Candy Bear

by Scarlett Grove

  She imagined he knew how to handle a rifle, and a few other things as well. She couldn’t help thinking she wouldn’t mind him handling her. But then her senses snapped back to her and she was filled with fear. She was an orphan and had no idea how to love someone, let alone a hunk of a shifter like that.

  Soon her excursion to Fate Valley would come to an end. If she didn’t find out how she was related to Ambrose Morgan, she would have to return to New York empty-handed and just write her article. Life would go on.

  But as she looked across the square as Benjamin Darling, her mouth watered, and she smelled the rich aroma of chocolate wafting from his confectionery. Then he looked straight at her.

  Her heart boomed in her chest and every instinct in her body told her to run over to him and throw herself into his big, strong, muscular arms, and let him take away all the sadness, loneliness, and confusion she’d ever felt.

  She was alone on Valentine’s Day, with no family and no love of her own. Then she remembered what Debbie had said: shifters would be after her if she didn’t mate with him. Confusion slapped her across the face, and she turned away, darting through the crowd and back to the hotel.

  When she looked over her shoulder, she could see he was following her. She lost him in the crowd and slipped through the hotel door and into the lobby. She stood with her back against the door, breathing heavily as the clerk looked up at her from her paper.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Not a ghost,” Samantha stammered. “More like the love of my life.”

  Chapter 5

  Fate Valley Confections was packed the morning of the statue installation. Benjamin helped at the front of the house, selling bags and boxes of candy as the customers lined up out the door. People had come from all around for the Valentine’s Day celebration.

  After the installation, there would be a small carnival in the town square, with jugglers, acrobats, and music. Even in the cool winter weather, the people of Fate Valley gathered in their parkas to celebrate this day of love and togetherness.

  As the customers began to clear, and the crowd began to thin, people gathered outside for the installation. Benjamin grabbed his jacket and his phone and started to head out the door. He felt his phone ping in his hand as he stood in the doorway. Slipping outside, he looked at the message on his screen.

  “Congratulations. We’ve found your fated mate.”

  He grabbed his chest and took several involuntary steps backward at the sight of the text from Mate.com. He’d been waiting for this text for seven years. Finally seeing it on his phone nearly knocked his breath out of his lungs. He jammed his thumb into the phone, bringing up the text message and instantly clicked the link button to the dating website. He gulped down a hard lump in his throat. Someone behind him asked him what was wrong. He was in a daze and couldn’t reply. It was all he could do to navigate as quickly as possible to the profile of his mate, History Buff.

  He saw her picture for the first time and grabbed his chest again, sitting down on a chair at a café table on the sidewalk outside the shop. The smell of divinity and toffee wafted through his nose as someone walked through the door.

  He gulped again, magnifying her picture. She had dark brown hair that fell straight down her back, big brown eyes and full dark lips. She had a spark of intelligence in her eyes that did him in, and her curves made his head spin. Tilly walked outside to check on him and looked down at his phone.

  “Did you find your mate on Mate.com?” she asked, grabbing for his phone.

  “Grr,” was all he could manage.

  “She’s beautiful,” she said. “History Buff. That’s an interesting profile name.”

  She handed him the phone back and went back inside as another group of customers walked into the shop. He hadn’t even read her profile yet and navigated over to read it. She was an author for a historical magazine. She was really quite a smart lady—smart and beautiful. How could he be so lucky? He pressed the “message now” button at the top of the page and opened the text screen. He took a deep breath and let it out, trying to think of what to say.

  “I’m Ben. Your mate. I have to meet you.”

  He sent the message and waited, expecting a reply immediately, but nothing happened. The crowds were gathering around the square, and he knew the statute would be installed at any minute.

  He frowned, standing, and moved out into the town square. Mayor Bear was up on a podium, giving a rousing speech about the founding of the city and the lake. The crowd cheered, but Benjamin couldn’t even hear the speech. He was far too distracted by the news of his mate.

  The high school marching band began to play, and cameras flashed all around. Benjamin walked toward the statue, wanting to get a better look. As he approached the statue, the scent of his mate hit him like a tidal wave. His shifter senses told him that enchanting aroma could only be her.

  He looked all around, unable to comprehend why his mate’s scent would be here in the town square. Her profile said she lived in New York City. He sniffed the air again, and it dawned on him that the installation of the statue had probably brought her to town.

