“I can open my own doors,” Ashley grumbled as I curled my fingers around the passenger side handle.
With both windows lowered, a breeze blew through the truck’s cabin. The gentle wind carried with it the scent of wildflowers. I knew the sweet smell belonged to the woman, the fragrance caressing my nose on the drive to and from the park. It didn’t pervade, just served as a subtle reminder that Ashley was in the vehicle close enough for me to reach over and touch.
I had already checked the impulse to do just that, same as I was checking the impulse to offer a ridiculous, courtly bow as I opened the door. The grin, however, couldn’t be reined in.
“Only if you’re faster than I am,” I winked. “Besides, my truck, my rules. I don’t care if a lady is one or one hundred, I’m opening the door for her.”
Ashley lifted a finely arched eyebrow, the expression slaying me after the robot mask she’d slid on when we first started off for Lewis & Clark.
“Even when she has a firearm strapped to her hip?”
My smile cracked wider at her query.
“Especially then.”
My mouth sobered when she didn’t react, her face once again frozen. Fine lines of strain squeezed at the exterior corners of her eyes.
“Leg?” I asked.
Lips pressing together, she nodded.
“Well, you take your time.”
“You’ve both been taking your time,” Sheriff Gamble groused, sneaking up on us in the dark. “You better have a good reason for—”
Catching his first glimpse of Ashley under the truck’s dome light, a smirk replaced the irritated jut of Gamble’s jaw.
“Oh, I see.”
My gaze jumped to Ashley. The faint traces of pain pinching her face hardened into thick valleys of irritation. She slid her right leg out, cheeks flushing as the left slowly followed and her weight settled.
“No offense,” Gamble shrugged at the woman. “I just expect someone with half a million in equipment out of commission and potentially deadly sabotage to the trees on the land he’s working to be on site when I show up to investigate.”
“Don’t let him bust your balls, Walker. Sheriff’s only been here fifteen minutes,” Kostya chuckled, emerging from the same shadowy path with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. He handed the first cup to Ashley and the second to me. “Seeing as there isn’t anything to eat or drink between here and the park, I figured the two of you could use some caffeine.”
Pulling some sugar packets from his pocket, he offered them to Ashley.
“Like it straight,” she said before taking her first sip. “And this is heavenly, thank you.”
Kostya beamed for a second then jerked when I plucked three of the sugar packets from his open hand.
“Thanks.” I didn’t need to ask whether Kostya had filled Gamble in on the details. That conversation had already taken place over the radio as the Sheriff drove in from Willow Gap. Instead, I turned to Gamble for other news. “Any fatalities at the wreck?”
The man’s thick brows knitted together, but he shook his head. “Had to air evac a seven-year-old. Still haven’t heard back from the hospital.”
“Anyone local?”
Again, Gamble shook his head. “Some accounts manager from Santamo trying to invoice and drive at the same time crossed lanes, hit a family of five in the mini-van on their way up to Glacier National Park. They rolled and came to a stop on another vehicle.”
My stomach curled around itself as Gamble paused to take a breath.
“Got the accounts manager locked up for the night. Of course, he’ll be out on bail in the morning.”
“Judge Hicks won’t give him some slap on the wrist when the time comes,” I said. “He’s fair, but he’s tough, too.”
Gamble nodded then turned his attention to Ashley. “Kostya said you had to make a hard stop. That how you hurt your leg?”
“It irritated an old injury.” Moving deeper into the shadows, she lowered the truck’s tailgate and pulled out her forensic case and the body bag. From the side pocket of the case, she removed a business card and handed it to the Sheriff. “I’ll type up my witness statement. Have someone let me know where to send it.”
“Hold up,” I warned. “You can’t head downhill without cover. We might have missed a tree.”
Returning to the cab, I pulled out the hard hats we had worn earlier and handed her one then fished under my seat.
“You also need a—”
She flicked her flashlight at me. Realizing I should have known better, I chuckled. Ashley’s case was expertly crammed with everything she needed for her job and enough food in the form of protein bars to help her survive several days if anything bad happened. She also had several different means of starting a fire and just as many ways of capturing and filtering water—some I had never thought of.
A gun on her hip, handcuffs at the ready and a survival pack that would make a prepper green with envy, I mused, realizing I had never had a “type” before because I had never encountered Ashley Callahan until today.
“You really need to talk to me tonight?” I asked the Sheriff.
“No,” Gamble admitted. “I just wanted to satisfy myself that the roadblock was properly set up and the five identified trees were taken down.”
“Yeah, shame you couldn’t inspect them before that, but some fool will try to go around the signs. Kostya said he took plenty of pictures first.”
Gamble nodded.
“Well,” I smiled and tossed the keys to my truck at Kostya. “I’ll either be back in a few minutes or I won’t.”
Turning to Ashley, the grin faltered. The twitch at the right corner of her mouth suggested the woman was still irritated over Gamble’s original remarks and smirk. I had to tread carefully, but I didn’t want her walking down the hill loaded with the case and animal while her bad leg acted up. And I didn’t want her returning to Billings in the dark.
“Thought we could discuss where you’re sleeping tonight.”
Seeing her gaze widen and the soft lips part in surprise, I knew I had just dug myself a mighty deep hole I needed to quickly haul my dumb butt out of.
“My mother used to put Deacon up when he got stuck in these parts too late in the day,” I hastily explained. “No hotels in Willow Gap and I figured you might need to head back to the park tomorrow. We even have a freezer we keep running just for Deacon's perishable evidence.”
I started breathing again when Ashley’s face mellowed into something that didn’t look like she was ready to throttle me.
“I’d appreciate that,” she answered. “Deacon wasn’t able to…”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’ve all been praying that he’ll recover from the stroke. But his wife said it’s going to take time and therapy. He and I had a lot of interactions, maybe I can help fill in some details for you. At least how things are around these parts.”
