Page 70 of Grin and Bear It

“She was pissed.” But he smiled at that, not angry. “But it was worth it. She was reacting, responding…” I bet, with this fuckhead testing her boundaries like that. “And then she was responding in a whole other way.” He licked his lips with a kind of enthusiasm that made me think it wasn’t the beer getting him excited. “She tasted so fucking good.”

I jerked myself away from him. It was either that or punch his punk-ass face. Cole was a prick, always, we all knew that, even when we decided to form this sleuth together. For some reason our bears and his meshed, though they weren’t right now. I opened the kitchen cabinets, searching through one then the other until I found what I was looking for.

“Gonna meal prep your way through your frustration that I got to Ellie first?” he asked with a smirk.

“No, I’m gonna pack some of this and see if I can go over and make sure she doesn’t want to write us all off because of you,” I shot back, feeling a sense of satisfaction when his smile faded, then a punch of guilt when doubt filled his eyes.

Cole was different. Each one of us was affected by the shit we’d gone through growing up. But him? What had happened between his parents was damn near unheard of in bear shifter circles. His mother had accepted the bond and had Cole, his dads thinking everything was perfect, until it happened. She said she fell out of love, moving on with someone else and leaving Cole and his dads heartbroken.

I closed my eyes for a second, sucking in a breath, then letting it out, the savoury smell of the chilli helping to calm me down. It was my mom’s recipe, the scent memories it evoked bringing me back to her.

What would she tell me to do? It was something I asked myself any time things got hard. I’d see her deep brown eyes then, gazing down at me with the most perfect love, feel her hand in my hair, fingers rubbing across my scalp. She was like a candle I lit inside my soul, flickering, flickering, but always burning, and that’s when I went to work. Make it work, that’s what she always told me when I pointed out something was wrong or needed fixing. Make it work with what we had. Well, I had a pot full of the best food I knew and my mate had to eat, right? I grabbed the cornbread out of the oven, slicing it up into squares and then adding them to another container, before snagging some sour cream and…

“She wants us,” Cole told me, suddenly serious as he stood in my way. “She doesn’t want to, but she does.”

“But a woman doesn’t choose a shifter just because she wants to fuck him,” I shot back. “If we’re going to build anything that’ll last, we need her to fall in love with us in the same way we’re falling for her.”

Cole had hated that, the same stung expression as yesterday appearing on his face, but I didn’t get stuck on that. I pushed past him, toting a bag full of my food and then left out the front door.

“Uncle Ty!”Knox called out to me, waving me over, so I went. He seemed a little better, a little lighter since the talk.

“You finish your homework?” I asked as he bounced the ball.

“We don’t have any homework for a while.” As his grin widened, I stared him down. “We just have to focus on our assignments, get them done.”

“And what did you get done?” I asked him.

“I finished about half of my maths assignment. No idea if it's right, but it's done. Then I wrote a page of my English assignment.” He shrugged then, all nonchalance. “I figure that’s enough.”

Praise that boy, Momma said inside my head.He’s worked hard. Make sure he knows that.

He bounced the ball harder then, looking like a kid that was facing down a firing squad, so I’m pretty sure he didn’t expect this. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. He stank of sweat and teenage boy funk only partially masked by Lynx body spray, but I hugged him tight anyway.

“I’m proud of you, little bro.” He let a long breath out. “I know this shit is hard for you, but you did it anyway.” I released him then and he stared up at me. “That’s what a man does.”

He nodded, trying to play it cool, but I saw it. His cheeks flushed bright red, and not just from exertion.

“Now go inside and wash up for dinner. You guys will be fending for yourself tonight.”

“Please tell me Uncle Cole isn’t cooking,” Knox groaned. “I can’t eat any more burnt French toast.”

“Chilli’s on the stove, cornbread’s in the oven,” I told him.

“Yes…”

“And show your math assignment to your uncle.” Cole hated math more than Knox did, if it could be believed. “See if he can check your work for you.”

“So, you’re going…” I watched my nephew’s Adam’s apple bob. “You’re going around to Miss’ place to try and convince her to give it a go?”

“Yeah.” I held up my bag. “Ain't no woman alive that can resist my chilli.”

I just hoped that was actually the case, I thought, as I walked over to my car.

Chapter36

Sobering up sucked.

I wasn’t even that drunk, and I sure couldn’t blame what had happened on a couple of Coronas, but I just lay in bed after Cole pulled away, just staring at the ceiling in a daze. No, more than that. I felt like those cats that lie directly in a patch of sun on the floor and wriggle back and forth from the sheer pleasure of being sleepy and warm. Yeah, like that. Only better. I stretched my whole body just to feel that deep, constant pleasure. I’d come harder and more than I ever had before and, damn, it’d be hard to go back to a regular dude if that’s what messing with a bear shifter was like. But eventually I had to get up. And when I did, Coll pounced.

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