Page 30 of Single Teddy (Mayberry Protectors #6)

TWENTY-FIVE

TEDDY

I yawned.

“Am I boring you, Mr. Olson?” Wesley asked, and Bear giggled next to him.

I snapped out of it and turned to Wesley with my most serious expression.

“No. Never!” I said.

Bear laughed again.

“Relax, Teddy. It was a joke!” Wesley answered and punched my shoulder.

“It’s just work. I’m exhausted,” I continued as we walked down the footpath to the entrance of Duke’s Sanctuary.

Wesley gave my back a quick pat, but it didn’t seem like Bear noticed. He was too busy looking at the ground.

“How is it going working with Zach though?”

I shrugged.

This was the second weekend I’d worked with him, so I couldn’t really make a proper assessment yet, but he was an easy boss and an even easier friend.

“It’s good. I don’t know why or how, but we…click, yeah, that’s the word. Click.”

Wesley bit his lip and joined Bear in looking down at the ground.

Was he…was he jealous? I thought I’d caught some vibes last Sunday when he dropped by with his sister, but I wasn’t sure.

“As friends,” I reiterated. “We click better,” I added and nudged him with my elbow.

That made him smile.

“I’m glad you’re making friends,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow.

“No. Really. I am,” he stressed.

“Trust me, Wesley. You have nothing to worry about.” I grabbed him by the wrist and gave it a squeeze before I let go.

He turned to me and beamed.

“I know,” he said.

Even though he seemed to believe me, I didn’t stop staring at him.

We had been…doing this tango for a week now.

If you could call it a tango, considering this was the first time we’d been alone since last Sunday morning.

Most of the week, we’d been too busy to meet up, and even when we did, it was to send him into Barnes’s house so he could keep his cover until Slade could decipher the data Wesley had managed to steal.

We’d had every intention of meeting last night, but I’d been so wiped after working at the truck all day that I passed out as soon as we got home.

“Are you excited to see all the farm animals, Bear?” Wesley asked, still holding his hand, which was the cutest picture ever. If only I could snap one.

“Yeah,” he nodded enthusiastically.

In all of this chaos, I hadn’t managed to spend much time with Bear either. Or, more specifically, any time we did spend together was either doing homework, eating, or zoning out in front of the TV.

Weekends were our opportunities to do things, and the poor thing was trapped in the food truck with me. Not that he complained. Zach fed him enough cakes and drinks to keep him properly sated and sleepy, but it wasn’t great when I was still trying to bond with him.

Teddy:

I want to see you, but I also want to do something with Bear after. Maybe I can pop by after?

That’s what I sent him last night after I’d woken up and carried Bear to bed.

I had been determined to do something after work after seeing how much of Saturday I’d wasted.

Wesley:

Then why don’t we do something together?

Teddy:

Are you sure?

Wesley:

I’m not all about the sex, you know.

And with that, it had been decided. We’d do something together after work. Thankfully, Zach had let me go an hour early, so it was still light when we set off.

It had been Wesley’s idea to come by the animal shelter.

“It’s the closest thing to a zoo this island has. And it’s beautiful,” he’d said.

That was how we’d found ourselves knocking on Duke’s door.

He opened up dressed in superhero pajamas and with his signature bright smile that oozed with flirt and sass.

“Welcome, welcome!” he said, and he immediately crouched to turn his attention to Bear.

“Oh, did we come at a bad time? Are you about to go to bed?” I asked, and Duke looked up.

“No. Not at all. Azrael and I were just having a nap,” he said and winked at me.

Wesley chuckled, and it took me a moment before I chuckled too. He was incorrigible. But at least he kept it PG.

“Hello, Bear,” Duke said and gently tickled Bear’s neck. “Are you ready to have a super phantasmagoric, extravagant, duper time?”

Bear laughed out loud and nodded, so Duke offered him his hand, and he took it.

“All righty, then. Let’s go! Follow me. Don’t get lost. Don’t touch the chocolate river!” he said, and Bear giggled again as we followed closely behind them even though I was certain he was too young to get the reference.

By the time we reached the back garden, Azrael, his dog Clover, and Duke’s dog Max had also joined us.

“Where is Noah?” I asked Azrael.

“His sister and my brother are out with him, entertaining him,” he answered.

“Ah, that explains the nap,” I said.

Azrael winked at me and then looked next to me at Wesley, offering him his hand.

“Nice to see you again, Wesley.”

“You too, Azrael.”

Azrael narrowed his eyes and looked from him to me and then back to him.

“I hear you two like napping together too,” he said.

I groaned.

