and when you grow up, you’ll have a big broad chest just like Mr. Wolfe.”
“So much for not peeking,” Gunnar muttered from inside his shirt.
“Sorry,” that still-cheery voice said. “I forgot.”
He finished pulling off his shirt to see young Shiloh staring at his chest, the kid’s eyes widened in . . . hell, he couldn’t tell if the boy was impressed or horrified.
“Am I gonna have hair all over me like that, too?”
Nope, definitely not impressed. Gunnar drove his arms into both sleeves of his fleece, only to freeze with it halfway over his head when he heard, “If you’re lucky you will,” at the same time he felt the knife blade slicing his jeans precariously far up his thigh. “Because I happen to know that girls like boys with hair on their chests,” she continued, giving Gunnar a wink when he finally popped his head out of the neck opening.
Lovely. Now the kid looked like he was about to puke. “You might not think what girls like is all that important right now,” Gunnar said dryly as he snapped the snaps on his fleece, “but trust me, Mr. Fox, you will in a few years.”
“So, how’s that hiking stick coming along?” Katy asked.
Shiloh eyed Gunnar another couple of seconds, then turned away. “I’m gonna find myself one, too. And I think I’ll have you whittle a point at the end of mine—no, on both of them,” he mumbled as he headed a short distance down the path. “So me and Mr. Wolfe will be armed if that bear comes back.”
“Does Margo know what a bad influence you are on her son?” Gunnar asked as Shiloh, still mumbling to himself, gave a sapling a little shake before moving to another one.
Katy glanced over her shoulder at the kid and smiled. “From what little I’ve spoken with Margo this last week, I got the impression part of the reason she left Arizona and, as Shiloh would say, ‘dragged her son clear across the country almost all the way to Canada,’ was to expose him to more outdoorsy, manly men.”
“They don’t have manly men in Arizona?”
“Not like we have here, according to Margo. She told me that after spending a few hours looking around town before her interview with Olivia, she was willing to do whatever it took to get that job.” The hint of a gleam popped into those vivid gray eyes. “She also told me Shiloh wasn’t the only reason she wanted to move to the land of handsome giants.” She picked up the T-shirt. “Margo’s been divorced for three years, and I get the impression she’s lonely.”
“So, Shiloh hasn’t been around very many men since he was four?”
Katy looked up in surprise. “He’ll be nine next month. And I think he used to visit his father . . . occasionally.”
It was Gunnar’s turn to be surprised. “Nine? Wait, how old is your nephew, Angus?”
“He just turned eight.”
“But he’s nearly half a foot taller and has to weigh twice what Shiloh does.”
She snorted. “That’s because Angus is a Highlander and Shiloh is . . .” She shrugged. “I’m guessing his mother’s people aren’t a brawny lot.” She started cutting the T-shirt into wide strips. “I don’t know what Shiloh’s father looks like or how tall he is.”
Gunnar took advantage of her being busy to do his own examination of his now exposed knee, gently poking and prodding and trying not to wince.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable.” She stopped shredding the T-shirt long enough to shoot him a crooked smile. “Okay, it’s going to hurt like hell, but walking on it shouldn’t do any more damage.”
“Is that a professional diagnosis or a guess?”
She arched a brow. “Would you prefer to get a second opinion from Gretchen?”
“No offense,” he muttered when she set down the knife and gently lifted his knee. “But the only patient I’ve seen you work on seems to have mysteriously vanished. Or haven’t you noticed Tux is missing?” He grinned when she looked up. “Maybe you should bring along your barn cats when you’re training your horses not to run away.”
Instead of the cute, sexy scowl he’d been going for, Katy merely rolled her eyes again. “Tux is a teenager. He didn’t want to come to Spellbound Falls to live with Angus’ fun aunt; he was looking for a new crop of girl cats to chase that he wasn’t somehow related to.” She started wrapping the material around his knee. “He’ll turn up in a day or two