Only one name apiece. Was this an Alaskan custom or something Gabe did?

“It’s nice to meet you both.” Julie stopped and then mentally kicked herself. Add to the conversation, girl. “Will you be fishing for salmon?”

“No, miss,” Tucker said. “The salmon runs won’t start for another month. This is just a plain-ol’-trout day.”

Trout? She liked trout. She watched as Zappa started putting together his gear. That looked…complicated. How did a person go about learning to fish?

When she looked up, she realized the men had gone silent—and Gabe and Tucker were watching her.

“Got an interest in fishing, miss?” Tucker asked.

“I… Yes?” She pushed her hair back, feeling twigs and grass. “Dante said he’d show me how if I got a license. But he’s been busy.”

Gabe’s eyebrows lifted. “You have a license?”

“In my wallet.”

Zappa looked up with a gap-toothed grin. “Nothing more fun than teaching a new fisher-person. Got your tackle with you, Chief?”

Gabe also knew how to fish? “Do you know how to do everything in the whole world?” Belatedly, she realized her tone was totally vexed-sounding.

He only laughed and tucked an arm around her. “If I say yes, are you going to hit me?”

“With my luck, you’d arrest me,” she muttered, and the two fishermen laughed.

“Damn straight.” Gabe ran his fingers through her hair, picking out a couple of twigs. “But I do have my fishing tackle, and you can have a fishing lesson right now, if you’d like.”

“Really?” Delight rose like froth on the waves. “You’d really show me how?”

Gabe’s piercing blue eyes softened. “Sure.”

“Hands-on,” Zappa said. “That’s the best way. Get your shit, Chief.”

An hour later, Audrey caught her first fish.

On the way back to Julie’s house, Gabe couldn’t stop watching the little cheechako. Yeah, she was a tad uncertain with people. He’d seen moments when she’d start to retreat and then push herself into talking again. She had courage.

And she’d learned everything they taught with frightening speed, never needing to be shown anything mechanical twice. Fuck, she was smart. However, her physical skills weren’t up to par with her mental ones. It’d be awhile before she got good at casting.

Hadn’t dimmed her enthusiasm, though.

She wasn’t a jump-up-and-cheer sort of person. No, she was far quieter, but her eyes would light, her face would pinken, and she’d focus in like a laser sight. He’d had SEALs under his command like her. Smart, brave, determined.

Yeah, he liked her and for more than her curvy body and sweet lips and generous response. For more than her pretty gasps when she got off.

He still couldn’t believe he’d told her about the ambush.