He only smiled and said, “Give me ten minutes. I’ll meet you two out front.”
He pulled a shaving kit from under his sink.
“Good luck finding your face.”
He took a deep breath and met his own eyes in the glass. “I’m in there somewhere.”
Emilie left him in the bathroom and went to find Jeremy.
“Jeremy?”
“Upstairs, Princess,” he called down to her.
She started up the stairs to the loft. “Rafe says he’ll meet us in ten minutes. And we need to have a talk right now about this ‘Princess’ thing—Wow.”
“Wow is the right response,” Jeremy said, glancing around Rafe’s bedroom, which merited a wow or two. Especially the bed.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he has a crazy bed,” she said. “This whole cabin is wild. Did he do all of this?” She ran her fingers over the bedpost, carved like the sinewy branch of a tree. All four posts were carved like tree branches, and the tall headboard bore a scene of stags running through a forest. The picture window by the bed showed the sun beginning to set over the mountain.
“He’s a man of many talents,” Jeremy said as he reached behind the headboard and pulled out a large bow and a quiver of arrows.
“Whoa. He sleeps with his bow?”
“Old habits die hard.” Jeremy sat on the bed with the bow in his hands. A black hard-shell case lay across the scarlet quilt next to him.
“This is absolutely incredible.” It wasn’t just the bed, but the walls too were covered in more of his murals. It looked as if they were sitting in a tall tree and fireflies with golden wings were flashing among the enormous leaves. “Bet this impresses all the girls.”
Jeremy looked up at her sharply.
“What? You don’t think he brings girls back here? I would if I were him.”
He went back to unstringing and unscrewing the pieces of Rafe’s bow and putting them into the case.
“Hadn’t thought about it.”
She didn’t quite believe him.
“You have a girlfriend?” she asked.
“No girlfriend. No boyfriend. No petfriend.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“Maybe I’ll rescue a rat or two from a dumpster,” he said.
Emilie winced. “Um…I kind of need to tell you something. I sort of lied about that.”
“Carry on. I’m intrigued.”
“Fancy rats usually like other rats. Fritz…does not.”
“Loner? Rebel?”
“Exactly. He had a couple cage-mates, but Fritz didn’t like them. He would start fights. Remember I told you his owner got fed up one day and brought him to the vet’s office to be euthanized for aggression? Which seemed unfair, you know? Getting killed over a bad roommate situation?”
“A little extreme,” Jeremy said.
“That’s what I thought, too, but I didn’t say anything. Not my job. But then when I was carrying him back to prep him for the procedure, he nuzzled against my chest and fell asleep.” She held Fritz to her chest and he nuzzled against her just like he had that day. “I couldn’t do it. So I snuck him out the back door, got in my car, and drove home with him. I told you I quit my job when Mom got sick. I didn’t. They fired me. Fritz’s owner even threatened to call the police.”
“Arrested for Grand Theft Fancy Rat.” He laughed as he latched the bow case.
“It’s not funny. I got fired from the only job I ever wanted. And that’s not even the worst part. My poor mother, sick as a dog from chemo, had to drag herself off the bathroom floor to write Fritz’s old owner a big check so he wouldn’t press charges against me for stealing his kid’s rat. The rat he was going to have euthanized anyway!”
“I’m still laughing,” he said. “You could’ve told me that before.”
“Well, in fairness, I did rescue five kittens out of the dumpster, so that part was half-true.” She gently stroked Fritz’s ear. Since her mom died, he’d been her only company, her only family. “I was worried you’d think I was crazy.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy. And I’m very proud of you, Princess.”
“Hey, enough with the ‘Princess,’ okay? I know I’m weak and spoiled and generally useless to society, but you don’t have to rub it in.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being spoiled. But where did you get the idea you were weak?”
“If I had been kidnapped and dragged into the woods like my sister was, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to fight him and get away. And if I did get away, I would’ve gotten lost and starved to death, not hidden out in a shack in the woods for twenty years.”
“You would have died of dehydration long before you starved, I promise.”
She ignored that. “My sister must have been so brave to have survived all this time…I’m not brave. I want to be brave like her. I want to look death in the face and boop his nose.”
