“Why?” I mean seriously, I’m just doing my job. “Do you think I just lounge around inside without taking into account where I am?”
“Pretty much.”
I decide to ignore him and ask, “What about you? Where do you write?”
“In my office at home.”
“Do you live around here?” I never thought about where Brogan lived before, but seeing him in this environment it’s hard to visualize him anywhere else. He seems to fit.
“I live on the coast. But, now that my mom is going to hand over a chunk of land to me, I’ll be building a house right here in Spartan.”
“If you win the bet,” I remind him.
“When I win the bet.” There’s a gleam in his eye that makes me want to punch him.
“You’re a real butthead, you know that?”
He puts his hand up and shrugs innocently. “I like to think I’m a keen observer of life.”
“I’m sure you’d like to think a lot of things, but I’m here to prove you wrong.”
“Says the woman who got stuck in the outhouse,” he laughs.
“That could have happened to anyone.”
“Yet, it’s never happened to me.” Oh. My. God. He’s lucky we’re not standing near a precipice or he’d be wishing he could fly right now.
I ignore him and try to absorb my surroundings. The woods are very peaceful, dappled sunlight shines through the trees adding to the ethereal quality. It’s probably a solid fifteen degrees cooler here than by the river, where there’s no shade. It must be ninety degrees in the valley today. I’d look it up on my phone, but alas, that’s not an option.
I’m so busy staring at the tops of the trees, I don’t realize Brogan has stopped walking until I run into him. Before I can yell at him to move, he puts his hand to his mouth to shush me. Then he points to an area about twenty feet in front of us.
A mother deer is standing there with two fawns grazing contentedly. It’s the sweetest scene ever. I’m about to walk closer to them when Brogan grabs my arm to stop me. That’s when we hear growling.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Mothers
Ruby: Sorry I didn’t text you back sooner. Where are you?
Libby: Sitting in the Sky Club enjoying crab cakes. I wanted to ask you about the cougar signs I saw when I left the lodge. Should I be worried?
Ruby: Addie will be fine. We just like to be extra vigilant to let guests know when there have been sightings.
Libby: I’ll never forget the time we came upon that cougar family when we were camping. I’ve never been able to get that vision out of my head.
Ruby: Mother Nature can be pretty cruel sometimes. But don’t worry, Brogan will keep an eye on Addison. Then with any luck we’ll soon have a followed by a .
Brogan
Cougars generally hunt from the early evening to early morning hours. I’m surprised to come upon one at this time of day, but I suppose when faced with a prime opportunity, any wildcat would take advantage of an easy meal. And that’s what baby deer are, an easy meal.
As I try to decide how best to intervene, Addie pushes past me, and runs straight into the opening. She claws at the air and yells, “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!” She sounds like Captain Hook on crack.
What in the hell is she doing? I watch as she dances in a circle carrying on for all she’s worth. The deer dash away into the woods, but even then, she doesn’t stop.
I walk toward her and calmly ask, “What are you doing?”
She turns to me all wild-eyed. “I’m scaring the cougar away,” she says breathlessly while hopping around like she’s about to engage the beast in a Kung Fu challenge.
“Addison, you can stop now. I’m pretty sure the cougar followed the deer when you scared them away.”
“What? You don’t think he got them, do you?” She sounds worried.
“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly.
“We have to go after them and help!”
She turns to run into the woods, but I grab her arm before she gets away. “You can’t run screaming through the woods all day to save the deer.”
“I can’t just let that beast get them!” she says feistily.
“It’s part of the circle of life.”
“This is no time to quote The Lion King, Brogan. We have to help.”
“I was going to,” I tell her. “I was trying to come up with a plan when you lost your mind and charged at them.”
“What could you have done that I didn’t?” she demands.
“I thought we might walk around them and scare the cougar out of the area so the deer could get away.”
Tears fill her eyes and threaten to pour out as she realizes the error of her ways. “I was just trying to help. What if they got caught? It would be all my fault, wouldn’t it?” She’s really upset with herself.
I reach out to pull her into my arms. It’s a sign of how freaked out she is that she actually lets me. “One of those babies would have been taken for sure if we didn’t come upon them when we did.”
She really lets loose now and starts to sob. “But they’re so little. How can they defend themselves?”
“They’re fast runners,” I try to console. I don’t mention that cougars easily run twice as fast as deer and often climb trees to get the drop on their prey.
“I shouldn’t have done what I did,” she says while I hold her in my arms. It’s like cuddling a porcupine. I’m fully aware things could go wrong at any moment. But still, it’s sweet while it lasts.
I gently push Addie back and look into her eyes. “You were very brave.”
She gloms onto my praise like a lifeline. “I was, wasn’t I?”
“I don’t know anyone who would have done what you did,” I tell her. The truth is, I don’t know anyone that crazy, but I don’t go there.
“Do you think it’s safe to keep going to the falls?” she asks.
“I do. I think that cougar probably went off to tell all the other cougars not to mess with Addie Cooper.”
