Page 105 of One Bossy Disaster

Sighing gratefully, I pull out my phone and zoom in, snapping pictures like crazy.

I post a few pictures to Insta ASAP, typing a clumsy caption, then I bring up the Fish & Wildlife information form.

“What are you doing?” Shepherd asks, breathing the question more than speaking it out loud.

Um, trying not to die from the rush?

I can’t fathom how to tell him how grateful I truly am that he’s being so supportive.

All my energy goes straight into capturing the otters with my camera.

“I’m reporting the numbers now,” I whisper, doing a little happy dance. “Man, I can’t believe we found them! Way more than just one, too. This looks like a solid breeding population.”

“Jackpot,” he agrees. “The drone should get better footage than anything your phone can capture.”

“Right? I wonder if we’re missing more. If we have the drone do a quick survey, we could get a better sweep of the area and know for sure just how many there are around here. Maybe, if there are more groups like this out there... they might not be endangered someday.”

“Done,” he says.

I whip around and look at him. “Oh, what? I wasn’t seriously expecting you to—”

Before I can finish, he taps at his phone.

An app that controls the drone, I realize.

I watch the sleek little bug with those freakishly silent rotors lunge forward, holding my breath.

Without any noise, the otters seem totally oblivious, thankfully. They don’t look up, even as it flies ahead of them, gaining altitude to take in a wider section of the area.

I lean in to the high-definition video feed coming back on Shepherd’s screen. He taps an icon that switches to something like infrared. But I’m pretty sure we only wind up with the same eight heat signatures.

No big loss.

You don’t spit in the face of a single miracle.

We enjoy the quiet, watching for several minutes.

I don’t realize I’m getting drunk on his scent until he moves, leaving me so dizzy I bang into his shoulder.

“You hit a sinkhole?”

“No, no, I’m just—I’m a little overwhelmed. This is too freaking cool.” I turn away as my cheeks heat.

“Falling face down in the dirt won’t do us any good, or the otters. Don’t make me catch you if you can’t keep your balance, lady.” The sharp glint in his eye says that’s not an idle threat.

I swallow thickly.

There’s something about the way he saysladythat reaches so deep inside me, stroking me like a kitten.

“Just imagine what we could do if we had regular drone flights, monitoring this place. We’d have a crazy good understanding of their movements, their diet, their breeding patterns, their population—everything!”

I might take him up on that offer to jump into his arms.

I’m just that giddy.

But when he looks at me again, instead of eye-rolling irritation, he stares back with something almost like fondness.

His gaze is softer in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.

---