by Lynn Red
Even though his eyes had stopped hurting – thanks to all that’s holy for bear healing – Breaker twitched almost imperceptibly in the corner of his left eye. “Yeah,” he said, “I don’t know about all that. But whatever it is you were looking for here, you should probably do it quick. I get the feeling there isn’t a lot of time for us to sit around and play with each other’s hair.”
The suddenly gruff turn made the pit of Rory’s stomach flutter just a little. The way Breaker went from happy-go-lucky to snarly and growly got her right in the gut. She didn’t say anything, but as she watched him stand up, the removal of his heft from her lap, from her arms where she’d cradled him, almost ached.
He offered a hand, and she took it. The heat of Breaker’s skin, the gentle rasp of calluses against the latex on her palms, brought a smile to Rory’s bowed lips. “You never answered me,” she finally said as she pulled the gloves off with a pop.
“Huh? Oh, why am I here? Well, not all firefighting bears are happy with just getting the fire out and waiting for the next one. I got a weird feeling about this place. Something about the way it burned just wasn’t right.”
“Arson?” she asked. “I knew I liked you before, but now I’m sure of it.”
He scrunched his eyebrows together. “Because I see arson where everyone else sees electrical fire? Actually... do you remember where the fuse box is?”
*
“Report said it was over here,” Breaker said as the pair rounded the north corner of the cottage and poked through monkey grass that had overgrown so badly it looked like a wheat field. “I really hope I don’t get any ticks. I hate ticks.”
“Big baby,” Rory said. She smiled briefly, knowing the big bear was too busy with his search to turn back and see her. For some reason, she had always kept her feelings close to the chest, and this was no different. “You know you can just pick them with tweezers, right? Or if you’re a really big baby, you can smear Vaseline over them and wait until they die. That’s creepier if you ask me, though. Big dead tick hanging on your leg like a backward boob.”
“A... what?” Breaker froze in his tracks, but didn’t turn around. “Did you just say backward boob?”
“Yeah,” Rory said. “You know, like the tick is this big engorged boob, and its head is the nipple. It’s attacked to you by the nipple, so backward—”
“Oh my god,” Breaker said, coughing. “I am never touching a boob again.”
“Right, we’ll see about that.” Rory answered with her normal witty snark before realizing how it sounded. She blushed, but somehow didn’t care. “Fuse box?” she asked, trying to sail right past what anyone on earth would construe as a groping invitation. To his credit, the big bear once again managed to not turn around and find her blushing and cringing at her own yammering.
“I’d rather talk about boobs,” he said, pushing through the grass. “But I’ll take this. Look.”
Creeping up beside him, careful to avoid a stalk of grass covered in chiggers, Rory leaned in close. “Well that’s not exactly what you expect to find in a fuse box.”
“You mean... you expected fuses? Maybe some circuits? Maybe some breakers? How about a boob?”
“You’re a damn boob,” Rory said, smiling and laughing softly. “How can this thing be empty?”
Just as she said, there wasn’t anything at all in the fuse box. No wiring, no nothing. And along with that, there were deep gouges like claw tracks, running down the siding of the house. “Must be somewhere else, but where? There wasn’t anything in the report about it at all. And if this was electrical, someone had to have noticed the box. And what’s up with those claw marks?”
“Weirdest damn thing,” Breaker said. “I’m not really sure what to make if it. Most reasonable thing is that it’s been there a long time. Fusebox just got moved into the basement or something and some animal or other was rooting through it for food. Or... something. Still, I don’t know.”
“I guess there’s nothing much we can do about it now except putting in a report. Still, I don’t like it. Seemed too strange.” Rory sucked a deep breath and bit her lip. She caught a hint of the big bear’s scent. It was hard and leathery and sent a tingle down the back of her neck as she breathed him in. A thought ran through her mind – she could probably throw this guy down in the grass right here and find out if he’d really sworn off boobs. Holy hell, what’s wrong with me? Rory asked herself. I get within four feet of a guy and I’m knock-kneed, stupid and getting all breathy? Come the hell on.
