Page 33 of Bear with Me
"I'm driving to his place on Friday."
"Get that alpha knot! That's my boy!"
I frowned at him. "Who said he's an alpha?"
Vic laughed. "You're kidding, right? I can smell him all over you."
I ran my hands down the front of the flannel jacket I'd commandeered. "Right. I left my coat at work. This is his."
Vic tapped his almost-empty cup against mine. "This move is already working out for one of us, at least."
"You live in a building made for Halloween, and you have ten months to plan an epic costume party. You're doing all right."
He grinned. "True. I've already talked to the girls who live on the first floor. They're on board with a house-wide party, if we can convince the other tenants."
We spent the rest of the hour reminiscing about past Halloween parties. When my watch's alarm buzzed, we carefully placed our ceramic mugs into the dirty dish box and hurried outside. The sky was far lighter now than when we'd first entered.
I gave Vic another quick hug. "Don't be a stranger."
"Same to you, asshole who didn't text me for two weeks while I was moving out of your fucking apartment." He hugged me so tight, my ribs popped.
I gave his shoulders one last squeeze, and we said our farewells. The fun part of the morning was over. Now, it was time to enter corporate call center hell.
CHAPTER 15
OLLIE
I lumberedaround the house on Monday, taking care of all the chores I'd left until after vacation. Laundry, of course, but I also dusted and vacuumed the cabin and mopped the kitchen and entryway stone floors.
Once I'd run out of things to do, I sat and stared at my blank television screen. I'd rented a cabin without a television to break the habit of watching all the time, and it worked. I couldn't have cared less about Monday afternoon talk shows, but what was I supposed to do now?
I grabbed my phone from the bedroom. Time to find the next book in the series I'd read while I was on vacation.
I had a missed call from my dad. He rarely called any of us, choosing to let Mom speak for him. My pulse spiked. Had something happened to Mom?
I could barely hear the ring in my ear over the pounding of my heart. He answered on the second ring. "Ollie. You still between construction jobs?"
"Yeah—"
"Good. Pack a bag and get your ass down here. Your mom's losing her ever-loving mind."
"She … what?"
"You only need to stay for a couple of days, long enough for her to get this bug outa her ass."
She must not have been in the room, or he would have caught hell for that statement. "What's wrong?"
"Our oldest son didn't come home for Christmas. What do you think is wrong?"
"I needed?—"
"We know, son. I promise it'll be better next year, but you need to calm your mama bear down right now, or so help me, I'm coming to live with you."
That was enough to get me off the couch and headed for my bedroom to pack, the phone still cradled to my ear. "I'm on my way."
"We'll save dinner for you."
I hastily shoved a few pairs of socks, underwear, some pajamas, a few t-shirts, and two pairs of jeans, one nice and one grubby, into my backpack. I scarfed down a peanut butter sandwich to tide me over and hit the road.
