Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,37

could scare him away with these. She didn’t want to hurt him, just startle him into scampering off.

She returned to the window to see him munching away as though he had nowhere else to be. Slowly, she cracked open the front door. His ears twitched, and his head came up. She let an apple fly. It hit him on the front flank and bounced off. The moose blinked again and then ambled over to where the apple had rolled to a stop. It sniffed and then ate it in one bite. His head came up with what she could assume was more interest. He took a step toward her, and with his long legs, his step was considerable. She screamed and threw all the apples at him. He bobbed his head and went after each one. She slammed the door.

That wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done. She’d fed a wild animal.

Yeah, you sure taught him.

So much for taking care of this problem herself. She prided herself on being smart enough to realize when she needed back up.

CHAPTER TEN

Lynx stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “Gotta go, kid.”

“Poachers again?” Fox gathered up the scraps of cardboard Kiski had torn into little pieces while she currently investigated a butterfly.

“Nope. BW has Eva trapped in her house. I’ve been called to play hero again.” This time he wasn’t moosin—messing it up either.

“Take her flowers!” Fox hollered as Lynx jumped the last three steps from the deck.

“Right. Thanks.” That kid was a freaking genius.

Lynx yanked flowers in his sprint to Eva’s. She wouldn’t slam the door in his face this time. He exited the trees with a handful of sweet-smelling wildflowers intermixed with some weeds. While he approached the moose, he attempted to clean up the mess and rearrange the blooms. BW was doing a fine job of mowing Eva’s front yard.

Maybe he should mow it for her. Chances were she didn’t have a lawn mower. There wasn’t much of a lawn either, more like forest carpet than grass.

“What are you up to, BW?” Lynx slowly drew near the big bull moose, glancing around the opening, suddenly conscious that he had a handful of flowers and was talking to a moose. There was no sign of Eva, but he could feel eyes on him and knew she watched from the window.

Now how did he talk a moose into leaving an all-you-can-eat buffet of sweet greens?

At the sound of Lynx’s voice, BW bobbed his head a few times, much like a horse that was happy to see him.

“You can’t keep doing this,” Lynx tried to reason, knowing he was setting himself up for a psych evaluation. He hoped Eva couldn’t hear him. It was bad enough she was witnessing this. On the phone, she’d demanded he come bearing arms. “We want her to stay, and while this is one tactic, it’s going to backfire.”

BW took a step closer and extended his head, his nostrils quivering. Then quick as an owl snatching a shrew, BW chomped the tops off the flowers Lynx had picked for Eva.

“Ah dude, you are not helping my cause, here.”

The moose bobbed his head again, nudged Lynx playfully in the chest, throwing him back a few steps, and then walked off without a care in the world, blending into the trees. The breaking of branches was the only proof he was still out there.

The door opened behind him. Lynx turned to see Eva, and his mouth hit the ground.

“What was that all about?” Eva asked.

What was she wearing? She looked all womanly and stuff.

“Lynx?” A scowl appeared on her forehead as she studied him.

He needed to tread carefully or that door would be slammed in his face again. There was no way in hell that was happening, not with her all gussied up. He couldn’t remember seeing a woman so beautiful before. He remembered Fox asking him if he’d given her any compliments.

“I like your hair,” he blurted out.

“Huh?” Her scowl deepened, and then she shook her head as if to clear it. “Explain to me what just happened here. How did you get that moose to move on so easily? And don’t tell me I didn’t hear you right this time. You called him BW.”

Uh-oh.

If he told her how he’d gotten BW to move on, she wouldn’t let him into her bed. That door would be slammed in his face for the last time. And by the looks of her, he wasn’t getting anywhere unless he did something