A Bush Blessing (Alaskan Bush People Fan Fiction)

Chapter Twelve

~COPYRIGHT 2016~

Noah didn't say a word to Angel as she entered the tent. He watched her out of the corner of his eye and could see that she had a blush on her cheeks. He sighed, but continued working on his bear alarm. It had been destroyed while they were gone and while they hadn't seen any bears around since they'd been back, they needed it just in case one came back around.

"Are we still on for tomorrow?" Angel asked him after a few minutes of silence.

"If you're still up for it," he replied.

"Of course I am. I haven't visited him in 2 weeks. It's time," she said.

"Would you like to go at a particular time?"

"No, we can go after breakfast. I'm not in a rush. It is a bit of a walk, but at that point we will have the whole day. But I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed."

"This early?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah, this strange guy named Noah Brown kept me up for a little over an hour last night while he forced me to tell him my life story," she smirked.

"I didn't force you!" he huffed.

She laughed. "I know, I'm just messing with you. I wouldn't have told you it if I didn't want to," she said. "So what're you working on? It seems like every time I come in here you're creating something different."

"Last year before we went to the lower 48, I created a bear alarm for camp. It was working pretty well, but when we left for our last trip on our boat and came back, it had failed. A bear got into the camp and destroyed it. That's why this place looked like it did when you came across it," he explained. "I'm trying to make a more advanced version of it so it doesn't fail this time."

She nodded, listening to him. "I'm just curious, why did you and your family leave for the lower 48?"

"Perhaps it's time that I tell you my family's story," he said.

She sat down in the wheelchair he used as his desk chair and looked at him, waiting for him to tell his story. He moved the arm chair by Angel's bed over to where she was sitting and sat down, telling her all about him. He started with his childhood and ended with explaining why they had to leave, between Bam and Billy going to jail and Billy being sick. She sat and listened the entire time, nodding occasionally to let him know she was listening.

"Now my father is better and they are done with the time they had to serve. We couldn't stand being away from home and we had to come back," he finished. "So as you can see, my life isn't perfect either."

"Nobody's life is perfect," she told him. "You must be happy to be home."

"I grew up in the bush. It's my home. And after all the trouble that my family went through with our other two homes and our boats, this was a god send. It's perfect for us. The people in town are so kind and accepting. I can't think of living anywhere else."

"I've fallen in love with this place as well," she admitted.

"I've fallen in love with you," Noah mumbled under his breath.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. Anyways, I'm going to finish up on what I was doing and I'm going to bed. You should get some sleep. I've kept you up long enough."

"Hey, I kept you up last night. It's only fair you keep me up too," she laughed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Noah went back to work on his bear alarm, listening as Angel crawled into bed. It was silent for a while until he heard her light snores. He chuckled to himself. She was really too cute.

It was early, but Noah was wide awake. He walked out to the fire pit, which was strangely burning already. He didn't think anybody would be up right now. He sat down on a log and poked around the fire with a stick.

"Whoa, Noah, what're you doing awake?" Bear's voice came from behind him.

He turned around to face his older brother who was walking up to the fire with a smile on his face.

"I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't. I should have known it was you who was awake. I should have guessed by the fire being lit," Noah answered.

Bear took the stick Noah had in his hand and started poking around with a smile still on his face.

"You seem happy this morning," Noah noted.

"Yeah, I had a great day with Angel yesterday. I asked her to be my girlfriend," he said.

"Oh yeah, what did she say?"

"She told me she needed some time to think about it, but I'm not concerned. We get along really well."

"Are you really sure that you want her to be your girlfriend? Do you see her as your soul mate?"

"She's awesome! I'd be lucky to have an extreme girl like her."

"Extreme? I don't think there's anything extreme about Angelina."

"Why do you call her by her full name?" Bear asked.

Noah shrugged. "I don't know. I think her name is beautiful so I prefer to call her that."

Bear narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. "Beautiful? Do you have a thing for Angel? Is that why you're asking me all these questions?"

He didn't say anything in response. Bear glared at his brother.

"You have a thing for her!" he called Noah out. "I can't believe it! You don't treat her very well so there's no chance she'll feel that way. I think you're out of luck, dude."

Noah sighed. "I haven't treated her badly since the first few days she was here. And I feel unbelievably horrible about it. We share a tent. We share things with one another that we don't share with anybody else."

Bear rolled his eyes. "What do you supposedly know about her that I don't?" he wondered.

"It's not my place to tell. If she truly cares about you, she will tell you in time," he said. "Bear, I do not want to ruin our relationship as family members over a woman. I will stay away and allow her to make her choice on who she wants. But just so you are aware, her and I are going on a bit of a hike today, alone."

"Alone? No, you're not going anywhere alone with her. Where are you even going?" he asked.

"Once again, it's not my place to tell," Noah responded.

Bear let out a dramatic sigh. "I don't want to ruin our relationship over this either. I haven't seen you interested in anybody since Christie. And that was a while ago. I will stay away as well and give her time to think about who she wants to be with. May the best man win."

"I love you, brother."

"More, man."

"What're you two talking about?" Angel asked cheerily as she exited the tent and approached the fire.

"Nothing!" they both yelled, looking at one another.

Angel looked at them for a second but then shrugged and plopped down on a log across from them.

~COPYRIGHT 2016~