Page 29 of A Bear's Secret

He tossed her a bottle, then exchanged another look with Trevor.

“I know of a place where we could cool off,” he said.

“Is it shady?”

“Yes,” he said.

There was a sparkle in his eye that suggested to Sloane that she wasn’t getting the full story. She narrowed her eyes.

“What else?”

“Austin, come on,” said Trevor. He leaned back on his hands, and his damp shirt fell against his abs.

I would lick the sweat right off of — stop it!Sloane thought.

Well. I would.

She tore his face off of his body and to his face.

“It’s just an idea,” Austin said. “A cool, refreshing idea.”

“What’s the idea?” Sloane said. She was starting to get a little punchy about always being the only one who didn’t know what was going on.

“There’s a swimming hole,” Trevor said. “It’s beneath a waterfall, not that far off the trail, but almost nobody knows about it.”

“Even on a day like today? It’s not insanely crowded?”

Trevor smiled, the light coming into his gray eyes.

“The only thing I’ve ever seen get insanely crowded in Ponderosa County was the John Deere dealership when they had a buy-one-get-one-free sale,” he said.

“Barb still talks about that day,” Austin said. “For a while she was petitioning them to run it again.”

“It’s a good deal,” said Sloane. She leaned back and shaded her eyes with her hands, only see both the men look at her skeptically. “What? I don’t have to know anything about tractors to know that’s a good deal.”

“We could go dip our feet in,” Trevor said.

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” said Sloane.

Austin shrugged.

“Let’s go,” he said. He shoved the food back into the backpack, drank most of a bottle of water, and then they were on the trail again.

* * *

It wasn’t farto the swimming hole, and the entire time, Sloane had to watch Austin’s butt as he descended the narrow trail in front of her.

Stop it, she told herself. Why are you even looking? You hike out tomorrow morning, and you are not hooking up with some shifter who you barely know.

“You missed the turn off,” Trevor called from behind them.

Austin stopped short, then turned and looked. Trevor pointed.

“Oh, oops,” said Austin, and they turned onto the other trail that Trevor had pointed out. Once more, he brought up the back as they descended a quick slope. Sloane could already hear the roar of a waterfall, and the air got cooler and cooler, the closer they got to water.

Then, they came around a bend and there it was. The waterfall wasn’t huge — it was more of a whitewater, almost, with the creek running down a series of rocks — but it was blue and white, and the pool of water at the bottom was the most refreshing-looking thing Sloane had ever seen.

Best of all, they were the only ones there.

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