Again, miraculously, Ashley nodded. I swiped the back of my fingers across my lips to stop the smile struggling to break free.
“It’s settled then,” I said, nodding at Kostya. “Let Sam drive the crew truck and you drop mine off at my mother’s. Sam can follow you and take you the rest of the way home.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
I took the carcass and flashlight from Ashley and nodded goodbye to the men. Leading the way downhill, I picked out the easiest path I could find in the dark with the help of the wide beam.
“You don’t have security on the machines?” she asked as I waited for her to catch up with me.
“Sure I do.” Switching the flashlight to my other hand, I reached out and slid the case off her shoulder and onto mine so that I was carrying both the fox and her kit. “We set up cameras. They managed to take out almost all of them. What was left didn’t show anything. This is professional vandalism if you ask me.”
Reaching a rock ledge, I stopped and let the light’s beam play along the ground ahead of us. I already had my route picked, but I knew going down would be a lot harder for her leg than a level path. As I had hoped, she took a seat on the ledge while I continued stalling.
“I put another set up all by myself after everyone left and made sure to camouflage them.” The words rumbled in my chest, the day’s frustration rising up as if I was experiencing the tree falling all over again, my heart stopping when I heard the screech of tires. “Of course, I had the cameras pointed at the equipment. The trees were sabotaged lower down the hill.”
“I see,” Ashley murmured, the soft, contemplative tone turning my insides into mush. “How long are you going to pretend you’re still selecting our path down?”
I turned my head and let the shadows eat my smile.
“Not what I was doing,” I fibbed. Pointing the flashlight to my right, I ran the beam down the line the fallen tree had gouged in the earth. The velocity and weight had pushed everything to the side, leaving a slightly cushioned padding of rich black soil.
“Follow me.”
Ashley picked her way after me, pausing only when I stopped to point out a protruding root or similar obstacle the flashlight had missed on my initial survey. Reaching the road, she clicked her key fob, the headlights illuminating the rest of our walk.
“Don’t even think about driving,” she chuckled, opening the back of the Jeep so I could put away the body bag and case.
“Your truck, your rules,” I agreed—right up to the point I reached the driver side door first and held it open for her.
Snorting, Ashley climbed up and waited for me to slide in on the passenger side before she started the engine. The Jeep growled itself awake as she shifted into drive and made a tight turn to point the vehicle in the direction of Willow Gap.
“May I?” I asked, pointing at the built-in navigation panel on the dashboard. “Mama’s place is west of town.”
“Sure.” With her right hand on the wheel, she rooted around behind her seat with the left, coming up with two protein bars. She offered me one.
“I’ll hold off,” I said, finished inputting the address to Mama's ranch house. “You might want to leave some room. Mama’s cooking is always delicious, but on a day like today, even her leftovers are heaven.”
“I don’t want to put her out.”
Turning in my seat, I studied Ashley’s face by the glow of the dashboard. I had little opportunity to do so on our return from Lewis & Clark to the job site because my eyes had to stay on the road—mostly. But now I could pretty much cast all the surreptitious, and occasionally blatant, looks I wanted.
Even with the fox carcass in the back of the vehicle, my body couldn't stop responding. Contemplating her full lips brought my cock to an aching attention that I would have to deal with once I was alone.
“You don’t want to get her nose out of joint by refusing,” I prodded. “I’ll text her now and give her a heads up. We’ll need to make a quick stop by the stables to drop off the fox.”
The fact that Ashley only nodded suggested she was aware of my watching her. I shifted in my seat to look out the window instead. After a while, I closed my eyes and contented myself with the smell of wildflowers.
Opening my eyes again, I realized I had fallen asleep when I saw the faint glow of the perimeter lights around the stable. I tried to process the fact that I had been comfortable enough with Ashley to doze off, but the idea dredged up memories I didn’t want to deal with at that moment. From childhood, the only person I would let drive while I slept was my father.
Daddy had died half a year earlier. The same wreck claimed the life of Dawn, my baby sister and the only girl among our parents’ six children. The deaths had been hard on the family. The aftermath had threatened further loss that only recently settled down.
“You okay?” Ashley asked, pulling to a stop.
I rummaged up a smile, my throat too tight to answer right away. After a rough swallow, I nodded.
“At least I will be when I get some home cooking in me.” Taking off my seatbelt, I opened the door. “I’ll fetch the fox then show you the set-up we had for Deacon.”
Ashley followed after me, closing the rear door once I had the body bag out. I led her past the stalls and equipment area to a windowless room. I turned the light on and she grunted.
“There are six freezers in here. And they all have locks on them,” she mused. “Care to explain?”
“First five are bull and stallion seed,” I answered, leaving it to her imagination to fill in the details. “Last one is reserved for you. Key is always in the lock unless it’s in your pocket.”
Reaching the freezer, I waited while she twisted the key and lifted the lid.
“There’s always someone on shift.” With the carcass deposited, I pulled out my wallet and shifted through the business cards. I handed her one for the ranch and pointed out the bottom number. “That’s the night line. Just give a call if you’re heading in so you don’t have twenty men running out of the bunkhouse with their rifles.”
She slid the card into her wallet. “Thank you.”
“Family has always tried to give back to the land.” Leading Ashley out of the freezer room, I turned the light off. “Keeping poachers and idiots from ruining resources is part of that.”
She stopped and turned to face me, her smile on high beam. “Really, thank you. After California, it’s really refreshing to know there will be a few friendly faces on my routes.”
Gulping, I nodded, felt the slow flush of my cheeks and hurried past before she could catch me blushing.
It wasn’t completely about giving back to the land, after all. Not with the way I felt every time I looked at the woman.