Page 8 of Cold Foot Komodo

He pulled an armload of wood from the pile and bustled past her and back into the house, refusing to answer her question.

“I work too,” she said, in a very un-smooth fashion.

“Oh yeah?” Reed started stacking the wood in the fireplace. “Where at?”

“I’m a nurse. I start work at the Bitterroot Hospital soon. It’s half an hour’s drive from here. My first shift is in two days. I’m kind of nervous. I’ve worked at the same hospital my entire career, and now I need to learn an entirely new system. Plus it’s a small hospital, and I’m sure I’ll be the new kid on the block, and…I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“Yep.”

“Right. I’ll let you do your thing. I’m going to head to the store. Don’t rob me, or I’ll tell Wreck on you. He he,” she laughed awkwardly. He’d gone very quiet.

“I’ll keep your stuff safe. Grocery store is just down the road. Take a right on the main road you came off of. You can’t miss it.”

“Okay.” She stood there for a few seconds, unsure if he was still wanting to go to the store too, but he seemed very busy messing with the fireplace. “Have a great night. I mean, until I get back. Have a great hour. Ha.” Her weird jokes were met with silence. “Great, I’m going to go hang myself now.”

“That’s not a funny joke,” he said, turning from where he knelt. “My dad hanged himself.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, horrified.

A smile stretched Reed’s lips. “Just kidding.”

The thought did cross her mind to slip out of her snow boot and chuck it at his head, but his chuckle was actually nice. “You’re a monster,” she accused him as she headed for the door.

“You have no idea. Hey Sasha?” he called after her.

“Yep?” she asked, peeking her head back past the door.

“Garret is a monster too. A bear, probably. Be careful of that one, will you?”

Her face fell. “A bear? Bear shifter? Like he turns into a bear?”

Reed nodded. “Places like these are hot spots for us. There is lots of wilderness to Change in.”

“Right.” Stunned, and trying to imagine Garret morphing into a bear, she shook her head and made her way to her truck. Her purse was still inside, along with her jacket that laid across the passenger’s seat. Her breath froze as she turned on her truck and pulled the door closed beside herself. She looked to Reed’s truck, and then to the frosty road ahead of her, and then to the house, where she could see Reed lighting a fire through the front window. He looked like a normal, super-hot human man from here. And Garret had looked super-normal too. What were the odds that the first two people she met in this town were shifters?

Today was strange.

A sudden urge took her to go and tell Reed “thank you” for the work he was doing, but she had a feeling a man like him didn’t want the small talk, and would rather be alone to do whatever work he was wanting to do.

His bone structure was really appealing. In her mind, she would call him Hot Reed.

He looked out the window, directly at her. She yelped and looked away, feeling busted. Was her window tint dark enough to hide her? She hoped so.

She pulled a U-turn, barely missing his truck across the street, and zoomed off for the store to buy a plethora of cleaning supplies and some groceries to stock the pantry with.

She was going to ignore the nagging feeling that she wished Reed would’ve gone with her.

That man was too interesting for his own good.

Chapter Two

Reed stood and watched Sasha leave out the window.

Her truck was a good one for this terrain. She had that slow leak in her right front tire, but it would hold for a quick trip to the store. He had supplies in his truck to fix it, and would get to it when she got back.

She drove a silver Tacoma that still had the temporary tags in the back window. It was pretty new, it looked like—lifted a couple inches, with thick tread on the oversized tires, and a camper shell on the back. Nice rig. He was going to have to remember to tell her that the trip to the hospital would probably be more like a forty-five minute trip in the weather that was going to hit this part of Montana this week.

He’d wanted to go to the store with her, but he was pretty sure Sasha hadn’t noticed all the damned dead spiders in the kitchen, and he wanted to clean them up before she got back. She didn’t need to know about the spider problem until spring, when she would likely have a little explosion of them. Wintertime here though, it was quiet on the bug-front. He would spray this place way before it warmed up again.

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