As she frantically tried to gather her thoughts, Travis cleared his throat. “Maybe we should slow down,” he said, his words husky.
She looked up again and saw nothing but understanding in his gaze. It made her slightly uncomfortable to discover she might be that easy to read. She forced herself to take another breath and nodded jerkily. “Maybe so. I, uh… I’m not sure what this is. I don’t usually…” She stopped again and tried to slow her words, realizing the tumbling babble only ratcheted up her confusion inside. “Right, maybe we should.”
He stepped back, and she let her legs fall loose from where they’d been wrapped around his hips. In seconds, he’d tugged her shirt back in place. She ran a hand through her hair and shimmied her hips off the counter when he took another few steps back. For all intents and purposes, they were just two people standing in the kitchen now. If anyone walked in, they would see nothing amiss. Yet, Janie could feel the heat sliding like liquid fire through her veins and the damp silk over her nipples. That alone sent a clenching throb through her channel and she shifted her weight from one hip to the other, restless at the sensations coursing through her.
She looked over at him again and tried to marshal her thoughts. She felt silly and discombobulated. She was so out of practice with men. Well, it wasn’t as if she’d ever been in practice if she was being honest. She startled herself with what she blurted out next.
“I’m not so good at this, well, whatever this is that we’re doing. I don’t really date. I’m a mom and a teacher and dating never really fit into that equation. If I seem a little lost, it’s because I am.” Her words made her flinch. They were too bare, too honest, and she hadn’t quite meant to be that blunt, but the truth simply came out.
He watched her for a few beats, his gaze inscrutable. She wanted to run and hide, but she wouldn’t because she didn’t want to be a coward.
“Me neither,” he said with a half-grin. “It’s not like I haven’t dated at all, but you…well, you’re different. I’m not used to half-obsessing about a kiss for days. So don’t go thinking you’re alone in this, because you’re not.”
Relief washed through her, followed by wonder. His unflinching honesty made her feel a tiny bit less mortified by her own. She felt her smile spreading across her face.
“I guess it’s good we’re kinda in the same boat, huh?”
He grinned, his gorgeous blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “Suppose so. For now, I should probably go. Mind if I stop by tomorrow? I could pick some coffee up from Misty Mountain Café and maybe some pastries. What does Stella like?”
Her stomach did a little somersault, and her heart warmed. That he would think of Stella first just about made her night. She forced herself to remain where she was while he slipped into his jacket. She knew if she got close again, it would be too tempting to pick up right where they’d left off.
Chapter 8
Travis glanced to his side at the sound of a moose pawing the ground and huffing. To his other side stood a group of elementary school students, along with two teachers, one of whom happened to be Janie. It had been a full week since she’d blown his mind with another kiss. In the time since, he could hardly stop thinking about her. Aside from the morning he brought coffee and pastries over from Misty Mountain Café, he hadn’t had a chance to see her. It was disconcerting to see her just now. He’d been called up with Ben Halloran to respond to a moose and two yearlings who’d somehow gotten into the playground at Diamond Creek Elementary. This had belatedly been discovered only after the first group of kids headed out for recess.
Travis forced his mind off of Janie. Right now, they had an irate mama moose, twenty kids and two curious calves to deal with. On top of all that, snow had fallen last night and started to melt this morning under the sunshine, leaving slick patches in the shady areas of the playground. He turned to see where Ben had gone and found him in the far corner of the playground, attempting to draw the attention of the yearlings away from the kids. Unfortunately, mama moose was between everyone and the door back into the school.
The cliché of firefighters saving cats stranded in trees was turned on its head in Alaska. Travis couldn’t count how many times he’d been called to deal with errant moose. Earlier this week, he and Ben helped lift a moose calf out of a hole in the ground from an abandoned and collapsed septic field. The mama moose in that scenario had proceeded to charge them once they lifted her calf to safety. If there was one thing he could claim expertise in, it was corralling ornery moose. He glanced back to the cluster of children and caught Janie’s eyes. “Whatever happens, stay put for now, okay? As long as we know where you guys are, we can make sure we keep the moose away from you. It might take a few minutes, but we’ll draw the calves away and mama will follow.”