A flicker of a smile crosses her face which makes her look like a little girl again. I wish I could go back in time and treat her better than I did. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. The only thing I can do is try to get her to forget the past and learn to embrace the present.
Taking her hand, I say, “Come on, let’s go.” I pull her along next to me and she doesn’t even try to get away. While hers is much smaller than mine, our hands feel like the perfect fit.
When we enter the clearing by the falls, I stop and take a moment to appreciate the scene before me. The sheer power of the water is something I could sit and contemplate for hours on end. You’d think that with so much of it moving so quickly it would eventually run out, but as far as I know, that’s never happened.
“I want to stand underneath it and wash my hair,” Addie says in wonder.
“It would knock you right over,” I tell her, effectively breaking her trance.
She yanks her hand away from mine. “I didn’t say I was going to do it. It just looks refreshing.”
“Too bad you didn’t bring your swimsuit,” I tease while unbuttoning my shirt.
She looks at the water longingly and walks toward the same rock she sat on the last time she was here. The basin is particularly enticing on a hot day like today.
“You can always go in like that or you know, you could take your clothes off.” I add the last part just to get her dander up. God help me, I’m really starting to enjoy spending time with this spunky woman.
I decide to keep my shorts on. It was one thing when I didn’t know I had company, but I don’t think Addie would appreciate an encore of yesterday. I feel her angry eyes on me as I jump into the water. Her scrutiny is the only reason I don’t yell when my body temperature plummets. As I lie on my back to let the current wash over me, I spot Addie walking closer to the falls to get a better look.
I decide to swim in the opposite direction and give her a chance to appreciate her surroundin
gs in private. If you’d told me just a week ago that I’d be in Spartan with Addison Cooper I never would have believed you. Of course, I never would have thought I’d run into Emma again either. What are the chances of both of those things happening at the same time?
Thinking about my ex is not something I enjoy doing, but I can’t seem to get her out of my brain now that I’ve seen her again. Emma moved to the Oregon coast when she got a job as a newscaster in Salem. Having grown up in a small town, she knew she wanted the perks that kind of life could offer while still living close enough to a bigger city to enjoy those benefits as well. She’s the kind of person who wants it all. But even with the best of both worlds, she apparently wanted more. That included a promotion to a city with a larger viewing audience and an affair with a boss she undoubtedly thought would leave his family for her.
The breakup with Emma was a real blow to my self-esteem. No one likes to be the one left in a relationship, but it’s much worse when you’ve already been replaced.
Emma had never been to Spartan before we started dating. She claimed she liked it well enough, but she also made it clear that it was way too bumpkin for her to consider ever living here. Why she’s here now is anyone’s guess. But I will not let her sour me on my hometown, especially being that I’ve decided to move back.
I don’t know how long I swim around, but when I finally head back to the basin where I left Addie, she’s nowhere to be found. Where could that woman have gone?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Mothers
Libby: I’m about to board the . Sending you lots of and .
Ruby: I’m going to go up and check on Addie later. I’ll let you know how she is, but I suspect she’s a .
Libby: Smiling cat?
Ruby: Contended kitty. Work with me here.
Libby: How about .
Ruby: Happy camper, good one! How did we ever live without emojis?
Libby: I have no idea.
Addison:
Holy crap, I charged a cougar in the woods. Who does that? I totally took leave of my senses when I saw those two sweet babies. I couldn’t just stand there and watch them get eaten.
While nauseated by the thought of what could have happened, my confidence is buoyed by the fact that I confronted my fears.
I turn to discover Brogan swam off somewhere, so I decide to check out more of the area.
Unfortunately, I become so lost in my thoughts I venture farther than I’d intended and wind up somewhere in the woods where I can barely hear the falls.
The forest would be the perfect place to bury a body. Even though most nature fanatics probably aren’t murderers, there must be more than a few among them. You can’t watch the news without hearing of dead people popping up everywhere in the wilderness. The tiny hairs on my arms abruptly leap to attention.
I’m about to turn around and head back to the water when I stumble across something on the makeshift path I’m wandering down. It’s a shoe. OMG, why is there a shoe out here? Maybe it fell off a body being dragged to its final resting place.
I wish I’d brought my phone. Not that I could call anyone, but I could show the picture to the police to see if the footwear was a match for any missing persons in the area. I want to go back to nice, safe New York City.
I hear a branch snap somewhere near me and I freeze. It could be that cougar again, or worse, the person who was dragging the body that lost the shoe. I start to back away from the sound carefully.
As I look around in a panic for the source of the noise, a flock of birds descends on the tree above me. I nearly jump out of my skin. Two squirrels round the same tree trunk in a game of chase and a chipmunk practically runs across my feet. While Snow White would view this all as an opportunity to bring her forest friends together to clean her house, I’m a nervous wreck.
