Page 104 of Maizy the Bear Charmer

“It’s already too late for that, Cody. I love you,” she whispered in a husky voice, chin trembling and big tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked up at him. He nearly broke and gave in. The sight of the woman he loved in pain made him feel powerless and out of control. It was the worst sensation he’d ever experienced.

Heath stroked her arms and drew her attention to him. He wasn’t doing much better, judging by the way his jaw was clenching and his pained stare. “Baby, don’t. Can’t you see how hard this is for Cody, for us? We never should’ve pursued you once we found out you were a kindergarten teacher. This is all our fault.”

“No. It’s their fault,” she said, obviously referring to the powers that be at her school. She looked from one to the other of them and then slumped against Cody. It was impossible to not hold her as she quietly cried. “And it’s my fault. I never should’ve let you hold me, or kiss me, or make love to me. I’m addicted to you…all of you. I had illusions all week that somehow it’d work out…but it can’t, can it?”

“I wish it could, angel,” he said as he squeezed her, his heart aching at the way she trembled. “We should take you home now.”

She nodded and went to Spencer’s bike like an automaton. This time Heath just lifted her onto the bike and then helped her with her hair and the helmet while she sat mutely, defeated.

Cody hated feeling like a cruel bastard. Heath and Spencer had followed his lead since they were kids. He almost wished they’d fight him on this but even they knew it was wrong to expect her to sacrifice her job for them. He should’ve known there was no way to avoid it. The pain she felt was his fault. The pain his brothers felt was his fault, too.

The drive home in the dark was agonizing. Occasionally, he watched Maizy and Spencer, noting how tightly she clung to him, as if she was hanging off a ledge. He wracked his brain trying to think of ways around the issue, even considered contacting Ace Webster and Kemp Whittier for their help. They might be able to find some leverage. But every possible solution he could think of also had the possibility of backfiring. He wondered at the source of the information Maizy’s father and Mrs. Dumphrey had received that had precipitated those confrontations.

Instead of the usual relaxation that a bike ride gave him, he felt tense and his chest ached as they arrived at home again. They hadn’t even had a chance to show her the deck that was nearly finished. Maybe that was for the best. The house was going to seem awfully quiet and empty without her.

She picked up her purse when she walked in the house and turned to the door, but not before he saw her bloodshot eyes and the tearstains on her cheeks. Her rosy lips and nose were a little swollen, too. “I think I’d better go.” She slowly looked around the house, and then at the three of them, and her eyes pooled with tears again.

“Baby—”

She swiped quickly at her cheeks. “I’d better go before I make a fool of myself. I love you, my bears,” she whispered, her voice cracking. She hesitated for a second, the need for contact clear in her eyes and echoed by his heart, but she stopped herself. She turned and walked out the door.

Spencer hadn’t said a word since the restaurant. As the door closed, he headed into the kitchen. He reached into a cabinet for the bottle of whiskey and took down a shot glass. He looked at the shot glass in his hand and then shoved it back onto the shelf and slammed the cabinet. He walked to his bedroom and appeared a minute later in his swim trunks. The back door slammed closed behind him as he strode out to the pool, bottle in hand. Heath braced his hands against the kitchen counter, looking stricken.

Cody headed to his bedroom too, calling out, “I’d better go out there with him. I could use a little somethin’ strong myself.”

When Cody went out on the back porch, after changing out of his jeans, it was to find Heath’s T-shirt and jeans strewn on the porch, where he must’ve left them when he’d stripped and put on his trunks. Spencer had already taken a swim and was now sitting on the edge, the bottle in his hand. He curled his lip and tilted the bottle to his mouth and then handed it to Heath when he swam to the edge where Spencer sat.

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