Page 18 of A Bear's Secret

Chapter Six

Sloane

The momentthat the sun started coming through the blinds in her room, Sloane snapped awake. For half a second she was confused.

Where’s my tent?she thought. Why am I so comfortable?

Then she remembered that she was at the ranch. She also remembered the events of the day before: half-dead guy, terrifying drive down the highway, hot bear shifter.

Good thing I’m leaving tomorrow, she thought, but she wasn’t sure she meant it. Austin’s smile got stuck in her mind, the way he’d leaned toward her and whispered the secret ingredients in the cookies.

Sloane sat up in bed, naked except for underpants, and remembered that her clothes were all still in the dryer.

Shit, she thought. Then her eyes fell on the towel that Barb had given her for her stay.

Fuck it, I’ll just run to the dryer wearing that, she thought. In another second she’d wrapped the towel around herself and was through her bedroom door, hustling down the hall for the dryer.

She was lucky: no one else was up, and she hurriedly got her stuff from the dryer, holding her warm clothes close.

Then she heard footsteps coming down the hall.

Please be Barb, she thought. Please.

Austin turned the bend in the hall, stopped short, and raised his eyebrows.

Fuck.

“Good morning!” Sloane said, as brightly as she could.

Maybe if I act normal, he won’t notice that I’m wearing nothing but a towel,she thought.

“Good morning,” Austin said. His voice sent a rumble through her bones, and Sloane hugged her warm laundry tighter, hoping it would mask the blush quickly rising to her face.

“Just getting my laundry out of the dryer,” Sloane chirped, trying to act like it was the most normal thing in the world. “See you at breakfast!”

Head held high, she marched right past Austin and back to her room.

“See you!” he called after her.

She threw her laundry on the bed and pushed the door closed behind her with her foot, the towel dropping to the floor as she did.

* * *

Sloane was early for breakfast.She’d meant to go into the living room for a little while and check out their take-a-book-leave-a-book backpacker’s library, but as soon as she smelled the bacon and coffee that plan got derailed.

“Ow!” said Austin as she pushed the door open. He was standing by the stove, grinning and shaking one hand, looking down at Barb, who was pointing a spatula at him.

“That thing hurts,” he said, still smiling.

“I know you know that already, Austin,” she said. “Now get your paws off my bacon.”

He looked over at Sloane, and Barb followed his gaze.

“You’re early,” she said, clearly a little surprised. “There’s coffee in the big pot, and Austin will make more if that’s the last of it. Cream in the fridge, sugar’s in that little bowl with the spoon.”

Sloane poured herself a cup, dumping cream and sugar into it like there was no tomorrow. It didn’t even taste good, but she enjoyed taking advantage of things she knew she wouldn’t get another chance at for a while.

“You take any coffee with that cream and sugar?” Austin teased.

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