She shook her head as he tapped his fingertips against the brick. “So... you there? Or did you get abducted by something?”
“You could abduct me,” Rory said under her breath, and then immediately clapped her hand over her mouth. Of all the stupid shit. Why did I have to inherit the diarrhea of the mouth gene?
“Huh?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about an old movie. Fire in the Sky, heard of it? It’s about this guy who gets abducted by aliens and is gone for a few weeks, and then his friends find him on the side of the road. Anyway, the guy’s name is Travis Walton and he’s got a new movie coming out. I was just thinking of... what? Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you’re cute when you’re flustered,” Breaker said. “And honest to God, I’ve never said anything like that to anyone in my entire life. I’m not exactly big on sharing my thoughts, so you’re doing something weird inside my head. It’s like you’re one of those mushrooms that gets in an ant’s head and turns into an antenna.”
Rory’s eyes went as wide and as round as saucers. “Did you really just say that? Because I was thinking about those things earlier. I saw that episode of Planet Earth last night. What the hell are those things? How can something like that really exist? I mean, we turn into animals, but that’s normal. Mushrooms that turn ants into divining rods? What kind of godless, horrible world do we live in?”
Unbeknownst to herself, Rory had taken a pair of steps closer to Breaker, and when he put a hand on her shoulder, she felt the heat pulsing through his palm. “Can’t be that bad, can it?” he asked. His voice was a low rumbling growl that Rory could feel in the pit of her stomach. “I mean, you’re here, after all. And I’m standing behind a burned out house with you, so—”
“No,” she said. “I guess it can’t be all that bad.”
Rory stretched her neck a little, tilting her face upward toward the big bear, who towered over her by at least a head and a half. “I can’t believe I’m about to kiss you,” he said.
“Why can’t you?” she leaned closer.
In the instant before she tasted his lips, and his scent and his heat coursed through her veins, Rory felt a rough hand on the bare skin of her shoulder, where her shirt had slipped down. “Because I really am terrified of ticks,” Breaker said. “But somehow, I’m willing to put up with that to kiss you.”
She felt her insides twist into a failed balloon animal that resulted in a granny knot. His lips first brushed hers, and then when she arched her neck further, she managed to suck his bottom lip between her teeth.
He grabbed her shoulders first, then clutched her back, pulling Rory’s body against himself. Hungrily, she kissed back, sucking at his lip, then nibbling him gently. Her hands slid up Breaker’s back, through his bristly hair.
“What the hell are we doing?” she asked with a blushing smile when she had to pull away to try and catch her breath. “And aren’t you worried about ticks?”
“Yeah,” Breaker said, “but somehow I can get over that when I’m doing this. Don’t ask how, but—”
He got bored of talking and kissed her again, sliding his lips from her chin to her neck. Tingles of energy prickled through Rory’s entire being as Breaker sucked on her neck. Then he dragged his teeth along her earlobe, and finally, in the hollow behind her ear, where no one had ever kissed. When he got there, the tingles turned into clenching, gripping sensations that filled her core with desperate, hungry pleasure. “No one’s,” she let out a soft g
roan, “ever done that before. How did you know that I’d—”
“I didn’t,” Breaker said, his face red, and sweat running down either side of his face. “I just decided to take a chance, and...” he trailed off, his fingers curling softly against Rory’s bare shoulders. “I took a chance,” he repeated, “and just hoped it worked out.”
The way his voice twisted upward at the end of his sentence. “It worked out... didn’t it?” he honestly seemed like he’d just been abducted by an alien and returned to Earth with no idea where he’d been, or that he’d lost three weeks of his life.
“Breaker?” Rory asked. “You okay in there?” She patted his cheeks softly before curling her fingertips against his raspy beard. “Hello?”
A moment later, he shook his head, like he was coming out of a haze. “Shit, sorry,” he grumbled. “Guess I kinda ruined the mood, huh?”
