Page 159 of Maizy the Bear Charmer

She stroked the scar in his left eyebrow and said, “I love you, Bossy Bear.”

Cody grinned as he braced himself up on an elbow and looked down at her. “Bossy Bear?”

“Yeah, but I like that about you. You’re bossy but I know it’s because you care and not just because you have to be in charge.”

“I remember you calling me Grumpy Bear when we were washing your car after losing that damned bet.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re Grumpy Bear when you don’t get your way, which let’s face it, has to happen on a regular basis. I can’t have my bears getting complacent on me, you know?” She giggled when he blew a raspberry on her belly and nibbled at her hip.

Thinking he liked that she wasn’t going to be a pushover, he asked, “All right. What do you call Heath and Spencer?”

“Nuh-uh, that’s my secret.” She giggled when he tickled her belly button with the tip of his nose and said, “Okay, okay. Heath is Happy Bear.”

“Appropriate.”

“And Spencer is Worry Bear…and sometimes Honey Bear.”

“Worry Bear?”

“Yes, he worries about me driving Gertrude in the rain, about whether I’ve eaten, and slept enough. That was the first impression I had of him the day we met. He was also worried about me being frightened of the three of you.”

“How do you know that?”

“He told me. How did you get this?” she asked as she stroked his eyebrow again.

“A fight, when I was twelve. I hadn’t met Heath and Spencer yet. We were unsupervised one night and a couple of older boys picked a fight with me. That was the last time anyone picked a fight with me.” His upbringing had often been violent and he didn’t enjoy sharing details with her. He was grateful again to Jean Goodman for having the influence on them that she had.

“Ow. Did you need stitches?”

“A couple.” He’d needed five and his foster mom had done them herself. She’d been used to patching kids up. The other two boys had needed more stitches than he had.

She smiled as she stroked it. “I’ll bet that hurt but I have to tell you, it’s kinda sexy. Very pirate-y.”

“Pirate-y? Arr!” He kissed her and made her giggle some more before she looked up at him with serious eyes again.

“My heart aches when I think of the three of you growing up in that environment. I’m very glad that you found each other though.”

Cody shrugged. “It wasn’t all bad. We did have some good people in our lives.”

“Jean Goodman?”

“Yes. When we were a little older, we went through a period of rebellion and were moved to a group home together and told it was our last chance. We were too old to adopt and too young to be on our own. We were one bad decision away from living on the streets when we met her.”

“I like that you still visit her.”

“Far as I’m concerned, she’s my mom.”

“Do you know much about your biological mother?”

“Not much. Jean had a friend who helped me do some research a few years ago when I got curious. We gathered a little information from hospital records. I know my mother was really young, fifteen, and in the report it’s mentioned that they suspected she was a victim of domestic abuse. She delivered me and someone picked her up from the hospital during a shift change. There’s no other records of the name she gave so it most likely was a fake name.”

“If you’d like to pursue it sometime, I’d be happy to help you, or Heath and Spencer. It’s important to know your roots.”

“Thank you, angel. It used to bother me to think of her coming into the hospital to have me and being all bruised up and battered. I used to blame myself for it. I’d wonder and worry about what happened to her. I think all three of us worry about that sometimes. It’s probably why we’re all so protective of women. But whatever happened is long in the past. Life may have been hard at times but we managed, and we had Jean. She was good to us and taught us a lot.”

“Think you ever want to be a father some day?”

He smiled down at her and stroked the underside of her breasts, raising goose bumps on her flesh. “I know I do, angel. When you’re ready.”

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