Page 40 of Clumsy in Love

The cub started toward Cole, and he danced to get away from it. “Shoo, dude. Go away. Go find your mom.” It seemed intent on getting close to him. “I don’t have any food on me. What does he want?”

“Maybe something happened to his momma, and he wants to go home with you. Be my new daddy,” she said in a mock falsetto.

“Not funny!” Cole said, still backing away. “He is pretty cute though.”

Holly had pulled out her phone and called someone. “Any reports of an abandoned cub near the falls trail?” she asked.After a pause, she continued. “I’ll shoo it off, but we should check the area to make sure Mom’s okay. All right. Yes. I’ll need some help to clear the trail.”

“So?”

“Dispatch is gonna call the wildlife guys. If Mom doesn’t show up in the next hour or so, they’ll trap the cub and try to find it a new one.”

“A new mom? Can they do that?”

“He’s young enough. It might work.”

They shooed the cub back into the brush and spent the next thirty minutes making people take a wide berth around the area. Someone had closed the trail entrance, but everyone coming down had to be dealt with.

Just as Cole started to relax, a much louder crashing noise sounded off to their left. Holly stiffened, grabbed his arm, and put a finger to her lips.

They’d kept loose tabs on the cub. He was wandering in circles a few yards from the trail. Holly pointed, and Cole looked up to see a terrifyingly large bear barreling straight at them.

“Holly?” he whispered.

“Stay still,” she said. “She’s just coming for her baby.”

Everything in his body said to run. He had to fight the urge to grab Holly’s hand and take off, her safety pamphlet be damned. Momma bear stopped, grumbled at the cub, and swatted it to get it moving. The little bear let out a squawk.

“Did she just spank him?” he whispered.

“Looked like it, didn’t it?” Holly chuckled. “He deserved a good whack for running off. She was probably worried sick.”

Mom and baby lumbered off in the opposite direction without a backward glance. Cole rushed out a breath. “And people say the city is a jungle.”

Holly radioed dispatch to update them. They would give the bears a twenty-minute head start and then reopen the trail. Holly and Cole headed back to the parking lot.

“I don’t know if you’re brave or crazy, Bennett. I would’ve run for the hills. Literally.”

“What’d I say about running from bears?”

“Don’t. But easier said than done.”

She looked at her watch. “I’m starving. Let’s get lunch.”

“Yeah, I might need a new pair of pants too.”

She laughed, and the sound made him smile.

That night after work, they stopped by Holly’s house—nothing new there—grabbed some hoagie sandwiches from a deli, and returned to Jen’s. Lady ran out from behind the barn and greeted them as though she hadn’t seen them in months.

“This is the best part about having a dog,” Holly said, bending to pet Lady. “They’re always so excited to see you.”

When it was his turn for inspection, Cole scratched Lady between the ears while she sniffed him up and down. “I haven’t had one since I was a kid,” he said. “Gotta say, I do kinda miss it. You’re a good girl, aren’t you, Lady?”

When he looked up, Holly was smiling at him. And damn if his heart didn’t swell a little.

After dinner, he plopped onto a soft chair and unlaced his boots. His feet had been killing him since the hike, and he had a bad feeling about what he would find under his socks. Gingerly, he padded to the bathroom and removed them. He sat on the edge of the tub, pulled up his pant legs, and ran water over his feet, hoping the pain would magically wash away.

Holly had gone outside to feed Lady. When she returned, Cole was back on the couch, staring at his bare feet. Which were covered with quarter-sized blisters.

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