Then he rescued the charred cookies and turned off the oven.

“Is it safe?” he heard from within the house.

“Well, unless you wanted a cookie. There were some casualties.”

“The bear?”

“His work here was done,” Aiden said. “He was alone and he’s gone.”

Erin walked into the great room. She looked around—the giant bowl she’d used to mix the cookie batter was in pieces on the floor, a chair was turned over, a cookie sheet was across the room on the floor. The three crashes were minor losses and the bear was gone.

“I’m getting the hell out of here,” she muttered.

Aiden stooped to pick up the pieces of broken ceramic bowl. He dumped them in the trash. No mess there. The bear had cleaned it thoroughly. “You don’t have to.” He picked up her paperback. “I rescued your dirty book,” he said with a smile.

“It’s not dirty!”

“Oh? Too bad. It looks pretty good.”

“It’s just a…a…women’s book…you know…”

He pulled a couple of beers out of the refrigerator. He took the tops off two bottles and handed her one. “I’d like to sit out on your deck with this,” he said. “Especially since I walked ten miles to get here today and I know I’m not wearing your fragrance, but under the circumstances, maybe we’ll just stay in. What do you say?”

“I’m getting the hell out of here!” But she took the beer; then she took a slug.

“It’ll be okay, Erin,” he said softly. “He’s gone. I’ll leave you the repellent. They don’t have grizzlies around here. Black bears will usually run off unless you’re between a mother and cub. Apparently they like chocolate-chip cookies. I don’t suppose you tucked any away before Yogi came in?”

“No! And you can be damn sure I’m not making any more!”

He pulled out a chair from the kitchen table. She pulled out a chair and sat. He leaned toward her. “You don’t have to go. If the doors are closed, I don’t think they’ll break in. Well, a raccoon might sneak in, but they’ll often run if you just bang a pot.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re saying?” she asked.

“I’m saying—don’t go, Erin. Just give it a few more days and you’ll see—the wildlife won’t bother you if you’re unobtrusive. If you see a bear, bang a spoon inside a soup pot. Really, they don’t like people.”

She frowned. “Unobtrusive? What kind of a word is that for an EMT to use?” she asked.

He lifted a brow and grinned. “Big?” he asked hopefully.

“I don’t know. I should pack and start driving….”

“Don’t,” he said. “We can have some fun, you and me….”

“I haven’t seen you in days! I’m going—”

“The family was gathering and I had to help. To tell you the truth, they’re already on my nerves. But I think they’re all settled in now. Stay a few more days at least.”

She leaned toward him. “Why?” she asked earnestly.

He shrugged. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve seen in Virgin River.” He grinned. “I’ll leave you the repellent, but you’ll have to drive me to town. There’s a bear hopped up on chocolate out there and I’ll be unarmed.” He leaned toward her. “Listen, take your phone and repellent into the bedroom and close those doors when you go to bed tonight. Put the dresser in front of the door if you want to. Make sure you don’t have any food or garbage out where a bear could smell it or get to it, and see if you don’t feel better about this in a day or two. You can always call the sheriff’s department and tell them a bear got right in your house—they might put out an alert, just in case it’s a troublemaker.”

“My good sense says that staying would be taking a ridiculous chance.”

“Really,” he said. “Don’t go. Not yet. Honest—I wouldn’t suggest it if I thought there was any real danger.”

She thought for a minute, then she shook her head and said, “If a bear eats me, you’re going to feel terrible.”

“I think if you leave I’ll feel terrible.”

Luke Riordan had always been an early riser, but it was definitely more pronounced now that he had a wife in the late stages of pregnancy. It was hard for Shelby to get comfortable, or stay comfortable, and sometimes she was up in the night rooting around for Tums or ice cream for the heartburn that inevitably settled in after she’d been lying down.

