AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She peels out of the drive with gravel kicking up behind her tires as she goes and I can’t help but wonder, what happened here?
I look at my watch, I have about an hour until I need to meet Wyatt Campbell, the captain of the SAR team. My mystery woman is gone so there’s nothing more I can do here that wouldn’t make me more of a creep than I’m already feeling right now, so I walk up the steps to her porch and gently place her basket on one of the rockers with hand sewn sunflower pillows on them. Hopefully, she’ll see it and she will know that I mean no harm, so if I run into her again while I’m here she won’t be as jumpy. And I’d really like to run into her again.
I retrace my steps down the porch steps and across the lawn to the woods. I hike down the lavender covered hillside and through the dense trees, back to where I left my rental. I climb in and make my way into town, my sightseeing for the day is officially over and it’s time to get to work. But I can’t help but let my mind turn back to the beautiful brunette as I drive to the Grizzly Bar to meet Captain Campbell.
I pull into the drive of the local bar and grill where a carved wooden sign declares this spot the Grizzly Bar: Home of the Happy Bear. Is there any kind of happy bear? In my experience most bears are not all that happy when encountered.
I walk from the parking lot and around to the front when I come upon a massive carving of two bears, leaving nothing to the imagination as to why it’s the home of the happy bear. I’m not going to lie, if I was getting it twenty-four hours per day for eternity, I’d probably be a mite happy too.
With a chuckle and a shake of my head, I pull open the door and walk inside. The bar has sawdust floors and yellow lighting. An old saloon bar is in the back directly across from a stage with a piano where an older man, who looks like the love child of Yosemite Sam and R. Lee Ermey from the Full Metal Jacket years, is singing a delightful little ditty about putting his dick in a box.
So far, Bear Bottom, Alaska is not what I expected. At all.
A man about twenty years my junior stands and waves me over. He has dark blond hair, neatly clipped in that military way only with a fair amount of stubble on his face belying that he’s been out long enough not to shave every day. But not out so long he’s ready to walk away from his regulations and expectations. I’m willing to bet that Wyatt Campbell likes things neat and orderly.
I make my way over to him and hold out my hand. “You must be Captain Campbell.”
“Call me Wyatt,” he says as he shakes my hand.
“I’m Court.”
“I know,” he smiles. “Come have a seat and I’ll answer any questions you might have about Bear Bottom.”
“Thanks.”
“The food here is great,” he says. “You can’t beat it in the area.”
“Brilliant.”
“What can I get you gentlemen to drink tonight,” a sultry voice just this side of alto asks, and I look up to see the delicate features of none other than my mystery woman.
“Hello again,” I smile.
“You know Zee?” Wyatt asks.
“Not officially,” I answer. “I stumbled into her earlier and surprised her while I was hiking.”
“Ahh,” he says. “You must have been near the north end.”
“Yes.”
“Drinks?” my mystery woman snaps.
“The Yukon Lager,” Wyatt orders as if she didn’t just lose her temper a bit.
“So your name is Zee.”
“No,” she says. “Are you going to order a drink?”
“When you tell me what your name is,” I reply.
“It’s Zelda, now what would you like to drink?” she asks dryly.
“The same as Wyatt, and Zelda is a lovely name.”
“Thank you,” she says as if her deeply ingrained manners won’t let her reply in any other way. Being British I can respect that quite deeply. We are by fault an overly polite people.
She stomps away and I smirk to myself as I peruse the menu.
