Page 9 of Bear
“Good to see you too,” I smiled. He used those laser beam eyes of his to take me in and I felt like I was being x-rayed.
“You look a little tired, you need a place to crash?” He slipped his hands in his pockets and I willed the knot in my throat to slide down my esophagus.
“I think it would be good for her to stay here for a couple nights, Bear. Thank you,” Dad smiled big and walked down the hall, holding Mom’s hand. I hated when he did that. He was in papa bear mode though. He wanted to do whatever he thought would calm me down after Kaiden’s funeral.
“That’s fine. I can have the guest room set up in a few. Luanne, don’t you lift a finger,” he warned her. Bear was pissed. Nobody else could see it but me. Nobody else saw the subtle way his neck tightened or the way he became more charismatic to mask the anger.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you about Cecily coming, Bear. I…I don’t know how it slipped my mind.” Mom sighed, shaking her head.
“It’s fine, Luanne. I’m happy to see her honestly. Hey, listen, since the family is all here why don’t I make dinner?”
“Bear, you don’t have to do that,” Mom said. She could speak for herself though. I wanted Bear’s food. He could cook his ass off. Years of insomnia left lots of room for learning new talents and Bear was a jack-of-all-trades.
“It’s fine. I got it, Luanne. Please, stay for dinner. I can shift some things around in my schedule.” I watched him whip out his phone and begin texting at a lighting fast pace. “Okay. Done. My evening is cleared. Paul, you two go into the living room and have a seat. Watch whatever you want on TV. I’ll take Cecily upstairs and get her situated.”
God.
He wanted to fuss at me in private. I rubbed my forehead and walked upstairs behind him like I’d done a million times before. We went into the guest room and I closed the door behind me. “Before you start…I didn’t know we’d come straight here. I thought I had time to reach out to you. I fell asleep in the car with Dad and woke up here,” I explained, holding my hands up. Bear folded his arms across his chest and looked at me for what felt like an eternity before speaking.
“Now that you’re in front of me I can see something is wrong with you, Cecily. You’ve been kinda quiet lately too. What the fuck is going on? You’ve been crying and you show up in New Orleans in the middle of the goddamn week when you should be on campus.” His jaw flexed and I groaned inwardly.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Bear. That’s why I haven’t told you much.”
“Oh? You having issues with some motherfucker at school? I can show up.”
“Oh my god. No. Stop it. It’s nothing like that. I don’t want to talk about it. Give me some time, okay?” Involuntary tears wet my cheeks and Bear softened enough to pull me in for a hug.
“You’re staying here until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
“So if I tell you, can I leave?”
“Nah. Not a fucking chance, baby doll.” He shook his head slowly and his short locs swept his forehead. He still kept his hair short. He wouldn’t let his locs grow past his ears and he kept the sides tapered and faded. It was a look that screamed Bear.
“I can’t believe your mother didn’t tell me you were coming by. I’m glad I finished up business yesterday. You could have walked in on some gruesome shit, Cecily.”
I cringed at his words and plugged my ears with my fingers. I knew what kind of gruesome shit Bear was into and I didn’t want any details even though he seemed to love torturing me with them. One time he told me about the sound a man’s eyeball made when it squished under his loafer. I didn’t sleep right for days.
Bear chuckled at my expression and tossed his heavy arm around my shoulders. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Jerk chicken, rice, and beans,” I blurted almost instantly. It was comfort food for me and Bear fixed it the best. He flashed a quick smile and nodded.
“I already have the ingredients. Let me make the bed for you and get started on dinner. You have any bags in the car?”
“Yeah. A few. I’ll get them though.” He shot me a look that made me back off immediately.
“You know better. I don’t know what kind of fuck boys live in Texas but when you’re home with me in New Orleans…” My chest squeezed at the way his drawl caressed those words. “You better act like you know. I’m a gentleman. No way in hell a lady is bringing her own bags inside, baby doll.” He ran a hand over his short beard and walked out of the room to the linen closet.
He definitely had new muscles. They moved fluidly beneath the material of his shirt. My eyes followed every line and thick wedge until he turned around with sheets in hand. I noticed his dark eyebrows were knitted together as he stared at what looked to be a sticky note on the pile of sheets and pillowcases.
“What’s that?” I asked him, tucking loose hair behind my ear.
“A note from Luanne.” He plucked it from the sheets and read it quietly. “It just looks like a reminder that these are guestroom sheets and which order to put them in.” Bear looked perplexed by it. “She never forgets shit like this. It’s written on the walls of her brain,” he said.
“Sheisgetting older, Bear.”
“I know.” He went straight to making the bed for me while I watched. I wanted to sneak away and grab my bags from the car but he would have had a fit if I did. “Don’t even fucking think about it, Cecily.”
“What?” I stuttered, blinking rapidly.
