Big on Education

by Laurie Ames

  Alice served some snacks to everyone and they all sat down in the living room.

  “So, I hear that your boyfriend is coming with us? Where is he?” Terri asked as she munched on some graham crackers and cream cheese smothered in jalapeno jelly.

  Amanda nodded.

  “He should be here— “

  There was a loud knock at the door. The kind of knock that only someone with huge paws could make. It had to be Dylan. Amanda felt both relieved and a little bit of dread.

  She walked to the door and saw him standing there, that crooked grin, wearing a gray t-shirt that looked so soft she wanted to cuddle with it. Or did she want to cuddle with him? Maybe both. He held a dozen roses in his right hand. She opened the door.

  He handed them to her, looking slightly sheepish.

  “Here,” he said.

  “Thank you,” said Amanda, surprised by the gesture. She had never been given flowers before. It was a lovely thing to do, she thought. She took in a huge whiff of them, a big smile immediately replaced her grin.

  “Well, you must be Dylan!” said Alice, walking towards them. “And look at this! You brought our girl flowers?!” She turned to make sure that Jim and Terri could see.

  Apparently, there was a lot of discussion about Amanda dying alone, she thought, as she watched Jim and Terri nod in approval. What was this? The Middle Ages?

  Amanda walked away from the scene and laid the roses down on the bench beneath the coat rack. She went to her bathroom saying, “Excuse me,” rather quickly.

  She hurried down the hall and heard a voice after her. It was Dylan.

  “Amanda!” he called.

  She went into the bathroom and locked the door. She had never been in a serious relationship before. She felt a flood of grief hit her. It came in nauseating waves, sometimes out of nowhere, and in that moment. This was all too new for her. She let the tears roll out of her eyes freely.

  “Amanda,” Dylan said on the other side of the door.

  “It’s okay,” she said, clearly crying.

  “Amanda, I’m sorry,” he said.

  “It’s nothing you did. Honestly,” she said back and unlocked the door.

  Dylan came in and hugged her tightly.

  “I shouldn’t have said what I said yesterday,” he began. “I just know how— “

  “No, it’s not that. It’s the flowers. It’s the sense of commitment. It’s not your fault. What you did was incredibly sweet. It was perfect actually. And I ruined it. To tell the truth, it’s just too much with all my family here.”

  Dylan paused for a moment and pulled away.

  “Amanda,” he said seriously. “You didn’t ruin anything. I’ll never bring you flowers again. I promise.”

  He hugged her tightly again and her breathing began to slow down and gain a more normal pace. The tears stopped flowing freely and she felt herself calming down. She grabbed a tissue and blew her nose, trying to ready herself to step back out into the group of people waiting on them.

  “C’mon,” she said, forcing a smile. “You need to meet my family.”

  She took Dylan’s hand and they walked out of the bathroom and into the hallway, finally entering the living room where the twins were engrossed by their cell phones and the adults had already moved on to other topics of conversation.

  “Sorry, guys,” Amanda said, getting everyone’s attention. “This is my boyfriend, Dylan. Dylan, this is my dad Ben; this is my mom Alice; that’s Jim; that’s Terri and Alex and Emery are the twins.”

  Dylan nodded to each of the people as he was introduced to them and they nodded back. The twins even did, though they didn’t take their eyes away from their cell phones. Dad gave Dylan one of his typical bone crushing hand shakes but Dylan didn’t even wince. I guess dad’s hand shake isn’t what it used to be, she thought to herself.

  “Well, that went well,” Amanda said to no one in particular and turned around and smiled at Dylan.

  He smiled back at her from under his black eyebrows. His smile was that same crooked smile that had hooked Amanda that day in the grocery store. She longed to kiss those lips, and even though the next week was going to be all about her family and they were all sharing one cabin, it was a big one. Plus, she and Dylan had their own room. They would have plenty of privacy. She couldn’t wait.

  Chapter 8

  “Is everyone ready?” Alice asked at last.

  Everyone used the bathroom and bags were shifted from one vehicle to another. They were taking the big SUV that Amanda’s family had brought along. Her mother took the front seat, the twins and Terri took the middle bench, and Dylan and Amanda had the back seat to themselves. While it sounded nice, it wasn’t huge and the bags were piled all the way up to their heads, so there wasn’t exactly much of a view to enjoy.

  Just before they headed out, Dylan took Amanda’s hand in his. His hand seemed to swallow hers up, and she loved that. He was warm, as always. It seemed like his body ran at a higher temperature, and she wondered if that was true of all shifters. She made a note to ask him about it.

  The boys were silent, playing on their phones. Probably Snapchatting with girls, Amanda imagined. Finally, Terri turned around to talk to Dylan and Amanda.

