Page 84 of Fire and Rain
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes.” Sean jumped out of bed, reached for his pistol. “Stay here.”
She got up, grabbed her shot gun, and followed. “It’s probably wildlife.”
“Eden, you should...” He turned to tell her to get back into the room, but the sight of her holding a shotgun naked did something to his brain. “…stay behind me.”
“If I stay behind you, I can’t shoot.”
Naked and armed, they walked out to the main room, the only light coming from the glass pane in the door of the woodstove.
More footsteps—heavy, awkward ones.
It sounded like a drunk was stumbling around on the cabin’s deck.
Sean had heard of campers and hunters in remote cabins being attacked by strangers. It was rare, but it happened. He moved toward the window when a strange bawling sound came from the other side of the door.
“Bear cubs.” Eden raised her voice and bonked the locked door with the butt of her shotgun. “Hey, baby bears! This is our house! Go find your mama! Skedaddle!”
The sound of scrambling. A cub bawling and… silence.
Sean drew back the curtains. In the moonlight, he saw two brown bear cubs running toward their mother, who stood on her hind legs near the edge of the forest, sniffing the air. “She can smell us.”
Eden came up beside him. “She can smell us—and the fish we fried.”
“Damn, she’s big. They seem a lot smaller from a helicopter.”
Eden seemed to find that funny. “You think? The cubs are so cute.”
“Their mama is the size of a small car. We’ll have to take firearms and bear spray when we go out tomorrow.” Sean let the curtain fall back into place, took Eden’s shotgun, set both of their firearms on the table, then drew her into his arms. “Please follow my lead in crisis situations. I know you can hit a target, but I’m the one with military training. If those footsteps had belonged to bad guys instead of bears…”
You could tell her that you love her and want to keep her safe.
“I hear what you’re saying, and it means a lot to me that you would put yourself between me and danger. But I already lost Justin. I can’t lose you, too.”
“I won’t let that happen.” He kissed her, soft and slow. “I’ll stoke the fire. You head back to bed.”
She took her shotgun and walked to the bedroom, giving him a glorious view of her bare ass, long hair tumbling down her back. He added more wood to the stove, checked to make sure the door and windows were secured, then followed her.
* * *
Eden sat nextto Sean on the deck, watching the sunset over the lake, the two of them holding hands and sipping whiskey from paper cups. A soft breeze blew, carrying the scent of cedar and Sitka spruce, the last rays of the sun turning the clouds pink.
She looked up at the summit of the mountain across from them. “It’s hard to believe that just a few hours ago, we were up there.”
They had hiked to the summit after a lunch of trout, which they’d cooked over a fire on the edge of the lake. The climb had been a real workout, especially in areas where the undergrowth was dense or the slope was steep and slippery with vegetation. Then Sean had caught a sockeye for supper, and they’d feasted on the deck.
“That view was incredible.” Sean had taken photos, including a selfie of the two of them with the lake and most of Kodiak National Wildlife Reserve behind them.
It was the first photo of them alone together.
But would this last? Were they truly a couple?
Did Sean care for her the way she cared for him?
Eden tried not to worry about it. “I never expected this.”
“What?”
