“Until we tell her about the three girls the police had found.”
“I still think she’ll appreciate us telling her about it.”
“I agree,” Kendra said.
Dad was now sitting out with Marcus, talking at one of the tables and drinking sodas. Grayson wondered if they were ready to return home and hike in the forest.
Once the laughter and circling of roller-skating partygoers were finished, the five girls skated to the refreshment stand and got some more drinks.
“Do you think they’re ready to return to your dad’s house?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah.”
Hand in hand, they skated toward the refreshment stand, figuring it was time to leave.
“Are you ready to return home?” Grayson asked Ivy and her friends.
“Yeah. Dad told us how you were attacked by a wild bear that wanted to mate Kendra. Will she and the rest of us be safe enough when I can shift into my bear after the cast comes off?” Ivy asked.
“You girls will be. You’re too young in bear years to be mated,” Grayson said. “Kendra’s young, even for being mated in grizzly bear years. A six-year-old grizzly is approximately equivalent to an early to mid-thirties human female.”
“But close enough to the right age for a wild bear to go after her and fight you,” Ivy reminded him.
“Yeah. He might have figured that since I was with her, she was mature enough to be mated,” Grayson said.
After the bear discussion, they finished their refreshments, changed out of their roller skates, and headed out to the vehicles.
Ivy drove her new Jeep home with Kendra and Grayson. Marcus and Ivy’s girlfriends went with Grayson’s dad. It didn’t take them long to drive to the house.
Ivy and her friends went to her bedroom to change into hiking clothes. They came out of the bedroom, playfully pushing each other down the hallway until they reached the back door.
“Just wait on the back deck for us, and we’ll hike together,” Dad said.
Grayson wished his sister and her friends could shift and be bears because it was always part of their birthday ritual.
“We ought to install a large dog door so we could go in and out without shifting outside,” Dad said.
“Sure, we could go in and out, but other bears could also,” Grayson said.
“True,” Marcus said.
The neat thing about grizzlies, even as massive as they were, if they could get their heads through an opening, because they lacked collarbones, they could squeeze the rest of their body through it. So doorways were no problem, or getting in through an open car window, or any number of small spaces.
And with their paws, they could easily push open doors or pull handles to open them.
The tightly woven woods bordered the backyard, and most of their neighbors were grizzlies or black bears, so they had no trouble if they were caught in their fur coats. Each of them had acres of Whitefish Lake front property, so, like with Kendra’s property, they could easily swim as bears or humans whenever they wanted. And fish too.
But Whitefish Lake was only 5.2 square miles, whereas Flathead Lake was forty times larger at 197 square miles. Whitefish Lake had calmer water for water activities, while Flathead Lake was one of the largest freshwater lakes in the western United States.
Knowing what Grayson had gone through before with the fight with the wild bear, Kendra was glad they weren’t running as grizzlies. She could imagine all the girls scattering and the havoc that could cause. She worried, too, that the girls’ parents might be mad that Ivy’s dad had allowed Kendra to go with the girls in case she caused trouble because a wild bear was interested in her.
Grayson glanced toward the lake, looking like he wanted to take a swim, but he couldn’t yet. Kendra rubbed his uninjured shoulder and kissed his cheek. He kissed her back, his eyes smiling with sweet humor.
Everyone stayed where the girls were while they explored a bit.
Earlier than she expected, Ivy patted her friends’ shoulders and then headed to the house. Kendra suspected her arm was really giving her trouble.
When Ivy reached the deck, she headed for the door. Marcus hurried to open it for her.
