Page 3 of Bears Not Included

I take two forced breaths in succession and remind myself of what I’m doing and why everything is going to be okay. I’m going to complete what my mom started, so her soul can finally rest in peace.

“I think I may have found the house where the three bears lived,” I say slowly. It still sounds surreal to my ears.

I think I may have found the house—the cottage—where the three bears had actually lived.

Saying it gives me goosebumps. Goldilocks and the Three Bears was my mom’s favorite story; now I can say it truly happened, and the cottage stands to this day.

Obviously, I’m expecting nothing but a derelict, decayed, and crumbling edifice in its place, but it will be proof enough that it existed once upon a time right here on American soil because this is where the story of the three bears originated.

But my declaration isn’t met with the same enthusiasm that still sends sparks of excitement through me. Faith is naturally as skeptical as hell.

“The three bears? As in Goldilocks and the Three Bears? That fairytale?”

“What other three bears could there possibly be?” I ask saucily.

“Wait. So you’re saying that if fairytales really happened, then bears lived in houses? I mean, if that in itself doesn’t tell you it’s freaking made up, nothing will.”

“No silly, of course bears don’t live in houses and they didn’t back then either. We at Fairytale Femme Fatales are time scientists. We deal with facts, not fiction.”

“But you said—”

“I meant bear shifters.”

“Bear shifters?” Faith’s lips curl into a bow of incredulity. “And you say you don’t deal with fiction, only—”

“Facts,” I say confidently.

“And that’s where you’re going? To the cottage,” Faith uses air quotes for the word cottage, “where these three bears lived. And there’s nothing crazy about that, right?”

“Yes, I am, and no, there’s absolutely nothing crazy about that.”

I have indisputable evidence that proves my mom was right.

“Okay. Indulge me. And I want a live location wherever you’re going. No. I’m canceling my photoshoot and coming with you.”

Faith reaches for her handbag, but I stop her from getting her phone. She had been waiting forever and a day to get this campaign—to be the face of a very popular cosmetic brand—and I’m not going to let her miss her dream job and possibly get replaced because of me.

“No. I’m just going to have a look. I’m booked in overnight at The Sweet Haven Lodgers Place, which is like… ten minutes away from the cottage. It’ll take me five more minutes to just look at it, and then I’ll get back in my car and drive home. Simple.”

That’s the plan. That’s all I need. If not the house itself, where the Three Bears lived, then at least the land on which it once stood. That’s all.

“I still don’t like it.”

“There’s even a game ranger, and you know what, I’ll ask him to escort me. I promise.”

I’m lying. The cottage is not exactly ten minutes away from the lodge—more like a good couple of hours, but possibly more, and around some treacherous terrain—but Faith doesn’t need to know that. When I say it’s in the middle of nowhere, I mean it, but it also explains how it wasn’t found before.

There’s also no game ranger on hand that I know of who’s just going to escort me up the mountain. I’m doing this alone. Nothing is going to happen to me.

I’m more at risk being here in the house I grew up in than out there in the wilderness in the middle of no man’s land looking for a cottage that housed three bear shifters eons ago.

“I’ll be back before you are from your photoshoot, and then we’ll celebrate,” I say as I slip into my en suite bathroom and collect a tube of moisturizer I can use on my face and body, shower gel, and a miniature bottle of shampoo. I’m not going to need any makeup.

“Fine. I want two whole pizzas for myself and a whole tub of ice cream,” Faith shouts from my bedroom. “I’m never eating another salad once this shoot is over. Where is this cottage anyway where pappa bear, mama bear, and baby bear lived?”

“Somewhere in the mountains. And also, they weren’t a family. They were three bachelors.”

“Shut up. Three bachelor bear shifters? Seriously?”

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