Page 29 of Wrong Turn, Right Bear
Mollie giggle snorted and had to pull over as she was laughing so much.
“I’m not Ash so I can’t say if he’s expecting a blow job but I’m talking about real food.”
“Okay.” We were heading away from town and when she pulled up, we were surrounded by woods. While I didn’t have the same fear about the forest as I used to, heavily pregnant me wasn’t about to skip along a trail and hike the miles back to town.
“You’re here.” Ash appeared and all my doubts vanished. He took my hand and kissed it. How formal. He thanked Mollie and she drove off, leaving us without a way back to town. “Don’t worry, my truck’s parked nearby.”
He led me down a short path to a grassy shaded area overlooking the lake.
“We never got our picnic the day you left, so ta-da.” He extended his hand to a blanket on the grass with pillows, soft fluffy ones and triangular ones I could lean back on. There were also two picnic baskets that I hoped were jam packed with yummy treats.
He helped me sit because my bump had altered my center of gravity.
“When Mollie saw me packing the baskets, she joked if I was feeding all the forest animals too.”
I waggled my finger at him. “Ifany squirrel or rabbit tries to steal a bite, they’ll answer to me. Never take food from a pregnant omega.”
“Did you hear that guys? You’ll have to make do with forest food.” Ash yelled into the trees. He cupped a hand to his ear and nodded. “They’re disappointed but they’ll get over it.”
I giggled. He was so silly and I loved that about him.
“Now gimme gimme some food, alpha.”
He opened the picnic basket and brought out fruit and nuts, and freshly squeezed orange juice. I popped a grape in my mouth while Ash removed quiche, baguettes, and sandwiches from the picnic basket. There was avocado and egg salad, pasta salad and a creamy potato one, too.
I’d moved on from the fruit to the quiche when my mate reached into the second basket for the desserts. I was like a kid at Christmas. There were so many choices and I wanted to sample them all.
“Slow down, babe. We have all afternoon.”
My mouth was full but I spoke anyway. “But did the ants get your message about staying away from the picnic?”
“They wouldn’t dare. Besides, if they did venture onto the blanket, my beast would take his fur and?—”
“Scare them?” Were ants afraid of bears? I supposed they could get stomped on.
“No, he’d eat them. Bears love ants.”
Okay. No ants. Good to know.
“This is delicious.” I bit into a brownie while holding a deviled egg in the other hand.
“If I told you I was up all night slaving away in the kitchen, would you believe me?”
“Nah. I know Ella at the deli made this spread.” I beckoned him closer. “You don’t need to do everything to show your love.”
“That’s good advice. You should remember that.” He was teasing me about the business. I’d left my old life envisioning I’d slow down, wear oversized sweaters and arrange flowers I’d picked from the garden. But I was busy. The difference was I was living and working with the love of my life.
We leaned on the triangle cushions and fed one another cake and cubed watermelon. There was a huge splash as a fish rose up and dived back into the water.
“My bear has a request.”
“He wants to go fish?”
Ash laughed. “How did you guess?”
“Go.”
My mate stripped off and the dappled sunlight spilled over his body as he shifted from man to beast. His bear lumbered into the water, then stood still waiting, waiting, and waiting until he scooped up a hugefish. He devoured it and I picked up a container of raspberries.
