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“Jenni. Calm down, girl. Do you hear me?”
Why didn’t Matilda understand the urgency of the situation. “There are P-0-L-A-R bears out there in the forest. And the guys are naked. In the snow. Well, Ty was naked. I didn’t see Clark. They were going out on a search and rescue and—Matilda, I have to call 9-1-1. I’ll call you back.” She poised her finger over the disconnect button.
“Jenni, no! I will take care of everything, but first I need you to sit down. Are you inside? Is there a chair or something?”
She searched around as if she had never seen furniture but finally flopped into the straight-backed chair opposite the sofa. “Okay. I’m sitting. Will you call the police for me? Or the fire department”
“Jen—”
“Wait, I think I need animal control.”
“Shut! Up!”
Huh? “You were the one who wanted me to go on this date, and now they’re dead, bear meat, and you don’t even care.” The tears she never cried before last night, the ones she’d learned not to cry as a kid in the system who never knew how the parents she was currently with would react, flowed again. “If anything happens to them, I want to die,” A sob broke free, and she drew a shuddering breath. “All right. I’m calm. Now, are you going to call for help, or am I?”
“Neither.” Matilda spoke in a clear, firm voice. “You are going to go in the kitchen and get a glass of water and drink it.”
“But I haven’t even had coffee yet.”
“Okay, coffee, is there some?”
“Yes. On the stove.”
Okay, so you’re going to sit down and drink a big cup of it while I explain some things to you that I probably should have a long time ago. Tell me when you’re ready. Maybe you should have toast, too?”
“Toast?” Her men were bear bait, and Matilda wanted her to make a snack? While not calling for help? If she hadn’t known her friend for so many years, she’d have hung up on her already, but she did know her. Matilda was the one person to call in any emergency. Her cool lawyer mind guided her, and she had the kindest heart of anyone Jenni had ever met. “Only because it’s you, Matilda. I’m pouring the coffee. Now I’m sitting at the kitchen table. So…why is it not a good idea to save my new guys from the polar bears. Don’t you think a zoo must have noticed them missing? They aren’t migratory animals, are they?” Now that she had a few sips of hot java in her, and was sitting in one place, she tried to insert logic into a situation none seemed to apply to.
“Okay. This is going to sound really strange. Do you trust me?”
Trust her? “Matilda, I’d never have made it in the model house without you. It was too much like those group homes I was in between fosters. Crowded, competitive, but with way more makeup and fights over the bathroom. Of course, I trust you.”
She heard the long breath her friend emitted. “Jenni, I’m a wolf.”
“No, you’re not.” Although, why they were discussing character traits right now, she had no idea. “You’re a lamb.”
The sharp bark of laughter startled her. “Hardly. But I don’t mean I behave like one. Honey, I turn into one.”
“What?” She choked on a mouthful of coffee and took a moment to go on. “So, I call to tell you I have a problem—”
“I called you.”
“Not the point, Matilda. You think it’s funny to pretend to be a werewolf right now?” Sometimes her friend’s sense of humor escaped her.
“No, Jenni. I am not a werewolf.”
Hah.“I thought not. So are you going to call for help? I don’t have a lot of battery left, and this cabin has no electricity so far as I can tell.”
“Where are you? Alaska?”
“Mammoth Lakes.”
“The ski resort?” Matilda’s voice held shock. “Why there?”
“Because this is where the date was set up for. The guys live up here, a distance away but that’s the closest spot I can name. They are a pair, by the way, with each other. So if the polar bears only got one of them, the other is going to be heartbroken. Can we save them, now?” Her head was going to explode.
“Jenni. The polar bears didn’t eat your dates.”
Now, she was mad. “How the hell do you know that. You’re not here.”
