Page 40 of Bear Naked Truth
It hit warm, then cool. Sweet, then tart. The taste shifted mid-swallow, curling into something oddly nostalgic. The scent of a forest after rain. The sting of hope just before it hurt.
Nico waited.
“It was supposed to be fake,” she said finally, voice rough. “This whole… setup with Dorian. Pretending to be his girlfriend so the realtors and supernatural creeps would leave the inn alone.”
Their perfect brows climbed, eyes widening. “Fake?”
“Yeah.” Autumn exhaled hard, shoulders curling forward. “It was just supposed to be a ruse. A means to an end. In. Cleanse. Out. Done.”
Nico blinked, stunned. “You mean to tell me… that the two of you—with your heart eyes and stormy porch kisses and unspeakable kitchen tension—that’s all beenpretend?”
Autumn’s cheeks burned.
They threw a hand over their heart like she’d wounded them. “You witches aredangerous.I wasthis closeto making a couples prediction for the winter solstice board.”
“It’s not that simple,” she muttered, tracing the rim of her cup. “I didn’t plan for… him.”
Nico softened. “No one ever does, darling. That man has the emotional range of a bear in a flannel-covered romance novel.”
“Heisa bear in a flannel-covered romance novel.”
“Exactly.”
They fell quiet for a moment. The vines above fluttered faintly.
Autumn didn’t look up. “I want him,” she admitted, so quiet it barely carried. “I want him in that messy, terrifying, soul-baring way. But…”
“But you don’t trust fate.”
She nodded.
“And why would you?” Nico said gently. “You’ve been alone a long time. Taught yourself that being safe means being untouched. That being seen means being left behind. Or so I’ve been told.”
Autumn’s throat tightened. The tea went down like truth lodged behind her ribs.
“I’ve never had anyone stay,” she said. “Not really. Not when it got hard. Not when I stopped being useful.”
Nico reached across the table, their rings clicking softly against the ceramic as they took her hand.
“Maybe,” they said, “the lesson isn’t that people don’t stay. Maybe it’s that you’ve never let them.”
Her eyes snapped to theirs, sharp. But she didn’t argue.
“You think I’m cruel,” they said, smiling gently. “But I’m not. I see people. And I see you. And I see him. And babe… whatever this thing started as? It’s not pretend anymore. You know it. Heknowsit.”
“I’m scared,” she said.
Nico squeezed her hand. “Good. That means it matters.”
She finished the tea in one long swallow. The mug glowed faintly as she set it down, then dimmed.
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t have to,” they said. “You just have tolet it happen.Love’s a spell that only works when both casters surrender control.”
She snorted. “That was annoyingly poetic.”
“I’m annoyingly everything.”
