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A heartbreaking smile stretched across Noah’s face.
“I’ll pick you up after your shift. I promise you won’t regret this.” And with that, he was swinging around and leaving the shop.
Becca looked at the quaint pink and white clock on the wall. She would be closing the shop later than usual because it was her busy season. Becca sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Two hours to go.
The shop remained empty for a while, but Becca did everything she could to distract herself from the coming dinner. Eventually, she grabbed her phone and texted Sara. Her best friend would want to know the details of what had occurred. All Becca felt as she texted Sara was a sense of impending doom.
How could Noah’s explanation possibly fix the heartbreak she still felt ten years later?
THREE
NOAH
Noah couldn’t breathe.
At first, the realization that he couldn’t breathe scared him. It terrified him. His chest was constricted as he stepped out of the ice cream shop, and it remained that way until he was halfway down the street.
Noah gave a sigh of relief when his chest finally opened up. But it was only replaced by a feeling of deep emptiness.
He couldn’t be without Becca for much longer. He had not realized how deeply affected he would be by seeing her.
The bear inside him was equally affected. The creature paced, pawing at the ground and letting out soft growls every few minutes. The creature was unsettled at having seen Becca and not having made amends.
Noah had missed her. That had been evident in every action he’d taken over the past decade. It had been evident in the way the sight of honey-brown hair or gray eyes nearly made his heart stop beating. It had been evident in how he reacted to the scent of jasmine or vanilla … Becca had always been encased in those fragrances.
He had missed her so much that, eventually, a gaping hole formed in his chest. A hole shaped like Becca. A hole that made it hard to breathe and hard to even think.
But now he was back, and he had seen her, and the hole had become bricked up with the sight of her.
Can you really make it up to her after all these years?he asked himself as he headed back to the clan property. She was clearly very angry with him. And he deserved her anger.
Noah just hoped he could find a way to make it up to her. He had to. He had no choice.
Seeing Becca again had made one thing clear to him. He could not live without her … not again.
Noah arrived at the clan property before he knew it. Mitch was waiting for him at the boundary of the property. His brother didn’t say anything as they walked the rest of the way to the clan house.
Even though the evening had mostly fallen, it was still early, and Noah knew that Becca would still be a few hours.
“Want to go for a run?” he asked Mitch.
He needed to blow off steam before the date. Before he faced Becca with the truth.
“Sure, why not? Cate’s going to put Evan down for a nap and get some sleep herself.”
“Meet you out back in five.”
Noah hurried to grab his backpack that was still in the house and went upstairs to one of the bedrooms. Luckily, he had a pair of sneakers and sweats that he could change into.
He also knew that he wouldn’t be going back to the motel that night. It was time to really go home. And that meant where he had lived before he left.
He changed quickly and, in the kitchen, grabbed bottles of water for himself and Mitch. Luckily, Lev was a fitness junkie … all shifters were … and there was enough water with electrolytes to go around.
Mitch stood behind the house on a trail that led into the woods. He took the bottle that Noah handed him, and they broke into a light jog.
The evening air was rich, warm, and fragrant. Noah took several deep breaths, filling his lungs with the sweet air and reveling in the feeling of it rippling across his skin. The bear, who had been confined to working out in gyms for the past ten years, lifted its head and roared.
Noah realized, skin prickling and nostrils flaring, that he was feeling a small sense of joy for the first time in a long time. He also realized they were veering off the path and heading directly for his own property.
