Page 59 of The 7 Rules of Moving On
How had he fucked everything up so thoroughly? When she’d stayed up for an entire night helping him, creating something amazing for him, considering moving to Twin Hearts to be with him, he’d accused her of betraying him. Instead of listening to her, he’d shut down, choosing to believe his worst fears over anything she tried to tell him. He was definitely breaking rule number five, because this shameover was catastrophic.
After setting the Mystic jingle as his new ringtone, not knowing what to do next and needing a moment to sort himself out, Trig went for a swim. Like it always did, the water soothed him, surrounding him in a warm cocoon as he sank to the bottom and sat there until his lungs started to burn. When he emerged, opening his eyes in the morning sun slanting through the trees, his heart catapulted into his throat as a silent scream froze him in place.
Directly in front of him, dipping a long-clawed foot into the water, was a massive mountain of a grizzly bear. The thing was hunched, fuzzy, and big enough to win Fat Bear Week by a mile.
The bear was too close for Trig to try to climb out of the pool and run away, too close to even call for help. All Trig could do was drift slowly back toward the far edge of the pool and try to become invisible.
When the bear sat with a labored grunt onto the edge of the rock wall, and then slid into the pool with him, the walloping beneath Trig’s ribs was definitely the beginnings of a heart attack.
Trig was, he knew, about to die. In his favorite place in the world, he was about to die a painful and gruesome death. But when the bear ducked his head underwater, rising again, bobbing in place like a furry pool floaty, Trig could have sworn the animal was grinning at him.
Since the bear could obviously see him, and since it looked perfectly content to sit in the water all day, staring, Trig cleared his throat and said a shaky, “Uh, hello bear. I’m gonna stay over here, and you can stay the fuck over there, all right?”
The bear’s only response was to shake his head violently, making Trig shriek while the maneuver covered him in spray.
After the mist cleared and the bear resumed their staring match, Trig wondered if this was the same bear Kathleen had seen. He’d kind of figured the bear in her story had actually been some big, burly lumberjack guest who’d joined her in the pool that night and she’d only been embellishing. He never would have guessed in a million years she’d been talking about an actual, real-life, eat-his-face-off grizzly bear.
“Have any Dave Matthews lyrics for me?” he asked with a nervous laugh, trying to remember what the protocol was for cleaning a hot springs pool after a bear took a bath in it in case he did survive this encounter.
With an almighty growl that sent ripples skittering across the surface of the water and Trig’s soul skittering out of his body, the bear pulled back an enormous arm, and then swiped it forward, sending a wall of water crashing over Trig’s head.
“Fuck!” Trig shouted, swiping water out of his eyes.
“She loves you,” the bear said. His voice was like thunder, deep and rumbling.
“I’ve lost my mind,” Trig whispered in response.
Rolling his eyes, the bear turned around, hauling his massive bulk back out of the pool. After shaking water out of his ear, he said, “You have not lost your mind. But you will lose her.”
“What should I do?” Trig found himself asking a talking bear.
“There is magic everywhere,” the bear said, “even in Seattle.” Turning away, lumbering back into the trees, his voice echoed as if amplified, “True love is harder to find.”
Trig would have stayed there, blinking at the woods until he turned pruney, waiting for the bear to return, for lightning to strike, for some sign that what just happened had been real, but he couldn’t. Because the bear was right.
Climbing out of the pool, he strode back into the lodge, armed with nothing but fierce determination and a ghost of a plan.
“Was that a fucking bear?” he heard Ryan say from the bar, then something else he couldn’t quite make out.
“Who are you talking to?” Trig asked.
“Dude, was that a bear?” Ryan asked again, lowering his phone slowly to the counter.
“It was a bear,” Trig confirmed. “And it…spoke to me.”
“It what?”
“I have to go.”
“Where? Wait, what’s going on?” Ryan said, scrambling to follow Trig down the hall and into his room.
Pulling his bag out of his closet, Trig threw in some shirts and pants, pajamas and a hoodie. He grabbed his toothbrush, shampoo, and a handful of books from his shelf, shoving them into his bag.
“I’m leaving,” he said, pulling the bag’s zipper closed. “I have to try.”
“Try what?”
“I have to apologize. I have to make it right. I’d asked her to stay here with me, but I’d never offered to go there with her.”
