Kate paused in the act of starting the snow machine. “What?” Where had that come from?

“Yeah. He said”-Johnny scratched beneath his cap- “he said he was the best trooper he knew and a good man, even if he was a colossal pain in the ass.”

Kate relaxed. “Yeah, that sounds like he liked him a whole hell of a lot.”

Johnny grinned. “He said the same thing about you.”

It surprised a laugh out of her. “Mount up, mouthie.”

“What are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to build an extension to my cabin,” Kate said, grinning at him. “A room for you. How are you with tools?”

He looked at her, uncertain. “What about my mom? She knows where you live. She could find me.”

“She could,” Kate agreed.

“She could make me go with her.”

“Could she?”

She watched him think it over, and she was still watching when his face split in a sudden grin. “No. No, I don’t think she could.”

The grin made him so like his father that her breath caught in her throat. “I don’t, either.” She started the snow machine. “Get on.”

It was crowded on the seat between Kate, Johnny, Gal, and Mutt, but they were all going home together.