Redwood Bend (18 page)

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you thinking, man? We’ll go in the truck, you don’t want to be riding out there to chat with Mama Bear on a motorcycle. Let me grab my rifle and tell Preacher to mind the store.” And then he turned and walked through the kitchen, leaving Dylan to follow.

Dylan just stood there for a moment. Then he shot outside and got on his Harley, but he rode it around to the back of the bar and caught Jack just as he was getting into his truck. “I’ll follow you. I can outrun a Mama Bear on this if I have to.”

“Your funeral,” Jack said.

“We have bear in Montana, you know. And not these candy-ass bears—we have grizzlies.”

“I realize that,” Jack said. “I bet you also have a rifle in Montana.”

“I’m a little under-armed this trip. But I’d rather face a bear than a moose.”

“I hear bad things about moose.”

“Who do you think chases them off the runway? Could we move it? Or you’ll be following me.”

“Don’t worry—I told her to stay inside.” And with that, Jack got in the truck and led the way.

Ah, just as I thought,
Dylan observed silently. He spotted Mama in the bushes, scavenging. And sure enough, three fat cubs were enjoying the jungle gym. When Jack entered the clearing, her back had been to her cubs, digging around in the bushes, maybe for berries. But she turned and stood to her full and intimidating height; she was an enormous black bear. Jack tooted the horn while Dylan positioned his bike to make a run for it. Mama puffed up and made annoyed noises while her triplets ran for the cover of her skirts. Dylan saw Jack pull the rifle out of the rack.

Jack pressed down on the horn again and both men watched as Mama Bear, not real happy with the situation, disappeared into the brush, her triplets behind her. The men watched as they ambled off as if bored and perturbed. Typical black bear, she was passive and really didn’t want to tango with humans as long as the kids were safe.

Jack gave the horn a couple more blasts, waiting a full minute and then opened the door, rifle in hand. Dylan moved his bike up beside Jack, but kept it running.

“She could be two feet on the other side of the big blackberry bushes, but I kind of doubt it. If she felt threatened, she’d get the triplets to a safer playground. I had to shoot a bear once—same deal. She was scavenging while her cub was curious about the building I was doing at the bar. Next thing you know, I’m in a situation…”

“Those lessons come hard when you’re not raised around ’em,” Dylan said, turning off the bike and raising it on the stand. When he’d been transplanted from the city to the near-wilderness, he knew nothing. Ham, short for Hammond Pierce, the daytime hand, had been a grumpy old coot twenty years ago. He took Dylan under his wing as a matter of survival—if Dylan stupidly got himself killed around the horses, cows or wildlife, Ham would be out of work. Now he was even older, more weathered, crankier, and yet did even more work around the place than he’d done twenty years before.

Dylan ran up on the porch just as the cabin door opened. Katie looked scared. He’d never seen her with that look.

“Maybe I’ve been kidding myself about wanting adventure,” she said. “I threw up in the airplane, the bear scared me to death and I bet if I ever got a chance to learn to rock climb, I’d probably fall off and break my neck. Maybe I’m just a city girl who should stick to books and movies for my adventure fix.”

Ten

“F
irst of all,” Dylan told Katie and the boys, “you don’t want to run away from a bear—they’ll probably chase you and they’re very fast. If you’re farther away like you were, you can make a lot of noise, like Jack did with the horn. If you’re closer, back away slowly. Bears like this one are usually kind of shy—”

“She didn’t look shy,” Katie said.

“That’s because she had to protect her children—you know how that is. But if you don’t threaten the children, she’ll probably go away quietly. The one thing you never want to do is get between the mother and her cubs. And if you find yourself in a really scary situation with a bear, lay facedown on the ground, cover your head and neck with your hands and play dead.”

Dylan crouched in front of Mitch. “Mitch, if you come face-to-face with a bear, what are you going to do?”

“Back away slowly.”

He swiveled. “Andy, if you find yourself between a bear and her cubs and the mama seems angry, what should you do?”

“Make noise?”

“That’s if you’re not too close—if you’re kind of close and she seems angry, you lay down—”

“And play dead!”

“Right. On your stomach, facedown, cover your head, like this,” he said, demonstrating by lacing his fingers together behind his head. “Now here’s an easy one—if you’re about to go outside but there’s a bear in the yard…?”

