Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,62
quickly. “Why would it?”
“You tell me.” He winked at her. “Because, hello? It is bothering you. It’s cool, Katelyn. We share no common genes. Our offspring will be healthy.”
She made a show of sputtering with indignation and gently punching his shoulder. But that was all it was, a show. Inside, she was working things out. That helped explain why he came over all the time, and all the conversations they’d had on the porch. And why her grandfather trusted him to take care of Katelyn.
If only my grandfather knew that I got bitten by a werewolf on Trick’s watch, she thought. After he hid out in his car at Sam’s party and told me to go away.
Then they were driving on a road she’d never been on before, climbing toward the mountaintops. Snow flurries fluttered against the windshield, and glittered in the sunshine.
“You’re having so many private conversations you could be schizophrenic,” he drawled.
She was saved from having to answer as Trick guided the car to the side of the road and killed the engine. Back in California they wouldn’t have just stopped wherever it struck their fancy. There would be a formal park, with a blacktop lot for the car, and drinking fountains and signs.
He opened the door and put on his cowboy hat. As he went around in front of the Mustang, he held up his hand, signaling for her to wait in the car, then when he got to her side of the vehicle, he stomped his boots hard and she realized he was tamping down the snow for her. Satisfied, he opened the car and held out his hand.
She took it, and as he helped her out he grabbed a handful of slushy snow from the roof of the car and slid it down her back. She shrieked and batted at him, laughing as he trotted backwards. He yanked his cowboy hat off and used it as a shield as she gathered up snow with both hands and flung it at him. He jockeyed back and forth, taunting her, guffawing as she kicked snow at him, then headed straight for him.
“Crazy girl on the loose!” he cried, easily sidestepping her.
“Who are you calling crazy?” she demanded as she wheeled around for another attack. She started to put on a burst of speed, then reined herself in as she remembered that she couldn’t draw attention to her enhanced abilities.
Trick raced up a hill, cackling in triumph. Then, as she pretended to struggle to catch up with him, he hung a U-turn, soaring back down on the other side of a stand of evergreens. She tried to get to him, but he was too fast. He reached the car and unfastened the sleds, loping back to meet her as he trailed them behind on the ground.
Panting, she fell in beside him. He reached in his jacket and handed her a pair of black waterproof gloves.
“Forgot to bring you some,” he said. “Use mine.”
“Oh, no, I’m not—” She was about to tell him that she wasn’t cold. Just this morning, she’d been very chilly in the cabin. But now, she was just fine. Of course, she should be freezing, plus it was so sweet of him. “Thank you.” She put the gloves on, which were miles too big for her hands, and wiggled her fingers at him.
At the top of the hill, he set the sleds down side by side. They were made of wood standing on wicked-looking curved blades to cut through ice and snow. The incline sheered downward, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth.
“You’re not scared, are you?” he asked.
She scoffed. “Preposterous,” she said.
“That’s a mighty big word, little lady,” he drawled. “Care to back it up with some runs down the mountain?”
“Mountain, hah. This is a bunny slope.” She cocked her head. “Do you sit down or lie down?”
“Whatever it takes. Not a lot of rules in sledding.”
He sat on his sled, then chuckled as she hesitantly copied him. She picked up a loop of rope.
“That’s how you steer. Pull this way, you go to the left.”
She pulled on the rope, then jerked her head over at him. “Don’t, like, give me a push to get started or anything, okay?”
“Don’t think that’s how it works with you,” he teased. Then he dug his snow boots into the whiteness and pushed off, and began to angle down. Watching him, she decided it didn’t look so bad, and did the same.