Page 35 of Bear with Me
While she prepared the dough for rising, I unraveled the string of lights and soon found the culprit. One of the wires had been cut. I showed it to her. "It's possible a bulb burned out, too, but I wouldn't trust this on a real tree." Mom would never settle for artificial trees, no matter how pretty they looked in the store.
"Figures," Mom said. "That wouldn't have happened if you were here."
Dad's yawn alerted us both to his presence in the doorway. "What happened?"
"Someone cut this string of lights," Mom said. "I think Walter did it."
"Mom!"
Dad rubbed the back of his neck. "Or, maybe a little mountain lion shifter got too close to the tree."
"The twins are shifting already?" They were three. Petra was a bear shifter, and Liam was a mountain lion like his mom, Walter's mate.
"Liam batted an ornament hanging from the bottom of the tree. A claw got stuck, and next thing you know, little kitty with a singed paw and a dead string of lights."
Mom sighed. "You could have told me the truth."
"She already partially shifted twice that day to yell at us!" Dad extended his big bear claws from his fingertips.
"It wasn't that bad," she grumbled.
Dad laughed. "You're only saying that because he's here now. She missed you."
"I told him so."
"I know," I said, "and I'm?—"
"Don't you say you're sorry." Dad grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. I was a few inches taller, but that didn't prevent him from cuffing my ears and pulling me down to rub his knuckles in my hair. "It was a hard Christmas for all of us, but we learned something. Right, dear?"
Mom snorted an annoyed laugh. "Right. You're coming home for Christmas next year, and you'll be in charge of keeping the kids away from the Christmas tree."
Dad shook his head. "We learned Christmas is a holiday best enjoyed together, not with our oldest kid doing all the chores while the others stay inside doing nothing."
"Yeah, yeah. What do you want for breakfast?"
She restarted the burner under the skillet and took a slab of bacon out of the fridge, along with the eggs for French toast. "You're sure you don't want any?" she asked me.
I still loved the smell of bacon, and Blake had never said I had to be vegan. Still, it seemed wrong to eat meat after going without for two weeks. "No, thanks."
My bear and I were on the same page. We wanted to be a suitable mate for Blake. If that meant giving up meat, I wouldn't eat it again. Smells were free, though.
CHAPTER 16
BLAKE
With the waymy work hours dragged, I thought the weekend would never come. Once I was off the clock, time passed far too quickly. On the way home, I needed groceries, or wood crafting supplies, or a new pen, and I didn't get home until well after most businesses closed.
Frustrated with my lack of progress after work, I decided to take matters into my own hands over lunch. I locked myself in a tiny room that had once been a phone booth. Perched on a thin bench seat with my laptop hanging over the ledge where the phone used to be and my notebook open to my list of potential therapists, I dialed the first number on my cell phone. No one answered, so I left a message and tried again.
Several were at lunch, same as I was. The first who answered wanted to help me find God, which was a huge red flag for me. The other was a kind-sounding woman who wanted to meet over video call. Thankfully, she scheduled it that same evening.
"I'm so proud of you for taking this step," she said once I received the email with the meeting link. "Some people suffer for years before they get help with their grief. Most people expect to lose their parents eventually, so they feel guilty when it hits them harder than expected. You're ahead of the game."
"How so?"
She laughed. "You called me! We'll talk more tonight to confirm we're compatible."
My whole body buzzed with excitement after the call. As I packed up my notebook and laptop in my backpack, the reason punched the breath out of me. She sounded like my mom.
