The Keeping(108)
Mel drove back to the cabin to do her own packing, spending much of the drive mulling over various scenarios for her future; none of them were very appealing. She’d known she was taking a gamble when she accepted this job, but it had seemed like such a perfect opportunity. After years of scraping by, she thought her life was finally turning around. Instead, she was in a worse mess than ever.
A depressed feeling settled over her as she parked the car in front of the cabin and climbed out. She stood for a moment looking around, knowing she’d miss the place. Surprisingly, she had come to enjoy the peace and solitude the location offered. Far from feeling that she was in the middle of nowhere, there was a certain sense of homecoming once she got over the initial culture shock. The sounds of the birds, watching the trees slowly turn green as spring deepened, the fresh air... There really wasn’t anything about this experience that she hadn’t enjoyed—well, except for her encounter with the wolves and that jerk, Ryne.
Just thinking of him made her blood boil and she straightened and slammed her car door shut. The sound echoed through the quiet, and was followed by the sound of someone calling her name. A quick visual search located Josh near the rear of the cabin, his hand raised in greeting. Mel waved back and then watched as he bent over to pick something up before walking towards her. She waited for him to get within earshot before calling out.
“Hi, Josh. Beth said you might be doing some work outside the cabins. I see she was right.”
“Yep, too nice a day to be stuck inside so I thought I’d just do a bit of tidying up and start to get ready for the summer visitors.” He coughed and looked a bit embarrassed. “Er...I found something under the bushes back there that you might want to take care of.”
“Really? What would that be?” Mel couldn’t think of anything outside that would concern her, but took a step towards where Josh had been working.
“Oh, you don’t have to go get it. I have it here.” He finished crossing the distance between them and handed her a rumpled bundle. It appeared to be a set of men’s clothing. Hesitantly, Mel accepted the offering, not sure why Josh thought she needed to ‘take care of them.’
“Um...thanks?” She examined the clothing. It looked vaguely familiar.
Josh nodded and cleared his throat. “I recognize the shirt; it’s Ryne’s. Apparently, you two must have been...well...you know, and he forgot to collect his stuff afterwards.” He rubbed his neck and looked everywhere, but at Mel. “I didn’t think it was warm enough outside yet for that sort of thing, but you young folks are made of sterner stuff, I guess.” He shuffled his feet and coughed again. “Anyway, I’ll let you give those back to him. I’ll just...um...go finish up around the other cabins” With that, he headed on his way, leaving Mel staring at the clothes she was holding.
She scrunched up her face, trying to figure out how Ryne’s clothes ended up under the bushes. Last time she’d seen that shirt on him, he’d been... Mel paused and felt her jaw drop. He’d been wearing it on Tuesday when the whole ‘wolf by the river’ fiasco had happened! Ryne had stormed out of the cabin buck naked carrying his clothes and claiming he’d get dressed outside, but...apparently he hadn’t.
Surely, Ryne hadn’t walked home in the middle of the night without any clothes on! Even up in northern Canada, there must be rules about that kind of thing. And how had he got home anyways? It was miles to his house, but there hadn’t been a vehicle parked any place that she could see, nor had she heard the sound of an engine. So he must have walked home, but...naked? There couldn’t be any other explanation. He’d left with those clothes in his arms and she couldn’t imagine that he would’ve just happened to have a spare set waiting for him at the edge of the woods.
She gave her head a shake. Ryne had mentioned that he liked to run through the woods, but doing so naked at night when the temperature was near freezing... Well, that was just too weird and emphasized why she needed to get away from Stump River. Ryne wasn’t only a bastard; he was some kind of perverted nudist-flasher type as well.
Walking up to the cabin, she set the clothes on the floor by the door, not quite sure what to do with them. After the way he’d treated her, there was no way she was going to do him any favours and go out of her way to return them. Maybe she should just throw them in the garbage. It was what he deserved. Deciding to think about it, she went to the bedroom to start packing.
It didn’t take long to gather her things from the bathroom and closet. In no time at all, the room was stripped of her presence. Taking a last look around, she zipped up the suitcase and set it by the door before taking the sheets off the bed. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t have time to wash the bedding Beth had left her, but she didn’t think the other woman would mind.