Page 24

24

HEIDI

I t’s been days and I still can’t figure out what the fucking smell is in this house.

It doesn’t help that I seem to be in a bad mood for life. There’s just something at the back of my mind bugging me, but I know it could also be from the sound bath last night. It’s normal to come out of it a little overly emotional or sometimes even a little annoyed. It’s the expulsion of negativity and it can last a couple of days sometimes.

I’ve never felt like this, though.

Emmett was equally emotional after, which took me by surprise. There’s often been men who come to these things with their significant others and usually, they don’t come back. Yet Emmett expressed interest in coming to the next one with me.

The goodbye was awkward, with him barely looking at me. He was in a rush to leave, and I let him.

I wanted to get home too.

But that night I got a text asking me to be here to drop Juniper off at school today since he has a last minute meeting. He said he would be home in time to get her from school though, so I can go home and, well, figure out what the hell I’m going to do for the rest of the day because I have no hobbies.

My plan was to just go home after dropping her off, because if I don’t have to get her what the hell is the purpose of hanging out there? But I realize as I’m pulling out of the school that I left my favorite sweatshirt on the couch, and that just simply won’t do.

The smell hit me like a train again the second I walked in, which leads me to this moment, ripping apart the house room by room.

“Heidi?” Emmett’s voice booms through the house. I exit the powder room and peek around the wall to find him standing at the door, his nose in the air, sniffing.

“I don’t know what the fuck it is, but it’s driving me nuts. Care to help?” I ask, skipping the pleasantries.

“I thought you were going home?” he asks, looking around.

I point toward the couch. “I wasn’t about to leave that sweatshirt here overnight. What else am I going to rot on the couch in later?”

Emmett raises an eyebrow.

“It’s not scratchy, Emmett. The fabric is smooth. I swear to god if a single piece of fabric scratches my elbows the wrong way I’m going to lose my mind. I needed to get the damn sweatshirt.”

He puts his hands up in surrender before following me back down the hall.

“You haven’t found what smells yet?” I ask him, peeking into his bedroom.

“I’ve had a little too much on my mind. Where have you looked?”

“Usual suspects. Kitchen, bathroom, garage. I’ve cleaned every single drain other than your bathroom and Juniper’s bathroom. I looked under couches and everything else. For whatever reason I don’t think it smells stronger anywhere, but I also haven’t ripped apart your bedroom or Juniper’s bedroom because I didn’t want to do that without permission.”

His jaw sets, his eyes wandering past me to the bedrooms. “You have permission,” he tells me, and we immediately get to work on Juniper’s room.

After about five minutes of cleaning, I make a mental note to have cleaning her room become a regular chore I encourage her to do, but overall it’s nothing crazy. An occasional cereal bar wrapper from under the bed, about five reusable water bottles littered at the base of her bed, a few books thrown next to her dresser. Nothing crazy.

But the second Emmett yanks open the closet, everything changes.

“What the fuck! ” he yells, jumping back into me and sending me toppling. “Heidi! I’m so sorry, are you okay?” he helps me up, and it’s not until I snap myself out of it that I realize exactly why he bounced back.

Because in front of us sits four small, fuzzy black puffballs with white stripes down their backs.

I try to speck but nothing comes out. “Are—are those skunks?” I whisper finally, covering my face.

“Yeah,” Emmett says, examining them closer.

But the second he takes a step closer, there’s an angry grunt as a larger mamma skunk charges him, her tail up and ready to spray.

We don’t escape it.

“She’s grounded.” Emmett says as he retrieves the bag Briar left at the front door.

“Reasonable,” I mumble.

“What are we going to do about them?” he asks, panic creeping into his voice again.

I throw up my hands. “How the fuck am I supposed to know?”

“We need to get them outside.”

“Juni is going to have a fucking meltdown .”

“Heidi they’re fucking skunks.”

“And your daughter is apparently a reincarnated Steve Irwin,” I hiss, unloading the bag onto the counter.

An astronomical amount of dish soap, a couple boxes of baking soda, and a few bottles of hydrogen peroxide are hopefully all we need to get this smell off of us… and out of the house.

Emmett crosses his arms over his broad chest as he pouts. “Jeff Corwin was cooler.”

“Yeah well Jeff Corwin is still alive and well, Big Guy.”

He rolls his eyes and I pause, my hand mid-air as I go to grab a bowl. “We need to get them out of here before we do this soak.”

His eyes widen. “Why don’t we call animal control? They’ll take them outside.”

“No,” I tell him firmly. “What if they decide that they’re evil or something and,” I look around as if the skunks can hear before I whisper, “kill them?”

Emmett leans forward. “Heidi what the fuck are you talking about?”

Throwing my arms into the air, I toss my head back. “I don’t know! I just don’t want the skunks hurt at all. We can take them outside or something!”

“And how do you suggest doing that?”

I think for a second. “We can trap them.”

“How?”

“A box.”

Emmett thinks about this for a second, and without a word turns on his heel and heads to the garage, coming back a moment later with a plastic box and lid. “We can get them in here,” he holds it up like a man holding a fish on a dating app.

I stare at him. “And how do you supposed we do that?”

His eyes go blank. “What do they eat?”

“Flesh.”

Emmett’s skin goes pale. “Heidi you’re not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be.” I try to keep my face stoic, but I feel my lips tilt downward as I fight a smile.

His eyes narrow and he lowers the box.

Pulling out my phone with a sigh, I look up what skunks eat. “Do you have cat food?”

“We don’t have a cat.”

“Well maybe you should get one and your daughter won’t bring wild fucking animals into the house, Emmett.”

He shakes his head. “This would still be a problem.”

I roll my eyes. “Do you have canned fish?”

“That’s disgusting.”

“O—okay,” I say under my breath, scrolling further. “How about peanut butter?”

He nods at this one, perching the box against the counter and grabbing a large container of peanut butter from one of the cabinets by the sink.

“Peanut butter,” he says flatly, handing it to me.

I take it, not understanding what’s happening. “What do you expect me to do with this?”

“We’re trapping skunks.”

“You’re trapping skunks, Emmett.”

The second I say the words, the man pouts, and I would almost be annoyed if I didn’t think it was kind of cute. But it also occurs to me that it may only be cute because he’s simply never done this before.

He’s never been so freely emotional around me. Always just stony, even-keeled.

If you had told me weeks ago that I would see this blue-eyed, ginormous-thighed man pout I would have said you were absolutely insane.

“You’re not going to help me?”

I think about it for a second. “If you ask nicely. Otherwise I’m taking the bath first.”

His lips thin and he stares at me, and just as the air starts to feel charged with something I don’t feel like dissecting, he breaks. “Fine. Please, Heidi. Can you please help me collect the skunks and bring them outside?”

I purse my lips. “I already stink. Why not?”