Alex, Suze and Meg stood staring wordless at the bear claw marks. Chip brooded and fidgeted. Alex couldn’t believe that the picture that leaped into her head was the scratching post she’d made for cats at the vet clinic.
“Do bears sharpen their claws on trees—on wood?” she asked. “And this one just happened to choose here? I don’t know, maybe smelled or saw Spenser through the window, which means it wasn’t done last night.”
“I guess, anything’s possible,” Suze said in a shaky whisper.
“Even though the ground here has been disturbed,” Alex told them, “I’m going in to get my cell phone to take some pictures. Quinn’s busy and has been bothered enough, but maybe I can show him later.”
They heard a whine that became a roar. The women looked up, but Chip took off toward the backyard clearing.
“It’s a bush plane!” he shouted. “It’s coming over, flying low! Remember how they found a bear near where Dad’s plane crashed? That bear that came here might have been the same one! I’m gonna wave to the plane! Come on, Mom!”
“Chip, come back here!” Meg yelled, and ran after him. “I told you that you’re letting your imagination go crazy. Chip!”
They both disappeared around the back corner of the lodge while Spenser barked to be put down so he could follow, but Alex held him tight.
Suze shook her head, then wiped a tear from under one eye. “Chip just won’t let go of his father,” she said with a sniff as she dug a smashed tissue out of her shirt pocket. “It’s normal to miss him, of course, but he keeps coming up with these far-out ideas that Ryan is trying to reach him. I try to bolster Meg, but—but with my support or not, she’s mourning Ryan, too, and is really shook about how Chip’s handling this loss—or not handling it. She’s had him talk to our pastor, who’s a young guy, and he thinks it’s Chip’s guilt behind it all.”
“I understand. I really do,” Alex said, putting her arm around Suze’s shoulders. “I’ve felt guilty for a long time about something I didn’t really cause, but feel I did.”
Suze turned to face her. “You mean falling for an abuser, not reading the signs until it was too late?”
“Something back farther than that. I’ll—I’ll tell you both together, another time. It’s just—”
They looked up as the same plane looped back and made another pass over the house. They could hear Chip yelling so they both ran into the backyard where Meg was shading her eyes and the boy was jumping up and down, waving, screaming, “See—it’s him!”
“Honey,” Meg cried, “the pilot just saw you waving and is giving you a little fly-around.”
“No way! Pastor Todd told me about the holy ghost inside people, even if they die. If that’s not him, it’s his holy ghost, just like those bear scratches showed! He was trying to get in to see me ’cause he thinks I might still be in that room!”
Alex saw Meg lift her hands in frustration and bite her lower lip. Suze was sniffling. Alex felt caught between them—with her own regrets and fears—wanting to help but helpless. And here, she’d pictured this deep woods lodge as a haven of rest, of freedom from her problems, of learning to be guilt free.
The plane flew off toward town. Meg took Chip inside. Suze said, “I hate to think what Chip’s talk will be about in class if they are assigned ‘What I Liked Best on My Summer Vacation.’”
Alex heaved a huge sigh. It did not help to know others had problems, too, especially not the people she loved. They’d just have to find a way to help Chip. But if she thought trying to change the mood would help, that was dashed when Josh came outside from the back door of the lodge.
“Hey,” Suze called to him. “I thought you weren’t working this morning, that they needed you at camp.”
“Already served breakfast. Gotta go back but came to pick up my pay a day early. That okay?”
“Sure, but I’ve got to go cut the check. Be right back. Maybe you can look at something around the corner there. Alex can show you. I know you don’t track like Sam and Quinn, but—”
“Never wanted to learn,” he said, frowning. “Too—well, old-fashioned. Just not me. I’m still part of the tracking team. But take a look at what?” he asked, turning toward Alex.
She was still a little miffed and puzzled about him. He might claim to be part of Quinn’s team, but just this morning he’d scuffed through several of the animal track boxes at the camp. She didn’t want him to damage the tracks here before she could get some photos. She was tempted to say, “Never mind, I’ll just show Quinn later,” but she still felt sorry for Josh. He was a hard worker, and she admired that.
