Page 31 of Following Their Heart

“Meh.” Scrap makes a waffling hand gesture. “It’s slow going. There are a lot of moving parts. But I think we’ll have one truck ready to go by end of day tomorrow.”

“Two would be better,” Jud says.

“Then, head down to the first site and help Rev and Brawn,” Scrap says. “There are kinks to work out at this end, but it’s the heavy lifting that’s slowing things down.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Can I help?” I ask.

Jud smiles at me, and it’s not condescending or sarcastic, or anything but genuine. “Nah. Let’s get you back to the lodge, and you can help Shep with dinner.”

I’m okay with that. It’s not like I can do much heavy lifting compared to the guys. And I’m not going to complain about gender roles when Shep spends more time in the kitchen than I do. Heck, Ilikehelping in the kitchen. I’m learning so much from my gentle Norwegian, and I feel proud when my guys come back for seconds.

Jud drives me down the mountain, back into the trees and the less-frigid autumn weather. I lend a hand with Shep as he whips up a quick dinner, but we don’t joke around like usual. With danger looming, the mood is heavy.

The menu tonight includes beans with wild-boar bacon, cornbread made from a boxed mix, and salad cobbled together with greens and radishes from the garden. I’m laying thawed strips of bacon on a sheet for baking in the oven when arms catch me around my waist, and a familiar voice says, “Mmm-mm,a beautiful woman and sizzling bacon. Doesn’t get better’n that. How’s mychér?”

I turn and give Doc a partial hug, holding out my grease-caked hands so they don’t touch him. “I’m good!” Seeing him and Shep together reminds me about my dream and their morning assignment. “Hey! How did it go with Bernard?” I look from him to Shep. “Sorry I didn’t ask earlier.” I guess Jud had me a little distracted today.

“Dat’s okay. It was…weird.” His crooked smile tells me it must have been weird in a good way.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Doc says. He lifts me onto the counter and steps between my legs. He takes advantage of me not being able to touch him and places tickly kisses on my neck with a happy hum.

“Stop that.”

I feel his smile against my skin as he listens and obeys. “If I have to.” He puts on a faux sulky expression but then changes the subject. “So, I guess Shep here’s got a latent Gift we didn’t know about. He can talk to birds.”

“All the animals,” Shep says. “Had a heart-to-heart with Garfield today.” Doc and I stare at him. “Oh, and Henrietta is lonely. She wants a mate and a kid.”

Doc raises his eyebrows. “Wow.”

Wow, indeed. I loop my arms around Doc’s neck but am careful to keep my greasy hands away from his hair. “That’s really cool,” I tell Shep. “So, did you talk to Bernard?”

“Ja.And Doc healed him.” He slaps Doc on the back on his way to reaching down a pot from the overhead rack. “The link to Raptor was making him sick. And very depressed.”

“Poor guy,” I say. “Good on you,” I tell Doc, who rubs over my jean-clad thighs with his thumbs. His eyes go soft on me, telling me he appreciates the praise.

Suddenly, something my mom told me a long time ago pops into my head.“Keeping your man happy is as simple as feeding him, praising him, and… you know.”My mother honest-to-goodness wagged her eyebrows at me.

“Mom!”I’d slapped my hands over my ears and shouted out,“La, la, la! I didn’t hear that!”

The memory makes me smile. She was so right. No wonder she and Dad were happy together. Shegother man. And her wisdom is helping me get my men.

Shep breaks into my thoughts. “He was so happy to be free of Raptor, he’s on our side now. Very cool bird.” It takes me a second to remember we were talking about Bernard.

Doc says, “He’s flying south today. Testing how far he can get and still communicate with Shep. Maybe he can be a lookout for us, like let us know when Raptor and his crew are coming.”

“That is the hope,” Shep says.

I guess Rev was right. My dream was useful. Shep’s Gift seems stronger, and maybe Doc’s too, if he was able to break Raptor’s connection with Bernard through healing. That seems like more than just healing wounds. “That’s so cool. You guys turned the tables on Raptor. You stole his spy and brought him over to our side.” Hope puffs up my chest. “If you can use your Gifts to fight Raptor’s Gifts, we can totally win this fight.”

“Damn right,” Doc says.

“Double damn right,” Shep says, and the mood feels lighter than it has in days.

Chapter 13

Jud

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