Page 48 of Once Upon A Bear

Then he froze, staring at her, his eyes wide.

“I can say it,” he said, his voice full of wonder.

Maybe she hadn’t gotten it all the way right, but she’d gotten enough right, and that was good. “I thought you might be able to,” she said softly.

Gideon crossed the room and pulled her into a crushing hug. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “Thank you, Sunshine.”

Guinevere smiled, taking as deep a breath as she could with his tight grip, letting out all the stress and the worry.

He smelled of dirt and honey, the combination more comforting than she’d imagined it would be.

She could do this. She just had to bring his hair back now, something she knew how to do that would require much less energy than a potion to break a spell.

She fought the urge to sniff him again as she relaxed into his arms.

But no. She shouldn’t. She stiffened as she realized how easily she’d forgotten herself in his embrace.

“I will happily stay bald forever, if that’s what it takes,” he said, perhaps not noticing the way she’d stiffened, “as long as I no longer turn into a bear. Do you think you fixed that part too?”

He let go of her and took a step backward.

“Probably,” she assured him. “Obviously, we won’t know until enough time has gone by, since you have no way of knowing when it will happen. But if I broke the silencing part, I think I might have fixed the bear part too. Though I don’t know for sure. Alexander’s was only the silencing part. He stayed human the whole time. And you won’t have to stay bald forever,” she added. “Even with the hat on, the lack of eyebrows is concerning.”

Gideon’s eyes widened, and he reached up to feel for his eyebrows, which were no longer there.

He groaned as he collapsed into the chair next to her work.

“Please fix me,” he groaned. “I don’t want to stay bald. I changed my mind.”

Guinevere laughed as she continued jotting down the recipe she would need.

She wasn’t convinced that she had stopped him from turning into a bear, but at the very least, he could tell his family about it. And he would be able to tell not just his family, but whatever girl he married someday.

She tried not to focus on how that made her feel, because she couldn’t fall for Gideon Rendon.

He was not for her, no matter how much he made her feel safe, and no matter how much his family felt like home.

Chapter eighteen

Gideon

Gideon watched as Guinevere made what would hopefully be the final potion he would have to consume.

She seemed to think she would get it right this time, and as his fingers traced his hairless eyebrow ridge, he hoped that she was right.

“How long until it’s ready?”

“Well, since we’re just trying to bring your hair back, it won’t be long. I’ll have it ready in a few hours, maybe less.”

Throughout her work, her hands were deft, measuring and mixing and pouring.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

She may have had people in her ear telling her that she didn’t know what she was doing—or maybe it was just herself—but Guinevere knew exactly how to make these potions.

“You’re very good at this,” he said, after watching her work in silence for what felt like an eternity but was perhaps only a quarter of an hour.

“I suppose I am,” she said, her voice incredibly noncommittal. “I’ve had a lot of practice. I can’t seem to get anything right the first time, so every time I make a potion, I end up making three versions of it. The first is either too much or too little. The second is the opposite. And the third one is usually just right.”