Page 59 of Capture the Moment

“I need to talk to you!” she called out as he approached her car.

Coop lifted his hand in a wave back, the spiral of pleasure in his stomach intensifying. “Sure thing,” he replied, motioning for her to pull over to an empty spot.

Once parked, Coop made his way over to her car, his curiosity piqued. “What’s going on?”

Kate glanced past him, her eyes scanning the line of vehicles. “Is this traffic all because of a bear?”

“Two, actually.” Coop nodded. “A sow and her COY are drawing quite the crowd this evening.”

“Please tell me this one is 399.” Her blue eyes were wide with hope.

“Nope.” Coop shook his head, sorry to disappoint her. “We think this might be one of her granddaughters.”

He expected her to jump out and start snapping pictureslike the rest of the crowd, but Kate stayed put in the car, her expression serious. “Coop, something strange just happened.”

“What?” Coop leaned in closer.

“I was at Willow Flats and—”

“Hold it. That area is supposed to be off-limits.”

“Really? I didn’t see any signs. Besides, there was another parked car. When I saw it, I just assumed it would be okay.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I was walking on a trail—just like you said, stick to the trail—and I encountered a bear.”

“You ran into a bear?” Coop interrupted. “As in, you surprised a bear?”

“The vegetation was pretty thick and he was far, far away.”

“Did the bear see you?”

Kate nodded, mimicking the shape of a hump on her neck with her hand. “Pretty sure it was a grizzly.”

“Do you realize the danger you put yourself in?” His voice held a note of alarm, so he cleared his throat. After all, he was a professional. “I mean, I can see you’re still in one piece.”Stupid, stupid, stupid.“I mean, um, you lived to tell the tale. You had bear spray, right?”

“I did! And I brought my whistle.” She pulled a cord on her neck to reveal a bright orange whistle. “It’s supposed to be the world’s loudest whistle. I can even whistle underwater.”

Underwater? How would that have helped? And why was the whistle buried in her shirt? Coop could feel his stomach tighten with concern. “You shouldn’t have been hiking alone, Kate, especially in remote areas. Rangers are always told to travel in threes.” With the shortage of manpower, they hardly ever did, but it was a good policy.

“Trust me, I will definitely be more careful next time. But that’s not why I came looking for you.”

Kate came looking for him? That spiral of pleasure stirred again.

“So the bear raised up on his back legs to look at me, and I knew that he was curious and not acting aggressive—”

“You can’t know that.”

“Ihavestudied bear behavior.” She let out a sigh. “Please. Just let me get to the strange part.”

“Okay. What was the strange part?”

“As I was taking pictures, a gunshot rang out.”

Coop’s stomach twisted. “A shot was fired? At you?”

“No. Not me. At the bear. But I don’t think it was hit.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The bear turned and ran off into the trees. He vanished.”

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