Page 28 of Monsters

Shying away from Mason, I focused on the brother I adored. Crawling down the boulder, I lowered myself into the cold water until it covered my breasts. I felt safer. Less exposed. Mason continued with his carving, pretending to not be listening and watching in his peripheral.

“You all right?” Lucas asked, his brows creasing together.

I managed a smile. “Better now.”

He leaned back, his arms moving through the water in front to keep him afloat. “You know something?” There was a twinkle in his eye. “I think we should make this our place.”

“Ah… I think we already have, since we broke into it last night.”

“No, I mean, permanently. Not just for this trip.”

“That is until the owners return and see the three bears sleeping in their beds.”

Lucas smiled and swished a wave of water my way. “They’re not coming back. This will be ours.” He balanced himself until upright, his voice now loud enough for Mason to hear. “But we can’t tell anyone about it. The last thing we want is for others to discover our home away from home.”

~

That afternoon while I arranged a bouquet of wildflowers I’d picked along the back of the cabin, a steady banging sounded from outside.

“What’s he doing?” I asked Lucas who was opening our last two cans of spaghetti. He shrugged his shoulders, took my hand, and led me outside to where his brother was creating the ruckus. Mason looked over his shoulder, his gaze resting on mine and Lucas’s joined hands. He paused for a moment, jaw tightening.

“Is that the carving?” Lucas asked, oblivious to his brother’s behavior.

Mason stood back allowing us to admire his knife skills.

“I thought we’d give our new home a name.”

Freshly hammered into the side of the cabin was the labor of love carving.

It read, ‘Little Wren.’

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