love living in the cute little house that comes with my job. Spending time outdoors hiking and fishing and swimming with children from all over the world instead of being holed up in his room all day, reading.”
“Only when I’m not taking care of my chickens,” Shiloh said. “They need lots of attention while they’re little, so I’ll be too busy to do all that nature stuff. Especially with kids I don’t even know and who’ll only be there for a week.” He looked over at Katy. “But I’m sure my chicks will be okay for a couple of hours while you teach me to ride.”
What Katy could see was that young Mr. Fox was a hermit in training. And that his fears lay close to the surface, poor kid. It wasn’t easy making a big life change. She knew all about that.
“I’m afraid I’ll only be able to get to Inglenook two or three times a week,” she told him, stifling a smile at his frown. “As a paramedic, I have to live at the fire station twenty-four hours at a time every third day, and if I end up running ambulance calls at night, I’ll probably spend a good part of the next day catching up on my sleep.”
“What’s Quantum supposed to do on the days you don’t come see her? Isn’t she gonna get lonely?” The boy brightened. “I could visit her and even bring her carrots.”
“That’s why I’m keeping her at Inglenook, Shiloh. Just like people need to get outdoors and do stuff with other people, Quantum’s going to make friends with the other horses and play with them in the pasture on the days I’m not there.”
She shot Margo a wink when Shiloh scowled down at his catalog, then touched the boy’s arm to get him to look at her. “And trust me; hanging out with a bunch of chickens all day isn’t nearly as exciting as kayaking on an actual inland sea full of playful dolphins that’ll come so close you can almost touch them.”
“Do you kayak?”
Katy nodded. “I do. I’ve been kayaking since . . . well, for as long as I can remember,” she added with a laugh. “Only Pine Creek doesn’t have interesting ocean creatures like Bottomless does.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I have ten-year-old twin cousins who live right on the fjord just a few miles from Inglenook, and they told me they have a pet whale named Leviathan that only a handful of people have ever seen.”
Fear replaced the curious expression on Shiloh’s face. “Whales are big. And a kayak isn’t—” The plane gave a sudden shudder, and a chime sounded. Katy looked up to see the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign illuminate just as a distinct crackle of a mike being keyed came over the speakers.
“The captain has asked that everyone please stay in your seats and keep your seat belts fastened,” a male voice said over the speaker. “Nothing to be alarmed about, folks, we’re just heading into a small bit of—”
The plane gave a rather violent shudder, forcing Margo to grab Shiloh’s seatback. “Okay,” the voice drawled as the female flight attendant made her way toward them, “let’s nix the small and go with nuisance turbulence.”
“Shiloh?” Margo whispered just as the attendant reached her.
The boy leaned into the aisle to look up and down the length of the plane, then looked at his mother again and shrugged. “They’re all smiling.”
They? Katy wondered as she stretched to her full sitting height and also looked up and down the plane—not seeing one smile on one passenger but plenty of concern.
“Let’s get you back to your seat,” the attendant told Margo, stepping to the side to let her pass just as the plane gave another violent shake. “Hold on to the seatbacks as you make your way forward.”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Katy,” Shiloh said, and opened his catalog with a resigned sigh.
They fell into a companionable silence broken only by the drone of the laboring engines and startled gasps of passengers as the plane pitched and yawed with soft shivers and a few violent jerks.
It took Katy a moment to realize Shiloh kept looking in her direction and grinning. Or rather, he kept looking past her left shoulder. When she looked at him, he dropped his attention back to his catalog.
She went back to reading only to catch him staring past her and grinning again—finally turning that grin on her when he realized she was onto