“Stay in,” they answered in unison.

“Excellent.” He rose to his full height. “And if there’s a bear in your yard but you’re safe in the house…?” he asked, looking at Katie.

“Noise?”

“That could work. Not like screaming, like maybe banging a spoon on a tin pan. Something to alert the bear there’s a person around so they just leave. And you have that mace, in case you get right down to it.”

“They don’t actually like that too much,” Jack said. “I’ve heard of bears getting very angry about that, but if it’s your only option....”

“Katie, since you’ve had this bear family in the yard, can you remember to go over bear safety rules with the boys often?” Dylan asked. “You’ll probably never see them again, but… Rules for safety. Every day isn’t too often.”

She got a very queer look on her face before she said, “Of course.” She blinked a couple of times. “Ready to get to summer school, guys?”

“Let me drop them off,” Jack offered. “I’m headed back to town anyway. I’ll make sure they get checked in. Miss Timm is a bear about that.” Then he laughed at his own joke.

“Thanks, Jack. Get your backpacks, guys,” she said.

In less than two minutes the twins were in the truck and Jack was backing out of the clearing. Dylan and Katie were still standing on the porch. When the truck was out of sight, she faced him.

“So. You’re leaving.”

“How would you know that?” he asked.

“Your duffel is on the back of the bike and you have a confused look on your face, like you don’t know the way out.”

He shook his head. “I can take that duffel off the bike and put you there for one more ride. Anywhere you’d like to go.”

“Tell me what you came here to tell me,” she said.

He gently grasped her upper arms to pull her closer. He kneaded her arms and looked into her eyes. “Here’s what’s happening, Katie. I talked to Lang—a couple of our employees have left the company, hopefully for greener pastures because they know we’re in trouble. Our big plane is gone. Lang is going to send out his résumé—he has a family to think about. I have a company circling the drain and a producer in L.A. who wants to sign me for a movie if he can, a chance for me to bankroll that little Montana airport. I’d rather fly than act, but I’m a businessman—I’ll do what I have to do.”

“I think that’s admirable,” she said.

“Movies—they’re not exactly forty-hour weeks,” he said. “It’s a major commitment, for months. It won’t be quick. There won’t be time off. And for me, who has been out of the business for twenty years…well, I have a lot of catching up to do if I’m going to do a decent job.”

“I’m sure.”

“I don’t know when I’ll see you again, Katie.”

“I told you—I don’t have any expectations.”

“I have work there and in Montana,” he said. “I don’t have any real reason—”

“I know, Dylan. It was a fling, I know. Not something I’ve ever done before, but I knew going in that you were… How did you describe yourself? Kind of hit and run?”

“You’re probably better off,” he said.

“Sure. Right. You told me—you have bad-relationship DNA. Listen, don’t drag this out. This is no big surprise… Actually, I knew before my tire went flat, and it has nothing to do with your DNA. Our lives just don’t match.”

“I’d like to ask you to come with me, but I have no idea what I’d be asking you to do. I have no idea what the next months would—”

She was shaking her head. “Nah. Tempting though you are, I have commitments here. I have kids to raise and I promised them a stable and steady father figure. Plus, I think I like it here, bears and all. People step up for each other. There’s a real dearth of handsome movie stars, but…”

“I haven’t been a movie star since I was about fourteen. You do get that, right?”

She nodded. “Sure. But listen—my life has finally leveled out after a rocky year and I’m not in a position to take risks. Not with my boys. They’re so good, so resilient, I sometimes take them for granted. But now and then one of them will say something that reminds me they’re only little boys—they’re tender and they need security. Just a few weeks ago Mitch asked if I thought his dad would like him.” Her eyes misted. “My first commitment is to them. I’m not for taking chances. Do you get
that,
Dylan?”

He gave a slow, solemn nod. “You don’t have any regrets about us, do you?”

She shook her head and tried a smile, though it was tremulous. “You’re the best four-week boyfriend I’ve ever had. The only one.”

He swallowed hard. “Will you tell them goodbye? Will you tell them I couldn’t wait to see them again and I said goodbye?”

“Sure.”