  He couldn’t believe his luck, but he also couldn’t find her anywhere. He scanned the crowd, searching for her. And then he finally spotted her through the crowd. There she was, the most beautiful sight he had ever witnessed in his life. He started toward her. She noticed him, but instead of making her way toward him, and meeting in the middle of the packed crowd, she turned away and disappeared out of sight.

  Benjamin couldn’t understand what was happening. Why had she run away when she’d seen him? Didn’t she want a mate as much as he did? The noise and the chaos of the cheering crowd buzzed in his ears. The high school band’s rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In bombarded his senses.

  He squeezed through the crowd and made his way to the statue of Ambrose Valentine Morgan. He looked up at the man, who pointed off into the distance. It was really a well-crafted statue. Benjamin looked down at the inscription on the base and read the words. Family and progress were the most important things to him, too.

  He turned around, still looking for his mate. He sniffed the air for her scent, but it was covered by all the other smells. He didn’t know what to do. Should he search every building in the square to find her? He was determined to do that when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, hoping it was her. He saw the number from the shop on his screen.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “I need you back at the shop, pronto, boss,” Tilly said.

  “I’m on my way,” he said, shoving his phone back in his pocket.

  He made his way back to the shop and found it even more packed than before. He tried to forget about his mate for now, and stepped behind the counter to help his assistant with the customers. At this rate, they were going to sell out of all their inventory. It was definitely a good day for selling candy. By the time the crowd cleared, the till was full of cash and the shelves looked sparse.

  “I’m going to have to make more candy at this rate,” he said.

  “Business is certainly booming today,” Tilly said when they had a free moment between rushes of customers. “Have you gotten a text from your fated mate? It’s awfully lucky that you two found each other on Valentine’s Day.”

  “I haven’t gotten any word from her,” he said, checking his phone again. “But I swear I saw her in the town square. I think she saw me too, but then she ran away. Why would she do that?”

  “Maybe she didn’t really see you,” Tilly reasoned.

  “I’m sure she saw me. She looked right at me.”

  “There’s a lot of people, noise, and chaos out there. It could be any number of reasons she walked away without acknowledging you. I bet you anything she didn’t even see you. There’s always the chance it wasn’t even her.”

  “I could smell her scent. I would recognize her anywhere. She’s my fated mate. History Buff is mine, and I am hers. Someday, w
e will find each other and be together forever.”

  Tilly giggled and began to arrange things on the counter.

  “What?”

  “I just never realized what a romantic you are.”

  “Of course I’m a romantic. I’m a shifter, and I make candies for lovers every day of my life.”

  “I know, I know,” she said, arranging the honey sticks by flavor. “You just never struck me as a romantic type of guy.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Maybe it’s the six foot-two, broad shoulders, ex-military vibe that you have.”

  “You think I scared her with my size?” Benjamin asked.

  “Maybe she’s just not ready for all that,” she said, waving her palm in front of his chest. “Some ladies just don’t know how to handle that much man.”

  “I never thought of that,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the back wall.

  He felt dejected and hopeless.

  “That’s probably not the problem,” she said, quickly changing the course of the conversation. “She probably just didn’t see you. Or maybe she’s just got other things on her mind. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with you at all. It could be anything. You can’t let yourself get all worked up about it. I’m sorry I teased you.”

  “You’re right. There’s no use in worrying about it. I found my fated mate, and I saw her for the first time. I need to be patient and let Fate work on us both. No matter where she ran off to, I know that eventually, she’ll come around, and we’ll find our happily ever after.”

  “That’s the Valentine’s Day spirit.”

  6

  Samantha hurried upstairs to her hotel room and locked herself inside. She glanced out the window through the curtains down onto the square. Candy Bear meandered through the crowd, looking for her. Her heart pounded. She was terrified of what might happen if she didn’t like him. Would his friends hurt her? Would he?

  He walked over to the statue and examined the inscription. He was so handsome and tall. She could tell by his posture, the tilt of his head, and the look in his eyes, that he was a good man. She let the curtain drop and walked away from the window, sitting down on the bed. How could she think he’d hurt her?

  She pulled her phone out of her backpack and noticed there was a text. She read it and the fear came back. Besides, she hadn’t come to Fate Valley to find love. She’d come here to find herself.

