Page 22 of Bearly Mated

Both of them looked comfortable.

Neither of them was in a hurry to leave.

Their conversation continued for a few more minutes before she walked off the porch and up to him, settling against his chest. Iwaited for them to kiss passionately, as if they’d just hooked up and were doing some kind of walk of shame, but she just fixed the collar of his shirt.

And continued talking.

He held her against him comfortably.

They laughed together.

I took a picture of them, just because I was so shocked I wasn’t sure I would believe my own memories after driving away.

Fifteen minutes had gone by when he finally drove away after kissing her lips lightly, the way an old, married couple would. She didn’t wait on the driveway like it was a new relationship, or touch her lips like she was surprised.

Instead, she just walked back to her front door.

When she reached it, she glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes immediately caught on me.

Her lips curved upward, and she waved me toward her.

Shit.

No avoiding the conversation now. It wasn’t like I could quickly drive away from my potential baby’s grandma.

I should never have signed that contract.

Or had hot, hot sex with my childhood best friend.

Letting out a slow breath, I reluctantly drove up to her house and parked in the driveway like I knew she would want. She was still on the doorstep in her robe when I got out and walked up.

“Hey, Linda,” I said, forcing a smile.

“Hi, Callie.” She pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly. I hugged her back, uncertain what she knew or didn’t know. “You have questions for me?”

“Lots,” I murmured.

She laughed, her eyes brighter and her body more relaxed than I had ever seen before. “Come on in.”

I followed her inside, though my reluctance and uncertainty hadn’t gone anywhere. The last time I’d seen her was at my dad’s funeral. The time before that, was my high school graduation.

We sat down, me on a decorative chair and her on the couch across from it.

“So you and Arthur are…” I trailed off, not sure how to even ask the question.

She smiled and lifted her hand to show me a huge diamond ring. “Engaged. We’ve been trying to come up with a way to tell Hudson.”

I blinked.

And blinked again.

Her smile widened. “I know it’s a shock. When he came to me a few years ago and told me he wanted to try being a real mate to me, I slammed the door in his face. But you know how bears are. Stubborn to their bones. The man stayed on my porch for days. Would’ve starved to death there if I’d let him. Thank heavens there was snow on the ground so the dehydration didn’t take him.”

Wow.

“When I finally let him in, he explained that he and a few of his friends had gotten drunk together a few weeks earlier. The conversation shifted to mates. One of them admitted he missed his female, that he was lonely, and had been his whole life. They realized they were all in the same situation—lonely and miserable men after being trained to believe they couldn’t commit.” She brushed an escaped strand of hair off her forehead.

“He couldn’t stop thinking about it. The guys all got together a little while later, and he asked if any of them hadwantedto leave their mate after knocking her up. No one said a word. They had all been taught that they wouldn’t be able to commit, that they needed their freedom, but all of them had simply acted based on what they’d been told. They left us, and forced themselves to stay busy so they wouldn’t want to return, instead of doing what they wanted and staying. All five of them are back with their mates, now, though some of us took far more convincing than others. Most of the other middle-aged men have done the same, excluding the ones whose mates got married while they were apart.”

---