Free Yellowstone Romance Series - Bundle (# 2-5) by Peggy L Henderson

nearby, I don’t know where the food is.”
    Sarah stared in stunned silence. This man was telling her he was incapable of a simple task like starting a fire?
    “Quit looking at me like that,” he snapped. “I told you I’m not from here.  When are you going to believe me?”
    “Here, let me show you. A fire is simple.” She didn’t know what else to say. If she had any sense at all, she’d simply start the fire herself, but something compelled her to teach this man this basic survival skill. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she didn’t know how to start a fire.
    “Why bother? I’ll be back home tomorrow, and where I’m from, I don’t need to know how to do this.” He sounded angry. Sarah had heard this type of anger before. Her brothers were often mad when she bested them at a task her father set out for them. Her mother would tell her that a man’s pride was wounded easily, and that a man’s competitive nature made it difficult for them to admit wrong doing or failing at something.
    “Let me show you,” she coaxed gently. “What happens if you do not find your way home in the morning? A man will die here if he doesn’t know how to survive.”  He hesitated. The frown on his handsome face deepened, but he knelt beside her.
    “Fine,” he grumbled. “How do you make a fire with nothing?”
    Sarah almost regretted her offer. She felt his body heat, and could smell his musky male scent. Her hands trembled when she dug for her flint in the pouch around her neck.
    “Take out your knife,” she said, and held the flint out for him. She gathered a handful of wood shavings in a small pile on the ground.
    “Now strike your knife against the flint to create a spark, just over the kindling.”
    On his fourth try, a tiny spark fell on the shavings, and Sarah bent her head, gently blowing air onto the pile to give the spark more life. It shone bright orange for a second, then fizzled and extinguished in a thin wisp of smoke.
    “Do it again, and this time be ready to blow on it,” she commanded. Chase followed her instructions. It took him several tries, but he finally succeeded in igniting the kindling, and kept it burning.
    Sarah smiled brightly. “Now add small pieces of wood, slowly, until they burn. Too much wood, and you choke the flames and they will die again. Never starve a fire of air. This also prevents too much smoke.”
    “There,” Chase said, after a sizeable campfire crackled before them. “You’ll make a boy scout out of me yet.” He grinned in satisfaction.
    “You did well,” she said, and hastily got up from the ground when his gaze met hers. The smoldering look in his eyes burned hotter than the flames. 
    ******
     
    Chase stared up at the brilliant night sky. He’d never before seen so many stars. His hands were clasped behind his head, his long body stretched out next to the fire. The mangy mutt was curled up beside him, its head resting on his thigh. He could hear Sarah’s soft, rhythmic breathing from the other side of the low-burning fire. She looked small and vulnerable, curled up under her blanket. Something tightened in his chest.  She had to be exhausted. While he’d slept soundly the night before, she’d been up making him clothing. Today she’d practically done all the work.
    After his fire-making lesson, she had gone off, and not twenty minutes later returned with some furry thing she called a whistle dog. He couldn’t bring himself to watch when she skinned and gutted it. But he ate more than his share. It had tasted like chicken. She had tossed some fig-sized roots in the coals, and told him that would be breakfast the next morning.
    He’d never met a girl like her. She hadn’t been judgmental at his incompetence. He couldn’t make a fire. He didn’t know how to hunt and find food in the wilderness, but it was second nature to her. She hadn’t belittled him, just matter-of-factly shown him how to do it. She was strong and as tough as nails