Page 21 of Her Embarrassed Bear Mate

"Fall desperately in love after a one-night stand in a bar,"Alix teased.

"Exactly." There was a strange intensity in Veronica's voice.

Alix gulped. "Exactly."

They spoke at the same time, the awkward energy back at full force.

"Do you have a list of—" Veronica said.

"We should get—" Alix chuckled as she unbuckled herself. "You first."

"Do you have a list of what we need to buy?"

"No, I got the very vague brief of Sunday roast. What am I buying? Beef? Pork? Ham? Chicken?" Worry bubbled up in Alix's stomach. "Dear god, he's going to make all of them, isn't he?"

Veronica snorted and rolled her eyes. "You bet.Welcome to the family."

THIRTEEN

Veronica

Sleep eludedVeronica no matter how much she tossed and turned. The bed up in the attic wasn't very comfortable and the whole room was dusty and stuffy without any windows to open. It still annoyed her that she had to give up her own room but it felt like wasted energy to be salty about it.

She reached for her bottle of water, disappointed to find it empty already. The bed creaked obnoxiously loud as she got out, only making her feel even more self-conscious. She tiptoed to the ladder leading down and popped into the sharedbathroom to fill up her bottle. The running water made her aware of her bladder so she had a quick pee while she was here.

With her water bottle in hand, she left the bathroom and almost ran straight into Dianne.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise someone else was down here," Dianne said sheepishly. She was wearing a silky bright pink night gown that luckily fell down to her thighs.

Veronica forced a smile and gestured to the bathroom. "All yours."

Before she could leave, Dianne tripped over the raised threshold of the bathroom and almost fell. Her night gown slipped open and Veronica looked away as quickly as she could but not before she was treated to a vision that was going to haunt her nightmares. Underneath Dianne's night gown, she was wearing a racy set of lingerie that left virtually nothing to the imagination.

Veronica wanted to scream herself. It was bad enough that her dad had a new girlfriend, she didnotneed to be reminded that they were adults with adult needs. It was cringey enough knowing her parents used to have sex, this was way way worse.

"Are you okay?" Veronica asked, her eyes screwed shut.

Dianne chuckled awkwardly. "Yes, I stubbed my toe. I think it's bleeding. Do you have any plasters?"

"There's a first-aid kit under the sink," Veronica replied dutifully when she wanted nothing more than to run away. Preferably to a different continent. The North Pole sounded good. Somewhere far, far away where people wore lots of clothing!

Totally flustered, Veronica quickly retreated to her room. She pressed the door shut behind her, relieved to be away from that awkward situation.

A noise came from the bed. "What the hell?"

Veronica froze. In her panic, she'd forgotten that her room wasn't her room anymore. Instead, she'd barged in on a very confused Alix who was illuminating the room with her phone screen. It was a good thing it was dark because Alix seemed to be wearing a very thin shirt without a bra underneath.

"I'm so sorry," Veronica reached for the door handle but couldn't bring herself to leave in case she ran into Dianne again.

"Veronica? What are you doing here?" Alix's voice was slightly rougher around the edges and she sounded like she'd been asleep already.

Under different circumstances, it would've been sexy as hell but sex was the absolute last thing on Veronica's mind at the moment. She just wanted tocrawl in a hole or bang her head against the wall and give herself a concussion that would let her forget what she just saw.

Alix cleared her throat behind her. "An explanation would be nice."

Sheepishly, Veronica turned back around. "Sorry, I forgot that I'm sleeping in the attic. This is usually my room."

"Okay?"

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