“Exactly like you did just now. Thank you for defending me.”
She leaned away slightly while still holding the kid’s shoulders and slowly moved him back and forth as she gave him a visual inspection. “Why, Mr. Fox, I do believe your chest just grew an inch broader,” she said, laughing again when Shiloh snapped his head down to look at himself.
Katy started up the trail. “Come on, my little warrior. You can look for chest hairs when you put on your pajamas tonight.” She turned and walked backward, making sure Shiloh followed, then actually saluted Gunnar. “We’ll get right on that, big warrior sir.” She suddenly stopped, and even from twenty yards away, he could see the gleam in her eyes. “Should I have SFF&R make the rescue? I hear Gretchen is covering Ray Strout’s shift today.”
“Just bring something to eat when you come back to get me. On an ATV,” Gunnar added in his best mythical warrior voice. “And also grab the small insulated bag out of my truck.” He shot her a grin. “If you make it back here before the mosquitos come out, I might even reward you with a beer.”
Katy’s gaze dropped to his mouth and her cheeks flushed a lovely pink. “Yes, sir,” she said rather huskily, giving him another salute as she caught hold of Shiloh’s hand and started jogging up the trail.
When the eagle saw them headed its way, it turned while spreading its massive wings and took to the air with a whistled screech, then flew up the trail about ten feet above the ground ahead of Katy and Shiloh—the boy still carrying his stick, Gunnar noticed.
He leaned back against the tree with a sigh of relief and studied his definitely ballooning knee. Yup, letting Katy be in charge was going to cost him at least two days on crutches and a week of hobbling around like an old man. But he really hadn’t wanted to steal her thunder, figuring she had enough take-charge men in her life already. Besides, it had been kind of nice being mothered by someone other than Aunt May. And although he’d had a lot of women wanting to kiss him for a lot of reasons, he’d never had one offer to kiss him for being a hero. Apparently, some Scots females didn’t know what century they lived in, either.
Gunnar twisted to scan the woods behind him. When Katy returned without Shiloh, maybe after they shared a couple of beers and he got his kiss . . . well, maybe the ATV wouldn’t start when they were ready to head back.
Did Katy know anything about small engines, such as that fuel lines had shutoffs? Or that spark plug wires needed to be attached to the spark plug for the engine to run? Hell, maybe he’d show Miss MacBain she wasn’t the only one who could bring something back to life when he helped the ATV miraculously recover—in the morning, after a night of snuggling.
Well, assuming they made it through dusk. Because even worse than hiking five miles on a bum knee half naked in Maine in June in the mountains was getting stuck outdoors anywhere in Maine in June, July, and August at sunset. Hell, even after buying his own screening and duct-taping it on the inside of his cabin windows, he still found himself itching in places he couldn’t scratch in public.
But the bloodsucking little bastards usually disappeared once it was fully dark, so if he kept a smudge going until then, he should be free to focus on Katy the rest of the night.
Gunnar perked up when he caught the sound of muted footsteps pounding toward him and wondered if maybe they’d found the horses, then slumped back against the tree when he spotted Katy and Shiloh and no horses running down the hill, only to perk up again when he figured they’d left the giant scaredy-cats tied to a tree.
But then he slumped again with a sigh, realizing they would have brought at least one horse with them, so he wouldn’t have to walk up the goddamn hill.
“The eagle told us what to do!” Shiloh shouted as he barely avoided ramming into Katy when she stopped in front of Gunnar. “We’re going . . . to the fjord,” the boy continued in huffs and puffs, “so we . . . can flag down a boat!”
“The eagle told you,” Gunnar repeated to Katy, watching her already flushed face darken.
“He didn’t really talk to us,” Shiloh