Page 76 of A Sweet Chat for the Cowboy

Tucker had approached too, but he held back. He squatted nearby for a better look. This brought his light closer to the toads, which was helpful. “The ground is really soft here, almost sandy. I’m guessing that, with all these rocks, this is one of the few good places to dig in and hunker down for the winter?” He didn’t sound sure of himself.

She pulled her gloves out. “You’re right to be skeptical. Toads are usually loners in the fall, but there is a precedent. They once found hundreds of toads burrowed together in a national park in Canada.”

“So maybe it’s just national park toads?” he said, and she giggled. “Maybe they come together to spend all winter discussing how they’ll fight the federal government?”

She rolled her eyes in the dark. “The federal government is these guys’ friend right now.” She bit her lip. She shouldn’t have said that. She and Tucker were on opposite sides of this debate.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I suppose you’re right.”

His words shocked her, but she was too busy retrieving a toad from the net to react.

“Do you need any help?” he asked, sounding tentative.

“Sure. Hold the net down, will you?” She glanced behind him to see Sundance lying down where Tucker had stood when they’d arrived. His head was up, his ears high in alert. “What, did you tell him to stay back there?”

“Oh yes. He was far too excited about our discovery.”

She laughed. “He’s such a good boy.”

“That he is. Took me a while to realize how special he was, but now I’m quite attached.”

She sat on her rump, so she’d be steadier as she worked the tiny harness onto the first toad. “I can’t believe there are this many,” she said to no one.

“There are even more,” Tucker said. “I walked along the bank, and it’s just covered in toads for another five hundred feet at least. It’s an embarrassment of riches.”

“We did it,” she said. “We found them.”

“You did,” he said. “I wonder why that one toad was up there rock climbing.”

“Maybe he’d been banished,” she said.

“Yeah, maybe he said a few things that he really regrets.”

She wasn’t sure what to make of that, but she was too busy to give it much thought.

Chapter 39

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