“Is that ...”
“Yep,” Kate confirmed. “Duke’s baby mama. I think she’s close to delivering.”
Mad Dog opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. Out of all the scenarios he’d imagined, this hadn’t been one of them. “Is she okay?”
“Seems to be—other than being in labor, that is, and there’s not much we can do about that. The people at the animal hospital said to keep her calm and comfortable and not to try to move her until she has the pups.”
“How long will that take?”
“Depends. Could be up to twenty-four hours once active labor starts.”
That seemed like a long time to him, but what did he know about birthing pups? “Okay. What do we do?”
Her eyes widened. “You’re staying?”
He shrugged. He had no intentions of leaving her out here by herself in the middle of the night. “Yes.”
Her face softened, and in her eyes, he saw a glimmering spark of the same intense something he felt in his chest. He wasn’t ready to label it yet, but he did know that it went beyond garden-variety attraction. Around Kate, he felt different, and he didn’t think he was the only one.
She squeezed his hand and smiled. “We’ll eventually need something to transport them, but until then, I guess we just wait.”
She looked so radiant in the low, flickering firelight, cheeks pink and eyes bright. The desire to kiss her again became a powerful ache in his chest.
That he was going to kiss her again was a definite.
The question was, would he be able to stop once he did? Doubtful, if the pulsating aches in his chest and groin were any indication.
A more relevant question was, could he spend the rest of the night making love to this woman in a cave by firelight? Definitely.
Should he? Probably not.
Instead, he lowered himself down onto a convenient rock ledge resembling a bench seat and focused on their surroundings. Rock walls, rock ceiling, the remains of ancient wooden shoring beams, which were clearly unnecessary. The floor was solid, packed earth, surprisingly clear of debris. He couldn’t help but think about the discussion he’d had just hours earlier with Church, Cage, and Doc about underground tunnels in the area, and he wondered where this one led to.
“An abandoned mine, you say?”
She nodded. “Yes. The area is full of them. Most have collapsed over the years, but there are some remaining. I spent a lot of time exploring them as a kid, including this one.”
“Alone?”
“Usually.” She averted her eyes and threw a few more dry sticks on the fire.
He followed the column of smoke upward, watching as it picked up a stream of air and disappeared into the darkness through some unseen ventilation.
“Sounds dangerous.”
“That’s why I never told anyone. They probably would have tried to stop me.” She grinned, and in her features, he could see hints of mischief and determination and a thirst for adventure.
“I can’t imagine why,” he replied dryly, but inside, he was grinning, too.
“I was ten years old and had just discovered an underground network of passageways, just like something straight out of the books I used to read. I wasn’t about to jeopardize that. Looking back now, I suppose that was pretty reckless on my part. If something had happened, no one would have known where I was. Most people don’t even know about the tunnels.”
“How do you know about them?”
“Because I listen. I heard a saying once: ‘You learn more by listening than talking.’ That’s really true.”
Church’s cautionary words echoed in his head. “I suppose it is.”
“Absolutely, it is.”
“So, you’re like a spy, huh?”
She laughed, as if delighted with the idea. “Not even close. But I am a good listener. You’d be surprised at the kinds of things people tell me.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
She thought about that for a minute before answering, “When I was a kid, the O’Farrells lived in the house next to ours. Mr. O’Farrell paid me a dollar an hour to help him weed his garden.”
“Wow, a whole dollar, huh?”
She smiled at the memory. “It wasn’t about the money. I would have done it for free, just so I could listen to his wonderful stories. He had lots of them, each more fascinating than the last. He’d worked in the mines with his dad when he was just nine years old! Would you believe he celebrated his one-hundred-and-second birthday last year?”
“He’s still around?”
“Oh, yeah. He’s on my Meals on Wheels route, and he still likes to tell stories to anyone who’ll listen. I think I’ve heard them all about a hundred times, but they never get old. I told him I’m going to write them down and publish them someday, but I don’t think I could do them justice.”
Not only was Kate beautiful, intelligent, and adventurous, but she also delivered Meals on Wheels and camped out in an abandoned mine tunnel in the dead of winter to watch over a pregnant dog. Mad Dog stared at her incredulously, certain he was missing something because no woman could possibly be that perfect.
“Is he the one who told you about this place?”
“Yes. This place and others. This one is my favorite though.”
“Why is this one your favorite?”
She hesitated slightly before answering, “Why wouldn’t it be? It’s the ultimate super-secret hideaway.”
Kate’s gaze shifted to something over his shoulder, and she bit her lower lip. She wasn’t lying, but he got the sense she wasn’t telling him everything, either.
“How about you?” she said after several minutes passed. “Did you have any super-secret hideaways when you were a kid?”
“Sort of. Nothing as cool as this though.”
She relaxed again and handed him a thermos. “Tell me.”
He unscrewed the top of the thermos and sniffed, recognizing the delicious aroma of hot chocolate and marshmallow, and took a drink before he said, “I told you I grew up in the Midwest, right?”
She nodded.
“Well, it was pretty flat. We didn’t have mountains and caves. What we did have were storm cellars.”
“For tornadoes and stuff?”
“Right. Well, there was a big family farm a couple of miles from my parents’ place, and they had several strategically placed storm cellars over their three-thousand-some-odd acres. They became the place to hang out on Friday and Saturday nights.”
“The family didn’t mind?”
“They didn’t know. The old couple who owned the place died, and everything went to a daughter in California or something. The place was vacant for years until the daughter decided to return to her roots with her own family. That was right about the time I left.”
He took another drink from the thermos. “This is the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, by the way.”
Her face lit up. “It’s my secret recipe.”
“You’re just full of secrets, aren’t you, Miss Handelmann?”
She grinned, showcasing those dimples again. “Not really. I’m sure you have many more secrets than me, Mr. Sheppard.”
She wasn’t wrong.