Elena nodded that she had and took it out of the fridge for her. She finished cooking her bacon and eggs. She then smothered honey-butter on her toast. Marie watched her in awe and still wondered how she could eat so much. When she wiped up the last of the egg yolk with her toast she popped it into her mouth and hummed contentedly. She sipped her coffee and felt the rush of caffeine hit her system. Marie sipped hers and smiled, Elena had been right, it was very dark and very rich but it wasn't bitter at all."Well, now that I don't have the raving urge to fill my mouth with eggs and bacon, we can talk. I saw that look, and I'll eat that for dessert, now hush. I want to run an idea past you, but I don't want you to feel pressured in any way. I'm thinking of quitting at the Acantha and trying to find something in Helena."Marie beamed and snickered."You're trying to see if I want you to move in with me, aren't you? Well, the answer is YES! I would love it if you would move in with me."

"There you go mark, all your troubles are answered. It's my resignation. I quit."Elena turned, went to her desk and gathered up her things before heading for the door. Rhoda had just heard her announcement and she was pissed. She had wanted to get Elena into trouble and here she was walking out before that could happen. She had hoped to get her fired, but by quitting, Elena still held the high ground."Elena, wait a minute. Why?""Well, mark, I have had it with that little bitch over there. I was in a perfectly happy mood when I came to work today. But when she jumped me three seconds after walking in and implied that I was trying to get her fired because I wouldn't let her finish the interview, which by the way, lasted over two hours yesterday. Then she had the gall to grab me physically, which I told her was a really bad idea and to not ever do it again. Since I was planning on it anyway, that just put the icing on the cake and instead of in two weeks, I'm out of here today.""She

"It's got a custom ladder sight and the wood has been reworked and reinforced to take the recoil of that brutal cartridge, they hand rubbed five coats of Tung oil into it."She really didn't know about the wood finish, but the ladder sight was neat."Okay, sold."He smiled and nodded. He got out the paperwork for her to fill out and he called in her ID and information and the NCIC check came back clear. He put the sling kit on the rifle and slipped it into the carry case and handed it to her."I do have one more favor to ask, if you don't mind?""Miss Brandt, anything for the lady who can shoot a Rossi .454 Casull and smile."Elena laughed."I need to find somebody who can teach me how to hunt and skin the animals. I want to go hunting so I can fill my freezer with good meat. I want to be able to do that myself.""Miss. you just went up three notches on my respect scale. I would gladly teach you how to do that. My wife goes hunting with me and I know she would love to have another wom

Elena blushed again and she saw Marcy shoot a look at Gab that was a mixture of surprise and annoyance. Goob just grinned and shook his head. He had wanted to surprise his wife with his new friend, and it had worked."I surprise a lot of people, Marcy. So don't feel embarrassed about it, you should have seen Goob's face when I shot that rifle for the first time and just grinned at him like a kid at Christmas. He didn't know what to say or do for a minute there."Marcy laughed and nodded, immediately taking to Elena's easy-going personality and humor."Yeah, I've managed to do that to him a couple times myself. Let me just get the rest of the food into the cooler and then we can hit the road."Marcy went back into her kitchen and Elena waited with Goob."Okay, Elena, we're heading for a friend's ranch and the roads are almost non-existent once we get into the higher elevations. Here's a radio for you to use so we can stay in contact if we get separated. It's got a 12-mile range out on

"I forgot to eat dinner last night and camping always gives me a huge appetite. I'll burn it all off before the day is over. Well, maybe. You have brought some horses but when I go camping, I'm always on foot. So I normally hike ten miles in one day when I go out.""Oh, okay. Yeah, I'd eat that much too if I was going to hike ten miles."Gab just sat there and grinned as he sipped his coffee. Marcy and Elena finished their breakfasts almost simultaneously. They washed their plates and cleaned out the skillets. Gab doused the fire while Elena and Marcy drank their coffee. She watched Gab as he saddled the horses. She was still nervous about this exercise. She didn't know if the horse they would try to get her on would stand still enough for her to do so. She went through her calming exercises in her head, trying to still her nervousness. She figured that if she didn't feel nervous, the horse would be calm as well.They finished their coffee and went over to where Gab was waiting for th