Page 17 of Arctic Panda's Secret Mate
Gizelle was nowhere to be seen.
There were heavy footsteps still approaching the kitchen door, with muttered swearing about not being able to find lightswitches in the dark. Haisley looked away for one adrenaline-charged moment before glancing back to see Gizelle sheepishly tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
Haisley blinked. Had she hallucinated the antelope? There wasn’t room in the kitchen to hide one.
“Wrench is coming,” the young woman warned sternly. “You should go.”
“There was…”
“Shhhh…”
Gizelle flapped her firmly towards the door to the dining room, and Haisley dazedly went.
Behind her, she heard Wrench (that really was his name!) come into the kitchen and turn on the lights. “Gizelle! What are you doing lurking in here without the lights on? You scared the sh—pants off me! Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”
“There wasn’t supposed to be anyone here!” Gizelle protested, and Haisley, pressed up outside the dining room door, held her breath. Was she going to betray her after all?
“That don’t mean we need to be trottin’ around nude,” Wrench protested. “I’m here to get eggrolls for Lydia and nothin’ more.”
But Haisley had eaten all the eggrolls, and she put her hand up over her mouth to keep a squeak from escaping.
Wrench poked around in the fridge, swore, seemed to catch himself, and then exclaimed, “Where’d that gal even get to?”
He rattled around a while and then left, turning the light off after him.
Haisley remained behind, trying—and failing—to make sense of what she’d seen.
Maybe isolation had broken her brain.
It wasn’t a great brain to begin with, Haisley thought ruefully, and she’d gone and stressed it to a point of absurdity. After a moment of considering, she went to the furnace room and turned the water heater down twenty-five degrees. These people needed to be out of here sooner rather than later.
15
TRISTAN
Tristan’s lukewarm shower the next morning seemed like a fitting end to a restless night. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with his bear, but his animal companion was endlessly discontent and making absurd suggestions about the kitchen all night.
Don’t we want bamboo?
I’m pretty sure there’s no bamboo.
Fake bamboo?His panda wheeled.It’s a bamboozle.
It was a terrible joke.I’m not hungry,Tristan protested.
And he wasn’t. Chef made heaping amounts of vegetarian options and Tristan couldn’t possibly insult the man by stopping before he was uncomfortably full at every meal.
It was weird that he still feltempty.
He played card games with the group after breakfast, and skied a punishing trail with Graham and Bastian, returning with a rosy feeling of camaraderie that lasted until the three of them returned to the chalet and the other two were met by their mates. Tristan was abandoned to thegreat room, where Magnolia and Lydia were talking fashion and Wrench’s eyes were glazing over.
Wrench was not the kind of nut that Tristan felt capable of cracking, so he went wandering alone in the chalet, looking for more to do. Breck, Darla, and Chef had the kitchen in capable hands, so Tristan went into the dining room and tested every drawer, looking for things to fix.
There were a few loose drawer pulls, and a few hinges that could use oil, so Tristan did that before he wandered back to try the wifi again. The router was running fine, but the password still didn’t work.
His bear wanted to test the locked door again. He didn’t care about the other doors in the hallway marked private, but that one seemed to beckon without reason.
Fix it,his bear insisted.
