Page 38 of Protecting Vidalia
She rubbed her butt and pouted at him. “There is such a thing as statute of limitations, you know.”
Jake grabbed his pack with his clothes and grinned at her. “Not in my book.” He dropped a quick kiss on her pouting lips and headed for the bathroom.
As Jake stood under the blissfully hot stream of water, he realized that Vidalia was good for him. The exercise had worn him out, but her warm body against his had brought the anxiety in his mind down to a manageable level once again. Not the case with his attraction to her though—that had ramped up one hundred percent.
They needed to talk about their formally new relationship, whichhe’dentered into a long time ago, and see where it led. He knew where he wanted it to go. The question was, did she want the same thing?
Once he was finished and dressed in clean sweats and a black t-shirt, he headed for the living room, his heart rate picking up. He stopped abruptly when he realized she was fast asleep on the couch. Ruefully, he shook his head.
As he studied the dark circles under her eyes, he knew she needed the rest. Technically, he needed to rest as well. Not wanting to disturb her, he grabbed a couple more blankets from her bedroom and a pillow, and made a bed on the plush rug in front of the couch. At least he could be near her.
Jake didn’t know when it happened, but he awoke at one point during the night and realized that Vidalia was snuggled up next to him like a kitten seeking warmth, her arm thrown across his chest. He tugged the blanket off the couch and pulled it over both of them and drifted back off.
It was early in the morning when the pounding began on the front door, bringing Jake immediately awake. “What the hell?” He snarled as he jumped up.
“What’s going on?” Vidalia asked breathlessly, jumping up with him.
“Let us in, let us in,” yelled voices at the front door, the incessant pounding continuing.
Jake rushed swiftly to the door and moved the blind aside to see the two young men from Smokie’s banging on the door and looking scared to death.
“Just a minute! Don’t break the glass,” he yelled back at them. He got the door quickly unlocked and opened it, the men stumbling in and huddling together.
“Close the door, she might be following us,” Carrot Top shrieked.
Jake narrowed his eyes at him, but he closed and locked the door, then folded his arms across his chest. “What’s this all about?”
“T-the bear with t-the cub,” stuttered Dark Hair. “She broke through our patio door. We ran out the front door. She was s-still in our cabin when we left.”
“We couldn’t drive over because we don’t leave keys in our car,” added Carrot Top, “and we didn’t think to grab them on the way out. We just wanted to get the hell out of there!”
“Where’s your cabin?” Vidalia asked, her eyes wide and fearful.
“Not far from here, maybe a quarter of a mile,” Carrot Top replied. “We came through the woods to get here.”
“Did the bear follow you?” Jake asked, grabbing his backpack. “Come on, Vidalia,” he directed, not waiting for them to answer him. “We’re going to my house, it’s more secure than these cabins. Plus, we have phone service.”
“C-can we go with you?” Dark Hair ventured.
“Did you think I would leave you here?” Jake scowled impatiently as Vidalia hurried to his side. “Vidalia, the keys to the truck? It’s safer than the jeep in case the bear is tracking these two.”
Vidalia handed him the key and Jake opened the front door cautiously. It was quiet outside, nothing moving except a few ground squirrels running across the porch in the creeping dawn. “Let’s go. If those squirrels aren’t worried, we should be safe.”
The two young men piled in the back seat while Jake and Vidalia climbed into the front. As they made their way along the lane to the main road, they didn’t see a sign of the bears. Jake looked in the rearview mirror. “You wouldn’t happen to be the idiots that were reported leaving food out in their trashcans, would you?”
They looked at each other and turned bright red. “We cleaned all that up after the ranger visited us,” Carrot Top replied sheepishly.
“You’re lucky,” Jake retorted. “It’s the bear that’s unlucky. Now that she’s tasted human food, she’s coming back for more. You’ve caused a lot of trouble. I’m guessing the owner of that cabin won’t be able to rent it out for the rest of the season either.”
“What will happen to Sushi?” Vidalia asked. “They won’t shoot her, will they? She has a cub.”
“I don’t know,” Jake admitted. “We’ll have to see what the ranger has to say.”
Once inside Jake’s home, he went to his office to make a call. His face was grim when he returned. “He’s on his way now to the cabin.”
Vidalia jumped up from the recliner. “What’s he planning to do?”
“I didn’t ask. But I told him the renters of that cabin were here with me, so we’ll wait and find out.”
