Animal Attraction. Maisey Yates

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t call. Adam was at the park for a field trip. They were just wrapping up the school activities when Shohn got word that the guy was missing. He told Adam to tell me that if I didn’t hear from him before eight-thirty, I should let you know what’s going on.”

      Adam was Shohn’s cousin by marriage. His uncle Jordan, the town vet, had married Georgia, who already had Adam and Lisa. But if you asked anyone in the family, they were as much related as if Jordan had fathered Lisa and Adam himself. “I thought he was a gym teacher. Why would he be on a field trip?”

      “One of the other teachers got sick last minute, so he filled in.” Amber pulled out a chair at her little table, the same chair that Shohn had used the night before. “Am I keeping you from anything?”

      “Not at all.” Looked as if Amber planned to stay and visit. From one animal lover to another, she liked Amber a lot.

      Plus, she was Shohn’s cousin.

      “Can I get you something to drink?”

      “Sure. Anything cold.”

      After pouring them both colas, Nadine joined her at the table.

      She’d just taken a big drink when Amber said, “I’m kind of glad we have a chance to talk.”

      Nadine slowly lowered the can. Amber had a way of dropping bombshells on people. She always stated things so boldly, without any reserve at all. Nadine had learned to be cautious, so she hedged, saying, “I always enjoy visiting with you. You know that.”

      “Yeah, yeah, same here,” Amber said, moving right along. “But that’s not what I meant.”

      “No?”

      “I think you should give Shohn a chance.”

      Dreading the answer, Nadine asked, “A chance to do what?”

      “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe...sleep with you?”

      Yup, a bombshell. Nadine rolled her eyes. “I can always expect the unexpected from you.”

      “So will you?”

      In many ways, Amber was as pushy—maybe more so—as Shohn. “What makes you think he even wants to?”

      She crossed her arms over the table and leaned in. “He’s wanted to forever. He just didn’t realize it until recently.”

      Nadine had to laugh. “You’re nuts.” Shohn was the most straightforward, on-track person she’d ever met. He always knew what he wanted, and he always went after it. “I remember when he was sixteen and decided he wanted to be a park ranger. A bunch of us were at your uncle Sawyer’s house. I think it was your brother Garrett’s birthday.”

      “Probably,” Amber said. “Garrett’s only a year older than you.”

      “Anyway, your uncle Jordan showed us a baby hawk that had gotten injured by some idiot campers.”

      “Uncle Jordan probably crooned it back to good health.” Amber grinned. “He has such a knack for helping animals.”

      “Shohn was pretty furious about it.” And since Shohn had such a congenial, easygoing nature, it was rare to see him fired-up. Usually it only happened when he was defending someone or something else—like injured baby birds, or chubby girls. “He announced he was going to be a park ranger, as if that’d keep anyone from ever injuring a baby animal again.”

      “And here he is, a ranger,” Amber said. “And I’m willing to bet few dare go in the hills with the intent of tormenting a poor animal, not when they have to deal with Shohn.”

      “Your pride is showing,” Nadine teased. “But my point is that if Shohn had feelings for me, he’d have known it.”

      “He probably did on some level, and that’s why he hasn’t come on to you before now.”

      That was so absurd, Nadine choked on it.

      Amber narrowed her bright blue eyes. It was a fact that everyone in Buckhorn had noted: those extraordinary eyes of hers packed a lot of punch. When she looked at people, they felt it.

      When she looked at the guys...well, she had as much impact with them as Shohn had with the ladies.

      Nadine fidgeted. “Dial it down, okay?”

      Confusion stole Amber’s intensity. “What’s that?”

      “All that laserlike focus. You’re trying to intimidate me, but it’s not working.” Ha. It worked all too well.

      “I wasn’t,” Amber objected.

      “Baloney. You do it to everyone, and I’m sure most cave under your resolve. Especially anyone possessing testosterone.”

      Grinning, Amber shrugged. “My point is that Shohn had a lot of wild oats to sow and now, at twenty-five, he wants more.”

      More...what? No, Nadine wouldn’t buy into any of it. She gulped down more Coke then shook her head. “Does Shohn have any idea that you’re meddling like this?”

      “Are you kidding? No way.”

      Thank God. “Then let’s make a promise not to ever tell him, and we can forget all about it.”

      Amber’s determined stare returned. “You know he wants you, Nadine.”

      She turned her Coke can, turned it again and traced the wet circle on the table... “He did sort of come on to me.”

      “Sort of?” Amber laughed. “He must be slipping if you’re not sure. God knows every other girl in town thinks he’s making moves even when he isn’t. Do you know how many times I’ve had to save his butt? Too many times, that’s how many. But you’re different.”

      Yeah, didn’t she know it. “Well, if he is interested, that’d be why—because I’m a challenge. If we ever got together, then he’d be over me real quick.”

      “I don’t think so.” Amber got a text before she could expound on that. She pulled out her phone, read the message with a smile and sent back a reply. “He’ll be here in another ten minutes.”

      “They found the missing camper?”

      “He didn’t say, but I assume so, otherwise he’d still be there looking.” She finished off her Coke and stood. “I’m supposed to get lost, though.”

      “Oh.”

      Walking to the kitchen to rinse out her can, Amber said, “Look at it this way. If Shohn only sees you as a challenge, then isn’t it better to find it out now before you fall hopelessly in love with him?”

      “Hopelessly, huh? How dramatic.” Nadine tried to infuse the right amount of sarcasm, because God knew, she’d been hung up on Shohn Hudson since they were in their early teens.

      “It is dramatic,” Amber said with a sigh, “the way the ladies all swoon over him. As his cousin, I can testify to how nauseating СКАЧАТЬ