Her Dakota Man (Book 1 - Dakota Hearts) Read Online Free PDF Page B

arrived. No matter how long she’d lived in New York, Rudolph had been home and it pained her to see the people she knew and cared about suffering so badly.
    She was relieved to get to the shelter at the elementary school. She was starving, but more than that, she wanted to make sure the people she knew were as okay as they could be after losing so much. Logan had taken off quickly, so Poppy milled around the open gymnasium, talking with old friends that had settled into cots with what little provision they’d managed to grab before the water got too high. She looked around and didn’t see Logan and decided he must be in the cafeteria where meals were being served.
    “Hey, guys. I knew I’d find you where the food was,” Poppy said when she found Logan and Keith sitting at a table with his brother Ethan. Ethan…now there was one surprise. Once the hellion of the McKinnon brothers, he’d straightened himself out after the death of his best friend in a four-wheeling accident by joining the military and becoming a Navy Seal. Today he was dressed in police blues.
    He smiled and stood up when he saw her coming around to his side of the table. “Now this is a surprise,” she said, giving him a quick hug.
    “Which part,” Ethan asked. “Me being home after all this time or me wearing a badge?”
    Laughing, she said, “Both. It’s good to see you.”
    “Same here.”
    Ethan stood as tall as Logan and shared the same dark hair and blue eyes, but that was where the fraternal twins’ resemblance ended. Logan and Ethan were the youngest of the McKinnon boys, not that it mattered much since Kate McKinnon had given birth to five strapping Irish boys in six years.
    Keith giggled and pointed to her.
    “Did I miss something?” she asked.
    “Your face is all dirty,” he said, still laughing.
    Ethan bent down, took a napkin from the table and dabbed it in his cup of water. “I’m surprised my idiot brother didn’t tell you about the mud streak along the side of your face.”
    “What?” she gasped, taking the wet napkin and scrubbing it against her skin. She looked at Logan and saw how he was fighting to keep from smiling. “Thanks a lot! I’ve been all around that gymnasium talking to people. Why didn’t you say something?”
    “You said you were hungry and would clean up later,” he gave her an impish grin that made her knees turn to butter.
    “And I’m supposed to be thankful for your consideration?” She threw the napkin at him and he moved to keep it from hitting his face. It bounced off his shoulder and then landed on the table.
    “Please tell me you at least saved me a plate of food.”
    “Mom has it warming in the kitchen,” Logan said.
    “I’ll get it for you Auntie Poppy!”
    Keith was quick to jump down from the bench in his excitement.
    “We’ll both get it, little man. I have to tell Grammie I’m heading out again.” Ethan turned to Poppy and gave her a quick peck of a kiss on her newly cleaned cheek. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
    “I won’t.”
    She sat in the seat next to Logan and propped her elbows on the table.
    “Tired?” he asked.
    “Yeah. But I’ll bet your mom is a thousand times more tired than me. She had to have been cooking all day.”
    “She was. But she’s taking the morning off. Skylar is taking care of everything at the restaurant so she’ll be able to sleep in. Not that my mother ever does. But you know what I mean.”
    “Yeah, I do.”
    “Did you get to visit with everyone?”
    “Some. I can’t believe Dan and Sherry Boden’s house lifted right off the foundation and floated down the river!”
    Logan grimaced, worry and fatigue both pulling at his handsome features. “Yeah, thank God they made it out of the house and to higher ground before that happened.”
    “Were you home when the water came in?”
    “Me and Keith were in the bedroom upstairs. I tried to keep him distracted and away from the window. I kept checking outside but it was too hard to