The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

Rick's Brown friends smirked also, thinking the introduction absurdly funny.

"And you are an out and out carnivore," Rick's Brown roommate chimed in with laughter. He looked to Audry. "That must really upset you."

Audry cringed.

Rick chuckled, nodding.

"What does Rick ever want to eat?" one of his other Brown University buddies said.

"Chicken!" another friend chimed in.

His friends from New York laughed, nodding.

"I remember the first day we met him," Randon said to his not-brother Troy. "He piled his tray up this high with buffalo wings." He demonstrated with his hands the actual size.

Moaning, Rick tiredly shook his head. His eyes then gazed sympathetically on Audry as he said, "If you need to go now before these guys all go full-blown chaotic, that's all right."

Audry nodded, stepping back. The group from New York was like walking chaos. And the weirdest thing was, Rick looked more at home among them than among his Brown University friends.

His Brown friends converged around him again once Audry stepped away. She was basically dismissed from the presence of the prince. Humbled. —And she really did want to escape, still feeling mortified that she had falsely accused Rick of weapons manufacturing.

"Which one of you is the cop?" one of the Brown friends asked.

Matthew raised a hand. "Going towards detective, actually." His eyes followed her fondly as Audry backed towards the staff areas.

"Is one of you really a CIA agent?"

Tom grinned wider. "Sure. But if I tell you, I have to kill you."

Rick shoved Tom's face back from him. "Stop it."

Yet Tom cackled. His eyes also tracked Audry, yet with a flavor of mischievous interest. She could tell he intended to never forget her.

Audry hurried into the back room as soon as she could and rushed through the kitchen to the upstairs.  

She went straight back to packing, doing it as quickly as possible.

Audry counted her bags twice and scoured her room three times to make sure she had not forgotten anything. And when she started to carry them down to the kitchen, one of the staff alerted Mrs. Gruber.

 The woman jogged in from the main lodge, looking breathless. "Oh, don’t leave yet. Give me your keys, and we will help you pack your car."

Audry pulled back. "I can do this on my own."

"Stuff and nonsense," Mrs. Gruber said, gently swatting Audry's hand and begging for the keys with her open palm. "You have too many bags, and your car needs to be warmed up. Besides, we want to thank you properly."

"I think breakfast was enough." Audry laughed, feeling embarrassed.

"No," Mrs. Gruber replied fondly. "It would never be enough, not for the service you did. Now give it up."

Sighing, Audry finally handed over her car keys. She didn’t believe she was doing it, but the woman looked too determined to get around.

Mrs. Gruber passed the keys onto a staff member who ran out of the kitchen with them. Taking Audry by the wrist, Mrs. Gruber led her to the refrigerator where she removed a boxed lunch. "For you. Easy to grab, and enough to keep you awake and warm while driving."

She also handed over a thermos of cocoa.

"I… This is too much," Audry stared at it, as Mrs. Gruber shoved it into her hands.

"It is not even enough," Mrs. Gruber said. Then pulling Audry near, she whispered, "Now listen here. I don't know if I will ever have the opportunity to meet you again, but if I do, I want to hear that you dumped that lousy boyfriend of yours and found yourself a true man."

"Already done," Audry said sighing.

"Really?" Mrs. Gruber was pleasantly surprised. Her smile widened.

Audry nodded. "We broke up yesterday over the phone. He hadn't changed at all, and I was sick of his garbage."

"Oh good." Mrs. Gruber sighed with relief, hugging her. But then she whispered, "You know, you could give up all your negative feelings towards wealthy boys also…."

Laughing, Audry pulled back from her, shaking her finger. "Oh, no. Keep dreaming, 'cause that is not gonna happen."

Shrugging, the cook smiled innocently at her. "I know…. You're a vegan. He will never be. But—and please think about this—Howie is a better match for you. You have more in common than you realize."

But Audry returned to shaking her head, smiling, "You're just saying that because you are fond Rick."

"And you," Mrs. Gruber admitted with a shrug. "I know I am a 'meddling old woman', but I have the best intentions for you both. I truly do care about your happiness."

Audry rolled her eyes.

"And his, of course," she added.

"Well, don’t get your hopes up," Audry said. She then heaved up her suitcase to carry it out.

As she was about to pick up her other bags, a handful of men from the ski patrol marched in, nodding to Mrs. Gruber first before hefting up all of Audry's other luggage.

"To her car?" one of them asked.

Mrs. Gruber nodded. "And make sure her tires are good for the road."

Audry stared. "What?"

Gazing at her, Mrs. Gruber smiled. "We take care of our friends."

A warm inclusive feeling swept over Audry. And it went with her as she and the ski patrol walked to her car. It was funny that an incident with a hunter and that wolf had changed everything. It was like she was being welcomed into a family… but a family she didn't quite comprehend.

