Home for Christmas by Courtney Cole

Author:Courtney Cole [Cole, Courtney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The next morning, Dale is already out examining the hole Nugget had made with his leg when I arrive in the kitchen to help Sophie bake the biscuits.

By noon, Dale, Albert, and William have built a simple lean-to shed over the hole. They also widened the hole to a size large enough for two people to sit in.

“It’s a ten-minute walk, Soph,” Dale tells her as he chews his egg sandwich. “The shed isn’t insulated, but it blocks the elements. You can take a hot bath, if you’d like.”

“And then catch my death of pneumonia when I walk with wet hair back to the house,” she answers. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

He grins. “No, wife. I don’t know how to cook. I need you.”

She smacks him lightly on the arm, and I laugh.

He’s all talk and everyone knows it.

He bundles up and goes back out all afternoon. Marina and I decide to trek out there and see what they’ve accomplished.

We’re astounded; or at least, I am.

It’s always taken any boyfriend I’ve ever dated a while to do a project. They have to look up how to do it on YouTube, then gather the energy and find their tools, then they mess around with it for hours, sometimes stringing it along for days as they take TV breaks.

Not the men here. They mean business.

Marina and I find a fully formed shed with a door on hinges, and inside, they’ve built a bench for someone to stack towels. The soaking spot is quite large, enough for two people to sit in it at once. The hot water and condensation make the small room feel steamy warm. I find the whole thing surreal.

We have a hot spring on our mountain.

How did I not know about this? How could something so valuable be hidden beneath our noses and we didn’t know it?

“I want to try this out today,” Marina tells me. “You game?”

“Absolutely. It’s only fair, though, that these men get to try it first. They did the work, after all.”

“I guess you’re right,” Marina grumbles.

The men nudge each other, and Dale decides he’s going first.

Marina and I take that as our cue to leave. Rapidly.

It’s when we’re walking back to the house that we find the bear tracks alongside it.

We stop to examine them, noting the way they lead up to the windows. The tracks are bigger than my hands.

“He’s watching us,” Marina points out.

“He must be very hungry.”

“Which makes him dangerous,” Marina replies.

I can’t argue with her. It does.

“We probably shouldn’t walk out to the bath shed without a shotgun,” she adds.

I don’t argue with that either. I want to be humane, but I don’t have a death wish.

When we get back inside, we find Lane coincidentally getting ready to clean his shotgun on the dining room table, the smell of gun oil already permeating the room.

It’s a sweet smell that I’ve always liked, and knowing that we have the protection of several armed men in this house from a hungry bear isn’t lost on me.

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