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He agreed, and she asked if she could speak to him in private. They walked away from the crowd, and Sundance followed and then shot ahead of them when they stopped. “What is it?” His voice was thick with concern.
“We got the results back on the scat. You were right. It wasn’t the Western Blake.”
“What was it?”
“Rocky Mountain Toad.”
“You were right too, then.”
She looked up at him, not understanding. His smile was gentle and sweet, and his eyes were bloodshot.
Recognizing her confusion, he clarified, “You knew that it was toad scat.”
“Oh yeah. Well, that’s cold comfort.”
“Yeah.” He lay a hand on her shoulder, and it felt strong and warm. “Hey, are you okay?”
She lifted her chin. She had to keep faking that stability. “Sure, just a little disappointed.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
For a second, she thought he was going to hug her. Or it sure seemed he was thinking about it. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. What would it be like to be hugged by Tucker? To feel his arms around her, to lay her head against his chest and let herself melt into him?
She stepped back abruptly. What wasthat? She couldn’t be thinking thoughts like that about Tucker! Man, she really had to get some sleep. No more chatting with Wolfgang until the wee hours of afternoon.
Tucker was frowning at her. “Are yousureyou’re okay?”
She nodded. “What about you? Your eyes are as red as peppers.”
He laughed. “Didn’t get enough sleep, I guess.”
“Oh no? Did you have a hot date?” She was trying to be funny because of course no one had a hot date in the morning, but he said, “Yeah, something like that,” which left her completely baffled. Was thathisattempt to be funny? Maybe they were both bad at being funny.
Their eyes locked again, for too long to be comfortable, and then he broke the link to look up the hill. “You ready to get started?”
She glanced back at the small crowd to make sure Craig and Martin looked ready. “Yep. Let’s do this.”
“Okay.” He whistled to Sundance and then started walking. “Tonight’s the night. I can feel it.”
Again she wondered if he was kidding. Those words might have been laced with irony. She hoped they weren’t; she hoped that he really did have a promising premonition, so she didn’t ask for clarification. She just followed him up the hill again.
