Chapter 4
Four
I think I need to quit my job to focus on my laundry.
—Constance to her mother
Constance
I didn’t sleep all that great.
I didn’t know if it was due to me dreading the morning to come or lamenting myself for the thousandth time for stooping down to a third grader’s level.
I couldn’t believe I’d driven behind him with my brights on until he turned into his stupid cute house in the middle of downtown.
I also couldn’t believe that I would have to pass his house every time I came into Sawtooth to grocery shop.
Maybe Bear Pass would get a grocery store soon, and I would never have to go to Sawtooth again.
I pounded my pillow and rolled over to look at my ceiling.
I liked the new house.
It was at the base of the mountains. Mountains were on one side, and a bubbling river was on the other.
When we’d moved, we’d contacted the local game wardens in the area and told them about what we did.
Mom and Dad had been rehabilitating wildlife forever. I’d joined in because their love of animals had been instilled in me at a very young age. And all three of us had built the Wildlife Rehab Center in Alabama up to what it was.
When social media had started to do its thing, I’d taken to the internet to promote the cause.
Now the WRC had over a million followers who loved to experience the everyday life of a recovering raptor or bear.
Or, sometimes even a squirrel or two.
When we’d moved, the family had “branched out” so to speak.
Mom and Dad had left WRC Alabama to be run by my brother and sister, Harvey and Essie.
Meanwhile, they’d followed me to Montana because let’s face it, seeing your one and only grandchild close to death was enough to cause anyone to panic.
I wasn’t sure they’d stay here forever, but for now, they were a permanent fixture.
Dad found out from the local game wardens in Jesper County that this place had come up for sale.
It was big enough that we could spread out with the recovering wildlife, while also providing the area with valuable resources that we would need as we got the wildlife back up to snuff.
I’d just sat up and decided that I needed to get dressed when claws sounded against stone right outside my window.
I smiled as I saw Possum perched on my windowsill.
“Hello, Possum,” I said as I opened the window for him. “You’re up early.”
Possum was actually an Osprey.
He’d come to us as a malnourished baby and had been released into the wild as soon as he was well enough.
The only problem was, he hadn’t wanted to be released into the wild.
He’d wanted to stay where we were, and he was getting three five-course meals a day.
He’d become a beloved pet to us, and we hadn’t been able to abandon him.
Though he caught his own food now, he found human company necessary for his day-to-day life.
He walked awkwardly along my windowsill.
“What do you need?” I asked him.
His golden eyes took me in, not moving.
I let him be and got ready for the day.
The trial started today, and I needed to leave soon or I’d be late.
Two hours of driving every day for the two weeks they suspected we’d be there was going to really freakin’ suck.
What was going to suck even more was having to face the man that I’d acted like a child in front of last night.
I stood in front of my closet and checked out all of my clothes.
I had to wear something business casual, according to the judge.
I also needed to make sure that it was warm, because it was freezing inside the courthouse yesterday.
That, and it was already getting colder.
I wasn’t looking forward to winters here.
I especially wasn’t looking forward to all the snow that was said to be in store for us.
Claws scraped against my hardwood floor and I sighed. “You are not allowed in my room, young man.”
Possum screeched at me.
I sighed. “Go outside. I’ll give you your snack when you get down there.”
He ignored me and continued his unblinking stare.
I got dressed in leggings, a soft gray cashmere sweater, and my boots.
I curled my hair and applied way more time and energy into my makeup than I had in years.
I glared at my reflection in the mirror.
“You’re trying too hard,” I told myself.
And for someone that was a complete asshole at that.
I’d been in line beside him yesterday while I listened to the cashier talk to him and him not reply.
He’d been so rude to her, and it’d only set my anger on fire.
Who did he think he was?
I stomped out of my room and down the hall, claws clicking and then feathers fluttering behind me.
When I was downstairs, I got Possum his treat before letting him back outside.
I was running late, so I didn’t stay any longer even though I could hear my mom getting up and moving about.
In my car on the way to Bozeman, I gave myself a pep talk.
I could do this.
I could spend two weeks around a man that scared me.
It wasn’t like he was going to attack me when I was in a courtroom, for God’s sake.
I didn’t know how long I was driving before my new car started to sputter.
I glanced at the gas light to make sure I had gas. Full.
I studied the instrument panel, and everything was clear.
Then the car gave one final choke and died.
I pulled over into the only place I could, a runaway truck exit.
I pulled as far to the side as I could and got out, glaring at the stupid car.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I prayed there was a signal.
