Page 112 of Unwilling Wolf

“For the love of God, woman! We just killed four werewolves, and the rest of that Pack won’t be far behind. I’ll buy you a dozen hats when we get to town!”

“Fiiiine.” She pouted a little because the hat search had taken her focus away from what she’d just done, and from thinking of the blood splattered across the shins of her trousers.

“Can you watch her?” he asked Lenny.

“I can still hear you, you know?” she asked him, turning in her saddle to try and glare.

“Good! You should know my concerns. Most women would be fainting and falling apart right now, but not you. You’re worried about your damn hat! You look fine!”

“It’s not about looks, Garret Nathaniel Shaw!”

His mouth fell open, and it would’ve been quite hilarious if he wasn’t standing there naked as the day he was born, covered in dirt and blood, with blazing nearly-white eyes that said he wasn’t human. “I didn’t even know that was my middle name until just now.”

“It’s not! Probably. I just made it up! You never told me your middle name,” she called. She twisted in the saddle again to see his reaction.

Lenny grabbed a pair of trousers from her saddlebag and threw them at Garret’s head. He didn’t even move. Eliza could see the grin Lenny was trying and failing to hide plain as day.

“You’re a mess, Eliza Barnaby Shaw,” he called.

“That’s not my middle name, and I have less blood on me than you do,” she sang back.

“That’s not what I mean!”

Eliza inhaled deeply, and exhaled a long breath. Barnaby. Haha.

Bantering with him did make her feel better and steadier somehow. It had oddly become the normal in her life, and she’d needed that—a moment of normalcy after what had happened.

Yesterday, she’d hated the back and forth with Garret, but today? Today it reminded her that everything was okay. It regulated her flustered nervous system.

On a whim, she turned Buck. She wanted to say something, because she was beginning to see how precious life was now. How short it could be.

“Yeah?” he asked, slipping into the trousers.

She inhaled sharply and forced the words out. “I do love you somethin’ fierce, Garret Nathaniel Shaw.”

He straightened his spine and froze, and the anger melted straight off his face. “I know.”

She wanted to look smooth, so she leaned forward onto her saddle horn and canted her head, offered him her sassiest smile. “You can hear the truth in my voice?”

“Even if I couldn’t hear it, I could tell.”

“How?”

“You ain’t runnin’.”

Her smile softened. Clever man. Observant man. “I’m not much of a runner.” She turned Buck and kicked him into a trot. “I’m out of shape, and I breathe too hard for running!”

Garret belted out a single laugh that echoed and followed her as she bounced in the saddle, aimed at the cattle in the distance.

“You’re somethin’ else, Eliza,” came Garret’s call.

A couple of weeks ago, it would’ve been an insult, but not anymore. She could hear the compliment in his tone now.

She’d told him she would earn his trust, and now she could feel the shift.

He was starting to trust her.

She wouldn’t tell him until he was ready, but she trusted him too.

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