Page 8 of Bear’s True Mate

Everything I tried to write ran headfirst into the same wall—my own recent experience. The last man who’d paid attention to the small things had used them against me. Evan remembered everything, but not because he cared. He remembered it all because information was currency to him. Knowing what I liked, what I feared, and what made me flinch had given him control.

That was the version of love I knew.

The one that lived in my bones and bled into every sentence I tried to type.

How was I supposed to write a scene where a stranger’s touch feels electric instead of threatening? How was I supposed to make a reader believe that being seen by someone could be a gift instead of a weapon?

My throat tightened, and I closed my laptop. I glanced out the window to the ocean. I sat there for a long time, not writing, not thinking, just watching the water and trying not to feel as stuck as I was on more levels than one.

4

NOLAN

Mrs. Dawson’s overgrown hedges were trying to kill me.

Not literally, but the damn things had been neglected for so long that their branches had twisted into each other like they’d formed an alliance against anyone holding a pair of shears. I’d been hacking away at them for three hours. Sweat poured down my back, my arms ached, and I still had half the property line to go.

Normally, I liked jobs like this. The kind where I could put my headphones on, zone out, and let my hands work. My head wasn’t in it today, though.

Instead, it was stuck on the woman who’d showed up next door.

Rose.

My bear was no better. He’d been restless all morning. Every time I tried to focus on the hedge, he’d nudge me, pulling my attention back toward the image of Rose with her petite frame, reading glasses, and blue eyes standing on my steps, telling me to turn my music down like she had any right to.

The quiet police librarian.

I snorted and hacked through another branch.

She hadn’t even been here long, and already my routine was off. Not because I’d changed anything—I hadn’t. I still played my music. I still used the yard however I wanted. There was just this awareness now, this constant buzz in the back of my skull that hadn’t been there before. It was like my bear had his ears perked toward her even when I was across town.

I didn’t like it.

By the time I finished Mrs. Dawson’s hedges, loaded my truck, and headed toward the harbor, the sun was lower in the sky. My shoulders were stiff, and a cold beer with my buddies sounded better than it had all damn day.

Dock’s Tavern sat near the waterfront, the same as it had for as long as anyone could remember. The wooden sign above the door was salt-worn and the windows were dark. Though the place was always dimly lit, no matter the time of day. Inside, it smelled the way it always did—of salt water, beer, and fried food. Finn was behind the bar with a towel over his shoulder. His face was set in that permanent expression of a man who’d seen too much to be surprised by anything. A few fishermen sat at the bar nursing drinks, and a couple of locals had claimed the pool table in the back.

My buddies were already in our usual spot. I’d grown up with these guys, worked alongside them more than once, and trusted them the way you only trust people who’ve known you long enough to call you on your crap.

“You look like hell,” Omar said as I dropped into a chair.

“Mrs. Dawson’s hedges.” I signaled to Finn for my usual. “Took me over three hours to trim the things.”

“That’s been a disaster over there since her husband died,” Danny said.

“Yeah, I know it.” I nodded, feeling bad about how ticked I’d been at the hedges. After all, the woman’s husband had passed away. That was why her place was in such shambles. “Well, now it’s all trimmed up.”

“Did she pay you?” Omar asked before taking a swig of his beer.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I mean, she tried to give me some zucchini bread.”

“Did you take it?”

“Of course I took it.”

“She does make some good zucchini bread,” Omar said. “Don’t tell Bree I said that, though.”

We laughed at that. Bree was Omar’s fated mate. They found each other two summers ago when she was in town visiting family. Honestly, they’d been inseparable ever since.