Thirteen
Booboo
My dad used to say he could see the beauty and ugliness in the world through my expressions. I’m an open book, for better or worse, I’ve never been one to hide how I feel. That hasn’t changed. However, right now, I wished I could summon an air of indifference.
Jess being Jess, and knowing me as well as my parents, sat on the bed and watched me pack all while I tried to convince myself I was doing the right thing, the smart thing.
I’d only known him five days; you don’t turn your life upside down for a man you’d only met five days before. And, honestly, if I’d heard about one of my friends contemplating something like this I'd have had an intervention. That’s how crazy the notion was. Yet, here I stand, folding and unfolding, stuffing and un-stuffing my bag trying to act as if I wasn’t thinking just that.
“You could stay a few more days, spend more time with him just to be sure,” Jess told me as if she’d been reading my mind.
“No, it’s better this way, I’ll just pack and leave before I get in too deep. Besides, I’m not entirely sure things are over with Annie. I couldn’t have sex with a man for years and not feel something for him and I really don’t think men can either. A one night stand, sure, but two years? I'm not risking my heart just to have him wake up one day and realize he’s with the wrong woman, Jess.”
“I’m sure he does have feelings for her, Mia. He wouldn’t have kept going back if he disliked her. But, sweetie, he wouldn’t have ended it with her if he didn’t see something in you that appealed to him more. Just think of it as he was killing time till the right one came along.”
“But what does that say about him that he can throw her aside so easily, Jess?”
“Honey, what does it say about you that he could throw her aside so easily?”
“That he’s impulsive and acts before thinking?”
“That man? He doesn’t strike me as a man who does anything without thinking it through.”
She was right, of course, but I couldn’t shake this doubt. Exhausted just thinking about it, I sat on the bed and looked at my hands. Jess had a way of turning my words against me just when I thought I had my mind sorted. I looked at her and saw a beautiful, vibrant woman, one that any man would be lucky to have and not for the first time I wondered why she never married.
“Why didn’t you ever get married?”
Jess, usually quick to reply with a smart-ass comeback, hesitated. Her eyes drifted to the right and she seemed lost in thought as she played with her gold necklace. Then I saw a shadow of what looked like regret pass over her face.
“Jess?”
Jess drew in a deep breath, turned her eyes back to me, and they were glistening with unshed tears. So I took her hand.
“Tell me,” I implored.
Then she shocked the shit out of me.
“When I was twenty I did fall in love.”
“Really?”
“He was a regular guy, not a musician like I was used to. We met when I stayed home one summer. I’d gone with some friends down the coast for a day at the beach and he was there with his friends. He called, and we got together, and then kept getting together. When it was time for him to go back to school, I ended it.”
“But you were in love with him?”
“Yeah, and he said he was in love with me. But, I couldn’t see it working between us. He wanted normal and I didn’t do normal, so I ended it. But I’ve never forgotten him.”
“So you never married because all this time you’ve been in love with a man you gave up?”
Nodding, she shrugged and then chuckled, “I didn’t know it then, but I walked away from the love of my life. Mia, be absolutely sure when you leave tomorrow you aren’t walking away from a man you’ll never be able to forget. A lifetime is a long time to live with regret.”
“I hear you, but I’m not in love with Max and he’s not in love with me,” I kinda lied, “Lust absolutely, but you don’t fall in love in five days so our situations are different,” I explained as much for her as for myself.
“You can’t put a timetable on love, when it’s the right person, it’s instantaneous. You might not realize it, but it’s there.”
“Did you fall in love the moment you met him?”
“Yeah, and it took me twenty-five years to realize I had.”
“Did you ever look him up, see what happened to him?”
“No, it was easier not to know.”
“You know what you should take your own damn advice. Why don’t you look and see if he’s on Facebook? What if he’s single for God sake, you’re not old you could have another fifty years together if it worked out.”
Jess smiled, then shook her head, “I’ll make you a deal. . . If you will consider staying for a few days more, I’ll consider looking Brian up on Facebook.”
“Brian, huh? Does this mysterious man have a last name?”
“Oh, no, I may not be as smart as you, but I’m not stupid. No way am I giving you a last name.”
“I’m hurt you’d think I’d go behind your back,” I laughed as I stood and pulled her from the bed. “Look, if I’m leaving tomorrow then so are you. I want one last night with my favorite Auntie Jess before we bid farewell. What do you say to a few drinks at Last Call and maybe some pool?”
“So, you won't consider staying a few more days?”
