Page 64 of Befriending the Bear
I leaned back enough to meet his eyes, breath still caught in my chest. “I c-couldn’t have done it without you.”
Fraser shook his head. “You did this, sweetheart. I was just cheering you on.”
He kissed me, soft and lingering, like he had nothing else planned for the day except making sure I knew I was loved.
When we finally pulled apart, breathless and laughing, I touched his cheek. “Tea?”
“How about hot chocolate? It feels like a hot chocolate kind of afternoon.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
He followed me into the kitchen, taking off his beanie and loosening the moss-green scarf that matched his eyes and the pattern of his flannel plaid shirt. The man had an endless collection of them, and I’d grown stupidly fond of them.
“How was M-Macallister?” I asked as I rummaged through my cupboards, looking for the cacao.
“Good. We got through the last of the felled trees.”
“Sounds like we b-both got work done.”
Fraser snorted and gave me an affectionate look. “He’s a good man. Quiet, but good.”
“You l-like it up there.”
His lips twitched, thoughtful. “I do. Reminds me of the old fire camps. Peaceful.”
My fingers tightened around the mug I had just filled with cacao mix. “Will it f-feel like that for you in M-montana?”
He considered that for a moment, then stepped forward, settling his hands low on my hips. “Probably, but that doesn’t mean I’ll want to stay. You are my home now, my family.”
Warmth filled my chest. It still surprised me how easily he said things like that. How often. Like he was still amazed I hadn’t somehow backed away from all this.
“You n-n-know I’m scared, right?” I asked softly, stepping closer, resting my forehead against his shoulder.
He wrapped his arms around me again. “I know. But you’re still saying yes. That tells me everything I need to know.”
And then the other truth came out, the one that also needed to be put into words. “I love you.”
22
FRASER
The world stopped for a breath.
Calloway’s eyes were wide and steady, full of fear and certainty all at once. Like the words had surprised even him by tumbling out, but he had no intention of taking them back.
“I love you.”
He’d said it softly. No grand declaration, no sweeping music. Just a truth spoken aloud in a kitchen that smelled faintly of bergamot and frost, while snow fell quietly outside.
A truth I hadn’t dared hope for this soon, even though I’d been feeling it for weeks, even though I’d been carrying it around like a secret talisman in my chest. I’d been waiting for the right moment, the right time, knowing Calloway had to set the pace…and now that time had come.
I reached up to cradle his face in both hands, brushing the pad of my thumb across his cheekbone, the faintest stubble catching against my skin. “I love you too.”
His breath left him in a soft, almost disbelieving rush. And then he smiled—slow, blooming, like sunlight filtering through trees after a long stretch of shade. “You do?”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been falling since the moment you talked to me in that cracked voice in the parking lot, shaking like a leaf but still inviting me to book club.” I smiled. “I think I fell a little more every time you let me in, every time you knocked down a wall just enough for me to see who was behind it.”
He let out a soft noise, half-laugh, half-sob, and pulled me into him again. I went willingly, resting my forehead against his.
