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“Ian,” she whispered. “There is a giant fucking bear behind you.”
“Shit, what?” He whipped his head around and saw nothing, absolutely nothing.
Then he heard footsteps running in the snow.
And laughter. So much evil laughter.
“Made you look!” Flash called back.
“You are in so much trouble!” he yelled, and started chasing after her.
He heard Flash laughing all the way back to the house.
10
IAN TOOK OFF work early on Friday the eighteenth for the very good reason anyone takes off work early on the Friday before Christmas week—because he could, because there was nothing else to do at work since it was the week before Christmas and because he wanted to have sex with his girlfriend—the sooner, the better.
He hadn’t been to Flash’s apartment yet and that was for good reasons, too—Flash hadn’t asked him over, and he was still working on his house every free moment he had. But work had taken him into Portland, past Flash’s apartment complex, and as they’d been officially dating and sleeping together for two weeks now, he figured he’d earned the right to show up unannounced at his girlfriend’s place to surprise her with flowers and the erection he’d been trying to keep subdued the past hour—all Flash’s fault. In general the bulk of his erections were her fault simply by existing but this one was undeniably all her doing. An hour ago he’d texted her asking if she wanted to get dinner at the Timber Ridge Lodge tonight. She’d said she would as long as they could also get a hotel room and have sex with her tied to the bed. He’d agreed and discovered he couldn’t get a hotel room until tomorrow night, which he’d promptly booked. With that image she’d planted in his head, there was no fucking way he could wait the twenty-four hours to make that fantasy come true. He could only hope she was home and in a bondage sort of mood. He’d brought her flowers. If that didn’t do the trick, he had no idea what would, but he was willing to try begging.
He pulled into her apartment parking lot shortly after five. The complex was nice if somewhat bland. All the buildings looked the same, but they were well-made housing blocks with nicer-than-average landscaping. The abundance of elevators and wheelchair ramps attested to the complex’s past life as a retirement complex. Flash had said her downstairs neighbor was in her late eighties. Perhaps she was a holdout from the old days.
With his flowers in hand he walked up the stairs to Flash’s door and knocked. There was no answer. That was surprising as she hadn’t said anything about going into town today. He knocked again and waited. Nothing. He sent her a quick text asking her where she was. She replied a few seconds later with a terse Driving.
Well, shit
.
He put the flowers outside her door. As quiet and well-managed as the place seemed, he didn’t think the flowers were at risk of being stolen. He walked back down the stairs and was on the last step when a door behind him opened.
“Veronica, is that you?”
Ian looked around and found a white-haired woman in a pale blue wool dress standing in a doorway.
“Not Veronica,” he said. “I was just looking for her. She went out, I guess.”
“She did,” the elderly woman said. “I thought she’d come home and I’d missed her. I need her help with something.”
“Can I help you?” Ian asked. “I’m her boyfriend.”
The older woman smiled and her eyes sparkled with mischief.
“Ian Asher. I should have recognized you. Your hair’s gotten too long. Would you like me to cut it for you? I always cut my boys’ hair.”
“Thank you but that’s okay. I’m getting it cut tomorrow.”
“Oh, yes, the Christmas party is Sunday, isn’t it? You do have to look nice for that. Your father’s announcing his reelection campaign, isn’t he?”
Ian grinned. This woman knew his life better than he did.
“You have to be Mrs. Scheinberg,” Ian said. “Flash told me about you.”
“And she’s told me quite a bit about you. Come in, come in. She should be back soon.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“She’s been cleaning out her workshop all day now that she’s done with her sculpture.”
“She’s done already?”
