A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain #1)(54)

Don’t make any poops.

Put your head in the loooooop…

He slides that thing right over a cute black nose, and I’m stunned when it actually works. Slowly, and making little baby noises, he slips the loop down the raccoon’s body. “Come on big fella. I need your hands, too. It’s gonna be fine.”

In response, the raccoon growls.

Note to self—don’t ever have Randy’s job. We are way too close to this potentially rabid animal.

He nudges the raccoon, causing it to lift one of its paws, and tightens the cord to cinch the snare around the raccoon’s body.

“There we go,” he says. “Come to daddy.”

The raccoon thrashes its fuzzy limbs, suddenly breaking free. With a loud squeak, he leaps in my direction, and I let out an unmanly noise of surprise.

But it lands on a chair instead of leaping onto my throat to kill me. Soon it’s cowering and regretting all its life choices.

I kind of know how it feels.

But Randy seems unbothered. “That’s what I get for only grabbing one leg.” He moves the loop over the raccoon again, patiently maneuvering until he’s got it by the midsection, this time with the snare around both front feet.

Then he hoists the raccoon again, its body tilting forward, head down and limbs outstretched like a furry starfish. It makes a growl of deep unhappiness.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it before,” Randy says cheerfully. “Here, Ava—trade you.”

To my stunned horror, Ava calmly trades poles with him. Now she’s holding a raccoon on the end of a stick at what I hope is a safe distance away from her body. Slowly, she carries it outside.

I follow her to make sure it’s okay. I don’t know what I could really do, though, except fling my body onto it if it tries to escape.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

It only takes Randy a few minutes to catch the other animal. The poor thing obviously gave up after its pal got captured. It hangs sulkily from the snare, eyeing Randy with irritation in its eyes.

Then Bert shakes out the trash bags, and he and I clean the hut, which only takes a few minutes. Privately I wonder if you can catch rabies from raccoon spit on granola-bar wrappers. But I guess I won’t ask.

When we’re done, I close the door to the hut, firmly engaging the latch.

“All righty, then!” Randy says, grinning at Ava. “I’m gonna let this guy go, and as soon as he runs away, you do the same.” When he loosens the snare, the raccoon doesn’t need to be asked twice. He scrambles toward the tree line.

Ava’s charge follows a moment later. “Well done, crew.” She takes something out of her pocket and hands it to Randy. “Have a drink on me before you go, or whenever you’re back at the lodge.”

“Will you join me?” he asks.

I tense. I knew that guy was up to no good.

“Sorry, I have an early morning tomorrow,” she says sweetly. “Maybe another time.”

I almost growl like a raccoon.

As Ava and I suit up for the snowmobile ride back down the mountain, I sit in the driver’s seat this time. “Cold pizza is still pizza,” I remind her. “Shall we?”

She sits down behind me and wraps her arms around my waist.

It feels nice. Really nice. “I’m sorry you had to come up the mountain at this hour,” I tell her. “It’s not fair that all the crappy things fall to you.”

“Reed, I love this job. And not in spite of all the weird things I have to do. I love it because of those things. Catching raccoons by moonlight? Who wouldn’t want to do that for a living?”

With my hand cocked above the starter, I go quiet inside. Until this very second, I don’t think I truly understood that Ava’s job here wasn’t merely an accident—a Plan B she had to form after I blew up her life.

She’s happy here. She’s found her place. She’s good at it, and she loves it.

Something tight inside my chest unhooks.

“Reed, is everything okay? Do you need a refresher on how to start the sled?”

A laugh bubbles out of me. “I’m good, lady. Really good.” I pull the starter, and it catches on the first try. I let up on the brake and then push gently on the throttle. If the sled flies forward, I won’t be able to maintain my badass reputation, will I?

But it’s fine. We begin to glide across the moonlit snow. The storm has let up, and it’s even brighter than it was an hour ago. Picking up speed, I ease into the first turn. The wind chills my face, but I don’t even care. “Hold on,” I tell Ava. “Tight grip.”

She hugs me with her knees, and then I steer us off the groomed path and into the powder.

Ava lets out a little shriek. “Reed!” She starts to laugh as we go surfing over the snowdrifts.

It’s exhilarating to steer through mounds of feather-light snow. I’d forgotten how this feels. The mountain. The cold air rushing me. The endless expanse of snow and moonlit sky. Lately, the most adrenaline I experience is when I score a meeting with a new client.

I haven’t been living, I realize. Not the way I used to.

And I want it back. All of it. Including Ava.

Especially Ava.





CHAPTER 26




BREAKFASTING WITH MONSTERS