Page 16

TRIXIE

O nce the idea was in her head, Trixie could not stop thinking about a family with Hunter.

What would that even look like? Was he seriously offering to buy her a house?

Was it wrong that she actually wanted him to?

She prided herself on being a strong, independent woman.

She didn’t need to define herself by her role in a man’s life, as a mother or a homemaker.

Surely, the idea should fill her with reservations and feminist dread.

But she kind of liked the idea of having kids with this man.

What would he look like with babies tugging on his beard? Would he shave off the beard? Would Trixie want him to?

Trixie shook her head. “Let’s start with simpler decisions. Are you staying the night here? The bed’s a king.”

Hunter frowned. “I thought I’d head back to the hotel. I didn’t bring a change of clothing, and there are some things I need to do.”

He didn’t volunteer what they might be, and Trixie didn’t want to pry. “Work starts at eight, if I decide to hire you back.”

“If you decide…?”

“Hey, you quit very abruptly, without giving me any notice at all. We’re nearly finished with this stage. I don’t actually need a rookie like you for anything.”

Hunter gave a guffaw of laughter as he realized she was teasing him, and Trixie loved how his eyes crinkled softly at the edges. “Oh, you need me for things,” he growled suggestively.

Trixie flushed, grinning back at him. “Maybe you can quit again tomorrow night?”

“I’ll plan on it,” Hunter agreed. Trixie gathered up their empty dishes as he scooted from the dinette bench and when she put them down and turned to see how their goodbye was going to go, he scooped her into his arms and kissed her soundly.

“Sleep well,” he murmured as his kisses feathered off.

“Oh, I will,” Trixie promised. Her whole body still hummed with satisfaction.

She followed him to the door of the trailer.

“See you in the morning.” He stood at the bottom of the steps and she had to bend down to give him one lingering last kiss as he cupped the side of her face. “Good night,” she whispered.

As she expected, she slept the sleep of the well-laid, waking to the sounds of birds as the sun rose.

She made a thermos of the coffee for the crew and had a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and cheesy toast sprinkled with dill.

She brushed her teeth and slathered on deodorant before she buckled on her tool belt and went out to survey the site.

Frost glittered on every surface. It had drizzled overnight and tree branches were etched with the barest hint of ice.

Where light hit as the sun rose over the forest, the rime steamed into nothing without even melting.

Trixie’s breath was a cloud in the crisp air, and she went to fire up the generator and fill the compressor for the day’s work.

To her surprise, Hunter was the last to arrive, coming in so late that she worried he’d taken her teasing about not hiring him back too seriously.

He came with a box of fresh donuts from the local bakery, however, and the rest of the crew was inclined to forgive his tardiness.

He was wearing a new tourist shirt that proclaimed Alaska or Bust .

The top floors were damp, but the bottom floors were mostly enclosed now.

Trixie gathered everyone up and laid out the day’s plan of attack.

“We’re getting the basement backfilled this morning about ten; they had a surprise opening in their schedule and worked us in early.

We’ll set up the scaffolding to get the second story sheathing up after we finish those walls.

Hunter, I want you on that team with Noah and Sam.

Dylan, you’re with me and Kyle on the second floor walls.

Keith, let’s get the braces down and the nail patterns finished on the first floor.

Then start drilling the plumbing and electricity penetrations.

I’ve got the studs marked. Go ahead, everybody snicker like you’re thirteen.

” Trixie knew she was red-cheeked, and she definitely couldn’t meet Hunter’s gaze.

It was actually easier to look curiously at Keith and Kyle, searching for clues that they really were shifters .

“Trusses are coming in tomorrow morning, and we should have the roof up before the weekend when the forecast is for snow.”

Having Hunter a floor away made concentrating easier, and Trixie stayed busy.

The excavator arrived exactly on time (a minor miracle) and backfilled efficiently around the building.

Trixie was not sorry to have the gaping pit filled in, and the day’s work was another leap forward in the appearance of the structure.

Keith cut the windows out of the shell and the whole thing went from box to house as the windows opened up the space and poured light into the structure. Albeit, a house still missing a roof.

They broke up half an hour early, because the structure was ready for the next stage.

“I’m too tired to give a speech,” Trixie confessed.

“But you guys did great. Tell Esther at the Bear’s Den to put a drink for each of you on my tab.

Just one . I don’t need you hungover in the morning when we’re up in the rafters. ”

She didn’t think about the name of the bar until they’d dispersed, cheering and chatting. Hunter went with them, and Trixie told herself that was smart, that he was still trying to suss out her saboteur, and that she wasn’t sorry he didn’t immediately quit and kiss her again.

It was quiet when everyone finally left, so that she actually startled when her phone’s ring cut the silence.

“Trixie!” she answered.

“How’s the project, Trix?”

Trixie wasn’t sure why Jay’s voice grated so badly. Maybe because she’d been hoping to hear Hunter’s gravelly voice.

“Smooth sailing,” she said triumphantly. “With extra hands, we’ve got the walls up and we’re ready for the trusses tomorrow. Should have it roofed by the weekend, just before the snow. Cross your fingers!”

There was a small pause before Jay said, “Good work!” so jovially that Trixie knew something was off even before he asked, “How’d it go with insurance? The security guy sign off on it? Have you added more cameras?”

“No, we’ve still just got the one. He’s doing a little more poking, since it looks like a personal grudge.” Trixie told herself that poking wasn’t as bad as penetration had been earlier when she was addressing the crew. The whole English language was a minefield of double entendres.

“It’s that environmental group, right? Those dickheads from the lower forty-eight who think they know Alaska better than we do?”

“Maybe, but we can’t figure out the connection between our suspect and the environmental group,” Trixie cautioned.

“You’ve got a suspect?” Jay sounded wary.

Trixie reminded herself that they’d only caught him on camera as a wolf.

“We’ve got a lead,” Trixie amended. “Hunter’s going to try to get more out of him.”

“Hunter?”

“The guy from Grizzly Protection Services.”

“Can’t you just get him to sign off on the system so we can finish the claim?

I don’t really care about the who’s or why’s.

” That was Jay in a nutshell. His interest was the bottom line and he didn’t mind if corners were cut to get a job done faster.

One reason they did so well as a team is that he generally left everything for her to do and didn’t try to micromanage her decisions.

Trixie found herself feeling annoyed. “I’m not going to ask him to sign off on the system before he’s done investigating. He’s being thorough.”

“We don’t need thorough ,” Jay complained. “We need quick.”

“Speaking of quick, I was about to run into town and use the laundromat when you called. You need anything else?”

Jay grumbled (and Trixie thought it wasn’t half as manly a grumble as Hunter managed) and hung up. It was only after Trixie had put her phone away that she realized that she hadn’t told him that they’d gotten the backfill done early. It probably didn’t matter.