“I said if, if I’m leaving, the “if” is still to be determined,” I explained as I grabbed my pack and pulled her out of the room.
Last Call, per usual, was full, though mostly with old-timers. It was just now quitting time at Hunter Logging so the tired lumberjacks hadn’t made it down the mountain and cleaned up to hit the bar for a meal and refreshment. Jess and I sat at a table instead of the bar, wanting a corner to eat and talk. Unfortunately, Annie had to wait on us and that was awkward at best. She didn’t know I’d seen her crying on Max’s shoulder, but I did, and now the guilt had weaved its way back in. I tried being accommodating when she came to the table, but she acted as if I didn’t exist. She kept her face down as we ordered hamburgers mumbling, “Have those out in a jiffy,” as she turned and walked away. When I turned my eyes to Jess and opened my mouth to say, “I should have resisted him, she’s heartbroken, and it’s all my fault.” Jess raised her hand to stop me and reminded me “He could have put a ring on that anytime, and he didn’t. She isn’t his soul mate.”
Great, now Maxine had Jess believing in soul mates!
“Jess, it doesn’t mean I’ll be either. I like him, more than a lot, more than I should, that being said should I uproot my life for just a maybe?”
“Mia Bear, take the road less traveled,” she replied and I scrunched my nose in confusion.
“Sorry?”
“You always do the predictable. Take a chance on the unpredictable. Max isn’t a certainty, I get that, but for now, try living in the moment instead of a path you mapped out five or ten years ago.”
“I didn’t map out my life,” I defended, though that was a kind of a lie. I’d always wanted to work with bears from the time I was a kid and I had mapped out a course for my life that would put me on that particular path.
“You, my dear niece, are as predictable as snow in Alaska. All I’m saying is life is an adventure, full of love, tragedy, struggles, and promise. If you keep your eyes to the ground and never take the road less traveled, you’ll wake up one day and realize your life is behind you and you’ve missed a kick-ass view. Be bold for once in your life and take a chance. I didn’t when I should have and now I’m looking in the rearview of my life wishing I had.”
Direct hit! Aunt Jess one Mia . . . zero comeback.
Could I really be bold, just throw caution to the wind and take a chance on a man I met five days ago? Should I risk my heart further to a man who may or may not be in love with another woman?
Annie arrived with our burgers as I pondered this and I took a good look at her. She was blonde, but not a bottle blonde. Her hair was smooth and silky, her body lean, but curvy, and her face was very attractive. When she walked away without a word, but “Enjoy,” I watched her mingle with the crowd. She was friendly, seemed well liked, so what was it about me that Max preferred to her?
“Stop doubting yourself,” Jess sighed.
“But she seems like a nice woman, she’s beautiful and not a bitch, so why me and not her?”
“That would be a question for Max. But, if you ask me, I think he likes a woman that needs protecting.”
“Are you saying I’m weak?”
“No, you’re strong mentally, quick with a comeback—”
“You taught me well, Obi-wan,” I told her with a bow.
“And you were my best student young Skywalker,” she laughed. “But, there's something fragile about you with all your stumbling through life that men think is cute. Max, being a Neanderthal, is probably attracted to a woman he can beat his chest over and protect.”
“So you’re saying my vertical challenges actually attracted him to me?”
“That and your bodacious tata’s, gorgeous blue eyes, veil of black hair that rivals any woman’s I’ve ever seen, and most definitely your brain.”
“I thought my ass was my best feature?”
“He strikes me as a boob man,” she grinned around a bit of hamburger.
As I popped fries into my mouth, I thought about everything she’d said. Then I looked at Annie again and decided we were similar in body type so it wasn’t because Max was attracted to a bustier woman. Maybe Jess was right, maybe Max saw me as fragile and his inner caveman was attracted to that. Though, they were both wrong. Clumsy doesn’t equal weak; it equals scabbed knees.
By the time Jess had finished her meal (I couldn’t eat, I was too conflicted), I’d made a decision on whether or not to leave or give it a few more days to explore things with Max. I was waiting for her to make her way back from the bathroom when a song from my teen years rang out over the loudspeaker, one, by the way, Jess and I used to prance around my bedroom singing. When her voice broke through the music saying, “Come on Mia bear, let’s rock this house,” I swung around in my chair and looked up at the stage.
Moving her arms back and forth in the much-practiced choreography we’d created for the song, I laughed, jumped up, and started moving towards the stage.
“You’ll owe me big time for this,” I shouted as I made my way up the stairs. She just shrugged, handed me the mic, and we began our side-by-side steps and broke into song on the third line of Shania Twains “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.”
