Page 55 of Severed Rivalry
“Yup.”
I look at my brother-in-law, who’s so fiercely protective of his wife. When he shrugs and nods, I upload a picture of Ayla and me from last weekend and another of the three of us from roughly a year ago.
“Sending.”
“Perfect timing,” Ayla adds. “I’m pulling up now. How long before pizza?”
“Didn’t you just eat?” I ask.
“No. I just ordered appetizers when you, big brother, asked for a favor. I’m starving.”
“Another thirty, Princess.”
“Prepare to show ID,” my brother grumbles to Ayla as she disconnects the call with Christian and is picked up on Liam’s microphone.
“Hey, Renée, it’s Ayla. I hear I need to show ID.”
“Heneeded to show ID. You have to tell me about the bear story that Cian mentioned.”
“Well, I don’t know which one he’s referring to?—”
“Which one?” Liam asks with disbelief.
“What do you meanwhich one?” I interject.
“Princess.” Christian’s hard voice thunders next to me.
“Oh, thebear incident,” she starts with huge emphasis on the words. “I misunderstood. Well, Ellie and I were out for a hike this past fall. It was late in the season, deep into when hibernation occurs. There should’ve been no bears and absolutely no bear cubs. Those are born in the spring.”
“Really?” a small, rapt voice asks.
“Absolutely. It’s so cold, and it’s hard to have a baby when you’re sleeping. And bears sleep deep, you know.”
“I don’t, but okay.”
My brother-in-law is engrossed in the same story, though we already know the outcome, when his phone vibrates with an incoming call. He rises and heads toward the kitchen.
“So, Ellie and I were out for a hike—Ellie is Ci’s dog, by the way—and this bear cub came bumbling up to us. Like I said, it was the all-wrong season, and he was so cute.”
“Cute,” Liam says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
My thoughts exactly.
“But where there’s a baby, there’s a mama, and that mama bear was grouchy. There are a lot of things in our mountains. Most of them will leave us alone and all of them want to be left alone, but I’ve never been that close to a cub. I can tell you Ellie hadn’t either.”
If she keeps saying Ellie, I’ll be the only one calling my dog by her real name.
“I grabbed my camera and clicked off some shots. The mama bear wasn’t happy about the barking, but Ellie was protecting me. The mama roared, like shake-your-eardrums roared. Eventually she grabbed her cub and took off. We hightailed it out of there. It was a chance encounter, but now my big brother thinks his dog is unsafe with me and my husband thinks I’m a magnet for trouble.”
“Cian said that too.”
“Oh, did he?”
“Yeah. He said you were the good kind, though.”
Liam’s chuckle rumbles through the line as Christian returns, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Sherman located Sariah, but they’re giving him some trouble.”
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