Page 17 of The Bear's Second Chance Mate
“Hello, Herbert.” Oli crouched down next to Herbert. Stanley watched the boy’s face shift from cautious to calm. Slowly, hereached out toward the rabbit. Herbert flicked an ear in Oli’s direction and leaned in closer, his whiskers twitching.
Oli murmured something, probably a rabbit fact, but even with his shifter hearing, Stanley didn’t catch it. He was too busy watching June.
She stood back, arms crossed loosely, trying to look natural, but he could see she was impressed.
Or was that wishful thinking?
“Would you like a coffee?” Stanley asked. “I’ve got cookies, too. Triple chocolate. I baked them myself.”
She might not be as impressed by the cookies as she is by the quiet corner,his bear warned him.
“You are a man of many talents,” she said.
“You might not say that once you have tasted them,” Stanley warned.
“I’m sure they are wonderful,” she replied.
His bear chuckled but kept his thoughts to himself.
“Can we have one?” Oli asked. “Please.”
June nodded. “Maybe you could do the taste test.”
“I’m good at tasting food.” Oli stood up and followed Stanley into the room behind the counter.
“Here we are.” Stanley opened the tin of freshly baked cookies and offered them to Oli.
For a moment, Oli stood there staring at them, biting down on his bottom lip as he scanned the cookies. But Stanley stood patiently, waiting for Oli to select one. “This one has the most chocolate chips.”
Stanley grinned widely. “A man after my own heart.”
Oli looked up at him and tugged his brows together, the cookie held firmly in one hand.
“Stanley means he likes the ones with the most chocolate chips, too,” June explained calmly.
Oli looked at his cookie, then at Stanley, before holding it out. “Do you want it?”
“No. It’s yours,” Stanley said. “But when I was growing up with five brothers, it was always a competition to see who could get the cookie with the most chocolate chips.”
“Six sons, your mom must have had her hands full,” June said as Stanley offered her a cookie.
She hesitated for just a second, perhaps barely noticeable to anyone else, but he caught it. Then she reached in and took one.
“I left you the one with the most chocolate chips,” she said softly.
Stanley could barely breathe. It was as if she’d given him the greatest gift in the world, even though it was only a cookie.
But she thought about what mattered to you,his bear said, fit to burst right out into the open.
“Thank you.” He cleared his throat. “A handful, yes, to be sure,” he added, answering her earlier comment with a smile. “But we weren’t bad boys. We spent a lot of time roaming the mountains.”
“I bet,” June said, and then gave him a strange look he couldn’t quite read.
There was something behind her eyes. As if she wanted to ask him something but wasn’t sure she should.
Stanley held her gaze for a long moment, then turned away. “Coffee coming right up.”
As he filled two mugs, he caught June watching him. Not closely, not quite openly, but watching all the same.