He had no complaints about the lack of sleep or the early hours. He wished she could have it easier, of course. It looked to him as if she was carrying way too heavy a load for her small frame, and he had concerns about her being able to give birth to his son. That kid was ready to ride a skateboard out of Shelby, and she still had at least a couple of weeks to go! Fortunately he was surrounded by experts. Mel said, “Yeah, I think I was pretty much that size or worse—amazing, isn’t it?” Jack said, “I feel your pain, my brother.” Aiden said, “She’s sure getting there, isn’t she?” No one was panicked, so he decided not to panic.

He woke early, wandered through the cabin area with a cup of coffee, checking out the grounds, which were usually peaceful at that hour of the morning. After just a couple of nights with the RV in the compound, George and his mother had taken it over to Noah’s place so they could spend some quality time with George’s family. Then they had reservations at an RV park in Fortuna where they could get a hookup, which meant their plumbing and electricity would be maintained by the park. Much more convenient. And since they had towed his mother’s small sedan, they had no trouble getting around without dragging their entire house with them.

Sean, Franci and Rosie weren’t up and about yet. Art wasn’t a real early riser. Aiden had begged off dinner the night before, saying he was going over to the coast and would get something to eat over there. There was nothing mysterious about that. Why would a thirty-six-year-old bachelor feel like spending night after night with his brother and incredibly pregnant sister-in-law?

But as Luke walked past Aiden’s SUV, he noticed the man had the backseat collapsed and there were a couple of new bikes in there. He peered into the window and saw they were trail bikes, a boy bike and a girl bike. Interesting. Couple of helmets there, as well. And there was a basket thingie—like something that attached to a bike. A picnic basket? Luke wondered. Well, how precious.

While Luke was standing there with his cup of coffee, the door to Aiden’s cabin opened and he came out. Luke nearly stepped back in shock. Aiden was clean shaven. He didn’t even look like the same man. With that beard gone and his black hair trimmed, Aiden didn’t look capable of producing that big red bush on his face. “Whoa,” Luke said.

“It got a little itchy,” Aiden said.

Luke just grinned. “You lyin’ sack of shit. You did it for a woman!”

“Get real,” Aiden said.

“Who is she? You meet someone over on the coast?”

“Nah. I just got tired of looking like a vagrant, that’s all. And Mom hated it.”

Luke laughed heartily at that. “You are so full of shit,” he said too loudly. “You have a boy bike and a girl bike and a f**king picnic basket in your car!”

Aiden stood still and glared at Luke. Aiden might not be the oldest, but he was very good at affecting a superior expression. “This camp isn’t going to get five stars in the AAA brochure if you wake the guests at dawn with your asinine guffawing,” he said.

“I would’a loaned you the Harley, Aiden, so you could take your woman on a manly ride,” he said, grinning widely. “All you had to do was ask.”

“Those manly rides crack heads and break femurs,” the doctor replied.

“Yeah? Wait till one of those logging trucks tries to pass you while you’re on one of those pu**y things. You’ll wish you had my Harley under you.”

“You about done?” Aiden asked.

“Not even getting started,” Luke said with a laugh. “Come on—who is she? What did you find over on the coast? And how long ago? When do you expect to be home? We have a curfew around here, you know.”

Aiden walked around Luke, lifted the hatch and reached inside to pull out his nifty new basket. He closed the hatch and went back into his cabin. “Don’t wait up, asshole,” he said over his shoulder. He slammed the cabin door. For someone who advocated quiet for the guests, he wasn’t being particularly considerate.

Luke laughed again with delight—Aiden had a female somewhere. Big surprise—Riordan men didn’t have dicks so much as divining rods. And they had always taken great pleasure in their brothers’ conquests, provided they weren’t total nutcases. Unfortunately, there had been some memorable ones.

Luke heard a sound and looked over his shoulder to see his wife come out on the front porch of the house, her belly preceding her. Her long hair was messy from sleep and she wore a pair of his boxers with the waistband rolled down under her belly and one of his T-shirts pulled over the top. How, he asked himself, can she look so pregnant and so sexy at the same time? He just shook his head and went to her. With one hand holding his mug, he slipped the other arm around her and pulled her against him. He kissed her forehead and his son kicked him.

