deputy and a state police officer. Butch bent over something, ran a hand over it and stood back up. He glanced at the truck.
One of the deputies picked up the wolf and carried it to the bed of the pickup, where Butch kept a cage.
“Go easy,” she heard Butch say as the man slid the injured animal into the cage.
“How will you get him out when you get home?” the deputy asked.
“With a lot of swearing and a little bit of luck,” Butch replied with a laugh.
“I’ll follow you home and get him out for you,” the deputy said.
“Okay. Thanks, Roy.”
The other man waved and went back to his vehicle.
“Is he badly injured?” Esther asked.
“A couple of broken ribs, feels like, and a lot of scrapes. I know what to do for them, and there’s a wildlife vet I can call to check him over. I’ll do that when we get home.”
“Those stupid boys,” she muttered.
“They’re going to be very sorry for what they did, believe me. They won’t get away with it.”
“I’m glad.”
* * *
The deputy was waiting at the cabin when they got there. Butch went around to open the passenger door and Esther got out.
It didn’t help that the deputy, young and single, stared at Esther as if he was looking at a delicious ice cream sundae.
“Uh, the wolf?” Butch prompted.
Roy cleared his throat, flushed a little, and laughed. “Sure thing. Coming.”
He lifted the wolf out and carried him to one of the outbuildings where Butch kept his injured wildlife. The wolf, fortunately, was in too much pain to fight. Several minutes later, the men came out of the building.
“Thanks for the help, Roy,” Butch said, and shook his hand.
“That’s one beautiful girlfriend you’ve got there,” Roy said. “Is she local?”
“No. And she’s not my girlfriend.” He hesitated. “She’s my fiancée.”
“Well! Congratulations, you sly dog, you.” Roy chuckled. “No wonder you were giving me the evil eye.”
“Can’t help it. She’s gorgeous and I’m ugly,” Butch said.
“Baloney. If you need help anytime, though, you can call me.”
“Thanks.”
* * *
He went into the house to find Esther in the kitchen, looking for a cookbook.
“Hey,” Butch said. “What are you up to?”
She turned. “Have you got a cookbook?” she asked.
“Uh, no, not really,” he said slowly.
“Well, if I’m going to stay here, I have to earn my keep,” she said softly. “So I’m going to learn how to cook.”
Anticipating a few weeks of burned meals, he just smiled and said that was a great idea.
“I may have done something bad just now,” he added slowly.
“How bad?”
“Well . . .”
She propped her hands on her hips and gave him a mock glare. “How bad?”
“You really are a dish,” he murmured, starstruck.
“Butch,” she prompted.
“Oh. The bad thing.” He snapped out of the daze. “Well, it’s like this. Roy, the guy who helped me with the wolf, he’s single and woman-crazy and persistent.”
Her eyebrows arched. “And?”
“And a real rounder. He was giving you the eye. So I told him something. It may make you angry . . .”
She cocked her head.
He cleared his throat. “I sort of told him we were engaged.”
Her eyes glimmered with pleasure. She smiled. “You did? Really?”
“You’re not angry?”
“Oh, no,” she said softly. “I was already worrying about your reputation. You work for the state government and . . .”
He chuckled. “I don’t really think they concern themselves with our private lives,” he pointed out. “I was thinking of your reputation. You’re sort of green, honey. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that you’re not very, well, brassy. And Roy . . .”
“And Roy’s a rounder,” she finished for him.
“Exactly.”
She smiled slowly. “Okay.”
His eyebrows went up. “You don’t mind?”
She laughed. “No. I don’t mind at all.”
He studied her quietly. “It’s just while you’re staying here,” he said. “I mean, you don’t have to think of it as binding or anything.”
“Oh.”
He couldn’t quite decipher the look on her face. “Anyway, I’ve got to go out and see about my new charge.”
“I don’t guess I could come with you?” she asked.
“He may be dangerous . . .”
“But I’ll be with you,” she said.
He felt a foot taller. “Okay, then,”
She grinned and followed him out the door.
The wolf had lacerations all down one side, probably the one on which he’d been dragged. Butch had an antibiotic ointment that he smoothed over the cuts after he’d cleaned them, having muzzled the animal first.
“I can’t really afford to lose the other arm as well,” he teased as he glanced at a