Bear In The Rough: Book 1: Treasure Hunt (BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (20 page)

                 
Chapter Two

   Maggie sat upright at the kitchen counter as the golden, California, morning, sun poured in through the large bay windows. Streams of light danced off of the rich mahogany floor of the living room, giving it an almost red appearance. Stretching, she arched her back and cracked her finger while checking the clock. It read 9:45, her brother was due to be at the house by 11. It was slightly worrisome that he had not bothered to call her, and would only communicate through what seemed to be swiftly written E-Mails. He had explained that he really couldn’t find the time to talk to her over the phone, that he had a huge project he was working on and his hands were full.

  
Don’t worry big sista!
The last E-mail had read.
I know you worry, but I’m fine! Just super busy, you go hunker down at mom and dads and I’ll be there 11 O’clock like we planned, try not to get into too much trouble…Not without me anyways. All of my Love-A.

    She had read this E-mail multiple times, as if she could spot a lie or falsity through electronics, as if he could have encrypted something. She just thought she would see for herself when she got a good look at him. She had not seen him since the funeral, and he was in pretty rough shape. She could tell he had not slept in days, and had been partying way too hard. He was scruffy and his tie had come undone, he kept a far off look in his eyes throughout the ceremony, as if he couldn’t focus them. She knew that he had every reason to be upset, he had loved their family just as much as she did. But, the way he had not come home for Christmas that year, and the tone of subtle sadness whenever she spoke about him.

   “You know Andy,” Her father had said, his voice shaking, “He figures it out, always has always will. He’s a smart boy, no reason for you to worry, love.”

   She could tell that her father was holding back near tears, and that he was just as worried as she had been. Yet, her father always wanted to be the strong one, and always had, so she granted him peace of not discussing her brother’s affairs.

   It was the week before her father had passed when she finally heard from Andy. His voice sounded rough and he talked at a mile a minute, asking questions before she even had the time to answer them. When he finally got to the bottom of what his phone call was about, it was exactly what she had expected; Money. He had blown a big bet and lost all of the inheritance their mother had left behind. Said he saw guys lurking outside of his apartment every night, someone had slashed his tires, and he knew he was being followed.  Resentfully, Maggie Western Union-ed her brother nearly all of her savings, about $50,000 her mother had left her, and begged that her brother use it wisely. She explained that this sounded not just like a stroke of bad luck, but this could be a matter of real life or death.

   “These aren’t just some petty games you play for peanuts, Andy!” She scolded him, she could hear the sound of traffic and loud voices on his end of the phone, and it sounded like he was not in the best neighborhood. “I want you to come straight home after this Andy, you pay these people and you go to dads, Deal?”

   Andy had agreed and hurried off the phone to collect his great bounty. She had wondered if she had made the right decision; But what else was she to do? She couldn’t not send him the money, if her brother wound up in a river she would never have been able to forgive herself. If he was lying and was just looking for more money to gamble and do dope, how would she know? And she couldn’t say no, he knew she had the money and an OK desk job at a production office. There was no way out, so she did what she though was best and then cut loose.

   “Please make better choices, Andy,” Had been the last word she had said to her brother in person as they embraced in front of the house the night of the funeral. He was on his way to Vegas for the job he had been talking about, and explained to her that as soon as he was on his feet again, he was going to pay her back.

   “It’s not the money I worry about, Andy, it’s you, your life and your choices.”

   He brushed her off and tried to smile as she held back the tears. She never could have foreseen him becoming what he was when they were children, he was always so bright. But, aren’t we all?

    She plugged away at her computer and poured over the coffee-stained stack of papers that sat to her left, their edges rolled and crumbled. She thought that while she was here she might as well make another copy of her script. Who knows who you will meet on the streets of California, she thought to herself. You don’t want to be seen with this rag, no one in their right minds would ever take you seriously.

