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“What does that mean?” she asked.

“For me, it means certainty. My bear recognized you, and so did I. I knew you were my mate before we had properly met.”

“And for me?”

“That’s different.” Wes turned slightly toward her. “The bond tells me what you are to me. It doesn’t decide what I am to you.”

She watched him carefully.

“It doesn’t tell me whether you’ll love me, or whether you’ll want to stay in Bear Creek, or whether you’ll even want another date after tonight. Those things are yours.”

Some of the tension left her face. Kate looked down at their joined hands. “So whatever I’ve felt around you…”

“Is yours.”

She looked up again.

“I can tell you what happens on my side of the bond. I can’t tell you what you feel, and I don’t want to.”

Kate was quiet for a moment, considering that. “I did wonder why being around you felt so familiar so quickly. Not exactly familiar.” She frowned slightly, searching for the word. “Easy, maybe. Even when I was nervous.”

Wes’s bear stirred inside him, but Wes kept his attention on Kate. “It might be the bond. It might simply be us. I don’t know where one ends and the other begins for you.”

“I like that answer.”

“It’s the truth.”

She leaned back against the bench and let out a breath. “This is a lot.”

“It is.”

“I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow with a list of questions.”

“I’ll answer whatever I can.”

Kate glanced toward the patch of grass where his bear had stood. “I liked him.”

Wes smiled before he could stop himself. “He liked you too.”

“Good.”

Something in him eased. They sat quietly.

Then Kate looked toward the truck. Wes felt his stomach tighten. Was that her answer? If she wanted to go home, he would take her. If she wanted the rest of the evening, the rest of her visit, or the rest of her life without him, he would find a way to live with it.

But when she turned back, she moved closer instead. “I don’t want to go home yet.”

Wes did not trust himself to answer immediately.

Kate reached up and slid one hand behind his neck. “I’m surprised. I’m confused. And I’m probably going to spend half the night wondering whether I imagined some of this.” Her fingers moved lightly against his skin. “But I’m not frightened of you.”

Wes tightened his fingers around her other hand.

Kate looked into his eyes. “And I’m still here.”

Then she kissed him.

CHAPTER 13