Redwood Bend

the daytime hand, had been a grumpy old coot twenty years ago. He took Dylan under his wing as a matter of survival—if Dylan stupidly got himself killed around the horses, cows or wildlife, Ham would be out of work. Now he was even older, more weathered, crankier, and yet did even more work around the place than he’d done twenty years before.
Dylan ran up on the porch just as the cabin door opened. Katie looked scared. He’d never seen her with that look.
“Maybe I’ve been kidding myself about wanting adventure,” she said. “I threw up in the airplane, the bear scared me to death and I bet if I ever got a chance to learn to rock climb, I’d probably fall off and break my neck. Maybe I’m just a city girl who should stick to books and movies for my adventure fix.”

Ten

“F irst of all,” Dylan told Katie and the boys, “you don’t want to run away from a bear—they’ll probably chase you and they’re very fast. If you’re farther away like you were, you can make a lot of noise, like Jack did with the horn. If you’re closer, back away slowly. Bears like this one are usually kind of shy—”
“She didn’t look shy,” Katie said.
“That’s because she had to protect her children—you know how that is. But if you don’t threaten the children, she’ll probably go away quietly. The one thing you never want to do is get between the mother and her cubs. And if you find yourself in a really scary situation with a bear, lay facedown on the ground, cover your head and neck with your hands and play dead.”
Dylan crouched in front of Mitch. “Mitch, if you come face-to-face with a bear, what are you going to do?”
“Back away slowly.”
He swiveled. “Andy, if you find yourself between a bear and her cubs and the mama seems angry, what should you do?”
“Make noise?”
“That’s if you’re not too close—if you’re kind of close and she seems angry, you lay down—”
“And play dead!”
“Right. On your stomach, facedown, cover your head, like this,” he said, demonstrating by lacing his fingers together behind his head. “Now here’s an easy one—if you’re about to go outside but there’s a bear in the yard…?”
“Stay in,” they answered in unison.
“Excellent.” He rose to his full height. “And if there’s a bear in your yard but you’re safe in the house…?” he asked, looking at Katie.
“Noise?”
“That could work. Not like screaming, like maybe banging a spoon on a tin pan. Something to alert the bear there’s a person around so they just leave. And you have that mace, in case you get right down to it.”
“They don’t actually like that too much,” Jack said. “I’ve heard of bears getting very angry about that, but if it’s your only option....”
“Katie, since you’ve had this bear family in the yard, can you remember to go over bear safety rules with the boys often?” Dylan asked. “You’ll probably never see them again, but… Rules for safety. Every day isn’t too often.”
She got a very queer look on her face before she said, “Of course.” She blinked a couple of times. “Ready to get to summer school, guys?”
“Let me drop them off,” Jack offered. “I’m headed back to town anyway. I’ll make sure they get checked in. Miss Timm is a bear about that.” Then he laughed at his own joke.
“Thanks, Jack. Get your backpacks, guys,” she said.
In less than two minutes the twins were in the truck and Jack was backing out of the clearing. Dylan and Katie were still standing on the porch. When the truck was out of sight, she faced him.
“So. You’re leaving.”
“How would you know that?” he asked.
“Your duffel is on the back of the bike and you have a confused look on your face, like you don’t know the way out.”
He shook his head. “I can take that duffel off the bike and put you there for one more ride. Anywhere you’d like to go.”
“Tell me what you came here to tell me,” she said.
He gently grasped her upper arms to pull her closer. He kneaded her arms and looked into her eyes. “Here’s what’s happening, Katie. I talked to Lang—a couple of our employees have left the company, hopefully for greener pastures because they know we’re in trouble. Our big plane is gone. Lang is going to send out his résumé—he has a family to think about. I have a company circling the drain and a producer in L.A. who wants to sign me for a movie if he can, a chance for me to bankroll that little Montana airport.