Page 47 of A Sweet Chat for the Cowboy

Yikes.

“It’s great.” She dropped her pack and plopped down on her fanny.

Tucker waited for Craig to catch up before asking the group if they wanted him to pitch the tent. He’d done it every night so far, and so far, no one had used it.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Craig said sheepishly. “Supposed to get pretty cold tonight.”

“The wind chill will be a factor,” Tucker said.

“Isn’t that the number that counts?” Craig said it with attitude, but with less confidence than usual. That was some improvement, at least.

Tucker started setting the tent up, and Wynona got up to work on the light. When she finished, Tucker was already on the perimeter. She went to him and whispered, “Did you hear what Holden said to Craig?”

A small smile played on Tucker’s lips. “Yeah. He said, ‘White men have been disappearing in these hills for centuries.’”

A chill ran down Wynona’s back. “Good grief. That’s going to give the guy nightmares.”

“I certainly hope so,” Tucker said.

Chapter 24

It had been a longnight. The group was being battered by a constant westerly wind that made the otherwise manageable cold nearly unbearable. Tucker was ready for the sun to come up. Craig and Martin had already taken a few turns each in the tent. Tucker wished that Wynona would climb in and take a break, but she refused.

Tucker couldn’t give her too much grief for that refusal because he was doing it too. He, however, wasn’t trying to be a tough guy. He had nothing to prove to any of these people.

But if that toad was going to make an appearance, he wanted to be there for it, and he didn’t entirely trust any of these people not to miss it.

Observing something in the lab and being observant in the wild were two different things. Tonight alone he’d seen both a coyote and an owl that none of them had given any indication of seeing. Of course neither a coyote nor an owl looked like a toad, but any movement should have attracted their attention.

So Tucker stayed outside the tent, making round after round with his red light on his head, hoping to see the only animal that mattered to him right now.

When the sky lightened to a dark gray with the first hint of twilight, he didn’t know whether to be relieved or devastated. Finally, he would be able to warm up, but they’d gone yet another night without seeing anything scarlet.

And then Wynona let out a little shriek, and Tucker nearly ran toward the sound.

Sundance beat him there by a mile, so Tucker arrived to find Wynona crouching and Sundance right beside her staring at the ground. It almost looked like both of them were sniffing the rocks.

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