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her mouth spread into a slow grin. Sarcasm tainted her voice as she replied, “Yeah well, I’m rogue.”
    Elaine shook with laughter. The sound filled the trees and reverberated around them. “A rogue botanist!”
    Devon gave a toss of the head, a crooked smile showing her amusement and kept walking.
    It was some time before she stopped to settle her pack on a large rock. “This is where I need to start. Thank you for the company.”
    Devon stood just a step from Elaine. Elaine knew her own lips were slightly parted. The hike was not why her breath was shallow and her eyes unfocused. If she didn’t get it together, Devon would think she was a freak. She couldn’t stop looking at Devon’s lips.
    Devon did seem to be breathing hard from the hike. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she stared back at Elaine. So Elaine did the only thing that made sense. She said, “Have a good day,” before turning and walking off.

    Devon worked until the sun set each night for the next several days. Hours of squatting had caused knots in her thighs, but the ground was far too cold to sit on. She could feel the moisture gathering in the air. It wasn’t heavy enough for rain or snow yet, but she knew that it was coming. She wanted to get as much work done before the weather changed and it helped that she saw no more of the captain.
    She made sure to call Stacey and Raine on the designated nights. The static from the absence of cell towers and rough terrain made it difficult to maintain a signal, forcing her to keep the calls short and left her wondering how her sister was really doing. If she felt disconnected from Raine, she could only imagine how her husband Phillip felt, getting all his news while stationed in Iraq. She knew the days were getting longer, but the added minute each morning and each night weren’t doing much to help her meet her deadline.
    Her work was moving along at a snail’s pace thanks to the hard earth. It was still frozen and difficult to penetrate. Of course, she had expected it, but it made doing research tedious. Still she was able to examine root structures and color. A light mist was forming on the foliage when she finally decided to spend some time in her tent transferring her data to her computer. Her backpacker’s solar-based charging unit would give her well over two hours of battery life.
    The graphs and charts that she had made to compare to last year’s samples showed improvement, but the further she worked downriver the worse her findings. The hazmat team had arrived by helicopter within minutes of the reported derailment and worked as quickly as possible to erect a barrier. The one break they did catch was that it was a slow water season and the water level was low compared to other times during the year. In an attempt to prevent the chemical from reaching the Columbia River, they had placed absorption socks along the surface of the water. Luckily they had been successful in restricting the contamination to the South Croix River, but the result was that it had provided a smaller area for the pollutant to collect, causing more intense damage to this area of the river. The accumulation of the toxins had taken a serious toll on the plant life and Devon was disheartened by the data she collected.

Chapter 4

    Elaine spent the next four days staying busy and searching for the poachers. But no matter how busy she remained, Devon McKinney invaded her thoughts. How could she even think about Devon when she had decided that a break from women was exactly what she needed, especially after the way things ended with Grace? She had planned on taking some time to be single and free of the complications that women bring. But what she hadn’t planned on was Devon.
    Her mind replayed the events of the last time she had seen Devon, standing on the river bank gazing into Devon’s eyes, focusing on those perfectly luscious lips that made her heart race. When she looked at Devon she felt an unfamiliar heat radiate