Bearly Living: Foxhollow Den #1 (Alaskan Den Men) by Kizzie Waller Page A

Kristin is going to kill me.”
    “I’ll drive you back,” Samantha offered.
    Ray ducked his head. “We’re never going to live down being rescued by a couple of Taylors.”
    “Maybe this is the olive branch needed to heal things between the families.” Bobbie still hesitated toward getting involved, but someone needed to state the obvious.
    Grant kissed her on the forehead. “What’s important right now is that we’re all safe.”
    Samantha and Ray nodded in agreement and walked solemnly out the door.
    Grant kissed her on the neck and stayed there to nuzzle. “You were amazing. As a human and as a bear.”
    She pressed into his body, drinking his warmth. “I want to believe the inner bear and my outer human can coexist. I was wrong about something.”
    “Oh, yeah?”
    “It’s not the sex that keeps the bear at bay. I felt more at ease from the moment I met you. It’s you. Your patience. Your kindness. Your unfaltering loyalty to every person and animal around you. How I think about you when you aren’t around.”
    He pulled her close and grabbed handfuls of her butt. “You mean, like a soulmate?”
    With all the pent-up anxiety, Bobbie didn’t know how she was able to smile. That’s what he did to her. “I don’t know if you’re going to get me to say that word. It’s only been a few days.”
    “How about another deal? Stay with me the rest of the summer. Work with me on your bear when you aren’t baking spectacular donuts, and let me pleasure you at night.”
    “And?” she asked.
    “And see if that’s enough for you. At the end of summer if you still want to leave, I’ll let you go.”
     
    ∞∞∞
     
    Three weeks after the incident and the summer proposal, Grant realized he had a problem with patience. There was no way he’d let Bobbie leave at the end of summer or any other time, and he had to take steps to make sure of it. He tapped over his right pocket where he’d stashed the gift for Bobbie he’d purchased down in Fairbanks. He strolled into the hardware store and for the first time didn’t have an ounce of irritation at the rearrangement of the same old things. Instead of his usual grumbles to his brother, he straightened a few boxes of nails on the counter.
    Ray nodded at him from a corner where he stacked the entire stock of toolboxes in an odd symmetrical statue reaching shoulder high. “You’re the talk of the shifters up here.”
    “Are you and Kristin gossiping again?” If gossip passed quickly in small towns, it passed with jackrabbit speed amongst shifting communities.
    “It’s a good thing, lil’ bro. There are some other shifters who need to get in touch with their inner animals, and it appears you have the magic touch. They want to hire you.”
    “So you have been gossiping. Bobbie and I are supposed to be a secret.”
    “There are no secrets in Foxhollow, Alaska. Anyway, I didn’t think you’d be interested. After all the excitement with tending to the property and eating three dozen donuts a day, how would you even find the time?”
    Grant glanced out the front window towards Bobbie’s café. A steady stream of customers walked out with white boxes full of what he knew to be the best donuts in Alaska. He returned his attention to his brother. “So it’s reverse psychology today?”
    “I’m practicing for the twins.”
    “I’m glad The Hideaway can provide a safe place. I’ll talk it over with Bobbie. See what she thinks.”
    “Cotton candy.” Ray’s shoulders shook with laughter.
    Grant growled. “Stop talking.”
    “Are you going to ask her to stay past the summer? If so, you might want to drop the bomb on Mom and Dad. They know you’re cheerier than usual these past couple of weeks, but I swear they’re the only people in town who don’t know you’ve been dipping your toes in the Taylor pond. Better they hear it from you.”
    His dad would bellyache about family loyalties, and his mom would need another vacation, but Ray was right for a