“You are a great dancer,” she told Grayson, planning to do this again when they had time.
“You fit me perfectly.”
“Hmm, I feel the same way.”
Around them, the circle of dancers closed, then expanded, each couple orbiting in their own private space. The world felt distant. It was so easy to forget the hour, the place, the day they’d had. She allowed herself to believe, for the three-minute eternity of the song, that they were the only two people on earth, and when the music faded, she did not immediately let go.
“Another dance?” he asked.
“Yeah, of course. Until our dinner comes.”
She wanted to visit with Amy and Cedric also, but then noticed they were dancing nearby, enjoying themselves too. She was so glad Amy was no longer afraid of storms. Cedric was just perfect for her.
They would visit while eating their dinner.
After dancing a couple more dances, they noticed that their food had been delivered to their table.
The two couples joined each other, but as soon as they sat down, their sleuth leader, Maximillan, stopped by their table. He stretched out his hand to Grayson, who promptly rose to his feet.
“This is our sleuth leader, Maximillan,” Kendra hurried to say to Grayson. Everyone else was a member of the sleuth and knew him well. “Maximillan, this is Grayson Stone, fellow bounty hunter, and my mate.”
“I heard you were mated,” Maximillan said to the two of them.
Grayson smiled at Kendra. “Yeah.” He leaned over and kissed her.
“And you’re joining our sleuth?”
“I sure am, if you’ll have me. I’m a member of the sleuth in Whitefish.”
Maximillan shook his hand again. “We’re happy to have you. And it’s fine if you’re a member of both. Just don’t do anything that gets us bad press.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Maximillan glanced at Kendra. “Sometimes it comes with the business. We’ll report in on it later,” Kendra said.
Kendra figured he had already heard about the run-ins they’d had with other bears or people while they were wearing their bear coats. The chief liked to know what might come back to bite them and how to get their stories straight should humans get involved.
“Well, I’ll let you finish your dinner. Welcome to the sleuth, Grayson.” Then Maximillian shook his hand and left the restaurant.
“Everyone seems to know where everyone is in Kalispell,” Grayson said, cutting into his meat.
“Yeah, word spreads fast in the sleuth.” Cedric ate the rest of his vinaigrette-dressed salad.
They finished their wine and dinner, and then Amy said, “I’m off to the little girl’s room.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kendra said.
Grayson and Cedric smiled at each other.
It was a girl thing.
“Grayson and Cedric can get to know each other better. Maybe we can all go camping sometime,” Amy said.
“That would be a lot of fun. Especially after the wild male bears aren’t looking for some loving.”
Kendra laughed. Then they entered the ladies’ restroom and went into different stalls.
Someone else came into the restroom as their toilets automatically flushed. Amy left her stall while Kendra was still grabbing her purse. When she left the stall, she saw the guy that Billy had shown Rowland on his phone speaking with his dad. JE. The one whom Younger had been turning the kidnapped girls over to.