“You get any sleep?” he asked her.

“Uh-huh. I feel pretty good. I feel huge, but good.” She looked down. “I have ankles.”

He looked down. “I see that. Nice.” He backed up a step and sat on one on the chairs, pulling her onto his lap. “Come here. Sit on my lap and if you’re sweet, you can have a little sip of my coffee.”

“Mmm,” she hummed, grabbing his mug. “What was all that noise? I heard you laughing.”

“Aiden’s got himself a summer girl,” Luke said.

“A what?”

“A summer girl. He found himself a woman. He’s got bikes in his car and—” Luke stopped as the door to the cabin opened and Aiden emerged with his basket. He balanced it on a hip and gave Shelby a wave. Then he got in his car and backed out of the cabin compound.

“What?” Shelby asked again, once Aiden’s car was gone.

“Aiden’s chasing tail,” Luke said.

Shelby shook her head and sighed. “You are so delicate,” she said, running her fingernails through the short hair at his temple. “Remind me, you are not allowed to train our son in the manly pursuits. I’ll take care of that. You’re crude, rude and socially unacceptable.”

“What? Aiden’s chasing a woman! How mysterious is that? I hope he gets lucky, that’s all. But knowing Aiden…”

“Knowing Aiden, what?”

Luke shrugged. “He’s kind of, I don’t know, not exactly after it. You know?”

She laughed at Luke. “My dear husband, Aiden is totally hot!”

“Aiden?”

“Oh, yes. If I weren’t married and seventeen months pregnant, I would so be after him!”

“Aiden?”

“Luke, you really have no idea.”

“Baby, he’s got bicycles in his car! I told him he could have the Harley, but he’s got bicycles! How hot is that?”

“He is completely and totally sexy.”

Luke was quiet for a minute. “I don’t want to hear this.”

She laughed at him, kissed his neck, and his baby kicked.

“Bet he can’t do that,” Luke said, rubbing a hand over her big belly. “Bet he can’t make one like this. This kid is going to come out half-grown.”

Shelby just shook her head and moaned. “Oh, Luke, you are such a comfort to me. I don’t know how I resisted you as long as I did.”

Seven

Aiden drove up the road to Erin’s mountaintop and was relieved to note her SUV was still there—she hadn’t run. He got out of his own SUV, leaned against it in the opened door and hit the horn. He had to hit it again and again before she appeared, standing in the cabin door, a plush robe wrapped around her. Her feet were bare; she rubbed the top of one foot with the toes of the other. Her hair was mussed and he got a little turned on. She was without makeup; she’d been asleep and she woke up pretty and sexy. He counted that as a very good sign. “Oh, good,” he said. “You actually got some sleep and the bear didn’t eat you.”

She squinted at him. “Aiden?” she asked. “Aiden?”

“I shaved and got a haircut. You can never tell when I might have an interview for a job or something.”

“I meant to mention when you turned up with Art, I’m impressed you actually have a car. One that’s under ten years old. Wow.”

“Get dressed—I’m going to take you out and show you how to have fun.” He wore shorts, tennis shoes without socks, a light jacket over a T-shirt, ready for a casual day.

“Huh? I was asleep!”

“It’s time to get up, Erin,” he said patiently. “Put on some shorts and tennis shoes. I have sunscreen…. You have that weak redhead’s skin and we have to keep you from getting burned. I don’t suppose you have a ball cap?”

“No,” she said irritably.

“Well, I brought you a helmet, you’ll be okay. I have bikes and a picnic lunch in the car.”

“But I haven’t had a shower! Or breakfast!”

“I can wait a little while, but let’s not burn daylight. I’ll buy you breakfast. Or grab one of those candy-ass yogurts for the road.”