He glances at the lion again and sighs.
“Okay,” he says.“But if you get mauled, I told you so.”
I step in and kiss him.
“I’m not gonna get mauled,” I say.
He leans over the cot again, toward the windows where the lion’s hanging out.
“Don’t try anything,” he says.“I’ve got an axe and I’ll fuck you up.”
The lion licks a paw, not even looking at him.
“Andit’s a jerk,” he says as I get back in my sleeping bag.
“I’m sorry the mountain lion doesn’t respect you,” I say.
He gets back onto his cot and looks up at me.I scoot over and kiss his forehead, then ruffle his hair.
“Just enjoy the majesty of nature and go to sleep,” I murmur.
When I wakeup in the morning, the lion is gone but the fire is bigger.I can tell before I even open my eyes, because the moment I’m awake I can smell the faint aroma of smoke in the air.I roll over onto my stomach and stare out at it.
The fire’s still far away, plenty far enough that we’ll hike out in time, even if the wind is blowing it our way, which the wind sock outside tells me it’s not.But it’s big enough now that I can see the dull orange glow even in the daytime, and it gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, like a coffee grinder is chewing through my insides.
Hunter’s still asleep.I think he was kind of nervous about the whole mountain lion thing, which is fair.They have lots of teeth and they’re notoriously dangerous.I didn’t even mention the thing that scared me the most, which is that animals will often swarm out of an area before the fire hits it.
I wonder if our lion friend was running and stopped here to keep an eye on things.
I get out of bed quietly and start making instant coffee as Hunter stirs, then finally wakes up and looks at me.
“Is that cat gone?”he asks, sounding groggy.
“Yeah, but the fire’s bigger,” I say.
He glances over at it, considers it for a moment, then looks back.
“It’s not that big,” he says.“C’mere.”
I put down my coffee, then sit on the side of his cot.He grabs me by the waist and pulls me down.
“Hey!”I say, giggling.“I’d lay down if youasked.”
“I like dragging you around, though,” he says, trying to scoot backwards on the cot because I’m falling off this side.
“Caveman,” I say, and try to wriggle in, but that’s not happening either.
“These things are tiny,” Hunter mutters.
“Yeah,” I say.
He frowns at me, his hand in the curve of my waist.He’s stroking me with his thumb, absentmindedly.
“You okay?”he asks.
“I’m fine,” I say, trying to deflect.
Be fucking honest, I think, and I take a deep breath.
