I pulled up the Around The Corner dating website. I hadn’t been on it since the night I’d accepted Olaf’s invitation. I’d set it up with my usual email address and a simple password, so it was easy to get back into my account. It was strange to see the picture I’d posted of myself and to see the words I’d written to describe myself. I’d been so unhappy at the time and it felt like I was looking at a different person. I was grateful for Jake and the turn for the better my life had taken.
I scrolled through my messages and shuddered. There were so many messages from random men that were just flat-out creepy. I remembered reading them the first time and just shaking my head, disbelieving that I was back in the dating pool. They were rude, they were arrogant and they were thoughtless. Olaf’s message was the first one that came through that sounded like he had both a brain and respect for women. It was why I’d responded to him and no one else.
I clicked on his profile pic, a shot of him smiling and holding a can of soda. His page came up, revealing a larger sized profile pic and his little caption about himself, as well as all of his likes and dislikes in a bunch of different categories.
He liked animals, dessert and the occasional beer.
He disliked liars, vegetables and white wine.
And he worked for a taxidermist.
That finally rang a bell for me. I remembered him telling me that he worked for a local taxidermist and that one of his on-call jobs was to collect animals that had been injured and killed on roads. He brought the ‘clean kills’ to the taxidermist for preserving but dropped the others off at a local wolf sanctuary for…consumption. I thought his job was at odds with his stated love of animals, but he’d told me at dinner that he looked at it as just the opposite. He liked animals—all animals—so delivering carcasses to the wolf sanctuary provided much needed food for the animals that lived there. The ones he was able to bring back for preservation were an added bonus, he’d said. What better way to honor an animal than preserve it in the afterlife, to display at nature centers and in homes for people to appreciate and enjoy. I remembered thinking that was a nice way to look at the untimely death of animals.
I looked through more of the information on his page, but didn’t find much that told me anything significant about him. I returned to the main page with his job information and stared at it for a minute.
Then I opened up another tab and started looking for a taxidermist in Moose River.
One popped up immediately.
Stuff It.
How appropriate.
I clicked on the link for Stuff It’s website. It was a bare bones. single page site that showed the address, the times they were open and a giant picture of a deer head. There was no email contact or phone number. It looked like it had been thrown together in about five minutes. I was pretty sure Will could’ve put together a more elaborate site.
My instinct was to jump in the car and drive across town to Stuff It. But Jake had specifically asked me to stop playing amateur detective. And I was home and I needed to do more laundry and figure out what we were having for dinner.
Stuff It was going to have to wait.
I closed the laptop and dove back into the world of running a family and home. I got the laundry done. I took chicken out for dinner. I made bread in the bread machine. I played Twister with the girls and nearly threw my back out. I chatted with Emily when she came home from school about her math test. By the time Jake walked in the door, I felt like the epitome of a domestic goddess.
“Smells good,” he said, dropping his keys on the shelf in the kitchen. He kicked off his boots and joined me at the stove. Not to peer into the pots simmering on the stovetop but to put his hands over the rising steam, warming them.
“Hopefully, it tastes good, too,” I said. I turned around and kissed him lightly on the mouth. His stubble rubbed my cheek.
“As long as you tell me we aren’t eating that hamster for dinner, I’ll be excited.”
“I thought you’d like hamster on a stick,” I told him.
“I would not.”
“Then you’re safe,” I said. “Chicken, rice, veggies and homemade bread.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I’m gonna jump in the shower before we eat.”
The shower kicked on and when I heard it shut off a few minutes later, I started getting the food together. I sliced the loaf of bread and transferred the rice and vegetables into serving bowls. Emily appeared and, unasked, help bring food to the table. I wondered what favor she needed. I called up to the other kids and told them to hurry down. I was pulling cups from the cupboard when Jake strolled back in, laptop in hand. He’d donned track pants and a long-sleeved Notre Dame t-shirt and he smelled all after-shavy and looked all athletic and all I wanted to do was snuggle up next to him and breathe him in.
“So, what’s this?” he said, holding up the computer.
I spread the cups out on the counter. “The laptop?”
“Funny,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “I mean the website you left up. I went to check my email.”
I pulled the water pitcher from the fridge. “Oh, I can explain. Stuff It is a taxidermist here in town. I know you told me not to—”
“I’m not talking about a taxidermist,” he said and thrust the laptop at me. “I’m talking about this.”
I looked at the screen.
Which currently displayed the home page for Around The Corner.
Blood rushed to my face. “Because I had to look up Olaf to find the taxidermist.”
“So you weren’t trolling for more dates?” he asked, arching his eyebrow.
“Oh, please.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me about the date with Olaf,” he said, shrugging. “So how do I know?”
Emily made a noise. “This is getting awkward.”
Jake grinned. “Just wait until it’s your dates we’re discussing.”
Her cheeks reddened and she darted out of the kitchen.
Jake closed the laptop and set it on the counter. “Just tell me why. Why did you feel the need to look up Olaf and his job at a taxidermy shop?”
I thought back to the conversation we’d had at the recycling plant and the fact that my husband was absolutely not on board with my investigating. “Um, well—”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said.“You aren’t going to listen to me are you?”
I reached for him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It’s not that I don’t listen. I absolutely hear you.”
His arms encircled my waist. “You just disregard everything I say.”
“Not everything.”
“Mmhmm.”
I laid my hands on his chest. “Look. I’m just poking around. Nothing to worry about. But this Helen woman has totally invaded my space and I want to know why. I won’t do anything dumb and I won’t do anything dangerous. But I want to know who’s telling the truth.”
He made a face at me. “And if I ask you not to, you’ll conveniently ignore me, correct?”
“I’d never ignore you,” I said truthfully. “But I might selectively remember what you asked.”
He fought back a smile. “Selectively remember. That’s a good one.”
“Right? I thought so.”
He sighed. “Fine. I give up. But stay off the damn dating websites. Please.”
I held up my hand. “Scout’s honor.”
“You were never a scout.”
“Fine,” I said, smiling at him. “Sex goddess’ honor.”
TWENTY FIVE
The kids were out early the next morning, taking advantage of the slightly warmer weather to try their hand at building their own bobsled track in the backyard. The daytime temperatures were finally in the twenties which meant death by frostbite wasn’t imminent. They had shovels and boxes and an assortment of other tools they’d pulled out of the garage, and after nearly two hours, they were screaming and laughing as they took the sleds down their own hilly, curvy course that ended with each of them plowing feet first into a snowbank.