The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [172]
But then Gabe had dismissed her, and that she was more than used to. Except with the heroes she’d interviewed, the men who wanted their unique stories told.
Damn, Mr. Kasper was an enigma.
“Don’t mind that none, miss. Gabe always gets more’n his share of notice from the fillies.”
Elizabeth snapped her attention to Bear. His name suited him, she thought, as she looked way, way up into his grizzled face. “I beg your pardon?”
He nodded toward the docks, where Gabe and the woman were chatting cozily. Elizabeth curled her lip. It was disgusting for a woman to put on such an absurd display, especially right out in the open like that. And for Gabe to encourage her so…Good grief, he had a responsibility to the community as a role model after all the attention they’d given him.
“Has he acted any different since becoming a town hero?” During her research, Elizabeth had discovered that people heralded for valor quickly adapted to all the fanfare and added interest thrown their way.
Bear chuckled. “Not Gabe. Truth is, folks in these parts have pretty much always looked up to him and his brothers. I don’t think anyone doubted Gabe would do something once he noticed what had happened. Any one of his brothers would have done the same.”
“He mentioned his brothers. Can you tell me something about them?”
“Be glad to!” Bear mopped a tattered bandanna around his face, then stuck it in his back pocket. “The oldest brother, Sawyer, is the town doc, and a damn good one to boot. He takes care of everyone from the newborns to the elders. Got hisself married to Honey, a real sweet little woman, about a year back. And that cut his patient load down considerable like. Seems some of the womenfolk coming to see him weren’t really sick, just ambitious.”
Bear grinned, but Elizabeth shook her head in exasperation.
“Right after Sawyer is Morgan, the sheriff, who generally looks like he just crawled right off a cactus, but he’s as nice as they come as long as you stay on his good side.” He leaned close to whisper, “And folks in these parts definitely stay on his good side.”
“Lovely.” Elizabeth tried to picture these two respectable men related to Gabe, who looked like a beach bum, but she couldn’t quite manage it.
“Morgan up and married Honey’s sister, Misty, just a bit after Sawyer married. He smiles more these days—that is, when she doesn’t have him in a temper. She does seem to enjoy riling that boy.”
It was a sure sign of Bear’s age that he’d call a man older than Gabe a boy.
“Then there’s Jordan, the best damn vet Buckhorn County has to offer. He can sing to an animal, and damned if it won’t sing back! That man can charm a bird out of a tree or lull an ornery mule asleep. He’s still a bachelor.”
Good grief. Elizabeth could do no more than blink. Doctor, sheriff, vet. It was certainly an impressive family. “What does Gabe do for a living?”
Bear scratched beneath his chin, thinking, and then he looked away. “Thing is, Gabe’s the youngest, and he don’t yet know what it is he wants to do. Mostly he’s a handyman, sort of a jack-of-all-trades. That boy can do just about anything with his hands. He’s—”
“He doesn’t have a job?” Elizabeth didn’t mean to sound so shocked, but Rosemary had told her Gabe was twenty-seven years old, and to Elizabeth’s mind, that was plenty old enough to have figured out your life’s ambition.
“Well…”
She shook her head, cutting off whatever lame excuses Bear was prepared to make. “I got the impression from a few things Rosemary said that he worked here.