Hoots rang out as we wiggled in rhythm with the song, then I noticed as we strutted around the stage that some of the lumberjacks were making their way into the bar.
I’d just gotten out a “oh, oh, yeah, yeah,” when the next word out of my mouth was “Oomph.”
I’d had my back to the crowd and didn’t see Max walk in. He’d climbed on the stage, grabbed me at my waist, and hauled me down the stairs to the cheers of the crowd. When I finally pulled back and looked at him, ready to give him an earful, I paused when I saw he was covered in sweat.
Sweaty Max was just as hot as Wet Max or Naked Max, and coupled with Mad Max I couldn’t form a clear thought in my head.
“Got a call from Mom, hear you think you’re leavin’ in the morning.”
“I—"
Max grabbed my arm and hauled me down the hall to a dark corner. Then he placed me against the wall, pinning me with both arms, leaning in.
“You’re not goin’ anywhere, do you hear me?”
“Look—” was all I got out before he slammed his mouth over mine, silencing my protest.
Max drew me into his arms, pinning me against his sweaty chest, bending slightly so I was leaning back, unable to escape. The mixture of sweat, dirt, and timber overwhelmed my senses, which caused my knees buckled. I whimpered as the kiss went from urgent and angry to slow and all consuming. Light-headed from how thorough his mouth had claimed mine, my mind shut down for once and I rode out the waves of emotions.
Feeling truly connected to a man for the first time in my life, I grabbed his shirt, pulled him closer, and then climbed up his body. He picked me up, slammed my back into the wall, breaking the kiss as he buried his face into my neck.
“You aren’t leavin’ so get it out of your head,” he whispered.
“Okay, I’ll try the road less traveled for once,” I replied as his tongue snaked out and tasted my neck.
“As long as that road leads to me, I don’t give a fuck how you get here.”
“Why me?” I found myself asking.
“What?”
“Why me, why are you so hell bent on this?”
“Because my lungs locked up when I laid eyes on you, and I didn’t breathe again until I kissed you. You don’t steal air from a drowning man, if you leave I won’t be able to breathe,” he whispered.
“That’s a really good answer,” I choked out.
Max pulled back when he heard the catch in my voice, and raised a hand to wipe away a tear.
“I also have a thing for klutzy women accused of murder,” he grinned.
God, Jess was right. He thought my vertical challenges were cute.
“Formerly accused,” I smiled.
“Yeah, but seein’ you in those orange scrubs was sexy as hell.”
“Wait, you never saw me in those.”
“Saw your booking photo,” he explained as my legs let go of his waist and I slid down his body. “We clear finally? No more talk about leavin’.”
“I have to leave at some point, Max. I need to get my job back.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he stated as his hands cupped my face and drew me in for another kiss.
Just as his mouth touched mine, there was a knock on the wall and we both turned our heads to see Jess smiling.
“Sorry, to interrupt, but your phone’s been blowing up, Mia. The call log said it’s Lucy,” she explained as she walked forward and handed me the phone.
Before I could even think about calling her back, my phone lit up again with an incoming call, so I answered.
“Lucy?”
“Mia, thank God. Someone shot Booboo!”
“Who shot who?” I shouted my voice raised in response to her words.
Max grabbed the phone and barked out “This is Max,” and then listened as Lucy explained.
“Right, I’ll get hold of Doc and we’ll meet you at your base camp,” Max told her before ending the call.
“Well?”
“Someone was up on the ridge shooting at one of the bear cubs. It took a hit to his shoulder so we need to find Shane and get him up there. They’ve sedated the bear, but the mother could attack at any time.”
“What! Oh, my God, who would do that?
“I don’t know, but right now we need to concentrate on the bear.”
“I’d like to take a gun to—”
“Babe, I’ll worry about the “who,” you worry about the bear.”
“Right, okay, let me grab my pack and we can go.”
Max waited for Jess and me to grab our stuff, then held the door open as we exited the bar. He grabbed my hand as we headed towards our car and mumbled, “You’re with me,” so I waved goodbye to Jess.
It took us fifteen minutes to find Shane Sherman or Doc, as Max called him, and he was not what I expected. He looked like a surfer dude from the west coast of California. With longish blonde hair and sun-kissed skin that covered a long, lean, well-muscled body. He was somewhere in his early thirties and he was gorgeous. Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans, but shoeless, we found him in his backyard putting golf balls as the sun slowly set behind him.
“Doc,” Max hollered as we walked around the back.
