Page 12 of Mountain Rescue
“You manage to lasso a hot cowboy yet?” she said when June answered.
“Ya-hoo! This place is crawling with pretty boys.”
Rachel laughed. “That’s what I wanted to hear.” From the time Rachel could talk, her grandmother had insisted that she call her June. No granny names for her fun-loving grandmother.
June had buried three husbands, had cried from a broken heart over each one, and after the last one, she’d announced she was done burying men she loved. “From now on, I’m just going to have me some fun,” she’d said.
“You should have come with me to Wyoming. We would’ve fixed you right up with one of these pretty boys.”
“You know why I didn’t.” When Rachel had become a target of Robert’s rage, she’d needed to hide until the police found and arrested him. Fearing that he would use her grandmother to find her, she’d convinced June to take an extended vacation and had laughed when June decided on a dude ranch. June had wanted Rachel to come with her, but Rachel wanted as much distance between herself and June as possible. Wyoming and North Carolina worked.
“Honey pie, I worry about you.”
She closed her eyes against the sting of tears. Her grandmother had always called her honey pie, and hearing the endearment made her want to crawl onto her grandmother’s lap where she’d always felt protected. “I’m safe.” For now, anyway. “You’re going to like this. I managed to find my own cowboy.”
“Do tell.”
“Actually, he’s a SEAL cowboy.” The only person she told everything she thought, felt, or did was to June, even things she might not tell her best friend. The woman who’d raised her when her mother died giving birth to her never judged her. How could she? June was wilder than Rachel ever thought to be.
“A seal shifter? Send me a picture, honey pie, right now. Two of them, the man and one of him in his seal form.”
Rachel laughed. This was why she loved her grandmother to death. June would totally believe Rachel had snagged a seal shifter. “He’s a Navy SEAL, not a seal seal.”
“Well, that’s disappointing.”
“Only you would be disappointed that my SEAL wasn’t actually a seal shifter.”
“You could never disappoint me, Rachel.”
“I love you, June.” June never called her Rachel except when it mattered, and never disappointing her grandmother mattered very much.
“Love you more, honey pie.”
Tires driving over gravel sounded, and Rachel jogged to the window, letting out a relieved breath when she saw a Jeep instead of a car she’d never seen before. “Gotta go. There’s a cowboy driving up.”
“Since arriving here, my new motto is save a horse, ride a—”
“I get the picture. Please, stay there where you’re safe until I tell you it’s okay to come home. Promise me.”
June’s third husband had left her a fortune, and she could afford to flirt with hot cowboys to her heart’s content, and if it took every penny of that fortune to keep her grandmother alive and kicking, it would be money well spent.
“Why in tarnation would I want to leave all these pretty boys, so stop your worrying about me. You just worry about yourself. Please stay safe.”
“I will, I promise.” She prayed that was true.
She disconnected, then tried to decide where to be and what to be doing when Dallas came in. The man confused her. He was bossy. He was sometimes funny. He was annoying. He was...okay, she hated to admit it, but he was cowboy hot, and she liked him.
“No kisses, no jumping his bones when he walks in.” And now he had her talking to herself. She decided hiding in her room was the best thing to do. Maybe he’d go away.
Dallas walked into a quiet cabin. Where was Rachel? He didn’t like how eager he was to see her. He walked down the hallway, puzzled at seeing his bedroom door was closed and the bigger bedroom door was open. He hadn’t closed his door when he’d left.
He passed the closed door and stopped at the threshold of Rachel’s room. Why was his duffel bag on the bed? And there was his suitcase on the floor at the foot of the bed. He walked through the room to the attached bathroom. Nothing of hers was on the counter. Backtracking, he checked the closet. It was empty.
His first reaction was to panic. Had she left? He returned to the hallway and knocked on the second bedroom door. “Rachel? You in there?” He knew she was, he could feel her. She mumbled something he couldn’t understand, but which he translated asgo away. He’d do that for a while.
It was nice of her to exchange their rooms since half his legs hung over the end of the twin bed, but he felt bad about running her out of the better room. To thank her, he’d make dinner.
After showering the dog smell off, he headed for the kitchen to see what his options were. All the Manning children knew how to cook, their mother had made sure of it. She’d spent one-on-one kitchen time with each of them, and he’d grumbled about it each time it was his turn because that was what kids were supposed to do. Secretly, he’d enjoyed every aspect of it—alone time with his mother, meal planning, the preparation, and a sense of satisfaction when the result was good food.
