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Chapter 30
Wynona saw Tucker’sred light coming and assumed he was going to pass in front of her in his twentieth lopsided round of their site, but he stopped alongside of her. Absurdly, Wynona’s heart leapt into her throat.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Why?” Didn’t she look okay?
“You look like you’re on high alert.”
Of course she did. Weren’t they all supposed to be on high alert right now?
But now that he mentioned it, she had to admit that it was more than that. She had been feeling something a little ...extratonight. Like a vibration, like she had her fingers on a piano string after the key had been struck.
Maybe it was the altitude.
Or maybe it was something else. Maybe something was going to happen tonight.
They stood there in silence, staring at the fading artificial light as it mingled with the darkness of the forest. It was an odd spot. The stand of trees they were peering into was fairly thin before the mountainside sloped down again, so it felt like she could see through the trees to the empty space on the other side. She couldn’t, not with her eyes, but just knowing that the opening was there made her feel like she could see through the trees.
Tucker was standing so close to her that she could feel his presence. Not his heat, exactly, but it was like an energy coming off him. Or maybe it was just her nerves. Either way, it was disconcerting. She needed to find this toad and get on to the next season of life so that she could get away from this man. Seeing him every night was making her feel idiotic things. Once shewasn’tseeing him every night, she was confident she would never think of him again.
She told herself to edge away from him, but her feet didn’t obey. As she was arguing with them, Tucker whispered, “Look!” His whisper was so quiet and yet somehow still commanding, and she scanned the landscape to see what was so exciting.
She didn’t want to admit that she had no idea what he was talking about. She considered herself to be an observant person.
“Sundance,” Tucker whispered.
Her eyes fell on the dog. He was doing the bird dog thing, pointing into the woods. “What?” she whispered. “Does he see another grouse?”
“I don’t think so.”
The three of them stood frozen, one of them with his front foot raised in the air, for what felt like a very long time. Then Tucker whispered, “I can’t see it.”
Wynona wanted to say,Can’t see what?but she didn’t want to make any more noise than necessary.
Tucker crept closer with silent footsteps.
Was she supposed to follow him?
She didn’t, but after a few steps, he beckoned to her without looking back. She slid closer, fearing her footfall would be louder than Tucker’s had been.
It was.
As she drew nearer, he pointed. Either he was pointing at something shin level, or he was pointing deeper into the trees. She couldn’t see anything of note, and she started to panic that she was going to miss whatever this was altogether, so she got even closer to Tucker, closer than they’d been before. Now shecouldfeel the heat of his body. She needed to get her eyes as close to his as she could so she could look down his arm—this left her standing on tiptoes so she could peer over his shoulder.
And then she saw it. Near the base of a fat ponderosa pine was a small scarlet strip of paint. It almost disappeared in Tucker’s light, but it flashed in hers, which was probably how she’d spotted it. She couldn’t see the rest of the toad—only the stripe. It was going to be a crushing blow if some hiker had slipped with their nail polish.
“I have to get the net,” she whispered.
Tucker nodded. “Go. I got it.”
She backed away, slowly at first, and then as fast as she could go. It wasn’t nail polish. If it were anything other than a living creature, one of them would have spotted it hours ago.
And Sundance wouldn’t be pointing at red paint.
She couldn’t believe Sundance was pointing at all.
She really regretted arguing against that dog’s help. A burst of affection for the Brittany coursed through her as she grabbed the net and headed back toward her two teammates. Oh great. Now she was falling for the dog too.
