Page 61 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

Fifteen

When Kate came downstairs the next morning, Templeton was already awake and dressed in running clothes, and she had to lecture herself, sternly, that Templeton was just a man. He didn’t know he’d starred in every one of her very dirty dreams last night. He didn’t know anything that went on inside her unless she told him.

He nodded toward the coffee machine, and she felt nearly giddy with relief as she poured herself a mug, blew on it, then took a big gulp. It was very strong, full of flavor, and she thought that another woman—one with significantly less of a sense of self-preservation—might fall in love with the man for that coffee alone. Then and there.

Kate was obviously not that foolish.

Though her second swig of the coffee he’d made certainly tempted her to change her mind.

“It’s hours to daylight yet,” Templeton said, his gaze out the back window, where a security light showed the pristine snow piled high in what Kate assumed was a yard. So high it met the pine branches that were weighed down with even more snow. “Are you up for another run?”

He didn’t smirk, and his gaze wasn’t any more knowing than usual, so it seemed like a straightforward question. But it felt anything but straightforward to Kate.

She wasn’t one for group activities. She never had been. Kate had run with other people during her training, of course. There’d been a lot of that when she was a recruit at the academy in Sitka. But the primary reason she liked to run was because it was something she could do alone. And because now and again, it made her feel connected to the world.

She could remember all too well running the stairs with Templeton that morning in Grizzly Harbor. He’d appeared out of nowhere. He’d challenged her. Then chased her.

That was how she chose to remember it, anyway.

Her body seemed to have a whole different set of memories, and she scowled down at her coffee mug.

“It’s a yes-or-no question, Trooper,” Templeton said, and she heard his laughter then. Humming through her whether she wanted to admit it or not.

“Of course,” she said, because there was no rational reason not to go running with the man. It would be great to get a run in and work off some of her nervous energy before she returned to Nenana. And it would be silly to run separately if they were both heading out at the same time.

Because heaven forbid Kate ever allow herself to be anything less than rational.

“Of course?” he asked, and she thought that he was actually... teasing her. Pushing, at the very least. “Why not say,Templeton, I would love to go running with you? Or would the world screech to a halt if you showed the slightest bit of enthusiasm for something?”

“I would love to go running with you.” She glared at him. “Templeton.”

He grinned. “Excellent.”

When Kate was done with her coffee, she jogged backupstairs. She checked the weather on her phone and pulled together her running clothes. It was ten degrees below zero out there, which meant an extra pair of compression socks, her studded running shoes, and a pair of mittens to pull on over her regular gloves so she’d be able to keep her fingers together and generate more heat. A Buff around her neck she could pull up over her face, and several layers to encourage heat and keep out the wet. Nothing too thick, because Kate knew from experience that if she felt warm when she started running, she would overheat and get wildly uncomfortable shortly thereafter. No matter the temperature.

When she met Templeton by the front door, he was dressed almost identically.

“How fast do you normally run?” she asked him.

He didn’t look at her as he jerked his hat into place. “Whatever pace you want to go is fine with me.”

“I’m quite fast, actually.”

That made him give her his full attention, which instantly made Kate question whether or not that had been her motive all along.

“I’m sure you are,” he said in a low rumble that affected her the way his mouth had against hers. And lower. “But you don’t have my legs or my training. You set the pace. And don’t try to show off at these temperatures. I wouldn’t want to have to carry you back.”

“That will never happen.”

“Because you’re not at all competitive and would never try to show off, especially after some guy said he was faster than you?”

“You will never have to carry me anywhere,” Kate clarified. Icily.

And shoved her hat down hard over her ears as they headed outside, though that did nothing at all to block the sound of his laughter.

It was definitely a Fairbanks winter morning. The cold sucker punched Kate instantly, then seemed to settlehard in her bones. Breathing in was sharp, like a machete. It felt like clarity.

The snowfall had stopped for the moment, and the lights from the front of the house showed Kate that Templeton had been out already this morning, shoveling grooves into the few feet of snow that had fallen in the night, which would make it easier for them to drive out later. And made it easier now for Kate to set off toward the main road.

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