“I think probably it’s for the best. We shouldn’t be stripping down and going at it behind a burned down house where neither of us is particularly supposed to be without an escort.” Reminding herself of the danger of being caught, and then losing her job, Rory looked around and of course saw nothing at all. “Although I mean, I am technically on the police department and... uh...” Rory’s eyes got big and round and white as she stared at something behind Breaker’s ear.
“What is it?” he asked. “Let me guess? It’s a tick, right? Ha-ha-ha, very funny.” He lifted his hand to his neck, but Rory grabbed it, intercepting his hand from reaching his neck.
“No, no, nothing like that. You just have really nice cheekbones, that’s all.” She was giving her fake out a valiant effort, but she just couldn’t stop staring at the black creature that had latched onto Breaker’s skin at some point. “It’s uh... yeah, no, just your cheekbones. Very striking.”
“Right,” he said, eyebrows knitting together as he grew more and more suspicious. “What is it? Why’d you get all weird?”
She just couldn’t stop staring at the dime-sized black ball. “Boobies,” she said absently.
Before she could stop him, Breaker’s hand went back to his neck. His fingers found the shiny little knot and he uttered a curse as he realized he’d guessed right all along. “Boobie?” he asked no one in particular, as his lips started going pale. “Oh God,” he sighed. “First I’m checking out what I think is an arson, next I’m making out with possibly the coolest girl I’ve ever met, and now I’m going to pass out and make myself look like the world’s biggest baby.”
As his balance faltered, Rory caught the giant bear and eased him to the ground, using all her mink strength. As soon as he was sitting, he let out a sigh, and that was that. Before he went out like a light for a couple of seconds, Rory heard him mumble something about how shitty his luck was.
She grabbed his arms, and as she heaved him to his feet to get him out of the grass and hopefully prevent any further flirtation with Lyme disease, the giant bear stirred, and sort of whispered her name into Rory’s ear. She wasn’t exactly one to be particularly compassionate, especially about something like this, but for whatever reason, the fact that this enormous, powerful monstrosity of a bear was mortally terrified of ticks made him seem just that much more real. Laughing to herself, she dragged him by the armpits back around to the side of the house where the fire had burned away any overgrowth that could house the enemy.
As he rustled, grumbled, and finally came back to life, Rory was making a series of notes on her ever present stylus-using digital assistant from circa 1999. She wasn’t some kind of Luddite who refused to use modern technology, but she just liked this thing. It wasn’t something she could explain, but then again, she didn’t need to explain it to anyone.
“Sorry about that,” Breaker grumbled as the color came back into his lips. “It’s... uh, yeah it’s a long story. It involves Lyme disease and a few years of misdiagnosis that ended up giving my doctor a drinking problem and giving me more than a few weird, permanent skin discolorations. Really not that interesting of a story.”
Rory shrugged. “We’ve all got our shit,” she said plainly. “Yours just happens to be really funny. And for the record, that does sound like a pretty good story. Does this also mean you have sworn off boobies again? I can’t keep track.”
The two of them laughed for a few scant moments before falling quiet again. Something unwelcome prickled at the back of Rory’s brain. We all have our shit, she thought. Yeah, we sure do. If I can manage to get through one damn day without thinking I’m some kind of failure or another, it’s a miracle. I think I’d trade mortal fear of ticks for that one any day.
“This might be the weirdest day I’ve ever had,” Breaker finally said. He pushed himself to his feet with a subdued grunt. “But I gotta say, I think it might also be one of the best. And we didn’t even figure out what the hell we came here to figure out in the first place. I guess that’s the mark of a good distraction.”
As he said the final word, Breaker’s eyes fixed heavily on Rory’s. She stared at him, unsure what to say, but thinking maybe there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. “I guess we better go?” she finally asked, breaking the stillness. “I mean, you probably have things to do and I have... things...”
“Nah, I’m off for the next day and,” Breaker checked his watch, “a half. Or so. Only thing I have to do is stop by the beer store, and then park my ass in front of Netflix and enjoy an assortment of terrible action movies. I mean, if you have something else to do, then I’ll leave you alone.” He cracked a smile. “I’m just messing around. I know you’re busy, I’m not that kind of asshole. Look, do you have any particular taste for 80s action movies?”
