Page 21 of Sunshine for the Grumpy Grizzly

Her forehead furrows adorably. “No…” she says slowly, like she’s remembering. “I was in my room. I thought someone was trying to get in, and I was real scared, so I hid under the covers.”

Confusion fills his ugly-ass face. “You opened the door!”

She blinks several times. “Why would I do that if I was scared?”

His mouth opens and shuts several times, but nothing comes out. Slowly, he pulls himself upright. “I’m sick of this shit. Lucy, you get that minibus to come back and pick us up?—”

“You’re not leaving!” I bellow.

Everyone cowers.

Shit,that was way too loud. Even I can hear my voice echoing around the buildings. But no way are these assholes taking Lucy away from me.

Nothing is gonna keep me from my girl.

I clear my throat and do my best to speak like a human. “I mean, I’ve got a ton of events planned for you. You’ll be sorry if you miss them.”

“Such as?” The one called Natasha rounds on me, hands on her hips. “Because all I see here is a broken-down old dump.”

“This morning we’ll be participating in a game of capture the flag,” I announce. Probably not the right lingo, but who cares?

Everyone stills. I risk a glance at Lucy. Her eyes are shining, and she gives me a secret thumbs up. My heart does that weird swooping thing it’s been doing ever since she arrived.

“This’ll be fun, guys!” Lucy exclaims. “Out in the wilderness, relying on each other. Isn’t that why we came here?”

The silence continues, while they all exchange glances. Then the doofus who lost his phone last night—and handed my beast some serious sexual frustration—grins. “Yeah! Let’s do it.”

“What about the bear?” Natasha says.

“I’ve got bear spray,” Lucy cuts in.

Bear spray?I flinch. Dunno what it is, but it sounds nasty.

Lucy gives me a little wink. I get her meaning: don’t worry—it’s just to reassure the others.

“One thing,” I say, nice and loud. “There’s a storm coming this afternoon. Could be nasty. Make sure you start heading back here by twelve. You all hear me?” I give them each a long stare, locking eyes until they nod, because no way am I gonna rescue their asses because they’ve gotten themselves marooned or some shit.

“Okay.” I turn to Lucy, handing the rest of the planning over to her.

“Come on guys, let’s get into teams,” she says, clapping her hands together excitably.

“How we gonna do that?”

“Girls and boys?”

“Senior and junior?”

I stand back and let the humans do their thing.

Not supporting each other, like a bear clan would, but tearing each other down.

They wind up deciding that the two most senior employees will each pick their own team, and they take turns calling names out.

My gut tightens a notch each time a name is called out and it’s not Lucy’s.

They pick her last. In the whole damn team.

By the end of it, she’s standing there alone, arms wrapped around her body, looking so vulnerable my heart aches.

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