Goldie and the Three Wisconsin Bears

My heart hammers, and I feel almost dizzy with anxiety. “No, I wouldn’t do that, I swear. I couldn’t even get into the main part of the computer. I had to use a guest account to send an email to my friends.”

“What friends?” Jeb asks, his voice as growly as a bear.

And of course, I can’t answer that question.

“You won’t even tell us your fucking name, and you expect me to believe you weren’t in here doing some nefarious shit? Like telling your friends to come up here to rob us?”

Weirdly, I can understand his position. His anger. This is his space, the one place he could escape from me. I don’t blame him for being livid about finding me here.

But all I can say is, “I’m sorry. I just needed to tell my two best friends I was all right. I didn’t want them worrying about me.”

“You think I believe you, little girl?” he asks. “You think I’m going to let you lie and keep secrets with me like you do with Nico and Mitch!”

He still hasn’t hit me, but him standing so close and yelling is just as bad. My heart is thundering so hard, my ears are ringing. And I feel weak, like I’m about to pass right on out.

“Please stop,” I whisper. “Please stop yelling at me. I wasn’t doing anything, I promise.”

He does stop yelling. But he also steps closer. And somehow the quiet version of his voice sounds even more menacing than his shout as he says, “Your promise doesn’t mean shit to me, Goldie. Nico and Mitch are good people, and I’m not going to let you—”

“Alright, Jeb, that’s enough!”

We both look up to see Nico and Mitch standing in the open doorway of the shed.

Chapter Thirteen

MITCH

I have never been so pissed at Jeb.

I’d already woken up in a bad mood even before I came out to Jeb’s shed. I missed Goldie lying next to me last night. The bed was too damn big without her all of a sudden. And listening to her scream for Nico this morning didn’t improve my mood one bit.

I decided this morning that the “Don’t Come” game wasn’t working for me anymore. And I was negotiating new terms with Nico when we heard Jeb hollering in the shed.

We both rushed out there. And I just about lost it when I saw the way Jeb was towering over Goldie. He was obviously using his size to intimidate her. And she looked so frightened. The opposite of last night when she rode my cock so good, I lost the Don’t Come game before we made it up to the five minutes mark.

“What the fuck, Jeb,” I say. “Get away from her!”

I have no idea what Jeb said to her, but Goldie runs toward me like she’s fleeing a bomb.

And I’m no Nico. But I automatically hug her tight when she comes rushing into my arms.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she mumbles into my shoulder. Her heart’s beating so fast, I can feel it against my chest. She’s terrified. “I swear I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to come in here. I wasn’t snooping or trying to take advantage of you or contact people to rob you, I promise.”

Strangely, it never would have occurred to me to accuse her of any of those things. I’m good at reading people, and Goldie may be secretive, but I can tell she’s not a thief or a liar.

She’s asked me about ten times how much she owes us for the window. And even though she’s getting paid for the girlfriend experience, she is growing a farm for us on top of keeping the downstairs sparkling clean.

She’s offered to take over the cooking duties so many times, Nico had to accuse her of not liking his cooking and act hurt to get her to stop.

So, not exactly grifter behavior.

But obviously that was exactly what Jeb was yelling at her about just now.

“It’s okay,” I assure her, kissing her on top of her head. “Go with Nico, okay? You don’t want your breakfast to get cold, do you? He made it special, just for you.”

She clings to me for a moment, still shaking. And a new swell of rage rises inside of me. But she’s already scared enough. Instead of cussing out Jeb like I want to, I hug her close until she calms down a little. Then I hand her off to Nico.

He’s right there to take her from me. And though I know, he’s probably mad at Jeb too, he acts like everything is peachy keen.

“Wait till you try my pancakes. One taste and you’ll declare me the pancake king. My secret is Mexican vanilla, a little bit of honey, and a whole lot of crème fraiche. I swear you’ll be thinking about these bad boys for the rest of your life…”