Page 26 of Bear with Me
"I'm fine."
Both of our glasses were empty, and I was stuffed with too many cookies. "We can move to the loveseat."
Ollie angled it so it wasn't directly facing the fireplace, and I dragged a stool over and set Ollie's laptop on it. Then, we sank onto the loveseat together. The seat tipped me over onto his lap again. This time, he draped his arm over my shoulder and angled our bodies so we could both see the computer screen.
Would I have preferred a big screen? Sure, but laughing with Ollie through the funny parts and clinging to him during the tense moments made up for it. I never wanted to watch a movie without him again. My chest ached when I remembered we had to return to our lives on opposite sides of Chicago.
CHAPTER 13
OLLIE
It was well past midnight.Christmas was over, so why was I still awake? I couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible had passed between me and my mom, and I would never undo the harm I'd caused.
Yes, I'd ditched my family at Christmas. I wanted them to listen when I said the holidays weren't relaxing. I barely had time to complete the long list of winter tasks before my vacation ended. Instead, they'd given me the cold shoulder.
Our phone conversation kept replaying in my mind. My brother closest to me in age, Steve, said "Merry Christmas," like it was the vilest insult in the book. Then he passed the phone to my next brother, Theo, who had the decency to ask if I was having a good time before passing me on to Ronny, who talked my ear off about his work promotion. It was all middle management stuff, where one job sounded like the next. I still didn't know the difference between a senior designer, project manager, and project consultant. They all sounded important.
Vinny and his omega wished I was there for their big news: they were expecting twins in April. Walter asked me if I was ready to be an uncle five times over, since his two kids had been the only youngsters in the family for so long.
Zander, my youngest brother, said I wasn't the only one missing. His omega, Dan, had stayed home with a mysterious illness."Mom's on the warpath without you here,"he'd whispered into the phone."You know she doesn't like Dan, anyway. He's terrified of her."
I tried to brush it off. Zander exaggerated everything.
But then, Mom wouldn't even say goodbye to me. Was she taking it harder than I'd thought she would? She never seemed happy to have all seven of us in her space after we moved out, but it must have been even worse with one of us gone for the biggest holiday of the year.
I wanted to tell her about Blake, but she didn't give me a chance. Would she be happy I met my mate, or would she be even angrier? Visiting Blake would be my focus for as long as our courting period required, which meant fewer trips home to see my folks.
I couldn't think about that now, or I'd never get to sleep. I stared up at the wood slats of the cabin's roof, imagining the tongue-and-groove fittings that held them together.
My mind wandered back to my favorite bedtime story, the three little pigs and their different houses. In my dream, they morphed into three bear cubs instead, each learning a different type of construction.
The big bad wolf looked more like my hyena shifter boss. Though he looked scary in his hyena form, he was a great foreman. He kept us safe on the job and worked with our union to make sure we were well compensated.
I woke with the unsettling need to call him. Had that come from the dream?
Blake snuggled closer to me, and I curled around him. Too soon, it would be time to return to our lives. I intended to court him back home, but what if he wasn't ready?
Over the next week,I read four books in my thriller series. When it got too hot in the cabin, which it still did from mid-morning to afternoon, I headed into the woods. The more time I spent with Maddie, the more she reminded me of my mom.
"I think I screwed up," I said on New Year's Eve morning after Ian and Kleah had left to get ready for their party. Until they mentioned it, I'd forgotten the date. The days between Christmas and New Year's always blurred together like an endless gray haze of too many snacks followed by naps, and this year was no different.
"Oh?" Maddie handed me a steaming cup of coffee, my second refill of the morning.
We sat on her back porch in our picks from a stack of well-loved and somewhat worn bath robes. Mine was too small at the shoulders, and the belt was more around my ribs than my waist, but it was long and wide enough to cover the important bits, which was all I needed.
Maddie's long brown hair sparkled with hints of gray where she'd twisted it into a messy bun. She stared intently into her cup as she stirred sugar into her fragrant tea.
"My mom," I said. I'd told Maddie about my family the first day we met in the woods. "When I called my family on Christmas Day, she wouldn't talk to me."
Maddie sipped her tea, scrunched up her nose, and added another spoonful of sugar. Then she grinned at me. "Let me guess. You've been the perfect son until now."
I shrugged. "Nobody's perfect."
"True." She took another sip and grinned before taking a longer drink. "They didn't expect you to be a good role model for your brothers?"
"Sure, but I made plenty of mistakes."
She nodded. "I'm sure you did. We all do. How did your parents react to them?"
