Page 11 of A Bear's Secret

She sighed.

Her plan had been to get to the ranch, shower, put her clothes back on, eat, and then do laundry overnight. Now, she didn’t even have a bra to wear under the t-shirt, and when she peeked through the hallway to the living room where Austin was sitting, reading a book, she could feel herself turning red.

Come on, who cares,she told herself. Earlier today you were a disgusting, sweaty, screaming mess. If he’s gonna get grossed out, he’s already grossed out.

Still, she straightened her shirt, wishing for at least the millionth time that her bosom weren’t so... bosomy.

Just one cup size less,she thought. Maybe two. I’d still have a great rack, but I could find bras at normal stores.

She gave up and walked into the living room, stubbornly ignoring the wiggle in her chest, and sat down in an overstuffed recliner. A plate of chocolate chip cookies sat on the end table between her and the couch where Austin sat with his book.

Sloane grabbed a cookie and took a big bite. Even though she’d eaten maybe an hour ago, she was hungry again — hiking ten miles a day through the mountains would do that to a girl.

Austin looked up from his book, then smiled at her.

“Barb makes the world’s best cookies,” he said.

“Thish ish uhhmashing,” Sloane said, her mouth totally full.

Nice, she thought. Be a slob in front of the ranch hottie.

She swallowed, and she meant to take a brief break, but instead she shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth.

Austin leaned toward her.

“You want to know the secret ingredients?” he asked, his already low voice slipping down another octave, like he was letting her in on a conspiracy.

Sloane swallowed, and this time, she managed not to cram another cookie into her mouth before answering.

“What’s the secret?” she said, leaning toward him, matching his tone.

He smiled, and Sloane felt her heart flutter in her chest.

“Whiskey and salt,” he said.

Sloane took a bite of another cookie, chewing more slowly and deliberately.

Whiskey, she thought. Interesting.

“It gives it just a little bit of that oaky kick,” Austin said. He took another one from the plate and took a bite out of it. “Don’t tell Barb I told you,” he said, his mouth half-full. “She’ll bury me in the woods and no one will ever find the body.”

He was kidding, but a quick shiver went through Sloane’s body, and she looked down at the half-cookie in her hand.

“Sorry, that was tasteless,” Austin said. “Even though that kid’s still alive.”

“You guys really don’t know who he is?” Sloane asked.

Austin shook his head, taking a bookmark from the end table and sliding it into his book.

“No idea,” he said.

“It’s just weird that he was on that spur trail out to the ranch,” she went on. She broke off a piece of cookie in her hands and put it on her mouth, a vain attempt to keep herself from just inhaling all the cookies. “He wasn’t scheduled to stay here or something?”

Austin shook his head again.

“He wasn’t in the ledger, and Barb didn’t have anyone but you booked,” he said. “We get walk-ins sometimes, when somebody going south-bound will tell a north-bound hiker about it, but it’s pretty rare.”

For a moment, Sloane went quiet, looking at the half-cookie in her hand. Something was occurring to her. So far, she’d been so relieved that the kid was alive, and so relieved that it was over, that she’d barely thought to be suspicious of anyone. After all, what was more likely: that there was a random psychopath rampaging through a barely-populated national forest, or the kid was someone that the locals knew and had tried to kill for some reason?

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