Page 6 of Bear's Heart

“The changes sound daunting, Mr.Anderson, but the good news is that once the remodel is done, this house will feel like you.It’ll be your home again.”

He opened the front door.“I don’t know if that’s possible.”

She picked up her purse from the hall table, putting the measuring tape and notepad in one pocket and drawing out her business card folder from another.“Think about your options, and what you want to do,” she said, placing her business card on the table.“These decisions are yours, and yours alone.But if I can help, I want to.”

*

Josie climbed intoher small SUV and carefully backed into the driveway and then shifted into drive and pulled away from Bear’s house, thinking it was possible Braden Anderson had earned his nickname not from fighting a bear, but from resembling a bear.

He was tough.Hard.Hurt.

But she could handle him.Braden Bear Anderson didn’t scare her.

Hard to be scared of someone that made her breath catch.He was gorgeous.His back might have been shattered, but the good Lord had spared his face.

There was a reason local girls had been falling at Bear’s feet since junior high, long before the buckle bunnies had picked up the chase.

Braden Anderson was all man, and the very definition of rugged, tortured… and beautiful.

Chapter Two

Bear didn’t knowwhat to do with himself as Josie drove away.

He felt—things—and he didn’t like it.She’d stirred him up, unsettling his resolve to never feel anything again.He hated feelings.He hated emotional turmoil.Emotions were the one thing he couldn’t handle.Emotions were within, and that was where he was weak.

In the hall, Bear pushed himself in a circle to the right, and then to the left, angry and restless and trapped.Trapped.

It was bad enough being stuck in this chair, but stuck in this house, the house he’d built for Savannah?It was torture, and because this land was family land, passed to him from his maternal grandfather, Bear was loathe to just sell the place.The house was a prison, but the land meant something to him.

Why hadn’t he realized he’d be unhappy here?This enormous house reminded him of a stage set—cold and artificial, and empty.All it did was remind him of how empty his life was and how hollow everything had been for years, and he hadn’t even known it.He hadn’t realized that nothing in his life had truly been real.Not his strength.Not his career.Not his relationship.

Certainly not his faith.

Bear stopped circling the hall and rolled into the living room with the soaring ceiling and majestic stone fireplace.He went to the wall of windows and stared out across the land that was his, land that he hadn’t ever worked, land that was leased to neighbors for their cattle and crops.

His plan had always been to retire and come here to become a rancher just like his grandfather, but it hadn’t turned out like that.

He was doing his best to pivot, to focus on his new goals, but living here didn’t help.He was far from everything, and nowhere close to the business districts he needed.And if he poured money into renovating this house, it would mean less cash for his new venture, and his venture was his only blue sky.His new venture gave him hope.Purpose.That was what he needed, not a fancy toilet.

Maybe the mistake was to focus on the house.Maybe he just needed to double down on establishing the rehab centers and put on blinders to everything else.The bathroom was difficult, but he managed.The kitchen was a challenge, but he was good with challenges.He just needed to get the right attitude.He needed to prioritize what was important and his comfort wasn’t important.Getting the first center opened was the important thing.

Bear rolled back to the entry where Josie had left her business card.In the foyer he drew his phone out of the small pack attached to the chair behind his knees and drew out his phone.He flipped the business card in his fingers, his thumb stroking the matte finish of the thick cream cardstock with the gray-blue ink.Josie Calhoun, Design Intern.

Intern.

He shook his head and he exhaled, releasing the bottled air, glad to have come to a decision he could live with.

Quickly he texted her.Josie, this is Bear Anderson.Thanks for coming out to my place, and I appreciate your input but I’m going a different direction.Sorry to have wasted your time today.

*

“Well?”Neil asked,gesturing Josie into his office as she returned to the company’s headquarters in downtown Bozeman.The design practice took up the top two floors of one of the oldest buildings in historic Bozeman.Bookkeeping and support were on the lower floor while the design team had the airy and architectural loft.“How did it go?”

Josie nodded and smiled at Melissa, the other cofounder of the firm who currently sat perched on the edge of a sixties inspired chair, a handful of brochures in her hand.

“I did a brief walk through with him and took notes on what needed to be done.”

“What’s his budget?”Melissa asked.

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