Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 20927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
“He’ll eat your fool ass for that.” You never play dead with a black bear. Grizzly, yes. But they’re not located here. She’s another tourist that did absolutely no research before visiting my mountain.
Her face is so white that I want to gather her up in my arms and promise her she’s safe. “Now move to the side like I am. Do not approach him or step back.”
She follows my lead, careful to move in sync with me.
The bear finally finishes sniffing the air. He drops back onto all fours and saunters into the forest as if he didn’t just give this woman the scare of a lifetime. She’ll have a hell of a story to tell her friends when she goes back to the city.
Her shoulders slump, and she lets out a relieved breath. Her bee stung lips are just the right shade of pink and for some stupid reason, I imagine leaning down to kiss her. I wonder if they’d be just as soft and pillowy as I’m thinking.
“Thank you.” She pushes back some of those ringlets and when she does, I see her hands are shaking. She’s got a rolling suitcase in the middle of the road, probably left it when she saw the bear.
I move to grab the white suitcase decorated with a cherry pattern. It’s cute and cheerful but the latch on it looks busted. “That car back there running?”
She shakes her head and seems to snap back into herself. “No, it just stopped. Something about the key not working. Shit, I’m glad you were here. I was so nervous. I thought I was gonna die. That bear looked like he was about to eat me and that would be a terrible vacation, not to mention my brother would never let me—”
“Let’s go check out the mini mobile.” I gesture for her to follow me back to the little red car.
“There’s a cat on your back.” She laughs like this is the craziest thing she’s seen in her life. Then she just keeps laughing and laughing. That’s when I realize she’s probably in shock.
I shrug off the backpack carefully. It’s hard to feel sad or scared when you have a kitty in your arms. At least, it always works for me. “This guy is Mundungus.”
I remove him from the carrier that protects him on our adventures and the little guy immediately pushes up against her legs. He doesn’t normally take to other people, but then again if she’d let me rub myself all over her body, I’d definitely take the chance.
She picks him up and strokes his fur while he revels in the attention. Lucky little bastard. “Mundungus? Like the wizard?”
At least, she’s focusing on something else. “Mundungus like the furry thief who steals my sunglasses, keys, anything he can get those little paws on.”
Mundungus looks up at her and meows as if he’s proud of these exploits.
“I don’t believe it. He’s so soft and furry and sweet. I bet this little guy is the perfect angel.” Her color is returning to normal and her breathing has evened out again. It eases something in my chest to see that he’s calming her.
I swear Mundungus smirks at me from her arms.
“Oh, yeah. An angel with four paws. Come on, let’s go see about this car.” I roll her suitcase behind me and open the door for her when we arrive at the car.
As soon as she shows me the error message on the dashboard, I tell her to press the key fob to the ignition button. Just like that, the car starts. It’s one of the secrets of these little vehicles. When the battery in the fob stops working, press the fob to the ignition button and the car will still sense that you have the key.
“My sister owns one of these,” I explain at her delighted gasp. “You’re headed to the lodge up the road, right?”
The only place on my mountain is the Forever After Lodge, a wedding venue that I own. It’s a family business. Except that my drunk of a father walked out when I was a teenager. Multiple sclerosis took the once vivid, strong woman he pledged to love forever and put her in a wheelchair. So he left in the middle of the night like a coward.
She hesitates then Mundungus purrs in her arms as if reminding her that the man carrying a cat on his back can’t possibly mean her any harm. “Yeah, I am. Do you know where it is? My phone battery kind of died.”
Even though I already figured she was headed to the lodge, my stomach still sinks. She’s most likely a bride though it’s strange that she’s traveling alone. Most of them show up at the lodge with their grooms or their wedding party. Heaven knows if I were lucky enough to get an angel like her, I sure as hell wouldn’t let her travel alone on some mountain road where anything could happen to her.