Free Raising The Stakes (Heartwarming Romance) by Karen Rock Page B

stay here until 3:00 a.m. the other night?”
    He felt his mouth turn upward in return. “That’s how I knew you’d pass.”
    She laughed, the sound reminding him of a spring-fed brook. “At least you’re honest.”
    “Ah. Something nice to say about me for a change.” It bothered him, more than he dared admit, that she distrusted him. He wanted her to like him. Plain and simple. Only it was much more complicated than that.
    “My mother always taught me, if you can’t say something nice—”
    “Change the subject,” he finished for her and they cracked up.
    “When can I get my bear?”
    Her wide eyes reminded him of late Adirondack autumn, all golds and browns. “She’s not yours, Vivie. You can’t think that way.”
    “Technically, she is my bear. For now.” She pointed to the laptop. “That said so. Can we go now?”
    He peered at his watch. It was nine o’clock. Getting late, but he could see the urgency in her face. That need to please her, to help, rose up inside. Again.
    “Let me get ahold of the Reeds.”
    Her foot tapped as he picked up her the receiver of her ancient phone, dialed the number and spoke with the rehabilitators.
    When he hung up, she studied him eagerly. “Sounds like a yes to me. Should we take my truck?”
    “No. The bear will be more secure in the SUV.”
    Outside, she hesitated before getting into the SUV. “Never thought I’d ride in a DEC vehicle. Throw eggs at it maybe...”
    “Yeah. Especially mine.”
    Her delicate profile scrunched as she slid in beside him and he started the engine. “Not if you were in it...maybe. You shouldn’t have stopped me from feeding the starving animals. Many probably died because of that.”
    His grip tightened on the wheel. “They couldn’t get reliant on humans or be protected when that wasn’t nature’s way. We can’t control the world. Keep everything safe.”
    She moved restlessly beside him. “You believe everything is fated—even horrible things? That when terrible stuff happens we have to just—just accept it.”
    He nodded slowly. Her voice wobbled a bit on the edges and he sensed a deeper issue at work than a simple philosophical debate. Towering pines whizzed by as they cruised the back road.
    “You can’t stop the bad in the world.” He thought of his long, tense nights at his besieged outpost in Afghanistan. How he’d been powerless to leave, to prevent the insurgents from killing his friends the moment they ventured beyond its walls...or patrolled them.
    “But you can try to prevent it!” Her voice rose and she gnawed the sides of her nails.
    He thought of that terrible, hopeless feeling he’d had during the war. The waiting and wondering when it would be his turn to die. Since the insurgents had outnumbered them, and their inexperienced commander had refused to call for help, it’d felt like waiting in line, cuing up for death. How he’d dreaded it. Hated feeling trapped. No matter how guarded they’d remained, they hadn’t been able to stanch the bloodbath.
    “No. You can’t,” he said as evenly as he could manage around his clenched jaw.
    “Only a fool would think that way.”
    “Could you stop the cub’s mother from being shot?” He knew it was a low blow, but he needed Vivie to see that life wasn’t some fairy tale and that Button might not have a happily-ever-after...or
any
after if things didn’t work out.
    She subsided against the seat and sucked in a harsh breath. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
    “Even when you do, you can’t always stop it,” he muttered under his breath and turned on the radio. They drove in tense silence until the familiar sign for the Adirondack Wildlife Rehabilitation Center appeared. He turned onto the long dirt drive, bumping along it until a rambling, cedar-sided ranch house appeared.
    Before he could turn off the engine, Wendy and Steve Reed appeared, giving them a cheery wave from their small porch.
    “We’ve got Button crated for you.