Page 16 of Bear's Heart

“I want you to enjoy it, too.”

“Oh, I will,” she teased.“I’m only recommending restaurants I like.”

They said goodbye and twenty minutes later Bear got a text from Josie.

Every place on this list has great food and is wheelchair friendly.I’ve eaten at several of them with my family.Most take reservations.The Copper Kid is the only one that doesn’t.

Bear skimmed the list before checking out each of the links.The menus looked good, and equally accessible, which was a plus in a town with historic buildings.In the end, he chose the restaurant with a pretty shaded patio, requesting a table for two on the patio at one o’clock.With the reservation confirmed, he texted Josie back with the restaurant and the time of their reservation.

She liked his text and then answered.Looking forward to it.

For the first time in a long time, Bear almost smiled.He was looking forward to lunch, too.And seeing Josie.She was the draw, not the meal, but his attraction to her unsettled him for the same reasons she’d unsettled him last week.She was too pretty, too young, too optimistic… for him the way he was now.It wasn’t that he couldn’t appreciate a beautiful woman, but he couldn’t get tangled up… or tangle her, either.

*

Bear saw fourdifferent properties Saturday morning and none of them were quite right for him.The building would need a big parking lot, and it needed to be conveniently located next to the building, not across the street or down the street, or in a parking tower.The building itself needed to be open and spacious, with lots of interior room for equipment and wheelchairs, which ruled out most of the turn of the century buildings downtown, and close to it.The building shouldn’t have a lot of windows—his clientele wanted privacy—but he hoped to put in sky lights to create an abundance of natural lighting.There was nothing worse than being cooped up in a building with just harsh strips of flourescents overhead.

Bear had a vision, a very clear vision of the business he wanted, and how the space would look and function, but nothing he saw today worked, and he wasn’t going to compromise on what he wanted.He’d just have to keep looking.

He was the first to reach the restaurant and the hostess seated him at the table on the patio, beneath a big umbrella and the shade of adjacent trees.It was warm without being hot, and the breeze rustled the leaves above, making it a perfect day for lunch outside.

A waitress led Josie to the table a few minutes later.Flushed and smiling, Josie greeted him breathlessly.“Am I late?”

“No.I just arrived,” he said, rolling back and drawing out her chair for her.

“Oh, good.”She sat down and gave him a brilliant smile, a smile that lit her eyes and made her teeth flash.

The waitress asked what they wanted to drink and disappeared.

Josie leaned toward Bear.“So?How did it go?Success?”

He shook his head.“Not great, but I’m not giving up.It’s just a matter of time.”

“What are you looking for?Maybe I can help you,” she asked, her violet gaze meeting his.“I’m good at finding things.Just ask Melissa and Neil at the firm.”

Her smile burrowed into his chest, catching his breath and Bear shifted uncomfortably.What was it about her that unsettled him so much?Women never made him uncomfortable before.But Josie… she was different.And he’d changed.He was different now.Not a good different; not the kind of different where he could offer her more.He would only ever be able to offer her less.

But this wasn’t a date, he reminded himself.This was business.“I welcome any and all help.My commercial real estate agent is running out of options for me in Bozeman.Now something could come on the market in the coming months, but I don’t want to wait months to get started.I’m ready to get going now.”

“Are you locked into Bozeman, or are there any other areas you’re interested in?What are your requirements in terms of square footage and other essentials?”

“Let me tell you a little about my business first, which should help explain my requirements as I have specific needs as my clientele have specific needs.”

She pulled out her phone.“Can I make notes?”

“Of course, and to answer your question, no, I’m not locked into Bozeman.It is the biggest city in the area and seemed like the best place for my first location.However, there’s no reason I can’t open a location elsewhere first.”

She looked at him.“What do you want to do?”

“I’m interested in opening a facility where those with SCI—”

“Spinal cord injury?”

He nodded.“Yes.At my facility, people could come and take advantage of a robotic walker for a half day, or day—after training how to use it.Just this year, Medicaid agreed to start covering exoskeletons for personal home use—but not very many have been approved yet and even then, the patient is still out the deductible, which is about twenty percent.”

“Are these exoskeletons terribly expensive?’

“About one hundred thousand dollars each.”

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