Page 31 of The Grizzly Situation
And in an instant, I was a meek cub again, desperate for Chaim’s attention. “I’m sorry.”
A deep sigh. “No, it’s me who should be sorry. I have no right to look down on your station. You earned it. Are you being a kind leader?”
“The type you raised me to be,” I said proudly.
“That’s good, kid.”
I still needed to know, though. “Why’d you leave? Please tell me.”
“This isn’t a good idea,” he ground out. “Your father wouldn’t be happy if we told you.”
“My father is no longer connected to the sleuth. He lives in Texas and we haven’t spoken in years.”
“That’s… good. You didn’t need to be around that toxicity. Fine, I’ll tell you, but please, don’t do anything about it, okay? Just… let it go.”
The defeated sound of Chaim’s voice had my hackles rising. “Tell me,” I demanded, not caring if Chaim was bigger and stronger than me.
“The day after I went to see Peter, your father came to me and said if we didn’t get off the sleuth’s property he’d hunt us down. Out of deference to my father threatening to contact authorities, we were allowed to stay until graduation, but once we’d completed school we had to go. He also said if we ever spoke to you or tried to contact you, he’d….” He coughed. “He’d kill Benjy. I’m sorry, cub, but I couldn’t have him hurt. Please tell me you understand. We never wanted to leave you, but I needed him safe.”
That goddamn motherfucking bastard!
“Calm down, cub. It’s been years. Let it go.”
Fuck that. He had to pay for fucking up my life. The lives of my friends. For leaving me alone when he fucking ignored he even had a son.
“Stick a fucking cork in it, cub. Now. Or I’ll hang up.”
And just like that, I sobered.
“He gave us money to leave. We used it to move to the other side of Oregon and bought a small diner in Idanha. It’s a tiny speck of a town, only about a hundred forty people or so.” He chuckled. “Last year our graduating class had one senior. Good kid. Great grades. Thankfully he was our valedictorian. Still, a super short speech and that was it. The diner is the hub of activity around these parts. Benjy does wood carvings that he sells online. They’re beautiful pieces and he makes good money from them.”
He sighed, a pained sound. “I know us leaving was bad, but you have to understand. We’re happy here. Our bears can roam without issue, and no one looks at us as anything other than a couple. The reasons might be shitty, but the results are good. I swear.”
“You could come back here. Be part of the sleuth. Hell, you can run it if you want. I always thought you’d be better at it than?—”
“Thank you, but no. We’re happy here. We have friends, we have our kids, we’ve got?—”
“Kids?”
“Yeah, two little rug rats. Brent Jacob—who, at twelve, prefers to go by Jake because, he says, it’s way cooler than Brent, which sounds nerdy—and Emily Rose, who at eleven leaves us wondering if she’s more bear or hellcat. They have visited a few of the bigger towns, usually on school trips, but came back and told us this is their home and they don’t want to leave it.”
Which was good, but I was hooked on the name he’d said. “Brent Jacob?”
“Yes, cub. He was named for you. When our surrogate was pregnant with him, Benjy said he wanted to name him after you. I couldn’t think of a better tribute to one of our best friends.”
My heart could have burst out of my chest Aliens style I was so happy. “So you didn’t forget me?”
“You have always been near and dear to our hearts, Brent. When we were kids, we said we’d love to have a son just like you.”
Which I would have loved. “I have two. Five-year-old twins. Eddie Chaim and Jack Benjamin.”
He gasped. “Seriously?”
“You were the reason I grew up like I did. When I told my wife, she said she couldn’t agree quickly enough.”
“You’re married? Tell me everything.”
So I did. From the moment we met until the day she died, I told him every detail I could think of.
