Page 33 of A Sweet Chat for the Cowboy

“Follow me,” Tucker said to the crowd and started off. Sundance sat for an extra few seconds staring at her and then turned and followed.

She turned to see where Craig and Martin had ended up. Craig was right behind her with a wide grin on his face. Oh good, at least someone was enjoying this development.

She turned back to follow Tucker. If she had to choose between the two jerks, it was Tucker all day.

Holden fell into step beside her, and the woman named Blade walked on the other side of him.

“Who’s your friend?” Wynona asked so that she wouldn’t have to talk about more pressing matters. Plus, she was kind of curious if Holden was on a date. This seemed like exactly the type of date Holden would take a woman on.

“This is Blade. She’s my boss, sort of.”

“We’re coworkers,” she corrected in a way that made Wynona think she could be quite sassy when she wanted to be.

“Wewerecoworkers until she married the boss.”

Good grief, now she had aBannonbride as part of her crew?

“Who’s idea was that?” Blade said, clearly suggesting that it had been Holden’s. Wynona had a hard time envisioning Holden as a matchmaker, but Holden hushed his coworker so he could listen for the toads. Or maybe he just didn’t want to listen to her anymore.

Chapter 17

Tucker had to keepreminding himself to slow down. His annoyance was making him walk too fast, and while he was sure most of the people behind him could keep up, he didn’t want to wear them out in their first hour. They were volunteers, after all.

What was Wynona’s problem? Was this a power and control thing? Was she mad that he had somehow usurped her authority? Every few hundred feet, it would occur to him to feel bad, to feel guilty, and then this would make him even more annoyed. He had nothing to feel bad or guilty about.

They reached the first small clearing where he had spent the night before, and he stopped and looked around. Life had seemed so much simpler last night. He called to Sundance, who had bounded on ahead. Then he found Wynona with his eyes. “I’m assuming you don’t want to leave anybody here tonight?”

She kept walking until she reached him. “We can start at the next spot.”

He turned and started again, expecting her to stay behind, but she stayed right beside him. The trail narrowed and he charged ahead, grateful to get out in front of her, but as soon as the trail widened enough for two to walk abreast, she was back beside him.

They reached the first spot he’d picked out, and he stopped again. “I think there’s room here to set up a light.”

She turned in a full circle, studying their surroundings carefully. “Looks good,” she said.

“Who wants this spot?” he called to the crowd.

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