Bearly Breathing (Werebears of New Hampshire #1)(23)

Sidney held his tongue and they headed over. It was a little log cabin that hadn’t been used for some time. The roof was made out of sheets of corrugated metal and the sides were constructed with logs. Sidney could smell a family of raccoons living under the small front porch.

The windows were smudged with dirt and covered in spiderwebs. There was a metal chimney popping out of the roof, which meant there was a stove or a cast iron fireplace inside. Old, dried up fox skins hung from hooks over the porch.

“What was it?” she asked.

Sidney pointed to the skins. “An old trapper’s cabin most likely.”

She pushed open the door. “Let’s see if there’s any food inside. I’m starving.”





The cabin was cute. Abandoned and falling apart, but cute. It had a tiny kitchen with a rusted pan hanging on the cracked tiles, a sofa with hand crocheted pillows like her grandma used to have and a small cot in the corner. It was just like the kind of place that Angie wanted to get one day to escape the city for the weekend. No electricity. No Wi-Fi. Just her, alone with her thoughts.


Sidney burst through the tiny door and smacked his head on the low doorway. Well, she was almost alone with her thoughts.

He bent down and fiddled with the fireplace as she searched the kitchen cupboards for food. There were a couple of cans with faded labels behind a spider’s web. She checked the expiry date on a can of soup. 2001.

“I can get this working,” Sidney said. “It will be nice and cozy in here.”

She looked around. “Only one bed,” she said.

He grinned at her. “Perfect.”

“Perfect you’ll sleep outside?”

He rolled up his sleeve over his huge bicep. “I’ll arm wrestle you for it.”

She glanced at his arm and then looked away with her heart rate increasing.

“There’s nothing to eat,” she said. She was getting hungry. He must’ve been starving as big as he was.

He snorted. “We’re in the wilderness. There’s food everywhere.”

“Okay Chef Ramsay go make me something.” She crossed her arms as he left the cabin.

He stumbled around looking at the ground with an eyebrow raised. “Here,” he said, pulling out a green plant from the ground. “These are edible leaves.” He plucked a leaf off of the stalk and handed one to her.

“That looks like poison ivy,” she said, stepping back and keeping her arms crossed.

He snorted a laugh and stuffed five leaves into his mouth. “See? Delicious.” Angie looked away from his food-filled open mouth. He pulled up another plant and ate it too. “This is the Coniferson Atlantis plant. Highly nutritious.”

Sidney handed her a leaf and she reluctantly took it. She tasted the tip of it and spit it out. “It’s so bitter,” she said.

“That’s the best part,” he said, shoving some more into his bathing suit pocket. “What else?”

He walked up to a maple tree and pulled off a strip of bark. “You can eat this too,” he said, putting it into his mouth. He gagged and choked as he struggled to chew it down.

Angie walked around to the back of the cabin and squealed in delight when she saw an overgrown vegetable garden covered in weeds. She stepped over the small fence and knelt down. There were still some veggies growing among the weeds and she began collecting them. A cucumber, some green peppers, rhubarb, zucchinis, and even some kale.

She had more than enough veggies by the time that she was finished. She walked back around the cabin and Sidney was biting the bark right off of the tree. “When you’re done chopping down that tree there will be a salad inside waiting for you.”

Sidney spit out a mouthful of bark and stared at her arms full of food. He lowered his head and followed her in.





Sidney ate the last veggie on his plate and leaned back in his chair. It groaned under his weight. Angie had made two huge salads, well one huger than the other, while he got a fire going in the old, cast iron stove. There was an old nest inside, probably a possum nest, that was long ago abandoned. The dried up straw made perfect kindling.

“That was good,” he said, rubbing his stomach. It was better than the leaves he found and the bark on the tree. He could barely eat them but forced himself. He didn’t want to look stupid in front of Angie.

Angie had told him all about her work as a Quantum Electrochemist over dinner. Normally Sidney understood everything but most of that went over his head. He must’ve been tired or she probably just wasn’t explaining it properly. It was okay. He loved the way her lips moved and how her eyes lit up with excitement when she talked.

“There’s some games on that shelf over there,” she said, pointing to the small bureau beside the bed. “Want to play something?”

Sidney went over to investigate, keeping his head bent against the low ceiling. There were a stack of dusty boxes. Monopoly, Life, Clue.

He pulled out a box and showed her with a grin. Twister. She shook her head no.

“Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit?” he asked.

“I’d say Trivial Pursuit but it wouldn’t be fair.”

He frowned. “Why do you say that?”

She chuckled. “Do I really have to…” she trailed off. “It would be like you playing Serena Williams in a round of tennis.” He glared at her. “And you only have one arm.” He puffed out his chest. “Okay no arms.”