Free The Cowboy Soldier by Roz Denny Fox Page A

the other rangers who drop off injured animals. A friendly wave or smile isn’t a come-on. As for Major Eaglefeather, in my presence you will be respectful of him. Leave the foxes or take them to Mrs. Scofield. Either way, I’d like you to go now.”
    Paul shoved the cage at her, his eyes dark and angry. He opened his mouth to say something he would surely regret later, but Alexa angled her chin upward, and he apparently had second thoughts. Wise man. She watched him stalk back to his vehicle. What a bozo. His boss was a thirty-year veteran at this park and a true gentleman. He’d never tolerate Paul’s bad behavior and Paul must know it.
    Since she had baby foxes in her care, she needed to make a run to the store for canned milk. This time she wouldn’t go to the park store, but to Study Butte. She wondered if she could talk Rafe into riding along and doing their trail ride another day.
    She set the kits’ cage well away from the hissing mountain cat. She’d have to ask Carl Dobbins, the ranger who’d brought in the cat, what his plans were for the healed animal. Alexa didn’t want to let him out on the ranch where he could come back and stalk her goats, chickens or horses. A squirrel that someone had found with a broken leg was well enough to be let go, too. She didn’t mind turning him out. In fact, she’d do it now.
    After locking the small barn, she took the cage to the edge of the woods and held it up as high as she could against a tree limb. Then she went back to the horse barn to collect Compadre and they circled back to the house.
    “Rafe,” she called, hearing nothing when she walked in. Compadre made a beeline down the hall and nosed his way into Rafe’s room, so Alexa followed.
    “There you are,” she said, concerned to find him sitting idle in the rocker in a dark room. Once again she went around opening his curtains.
    “Would you mind if we cancel our afternoon ride? I need to run to the grocery store to pick up canned milk to feed those two baby foxes Paul brought.”
    “Go ahead,” he said, giving a curt wave with one hand.
    “Would you care to ride along?”
    Rafe rocked faster. “Wouldn’t your new boyfriend love that?”
    “Paul left. And for the record, he’s not my…anything. Not even a friend, which I might have considered him before today. He’s an egotistical idiot.”
    “So, you’re not going to the dance with him? I can have Sierra come take me to her place for the weekend, in case you…do a sleepover.”
    “What’s with you men all presuming things? Did you not hear a word I said? Paul’s an idiot. Do you want to ride to Study Butte, or not?” She pronounced the town’s name the way locals did: Stewdy Butte.
    “I apologize, Alexa. Study Butte, huh? I thought that town died.”
    “It has around three hundred residents. A few families struggle to keep basic businesses operating. The store should have what I need. Canned milk and baby food. The foxes are cute little stinkers. Gray fox, I’m pretty sure.”
    “Do you think the store carries swimsuits? I assume that’s what you wear when you visit the hot springs.”
    “Well, I, uh…need to wear one now for sure,” she said, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “Uh, if the store doesn’t have a suit, I can cut off your oldest pair of long pants. I have a sewing machine. It won’t take any time to zip in a hem.”
    “Maybe I’ll let you do that. I know my cammo’s fit. And they’re comfortable.”
    “Mineral baths are all about comfort,” Alexa said, glad to have dealt with that issue. “Then it’s settled. I’ll haul out my machine as soon as we return from the store.”

    “I REALLY LOVE THIS DRIVE through the park,” Alexa said after they had been on the road about ten minutes. Before they’d set out, she had rolled down both windows in her pickup. Compadre, who usually had the passenger seat to himself, sat in the middle with his feet propped on Rafe’s legs and his head poking out into the