Page 3 of A Bear's Journey

“Me too,” she said. “I re-read it all the time now. It’s kind of comforting, you know? Like a security blanket. But a book.”

Good job! she told herself.

“I should re-read it,” he said, then stuck his hand out. “I’m Jasper, by the way.”

Olivia stared at his hand for one moment too long, then remembered about shaking hands, and shook it.

“I’m Olivia,” she said, though she had a feeling that he already knew. After all, her face had been on the front page of their small-town newspaper not long after she’d become human again, and people in Granite Valley weren’t shy about expressing their opinions about “that feral girl.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said, his gaze still boring into hers, and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, back toward the library and toward town. “Listen, there’s this new place in town—”

“Jasper, what are you doing,” asked an exasperated woman’s voice, and then the two older women came around a corner, stopping short when they saw Jasper talking to Olivia.

He quickly rolled his eyes at Olivia, then turned for a moment to tell them something.

Olivia bolted. She dropped the book and her lunch bag and sprinted to her car in the library employee parking lot, buckling herself in with shaking hands, before driving away as fast as she could get her ten-year-old Chevy to go.

She forgot the milk and butter, and instead drove around back roads for an hour, until she felt brave enough to go home.

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