   She had been working on a movie script for the past two years. It was no longer a just a pet project anymore, it had become a part of who she was, a way she identified herself as a human being. She had fantasized about meeting some big-shot producer when she laid her head down to sleep at night. She dreamed that he or she would stumble across her, and instantly notice a spark.

   “This girl,” They would say, shaking their heads as she got up to get her Oscar at the Academy Awards, “I don’t know what it was,” The producer would tell reporters at the after party when they asked him about her success,” but I could just tell as soon as I met her, that Maggie Anderson just had it.”

   She had, in complete, rewritten the movie a total of twenty times. She felt bad about her perfectionism, and the amount of wasted paper, but she knew she wasn’t going to destroy the rainforest perusing a dream.

   The movie she was working on was an Indie-romance-dark comedy about the end of the world. It was gritty and true to life, according to her standards, and she gave a unique quality to each character, so much so that it had begun to feel like she was closer to the people she had made up in her head than the people in real life.

   Maggie hit the “Print” button on her computer screen and she heard the machine whir to life.

   “Well, that’s a first,” She mumbled to herself as she lifted her coffee to her lips and sipped, amazed that the clunky, old, machine still worked, none the less on the first try.

   She glanced over at the small, flat screen, television that sat on the counter next to the coffee maker. She had CNN on all morning as background noise, it was the same new as always; fire here, war there, these people are mad and tired, these other people are angry because the other people are mad and tired, same old, same old. She picked up the remote and turned on the weather channel, they were calling for clear skies all day with a high in the mid-eighties, perfect beach weather. She checked the time as she heard the last of her script fall out of the machine; 11:15, the microwave read. She picked up her script and shuffled the papers, trying to aligned the edges as she walked over to the stove, hoping the time on the microwave was wrong. 11:18 the neon green numbers yelled. She pounded the thick stack of paper on the counter, and rolled her eyes.

   “Andy...” She grumbled.

   She walked into the office off the side of the kitchen and grabbed a large envelope, slipping her script inside, still hot from it printing. She sat back at her chair and slipped the envelope back in her leather bag beside another worn copy. She picked up her phone and checked to see if she had any missed calls or messages, anything to tell her what her brother was up to. Nothing, no e-mails, texts, messages or calls. She sighed as she scrolled through her phone, she had Andy listed in her phone as “The Candy Man,” an old childhood nick-name she had given him on account of him getting caught selling his Halloween candy on the playground in third grade. Something that had appalled the teacher, and sent her family onto the brink of hysteria with laughter when they could talk about it privately.

   “You, Andy,” Her father had said laughing as he slapped the steering wheel and drove away from the parent-teacher conference, “you do know how to take care of yourself, that’s my boy.”

   She pulled the phone to her ear; straight to voicemail.

   “Andy, I know it’s only 15 minutes, but you’re still late and it worries me when you don’t pick up my calls. I hate to be a nag, but I’m going to keep on calling you until I get an answer. I love you jerk-face, please pick up or call me back, I’ll be next to my phone.”

   She laid the phone back down on the counter and drummed her fingers. She laid her head on her hand and stared out the bay window. It was indeed a beautiful day outside, the perfect day to take her shoes off and let her hair out of the confines of the bun it seemed to perpetually be in. She could walk in the sand barefoot, wrapped in the knitted, oat colored shawl, with the wind in her hair and bits of ocean spraying her sun-kissed skin, just like she had seen her mother do nearly every day. It was so hard to believe that they were both gone, and know existed only in her memory, in her memory and in the house.

   She daydreamed about going down to the beach for a bloated moment, but knew she shouldn’t dare leave the house. Andy could show up and any minute, and if he noticed that she wasn’t there, he would simply leave without saying a word to her, no note, nothing, and who knew when the next time she would hear from him would be. She loved her brother, but had always been irked as to how he went about things, his carelessness. He had no concept of limits, whether it was money, or time. He had always thought that he had all he needed and would spend them both freely, until he didn’t. 