Janie nodded firmly. She didn’t appear fazed. Given that she’d been born and raised in Alaska, Travis surmised she’d had plenty of moose encounters. The other teacher, a young woman who was probably straight out of college, looked slightly more frazzled with her eyes wide. Janie glanced from him to the other teacher before scanning her eyes over the cluster of children. “Don’t worry kids. Travis and Ben handle moose all the time. We’ll be fine. We just need to stay right where we are. Okay?”
Every child’s head nodded, some slowly, some fast and jerky. Ben whistled loudly, which led one of the curious calves who’d been lingering by the swing set and sniffing all around it to look over in his direction. Another whistle from Ben and the calf in question started to amble in his direction near the gate. Mama moose started to turn away, her eyes locked onto her calf. At this unfortunate moment, a little boy started to dash for the door to the building. Mama moose immediately swung back in their direction and started to move toward the little boy. Travis stepped in the boy’s path and latched onto his arm, stopping his run.
The little boy looked up, his brown hair falling over his forehead. A sob escaped and he tugged his arm, trying to free it from Travis’s hold. “Hey buddy, hang tight. Moose don’t chase unless they see something to chase. Stay right here with me.”
Another sob escaped, but the boy nodded. Thankfully, the moose had stopped her movement. Ben whistled a few more times, finally drawing the attention of the other calf, which had parked itself in a corner where alder trees stretched over the fence surrounding the playground. Alder branches were a favored food of moose, so this little calf had found a handy feeding spot. Once the calf started to move and its mother’s attention was firmly fixed away from the children, Travis shooed the little boy back toward Janie and started to follow slowly behind the mother moose.
He and Ben had quickly mapped out a plan when they arrived. The first order was to get the mama moose away from the gap between the children and the door. That meant drawing her away from the gate into the playground. The gate had likely been left unlocked, which made it possible for the moose to push right through in their quest of curiosity and to reach the alders. As soon as mama moose ambled far enough away, Travis turned back and waved to Janie and the other teacher, gesturing rapidly to the door. The plan was for everyone to get inside and then Travis would take Ben’ place with whistles and distractions to draw the calves back to the gate. Between the two of them, they figured they could herd the calves out and mama would follow.
All was going quite well. Janie and the other teacher quietly guided the children toward the door. Until another little boy broke free from the orderly line and dashed toward Ben and the moose heading in his direction. Travis instantly recognized Danny, the little boy from Janie’s classroom who had such a hard time sitting still. The look on his face was one of pure excitement. Ben moved quickly, calling out to keep the attention of the moose on him, but little Danny was a wild, tumbling blur of color as he hit an icy patch and skidded onto his bottom. Travis angled sideways to grab Danny, just as Janie came racing in his direction as well. There was simply too much happening for mama moose not to notice.
Even though everything happened in mere seconds, it felt like slow motion. Travis saw Janie racing to catch Danny and start to slip and fall. Mama moose turned away from her calves and Ben, her eyes locking onto Danny and Janie. Travis didn’t even think, but spun in between the moose and Janie and Danny, dashing past them to lead her away. He heard her hooves thumping the ground behind him. Moose appeared inexplicably slow when they moved. Even when they were running, they looked as if they were ambling along. Problem was, they were tall—ranging from five feet to six and a half feet at the shoulder—with long legs and covered a lot of ground. He heard several voices call out, but with the sound of the hooves getting closer, he aimed straight for the piece of play equipment in the center of the playground, hooking his hand on the rung of the bars and swinging himself up just as the moose reached him.
A moment later, he stood atop the bars and looked out over the playground. Ben was laughing from where he stood in the corner. The two calves had stopped to look back and were staring curiously at him. Mama moose had stopped underneath the bars and was pawing the ground, huffing and snorting. Travis glanced over to see Janie tugging Danny along at her side to the door. Danny, oblivious to any risk, was wrestling against her grip on his arm.