Page 71 of A Sweet Chat for the Cowboy

“I recruited,” he said without expression. “We’re running out of time.” Then he turned and started up the hill.

Wynona looked at the time. Had she been late? No, she hadn’t. But apparently everyone Tucker was expecting had shown up.

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WHEN THEY REACHED THEsight where they’d found the western Blake toad, Tucker stopped and faced her. “Do you want to leave a team here again?”

She nodded, wishing he didn’t wait till she was out of breath to ask her questions.

“You and Martin are the only one with the trackers,” Tucker said. “Do you want to give some to someone else?”

She shook her head. They were delicate devices. “Just radio if you catch one. I’ll come running.”

Sundance looked at her then, as if he was excited to hear the wordrun.

“Okay, Kash, do you want to lead this team?” Tucker said.

Kash?The name sparked something in her brain. It was a cool name, for sure, made her think of her mother’s Johnny Cash records, but hadn’t she heard it as a first name before? She stared at the man named Kash, who was accompanied by a really pretty woman bundled up like a little kid going out to build snow forts. “Kash?” Wynona said.

He looked at her like he thought he was in trouble. “Yeah?”

“That’s a cool name.” As she said the words, she remembered where she’d heard it—from the man she was actively trying to block from her brain right now. “Don’t suppose you have a brother named Wolfgang?”

His face morphed into a completely indecipherable expression—it almost looked like his cheeks were suffering muscle spasms. He straightened, obviously uncomfortable. What, did he hate his brother? “Sort of,” he mumbled, and then he shot the woman beside him a look that begged her not to speak. She responded with obvious confusion, but she stayed mute.

“Okay, then,” Wynona muttered and turned to go uphill. What a weirdo. Maybe Wolfgang was a weirdo too. Maybe they came from one big weirdo family. If so, bullet dodged.

As she passed Tucker, she noticed he looked a little pale. She forged ahead. She knew the trail by heart by now. She didn’t need Tucker anymore, but she still wanted him there. He made her feel safer, more confident.

Now if she could only find a man who could do this for her in life.

She shook that thought out of her head and pushed herself to go faster. The more her calf muscles burned, the harder she had to breath, and the better she felt emotionally. Mental note to self: next time some guy turns out to be a jerk, go for a cold, steep hike with a heavy pack on your back.

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HAVING DEPOSITED THEother teams, Wynona, Holden, and Tucker arrived at their new sight, and she got busy setting up. Tucker wandered off to do Tucker things, and Sundance followed, leaping over rocks like a gazelle.

“Something’s wrong,” Holden said. An observation, not a question.

“I’m okay,” she tried to assure him.

“Never said you weren’t.”

She sighed. “I’m okay with all this political toad drama, but ...”

He chuckled. “From now on, I’m going to call all political drama political toad drama. It has a nice ring to it.”

When she didn’t say anything more, he said, “But?”

“Yeah, but I have a very small annoying thing in my personal life, and I’m trying not to let it get to me, but it’s like a splinter. It’s not real pain, but it stings enough to be annoying.”

“How have you had time for a personal life with all this going on?”

“Exactly. That’s what makes it so small.” She was grateful she’d never met Wolfgang in real life. If he’d been as gorgeous as she’d let herself imagine him to be, then she might have been in for a much more serious injury than a splinter.

Holden was still waiting for more. She was embarrassed to tell him.Oh, go ahead. just own it, a voice in her head said.It’s Holden. There is no safer place.

Knowing the voice was right, she admitted, “It’s embarrassing.”

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