Page 6 of OctoBEARfest

"Aw." Gwen turned a hopeful gaze up at him as they reached her car, which was apparently parked next to his truck, a huge thing that managed to make Bill look regular-sized. "I was really hoping you'd come for coffee with me."

It was more than a little flattering to watch whatever resistance might have been in the big man just melt away into a soft smile. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, I'd like that."

CHAPTER 5

Thesmartthing to do was not go to coffee with Gwen. The smart thing to do was go figure out how to deal with the fiasco he'd instigated. But first off, Bill didn't want to do the smart thing, and second, even if he had, the hopeful look in her ice-blue eyes would have convinced him otherwise under basically any circumstances. He melted. He knew he was melting.

His bear looked at him curiously.You're not melting.

Trust me. I'm melting.

The bear examined him even more carefully, radiating dubiousness, but it didn't say anything else. That was helpful, because Bill could barely manage one conversation, never mind two, when Gwen was looking up at him with that sweet blue gaze. He managed to say, "Your truck or mine?" and was stunned when she gave a delighted squeal and bounced, clapping her hands together.

"Yours! I've never ridden in a monster truck before. Oh, but wait. You're not going to kidnap me or anything, are you?"

The thought of running off into the woods with her forever, and not dealing with the real world at all ever again, briefly glowed in Bill's mind like it was the goal of all goals. His bearperked up again, eager for that endgame. But reality reasserted itself, and Bill said, "No," wryly. "Even if I tried, everybody in town knows who I am and I'd get turned in to my family before I managed to get you halfway kidnapped."

"Excellent." Gwen gave him a merry smile and went around to the passenger side of his truck, bouncing to see him over the hood. It was, he had to admit, a ridiculously big vehicle. Unfortunately for him, he'd once been forced to shift into a bear while in a Honda Civic, and ever since, the idea of a small car gave him the heebie jeebies.

His bear sent a sad image of itself stuffed into the Honda, fur and feet sticking out everywhere, through the windows, into the footwells, against the horn, which blared like a Fourth of July parade while it tried to cover its ears with its paws. It hadn't succeeded. So no more small cars for Bill. He just drove incredibly carefully with his stupidly huge truck. He unlocked the doors, nodded at Gwen, and grinned a bit as he watched her clamber up the chrome runner boards to climb in and sprawl against the leather seats. "You look like you belong in a monster truck."

"It's my viiiiibe, baby." Gwen did a hang-loose wobble with her hand and threw an arm across the back of the seats. "This is amazing. I think I can see Denver from here. Also, are those ants on the ground, or children?" She made a show of looking out the window, peering at the parking lot asphalt.

Bill, who hadn't thought he could feel like laughing after running into Laurie, found himself chortling, at least. "It's notthathigh."

"You're starting from nine inches farther off the ground than I am in the first place," Gwen informed him. "Trust me, itisthat high! Now, are we going for coffee or to check out the clubs your brother mentioned?"

"Uh." Bill felt his jaw fall open, and did his best to crank it back into place. "Uh?"

"Coffee, then," Gwen said decisively. "Thenclubbing."

Bill, faintly, said, "But," and then decided that fate had thrown him a fast ball and he should do his best to catch it. Or run with it. Something like that. "Okay."

It was only a few minutes' drive to Candy's Coffee. It was Bill's favorite coffee shop in the area not just because the coffee was genuinely good, but because Candy, who was in her sixties and an old hippie at heart, had defied the city council and personally financed solar panels to cover her small parking lot with. The entire strip mall had eventually thrown in and now the parking lot was seventy percent covered by the panels, which provided all the power for the mall and put some back into the grid. Gwen said, "Oooh," in delight when she saw them. "That must keep the parking lot cooler in the summers, but doesn't it snow here? How do they keep them clear in the winter?"

"They've got self-powered heating elements in them," Bill said with a smile. "Melts the snow off."

"Oh, damn, that's clever! I love it!" Gwen swung out of the truck like she'd been in and out of monster trucks her whole life, and swaggered toward the coffee shop. It was definitely a swagger, too. Bill had never seen anybody move like that. Like a rock star. He trailed a few steps farther behind than necessary, admiring everything about that swagger. Her strong legs, her fine ass, the confident set of her shoulders, the way she tossed her hair…everything.God, he'd never met a woman as perfect as she was.

She stopped dead a couple steps inside Candy's, with its linoleum floors, brightly painted walls, and surprisingly cozy booths, then turned to him with an accusing look. "You said it was acoffeeshop. You didn't tell me there was ice cream!"

Bill glanced beyond her at the two long freezers of home made ice cream that was Candy's other speciality, and back at Gwen. "You said you wanted coffee!"

"I didn't know ice cream was on the table!"

A sly grin crawled across his face. "I think you should eat it out of a bowl."

Gwen laughed out loud. "Oh my God, you're one of those. A bad jokes dude."

His eyebrows rose. "Aren't they usually called 'dad jokes?'"

"They are." Gwen ordered an ice cream sundae that he knew would be as big as her face, and a coffee almost equal in size. "I don't like that phrase, though. There's already this whole idea in society that women aren't funny, and I think calling those silly, easy quips 'dad jokes' plays into that. Everybody makes them."

"Whoa. I never thought of it like that." He followed her to a table, sitting down as they waited for their orders to be called. "Right. No more dad jokes, just bad jokes."

She flashed a smile. "My hero. So, look, do you—" She broke off as their coffee orders were called. "Wow. Fast. Hang on."

"I can get them!" Bill rose swiftly, feeling like he should be a proper gentleman and carry things. Gwen gestured like 'be my guest,' and he went to the counter, getting the tray that held his reasonable-sized coffee, and Gwen's gigantic sundae and mocha. He came back to the table, placing them in front of the appropriate seats, and Gwen's eyes widened.

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