Page 42 of Jack Raider

I sat back, smug. “Sounds like youmissme between drop zones.” I teased.

He exhaled hard through his nose and muttered something about wild animals being easier to handle.

Which is when I decided something very dangerous: I was going toownthis chaos. I had to stop leaving things laying everywhere.

The next morning, I placed a single rubber duck on top of his motorcycle helmet.

Underneath it, a note:

“You missed this: Day Five.” – T

He didn’t say a word when he found it. Just walked past me holding the duck, pinched between two fingers like it was radioactive.

But he didn’t throw it away either.

Instead, that night, I saw it sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen.

Right next to the shoe I forgot to claim, I realized it was time to move into my little cabin, which came with the teaching job. I will clean it when I get off work today. So I stopped by the general grocery store and bought a broom, mop, and bucket. I filled the bucket with Windex and other cleaners I would need. When I walked to the counter, the guy behind the counter was watching me.

“Hello, my name is Tessa Swindle. I’m the new teacher.”

“Nice to meet you, Tessa. I’m Junior Sterling. I grew up on this mountain, just like almost everyone here. Frasier’s great-great-granddad lived here first, so he named this mountain. How do you like staying at Max’s place? Those boys are all Navy Seals; they followed Fraiser home from the war. Now they have a business rescuing and guarding people, plus they work on old cars and motorcycles.

“How are those kids treating you at that school?”

“After the first few frogs and garden snakes, they treat me fine. They didn’t know I grew up in the Louisiana Bayou. I used to alligator hunt with my Dad, a little frog or snake, don’t scare me.”

He laughed so hard he lost his breath. I patted him on the back, which I was doing when Max walked into the store. “Tessa, you will break his back if you keep pounding it like that. What’s going on?” Max asked.

He was laughing one minute, and the next, he was choking. I was helping him,” I said. Then I walked out and started walking to school. I had gotten two blocks when I realized I had forgottenmy jeep and cleaning supplies.I don’t care; I’ll get them after school. There is no way I’m going back in there with Max still there.

By the time school was over at the high school, I didn’t know teach teenagers would be so hard. I didn’t feel like cleaning, so I picked up my vehicle at the store. I planned on going back to Max’s place. I wasn’t surprised to see my cleaning supplies in my jeep, and a note from Max. You left your cleaners in the store, plus your keys, at the bottom of the bucket. I gave them to Junior to hold for you.”

When I got the keys, I didn’t want to see anyone. It was Friday, and I was off for two days. Maybe I could find a motel somewhere. I sat there for a while trying to decide what I wanted to do, when there was a knock on my window.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I was meditating,” I lied. Max didn’t look like he believed me.

“We are having a barbecue. I wanted to make sure you remembered.”

“I don’t think I even knew about it,” I said.

“Did you check the corkboard? I told you I always put everything on the corkboard.

“You must not have looked at it.”

“I’m not used to looking at a corkboard, so I’m going to have to skip it. I need to clean my cabin.”

“There isn’t even any furniture in the cabin.”

“I thought it was furnished.”

“It is, but all of it is in storage. I’ll go with you tomorrow and help you, and then the guys and I will take care of the furniture. Don’t you like staying at the B&B?”

“That’s your space, I don’t want to intrude anymore,” I tried to explain.

“Is it because I leave you notes and pick up after you? Is that why you want to leave?”

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