Page 99 of Shared By the Mountain Men Triplets

I march across the yard. “You didn’t ask. Unless you’re counting last week, when you brought it up, and I told you no. You still have at least another week before the doctor clears your shoulder.”

“It feels fine.”

“It’s hanging on by stitches and stubbornness.”

“Mostly stubbornness.”

I take the axe away. “You’re impossible.”

He gives me his most charming grin. “But you still love me.”

“I do.”

Boone takes the axe back and sets it against the woodpile. “Enough to kiss me?”

I glance toward the garage, where Cade is pretending not to watch. “You’re manipulating your nurse,” I say.

“I’m flirting with my nurse, and you should be used to that by now.”

“You’re impossible.”

“I believe we established that.”

I cup his face and kiss him anyway, feeling his smile deepen as I do.

When I step back, Cade clears his throat. “My turn?”

“You aren’t injured enough to qualify for sympathy kisses,” I call over, teasing.

“I have eleven stitches.”

“Then why are you over there working on the truck?”

After giving Boone one more warning about the axe, I go to Cade and kiss him, too, and he kisses me back with the energy of a man who’sin good health.

When I turn back toward the house, Rhett is on the porch. “I feel discriminated against.”

I bite my bottom lip, still tasting Cade there. “You weren’t shot.”

“I was emotionally affected,” Rhett says, leaning over the railing, looking more light-hearted than I’ve seen him in … possibly ever.

“He was traumatized by watching me look heroic,” Boone says.

I’m laughing as I head toward Rhett. The laughter comes more easily every day.

The next time I talk to my supervisor, I’m expecting more paperwork. Instead, he asks me to come to the district office for a meeting.

The next day, I meet with him and the regional director, who slides a folder across her desk, saying, “We’ve been discussing the future of the Moon Ridge restoration project.”

As my eyes skim over a document about environmental assessments, long-term recovery plans, and funding authorizations, she says, “As you know, the ecological damage caused by the trafficking operation is extensive. We need to assign someone to oversee restoration.”

My pulse quickens, and she smiles.

“You’ve already built relationships with local landowners.”

I manage to keep my face straight as I think about what an understatement that is regarding one particular set of local landowners.

“You’re very familiar with the landscape and the habitat corridors, and after everything that happened, frankly, no one knows the area better.”