Page 99 of Santa's Girl
Watching her go.
Losing the only warmth I'd found in years.
Again.
23
BECCA
Margie’s house was quiet except for the hum of the fireplace and the distant sound of Caroline snoring softly upstairs. I sat on the window seat, wrapped in a throw blanket, looking out at the snow falling in heavy sheets.
I felt foolish.
Bear—no,Calden Boone—was a lie wrapped in plaid and pine-scented kisses. And me? I fell for every second of it. His silence about who he really was, the black credit card he swore was company-issued, his insistence he could pay for dinner. It all made sense now. Not just Bear the biker, but Calden Boone the billionaire.
I let the memory of our nights together roll through me. The way he brushed my hair back when I was stressed, how he made coffee like it was an act of devotion. Itfeltreal. And now?
I didn’t even know who I’d fallen for.
Margie came in, wrapped in her robe, carrying two steaming mugs. She handed me one and sat beside me.
"You know I’ve known a bit about who he was since I lived here,” she said gently.
I looked at her, stunned.
She continued, eyes on the snow, "Bear's family died in a wreck on Christmas Eve. A semi lost control on black ice. His mother and his little brother—they never made it home. He was sixteen. Took him years to come back from it. Years. In his twenties he after he patched he started calling himself Bear, and built a life with that club. Not because he wanted to hide from the world—but because it’s the only place he ever felt safe again. At least that’s what Steve told me.”
Tears stung my eyes. "Why didn’t he tell me?"
“Look I know more than I let on. But it’s not my place to tell a man’s business. I had no idea Bear was Boone. But I did know about his family’s tragic past and why he hates the holidays so much. I figured to just let him be…”
“Do you know anymore about what happened…?”
"He was supposed to be with them. But he stayed behind with his grandfather at their hunting cabin on the mountain. That cabin? It’s all he has left of them. He doesn’t go near the family mansion. Won’t touch the money except for giving back or when he has to."
“Bear,” I whispered.
"His granddad was blue collar. Raised him more like an outlaw than an aristocrat. Bear bonded with that side. That’s why he lives like he does. That rotary phone and that old chipped coffee mug? It’s not just memory. It’s survival."
I blinked fast, trying not to cry.
"He never talks about it," she said. "But he’s not hiding from you, honey. He’s trying to protect the pieces of himself that still hurt."
Everything started clicking into place.
The cabin. The hesitance. The flickers of pain in his eyes when I’d talk about the future.
I just hadn’t seen it.
Until now.
Later, Caroline corners me in the kitchen, her eyeliner smudged from the long night. “Jinx told me everything,” she says. “Bear kept the secret because he wanted one person—just one—to love him for him. Not for the money. Not for the kutte. Just… him. Jinx was the only one in the MC who knew Bear was Boone. But last night, he came clean to all of them. “
I lean against the counter, breathing hard.
My pride says: he lied.
But my heart says: he loved.