  “So how long have you two been dating?” she asked.

  “A couple of months,” Amanda said, jumping at the question immediately. She wondered how much her mother had told Terri, but Terri only smiled.

  “And how did you meet? Alice says it was when you needed a private get away and went up to Mountain View.”

  “She’s not exactly graceful, is she?” Dylan asked, jumping into the conversation.

  Amanda frowned at him, not sure what he was about to say.

  “She fell in the grocery store. I helped her up. A little kid almost took her out at the knees,” he said with a smile. He and Terri laughed.

  Amanda smiled at the memory though it had been a physically painful one.

  “Yeah, I fell. As usual,” Amanda laughed. “Which, by the way, who is planning on helping me up every time I fall while I’m skiing?”

  Amanda pointed a finger between Terri and Dylan, back and forth jokingly.

  “You can’t be that bad!” Dylan joked.

  “Oh, Dylan,” Terri said, “You haven’t known our girl very long, now have you?”

  Her words held some truth, Amanda thought. Certainly not long enough to know that he was in love with her. That was for sure. She resisted the urge to say that out loud, though. The thought stayed with her for the rest of the drive to Whistler.

  The landscapes of Whistler’s Mountain were breathtaking. The mountains were beautiful and seemed to extend on out into eternity. There was plenty of snow for skiing and flurries were falling all around at the lodge.

  They had checked into their cabin and gone down to the village to get something to eat. After that, everyone was just back at the cabin, enjoying themselves.

  Jim and Dylan had gotten a fire going in the fireplace and the girls were getting a game of Cards Against Humanity going. Alice had never even heard of it. Terri was trying to reassure her that it was hilarious while Amanda hoped that playing something like that with her mother and her boyfriend would end up being a lot of fun.

  After the guys got the fire going, they joined the table for cards.

  They laughed into the night and even the twins joined in on a few rounds, astonished that their parents knew the meanings of certain words.

  After the last round, Jim got himself and Dylan a beer and they stood by the fire discussing Dylan’s old Bronco. Alice decided she needed to go to bed, which left Terri and Amanda unencumbered by anything else.

  “So how serious are you about him?” Terri asked right away, like a gossiping high school girl.

  Amanda paused. She thought about the question.

  “I’m pretty serious about him,” she said.

  “You know, your uncle told me he loved me the first night we were together,” Terri giggled. Her openness might ha
ve had something to do with the wine coolers she’d been drinking, but Amanda didn’t mind it, especially since the topic of conversation had become so pertinent to what was going on in Amanda’s life.

  “Really? What did you do?” Amanda asked, sipping her own drink.

  “I didn’t know what to do, so I said it back,” Terri said, and her laughter faded. “I shouldn’t have,” she said with regret.

  “But you love him, don’t you?” Amanda asked.

  “Oh, of course. I love him now, yes. But in that moment, I didn’t. I didn’t even know him. But I guess you just know when you know, right? And he knew that night. I didn’t though and I shouldn’t have told him I loved him if I didn’t know for sure yet. Have you guys said the ‘L’ word?”

  She looked at Amanda with a conspiratorial smile.

  “Well,” Amanda began.

  Terri motioned for her to continue and took another sip of her wine cooler.

  “He said it the other day. By accident, I think. I didn’t say it back,” Amanda spat out.

  “I see,” said Terri. “Well, do you love him?”

  “I don’t know. I know I’ve fallen for him. So I’m in love with him, but love is such a strong word. And I know that what I’m feeling is strong, don’t get me wrong on that. I just don’t know that I’m ready to jump right in and tell him I love him.”

  “That’s perfectly fine,” said Terri. “You did the right thing. It’s better for him to be a little uncomfortable not knowing if you feel the same than to find out later you never did but had lied about it.”

  “You’re right,” said Amanda.

  “I’m going to go to bed now. Try to get those two into bed at some point,” she said gesturing towards Dylan and Jim.

  Amanda smiled and told her aunt that she’d try.

  Instead, she sat and watched Dylan talking to Jim. Looking at him in the glow of the firelight, so happily engrossed in conversation that had to do with something he was passionate about was so attractive to Amanda. She sipped her drink, letting the alcohol permeate her blood stream and make her feel like the air around her was warm and buzzing.

  She watched Dylan and he caught her staring out of the corner of her eye. He looked at her for a moment and winked. She didn’t wink back but smiled.

  He was hers. That was hard to believe. He didn’t belong to anyone else. He had chosen her and she had chosen him, and there was something inherently magical about a thing like that.

  Finally, the conversation with Jim came to a close and Dylan beckoned her to take a seat beside him in front of the fireplace.