    It had been the biggest difference between them growing up, Andy was more of a free-spirit, and willing to drop even the most important task to have a little fun. Maggie, on the other hand had always been more cautious and controlling, almost to the point of being an over-achiever. It had not made her popular in high-school, but had benefited her all too much in adulthood, where as her brother struggled to even keep a roof over his head.

   She lifted her head from her hand, pressed the enter key on her computer and the screen came to life. She took another sip of her coffee, which had now become cold and began typing. There was nothing more she could do than just wait her brother out.

            
Chapter Three

     “Andrew where are you?!” She said through her clenched jaw as the sun set in a purple haze along the coast.

    “It's now almost 6 o'clock, your phone is ringing, I know you're getting these.”

   She punched the talk button on the land line and threw the phone on the couch, sending it diving between the striped cushions. She had been switching between her phone and the land line, calling her brother incessantly for the past 5 hours, all to no avail. She was hoping that by calling him on the land line maybe she could trick him. She remembers when he was a kid he knew a code to make your number come up as private, but she had more dignity that that. She plopped down on the couch and lifted her large reading glasses over her brow, rubbing her eyes as they ran with tears from staring at the computer too long.

   She sat in the silence of the house, listening to it creak with the evening wind that swept in the scent of the tropical flowers that sat outside. The house creaked and shuddered, and she could hear the ocean, she closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was on a ship, with the background noise it wasn’t hard to do at all. She pictured the endlessness of the ocean in her distance, no land in sight for miles, she thought of a handsome man at the wheel of the mighty vessel, his jean pants tight and his black t-shirt form fitting. He would look not unlike the old footage she had seen of JFK on his boat, his hand to his forehead, his sparkling blue eyes twinkling in the sun.  She saw herself in a red polka-dot bikini and a large straw hat. She had a fresh margarita in hand as she fixed herself onto a long beach chair, that handsome man staring at her the whole time. This was what she fantasized her life could be like, all she need was that one big break.

   She felt herself drifting further into her fantasy, started to see the edges of reality become distorted as she drifted off to sleep, when suddenly, the phone rang. She jumped from the couch, making a loud snorting noise and listened for the phone. She looked all over as it rang a third time, and then a fourth, and then a fifth. The message machine beeped as she remembered she had thrown in in between the couch cushions. She dove into the couch like an Olympian as her brother voice sounded off of the phone dock.

   “Hey Sista!!! You there? C’Mon! I know you’re there! Don’t be mad at me, I can expai-“

   She finally pulled the phone out of the dark abyss and slammed on the talk button, almost breaking her nail.

   “ANDY!” She yelled loud enough to make her voice echo, even on her end. “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? I'VE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY!!”

   She heard her brother chuckle on the other end of the line. She half wanted to punch him and half wanted to hug him, he sure did know how to worry a girl.

   “Listen, Mags,” He started, his voice sounding a little hesitant at first, she was just glad that he sounded half alive. “I got caught up with work, it’s a big project for a big client out in the middle of the desert and he don’t get any reception there, I’m able to call you now because I had to run out for food for the night.

   There was a long pause between them. Maggie listened to the sounds coming from his side of the line, she heard nothing. No voices, no cars, nothing. He really was in the middle of nowhere.

   “Well Andrew,” She stared, using his long first name to let him know she meant business, much the way her mother had done when they were children. “I’m very proud that you are doing so well and seem like you are taking care of yourself, but you have to understand that we made an agreement to meet up at the house this morning, and this is the first I’ve been hearing from you.”

   There was another bloated pause between them, she heard her brother take a breath to speak but cut him off before he could get the words out.

   “I don’t think you understand, the house was broken into Andrew, things were stolen. Dads tools, some of moms’ jewelry. They trashed the place and I cleaned it all up, as I always do. I thought the place was going to be packed up? I thought you had taken care of it?”

   She heard her brother stutter before he started. She felt a little bad, knowing that as his big sister, she always had the ability to frighten him.