Wesley bit his lip.

“We like the occasional snooze,” he mumbled.

“Who doesn’t love snoozing?” Duke threw at us from the front of the line, and I buried my face in my hands as if that would fix this mess.

“Okay, Bear. Now we have a crucial decision to make. What do you want to see first? The chickens, the horse, the cats, or the dogs?”

“The horse!” Bear exclaimed, and Duke marched toward the barn, laughing.

We stayed behind and let the happy couple introduce Bear to Calliope. At first, all we could hear was Bear’s incessant giggles, which made us chuckle too. But then, through whatever magic Duke wielded with kids and animals alike, Bear was calm as a cucumber, and he even got to ride Calliope.

“I can’t believe this is the same Bear I met only a month ago,” Wesley said, watching them go round in circles.

“It’s been a bit longer than a month,” I corrected.

Wesley rolled his eyes with a smile.

“Okay, Mr. Pedantic.” He nudged me with his elbow.

“But you’re right. He’s already so much better. All thanks to you.”

He huffed.

“Thanks to me? I did nothing. It’s all you.”

I shrugged.

“But if you hadn’t helped me, we’d still be stuck at the lodge and struggling to connect.”

“You’d have figured it out eventually.” Wesley leaned his head on his shoulder as he turned to me, and he looked freaking adorable like that. And so perfectly kissable. But I had to restrain myself.

“If you say so,” I mumbled and slipped my fingers through his.

Wesley glanced down and then toward Bear, but he was too busy having a good time to notice.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I asked him.

“What? Holding your hand in secret? I think I’ll survive,” he replied.

“That’s not what I meant. I mean, going out like this, with Bear and everything.”

Wesley glared at me for a moment before he said, “Are you okay with this?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Then so am I. You’re a package deal,” he said.

I squeezed his hand and licked my lips.

“So…” I started, and he glanced at me. “Are we…dating?”

Wesley pursed his lips from side to side.

“I think so. Are you okay with that? Or do you want to keep it casual?”

I couldn’t have shaken my head faster.

“No. I want to date you.”

“Good.” He smiled, looking into my eyes, and he jumped, his eyes going wide. “Shoot. I probably need to tell the school.”

“Tell the school what?”

“That we’re dating.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “I do. Otherwise, I could get in trouble. They’ll probably reassign Bear to a different teacher, and?—”

“You can’t tell them,” I said, putting my hand on his chest. “You can’t.”

“What? Why?”

“Bear loves you. He’s used to you. If they change his teacher, he might regress again.”

Wesley pressed his lips together and breathed in and out.

“If the school finds out?—”

“We won’t let them. We can keep this on the downlow, can’t we? I mean, I don’t want to hide you, but I’m just thinking of Bear here.”

Wesley studied me for a second or two before he sighed.

“What’s another secret anyway?” he said. “Besides, you’re right. This is…fresh. It would be premature to say something.”

“Thank you. I know how hard that must be, but?—”

“It’s for Bear’s sake,” he added and squeezed my hand.

“He’s gone through such an upheaval all his life. I don’t want to upset him. I don’t want him to think I’m just like my sister.”

“What about your sister?” he asked.

I turned to look at Bear. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a bigger smile on his face. Even as Azrael helped him off the horse and the two dogs gathered around him to sniff him, he was undeterred.

“Where to next?” I heard Duke ask as soon as he landed back on solid ground.

“Doggies!” he exclaimed.

He didn’t even register me when he passed by with Azrael in tow.

Wesley was still watching me. Waiting.

“She wasn’t a saint,” I said.

“No one is,” he answered.

Duke stopped by and gave us the thumbs-up.

I smiled and mimicked him, and he followed his fiancé and my nephew to the dog kennels. We stayed at a distance, but we followed too.

“The truth is…she was an addict.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry, Teddy. Drugs are cruel.”

I shook my head.

“No. Not drugs. Not at first. She was addicted to men.”

Wesley narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“I…I don’t follow.”

“She had this physical fear of being alone. She hopped from man to man by cheating. Never by breaking up. Because she was afraid of spending any time between boyfriends.”

“That’s awful,” Wesley muttered.

“I thought maybe after she had Bear, she would realize she didn’t need to fear loneliness.

That Bear would give her purpose. And he did.

For a bit. But it didn’t last. It wasn’t long after his first birthday that she started dating again.

Which is fine and all. But then, around the time he was three, she’d leave him alone just so she could go out on dates.

Bear…he kinda raised himself in that sense.

She’d put some chicken nuggets and fries in the microwave, tell him what to press, and that was it. She was off.