A Reason to Kill (Reason #2) (23 page)

“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.”