   “Lis-listen Mags,” He said, almost yelling. “I’m sorry to hear about the house, that really sucks, and I was really looking forward to seeing you, I always do!” Maggie rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.

   “I’m telling ya!,” Andy continued, his voice shaking, “It’s just all these new jobs out here! I’m tellin’ ya, my friend really hooked me up! At this rate I’ll be able to buy my own house next year, it’s just I gotta work really hard right now for it.”

   Maggie squeezed her eyes closed and opened them, holding down all of the negative things she wanted to say to him in that moment. She reminded herself that this was her brother, and her was trying his best to recover. She was all he had left in the world, family wise, and she should take it upon herself to support him, not chastise him for not spending time with her. Maggie relented.

   “Ok, Ok, Andy,” She sighed, trying to sound as pleased as possible, “I’m proud of you, you know that, I was just worried. I was worried and I miss you, you jerk.”

   The two of them laughed.

   “I miss you too,” Andy said, his voice still sounding nervous.

   Maggie heard what sounded like the air compression of a truck on the other end of the phone, Andy covered the receiver and said a few mumbled words to an unknown man.

    ‘Maggie, listen, I gotta go,” Andy yelled into the receiver, Maggie could hear the commotion of other people in the distance.

   “Wait, Andy-“

    “Maggie, I left you a little present on your E-Mail, just do it, you deserve a vacation after all you’ve been through, and consider it part of me paying you back!” The phone began to cut out.

   “Andy?!” Maggie yelled, not wanting to let go of him just yet.

   “I love you sista!” Andy yelled, then the phone clicked.

   Maggie dropped the phone back onto the couch and raised both of her hands into the air.

   “Well, so much for that!” She said to the house.

   She stood there with her hands on her hips, shaking her head. After all she had done, how could he just ditch her like that? She thought to herself. She then remembered that it was her brother and he had been and always would be Captain Space Cadet.

    But why did he sound so nervous? She wondered.

   Maggie shook her head, loosening the bun on her crown and letting her hair fall free.

   “Present?” She questioned to herself out loud and she picked up her black scrunchie off the carpet, “Email?”

   She stomped back over to her computer, her bare feet slapping against the floor. She pressed enter and the screen became bright. She pulled her glasses down to the edge of her nose and opened up her account.

   “You have 1 new Message!” The screen read, she clicked on the red exclamation point.

   “Ticket for 1 person, round trip, Deporting from LAX 7:30am, arriving in
Aeropuerto Internacional , Mexico City, Mexico.”

   “What…...” Maggie whispered to herself she opened the E-mail from her brother.

   Her brother explained everything in the message he had said on the phone; he was busy, wanted to make it up to her. Maggie felt touched, albeit confused by her brothers’ sudden generosity. In the message he had also included booking information for a week-long stay at a beach front 5-star hotel, meals included.

    “Oh Andy,” Maggie sighed, only her brother would do something like this. He never quite understood that Maggie was not a spontaneous spirit, that much like the house she had grown up in she also was well put together, everything intentional, a place for everything and everything in its place, and nearly unbreakable. Her brother, on the other hand, was like the tide that existed right outside her back door; wild, unpredictable, and, at times, dangerous.

   She shook her head and hit the print button on the tickets. The printer whirred to life again in defiance of gods will.

    “Huh, two miracles today,” She said to the house.

   She closed her computer and pushed it in her bag alongside the copies of her script. She walked over to the printer and picked up the few papers that had fallen out. She read her plane ticket, she was to leave tomorrow morning. Typical Andy, she thought to herself, sending her on a last moment get away with only enough time left to brush her teeth and pack her clothes. He hadn’t have even bothered to ask her if she knew any Spanish, which she did, fluently. It was just the typical kind of thing he would do, impulsive, thoughtless.

   She slipped the tickets into her bag and made her way for the stairs, knowing that she had to start packing.

   “Well Mexico,’ She sighed, lifting herself up by drift-wood banister “Here I come!”

To be continued....