Where is Brogan when you need him? I’m not sure what to make of that man. Yes, he’s gorgeous, but he’s also the reason I’m staying in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Okay, it’s not exactly the middle of nowhere, but it might as well be for the lack of creature comforts. I relieved myself in the fruit bowl, for Pete’s sake.
I try to find a loophole in my bet that will get me out of this place, but the only ones that come to mind that would allow me to keep my pride involve being in a full body cast or a coma. Hard pass.
I need to find something to do outside of my dismal little cabin. Now that the lodge is off limits, where can I go to feel like I’m still part of the modern world? I know, I’ll drive into town. There were no stipulations barring me from that.
As soon as I get back to my cabin, I’ll take the golf cart to the lodge and see if my mom wants to go with me. The trip to Grand Cayman was her gift so I don’t have anything for her to open. Maybe I can find a nice charm bracelet with a beaver to represent her love of the beaver state. Sarcasm intended.
Wandering aimlessly through the woods, I wonder what Little Bear would do. I try to channel the hero from one of my favorite childhood programs and decide he would probably blow up a balloon, then wait while it defied the laws of physics and lifted him up into the air to give him a bird’s eye view. Then he’d float over the falls and gently touch down to swim with mermaids. Damn Little Bear and his unrealistic adventures.
According to the trail map I picked up at the lodge, the falls are north of the cabins. According to Mr. Phelps from eighth grade science class, moss grows on the north side of trees. I inspect the trees and am not surprised to find that moss grows on every side of the tree in Oregon.
For future jaunts into the woods, which I hope there aren’t any, I need to mark my path, so this doesn’t happen to me again. I belatedly remember my dad doing that by breaking branches and using rocks.
I keep looking around for signs of danger, but so far so good. That is until I hear loud rustling in the near vicinity. It could be a bear fight or a deranged person dragging a body. What is that sound?
Crouching next to a tree, I consider burrowing under a pile of leaves to further conceal myself when I see the source of the commotion. Billy, wearing a pair of antiquated headphones, appears to be dancing or air fighting or succumbing to convulsions, I can’t tell which.
I stand up and walk toward him slowly so as not to surprise him. But before I get to him, he turns around and waves. Then he takes his headphones off. “You lost?”
“Absolutely,” I tell him.
“Where did you start?” he wants to know.
“The falls. Brogan took me up there so I could get a feel for the area. He’s swimming.”
“The falls are that way,” he points in the opposite direction of where I was heading.
“Really? I figured I had to hike up because the water has to fall from somewhere, right?”
He nods his head. “Sound reasoning if the falls are the highest point in the area, but they’re not. Come on,” he says, motioning for me to follow him.
I ask, “Is this where your campsite is?”
“Nope,” he says.
“Is it close by?”
“Nope.”
“What are you doing up here then?” I ask, hoping for more than a one-word answer.
“Dancing,” he tells me.
“Billy, why do you live in the woods?” I’m sure Oregon has homeless shelters. At the very least he could squat in one of the deserted cabins near where I’m staying.
Instead of answering my question, he asks, “Where are you from, Addison?”
“I live in New York City.”
“What part?” he wants to know.
“You know New York?”
“I grew up there.”
I’m so shocked you could knock me over with a feather. “Seriously? Where?”
“East Side,” he answers. “How about you?”
“Upper West Side,” I tell him. “Ninety-first and Amsterdam.”
“The Mirabeau?” he wants to know.
“I live just down the street from there. You really do know New York.”
“Why did you leave?” I’m curious how Billy came to be homeless in Oregon if he’s from the East Coast.
He’s quiet for a long time before he says, “I wasn’t in a good place after the war.”
“Vietnam?”
He nods his head. “I came home with a lot of demons. Then my mom got sick and she told me some things that plain shook me up.”
I want to know what, but I also suspect Billy is a super private person. I’m guessing that asking too many questions is probably a sure-fire way to get him to clam up. So instead I say, “Oregon is as different from New York City as you can get.”
“I’d never been out this way before I moved here. Didn’t quite know what to expect.”
I have to know. “Why in the world would you move here without having visited first?”
“I didn’t know I was moving here. I thought I was coming to meet someone.”
“Billy, this is obviously none of my business, but may I ask who you came here to meet?”
“My father.” He doesn’t offer more so I let it go for now.
“And you decided to stay?”
“It was quiet. I liked that. I’d had enough noise between war and city living. I just wanted to hear quiet.”
“We came here every summer when I was a kid,” I tell him.
He nods his head. “It’s not your kind of place though, huh?”
I shrug. “It might have been, but Brogan and James went out of their way to make sure I hated it.”
“Those boys sure did like to get up to some mischief.” He stops walking and turns to look at me. “You know you can get even for all their nonsense?”
“I’d like nothing better. But how can I do that?”
“Stick with me,” he says.
For the first time since arriving, I start to feel some real excitement about being here.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Mothers
Ruby: I left a little something for you in your suitcase.
Love is a Battlefield (Seven Brides for Seven Mothers Book 1) Page 12
