Read Online Take Only Pictures by Laina Villeneuve - Free Book Online

satisfaction from his seething about his broken gear and how much trouble she caused him when he went to tie a load onto a mule with a shorter lashrope. All that had changed when she joined him in the backcountry.
    Kristine rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck, remembering how she’d told herself that it was those childish pranks that had prompted Nard to request her as the helper on his travel trips. She tried her best to stay out of his way on the trips and knew she could have avoided a lot of conflict with him if she’d just done her work, but his incompetence bothered her so much that she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t hold her tongue and continued to needle him.
    The jingle of the harness on the team her brother and Nard had taken down the wagon trail signaled their return. Kristine snapped the clippers back on, vowing to ignore the guys as she finished her task. Peripherally, she watched the day-ride crew join them. Once her stock was presentable for the season, she drifted to the shoeing shed to watch Dozer work, noticing his grimace as she pulled her camera out again. Just to mess with him, she kept taking shots from behind him, framing the mule’s foot with his rear.
    “Any of these kids need sneakers?” Gabe asked, making her jump. She tried to hide how much he’d startled her.
    “All of them,” she responded. “But I’ll tackle that tomorrow. Leo hasn’t said anything about having any spots for me yet.”
    “Nard’s got a big trip leaving in a few days. He was talking about how you could be second packer on it.”
    Kristine tensed at the suggestion and more so as she watched Nard approach her mules. She gathered her strength and marched across the yard. “I didn’t pack for any overnight trip,” she said pointedly.
    Nard ran his hand along Suzy-Q’s freshly-shorn mane. “I’ve got an extra bedroll you can use. It’s the Horse Heaven trip, too.”
    “I came back to work the Aspens with Gabe.”
    Nard moved with her, dropping his voice low enough that Gabe wouldn’t be able to hear. “You sure you didn’t come back for something else?” He openly leered at her. “Seems like a big coincidence your coming back right when I’m heading out there. I always thought it a shame…all those years you worked here and never once saw Horse Heaven.”
    “I never lost sleep over it,” Kristine said, knowing what he was insinuating.
    “I have.” He ran his hand down the mule’s rump, giving it a smack that made both the mule and Kristine jump. That made him smile. “I’ll tell my dad we’re all set with you as second packer.”
    She suppressed a shudder, trying to find a way out of the trip. She knew she’d have to face him this summer, but it was going to be on her own terms, not his. She glanced at Gabe, took in his puzzled expression, and knew she couldn’t say anything to Nard as he walked away.
    She untied Scooter and Suzy-Q from the rail and led them toward the stock truck they used for hauling horses and mules between the two pack outfits, leading them up the wooden platform. Her brother loaded Joker and Pepper.
    “Still spooked?” he asked.
    “No,” she lied, hating that now she also had to figure out how to divert her brother. When it first happened, it had been easier to tell him she’d been hurt tying one of the horses to the picket line in the backcountry. Being back, though, she could feel how closely he watched her, and his tone was serious and protective, something she hadn’t heard before, emotions she’d hoped to see in her father. Although he’d hesitated when she’d gone through her carefully crafted details, he accepted her story without question. She knew he’d be disappointed that she hadn’t followed the cowboy code of getting right back in the saddle, but even he couldn’t ignore that she wasn’t up to it physically for quite a few weeks. He couldn’t argue with her logic when she insisted that she wasn’t useful to Leo if she hurt too much