Rory shot him a crossways look. “You mean like Terminator? That’s pretty good.”
He nodded. “Among other things. Listen, do you think maybe...” he trailed off for a moment. “I’m terrible at this. You want to come watch some with me? I mean, I know you do, but it’s just a question of when.”
“I thought you said you weren’t any good at the whole smooth-talking thing?” Rory asked, trying her best not to throw him back on the ground and hop right on top. “I’ve got to finish a few things, and I have to figure out how the hell this fire started or I’m going to go crazy. But after that?”
“I have no idea why I’m saying yes to this,” Rory said, “but... actually yeah, I do have an idea. It might have something to do with the way you keep looking at me, and how you haven’t stopped touching my shoulder since the first time you did it. If you think you’re terrible at this—whatever this is—then you need to guess again.”
“Maybe I’m only good at it because it’s you, and I really feel it,” he said. The easy way he smiled made the center of Rory’s normally rather cold core melt just a little. She smiled back at him and tilted her head toward the hand that was still on her shoulder.
“I’m not entirely sure why I’m agreeing to go watch a bunch of steroid-laden testosterone movies, but... yeah it might be because it’s you, and because I really feel it. Eve really knows what she’s doing, huh?”
He gave her one last smile, one last gentle kiss on the cheek that lingered for just a moment longer than he had to linger, warming her skin and prickling a trail down her neck. “She does,” he said as he turned around. His hand slipped down her arm, they grasped hands for just a moment and then they let go.
“Well, and also I need someone to get rid of this tick.”
“Oh shut up!” Rory almost howled with laughter, and Breaker’s huge shoulders shook. “Text me your address. I won’t be long,” she said.
He nodded as he plodded off, and then when he was just out of earshot, she continued her thought, speaking it out loud to the empty lot and the carcass of a house. “It won’t be long, because I’m not entirely sure how long I can keep myself from letting my heart actually pound its way out of my chest.”
She let out a long, patient exhale that seemed to drip from her lips. “Yeah,” she said, as he climbed up into the cab of his truck – a m
id-90s Ram she thought – and looked back in her direction as he turned the key.
He nodded, and smiled, never letting his eyes leave hers, not even at this considerable distance. “See you soon,” he mouthed.
Rory just smiled.
As soon as the truck rumbled to life and went on its way, she let out another long-held breath and sat down heavily on the stoop leading into the burned house. “Holy shit,” she announced. “Did I really just make out with a guy I met for a half hour in the lobby of a dating agency?”
Before she could really process what was going on, her phone—the one she used for making calls—buzzed in her back pocket. “Need you to look at something,” the text read. It was from Monte, and whenever he actually asked for help openly, it was really something. “I can’t tell what I’m doing, and I think it might be a pretty terrible mistake, so I need your help.”
“Be right there—office?” she texted back, knowing the answer before it came. Of course it was the office. What the hell else would Monte be doing that he needed such urgent help with? And anyway it’s not like he really did anything except working.
“Home,” came the reply.
She didn’t even bother to follow up. If he wanted her at his house, something was definitely wrong. A laundry list of possible problems ran through her mind, but the one that worried her the most was that he was having some kind of health problem – Monte never did have the best heart, she thought, and his blood pressure was pretty high.
Rory ran to her car, not even thinking about the fact that in the space of a half hour, two things that she never expected had happened – she had apparently wandered into a guy who at least on the surface appeared to like her, and second, Monte asked for help at his house.
There wasn’t time to think, not really, but when she pulled into the curbside parking space in front of her boss’s red brick craftsman house, she got a shock of energy that almost took her breath away.
“What if this is it?” she asked her empty car. “What if he is it? Oh my God, I’m going insane. I’m talking to my air freshener and I’m thinking about living out some Leave it to Beaver fantasy with a bear I just met. I should probably get my shit together, and take things one step at a time. If I don’t, I’m going to end up taking forty steps at once, getting myself all screwed up over this guy, and then having my heart broken.