Page 82

“Maybe.” Gabe returned to the dough because there was nothing else he could do. He measured and shaped and checked the ovens, forcing himself through the familiar work while his attention kept straying toward the front of the bakery. And if she chose Scott? He would have to accept it. He knew that. He just didn’t know how a man went back to waiting once he had met the one he was waiting for.

Then his bear surged forward. Mara.

Gabe froze with both hands resting on the worktable. The awareness of her was faint but unmistakable now that she was close enough for him to sense her, growing stronger as the distance between them narrowed.

She’s coming, his bear said.

Gabe’s attention snapped toward the windows. We don’t know why.

For once, his bear did not argue with him. Then let her tell us.

The answer soothed Gabe more than another declaration of certainty would have. Mara was coming into Bear Creek, coming toward him, but until she reached him, he had no right to decide what that meant.

Matilda stared at him. “What happened?”

“Mara.” Gabe pulled at the knot of his apron as understanding crossed Matilda’s face. “She’s coming this way.”

His bear was already urging him toward the door. Go.

Matilda held out her hand. “Give me the apron.”

“The second batch is nearly ready.”

“I know how to take bread out of an oven, Gabe. I’ve been doing it beside you for long enough.”

That was difficult to argue with. Gabe pulled off the apron and handed it to her.

“Go,” Matilda said, and this time he did.

Gabe reached the front door before Mara arrived and stepped outside. Main Street was busy with its usual late-morning traffic, but Gabe barely registered any of it because he could feel Mara drawing closer.

Then she appeared around the corner.

She saw him almost immediately and slowed. His bear wanted him to go to her, pull her into his arms, and never let her go anywhere again. Gabe wanted much the same thing, but Mara’s face held too much emotion for him to assume he knew what had happened simply because she had come to him.

So he waited.

Mara crossed the street and stopped in front of him. Up close, he could see the tiredness around her eyes and the sadness that still lingered there.

“Scott came because he wanted me back,” she said.

Gabe’s chest tightened, but he nodded. “I thought he might.”

“He apologized. He admitted he’d taken me for granted, and he said he was willing to talk properly about children instead of deciding for both of us.”

Gabe listened. Every part of him wanted to skip ahead to the answer that mattered, but Scott had been part of Mara’s life for eight years. If she needed Gabe to hear what had happened, he would hear it.

Mara drew in a breath. “I told him no.”

For a second Gabe could only stare at her. His bear stopped pacing, the sudden quiet inside him followed by a rush of such fierce happiness that Gabe could barely separate it from his own.

“You did?”

“I did.” Mara’s expression softened as she watched him. “And it wasn’t because of you. We stopped wanting the same life a long time before you were in it.”

Relief came first, but what mattered most was that the decision belonged entirely to Mara. She had looked at the life she had left behind and decided for herself that she no longer wanted it.

Then she stepped closer and laid her hand against his chest. “But I came here because of you.”