Page 15 of Just A Little Magic

“He did what, baby?”

It sounded like he said the bear ate them.

“Ate ’em, Da. Bad bear.”

Oh, exactly what I thought he said. I didn’t think bears ate keys, but I didn’t know shit about them, so maybe?

“Baby, stay here with your kitty, and I’ll go find the keys,” I told him.

Owen watched me with wide eyes and nodded his head.

“Don’t let your kitty down if you can help it. I don’t want him to run off on you, okay?”

I glanced around the room and spied a copy box by the guest services desk. It was the kind with push-in handles. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work in a pinch.

“If he gets too squirmy, put him in the box with the lid,” I said as I crossed the room to get it and dumped out the clutter inside.

On my way back, I grabbed a small, throw pillow and put that in the box too. With one last pet to the kitten’s head and a similar one to Owen’s, I went back outside to look for the keys.

I searched the entire yard, porch, and parking area. Those keys were gone. Maybe Owen was right and the bear had eatenthe damn things. My assistant might murder me when she picked up this call.

“What’s up, Barrett?”

“Hey, Kim, how’s it going?”

A little small talk might help this go down smoother.

“I sense a favor is about to be asked,” she responded.

“Funny story, a bear ate my car keys. Any chance you can bring me the spare set? They’re in my desk drawer.”

The line crackled in the background. Ugh, the last thing I needed was for the reception to go out completely.

“First, is everyone okay? And did you mean tonight?”

Her hesitation didn’t bode well.

“We’re fine. And yeah, is that an option?”

The line went silent, but it was hard to tell if that was the connection or Kim not wanting to answer.

“If you need me too, I can. My grandson’s first game is tonight, but I can have the kids record it for me.”

“Oh shit, no. You shouldn’t miss that. Can we get the agent on the phone and see if we can stay overnight here? If they say it’s okay, could you bring them up tomorrow?”

This really was above and beyond, and Kim was going to get a bonus out of it.

“Sure, let me get them on the other line, but you’ll be pretty hungry by tomorrow morning. Hold on a sec.”

After she put me on hold, I headed back inside the lodge to see what I could find to hold us over until the next day. It was only a few minutes before Kim was back.

“Barrett, you still there?” Kim’s voice sounded tinny as the reception was spotty this far up in the mountains. “I’ve got Marnie on the line with us.”

“Hey, Marnie, this is Barrett Strega.”

“Oh my goodness, what a day you guys have had! Kim filled me in a bit. Iseveryone okay?”

“Oh, we are fine. The bear was scared away, but somewhere in all of it, the keys got lost, so we were hoping we could just stay here.”

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