People leaped to their feet, cheering, whistling, the applause deafening.
Megs gaped at Kenzie for a moment, looking utterly astonished. She walked over to Kenzie, hugged her. “On behalf of the Team, which you have served many years, I accept your insanely generous donation. Thank you, Kenzie. You are an angel.”
* * *
Conrad drankthe last of his beer. “Come dance with me.”
The Timberline Mudbugs were playing tonight, a pre-Thanksgiving show. They had just slipped into a slow dance, a Zydeco rendition ofWhen A Man Loves A Woman.
“Dance?” Kenzie’s face was flushed from a little too much alcohol. Joe and Rain had told her to order anything she wanted tonight on the house. That had included one two many Sex in the Spotlights. “I was shot in the leg. I don’t know if I can dance.”
Conrad slid a hand up her thigh. “The last time you wrapped your thighs around my waist, your leg seemed pretty strong to me.”
Her cheeks got pinker. “Sasha, can you watch Gizmo and Gabby for me?”
Conrad had made good on his promise to Gizmo and ordered him a rib eye, cutting bits and pieces of it off for little Gabby. The dogs were now curled up at Kenzie’s feet in a protein coma, Gizmo still wearing his medal.
Sasha reached down to pet Gabby. “I would love to.”
Conrad led Kenzie through the restaurant to the dance floor, waving to Christa and Amanda, who were listening to the band, drinks in their hands.
They waved back, but their gazes were fixed on Kenzie.
He took her into his arms, the two of them moving to the slow, sensual rhythm of the music, the feel of her sweet in his arms. She followed easily despite her leg and the booze, one of her hands in his, the other on his hip, a tipsy-happy smile on her face.
“You blew us all away tonight. I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been. You’re an amazingly generous person.”
“I couldn’t take a reward for something I didn’t do.”
“I thought Megs was going to faint.”
Kenzie laughed. “She look shocked, didn’t she?”
“Completely gobsmacked.”
Kenzie looked up at him, her smile gone. “Now I understand how you felt when you didn’t want people to call you a hero.”
“What do you mean?”
“At the ceremony, everyone acted like I’d done something remarkable. But the truth is, all I did was get abducted.”
“All I did was not get crushed by ice.”
“That’s not true. You’ve summited mountains. You climbed out of a crevasse and saved yourself. You battled that blizzard and saved Gizmo and me.”
He stopped dancing, caught her chin, lifted her gaze to his. “Don’t you know that you saved me, too? A few months ago, I was barely holding on. I was dead inside. I had forgotten what it feels like to be happy, to wake up in the morning and look forward to the day.Youbrought me back to the world of the living.”
Every word he’d just said was true. If not for Kenzie…
She shook her head. “I didn’t do that. Gabby did. I hoped she would. That was the whole point. I’d hoped…”
Kenzie’s eyes went wide as if she’d just said something she hadn’t meant to say.
And the pieces came together with aclick.
Conrad swirled her in a circle, laughing. “Gabby and Gizmo never had problems getting along, did they? Tell me the truth.”
“Well, I … You … Um … No.” Kenzie’s cheeks flushed scarlet, a rush of words spilling from her. “But pets help reduce stress, and I knew you loved dogs. I didn’t want to lie to you, but I cared about you and hated seeing you hurting so I had to find a way to get a puppy into your life so that you’d have someone at least and …”
