stew, but his eyes were on her. Blinking, she realized her fanciful thoughts had sidetracked their conversation. She rushed, “Sorry. Um… you said you didn’t like me going there?”
“Where’s your head at?”
Blinking again, she said, “It’s back at you calling me babe.”
His brows lifted for a second before he tilted his head to the side. “Do you not like it? I don’t mean it to be patroniz—”
“I love it.”
He held her gaze, staring. Slowly, he smiled. She blurted, “I know for some men it’s a throwaway name, but with you, it sounds…”
“Special.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Special. You, that is. I’ve never been the kind of man who called women ‘babe’ just because I didn’t remember their name. I’ve always had a knack for remembering names. As soon as you told me your name was Samantha, I thought it was beautiful and suited you perfectly. But ‘babe’ works for you as well. Just for you.”
Smiling, she looked down at the bowl of stew he’d placed in front of her, the comforting scent of beef and vegetables filling the camper. Just as she was about to take a bite, she looked up suddenly. “Wait, what was it you said? You didn’t want me to go by myself.” In the talk of ‘babe’, she’d ignored their previous conversation where she told him she wanted to check out Bender’s Breeders.
He slid into the bench seat across from her. “It might not be safe.”
“Bender’s Breeders is a reputable breeder facility. I’ll be perfectly safe there. They would hardly want to draw suspicion upon themselves.”
“Then why go at all? It’s in Liam’s County, let him check it out.”
“Liam can’t just show up and start poking around on privately-owned land without probable cause. Plus, there’s no reason why I shouldn't go. I’m one of the few vets on the Eastern Shore, and I’d love to see his facility.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“Okay.”
Now it was his turn to blink, his brow lowered as he stared. “Okay? That’s it?”
“If it’s important to you that you come with me, then yeah… okay.”
“Easy.”
His deep-voiced word moved through her, and she smiled, shaking her head. “I swear, Joseph, sometimes I think you communicate more in one word than most people do blabbering all day.”
He leaned over and kissed her lightly before sitting back down in his seat and picking up his spoon. They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes, but she had no doubt his mind was working. She was proven right when he pushed his empty bowl back and rubbed his chin.
“What are Liam and the others most worried about? Someone illegally breeding? Selling dogs for illegal fighting? Someone with a full-blooded wolf to breed?”
Wiping her mouth with her napkin, she shook her head slowly. “I don’t know… I suppose all three. Wow, I can’t imagine someone with a full-blooded wolf kept for breeding.”
“What if one of the dogs got away? I was thinking of that farmer who thought he saw a wolf.”
“Oh, I’d think whoever is breeding wolf-dogs would be very careful to not have one get out. I’m sure they’re getting top-dollar for the pups and to lose one would be like losing several thousand dollars.”
He suddenly jumped and widened his eyes. He reached under the table and snagged Pip as he climbed up Joseph’s jeans. “Damn, little man, you’ve got sharp claws!”
Laughing, Samantha reached over and plucked Merry from the floor just as she was about to follow in her brother’s path up Joseph’s leg.
After the kittens were fed and placed back in the carrier for the evening, Frodo jumped up onto his bed, and the camper secure, they showered separately due to lack of space and then climbed into bed.
Laying in the afterglow of sex, she snuggled against his chest as his hand drifted over her back.
“I had something I wanted to ask you about, but we started talking about the dogs.”
She felt the rumble of his words through her cheek and smiled. “What is it?”
“The camper.”
Sucking in her lips, she was uncertain what he meant with those two words. It struck her that, unlike earlier, sometimes she needed more to discern what he was trying to convey. She lifted her head off his chest and stared down at his face where she saw concern move through his eyes. “My camper? What about my camper?”
“I was thinking that maybe it’s not big enough…”
His voice trailed off at the end as though he was uncertain about saying more. She shifted upward, her forearms now on his chest.