was diverted from their dark mood. But it was Cate that Harm’s gaze homed on…honed on.
She burst out of the galley, saw the whales and made a delighted sound of laughter. “Aren’t they gorgeous?” she demanded of his boys.
“Why are they still coming so close?” Harm asked.
“I suspect…because they’re curious about us. It’s not as if they’re afraid. Those behemoths haven’t experienced anything they need to be afraid of.”
And then he realized she was really leaning over. Her whole body was leaning over.
He reacted by instinct, pushing past Ivan, taking the steps down from the pilothouse in a single leap. She was going to fall. He knew it. He could see it. The least tip, and she’d tumble into that icy water.
Instead of helping her, his three men and Hans, stood like statues against the rail. They were all staring at Cate with a look of shock. It took a heart-thrashing second for Harm to realize what she was actually doing.
She was leaning so far out, with her arm fully extended…
To pet a whale.
The big guy, swimming alongside the boat, suddenly berthed in a smooth arch-close enough to the boat to bump it. In fact, he did bump it. The men all felt it.
And they all heard Cate’s giggle of delight, as if she’d just taught a puppy a new trick.
The whale circled, blew a fountain from his blowhole and dipped beneath the surface again. Harm hoped he’d disappear, go off wherever whales went off to, but instead the huge thing surfaced again. This time it surfaced beneath Cate’s hand. Apparently, it was coming back for another petting.
Harm heard her murmuring love words, crooning. To the whale, for Pete’s sake-who bumped the boat again in response.
But he also saw her face. Her expression was as simple and complex as joy. Damn, but she was fearless. Open to embracing anything. When had he last felt that free, that excited about the possibilities?
“Hey, Cate.” Ivan showed up from above. “Did anyone ever mention that you didn’t have the brain God gave a goose?”
Cate didn’t even lift her head. “He’s so beautiful. I thought he’d be cold. And the surface of his body was cold, but beneath, there’s this…thundering warmth. He’s smooth and even soft-”
“Y’all want to take a vote on whether she’s certifiable?” Ivan rolled his eyes with the guys.
“That’s it, make fun.” Cate scowled at the lot of them, then cast one more longing glance as the big behemoth swam off to his pals.
“Gonna take him home, Cate? Got a big enough bathtub for him, do you?”
“I’d like to see you bring home a date. Bet his eyes’d pop when he saw your choice of pets.”
“You like your boys big, do you?” That brought on a round of raucous laughter.
“Size does matter, boys,” Cate said demurely, and that brought another round of hoots and laughter.
She caught his eye moments later. There was just a flash in hers, a connection, but he got it. It wasn’t a day for laughter-just a day when they all needed some kind of comic relief. Cate had willingly provided it.
But when she looked at him, he knew she hadn’t forgotten finding Fiske in her galley. And his mind kept replaying how she’d behaved with that damned whale. So fearless. Reaching out to something she should have known was seriously dangerous.
And that wasn’t just whales and thieves.
It was him, too.
Harm spun around, told himself to quit obsessing on those haunting kisses and those sassy eyes and forget her. The message waiting for him in the pilothouse had come from the P.I. firm he hired in Cambridge. More troubling news. Bad news. A mounting trail of evidence defining a very clever thief.
But nothing to identify him.
And there was no way Harm could keep Cate safe-or any of his other men-until he somehow found that answer. Fast.
Chapter 5
The instant the boat docked at Tennehee Springs late that afternoon, the men charged off as if their feet were spring-loaded.
“You get the feeling the whole group needs a little stress relief?” Cate murmured to Harm.
They were bringing up the rear. He naturally cupped her arm when she took the leap to the dock. She felt the bolt of awareness-so did he, judging from the wry glance he shot her. Still, they followed the others, walking side by side.
“We all might need a few hours’ rest, but we’re not the only ones. Cate, you’re funnier than hell and full of the devil. I really want to say-thanks.”
“Thanks for what?” she asked in surprise.
“For taking care of trouble. Which you’ve been doing solid since we all got onboard. You didn’t sign on for these kinds of problems…much less for the trauma of finding Fiske. For someone who could use some sympathy, you’re not getting any, but you’re damned good at giving it out.”
“You’ve completely misunderstood,” she assured him. “I don’t know any of you, so don’t give me credit for sensitivity. I’m not one of those touchy-feely caretaking kind of women.”
“Ah.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay, slugger. I’m sorry I said something nice about you. I’ll try not to do it again.”
She considered punching him, figured that likely a rich hotshot like him hadn’t been punched in a good long time-but she didn’t. She was far too mature, she told herself righteously. Besides, she couldn’t very well fight with him and stick closer than glue for this outing. Just because she wasn’t a maternal or nurturing type didn’t mean she couldn’t feel sympathy. Harm had had a god-awful morning. A god-awful month, it sounded like. And he was the lone ranger, stuck with all the repercussions.
“Hey,” Ivan yelled from the leader dog role in the head of the straggly line. “If anyone strays off the road, that’s fine. Go walkabout wherever you want. It’s not as if anyone could get lost here. We’re here three hours, then back to the ship.”
“As if anyone needed those instructions,” Cate said drily, but she was as taken by Tennehee Springs as Harm seemed to be. Just the exercise of walking in the brisk air seemed to shake off the gloomy mood on the boat, and the unexpectedly different world offshore seemed to capture all their attentions.
From the dock-where a hefty number of fishing vessels were already tied off-began an ambling gravel road. She never saw or heard a car, although mud-covered ATVs were parked here and there. The houses lining the road looked more like cottages than structures that could regularly survive an Alaskan winter. Cats and dogs snoozed on every porch step. “Incredibly majestic woods and hills, and then screen doors with holes,” Harm said.
It was a contrast. Eventually, they came to a cafe-Ivan’s goal was to get the local flavor of a drink and dinner here. Next door, a hand-painted sign read: Is There Life After Death? Trespass Here And Find Out.
And at the door to the cafe was another sign-Leave Guns Outside. Clearly, the customers were into obeying, because a whole teepee of rifles and long guns were perched against the window. Cate couldn’t believe the number, and when she stepped inside ahead of Harm, she couldn’t believe the place.
“Holy kamoly. We’re sure not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” Cate mentioned, making Harm smile-for the first time all day.
“We’re supposed to eat dinner here, huh?”
“Yup. I get a night off whenever we’re onshore. More to the point, I do believe I’ll be able to serve you guys anything after this and you’ll love it.”
She almost ran into Yale and Purdue, who’d stopped dead to gape for a moment when they walked in, too. The
