Chapter Twelve

She had Bon Iver’s self-titled album playing softly in the background as she checked on the pot roast in the oven. Glancing at the clock, she knew she still had a while before Nate showed up. Picking up her phone, she called Maddie; they hadn’t talked since the morning she saw Nate again for the first time. She couldn’t wait to tell her friend all about it.

“You’re alive,” Maddie shouted. “I was so worried.”

Mya laughed. “It hasn’t even been a week.”

“It feels like a month, maybe longer. Tell me everything—especially the part where you are coming back to me.”

“Honestly, Maddie, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Ever.”

“What changed? Because the last time we spoke you were considering moving back home, to me.”

Mya laughed. “Maybe in the conversation you had in your head, because I remember our last one, and there was absolutely nothing about me moving back to Los Angeles.”

Maddie sighed. “A girl can dream, okay? This place isn’t the same without you. You kept me grounded. I’m actually starting to believe all the bullshit they fling at me, telling me how amazing I am and how I can do anything I put my mind to.”

Picking up the pen and paper on the table, Mya sat down to draw and frowned at the pen. She didn’t remember having this one; it was her favorite color—crimson. It was beautiful, and she would have remembered buying it. Maybe she had years ago, and had somehow unearthed it while unpacking. She sighed at the fluid movement of the ink across the paper. She would have remembered this feeling. “You can, and you know it. You are amazing, and I’ve seen what you’ve done and I know what you came from. That makes it all the more impressive. This movie coming out this fall is going to move you to the next level. I know you’ll win an Oscar for it.”

“That’s what scares me,” Maddie whispered. “I feel like such a fraud, like somehow I don’t deserve all of this fame and fortune. That I shouldn’t love what I do, that life should be harder than it is.”

“No,” Mya said firmly. “You know who that is speaking, and it’s not you. You work hard, you put everything you are into every role you have. I’ve seen you put hours into research for your roles—you don’t take it lightly. Besides, you use your fame and fortune to help children who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice.”

“Sometimes I forget I’m not the same person I was all those years ago.”

“You were never that person. It was him, he was the one who took advantage of you and planted all those lies in your young, impressionable mind. When’s the next time you have some free time?”

“I don’t know,” Maddie sighed. “We’re finishing up filming this little romantic comedy with your favorite actor Will Martinsson, then it’s on to a press tour. Maybe I can come up for Thanksgiving.”

“As soon as you can, come see me. And tell me more about Will—is he still as charming as when you first met him?”

“More so now. He makes it hard for me to find someone to live up to the person he is. And his wife, Lissa, they are so good together. That’s the type of relationship everyone dreams of. They have become great friends and have been picking up the slack of you deserting me.”

Mya laughed. “Of course, it always comes back to me leaving you. You forget, I know what it’s like when you’re filming and you devote every moment to the movie.”

“Whatever. Anyway, they’ve been really nice and refreshing. Neither one is the typical Hollywood type. But enough about me, what about you? Had any bear encounters yet?”

“No.” Mya shivered. “Thankfully not. But I do have some interesting news.”

“Don’t leave me hanging, what is it?”

“Remember how I told you my high school friend Nate always used to come up here? Well…he lives here now!”

“Shut up.”

“I can’t, and oh Maddie, it is so unbelievable. All the feelings I had for him in high school came rushing back, along with some very adult ones. Let’s just say neither one of us are thinking of the other as being just friends anymore.”

“Seriously? So quickly?”

“He was the contractor I was meeting when I talked to you last. I swear to everything you hold dear that when I saw him again the entire world stood still for a second. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

“Wow, that only happens in the movies. Are you happy?”

“So unbelievably happy. We have the history, and friendship. Now we are adding the lovers to the equation—well, at some point, but we are definitely dating. Speaking of that.” She glanced at the clock on the stove, and frowned when she saw it was after six. “He should be here any minute. I’d better get going. I’ll call again soon.”

“Have fun, and do everything you want,” Maddie said. “You deserve happiness.”

“Thank you. So do you.”

“One day, maybe. Right now, you enjoy discovering your man.”

“I will. Bye, Maddie.”

“Bye, Mya.”

Turning off the music, she began to worry. He was only a few minutes late, but she knew him, and knew he hated to be late. Once the sun went behind the shadow of the mountain her house drastically cooled, so she had already shut the windows. Now, she went over and opened the one closest to the driveway, where she’d be able to hear his truck coming up the mountain. Silence greeted her.

Glancing over at her phone on the kitchen counter, she debated about calling him. She didn’t want to be one of those women who constantly called their boyfriends whenever they were a few minutes late. But the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach wouldn’t go away. Pulling up her text messages, she checked to see if maybe he had sent something while she was on the phone. There was nothing. She tried to think of some light, witty text she could send him, but instead of words to him her blood pressure increased, pumping hard through her veins and her breathing increased. Something told her that something was wrong.

For the first time since she’d moved in, she was afraid to be alone in her home. This wasn’t like in Los Angeles, where her neighbors were twenty feet away and you could practically hear everything that went on in their homes. If something went wrong up here, assuming she’d even be able to call 9-1-1, by the time they made it up here, she’d be dead. The loneliness sat heavy on her as her hands shook while she tried to text him.

You okay?

She heard the whoosh signaling that the text had been sent. Now she had to sit and wait for a reply. Staring at the screen, she wanted to see at least the three dots pop up, meaning he was typing his response. There was nothing.

Vault Security was already closed, so she couldn’t call there. And the last thing she wanted to do was call Karina, giving the other woman more ammunition to give them a hard time. He’d probably just lost track of time and was working late.

He was now over fifteen minutes late, and nothing from him. She pulled a stool up to the open window and looked back and forth on the road. They had recently discovered there was a logging road that connected their two houses. If he went home first, he’d come from one direction. If he was still at the job site, he’d come from the other. Straining her ears, she listened for any vehicle coming along the road.

Before long she heard something that made her uneasy. It didn’t quite sound like an animal, and it wasn’t the vehicle she wanted to hear. Something ominous rustled in the woods behind her house. The crack of the twigs breaking as something angrily rushed through the brush echoed off the canyon walls. With every second that passed, the sound became louder and more sinister.

Straining her eyes, she tried to see what could be making that noise, but couldn’t see anything. All she could tell was that it was getting closer to her house. She glanced over at the back door and sighed with relief that it was locked. Tracking the sound with her eyes, she put her hands on the top of the window, ready to slam it as soon as something emerged from the woods.

Suddenly she could hear an engine roar to life and start up the mountain. She had no idea who was going to get to her first—Nate coming up the mountain or this thing that was angrily rushing through the forest toward her.