She had punched his shoulder. “What? You think Libby Riddles is better than me?”
“No, it’s just, you don’t have any dogs,” he said.
She had laughed, said something like, “I’ll get me some dogs,” and then practically yelled, “Half them’s in the race is women, you know.”
Since she smiled when she said it, he had added, “You’d have to go all the way up to Alaska, you know.”
Her husband had coughed or called, and she stopped and looked at the closed bedroom door as if he wasn’t calling for her, but telling her she was talking too much.
“You think I can’t get off this mountain or something?” And then she had winked.
It wasn’t that she had a thing for Perry. The backcountry could be a lonely place. His visits seemed to cheer her up, though, and he, in turn, basked in her company. Thompson
