“It was worth a try.”

“You put a lot of time and work into this.”

“You want a bill?”

She glanced back. “I’m not trying to make you mad. I was before, hoping you’d get pissed off and go, give me some space. I don’t know what to do about you, Coop, that’s a fact. I just don’t. I know we need to have all that out, but it’s not the time. Not enough time,” she corrected. “I need to call my parents, and take my shift outside.”

“There are enough people out there. You don’t need to take a shift. You’re worn out, Lil. It shows.”

“First you boost my confidence, now my ego.” She got out a thermos. “I guess that’s what friends are for.”

“Take the night off.”

“Would you? Could you, in my place? I’m not going to get any sleep anyway.”

“I could shoot you with the drug gun. That’d get you a few hours.”

“What are friends for?” he said when she laughed.

She filled the thermos, took it to him. “Here you go. I’ll be out after I call home.”

He got up, set the thermos on the table to take her arms. “Look at me. I’m never going to let anything happen to you.”

“Then we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

He laid his lips on hers, a brush, a rub. And her heart rolled over in her chest. “Or given that we’ve got other things to worry about. Take the coffee.”

He pulled on his rain gear first, then picked up the thermos. “I’m not sleeping on the couch.”

“No.”

She sighed when he went out. Choices, she thought again. It seemed she was making hers.

LIL STATIONED HERSELF and wandered along the fenceline of the small-cat area. Despite the rain, Baby and his companions played stalk-and-ambush with the big red ball. The bobcats raced each other up a tree, making a lot of mock growls and snarls. She suspected if it hadn’t been for the floodlights, the sounds, scents, sights of humans, the cats would have settled down out of the rain.

Across the habitat, the newest addition sent out the occasional barking roar, as if to say she didn’t know where the hell she was, as yet, but she was pretty damn important.

“It’s like they’re having a party.”

She smiled at Farley as he stepped up beside her to watch. “I guess they are. They appreciate an audience. I feel stupid out here tonight,” she told him. “Nobody’s going to troop down here in all this mess to bother me.”

“Seems to me that’s just when you have to be most careful. When you figure you’re safe.”

“Oh, well. Want some coffee?” She offered her thermos.

“I had some already, but I can’t say no.” He poured himself a little. “I’m figuring Tansy told you about things.”

“She did.” She waited until he’d glanced over. “I think she’s pretty lucky.”

His smile spread slowly. “Feels good you’d say so.”

“Two of my favorite people become each other’s favorite people? There’s no downside for me.”

“She thinks I’m going through a phase. Well, she wants to think that. Maybe she’ll keep thinking it until we have a couple of kids.”

She choked on a gulp of coffee. “Jesus, Farley, when you finally move, you move like a damn cheetah.”

“When you find what you want, what’s right, you might as well get going. I love her, Lil. She’s all flustered up about it, and how she feels about me. I don’t mind that so much. It’s kind of flattering, really.”

He drank coffee while the rain dripped from the brim of his hat. “Anyways, I’m hoping you’ll do me a favor.”

“I talked to her, Farley. Told her I thought you were perfect for her.”

“That’s nice to hear, too. But that’s not the favor. I was hoping you’d go with me and help me pick out a ring. I don’t know anything about that kind of thing. I don’t want to get the wrong kind.”

For a moment Lil could only stare. “Farley, I… Just like that? Seriously? You’re going to buy a ring and ask her to marry you? Just like that?”

“I already told her I love her and I’m going to marry her. I got her into bed.” Even in the dark she could see he flushed a little. “I don’t mean to talk out of school on that, but you said she told you. I want to get her what she’d like, and you’d have a good idea. Wouldn’t you?”

“I guess I would. I’ve never shopped for an engagement ring, but I think I know what she’d like if I saw it. Holy shit, Farley.”

“You think we could find the right one in Deadwood? Otherwise, I could drive us on into Rapid City.”

“Let’s try Deadwood. We should… I can’t get over it.” She studied him through the curtain of rain. “Farley.” With a laugh, she boosted up to her toes and gave him a smacking kiss. “Have you told Mom and Dad?”

“Jenna cried. The good kind of crying. She’s the one who said I should ask you to go with me for the ring. I made them promise not to say anything until it’s all done. You won’t say anything, Lil?”

“Lips. Sealed.”

“I wanted to talk to them first. Sort of-I don’t know… it sounds dumbass.”

“What?”

He shifted on his long, grasshopper legs. “Get their blessing, I guess.”

“It doesn’t sound dumbass. You’re a prize, Farley, I swear to God. How come you didn’t fall for me?”

He grinned, ducked his head a little. “Lil. You’re all but practically my sister.”

“Can I ask you something, Farley?”

“Sure.”

She began to walk with him, at a pace that would’ve been a stroll in the rain but for the guns both carried. “You had it rough as a kid.”

“Plenty do.”

“I know. I think I’m more aware of that because I didn’t. I had it pretty damn perfect. When you took off on your own, you were still a kid.”

“I can’t say I felt like one.”

“Why did you? Decide to leave, I mean. It’s a big, scary step. Even when the familiar’s crap, it’s still the familiar.”

“She was a hard woman to live with, and I got tired of living with strangers, then being put back with her and whoever she’d taken up with. I can’t remember many nights there wasn’t yelling or fighting going on. Sometimes she’d start it up, sometimes the man she was with would. Either way, I’d end up bleeding sooner or later. I thought about taking a bat to this one guy once, after he slapped us both around. But he was a big man, and I was afraid he’d get it away from me and bash me with it.”