“Come back anytime, and I really mean that. If you see my van outside, you’re welcome to come over.”
“Thanks, Shel,” she whispers, then turns and jogs to her house next door, up her steps, and inside, all without looking back.
“What’s for dinner? I’m starved,” Hunter groans, as I close the door and turn to face him.
“I think we need to go to the store, kiddo. The bear ate most of the food in the house,” I explain, and he smiles then looks at me then back toward the kitchen.
“I can’t wait to tell Eric and Eli there was a bear in our house. They will never believe me.” He grins then pulls out his cell phone.
“I’m sure they won’t,” I mutter, laughing.
“Lucky I got some pictures to prove it.” He holds out the phone toward me, and on the screen is the bear sprawled out on the kitchen floor, with Paul and Zach leaning over it. “They are totally gonna want to come visit now.”
Oh sheesh, I’m sure their parents will love to hear that there are bears coming into the house at random.
“Why don’t you go shower and wash the bear off you, and then we’ll go to dinner and you can tell me all about what happened with the bear when you helped release it.”
“Can we get burgers?”
“Sure,” I agree, smiling.
“Score!” He shouts, and turns for the stairs, with his phone still in his hand.
Smiling at his back, I look down at myself. I probably look crazy. I haven’t taken off Zach’s shirt, but I did put on a pair of rain boots when we got into the house and kept them on this whole time. Heading for my room, I stop when Hunter comes down from the attic looking white as a ghost.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um… Dad’s on the phone,” he whispers, holding the phone out toward me. “I sent him a picture of the bear.”
Fuck!
“It’s okay, honey,” I tell him, gently taking his arm, leading him to my room and over to my bed to take a seat then pull the phone from his hand and put it to my ear.
“Max,” I say calmly, stepping away from Hunter.
“What the fuck, Shel? You let Hunter near a goddamn bear? What the fuck is wrong with you? For Christ’s sake, do you think this is some kind of joke?”
“Max, please calm down.”
“Calm down? You want me to calm down? My son was near a fucking bear. A bear, Shel. I cannot believe you would put him in that kind of danger,” he growls, and my temper, which was already fraying from seeing the look on Hunter’s face, begins to slip.
“I would never put Hunter in danger,” I hiss, feeling the phone in my hand pinch into my skin.
“Really fucking funny to me, because you did. You let him near a bear then let him go goddamn release it, and he makes it sound like it was a fucking trip to Disneyland.”
“Calm down, Max,” I demand again, turning my back to Hunter. “Let me explain.”
“No, I don’t want to hear any excuses. This is fucked, so fucking fucked it’s beyond fucked. I want Hunter with me.”
“Max please listen to me.”
“My lawyer will be in touch.” He hangs up. The silence that follows fills my heart with dread. Tears fill my eyes and my world starts to spin out of control as my vision begins to go dark.
“Mom?” Hunter’s voice cuts through the pain that is taking over every single inch of my body. “Mom?” he repeats, and I feel his arms around my middle.
Wrapping him in my arms, I breathe in his smell and soak in the feeling of his small body tight around mine. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, and my heart breaks, causing excruciating pain to slice through me.
“It’s okay. It will all be okay,” I lie, running my hands down his back. This won’t be okay. I know Max. I know him well enough to believe if he says he’s going to take Hunter from me, then that is exactly what he will do.
“I shou—”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” I cut him off. “Your dad will calm down and we’ll talk. It’ll be okay. Okay?”
“Yeah, Mom.” He nods, and I press my lips to the top of his head and hold them there as I speak.
“Go shower. We have a dinner date and you smell like bear.”
“I don’t smell like bear,” he jokes, but I catch the slight tremor in his words.
“You do.” I smile then lean back and take his small face in my hands. “I love you. I know you don’t want to hear that from your old mom, but you should know that I love you more than anything in this world.”
“I love you, too.” His chin wobbles, and I swear if Max was here, I would beat the ever-loving crap out of him for making my boy feel the way he feels right now.
“Now go shower.”
“ ’Kay.” He drops his eyes from mine then turns, shutting the door to my bedroom as he goes.
Going to the bathroom, I shut the door then turn on the shower and strip out of my clothes. I don’t want Hunter to know I’m crying. I don’t want him to hear me sob, so I duck into the shower, sit on the floor with my arms wrapped around my shins, and cry silently into my chest until I’m forced to get up and move forward like my world isn’t crumbling down around me.
Chapter 5
Shelby
Sorting through the file in front of me, I scan the paperwork for a business loan that is closing today and stop when Misty pokes her head into my office.
“I’m stepping out for lunch. Do you want me to pick anything up for you?” she asks, leaning in a little more so half her body is hanging into the office and the other half outside the door.
“I’m good. I need to get this sorted, and then I’m gonna go get a coffee myself before Mr. Dorsey gets here at one.”
“Okay. Mike’s at the window until I get back.”
“Enjoy your lunch.” I smile, and she waves then disappears. It’s been a little over five days since I started working at our local bank, and I already love the environment and the people I work with.
When Max and I first got together, I had just started working for one of the largest brokerage firms in Seattle. I enjoyed my job, but didn’t love it, only because I was just one of many loan officers in the company. There was no sense of family or friendship. There was no unity of any kind, and my clients were all big timers who didn’t really know who I was.
Max and I got married six months after we met, and that was the same year I got pregnant with Hunter. We were both excited about becoming parents, and Max insisted he didn’t want a nanny raising our son, the way he had been raised. I wanted to be home and be a mom more than anything, so I quit my job during my third trimester and became a stay-at-home mom. I loved spending my days with Hunter when he was little, but as time went on, and Hunter started school, I felt the itch to get back to work.