There wasn’t.
My god.
So, of course, that would be the moment in time that a motorcycle would pull up.
I prayed that it would just pass me.
But the sound of the motor’s roar notched down and down until it pulled up behind me.
I reluctantly turned around to see who it was, praying it was anyone else.
I, of course, was out of luck.
Odin took off his sunglasses and stared at me. “Car troubles?”
I gritted my teeth and nodded once.
His lips quirked. “Bummer.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You got a jacket in the car?”
I frowned. “Yes.”
“Get it.”
I almost asked why, but I didn’t.
Instead, I got the jacket and shrugged it on.
He jerked his head toward the bike. “Get on.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but his words stopped me. “We have to be at the courthouse in an hour, and you don’t want to have a bench warrant placed on you for not showing up.”
I opened my mouth and closed it.
Even though I felt like I could probably get out of it if I explained myself, I was still in the middle of nowhere halfway down a mountain on a switchback of a road that I hadn’t seen another soul on in fifteen minutes.
With no cell phone signal.
I was not stupid.
I got on the bike.
He waited for me to get on and situated before he said, “Get closer.”
I got closer.
“Closer.”
I scooched forward an inch.
“More.”
I sighed and moved all the way forward until I was touching him with every part of me.
“Good,” he said. “You ever been on a bike before?”
“Yes,” I lied.
He snorted. “Hold on.”
I threaded my arms around his waist.
He pushed off the ground with one leg, then started forward slowly.
I tightened my hold.
“Your hair’s gonna be a mess when we get there,” he pointed out.
That was the last thing I heard before he picked up speed.
I squealed in surprise as we started to move.
I was also in awe.
I’d never in my life felt so free before.
And terrified.
It was freaky to look to the side and see straight down the mountain going at a high rate of speed.
Even scarier was the fact that I had no helmet on, and Odin was going incredibly fast.
Much faster than I ever would’ve felt safe going in my SUV.
I held on to the large man, trying not to think about how big he was.
Much bigger than Errol.
He could beat the shit out of me in seconds if he wanted to.
I shivered, the reminder of the last time that Errol had hurt me rocketing through me.
I’d once given in and gone on a date with Errol, just hoping that he would see how incompatible that we were and maybe say “oh, okay. Never mind. I don’t want to date you.”
Yet, the date that I’d gone on with him had gone swimmingly.
At least, that was how he took it.
Meanwhile, on my end, he’d taken me on a date to a seafood restaurant, and I was allergic to all freakin’ fish. I’d been terrified to get anything, even the water, because my allergy was so freakin’ bad that even a tiny spot of fish could cause me to have an allergic reaction.
That one date had gone so severely bad that I thought he’d never try to ask me out again.
I was wrong.
I’d found out rather quickly that making assumptions also made an ass out of you.
There I was thinking “he’ll get the hint” and there he was spreading rumors around town that I was now his.
No matter where I turned, there he was.
At first, I hadn’t tried super hard to keep him out of my life.
Wendy being so sick, I’d taken whatever help I could get.
But as I paid more attention to her, I paid less attention to him.
Which had pissed Errol the fuck off.
He wanted to be the center of my world.
I wanted him to give me space to breathe.
We fought.
He didn’t listen.
And eventually our fights turned physical—at least on his end.
The day that I got the message from my secret friend about a way to help Wendy in Montana had come at a perfect time. Or so I’d thought.
When I’d announced that I was moving, he’d found out and come to “talk sense into me.”
I hadn’t wanted to have “sense talked into me,” so he’d decided to beat it into me.
He’d left me on the floor in the barn since I’d refused to let him into my house and around my child, bleeding and bloody. He thought he’d gotten his version of sense knocked into me.
Unluckily for him, I’d picked myself up, dusted myself off, cleaned myself up, and moved the fuck out.
My parents and I had packed up and left the next day.
I hadn’t heard from him since.
The bike slowed, and I came out of my morose thoughts, only then realizing that I was holding on to Odin for dear life.
He slowed to a stop for a stoplight, and the tingling of my skin from where my hair had been slapping against my exposed skin started to overwhelm me.
I pulled away from Odin, not wanting to have him close for no reason.
He turned his face to the side, and I saw just a hint of a scar right at his hairline.
I wanted to lean forward and examine it more closely, but the light he was stopped at turned green, and he started forward again.
I was forced to throw my arms around him or fall off.
And I could’ve sworn I heard him chuckle as I dove toward him desperately.