Bearly Living: Foxhollow Den #1 (Alaskan Den Men) Read Free Page B

families?”
    Bobbie took the basket from his hand as they approached the back of his truck. “She just said it was some land dispute. Which is a big deal up here, I guess. People get killed over land.”
    “So she’s never mentioned my sister Caroline?”
    “Not that I recall.”
    He opened the truck door for her. After shutting it firmly, he trotted around the front to the driver’s side. Her curiosity piqued, she held the picnic basket handles tightly while waiting for him to continue the story. He pulled into traffic and headed north outside of the borough limits of Foxhollow.
    Ten minutes of silence, and then he dumped the rest of the story in her lap. “Your cousin Samantha slept with my sister’s fiancé six months ago. The night before the wedding. Caroline walked off into the woods, and we haven’t seen her since. Now there’s a rift between the families.”
    Holy shit . Definitely not the story she’d been expecting. Samantha had never once mentioned a tryst with an engaged man. Still, she’d wait to hear Samantha’s side of the story before she passed any judgement. “I didn’t know that. So why do the families tell everyone it’s over land?”
    Grant shrugged one shoulder. “The land dispute came shortly after. It’s a small sliver of land the first surveyor got wrong when some land exchanged hands several years ago. Now there are several surveyors involved, and it’s become a legal thing.”
    Bobbie didn’t press him further. The feud wasn’t her fight, and loyalty to her cousin prevented her from taking anything at total face value. Plus, she wouldn’t be here long enough for it to matter. She had one goal, and the man beside her could help accomplish it.
    He pulled the truck off-road and followed a worn grassy trail through the trees. “Here we are.”
    The dense forest didn’t really afford a place to spread out a blanket. “Did you really bring me out to the strip of land?”
    “No, I need a lookout while I bury some bait.”
    “A lookout?”
    “Yes, sniff around, and let me know if you smell any humans in the area so we aren’t on the receiving end of a bullet. I don’t trust anyone who’d trespass and put out bait.”
    The scent of bears was much easier to pick up than the scent of humans. Human smells lingered and stuck to everything. Mostly immune to them after years of living as one of them, she doubted she’d be any help. “Not a great idea. I don’t have as sharp a sense of smell as most bears would.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Because I’ve spend most of my life avoiding anything to do with being a bear.” Nothing about this evening was going as planned. “Maybe you should just take me back to the café.”
    Grant placed his hands around her waist and lifted her into the bed of the truck with ease. “If you be my lookout for thirty minutes, I’ll take you to a private spot not too far from here, and we can have the picnic.”
    “Deal.” Her hips wanted more of his hands, and she’d be damned if she let her hips down. She couldn’t have misread the signals from earlier. He’d definitely shown some interest in what she had under her dress.
    Bobbie stood in the truck bed and performed her lookout duties. The light breeze blew her skirt against her legs, and the hem tickled her calves. She lifted her nose to the air, but the only smells she could distinguish were wild roses and the pungent bait mixture containing fish guts.
    Grant dug a wide hole and dumped the fish pieces from three metal containers into it. He covered the hole and tossed the shovels into the truck bed. She took his hand, and he helped her down to the ground. He held her close for a brief moment. “There’s a clearing about thirty minutes’ walking distance past the edge of this forest.”
    “We’re going to walk?” She’d yet to give up wearing flip flops, and they weren’t made for hiking.
    Grant glanced at her shoes. “You really are a city girl, aren’t you?”
    “I miss the hustle