Page 78 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
That had the desired effect, and she let out a loud laugh. It was one of the happiest sounds I’d heard in a really long time,and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. It was probably silly, but I wasn’t going to waste time and energy trying to convince myself of that.
“You know, sometimes I feel so old, but then something like slang for tits or farts gets me going.”
“I’d like to think there are some things we never get past.”
I was sure that the more stressed we became, the more hectic life got, and the bigger our wounds were, the funnier simple things were. So yeah, I could understand why toilet humor still got so many people’s goats.
“Fair enough, fair enough. Now, how about another glass of wine?”
“You sure you want another one of those before we walk back?” I knew alcohol could make humansfeela lot warmer, but it was actually an illusion. Something about blood being closer to the surface of their skin? Addy had explained it to me a long time ago, but I didn’t really remember because it wasn’t relevant to our lives then.
Jeannie looked at me like my head had just duplicated itself and was now presenting her with a profound riddle. “Walk back? What are you talking about?”
I frowned at her, wondering if she was setting me up for some sort of punch line. “We’ve gotta get back to camp, right?”
“Yeah, we do,” she said with a stern nod that told me she wasn’t joking. “But that’s not happening tonight, and I’m pretty sure Ana and the kids planned it like that.”
I blinked at her like an idiot as my brain caught up. Did she really think our children had set us up for a sleepover? That seemed awfully assumptive, even for kids. “Are you sure?”
“Remy, babe, I don’t mean to shake you or anything, but look out the windows. It’s pitch black outside. Now, with some kids, I would think they hadn’t thought ahead about the consequences. But there’s no way Addy would want you to hike in the darkwhile saddled with someone who doesn’t know the area.” She took a confident bite of her chicken, regarding me as she chewed and swallowed. “I betcha if we look in the back half of the cabin behind that partition, there’s gonna be sleeping arrangements all set up for us, complete with sleeping bags or fresh bedding.”
I… I hadn’t considered that.
“But leaving our kids on their own overnight?”
“They’re not on their own. They’re with Ana. That’s probably why they got her involved in the first place. They knew we would never stay here if we thought they were unsupervised. Hell, we never would have kept hiking if Ana hadn’tvolunteeredto take them back.”
I whistled. When I first saw the lights and realized we’d been set up, I had been a bit taken aback. I’d also been relieved that I hadn’t lost all my natural survival skills as an alpha. The food and Jeannie’s wonderful company had been quite the distraction. Now, however, I was beginning to circle back around to the fact that both or one of my daughters might be masterminds.
Was the deception spy-level shit? Of course not. But it was impressive that our kids had come up with the plan and roped another adult in.
Of course, there was the whole crux of the matter that my mind was hopping around. Which was…why did they want us alone in the first place?
If we were going byThe Parent Traplogic, it would mean that they were trying to come up with a way to put Jeannie and me in a situation where we could bond.
Or maybe, a situation where we could beromantic.
That was a lot. A whole lot. I didn’t blame them for oversimplifying things because they were kids, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t overcomplicating things because I was an adult.
I cleared my throat. “Shall we check out what exactly our kids thought would be appropriate sleeping arrangements?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were asking me to bed,” Jeannie teased, her chin back in her palm as she batted her eyes at me. Remembering how she’d reacted the first time, I decided to call her bluff.
Leaning forward, I mirrored her posture, so both of us were nearly halfway across the table, our faces much closer than what would be considered polite.
“And if I was?” I asked, dropping my voice down low.
Jeannie had a choice. She could either shut down whatever was happening by changing the topic, or she could press into the impromptu game of chicken we were playing. I didn’t know what was going on with me—it wasn’t like I had made any grand decisions in the past twenty-four hours—but here, it was like we were separated from the world. Within the walls of this cabin, there was no baggage, no old wounds. We were just two people who thoroughly enjoyed each other’s presence. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even had the compunction to flirt with anyone.
Well, that was a lie. That last time I’d flirted with anyone was burned into my mind. It had been a week before Zara had drawn her last breath. I’d brought her a big bouquet of flowers as well as her favorite foods even though we both knew her appetite was nonexistent. She’d lain in our marital bed, looking every bit as beautiful as the day I met her, and I asked her if she would be my date.
That was when she’d made me promise that I would grieve her however I needed, but that I wouldn’t let myself wallow and rot away. She’d made me promise that I wouldn’t forget the joy in life.
Thinking of that gave me pause. Was this what she’d meant? The way I had internalized it, she had been asking me tocarry on the brightness that she often put into the world, to not be another source of negativity in it. But what if I had misinterpreted it? What if she’d meant it in an entirely different way?
“Remy? Are you okay?”
Huh. It seemed that there was a third option, which was thatIwas going to be the one to put the brakes on the moment.
