Page 35

She stared at him from the bed, all wide-eyed and innocent. Worrying her hands in her lap, she looked at anything and everything in the room. Everything except him, not that he blamed her. If the angry heat burning his face was anything to go by, he looked like a fear-crazed, wild man. He felt like one, too.

Primarily because he was a fear crazed, crazy man. Trying to banish the visions of Joy in the holding pen with a spooked bull, he decided to file the picture away in his brain in the same file that housed the picture from the Friendsgiving celebration.

He gave her a minute to answer his question before he couldn't take the silence any longer. "Why?" he bit out, fighting with all he had in him to stay relaxed against the door.

Gypsy nibbled her bottom lip, a decidedly worried look passing over her face when he took one step toward her. Holding up one hand like a traffic cop holding cars back so children could cross the street, she said, "I said I can explain."

He narrowed his gaze on her. "If you have an explanation, you'd best go ahead and tell me what it is. And if I detect any fibs in what you say, the amount of trouble you're already in doubles."

Joy winced and scooted a little further back on the bed. He let her have that move because it wouldn't help. Then again, with the stunt she had pulled, there was nothing much that would. "I, well, I stayed inside just like you said, ninety-nine percent of the day."

"You already said that," he growled.

"I know, but really, you should see everything I got done. I learned how to make homemade biscuits. I love Ruby. She's amazing. I wish working with my mom in the kitchen growing up had been that pleasant." She stared at her knees briefly, then her head snapped up, startled. "That's not to say Kenzie and Tildi weren't nice, too. They were. I already know I'm going to love them. If I stay. Which I know you said you wanted, but I think now you may have changed your mind."

Chance drew in a slow breath and took even longer pushing the air back out. He had no desire to frighten her, but she wasn't half as scared as he had been when he saw her in that fucking holding pen. "I have not now, nor will I ever, change my mind about you staying here. I want you here as long as you want. Butthat can only happen if I can trust you to mind me. That’s the only way for you to stay safe and in one piece. You had a rule. Don’t go outside without one of my brothers. The only reason for you to bring up Ruby, Kenzie, and Tildi is if one of them forced you into your coat and tossed you out the door. Is that what happened?"

He'd never doubted his gypsy was a Little, but her words and actions today solidified that in his mind. Wide-eyed, she shook her head. “Um, no, they didn't do that. The opposite, actually. Ruby reminded me of what you said. Kenzie and Tildi warned me you might be upset."

"That’s what I figured. So why didn’t you listen to them?"

She dropped her gaze back to her knees. “I was worried about Bullwinkle.”

“Ironside.”

She stared at him for a minute, and who could blame her? She had him talking like a lunatic. “Right, Ironside. Who has been alone since I’ve been back, so at least a week. I only went to the holding pen. It was right there, close to the lodge. People could look through the window and see me. I didn’t think you’d find out.”

She stiffened as soon as the words left her mouth, clapping her hand over her lips and staring at him in horror. Then she went into damage control. “That wasn’t… I mean, I didn’t…”

He fought to hold back the grin fighting for a place on his face. The last thing he needed to do was encourage her. “Thank you for being honest.”

She shook her head. "I wasn’t trying to be bad.”

“Naughty,” he corrected. She wasn’t going to think she was bad because she wasn’t. She was too thoughtful, if anything. Even about two thousand pound, ornery bulls.

She nodded. “Okay, but I just wanted you to know, I didn't sit around all day, trying to think of ways to disobey you."

"You went outside," he growled. "Alone. Without your hat and mittens."

"But… I had to. I told you. Bull?—"

“Ironside,” he corrected the same time she corrected herself.

“Ironside.” She grinned. “Jinx,” she said. “Anyway, Ironside was lonely.”

"Yes, you said that. And how exactly did you know he was lonely?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just did."

"So you decided to go outside, by yourself, without your mittens and hat. To play fetch with a bull bison!" He was shouting by the time he finished speaking. He never shouted. He was the calm, cool, collected one.

"What you did was very dangerous. Bullwinkle?—"

"Ironside," she corrected.

He glared at her. "Bullwinkle could have killed you. He is not a pet. And you damn sure don't play ball with him."

Her lip trembled, but he couldn't let that sway him. This was too important. “There’s only one question that matters. Where is the holding pen? Inside or outside?”