Page 13 of Luke: The Bears

“I maintain I am not a weak link, I just have animal magnetism.”

Valley snorted out a laugh. “He’s a bear and lives in King Lake with his den.”

“Ah,” Bodhi said. “You work at Five Pines?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You worked on the deck at the tavern? We ate dinner there last week before it opened, it looked really good.”

“Yes, I did. I met Valley there last night at the opening concert.”

“Luke brought me lunch from the diner,” Valley said.

“That was thoughtful,” Sage said.

“It was,” Valley said, glancing at Luke, her voice going soft.

Bodhi rocked back on his heels. “Since you’re here, Luke, would you mind giving me a hand? I’ve got a sideboard I need to move, and Sage won’t let me do it by myself.”

“You’ll throw your back out,” Sage said.

“Happy to help,” Luke said.

“You don’t have to,” Valley said.

“But I want to.”

“Come on, my workshop is behind the house,” Bodhi said.

“I’ll be right back,” Luke said to Valley, then he followed her dad around the garage toward the workshop.

After helping her dad move the old, heavy piece of furniture so he could take it apart, repair and refinish it to sell, and saying goodbye to Valley’s parents, Luke returned to the picnic table where Valley sat with Kevin at her feet.

“Are you busy tonight?” Luke asked.

“I’m still packing.”

“But you could take a break for dinner?”

She tilted her head slightly, then rose to her feet. “You’re pretty persistent.”

“Only with things that matter.”

Her smile faded, but not in a bad way. More like the words had hit home for her.

“Dinner,” she said. “Six?”

“Perfect,” he said. He kissed her cheek and patted Kevin on the head. “I’ll see you at six, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Luke.”

He drove away from the farm with a bit of hope in his heart. She might still be packing up her life, but she’d agreed to dinner so she wasn’t shutting him out entirely. He still had time to change her mind about leaving, and he was one determined bear.

Dinner with Luke Saturday night shouldn’t have had any sort of bearing on her plans, but it had. Not only was he the sexiest guy she’d ever met, but he was so dang charming and such a sweet guy. She’d loved hearing about his life, and being a bear, and she marveled at how close they’d been all these years – just over the river – but never met.

Then she invited him up to her apartment after dinner, to the Murphy bed surrounded by packing boxes, and he took her to heaven two times before he roared his pleasure to the ceiling and cuddled her like she was the most precious person in the world.

She woke Sunday morning in a bed that felt empty because he wasn’t with her, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think too hard about the choices she’d made. When she sat up and swung her legs down, her toes bumped into one of the stacks of boxes and she glared at it.