Page 110 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
And I couldn’t wait to tell Remy.
There was no “everyone clapped” moment, but a few people cheered and sent me encouraging looks. I nodded in kind to them, gave a little bow, then headed out.
Sure enough, I only had to go a few steps before Remy was right there, a soft grin on his face. He looked so proud of me, I nearly cried. How had this man, who had been a stranger six months ago, given me the things my family had denied me from birth?
“I’m so incredibly proud of you,” he said before catching me up in one of those amazing bear hugs of his.
I smiled at my pun, but also at the sensation of being truly embraced. There was peace in Remy’s arms. And I would never forget that.
“You heard?” Although he had been halfway down the street, shifter hearing really was quite impressive.
“I heard. And you were magnificent. I wish you would’ve let me come in with you so I could film it. I bet the look on their faces was amazing.”
Now that my adrenaline was beginning to ebb, I gave it a thought, and yeah... Their expressions had been a mix of comedic and incredibly satisfying. They really had thought they could just whisk into my life and trick me all over again. Fucking idiots.
“They were. I think I made my point clear enough, so we won’t have to worry about them ever popping back up again.”
“If they do, you know I’ll handle it, right?”
“Handle it like run them out of town, or with a sniper rifle?” I chuckled, calling back to the joke he had made before.
“Whatever you want.” He bent and gave me a little kiss. Not the lip lock I was kind of starting to crave what with the adrenaline still pumping through me, but it was so wonderful. “Speaking of which, do you want to go pick up the kids from their playdate with Valencia and Paulo?”
That did sound lovely. The whole thing with my parents really made me want to hold my son and be grateful that he was gonna have a life nothing like mine had started. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready quite yet.
“Actually, do you mind if we go on a bit of a walk? I’d like to wind down first. Right now, I’m on top of the world, but I don’t wanna crash suddenly when all the fight-or-flight chemicals go bye-bye without warning. Do you think we have the time? I know you’re crunching a major project.”
He took my smaller hands in his larger ones, squeezing slightly as he gazed into my eyes. “For you, I’ll always make the time.”
Chapter 28
Remington
All Walls Down
Two months of peace.
It had beenfraught for a while as we waited for Max’s test results to come in, but one by one, they confirmed his cancer wasn’t back. He had to do some immunotherapy since his system wasn’t healing as it should have after his chemotherapy, but that was a much more preferable diagnosis than anything involving the big C word.
Jeannie’s parents never showed up again. Clearly, they were just as cowardly as they had been when she was a child, not that it was a huge surprise. Still, occasionally, I remembered the privilege of getting to listen to my girlfriend completely dress down those scumbags. She’d held nothing back, and I adored her for it.
Except, I couldn’t quite call her my girlfriend yet. Mostly because we never had the actual conversation. And somehow,despite all the time we spent together, despite how our lives had become so enmeshed, neither of us had dropped the L bomb.
I kind of felt like a loser about it.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I’d known from the moment she told me about her past that I loved her. I kept trying to find the right time to say it, but that hadn’t happened yet.
I blamed it on how we got together. I didn’t want to go from a parent-trap situation with a rogue juvenile bear to, what? A bouquet of flowers and dinner? Yeah, it was the thought that counted, but that was kind of... lame.
That was the issue with starting out with a bang. Made it hard to think of something comparable.
“Remember to thank your parents for watching the kids,” Jeannie said as I put down the blanket for our little picnic. We were having a bit of a staycation, brought on after my parents asked for some one-on-one time with Max and the girls. Even though Jeannie and I were technically only “casually dating”, pretty much everyone including me saw Max as my son. And if I was being entirely truthful, I didn’t want to live in a world where he wasn’t.
My life was so rich now, and I wished I could find the words to express it to Jeannie.
“I will,” I said with a nod. “Although really, maybe they should be thanking you for getting to hang out with your kid.”
“Pffft,flatterer,” she accused, shoving my arm as I set our picnic basket down.