  She joined him, curling into his muscular body and he wrapped an arm tight around her. She watched the flames dance as he placed a kiss on top of her hair and inhaled her scent. She inhaled his, too, and realized just how much she had missed him.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said to Dylan.

  “I am, too,” he said to her.

  They cuddled in the firelight, listening to the sound of each other’s heartbeats for several moments. Then Dylan pulled her chin up with his hand. With his warm touch, he caressed the side of her face and brought her lips to his.

  In the softest and most tender kiss, he pressed his mouth against hers. He tugged gently on her fuller lower lip with his teeth. He slid his tongue slowly along the line that her lips made when they were pressed together. He asked for entrance. She granted it to him and opened her mouth to his. She sighed into him.

  Dylan crushed his mouth against hers more aggressively and Amanda let him. She enjoyed the feeling of his skin against hers and craved to feel their bodies moving together.

  Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

  Amanda and Dylan stopped and sat up straight. They looked at each other. No one else was expected at the cabin.

  Amanda got up to go to the door. Dylan stopped her.

  “Let me,” he said protectively.

  She leaned back into the couch and watched him walk to the door. He opened it and peeked around but strangely there was nobody there. A ragged note was taped to the peephole on the door. Dylan grabbed it.

  He closed the door and went back to the couch with Amanda, he opened the note.

  MEET ME AT THE SKI LIFT AT MIDNIGHT.

  JASE

  “Who’s Jase?” Amanda asked totally confused.

  Dylan looked up at her.

  “I assumed it was for you,” he said. “You don’t know a Jase?”

  “No. Do you?” Amanda asked.

  “No,” said Dylan.

  He got up and went over to the windows on the balcony and looked out into the flurry of snow coming down.

  “What time is it?” he asked Amanda.

  “11:45,” she said after glancing at her watch.

  Dylan looked around some more but seemed unsatisfied. It didn’t look like he’d spotted anyone. He came back to join her.

  “I’m going with you,” she said.

  “No, you’re not,” Dylan said firmly.

  “Yes, I am,” she insisted.

  He got up and walked towards their room to change into more suitable clothing, she assumed. She followed him.

  Once inside he got out a coat and some ski pants and boots. Amanda did the same and began to change.

  “I said you’re not going, Amanda,” said Dylan.

  “And I don’t care what you said,” said Amanda.

  “This could be dangerous,” he said very seriously. “We don’t know who that was that left the note.”

  “All the more reason for you to need backup,” she said back just as seriously.

  Dylan sighed. Amanda smiled to herself. She was headstrong and Dylan knew it. She’d helped him in the past with the encounter they’d had with the bears at Mountain View outside of Seattle. Who was to say that she wouldn’t be just as helpful in this situation?

  They had both changed and grabbed their gloves and scarves and headed for the door.

  Quietly, they crept outside.

  The wind was still as snowflakes fell all around them. Amanda tilted her head back to catch one on her tongue.

  “Really?” Dylan asked. “Right now?”

  “What?” she asked and continued with him.

  They wound around the gift shops and the stores and made their way to the ski lift. When they got there, just like every other attraction at Whistler’s Mountain at midnight, it was abandoned.

  “What time is it?” Dylan asked her again.

  She pulled up her sleeve to reveal her watch which told her it was five after twelve. She told him. They waited.

  Something came whizzing by Amanda’s head. When she turned to look at it, something hit her in the back of the head sharply.

  “Ouch!” she hissed.

  “What is it?” Dylan asked. “Ouch!” he cried out.

  Apparently, he had been hit, too.

  Then there was a hiss from the bushes.

  “Shhh! Both of you!” it said.

  “Who are you?” Dylan asked in a hushed tone.

  “More importantly, are you Dylan?” the voice asked.

  “I am,” Dylan said.

  A figure stepped forward from the bushes. It was a man. Tall and muscular with black hair like Dylan’s, though his was cut neatly and short.

  He stepped out across the snow, making no sound as he came towards them.

  “My name is Jase,” he said.

  “Dylan,” said Dylan, “But you already know that. Mind telling us what this is about?”

  “You’re one of the last remaining Kermode bears, are you not?” the man named Jase asked without missing a beat.

  Dylan looked at Amanda and then back at Jase.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Dylan.

  The man sighed deeply.

  “I didn’t want to have to do this,” he said.

  The man assumed a position that had become familiar to Amanda. He dropped to his knees and his face contorted with pain. His clothes began to tear as though he was g
rowing too big for them. She stepped back. Even though she’d seen it multiple times before, it was still overwhelming and scary. She watched as his skin erupted and he became a mass of white fur, sitting back on his haunches. He was a White Kermode Spirit Bear.