Follow A Wild Heart (romance,) Read Online Free Page A

how to walk on logs that way? Could anybody learn how?" he asked worshipfully, and Karena glanced down at him, at the innocence and enthusiasm he radiated.
    She gave the little boy a smile so potent that Logan was immediately envious.
    "I guess I started learning when I was a bit younger than you, and I still have to practice a lot," Karena explained, and Alex took a step closer still, eager to have the rest of his questions answered before his sister Liz could take the conversation over as she always did. He peered up into Karena's face blinking against the sun.
    "Did you fall in the water lots before you learned? D'you wear special shoes?"
    "The shoes have cleats in the bottom, which helps some, and yes, I was just like a drowned rat for the first year or so. Danny knows, he's been at it since he was five or six, didn't he tell you?"
    Both twins turned their admiring gaze on Danny and continued to bombard the boy and his mother with questions.
    Under cover of their chattering, Logan cleverly began steering the group out of the area of the timber show and toward the concession stands.
    Karena, still explaining details to Alex, was hardly aware that they were moving along together until they reached the benches ringing the stand that advertised Bunyan Burgers.
    "Sit here, where there's some shade," Logan suggested, pointing at a bench placed under a tree. A peculiar sense of elation consumed him when Karena hesitated and then sat down.
    "Danny and I will take your food orders and then bring them over," Logan announced.
    Danny beamed proudly, moving to stand near Logan, and Alex took the opportunity to slip into the seat next to Karena. She smiled fondly down at the boy.
    Logan patiently listened to the twins' complex and detailed instructions for what they wanted, and Karena watched him covertly as he furrowed his brow and pretended to jumble the orders, making the twins giggle at his nonsense, and when he turned his attention to her, the crooked half smile flashed and he winked conspiratorially at her.
    What a nice man he was, she thought wistfully.
    "Will madam have the pheasant under glass or the trout?" he purred then, gazing seriously down into her eyes.
    Karena was suddenly uncomfortable, not used to such teasing.
    "That's fine, Danny will get ours," she stammered, fumbling in her wallet for money. A large, warm hand closed over both of hers, a hand with just a sprinkling of dark hairs on the back, and a sensation of tingling pleasure wound slowly up her arms.
    Logan shook his head, frowning.
    "Please," he said quietly, holding her gaze against her will and not moving his hand from where it restrained her own. "You don't want to spoil my whole day, do you? I invited you and Danny to lunch, so I'm buying. How often do I get a chance to take a champion to lunch?"
    "Before you even know how much we can eat? Wow." The awe in Danny's tone made both Logan and Karena laugh, breaking the tension that had sprung up between them for an instant.
    It seemed silly to protest any more, so Karena waited with the twins, and a short time later, Logan and Danny unloaded cardboard trays stacked with burgers, fries, milk shakes, sodas and coffee.
    Logan slid into a space directly across the table from Karena, and she helped him distribute the food. By the time everyone had what they'd ordered, an easy camaraderie had been established between the adults, and Karena unwrapped her burger and bit hungrily into it, forgetting to be self-conscious.
    She was still acutely aware of the man across the table, but it was hard even for her to be nervous in the presence of a man with sauce dribbling down the beguiling cleft in his strong chin.
    "Uncle Logan," Liz remonstrated severely, "use your napkin, you got stuff all over your face."
    Logan saluted his dictatorial niece and nonchalantly wiped his chin, winking at Karena again.
    Liz turned to Karena, as one female to another, to confide, "We have a new baby named Nicole, six weeks old, and you should