Page 33 of Sunshine for the Grumpy Grizzly

“Too bad.”

“And I need to pay my rent.”

“Don’t need to pay rent when you live here with me.”

“My plants are gonna die if I don’t water them.”

“Can’t you get someone to help with that?”

My next-door neighbor has a key to my place. She could definitely water my plants.

I nibble at my lower lip thoughtfully.

“Lucy, when a bear takes you as his mate, you live with him in his lair.”

I fight back a giggle because his seriousness is just too adorable. “But what if I don’t like living in a bear’s lair?” I tease.

He frowns. “Then the bear will fix it until you do.”

“What will he do?”

Preston’s expression gets even more serious. “He will renovate the entire place, according to his mate’s wishes. He will buy a lot of pretty new shit—uh stuff—to make her feel comfortable. And… he will install a yoga studio.”

My heart leaps. “So she can do stretches and shit?”

“No.” He looks appalled. “So she can connect her mind, body and soul through the spiritual practice of yoga. It will be a sacred space where she can meditate, flow through asanas, and align her chakras. It will have an eastward facing window, so that every morning, she can greet the sunrise, channel her inner energy and find harmony within. And if she so chooses, she will use her talents to help others do the same.”

My mouth falls open. “How?—?”

“I’ve been researching,” he says with a grin. “Sounds pretty cool actually. The bear might even request a lesson for himself some time.”

“You’re the best, you know that?” I say, drawing him down for a kiss.

I sink deeper and deeper into him… then something pops into my head.

“And that, Preston Wright, is the most I’ve ever heard you say in one go.”

“Maybe you’ve fixed me.” He gives a gravely kind of laugh, but I see that same flash of pain in his eyes that I remember from the barbecue.

“What is it?” I say. “Why did you start talking so late?”

I feel his massive chest swell under my hand, and he gives a ragged groan. “Hunters shot my mom when I was a baby. She was carrying me at the time, but she managed to hide me under her body. Luckily my father chased them off before they could kill her.

“The clan thinks I was too young to remember anything, but I do. I remember my mom’s screams of pain. How scared I was. Reckon the shock cut off my words.”

I gasp. “And you’ve been carrying that secret all these years? Letting them think you were slow?”

“Yup.” He shrugs.

“You should tell them.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“You’re amazing, Preston. And I’m gonna make sure the whole world knows that.”

“Only person whose opinion I care about is yours,” he says. But his expression looks lighter.

“We’re going to talk about this a lot more, you hear me?” I tap his chest with my index finger.

---