“I could wait, but—”

“If it’s all the same to you, I can’t do this all day. So I might’ve regressed to my childhood and had a little crush…”

He leaned toward her and touched her lips gently. “Little?” he asked softly.

“Come on, think about this,” Katie said. “You don’t really want a lot of blubbering and sniveling and someone clinging to your ankles as you try to get away. You have business to get to and I…” She lifted her chin. “I have a life to get on with.”

He smiled at her. “You were the best time I’ve ever had, Katie.”

“You weren’t bad. I’ll think about you sometimes.”

“Our timing might’ve been off,” Dylan said. “If we’d met at another time, in another way…”

“There’s a small danger there, too,” she said. “You don’t want to get between me and the cubs. If you think that bear was scary…”

“If it matters, I’ve never had this much trouble saying goodbye before.”

She swallowed and her nose got a little pink. “Thanks for saying that. Now please, get going. Are you driving the motorcycle all the way to L.A.?”

“I rode it all the way here from Montana—not a quick trip. But I’m in kind of a hurry now. I should… Katie, I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m going to see you again because… I let you down.” He was quiet for a second. Then in a hoarse voice he said, “I hope you get on with your life in exactly the way you want to.”

He leaned toward her, kissed her forehead and turned to go. Halfway to his motorcycle, he turned back, closed the distance between them in two giant strides and took her roughly into his arms. He covered her mouth in a powerful kiss, licking open her lips and taking possession of her. She let out a small whimper, holding him tightly, answering his kiss with her acquiescence. A tear slid down her cheek.

When he pulled away, he touched her cheek gently with his thumb.

“Yeah,” she said. “You just weren’t going to be happy till you made that happen. Now get outta here. I’m really done saying goodbye.”

A little peck on the lips and he left.

He popped a wheelie on the way out of the clearing.

Katie stood there for a while after the sound of that motorcycle was little more than a distant purr. Then she sniffed, wiped her cheeks and muttered, “What was I thinking? I should’ve known better. Those Hollywood bad boys never change.”

Dylan had been on his bike for over four weeks and he was in no mood to ride all the way to L.A. His brain was sluggish and he was distracted.
This is exactly what happens,
he told himself,
when you let yourself get too comfortable.
He’d had plenty of girlfriends in the past but had never had the kind of routine he’d had with Katie. He’d let himself get lured into a false sense of security and now, headed for the job he dreaded but had to do, he was feeling a profound sense of loss.

And he had to get over it. Fast. She was moving on. A kind man would not do anything to hold her back.

He drove to that small airport in Arcata, talked the manager into storing his bike in a hangar and hitched a flight to Santa Rosa where he’d pick up a nonstop to Los Angeles. A month ago he’d packed for a seven-day ride with his friends and everything was getting pretty worn out even though he’d done laundry; he intended to spruce up his scant wardrobe. He wasn’t going to try to impress anyone, but he would have the courtesy to look civilized for business meetings.

Dylan was completely miserable about setting Katie free, but kept telling himself it was necessary. She might be disappointed in him for a while, then maybe a little angry, but ultimately he believed she’d be glad she didn’t have to worry about how her future would turn out with someone like him, some actor with a bad track record. A fling, she’d said. And as she’d said from the beginning, she could do a lot better.

There was one significant problem—he’d never met a woman like her before and probably never would again. Better? He wouldn’t. Not a chance.

“Okay, so I want Katie,” he muttered. So what? he asked himself. He’d get over it. He’d gotten over other things he wanted but couldn’t have.

The minute he got on the ground in Santa Rosa and turned on his phone, it came alive. There were voice mails and missed calls. He checked the call log while he waited for his flight to L.A. to depart. His mother? His
MOTHER?
And his half brother, Bryce? His stepsister, Blaine? There must have been twenty calls and he’d never given anyone this phone number. Lang, knowing his family history, would never have shared his cell number. He’d had a few calls from family members over the years, either at Childress Aviation or the Montana house, but they always wanted something from him, not looking for ways to reach out in friendship or, God forbid, affection.

He couldn’t resist and listened to the first message. And he thought,
This is exactly how you get reeled in, by letting them in your ear, your head.
Even though he hated his mother, he loved her and had always wanted her to act like a mother.