Page 34 of His Determined Bear

“Vacation Cooper,” I heard her calling after me as she left my room. Somehow she knew I needed privacy to handle my business.

I hurried over to my suitcase grabbed them from inside the medical kit I traveled with. It wasn’t too late, right? Just one day over the time limit. I turned the box over and read the back of the package. I let out a relieved sigh and willed my heart to stop racing. According to the dosing instructions, I could take it now without harm to the baby if pregnancy occurred. I couldn’t even think about all that right now.

To top off my anxiety about my mistake, I tried not to think about the fact that my chances of conceiving were way higher now that I’d waited to take the medication. I tried to convince myself that it would be fine. It had to be.

But until I was certain I wasn’t pregnant, I couldn’t take the chance and see Graham.

I grabbed my phone and sent the text message before I could change my mind.

Cooper: Can I get a rain check on tonight? Something very important’s come up.

I sank down on the bed, then flopped back, staring up at the ceiling. Everything would be okay. I was sure that in a few weeks, I would laugh off how paranoid I had been.

It wasn’t like the chances of pregnancy were increased by how fantastic the sex was. Because if that was the case…. My hand went to my belly… no, don’t even go there.

Chapter 13

Graham

As I swiveled around in my office chair, I picked up my phone for what felt like the millionth time in the past week. I tapped on the messages icon and went to my pinned messages, clicking on the chat thread with Cooper. There sat my last message from yesterday, and just like the previous three I’s sent, there were no replies. The last time I’d heard from him was the message about needing a raincheck and something coming up.

I’d considered going over to Aaron’s house a few times to find out what was going on but had ultimately decided against it. My mate had made it pretty clear he didn’t want to see me, and I couldn’t just barge in there. Could I?

I sighed and pressed down on my eyes, and yawned.It was hard to sleep in my rattled state of mind.

I heard footsteps approaching from outside the kitchen but didn’t open my eyes. I’d been at the cafe since 4am every single day this week. If I’d failed as a mate, the least I could do was not fail as a baker.

I tried not to think about how I’d actually taken his suggestion to cream the brown sugar and butter together before adding the other ingredients to keep brownies from drying out. As it turns out, he was right, and it was actually very good.

It certainly put your old brownie technique to shame. Which I wouldn’t care about if Cooper was actually speaking to me. I knew I was fixating on the brownies because it made me feel closer to him.

Gods, I sounded like an eighth grader with his first crush.

I rolled my shoulders and yawned. Sleep was what I needed. I’d been running on caffeine and sugar for the last several days. Yeah, because sleeping meant I had dreams about Cooper. The feel of his warm, smooth skin beneath my hands. The way he laughed at my expense and that twinkle he got in his eyes when he knew he was right.

All of it, I missed it all. Even though being awake gave me no reprieve, Cooper was always on my mind. The difference was I could work until I was too tired to function and then be granted a small slice of oblivion when I finally collapsed into sleep for a few hours.

I could control baking, creating recipes, and working. But Cooper ignoring me was making me crazy. Another benefit of working until you dropped kept me from going over and over every moment I spent with him, wondering exactly what I’d done wrong. But of course, I woke up again, and thewondering started all over again.

I sighed.

“Apparently, your staff is sick of hearing all that pacing and sighing in here, so they sent us to come to get you.” I slowly opened my eyes at the sound of Gabe’s voice.

Oh, wonderful! To make things worse, he wasn’t alone. Austin and Hunter were along for the ride. You saw this coming. Hell, I was surprised they’d given me a week without showing up here. It had to have been difficult for them. But we’d always done our best to respect each others privacy. You had to, or living on the same street for all intents and purposes would be hell.

I found myself saying a merciful thank you that Rhys wasn’t present. My baby brother was relentless. And I wasn’t ready to deal with his prodding just yet.

“I do believe you all have jobs,” I said, closing my bloodshot eyes once more. “And the last time I checked, we didn’t have any meetings scheduled.”

“Nice try,” Hunter snorted, then looked at our brothers. “Seriously, after all these years, he still tries to do that.”

“I don’t know why it never works,” Austin replied sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at their back and forth banter. Not that they were wrong. My go-to move was a deflection that never seemed to work on my brothers.

I slowly opened my eyes again, hoping they would be gone, and leaned forward, putting my forearms on my desk and plastering a fake smile on my face.

“To what do I owe this pleasure, gentlemen?” I asked, shooting each of them a pointed look.

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