Page 14 of Wrong Number, Right Cougar

We called it quits on the cabins for the night. We’d still need to take the roofing tiles off, and that wasn’t something I felt comfortable letting my mate do.

I could tell from the few times that he’d used the ladder that it wasn’t the most comfortable spot for him to be. And the fastest way to get hurt on a ladder was to be nervous about it.

“Did you want to call it a night?” I asked. The sun was starting to set, and he was already going to be sore in the morning.

“We have sandwiches.”

“Okay…” I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. Was it an invite to share a meal? I decided to take it as such and followed him inside.

I washed up and pulled our sandwiches out of the fridge. It was disgusting in there. “Did you know your refrigerator is pretty much a science experiment?”

“Yeah, don’t remind me. The pantry is just as bad.”

“How about after dinner we take care of that and then call it a day?” Now that I saw it was there, I wasn’t going to be able to leave it. What if he ate something on accident and got sick? Yeah, that was the kind of overprotective I’d been feeling.

“Thanks. I appreciate this. I know handyman and refrigerator cleaning don’t really go hand in hand.”

“It’s no problem. I don’t mind.” I’d be up for anything that kept me spending time with him.

Thorn suggested we go into the dining room instead. I couldn’t remember ever eating in there—or if Old Man Blaze did, for that matter. It was a nice room, though.

Dusty, but nice.

I did a quick wipe of the table so that we could eat, and had to move some books from there.

“Look.” I held up the scrapbook.

We sat it down and opened it up and ended up looking through it as we ate, flipping the pages and talking about the different things we saw. Usually, it was random things we noticed, like the fashion of the time or the growth of the resort.

But then we came to a handful of pictures of cougars. Cougars from the area back when the place was filled with them.

And who did I see? My grandmother. I missed her. And seeing her beautiful fur reminded me how much.

“You okay?” He placed his hand on mine.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… I forgot how beautiful they were.” All cougars, sure—but in my case, I meant my grandmother. I looked forward to the day I could tell my mate all about her.

9

THORN

I wasn’t looking forward to today.

As morning light crept under the motel curtains, I ran my mind over the events of the past few days.

Wilder and I had worked side by side, dismantling the cabin bathrooms, pulling out rotten wood, and ripping up stained, moldy carpet. Ugh. That last one was the worst.

Each day, I retreated to the main house for lunch and sat in the living room, while Wilder went home. He hated me so much he couldn’t share a space and eat lunch while we chatted about nothing in particular.

I had learned that he grew up in Cougar Lake and only left to attend college, saying this was where he belonged. I had a connection to the home where Dad and Father lived and where my Dad still resided, but that place would always be there, and I’d never felt the need to return to my hometown.

Even if Dad sold the place—which he would never do, he’d repeated that many times—those memories were locked in my heart and head and I could return to them anytime.

I studied my PB&J sandwich that I’d made myself in the motel room. It wasn’t filling, and I wished I’d stopped at the diner and bought lunch. I could go there now, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump away. But the real reason I hadn’t picked up anything was I’d hoped Wilder would invite me to his place for lunch.

That was a silly idea when he could barely put up with working beside me during the day. We were both sweaty and filthy after ten minutes of work, and I’d joked that we should jump in the lake during a break. In my head, we’d be naked. There was no one else around.

But Wilder gave me a look that said he’d rather lie on a highway during peak-hour traffic than take a swim with me.

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