“There are some animal tracks around the side of the house that look like a bear’s—and some big scratch marks outside my window,” she told him, bouncing Spenser. “Chip found them and got all excited, then went crazy when a bush plane flew over.”
“Yeah, seen him do that before with planes. But if he’s into tracks, maybe he’s the next tracker, huh? I’ll take a good look later at all that.” He turned away and headed back into the lodge.
She called after him. “Don’t clean it up in case Quinn wants to check it out.”
He kept going but nodded and raised one quick hand, which, she thought, either meant I hear you or Don’t tell me what to do.
Alex was surprised he wasn’t going to look now. Why didn’t he seem more curious? Or...could he have seen it already? But then, why didn’t he say so?
She put Spenser down, checked his leash and walked back to the window. With her cell phone, she took pictures of the claw marks on the logs. Wishing she’d asked for a flashlight to put the tracks in sharper relief like Quinn had mentioned, she took flash photos of them from several angles as well as the footprints, however scrambled now.
She wouldn’t bother Quinn, knowing how busy he was, but she thought he might want to see bear claw marks and tracks. Maybe she’d risk it soon.
“Come on, my wandering friend,” she said to Spenser as they walked around the lodge again toward the store she’d meant to open a good half hour ago. “Everyone has problems, not just us, right?”
The little guy’s single bark was a definite “Yes!”
On Friday afternoon, Alex figured she’d had a pretty good day. She had Skyped with Ginger’s techie guy in New York, and he’d set up a plan to close her old website—which had thirty-three standing orders on it she planned to fill—and shut down her personal Facebook page and set up a new business page. She’d chosen to rename her new business Nature’s Naturals instead of Natural Beauty.
Then the next huge step would be—as Quinn had suggested—to create new products with new labels, using the updated business name and more local plants instead of the warmer temp ones. She’d have some time because she’d brought products to fill orders until she could switch things over by next spring. She was going to take advantage of a double-mailing her contact also suggested—that is, mail her products to someplace like Seattle so they would not be mailed with an Anchorage postmark or Falls Lake return address.
Meanwhile, despite trying to cover her tracks online, she hoped to scout around in town to find a greenhouse or garden space—unless Quinn really did want to go into that endeavor with her. She needed her print shop back east to make new labels, maybe find new suppliers for jars and tubes, though she might keep her original supplier for that if she had to.
But all that excitement paled next to a phone call from Quinn. “Sorry to track you down, but I’m good at that,” he said with a little laugh. “I called the lodge and talked Meg into giving me your cell number.”
“Oh, that’s fine. I should have given it to you. How are things going with your trainees?”
“They all think they know more than they do and are ready to take on the world—the forest, at least, which they’ll venture into tomorrow. Actually, the female students are a lot savvier than the men in some ways. The three of them run a hiking business near Denver and wanted to know more about getting off the beaten path. Listen, tonight Sam and Mary hold sway, talking about the history of this area. Mary’s still feeling a little queasy, but I think she’ll do okay. So anyway, that’s a big night off for me as I’ve heard their spiel before.”
She almost mentioned the bear tracks and scratches, but decided to hold off. As she checked to make sure Spenser was secure since she had the door open and several mosquito smoke pots going, she said, “I’m glad she’s doing okay. I’m going into town to look around tomorrow so let me know if there’s anything I can get for her.”
“How about going into town tonight? You promised me a meal, though I’m paying.”
As if she were a sixteen-year-old facing a first date, her insides flip-flopped. “Oh. Yes, I’m glad you can get away.”
“I don’t want to give you any more time to change your mind,” he teased. “Pick you up at six? Very casual. The place has good, local food and line dancing. See you then.”
He was gone. And she was a goner for him already, she admitted only to herself. How had this happened so fast? But she had to be careful, take it slow. Keep her own counsel, not be swayed by how impressed her cousins might be that she had somehow breeched the walls of Quinn Mantell. And really, she’d found by knowing Dr. Lyle Grayson and how he changed over time that once she was inside those walls, it could be hard and dangerous to get out.