Page 27 of The Single Father Upstairs

We both sat on the rock, and I slung an arm over his shoulder.

“What’s it like being inside your bear?”

No one had ever asked me that, though I had questioned my parents as a child before I met my beast.

“Warm, safe, and peaceful. If he’s eating or catching fish and there’s no danger, I can sleep or think about something not related to bears and shifting.”

He asked me more about my daughter’s inability to control the bear she had yet to meet. “Will she get furry at school?”

I explained she attended a shifter school. “But like in the grocery store, there are often mishaps. That’s why we live in a shifter-only building, so we can cover up these little incidents.”

“Or not so little.” Miles put his hand in mine. “Well, you are a challenge, but I’ve never shied away from one.” He put his head on my shoulder.

“And though I never expected my mate would be human, I’ll face this challenge head-on.”

“Hey. I’m ordinary. Why would being with me be a problem?”

I bopped his nose. “You, my darling Miles, are anything but ordinary.”

14

MILES

Ever since the night we marked each other, things had been going well. We had sleepovers on Friday when Indie stayed over at Rudy’s. The three of us shared meals together a few days a week. We talked every day, even when our schedules didn’t align perfectly.

But for the past week, I was bone tired and not seeing much of Stellan. At first I thought I was overdoing it, but it was getting worse. Yesterday I found myself taking breaks at work to go get food, not because I was hungry, but because it kept me awake.

I was starting to wonder if I was getting sick and it wasn’t the stress of work being chaotic mixed with me trying to spend as much time as I could with my new mate.

This morning I barely made it into work. Getting out of bed had been a chore, and I hit snooze an embarrassing number of times.

Of course, things went wrong last night with work’s server, and I had a million help requests from coworkers waiting for me when I did arrive. I had to add dealing with that to my already packed meeting-filled agenda.

I got to lunch late, and when I stepped into the break room, I wished I hadn’t. Someone thought it was a good idea to nuke fish. I wasn’t a fish hater, but this one smelled off, and I suspected it had gone bad. Normally, that would have annoyed me. People being that rude always did. There were certain foods you shouldn’t microwave in common areas. But today it went beyond annoying. My stomach rebelled, and I bolted to the bathroom.

Joel was there washing his hands as I nearly ran him over on my way to the stall, barely reaching it in time to empty my stomach.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Obviously, I wasn’t.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just that fish… who did that?” Because they were going on my shit list.

"No clue, but it was awful. I suspect it was that container that has been in the refrigerator since last Wednesday. Why would they eat that?" He shivered at the thought.

I skipped lunch and went back to work, nibbling on some cashews I had at my desk.

Barbara came over with her laptop a short while later and asked, "Can you look at this? I could’ve sworn I put everything in this file, but…”

“Give it to me and I’ll see what I can do."

She talked me through her issue, and sure enough, she’d made a duplicate file. Again. Her problems were usually easy to solve because she was always the one responsible for them. Tech was not her bestie.

"No offense, but you look greener than the house plants in my window." She grabbed her laptop.

"Are you trying to brag about your office?" I teased. She was one of the people who had walls in this place.

"I wasn't, but it is fabulous. Seriously, though, if you aren’t feeling well, don’t stick around here."