Page 41

“Milo, I couldn’t.”

“You and Caleb could take the bedroom suite downstairs. It’d be like your own apartment.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“When Mathias is in town, he can sleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms.” Milo sat back down. “Just think about it. Run it by Mathias and see what he thinks.” He smiled. “You’d have a really short commute to work.”

She tucked her arm through his and leaned against him.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ll think about it.”

Chapter eleven

“There’s a bear in your what now?”

The loud crash came from downstairs, and Milo opened his eyes. At the second crash, he sat up. “Damn raccoons.” He threw off his blankets and sat on the edge of the bed. The old house had three fireplaces on the first floor, and Milo had found raccoons in two of them over the past six months. He thought he’d gotten rid of them.

He was sleeping in a thermal shirt and his boxers. He slipped on his pants before heading downstairs, using his cell phone's flashlight. He stopped at the bottom to determine where the sound was coming from. Another crash came from the kitchen.

He headed to the dining room and stopped at the kitchen entrance. “Shit. You’re not a raccoon.” The black bear had its head in the bag of groceries Milo had brought home earlier in the day. It pulled its head out and looked at Milo, then raised up onto its hind legs. Milo took a step back. “Okay. Just stay right there.” The bear dropped back down to all fours and snuffled a box of macaroni and cheese before moving back to the paper grocery bag. His nails clicked on the marble tiles, and he stopped next to the bag. He looked at Milo again, then shook like a wet dog, spraying saliva across the floor.

“Dude.” Milo was standing between the two French doors, and he reached for them and slowly closed them. The doors were solid wood, but the bear wouldn’t have much trouble getting through them if it really wanted to.

Milo moved away from the door, then looked at his phone for a moment. “Justin.”

With the new baby at home, making them a family of five, Justin was rarely on call overnight. He was the sheriff, after all, and he made the weekly schedule. Milo dialed his brother’s cell.

Justin answered on the third ring. “Milo? What the hell? Are you okay? It’s two in the morning.”

“There’s a bear in my kitchen.” The statement was met with silence. “Justin?”

“I’m sorry. You said there’s a bear in your what now?”

“In my damn kitchen.”

“Where are you?”

“In the dining room, ready to run if necessary.”

“Well, damn.”

“Yeah. What do I do about it? The sheriff’s department handles animal control, right?”

“Um…yeah. But this is a first for me.”

“So…?”

“Stay away from it. Can you confine it to the kitchen?”

“I closed the doors to the dining room, but I’m not sure if that will stop him if he decides to…come eat me.”

“Can you barricade them?”

Milo blew out a breath. “If I do that, he’ll break through them. I’d much rather he pushed them open gently before chasing me down.”

“Because…?”