Page 14 of Wrong Turn, Right Bear (Beartastic Summer of Love)

FOURTEEN

THEO

I was in our temporary office aka the spare bedroom.

I’d finally convinced Ash we needed a proper office near the lake and restaurants where the tourists milled about.

And while many of them booked online, cutting out the need for face to face contact, there were a lot of older folks who visited Boulder Pass year round. Not all of them were computer savvy.

But even if they were, coming face to face with our headquarters as they finished their swim or as they strolled along the lake eating ice cream piqued their curiosity.

For now I was working from home while the new headquarters was being finished.

The front door banged and I glanced up. Ash was supposed to be gone all day, leading a group of hikers up the valley .

“It’s me.” Mollie. Maybe she’d come to rescue me from paperwork and permits.

“That’s enough for today.” She held out both hands and I took them, pleased to be given even a minute’s respite from work.

“A day off sounds amazing but with the baby coming, I need to get everything in order.” Once our little one arrived, I would have limited time—or perhaps none—for the first few months.

“Nope, I have my orders.” She opened the shoe cupboard and picked up the infamous hiking boots before replacing them. “Sneakers are fine for where you’re going.”

The last part of that sentence was ominous. Good guys said that to bad guys at the end of a movie when the baddies were headed to prison.

Mollie grabbed my coat and sun visor and steered me to the car. I had stopped driving because it was uncomfortable with my big belly.

“Are you taking me out to lunch? Because I have to warn you, I have a huge appetite.” After having to force myself to eat in my first and early second trimesters, I now relished the taste and aroma of food. All food.

“Not exactly. You are going to eat but not with me.”

“Oh gods, is Ash expecting me to give him head? I can’t get on my knees. ”

Mollie giggle snorted and had to pull over as she was laughing so much.

“I’m not Ash so I can’t say if he’s expecting a blow job but I’m talking about real food.”

“Okay.” We were heading away from town and when she pulled up, we were surrounded by woods. While I didn’t have the same fear about the forest as I used to, heavily pregnant me wasn’t about to skip along a trail and hike the miles back to town.

“You’re here.” Ash appeared and all my doubts vanished. He took my hand and kissed it. How formal. He thanked Mollie and she drove off, leaving us without a way back to town. “Don’t worry, my truck’s parked nearby.”

He led me down a short path to a grassy shaded area overlooking the lake.

“We never got our picnic the day you left, so ta-da.” He extended his hand to a blanket on the grass with pillows, soft fluffy ones and triangular ones I could lean back on. There were also two picnic baskets that I hoped were jam packed with yummy treats.

He helped me sit because my bump had altered my center of gravity.

“When Mollie saw me packing the baskets, she joked if I was feeding all the forest animals too.”

I waggled my finger at him. “If any squirrel or rabbit tries to steal a bite, they’ll answer to me. Never take food from a pregnant omega.”

“Did you hear that guys? You’ll have to make do with forest food.” Ash yelled into the trees. He cupped a hand to his ear and nodded. “They’re disappointed but they’ll get over it.”

I giggled. He was so silly and I loved that about him.

“Now gimme gimme some food, alpha.”

He opened the picnic basket and brought out fruit and nuts, and freshly squeezed orange juice. I popped a grape in my mouth while Ash removed quiche, baguettes, and sandwiches from the picnic basket. There was avocado and egg salad, pasta salad and a creamy potato one, too.

I’d moved on from the fruit to the quiche when my mate reached into the second basket for the desserts. I was like a kid at Christmas. There were so many choices and I wanted to sample them all.

“Slow down, babe. We have all afternoon.”

My mouth was full but I spoke anyway. “But did the ants get your message about staying away from the picnic?”

“They wouldn’t dare. Besides, if they did venture onto the blanket, my beast would take his fur and?—”

“Scare them?” Were ants afraid of bears? I supposed they could get stomped on .

“No, he’d eat them. Bears love ants.”

Okay. No ants. Good to know.

“This is delicious.” I bit into a brownie while holding a deviled egg in the other hand.

“If I told you I was up all night slaving away in the kitchen, would you believe me?”

“Nah. I know Ella at the deli made this spread.” I beckoned him closer. “You don’t need to do everything to show your love.”

“That’s good advice. You should remember that.” He was teasing me about the business. I’d left my old life envisioning I’d slow down, wear oversized sweaters and arrange flowers I’d picked from the garden. But I was busy. The difference was I was living and working with the love of my life.

We leaned on the triangle cushions and fed one another cake and cubed watermelon. There was a huge splash as a fish rose up and dived back into the water.

“My bear has a request.”

“He wants to go fish?”

Ash laughed. “How did you guess?”

“Go.”

My mate stripped off and the dappled sunlight spilled over his body as he shifted from man to beast. His bear lumbered into the water, then stood still waiting, waiting, and waiting until he scooped up a huge fish. He devoured it and I picked up a container of raspberries.

“Catch.” I tossed one and my mate’s beast caught it.

He clamored out, water dripping from his thick fur and shook himself before taking his skin.

“Hey. I wasn’t planning on taking a shower just yet.”

“Very funny.” Ash pulled on his T-shirt and briefs and covered us both with a blanket.

“We should do this more often.” My eyes were closing but I pried them open, not wanting to miss a moment of this magical afternoon.

“Can do.”

I must have dozed off because I woke with a start as I got a kick in the ribs.

“Contractions?”

Ash had read every book and watched all the videos on birth. He probably knew more than me. No, he did because he’d get into bed at night, the tablet in one hand, and recited what we could expect in the hours leading up to the delivery. He used words and expressions I wasn’t familiar with.

“Braxton Hicks for sure. Do you want to walk around or lean on me?”

I took his hand and placed it on my belly. “Our little one has been sleeping too but now they’re awake. ”

“Hello, my darling.” Ash leaned in close to the bump. “You’re so big now, there’s little space in Daddy’s tummy. But soon you’ll begin a long journey and we’ll be waiting.”

Not too long I hoped. I half expected my mate to give our child a blow by blow description of being squeezed into the world. But instead, he regaled the baby with adventures he’d had in the woods growing up.

I bit my tongue when he described staying out all night in a little shack he’d built when he was twelve. That was before he’d met his beast.

“That can happen but only if I’m in the tent next door and you’re with me.”

“Fine.” He lowered his voice. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable allowing our child to do some of the things I did as a kid.”

That had me giggling. The guy who spent most of his time outdoors and who had a ferocious bear inside him, was looking back at some of his antics and thinking, “Not my kid.”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this but we mustn’t be helicopter parents. Our little one has to spread their wings without us one step behind.”

“I agree. What if we hide behind a tree and disguise ourselves with mud and twigs on our head and keep an eye on our offspring with binoculars?” he asked.

I held my belly and cackled. “We are so going to be those parents, right?”

“Hate to say it, but yeah.”

Like most people who became parents, we’d learn, make mistakes, and get it right sometimes. But our baby would be showered with love.

I yawned.

“Let’s go home.”

My mate was beside me and the baby was kicking. Life was pretty damned good.