AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Come on, sweetie,” Carrie said gently. “Everyone’s noticed him making eyes at you. Did you really not know?”
Saoirse backed out of the conversation as quickly as she could. People on the Ranch talked much more freely about who was interested in whom than she was used to. Competitive athletes were subject to strict rules about who they could and couldn’t date, if they had the time to date at all during training. On top of those rules, there were informal strictures about not dating people from rival teams or countries. All the rules led to the predictable sneaking around and secrets. Saoirse was used to the people around her being close-mouthed on the subject of who they were dating.
She hurried outside to where Sutter had parked his truck. He was sitting in the driver’s seat, looking into the cup that held the frog. With the window rolled down, she could hear his soft words to the amphibian.
“I know just where to take you, little fella. Nice stream not too far from my place. Good, clean water and lots of places to hide.”
The blood heating Saoirse’s cheeks finally began to drain as her chest warmed. Sutter hadn’t seemed anything like the Blunts’ Doms, who could be cold and forbidding, but he definitely had an air of aloofness about him that quadrupled her nerves. Hearing him talk so kindly to the tiny creature banished every last quiver.
When she rounded the truck to the passenger’s side, she discovered Sutter had left the door open for her.
She climbed in and took the cup from Sutter so he had both hands free. “Thank you for doing this,” she said.
“Thank you for coming with me to find him a home. I don’t know much about frogs. I might not pick the best place for him. Do you know anything about frogs?”
Saoirse nodded, keeping her eyes on the cup in her lap. She’d read all about frogs so she could take care of her stuffies properly, although her frogs were tree frogs rather than pond frogs. “I know a little.”
“A little?” Sutter echoed back at her.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. His gaze was steady on the road, but a wry smile curled his lips.
Firm lips. Very firm, but with a plushness to the bottom lip.
Saoirse shook herself out of that line of thought.
“What?” Saoirse asked, unsure if he was mocking her.
“You look like a woman who knows a lot of things. But I get the feeling you don’t share much.”
Nobody wants to hear what a washed-out swimmer has to say.
“I’m more of a watcher,” she admitted.
His wide, white grin flashed.
“I like to watch, too,” Sutter said.
Is he saying what I think he’s saying?Saoirse wondered.
“So, tell me all about our little green friend,” Sutter said.
Hesitantly, Saoirse told Sutter about the habits of Northern Leopard Frogs, which she thought this frog was. Whenever she fell silent, Sutter asked her a question, teasing a little more out of her. When they bumped to a stop at the end of a dirt road, Saoirse looked around in surprise. Talking with Sutter, the journey had passed in a blink, even though she knew they must have traveled thirty miles from the Ranch, passing through the town of Hamilton, with its old west store fronts.
She craned her head out of the open window and looked around. The road, barely wider than the car, framed by summer-seared grasses and low bushes, passed by a big, stone ranch house with its own sparkling pool, along the edge of a fenced paddock where three horses grazed, and down the long slope of a hill to where a stream rushed. Saoirse’s eyes tracked to a stand of spruce, growing in a bend of the stream. Insects danced above the leaves in a swirl of tiny wings.
She pointed. “There. There’s lots for a frog to eat.”
“Okey-dokey,” Sutter said, opening his door and coming around to her side of the truck. Saoirse sat and stared at him as he opened her door. “Like a hand getting out?”
He held out his broad, calloused palm.
Her cheeks heating, Saoirse took his hand and slid out of the truck. Sutter kept her hand curled in his as they walked down to the riverbank.
Saoirse looked up and down the river. It was muddy from yesterday’s thunderstorm, and ran swift in the middle, but near the bank it was slow, with eddies curling around the roots of trees that dangled in the water.
“Here,” she said.
She knelt and Sutter followed her down. Together, they tipped the cup into the water. With a kick of its legs and a flash of green, the frog disappeared among the tree roots.
