at the moment, toddling around while their parents shepherded them and hissed at the humans and the dog.
Nita was charmed, and Jo-Jo instantly went into paroxysms of delight, babbling wildly and reaching out for the griffin babies with her chubby hands.
Instead of baby griffin fluff, one of her hands smacked into Rogue’s fur. The dog had quietly interposed himself between the baby and the griffins, not aggressively. Jo-Jo switched to trying to grab Rogue’s ears.
“No, baby!” Nita protested. “No, dog!” She pulled Jo-Jo closer to her, having to pry the small plump hand off Rogue’s fur to accomplish this.
“I think he’s trying to protect the griffins from the baby,” Luke said cautiously.
Rogue sat down and looked like he had no intention of going anywhere.
Nita hesitated, then knelt with the baby in her lap. Jo-Jo, thrilled, squealed and tried to throw her arms around Rogue—the key words being “tried to” because Nita pulled her back. Rogue cautiously lowered his head and nudged at Nita’s leg, then moved so that Jo-Jo could grab his ears again.
“Okay, you win,” Nita said. “He’s fine with kids, it seems like.” Jo-Jo was now tugging and pulling on the massive, floppy ears. Aside from tilting his head a little to dislodge her from the most sensitive places, Rogue seemed unbothered by this.
“We think he’s smarter than most dogs,” Inga said rather delicately, leaving aside the matter of why they thought that. “And his breed are usually very good with kids, you know.”
“Oggie!” Jo-Jo declared happily.
“We’d better go eat before the pancakes get cold,” Inga said. “It’s not like there’s a microwave around here.”
Back in the cabin, she was dishing them up generous helpings of pancakes and eggs when Luke felt his entire body tense, a full-body wave of adrenaline and anxiety that flooded over him and prickled the hairs on the back of his neck. He had no idea what had caused it until a few seconds later, when he became aware of the low thumping of helicopter propellers. He must have felt the vibration before he heard it.
At the stove, Inga tensed and paused in the rhythm of her pancake-flipping.
“Oh, those idiots again?” Nita was sitting on a bunk with Jo-Jo in her lap, trying to get the baby to eat a piece of a pancake rather than feeding it to the dog. She glanced up with annoyance.
“Those idiots?” Inga said.
The noise was loud now. Luke realized that he’d risen from his chair without being aware of it. He had to force his hands to unclench. They couldn’t be landing here, could they? Cold sweat prickled his spine. The cabin suddenly felt like a trap.
“Yeah,” Nita said, most of her attention occupied with the baby. She glanced over at Luke, who had gone to the window. “It’s a military helicopter, right? Have you guys seen it? I don’t know if it’s the same one or a whole group on maneuvers, but they’ve been flying around Westerly Cove for the last couple of days. Really annoying.”
“We, uh, we saw one out flying around,” Inga said, her attention on Luke. “Kind of low, going down the coast.”
“Yeah! Everyone’s scared to shift, afraid they’ll get caught at it. I hate it when they decide to do this kind of thing. It’s bad enough having to look out for the flightseeing tourists—Oh, Jo, stop it.”
The baby petulantly threw the pancake on the floor. Rogue, who had been watching intently, sensed victory and dived in to snap it up. However, instead of eating it, he offered it back to Jo-Jo in his mouth. Jo-Jo grabbed for it.
“Oh, now you want it?” Nita complained, rescuing the dirty and dog-slobbered pancake. She gave it back to Rogue. “Nice dog. Here you go, eat it quick before she starts licking it again.” Rogue decided the pancake was fair game and snapped it down.
Meanwhile, the noise of the helicopter continued to be loud, changing direction as if it was circling the cabin.
“Are they landing?” Inga asked, voicing Luke’s concerns. From the cabin’s small window, he still hadn’t caught a glimpse yet. It must be directly overhead.
“Maybe they’re doing some kind of survey,” Nita suggested. “Like geological or stuff.”
Inga laid down her spatula. “I can go out and?—”
