Page 56 of A Sweet Chat for the Cowboy

Gunner still didn’t look so good. He was glaring at Tucker. “Just because I live in South Dakota doesn’t mean I want to climb into the sky.”

Tucker chuckled. “Well, maybe tomorrow we can climb Black Elk Peak, then.” No one laughed, which he was used to, but this gave him a thought. He studied Wynona. Maybe it wasn’t her fitness level that was giving her trouble. Maybe it was the elevation. “I know you live in Nebraska,” he said. “I’ve got some Oxygen in my pack if you need some.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, sure. Now you tell me.” She looked away. “You can help me with this light.”

He didn’t move. Did that mean that she didn’t want the compressed air?

She was bent over fiddling with the light, and she looked at him without standing up. Her hair fell over the back of her head, touching the ground. “Thank you. I’ll ask you for the air if I get shaky.”

Okay, then. He went to help her with the light.

“What about me?” Martin cried. “Can’t I have any air?”

Chapter 29

Gunner stood on theedge of their small camp and stared at his brother.

Something very strange was going on. He’d never seen two people try to play tag with their eyes, but that’s sort of what was happening. Tucker would stare at Wynona until she looked his way, and then he would yank his eyes away and pretend to be looking at something else.

Then Wynona would stare at Tucker until he couldn’tstandnot looking at her and would glance her way, and then she would do this weird full-body jump like she’d been stuck with a cattle prod.

And then repeat.

Whatwasthis?

And how long had it been going on?

As far as he knew, the woman drove Tucker nuts. And not in a good way.

And there was no way that a woman like Wynona would be interested inTucker, would she?

Would she?

Now that he was thinking about it, he wasn’t so sure. He’d heard that opposites attract, but this was a pretty extreme example. Tucker was a hunter. He literally killed animals for a living. This woman was risking her life to save atoad.

“Do you eat meat?” Gunner asked out loud before he could think better of it.

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