Page 49 of Bear's Heart

The bottom line was that she couldn’t move in to the Marietta house.But Savannah was not going to just go quietly into the night.She would hound him—and Josie—until she had a definitive, negative answer from Josie.

Bear called Josie while driving.

“Tomorrow is the big day,” she sang cheerfully as she answered his call.

“Can today be the big day?”

“You want to move in today?”

“No, but I’d love to see the house today if I could.It’d make me feel better about tomorrow.”

“Oh, Bear, are you having regrets?”

“No regrets about buying the new house, or moving, but regrets about allowing Savannah to stay in Clyde Park for a few days.”

“I wondered how that was going.”

“Badly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to put you in the middle.”

“I’m not.Am I?”

He sighed, and ruffled his hair, dragging his hand through the short strands.“She wants to meet you.She thinks that once you meet her, you won’t object to her staying with us for a week—or more.”

Josie didn’t answer, and Bear’s stomach hurt.He was stressed and frustrated and torn between being a decent human being and saving his sanity.

“What do you want, Bear?”Josie asked carefully, quietly.

“I want her to go away.”He felt like a child, and he hated it.

He hated feeling cornered.He resented that Savannah could make him feel guilty and responsible when he hadn’t been part of her life for years.

“But I also don’t want to drive her to desperation and then she just terminates this pregnancy like she’s done before.”

Again, Josie took her time answering.“Why do I feel like there’s more to this story than you’re telling me?”

“Because there is.”

“Will you tell me?”

“Maybe.Someday.”He sighed even as his chest tightened, squeezing, trapping the air in his lungs.“It’s hard to talk about.”

“She hurt you,” Josie said.

“We hurt each other,” he answered.“But she got the last word, and it did hurt.A lot.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Not that long ago, Bear.I thought it was three years ago this summer you were hurt, and at the time you two were engaged.”

“Yes.”He swallowed hard.“It’ll be three years in September.”

“So almost three years, and I can’t imagine she broke up with you right away?”

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