“I know,” she whispers back, and with that, I open the door, smiling at my feet, then get to work cleaning up the mess the bear left behind.
“Mom!” Hunter yells into the house, before the front door closes loudly and the sound of his feet hit the hardwood in the hall.
“In the kitchen!” I yell back, tying up the garbage bag Aubrey and I filled with smashed dishes from the table and opened boxes of food from the cupboards. Zach was right; the house wasn’t too bad considering there was a bear in it. Most of the damage was in the kitchen, where the bear decided to have the breakfast we left on the table before going through the cupboards, where it had obviously smelled food.
“Aubrey, your dad said to tell you him and Steven are home,” Hunter says, coming into the kitchen.
“Okay,” she replies, then looks at me. “Do you want me to help you with anything else before I go?”
“No, honey.” I smile, handing over the garbage bag to Hunter so he can take it out the back door to dumpster at the back of the house. “Thanks for helping me with everything.”
“It was fun.” She smiles and makes her way over to the sink to wash her hands.
“Well, next time, I say we do something a little more fun when we hang out, like make cookies or bake a cake.”
“Really?” she breathes, as her hands pause under the water and her eyes lock on mine.
“Absolutely,” I reply softly, studying her. Wondering why she seems so surprised. “I really enjoyed spending time with you today.”
“Me too.” She takes her eyes from mine then turns off the sink and ducks her head as she moves past me toward the front door. I don’t know what’s wrong, but something about her reaction isn’t sitting well with me.
“Aubrey,” I call gently, while I watch as she shoves her feet into her sneakers that she had taken off before we mopped.
“Yeah?” she answers to the floor. I feel myself frown, not sure what to do, because it seems like she’s trying to get away from me as quickly as possible.
“Thanks again, honey.”
“Sure.” She stands, opens the door, and steps out onto the porch without looking at me. When she’s down the front steps, I bite my lip then call her name again. Her eyes come to me, and the pain I see there makes my stomach hurt.
“Come back anytime, and I really mean that. If you see my van outside, you’re welcome to come over.”
“Thanks, Shel,” she whispers, then turns and jogs to her house next door, up her steps, and inside, all without looking back.
“What’s for dinner? I’m starved,” Hunter groans, as I close the door and turn to face him.
“I think we need to go to the store, kiddo. The bear ate most of the food in the house,” I explain, and he smiles then looks at me then back toward the kitchen.
“I can’t wait to tell Eric and Eli there was a bear in our house. They will never believe me.” He grins then pulls out his cell phone.
“I’m sure they won’t,” I mutter, laughing.
“Lucky I got some pictures to prove it.” He holds out the phone toward me, and on the screen is the bear sprawled out on the kitchen floor, with Paul and Zach leaning over it. “They are totally gonna want to come visit now.”
Oh sheesh, I’m sure their parents will love to hear that there are bears coming into the house at random.
“Why don’t you go shower and wash the bear off you, and then we’ll go to dinner and you can tell me all about what happened with the bear when you helped release it.”
“Can we get burgers?”
“Sure,” I agree, smiling.
“Score!” He shouts, and turns for the stairs, with his phone still in his hand.
Smiling at his back, I look down at myself. I probably look crazy. I haven’t taken off Zach’s shirt, but I did put on a pair of rain boots when we got into the house and kept them on this whole time. Heading for my room, I stop when Hunter comes down from the attic looking white as a ghost.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um… Dad’s on the phone,” he whispers, holding the phone out toward me. “I sent him a picture of the bear.”
Fuck!
“It’s okay, honey,” I tell him, gently taking his arm, leading him to my room and over to my bed to take a seat then pull the phone from his hand and put it to my ear.
“Max,” I say calmly, stepping away from Hunter.
“What the fuck, Shel? You let Hunter near a goddamn bear? What the fuck is wrong with you? For Christ’s sake, do you think this is some kind of joke?”
“Max, please calm down.”
“Calm down? You want me to calm down? My son was near a fucking bear. A bear, Shel. I cannot believe you would put him in that kind of danger,” he growls, and my temper, which was already fraying from seeing the look on Hunter’s face, begins to slip.
“I would never put Hunter in danger,” I hiss, feeling the phone in my hand pinch into my skin.
“Really fucking funny to me, because you did. You let him near a bear then let him go goddamn release it, and he makes it sound like it was a fucking trip to Disneyland.”
“Calm down, Max,” I demand again, turning my back to Hunter. “Let me explain.”
“No, I don’t want to hear any excuses. This is fucked, so fucking fucked it’s beyond fucked. I want Hunter with me.”
“Max please listen to me.”