Page 18 of Alpha Bear Accountant

Todd leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “I say this is cause for celebration.”

“You do, huh?” I got up and walked around the desk to him, sitting on his lap so we were face to face. “And how would you like to celebrate?”

I leaned in for a kiss, but he held my hips tightly in place. “I’m pretty sure it starts with us not getting caught making out by whoever’s coming up the stairs right now.”

Oops. He was right about that.

I wasn’t ashamed of Todd or trying to keep my time with him on the down-low. But being caught on his lap with my tongue down his throat wasn’t exactly work appropriate either.

I hopped off his lap so quickly that I nearly crashed into the desk, and he chuckled. For a second, I thought it was because he was joking about hearing someone coming.

But a second later, Andrew walked through the open door. “Hey, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but there’s a delivery, and we need somebody to sign for it. I guess they need a check too.”

It wasn’t a surprise. Some of our vendors agreed to give us a second chance after I called and explained the situation to them, but two of them required payment at the time of delivery, which I didn’t love but completely understood. “Can you tell them I’ll get that for them and be right down?”

Once he was gone, I grabbed the checkbook out of my desk and wrote a check out for the amount on the invoice he’d handed to me. “I’ll be right back.” I kissed Todd’s cheek and stepped toward the door. “Let me know what we’re doing to celebrate when I get back.”

He cocked his head and grinned. “I have to make all the decisions?”

“Um, yes, please.”

“Excellent. I already have an idea.” He pulled out his phone and shooed me away.

I hurried down the stairs into the loading docks and dealt with the delivery driver. They were nice enough, but not too happy with the situation. I didn’t blame them. These extra steps meant they were slowed down, and given they were paid per delivery, that was less than ideal for any of us.

When I got back to my mate—I couldn’t believe how much I loved that word—he was all packed up and ready to go.

“You figured something out, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“And you’re not gonna tell me, are you?”

He shook his head.

“But I’m gonna like it.” I was waiting for another nod, but instead, he held his hand out for me.

“We’ll see.” He brought our joined hands to his mouth and kissed mine.

Our first stop was back at his house so we could change. I’d been keeping more of my clothes there, and my dad didn’t mind. In fact, he appreciated it, because the more I spent time with Todd, the more likely I was going to stay in Oak Grove. Honestly, that was a foregone conclusion.

Unless Todd wanted to move to the city, I wasn’t going anywhere without him.

My PTO at work was running low, and soon enough, I’d have to make the official decision, but I was leaning on staying. Todd had a great life here and was mid project on his dream home. Asking him to give that up for my nice but not amazing apartment where his bear would have no place to roam didn’t sound like a fair request.

One thing I did figure out was that I probably wasn’t gonna work for the family business full-time. Plumbing just wasn’t my thing. And luckily, I didn’t need to. Now that Todd had worked his magic and gotten the audit and our books organized and automated, I could put in a few hours a week and we would be fine. Besides, there were enough remote jobs I qualified for that I could regroup and start a life here or anywhere else.

That was if this was even what Todd wanted. And even though I hated to admit it to myself, I wasn’t sure if it was.

The fact that he hadn’t marked me yet was starting to worry me. Cognitively, I knew it shouldn’t. He gave zero indication that he wasn’t completely falling for me, but still, it nagged at the back of my mind. Maybe being human meant I wasn’t good enough for him.

No, that was ridiculous, but that didn’t stop it from being one of my biggest fears. “Okay, I’m ready now. Why did you say I needed sneakers?”

“I didn’t.”

Ugh. Some help that was.

“Please tell me we’re not going to do something like basketball or pickle ball or whatever.” I didn’t hate sports, but I wasn’t in the mood for being competitive, even if it was a silly game. All I wanted was to spend time with him, whatever that looked like.I mean, I knew what I wanted it to look like, but wanting and having were two very different things.

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