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“Ahh,” I yelled, running forward, flipping open the release on the repellant can in case I needed the spray. I probably wouldn’t.
“Pete, no!” Mikaly yelled. “Run. Get in the trees—up a tree. Hide.”
The bear was already loping away as Mikaly caught me, ready to heft me up and flee from the ‘danger’. He was lucky he didn’t get a face full of bear spray.
“Mikaly…” I murmured, both annoyed at him and touched that he’d been willing to shield me from the bear. “What were you going to do? While I ran and climbed a tree?”
“Protect you from the bear…however I needed to. Or climb a tree, too, once I knew you were safe.”
“It was a black bear,” I said, looking to see its little lumbering butt had disappeared from sight. I flipped the safety back in place on the repellant canister.
“Yeah. A bear.”
“First of all, we probably surprised him. Bears have a great sense of smell, but he was probably just doo-dahing along, half asleep and wondering why this snow so late in spring.”
“I understand that feeling,” Mikaly muttered. Reaching up, I drew him down for a kiss.
“Thank you for being my knight.”
“Always,” he promised, sending little tremors of pleasure through me.
“But I’ve gotta tell you about black bears.”
“He looked…light brown.”
“Yeah, but it was a black bear. They actually come in a range of colors. And mostly, they’re more scared of you than you are of them. And if for some reason, they’re not, you fight. You spray them.” I lifted the canister. “Or bop them on the nose. Make yourself not worth their while.”
“Or run,” he offered.
“They climb trees like champs, Mikaly. That’s what they do whenthey’rescared. I mean, I’m not saying they’re not dangerous. But you’re better off scaring them away than trying to climb a tree.”
He turned me so we were chest to chest and bent his head so he could kiss me more fully. “What would I do without you?”
“Be treed by a bear while he ate all your rations?”
“Anyone ever tell you, you’re kind of a brat.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. My phone rang then, interrupting us. “It’s probably Jory. I yelled bear and hung up on him.”
“We’re fine, Jory,” I said, answering while we laughed.
“Not Jory, baby.”
My whole world ground to a stop at that voice, and I stepped away from Mikaly. “What do you want?”
“Came to see what you’ve gotten up to,” Brad said. “It’s been two years. Your dad wants you to come home.”
“Not happening. And what do you mean you came? Where are you?”
“I’m at the lodge, baby.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Where are you? When are you going to be back?”
I glanced at Mikaly, who could obviously hear Brad. His eyes were narrowed, and anger crossed his features. Of course. He’d lost his last job because of a woman wanting to cheat. I sure hoped he wasn’t thinking that about me.
“I’m on a campout,” I told Brad. I stared into Mikaly’s face, meeting his eyes. “With my boyfriend. We won’t be back until tomorrow, and I sure hope you’ve got the sense to be gone by then.”
