Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Kendall
Several months later
“Don’t you dare,” I said firmly, wagging my finger.
My husky, Travis, let out a howl of protest.
“Travis?” I scolded. He spun in circles, letting out this roo-roo sound that I could swear meant, I don’t want to.
“You behave yourself,” I ordered again.
He roo-rooed right back at me with a sigh following. I opened the kitchen door, and out he went, yipping happily. Travis had three legs, which was the only reason he likely hadn’t ended up a sled dog, and honestly, the dog had missed his true calling.
I was gathering up my purse, stuffing my feet into boots, and throwing my jacket on when I heard him howling up a storm.
I raced out to find him chasing a coyote.
My apartment might’ve been in downtown Willow Brook, but we were on a side street with a big empty field behind the building.
The concept of “downtown” in Alaska was different than that of most places.
“Travis!” I hollered as I scrambled through the snow.
There were coyotes around here because, well, there were coyotes pretty much everywhere. But this was Alaska, so there were plenty. I let out a sigh.
“You idiot,” I muttered to myself as I began tromping through the snow, chasing my foolish dog.
“Travis!” I called a few more times, and he finally came loping back, his tongue lolling as he happily galloped through the snow.
“You!” He stopped beside me, looking just so freaking happy with himself, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on.” I gestured for him to follow me.
Moments later, he sat alert in my front seat, my little co-pilot, as we drove over to the animal rescue program where I worked. I loved my job.
I ran the large animal rescue, separate from the usual menagerie of dogs, cats, and small animals.
We had horses, goats, a donkey, and recently, a moose that had been injured and ended up with us.
We kept them all. Blessedly, there was plenty of space.
In between romping around outside, Travis basically shadowed me as I went about my work, his funny little hop-along gait never slowing him down.
I would never know what happened to his leg, but he’d been dumped at the animal rescue when he was only about a year old.
Although he drove me crazy half the time, he owned my heart.
For the moment, Travis was outside, and I was finishing up cleaning one of the stalls for an elderly horse that had been abandoned when I heard a loud thump.
Glancing over my shoulder to the aisle between the stalls, I eyed the hay bale that had fallen from above.
“I’m just gonna fix it myself,” I announced to no one, unless you counted the mice that were for sure living in droves in the corners of this barn.
Although we did have a barn cat who helped with mouse management.
Rusty flicked his tail and eyed me. It felt like he was actually wishing me luck in a sarcastic tone of voice.
That was his entire vibe, watching me work and judging me.
He was joined in judgment with a raven who often sat sentry outside, where she could see into the barn.
I was convinced the raven had picked that location solely to observe and judge me.
I glanced over at the raven in question, who I’d named Ebony for obvious reasons. “I’m gonna fix it,” I announced to Rusty and Ebony before I tromped upstairs.
This was an actual barn, and we even had an old hayloft. The problem was the railing was a little not sturdy. All I needed to do was fix the smaller bars to hold it up. I quickly assessed what I needed and went back downstairs to get a ladder.
Travis was anxious about me climbing the ladder and eyed me nervously from below.
“I’ve got this, Travis. It’ll only be a few minutes,” I said conversationally as I adjusted the tool belt around my waist.
“There!” I announced a few minutes later.
“This thing is awesome,” I called down to Travis, who was still circling the ladder.
The railing was fixed, and my new cordless drill worked great. I felt like I had achieved something for the day. If everything else went to shit, at least I got this done.
“Hey, hey,” a familiar voice called.
“Hey, Jude,” I tossed over my shoulder, ignoring the tiny sizzle of awareness that jolted through me.
I did not need to be crushing on Jude Silver.
He was my best friend. He helped out here all the time. I’d spent months trying to forget that he’d seen me half-naked. All to no avail. That moment was burned into my brain.
This barn was built on some of the Silver family’s property, so he often stopped by when I was working. “How’s it going?” Jude called, his voice muffled.
I was just about to reply when Travis let out a happy sound, the one he only made when he saw Jude. My dog was completely in love with Jude.
I wasn’t. Definitely not me. Just my dog. He yipped and danced in a circle, bouncing against the ladder. Seconds later, I was falling.
“Kendall, what the hell?!”
By some miracle, Jude caught the base of the ladder, except I was already hanging off the edge of the hayloft.
“Travis, sit!” Jude ordered.
Of course, my dog, who I couldn’t always get to behave, did precisely what Jude said.
“I’m not sure I can get back on the ladder. I’m gonna—”
“Kendall, don’t!”
But I was already letting go. The next few seconds were a rush. The clatter of the ladder hitting the ground. Jude catching me as I dropped. He stumbled. Or, I stumbled.
All this to say, we ended up with me on top of Jude. I was gasping for breath.
“Oh, my God! Are you okay, Jude?”
Jude’s eyes opened. “For fuck’s sake, Kendall. Give a man a warning, you know?”
The air between us shifted, heat swirling into it.
“Kendall,” he rasped. His hand tightened where it had come to rest on my hip. I wasn’t so sure my breathlessness had anything to do with the fall anymore.
“Warning for what?”
“That you’re gonna just drop to the floor,” he pointed out.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“The more important question is, are you okay?” Jude pressed.
“I’m fine. I landed on you,” I pointed out. I could feel the rapid thump of his heart against my chest, where my own was beating like that of a wild rabbit.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have a clue about Jude’s physical strength. The man was, among other things, a wilderness guide, a hotshot firefighter, a pilot on occasion, and in ridiculously good shape, all just for living the way he did.
In this moment, lying on top of him and feeling every inch of his muscled body against mine, I was hot all over.
“I’m fine, I swear. Are you okay?” I repeated.
“Are we just going to ask that question in a circle?” he said.
Neither one of us moved to untangle ourselves. “No, but you haven’t answered me yet.”
“I’m fine. Fuck, Kendall, you scared me.” His hands slid up and down my back as if checking to make sure I was okay.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
I thought he caught me and rolled underneath me to make sure I didn’t hit the ground. A twinge of guilt pricked at me. “Did you roll under me?
Jude narrowed his eyes, those stunning silver-blue eyes. “That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Well, I didn’t want you to get hurt!” I exclaimed.
“Can you save tasks like climbing up on a ladder for when someone is here to help?” he asked next.
“No,” I muttered, even though I knew he sort of had a point. Maybe.
“Just text me. You know if I’m available, I will come right over. If I’m not available, text my mom. She’ll come over. She can hold the ladder.”
“Jude, it would have been fine if—”
“Don’t blame this on me showing up.”
“Travis got excited because you’re here and because you’re his boyfriend.”
Jude burst out laughing. “I’m not his boyfriend.”
“Oh, you are so totally Travis’s boyfriend.”
When Jude’s gaze met mine, the air felt like it shifted around us again. The rumble of his chuckle faded, and we stared at each other. The urge to lean forward and close what couldn’t have been more than an inch between our lips was almost overpowering.
“Kendall,” he rasped, his hand tightening where it had come to rest on one of my hips.