She dashed back to her room, threw on her sleepshirt, grabbed her bathrobe, and was on her way to the front door when Jason stopped her.
“You’ve got some of me on your cheek.” Chuckling, he wiped it off with his thumb. “You’re good.”
“Thanks.” She tied her bathrobe, hurried to the door, opened it. “Toniktuha he?”
How are you?
Chaska stepped inside. “Hey, what’s going on? Megs says you and Chiago spent the night at the Cimarron, that you’re helping Jack and Nate with a wolf?”
“It’s a long story. Coffee?” She’d just set the pot on to boil when Jason walked into the kitchen, fully dressed.
Chaska’s expression went hard. “Chiago.”
Jason acknowledged her brother with a nod. “Belcourt. Congratulations on the birth of your son.”
“Thanks.”
Winona didn’t feel like she owed Chaska an explanation. She wasn’t sixteen. Still, she had to say something. “Jason is staying in the guest room. Jack West asked the two of us to help him track a wolf that was killing his steers. It turns out that the wolf belonged to a poacher who was encamped illegally on Forest Service land. We found a female wolfdog and four pups at his camp, too, but the wolf got away.”
That was the truth—if not the whole truth.
“What? Wait. Start over. You tracked a wolf?”
Over coffee, Winona and Jason told Chaska the story, filling in most of the blanks, leaving out only the fact that they were sleeping together.
“And this bastard is in custody?” he asked.
Jason told him what McBride had shared in a text. “He’s in a Denver hospital with a broken pelvis. The four-wheeler flipped on him. But the wolf is still out there.”
Winona changed the subject. “How are Naomi and Shota?”
Chaska’s expression softened. “They’re coming home tomorrow. Can we talk for a minute, Win?”
Here it comes.
She walked with Chaska into her backyard.
Chaska didn’t mince words. “Are you sleeping with him?”
“That’s between Jason and me. I’m a grown woman, Chaska.”
He stopped, worry on his dear face. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. What do you really know about this man?”
“I know enough.”
Chaska nodded, stepped back. “You’re a grown woman, and I trust you to do what’s right. I just can’t remember a time when you were unwilling to share your heart with me. It’s not like you to shut me out, sister.”
He turned and walked out through her back gate, leaving Winona to wrestle with her emotions.
Chapter 17
While Winona didher rounds at the clinic, Jason rinsed the breakfast dishes and put them in the dishwasher, unable to get the stupid grin off his face, his mind all over her. Had he been wearing this same grin earlier when her brother had stopped by? Maybe that’s why Chaska had looked like he wanted to punch Jason in the face.
Still, Jason couldn’t be too hard on himself. He’d just gotten the best head of his life. He’d been surprised that he’d been able to stand upright and speak in complete sentences after Winona had finished with him.
God, she was amazing—both in bed and out.
She’d come back inside from her little chat with Chaska, worry in her eyes. Jason didn’t have to ask what was wrong. Chaska didn’t like the idea of Jason sleeping with his little sister. But Winona was an adult woman. She didn’t need Chaska’s approval to take a man to her bed.