“And boobs.”
“That’s definitely not why.”
“And she’s a bear,” Cody said, shrugging. “Trust me, I noticed. She’s very appealing, but—”
“Nathan Strauss,” Connor said, turning to glare at him. “I swear to God. What is the rule?”
“Jesus.”
“Nathan!”
“Don’t get involved with the guests.”
“Do not get involved with the guests!” Connor wagged his finger and scowled at him. Nathan thought he looked just a little bit like an angry schoolmarm and huffed, annoyed. “You especially!”
“Gah!” Nathan reared back in indignation. “What do you mean, me especially?”
“You still like trouble too much and you like fixing things,” Connor muttered, sighing as he went back to his phone and scrolled through emails. “I think you’ve been edgy too. You miss your bad boy days.”
Nathan frowned at that. “I don’t miss my bad boy days.” He polished off his sandwich and sipped the raspberry iced tea Cody had given him.
“Yeah you do,” Eric said. “You get restless. I mean we all get restless. You most of all. You miss roving about.”
“Roving about.” Nathan rolled his eyes. The conversation died there and Connor hurried back to his office as soon as he got the chance. When Cody was busy across the kitchen at his stove, Nathan nodded at Eric. “Will you just do something for me?”
“What’s that?”
“Make an excuse to get up to 27,” Nathan said. “Maybe just to check in, ask if plumbing’s fine or whatever. Tell me what you think. Get the lay of the land. You have good instincts for that shit.”
“Nathan.” Eric already sounded tired and Nathan rolled his eyes. “Is Connor going to be pissed if I do this?”
“Not if you don’t tell him,” Nathan said brightly.
“I hate you.”
“Thanks, bro.” Nathan patted his head and rose to take his dishes to the sink. He checked his phone and groaned.
The plumbing in room 101 was down.
“There’s a weird vibe,” Eric reported later.
Nathan had fixed the plumbing in room 101 and now he lay on his creeper again, wincing as oil leaked onto his face from the van’s undercarriage. Nathan rolled out and Eric tossed him a rag. He was pretty sure he couldn’t fix the van himself and that was annoying, but he had nothing better to do at the moment.
“A vibe?” Nathan said, wiping his face. He sat up and grabbed his bottle of water, taking a long swallow. A gust of chill air blew into the lodge’s garage from outside and Nathan sighed, wondering if there was time to go on a run later. “In 27, you mean?”
“Yeah, it’s like they’re definitely not a couple and they’re definitely not friends,” Eric said. “It’s like a business transaction or something? That’s how I read it.”
“I don’t think she’s a working girl,” Nathan said doubtfully.
“No…”
“Then what?” Nathan said, getting to his feet. He leaned on the car.
“I don’t know,” Eric said. “But it’s none of your business.”
“I think she’s in trouble.” Nathan crossed his arms. “I’m not just restless. We’re bears. We have instincts. I talked to her in the lounge for a bit last night. I think she’s in trouble. You gonna tell me not to get involved in—”
“No,” Eric said. “I’m gonna say…go with your gut.”
“Thanks.” Nathan tossed him a wink and stretched before the two of them made their way out of the garage. Nathan clapped his brother on the back and headed toward the exit closest to the backwoods, far from the slopes where people never ventured unless they were shifters going on a run.
He needed to stretch his legs.
There was a covered promenade of shops and boutiques that extended out from the west wing of the lodge. The vendors there paid rent to the Strauss brothers and since they often found themselves too busy to go all the way into town to shop, the vendors got a good chunk of that rent right back in their tills.
Nathan was hard on his winter gloves. He’d worn right through the finger pads again and he tossed his third pair of the year into a bin before making his way to the promenade, having gone on a run. His belly was full so he hadn’t gone fishing, but he’d had a good time feeling the snowy air in his lungs, shaking the snow from his thick fur, clawing up trees, scratching his back on branches, and playing around with deer who always eventually got spooked. He’d even noticed a few guests out there in the woods and they’d sniffed around each other, recognizing each other’s scents before going their separate ways. Nathan loved a good run.
Now he needed gloves.
The promenade was bustling as Nathan made his way to Fenile, a leather goods store that did sell some gloves just a little nicer than work gloves but not too fancy and they were lined with nice insulation so they weren’t overly padded. Nathan felt underdressed as usual in the promenade.
“Lisa!” The leather goods store was empty when Nathan got there and that wouldn’t be true for long. Lisa, the owner’s assistant came out and lit up when Nathan entered. Like most of the other boutiques on the promenade, it was fairly small and it had more of a ‘shopping in Vegas’ feel than the lodge did with faux marble tile and windows everywhere to open up the space.
Nathan picked up a wallet and examined it as Lisa came over to greet him. “Nate! Did you wear your gloves out again?”
“Guilty.”
“What are you doing with those things?”
“I just don’t know.”
Lisa set him up with a new pair of gloves, but not before she flirted with him. It felt different than it had before Alanna. The two of them had always flirted for fun, but Nathan had never felt driven to push things beyond that. Partly because he didn’t want to endanger his source of new gloves. But the interest just hadn’t been there even though she was quite attractive. Not like it was already there for Alanna even after only a few days.
He was obsessing about Alanna yet again as he made his way back through the promenade when he happened to see the woman herself in one of the shops.
The Black Bear Lake Lodge promenade had a number of rather spectacular clothing shops and this one, in particular, was high end. That was notable to Nathan’s mind. Alanna certainly hadn’t looked like a rich girl when she’d checked in, although her sweater the night before had looked like real cashmere if he thought about it.
Nathan ducked behind a pillar nearby and told himself that he wasn’t a stalker as he observed her. A clerk was showing Alanna cocktail dresses. She didn’t look very excited about them, but she just kept nodding and smiling slightly in response to everything the clerk said. Nathan looked around and sniffed the air.
John was not close by.
Nathan decided to take a chance.
He didn’t creep up on her or come from behind. Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to look as non-threatening as possible as he entered the shop and nodded hello at Dorine, the older woman who ran the store.