Page 38 of Grin and Bear It

“Party might be too big a word for it, but he’s having some friends over. You want me to keep an eye out for them?”

“Yeah, and can you call me when they want to go home? They’re supposed to be grounded, but…”

“So no Cole then. Got it. What about Nash?”

Her voice was cautiously questioning, because she and all the other sleuths in town knew that Nash wasn’t coping. We’d had casseroles and stews brought around, then clusters of people in our lounge room, asking hushed questions.

“Better,” I said. “He’s found our mate.”

“No way! Well, you better have everyone over, and soon, let this poor girl know what she’s getting herself in for. Damn, that’s just what the doctor ordered.”

“Hopefully.”

There was a moment’s silence then, before she wished me good luck and we said our goodbyes, because we both knew the truth. A sleuth might only love one woman, but the woman? She wasn’t ruled by the same instincts. Ellie could choose us or she could walk away. I looked down at the bunch of flowers I was holding, feeling both a rush of hope and a pang of guilt at the same time.

Mum had often told me and my brother that one day we’d understand the shit she went through with us, when we had kids of our own. I’m not sure if I did or not, but it seemed like this was part of it. We needed to court Ellie, to let her know what we were so she could make her choice. Because if she did? Everything would be right in the world, that was the collective wisdom.

But would it be right for the twins?

They’d only lost their mother months ago and here we were, trying to foist what they saw as a replacement on them. We didn’t want that and from what I had seen of her so far, Ellie wouldn’t either. She cared about the two of them, but I didn’t think she’d try to be their replacement mother any more than we were replacement dads. I didn’t have any answers, and my pondering was interrupted by Cole’s car pulling up out the front of the house.

“You’re looking fancy,” Cole said, walking up the driveway towards me. “Where are you off to?”

“Out,” I said. And my lips twisted at the irony, because my reply was an echo of Knox’s.

Chapter20

Lin

Fuck…That was all I thought as I got out of my truck and walked up Ellie’s drive, and the nerves hit me.Fuck, fuck, fuck.I stood there a second, staring at her monstrosity of a house and then shook my head to clear my mind.

She’s gonna love you. You’re gonna go in there and sweep her off her feet and then everything will get better. So let’s do this. That little pep talk carried me up to her door, then had me rapping on the faded blue surface.

I had a whole lot of options going in my head, from taking her out to dinner to going for a coffee at a local cafe. We could walk down the jetty and watch the sunset, then grab some fish and chips and I could watch her lick salt from her fingers while—

“Lin?”

The door opened, a lot more smoothly now, but when I saw her, the sight tugged at me.

Ellie looked tired. Like a rose that had been pressed in between pages, the weight of it flattening it down: she was just as pretty, smelled just as sweet, but I could see how crushed she was.

“Are you looking for Nash? He’s not here right now, though he was here earlier, as you can see from the fact that the door now works properly.” She smiled wanly.

“Ah, no.” I met her smile with one of my own, then held out the bouquet. Shit, the cellophane was looking a whole lot more creased and… “I bought these for you.”

“For me?” She straightened up and went to reached for them, then stopped herself. “Why would you bring me flowers?”

Did she still think I was gay? Why else did a guy bring a girl flowers, but to…? I let out a little sigh.

“So, this probably feels like it's coming from nowhere but…” She blinked far too hard and too fast as she stared at me. “I just wanted to know if you’d like to go on a date with me.”

“Date?” She was staring at me as if I’d asked if her if she’d like monkeys to fly out of her arse. Her fingers gripped the edge of the door as her eyes opened wide. “You want…?”

“Yeah, we could go out for dinner or a movie or we could go for a walk on the beach. Whatever you’d like to do.”

Fuck. Fuuuck. She just stood there, staring at me like I had two bloody heads. Well, if I did, neither was prepared for this situation. I knew that a bear shifter needed to win his girl, but I thought he did that by getting to know her first. And as far as I knew, each one of the options I’d listed was a fairly bog-standard date.

“A movie,” she said.

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