Page 2 of Bear's Heart

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I’m an intern with the firm—”

“Anintern?”

“Yes, an intern, but I also have more experience with universal design—”

“What does that mean?”

“I specialize in accessible design, and I’m here of my own volition.I’m here because I want to make it right, and I know I can.”

“Are you the one standing in my yard?”

“I am.”

He sighed, exasperated, and then the line went dead.

Josie glanced at her phone.He’d hung up on her.

But then the front door opened, and a shadow stretched across the porch.“You coming in?”The deep voice called, coming from the threshold.

Bear.

Josie swallowed hard, suddenly nervous, and clutched her notebook closer to her chest.“Coming,” she said loudly, before quickly walking up the shiny silver ramp, her footsteps sounding like thunder on the aluminum surface.

*

Bear rolled backfrom the door to let Josie Calhoun enter.He wasn’t in a good mood.He hurt.But then he hurt all the time now.There was nothing right about being stuck in a chair.Stuck sitting.Even thirty-three months after the accident, he still felt trapped.

“Should I shut the door?”she asked.

Bear turned a little, glanced back at her.The white silver light reflecting off the ramp shone around her, creating a halo around her head, as if she were an angelic being instead of a Bozeman interior design intern who’d decided to pay a house call because she considered herself an expert.He appreciated confidence but today he wasn’t in the mood for this… or her.

“Do you close your front door?”he snapped.

She quietly closed the door, but her expression was amused more than intimidated.

“What?”he demanded.

“Nothing.”

“You’resmiling,” he said tightly through gritted teeth.

“I’m just happy to be meeting you.I’ve followed your career since I was a little girl.”

His narrowed gaze swept over her from head to foot.“You’re still a little girl.”

“Not super tall, no, but that’s because I take after my mom.”Her voice was light, friendly, as if determined to not be offended by his temper tantrum.

He knew he was having a temper tantrum, too.It’d been a terrible forty-eight hours, and Bear couldn’t seem to shift his mood.

“What do you think you’re going to do, Josie, when no one else at the firm could make things more accessible for me?”

“Let’s put our cards on the table.There wasn’t enough advance notice that you were returning—”

“It’s my house.Why should I give advance notice if I want to come home?”

Her slim shoulders shrugged.“You are the one that wanted to get inside.And you are the one that requested the big porch and wide front steps.The house wasn’t built with accessibility in mind.So now we need to do some retrofitting, but those changes take time.”

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