Page 19 of Yellow
If ever there was a siren, she was it!Cleo was born to wreak havoc on men’s minds, I concluded and continued my dismissal of her.Her boyfriend was probably normal until he met her and became a violent lunatic.
I sighed; my better judgement shamed me for taking sides without knowing the details. Cleo wasn’t a monster, she just had a talent for bringing out the worst in men… including me.
?∞?
Chloe
Adam was up and making noise before the sun rose. The man seemed determined that if he couldn’t sleep, I shouldn’t either.
“Do you mind?” I complained and put a pillow over my head.
He started whistling in return and so, demonstratively, I let him know what I thought of his rude behavior when I trampled out of bed and grabbed my boots, jacket, and the flashlight.
“Come on, Max,” I grumped and ventured outside in the darkness, where my courage quickly chilled with the freezing cold that slid up my bare legs.
Just be quick about it, I ordered myself and used the flashlight to make sure there were no bears lurking around to eat me. A rustling sound to my left had me jumping with a loud scream of panic. But Max took care of the disruptive squirrel, chasing it up a tree.
Five minutes later I had used the facilities and was back in the cabin, closing the door with my heart still pounding.
“What’s with all the screaming?” Adam asked from his place by the kitchen table. “You’re disturbing my morning peace.”
“Ha!” I snorted. “That’s funny, coming from someone whowhistlesin the morning. If you must know, I was screaming because I thought a bear was coming to eat me.”
His slow grin provoked me. “It’s not funny,” I said.
“Didn’t Ona tell you that black bears don’t eat people?” he asked.
“Yes. But they still kill them from time to time.”
“Okay, city girl, there’s a few facts that you need to understand about nature. First of all, you are twelve times more likely to die from a bee sting than you are from a bear attack, and that includes grizzly bears, who don’t even live around here. Truth is, you’re more likely to die from a spider bite, a snake bite, a tornado, or from lightning than from a bear attack.”
“But it could happen,” I defended myself.
“Not likely. Only one out of a million black bears ever kills a human. You’re ten times more likely to die from a dog attack.”
I frowned toward Max, who had his head on Adam’s lap, enjoying a scratch behind his ear.
“You should worry less about bears and more about people, Cleo. I hardly have to tell you that humans are the dangerous ones.”
My hand found its way to my chest, where the scar would forever remind me of that fact.
As his eyes followed my hand, his brows knitted closely together. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened to you?” he asked and took a sip from his coffee cup.
I ignored him and got dressed instead. After brushing my teeth and getting the milk from the small pantry under the floorboards, I brought a bowl of cornflakes to the table.
“It’s kind of clever how Onava keeps a natural fridge under the floor. I guess that’s why she doesn’t need the generator to run all the time.” As soon as I said it, I looked up at Adam. “Shoot, Onava said she only runs the generator a couple of hours a day. Maybe we should shut it off. Do you know how to?”
“I’m sure I can figure it out. There’s usually an off and on button,” he said dryly.
God, the man had a way of making me feel stupid. “Just forget it,” I muttered. “I’ll figure it out myself.”
“What part of England are you from?”
“I’m American.”
“Then why do you speak with a British accent?” he asked and furrowed his brows. “You speak British in most of your movies too, don’t you?”
The fact that he said that revealed he hadn’t seen many of my movies. “I don’t. I speak with the accent of the character that I’m playing. I can speak pretty much any accent I want.”