The car was right in front. The ice and snow was entirely cleared off, especially the glass. In fact, as she tossed in her suitcase while they neatly packed in her technical equipment into the trunk, she noticed the windshield wipers were new. The engine was also warm. And she overheard one of them saying they checked her tires, examining the tread, and had added air, as well as checked the battery and oil. It was royal treatment.

"Did Mrs. Gruber arrange all of this?" Audry asked the nearest member of ski patrol who was helping her.

He shook his head, smirking. "Are you kidding? Mr. Deacon ordered this, though Mrs. Gruber was all for it."

Audry blushed, realizing Mr. Deacon was Rick.

"He pays his debts," the man said, then saluted her. "See you around."

Audry climbed into her car. She adjusted the seat, as clearly it had been driven by someone taller than her. Adjusting the mirrors, Audry caught a glimpse of Rick with his friends on the front lodge porch. Tom was poking at his leg. Rick swatted away his hand to make him stop. But then he looked up at her. With a nod, he smirked and barely waved at her, almost mouthing 'Cynical Audry', though she could have sworn he added 'stay safe' after it.

She drove out of the lot and toward the road.

Her mind was buzzing with a thousand tiny thoughts as she drove toward the interstate highway. Not one settled. So bothered by it, she turned on the radio to find some music. But there were no decent stations out there. Shutting the radio off, Audry found one thought lift up out of the jumble in her head. She actually hoped she could 'bump into him' again.

Of course she wasn't looking for a boyfriend in a guy like that. They were from two different worlds. But he was something else. There was something naggingly interesting about him, like riddle she could not quite get the answer to. And when he was around, the dull world stirred up.

Chapter Ten

She arrived late that evening at Doug's house. Her older brother was still up waiting for her, and he helped her with her suitcase into the house, giving her the pullout couch to sleep on. But the rest of the house was asleep. However, he did not have time to talk that night as he had work early the next morning.

Audry understood, of course. Everyone had their own lives, and she could not expect her brother to play therapist when he was practicing phlebotomist and extremely busy at the hospital. Besides, she told herself when she lay down on the crooked cushions, she was exhausted from the long drive on so many icy roads.

But she found it difficult to sleep.

It wasn't so much the crookedness of the mattress in the pullout couch-bed, though that was part of it, but rather how full her mind was. Those last few days had been the weirdest, most eventful of her life thus far. Her Africa trip had not been that eventful, even though she had seen numerous animals and helped fight against poaching there. The Paris trip (which she had been saving up for all her life) had not been as exciting—except for the part when the multi-billionaire's son had snuck into her group to evade someone atop the Eiffel Tower. And as for that convention where she had bumped into him a second time, admittedly, that was the least boring convention she had ever gone to. It was as if the inclusion of Howard Richard Deacon III in the general proximity was a guarantee that something wild was going to occur—like throwing a firecracker into a crowded dance floor. And his New York friends, they seemed to be the embodiment of chaos. When Audry finally drifted off to sleep, it was with dreams of wolves, people walking on the ceiling, and a man reading her mind while everyone around her was dancing to the tune of Werewolves of London.

The next morning, Audry woke to her niece and nephew jumping onto her stomach.

"Oh!" Audry sat up, grabbing them as they giggled and shouted for her to wake up. Laughing, she caught hold of her niece and nephew. "Skyler! Maris! You monsters!"

And she started to tickle them.

Wriggling their way out, both Skyler and Maris ran away. Audry jumped up and chased after them. She loved her niece and nephew. They were huge rambling bunches of chaotic energy, and they brought so much light into her life. They broke down the cynical side of her and helped her enjoy the pure things of human existence again. It was one of the main reasons she wanted to visit her brother's family before going back to the university. Being among all the posturing and human politicking, Audry needed something to keep her from becoming entirely jaded.

"Good morning," her brother's wife Jean said when she saw Audry wrestling with her children. Jean's neat brown hair was tied back into a bun as her blue eyes shined on them. She was already in her nurse's uniform. "Did you sleep well?"

Audry shrugged. "Well enough. Are you going to work soon?"

Jean nodded. "After they get breakfast. I'd love it if you could babysit this afternoon when they come back from preschool—unless you need some alone time, in which case they can go over to Mrs. Pool's house like they usually do."

"No, no, no!" Maris piped up, tugging on Audry's arm. "We wanna come home early! Aunt Audry's gotta play with us!"

"Yeah!" Skyler chimed in. "I wanna show her my new rocks!"

Audry grinned at him. Skyler had a huge rock collection, including some quartzite and obsidian stones she had smuggled back for him from various trips. She had a two rocks in her bag right now, one from the wolf den which