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Ignoring them, Tildi twisted to look in front of the jeep. “Holy mother of Bullwinkle!” A dark brown shaggy beast with gigantic, flat antlers stood in the center of the road.

“Actually, that would be Father of Bullwinkle,” Grif corrected. “Females don’t have antlers and beards.”

“Yes, but holy father of Bullwinkle sounds weird.” She would have explained why, somehow, if movement among the trees hadn’t caught her attention. “Oh, look! It’s a Mommy moose.”

A moose cow and calf waited in the tree line until the bull looked over its shoulder, calling out to them. They ambled from the cover of the trees and slowly crossed the road.

Tildi pushed off Boone’s thigh, wincing at his grunt. “Sorry. I want to see what they do.”

The bull stood guard as the cow and her calf stepped over the guardrail and moved into the trees on the other side. With one more look at the Jeep, the bull followed and was soon swallowed by the forest.

“Come on back inside before we all freeze to death,” Boone said as he tugged her legs and helped her back inside the Jeep.

“That was amazing! I’ve never seen a moose before. They are enormous.”

“They are indeed.” Dutch turned to smile. “You’ll have plenty of opportunity to see all the moose you want on the ranch. There are all kinds of wildlife around there.”

Wow. She hadn’t thought about all the wildlife that would be on the ranch. “What do they eat? If I can get close enough, maybe I can pet it.”

Tildi jerked back as all three men shouted, “No!”

“Jeez, all right, all right. It was just an idea. I wouldn’t really do it.” Probably.

Boone didn’t seem to agree. “I don’t take anything for granted with you.”

It would have been really cool though. She could have asked Kenzie to take a picture of her standing next to a giant moose to send to Breezy.

She side-eyed Boone to get a measure of how upset he was, but only affection shown in his eyes. Affection and desire. She loved that look. It sent a thrill to her heart every time.

It thrilled places further south, too.

But then Boone’s face grew serious. “We need to talk about a few things before we get to the ranch.”

Well, that wasn’t scary at all. “What kind of things?”

“We’ll be staying in the main lodge for now. There should be plenty there to keep you occupied, so until I know you’ll be safe, you don’t go anywhere alone.”

Yep, she was right after all. Scary. But she wasn’t a child. Not really. She needed everyone to know she’d be able to carry her own weight. If they had to babysit her all the time, well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen then. But she couldn’t be a burden. No one wanted to keep a burden around.

CHAPTER 6

“Tildi.” Boone called her name, and his tone made her think it wasn’t the first time.”

“If I need to keep your attention by having this conversation with you across my knee, I can.”

Yep. Not the first time he’d called her name.

Boone studied her through narrowed eyes. She gave her best impersonation of earnest attentiveness. “What if I need something that isn’t in the house?”

His eyes narrowed even more. “Like what?”

Like what? Good question. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to be prepared.” She needed to be less earnest and more attentive.

“If there’s something you need, tell me and I’ll get it for you. You want to go outside? We’ll go outside together. If I’m not there, you can ask one of my brothers. If you can’t find one of them, you call Grif, Dutch, or one of the other Wild Men.”

“You have wild men on the ranch?”

“No, not actual wild men. That’s just what the people around town started calling them years ago, and it stuck.”