Shane’s head popped up, looked back over his shoulder, and then he smiled showing brilliant white teeth. His smile was almost as dazzling as Max’s and I’ll admit I had a moment’s pause when he directed it at me. I mean, who wouldn’t, he was gorgeous; any woman who still had brain function would have short-circuited for half a second when that smile fell on her.
“Max, what’s up?” Shane responded as he laid down his putter.
“There’s a bear cub up on Grizzly Pointe that’s been shot, took a hit in his right shoulder. I need you to see what you can do for the cub.”
“Shit, right, let me get some supplies and I’ll be right with you,” Shane answered and then started to move around us. Then he stopped and put out his hand to me.
“Sorry, I’m Shane and you are,” he purred turning up the watts.
“Mia, nice to meet you,” I smiled back.
When Shane kept smiling, shaking my hand, Max mumbled, “Shane, we gotta go,” as his arm came out and pulled me to his side. In all my life, a man had never claimed me so obviously, but there you had it, Max didn’t like the man smiling at me.
Shane looked at Max’s arm and his grin intensified. Then he released my hand, chuckling, “Right, supplies,” as he walked away. I bit my lips to keep from laughing as we turned and followed, but the whispered, “Deal with it,” told me Max knew what I was thinking.
Max and I waited as Shane gathered supplies, but all I could think about was who in the hell was shooting at my bears and why. Shane jumped into his own truck so we took off up the mountain heading to base camp. When we finally reached the clearing, Lucy was waiting with lanterns, and even though it was dark out I saw her eyes grow in surprise when she got a good look at Shane.
See, only a dead woman wouldn’t react to the man.
It was another five-minute walk until we found Frank watching over the cub, with a can of bear repellent in one hand and an air horn in the other.
In the distance, we could hear the mother bear grunting her frustration. So, Max shined a light on the bear and took aim with his rifle as he positioned himself between Booboo and his mother. Shane kneeled down and examined the injured cub as Frank held a flashlight.
Booboo had been out cold thanks to the sedative they’d shot him with, but the effects were wearing off and Shane had to give him another dose. Lucy and I kept handing instruments and gauze as he dug into his shoulder looking for the bullet. All while the mother bear kept grunting. Max kept murmuring to the mother bear, trying to keep her calm. Then moments later, Shane finally pulled out a copper slug.
“Two twenty-three caliber, not big enough to take a bear down unless you get off enough rounds, this little guy was lucky.”
An almost two-year-old bear cub is anything but little. However, compared to its “close to a half a ton” parents, this guy was small at two hundred plus pounds. After Shane had removed the slug, he sutured the wound, gave Booboo a shot of antibiotics, and then stood up backing away.
“He’ll be fine, the best thing we can do now is leave him be so his mother can come to him.”
Hearing that, Max backed up keeping his light and rifle trained on the mother bear. The farther away we moved from Booboo, the closer the mother came. Once she was next to her baby, she nudged his head and licked his face as a collective sigh could be heard from Lucy, Frank, and me.
As we made our way back to base camp, Frank finally voiced what everyone was thinking.
“Who the fuck would come up here and shoot a defenseless bear?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Max replied.
“Hunters would have used a larger caliber ammo and I haven’t heard reports of hunters in the area,” Shane informed us.
“I just hope whoever it is doesn’t mistake us for a bear,” Lucy stated.
“Right, stay alert. If you see anyone call Mia and I’ll come up with some of my men,” Max told her then we said our goodbyes and started our descent back to Max’s truck.
On the way down, Max stopped suddenly and put his hand to my shoulder stopping me. When I looked to him, he put a finger to his mouth to keep me quiet. Just off to the east I could hear the sound of someone stomping through the leaves. Shane raised his light and the footsteps quickened, then he mumbled “Bogey at your nine,” and Max snapped, “Stay here,” as he and Shane took off running. I followed their light with my eyes, and watched as they disappeared from my sight.
Then it hit me, I was alone in the woods.
I imagined all sorts of things while standing in the dark. Killers behind trees, bugs crawling up my legs, the ghost of Donald stuck on the ridge for an eternity waiting for people to haunt. The longer I waited for their return, the more my imagination ran away with me. As I scanned the area looking for Donald’s ghost, I heard twigs snap a short distance in front of me. I raised my light, saw nothing, and was about to blame a deer for the noise when I heard the rustle of leaves close by. My breath caught in my throat, and my hand shook like Elvis Presley’s hips as I raised my light. Scanning to the west, I let out a terrifying scream as angry blue eyes stared back at me.