Page 94 of Bears Behaving Badly
“Fucking mock turtleneck. Be a turtleneck or don’t, but what the hell is ‘mock’?” He hooked a finger in the collar and yanked. “Christ, it’s hot out here.”
“It’s sixty-five degrees out here. David, if my proximity is making you uncomfortable—”
“Of course it’s making me uncomfortable!” He came to a dead stop and she nearly stumbled. “Look at you! Just standing there in all your—you-ness!”
“Sorry, what?”
“You’re you—”
“You’re saying ‘you’ a lot, seems like.”
“—and I’m me, and you’re smart and gorgeous and funny and everybody likes you and it’s not just because you’re a softie, and yeah, you’re a softie, but you’re ahardsoftie, so it works, and you could be with anybody and it’s insane that all I want to do is take you someplace nice and feed you.” He stopped, heaved a breath. “And I know that’s ridiculous. You’ve made it perfectly clear.”
“But so did you.”
“What?”
“I’m sensing we’ve had a communication breakdown.”
“What?”
Annette looked at him. Beyond the disheveled good looks and the clothing he wore like armor was a man who could have done a fade once he dropped Caro off for processing, but didn’t. Who had leaped between her and a car driven with lethal intent. Who killed in defense of her cubs. Who kept to himself by choice, but didn’t hesitate to throw himself snout first into danger. Who trusted her instincts and introduced her to friends who knew his deepest secret. And in return, all he asked for was…nothing.
She hadn’t known any of this on Monday. He was just the guy who put maple syrup in everything on Monday. But it had all been there, all those good and noble things, like buried treasure.
“You’re an idiot,” she said kindly. “But I am, too. I kissed you, remember? Twice.”
“I initiated the first kiss.”
“Yes, and then I got even. Wait. I’ll rephrase.”
“It’s fine, I get what you mean.”
“And I’m the one who crawled into bed with you. Well. After you crawled in with me. Those are not the actions of someone who views you with disinterest.” She squeezed his arm. “We’re definitely going out when this is all over.”
“No. We’re not. That was my point.”
She nearly stumbled again. This wasn’t how the script in her head went. They would solve the case and go out and inhale a staggering amount of food and keep going out and perhaps fall in love, roll credits. “It was?”
“All my friends are Stables. And I won’t do to you what I did to my mother. I won’t have you looking over your shoulder every minute we’re together.”
“Maybe that’s somethingIshould decide?”
He ignored her, which didn’t bode well. “You’d always feel pressure to share your secret because they know mine. You’d always wonder if they’re going to tell anyone outside the group and how that might blow back on you. And what if we have cubs?”
“You’ve given this a worrisome amount of thought.”
“You’d be constantly agonizing about their potential exposure. You’d probably want to move, and maybe keep moving, and you wouldn’t want so many Stables in our lives. So all these thoughts and fantasies I’ve been having—”
“You fantasize about me?”
“Constantly.”
“Oh.”
“And then, last night…that just made it worse.”
“Oh.”
