“Off the hook?” Lee shot him an astonished look. “I don’t want to touch it.”

“You have to touch it to take it off the hook.”

Lee lifted a brow. “I’ll just toss it back in.”

With a shrug, Hunter shut his eyes and enjoyed the faint breeze. The hell she would. “Your fish, not mine.”

Torn between an abhorrence of touching the still-flopping fish and pride at having caught it, Lee stared down at Hunter. He wasn’t going to help; that was painfully obvious. If she threw the fish back into the water, he’d smirk at her for the rest of the evening. Intolerable. And, she reasoned logically, wouldn’t she still have to touch it to get rid of it? Setting her teeth, Lee reached out a hand for the catch of the day.

It was wet, slippery and cold. She pulled her hand back. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hunter grinning up at her. Holding her breath, Lee took the trout firmly in one hand and wiggled the hook out with the other. If he hadn’t been looking at her, challenging her, she never would’ve managed it. With the haughtiest air at her disposal, she dropped the trout into the small cooler Hunter brought along on fishing trips.

“Very good.” He closed the lid on the cooler before he reeled in his line. “That looks like enough for tonight’s dinner. You caught a good-sized one, Lenore.”

“Thank you.” The words were icily polite and self-satisfied.

“It’ll nearly be enough for both of us, even after you’ve cleaned it.”

“It’s as big as…” He was already walking back toward camp, so that she had to run to catch up with him and his statement. “I clean it?”

“Rule is, you catch, you clean.”

She planted her feet, but he wasn’t paying attention. “I’m not cleaning any fish.”

“Then you don’t eat any fish.” His words were as offhand and careless as a shrug.

Abandoning pride, Lee caught at his arm. “Hunter, you’ll have to change the rule.” She sighed, but convinced herself she wouldn’t choke on the word. At least not very much. “Please.”

He stopped, considering. “If I clean it, you’ve got to balance the scales—” the smile flickered over his face “—no pun intended, by doing me a favor.”

“I can cook two nights in a row.”

“I said a favor.”

Her head turned sharply, but one look at his face had her laughing. “All right, what’s the deal?”

“Why don’t we leave it open-ended?” he suggested. “I don’t have anything in mind at the moment.”

This time, she considered. “It’ll be negotiable?”

“Naturally.”

“Deal.” Turning her palms up, Lee wrinkled her nose. “Now I’m going to wash my hands.”