Page 33 of Bearly Mated

Me

Really good, honestly

I don’t think he’s going to leave

Wren

I don’t either

And that makes me really, really happy for you <3

I set my phone down on the bench beside me. Leaning back against the swing, I let myself picture what the future might look like.

Hudson, building a crib while lecturing me that I shouldn’t be painting the baby’s room while pregnant.

Holding my hand in the hospital.

Holding our baby with his arm around my shoulder.

Holdingmewhen I cried because I was worried I’d be a shitty mom. Mine had died when I was so young that I wouldn’t know the first thing about doing it well.

But I could see him playing catch with our toddler, running around the house with the little guy.

Carrying our son on his shoulders.

Playing sports with him as he grew up.

Hudson would be an amazing dad. Just like mine had been.

I wiped my eyes as a few more memories slipped in.

My dad putting a bright pink Band-Aid on my knee after I fell and scraped it while running with Hudson.

Laughing with me as we watched the silly TV shows I’d liked.

Making me Rice Krispy Treats with pink food coloring, because I wanted them to be cute.

Taking me to the store and teaching me about tampons while pointing out the different types after he researched them.

My father had his demons and his struggles, but he was a good dad. I wished I’d been in Cub Lake to help him when his addiction set in again. He’d overcome it when my mom was pregnant with me, and it hurt to know that he’d been struggling alone at the end.

But the past was in the past.

Like I’d told Hudson, there was no point in dwelling on it.

He had been an amazing father, and I would do everything I could to make sure I was as good to my baby as he had been to me.

eleven

HUDSON

It wasn’tdifficult for me to accept that bears didn’t have to be commitment adverse like I’d been taught to believe.

Deep down, I’d known for more than a decade that I was never going to change my mind about Callie or leave her. I’d let her leave me, but walking away from her had always been unfathomable.

If anything, learning that what I’d been taught was bullshit made me feel like I wasn’t a phony.

But hearing that my mom had given my dad another chance, after I’d watched her struggle to raise me because of his absence…

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