  He wanted to mate with her and keep her for the rest of his life. But she didn’t even know who she was, or how to love anyone. It just wasn’t possible. She cupped her head in her hands and groaned. Why had she signed up for Mate.com?

  It had been a silly, impulsive thing to do, but here it was. She’d done it and now she had a gorgeous shifter after her. She set the phone down beside her and collapsed on the bed, staring up the ceiling as her heart pounded in her ears. She picked up the phone again and scrolled through his pictures. He was so gosh-darn good looking, and seemed so nice, too. She’d never been so confused in her whole life.

  She bit her lip as she examined the pictures of him making chocolates in his shop, throwing a fishing line into the lake, bare chested, under the glistening sunlight, handing out gifts as Santa Claus in his shop. Him in his fatigues when he was in the military with a group of buddies.

  She shook her head and closed the phone. What was she doing? She couldn’t get involved with a man who wanted her like that until she understood how she was related to Ambrose Morgan. Her quest all started several months ago when she found an advertisement for DNA testing in the Historic Times that could tell her what famous historic figure she was related to.

  Her father was never identified. Because the state could not get permission from her biological father for adoption, Samantha spent her entire childhood moving from home to home as a foster child. Her mother was an only child and her grandparents had passed away before she was born. Her mother had a cousin, a struggling single mother of five. She couldn’t take Samantha in.

  Her father’s family had always remained a mystery. Samantha sent away the DNA test hoping for insight into her past, but not thinking much would come of it.

  She needed to understand where she came from, who her father was, and how she had ended up in foster care in New York City.

  It was a long way from New York to Fate Valley. Ambrose must be a distant relative from several generations ago. He’d died in 1940, ten years after the flooding of the valley. He died on Valentine’s Day.

  Samantha sighed, thinking about all this. Tomorrow, she would head to the Fate Valley Museum to find out more. She stood and looked out the window, but she couldn’t spot Candy Bear in the crowd. The high school band continued to play as the crowd milled around the square. She noticed the screen of her phone flash on her bed, and she walked across the room to pick it up. She found another text from Mate.com and, with trembling fingers, she clicked on the screen to open it up.

  “This might sound crazy, but I swear I saw you in the Fate Valley town square. I hope I didn’t scare you. I know I’m a big man, but I have a soft heart and a touch to match.”

  She read the message and her eyes started to water and she didn’t know why. She wiped the tears away from the corners of her eyes. Dropping the phone on the bed, she growled and started pacing the hotel room. She slapped her forehead with her palm, feeling like a fool.

  Was she going to break this man’s heart? The words of Debbie at the Fate Valley Diner echoed in her ears. She sat down on the bed and picked up the phone again, reading the message over. Debbie had just been joking. Hadn’t she?

  Samantha knew enough about shifters to understand that if she was his fated mate, she was the only one for him in the entire world. He literally would have waited his entire life to find her and to be with her. And if she didn’t accept his love, then he would be alone forever. She just couldn’t take that kind of pressure. And Debbie had kind of terrified her.

  She clicked off the texting app and opened her browser, looking for a local pizzeria to deliver something to her hotel room. She had to get Candy Bear off her mind and try to relax.

  She felt like an idiot, but didn’t know what else to do. Her plans had been changed the moment she saw him out there. Tomorrow, she would head to the museum and when she found what she was looking for, she would decide what to do then. All she wanted right now was to drown her worries in a large supreme pizza. As she searched for food, she realized why she’d signed up for Mate.com in the first place.

  The truth was, Samantha was very lonely. She hadn’t been on a date, let alone had a boyfriend, since college—over six years ago. She had been doing nothing but working and researching and traveling ever since. She loved her life, but nobody could be alone forever. Not even Samantha.

  She sighed and ordered a pizza, a large with everything. She intended to eat the entire thing while she hid in her hotel room for the rest of the night.

  When the pizza arrived, she tipped the delivery boy and set the box on the table next to the window. Picking up the remote, she clicked on the TV and watched the news about the celebration that was going on right outside her window while she ate her supreme pizza and felt sorry for herself.

  The pizza was delicious. Maybe the best pizza she’d ever had, and Samantha was from New York. She ate half of it in one sitting, hoping it would relieve her stress. It helped a bit. She watched the news about the founding of Fate Valley and it distracted her from her boy problem. Taking out her notepad, she scribbled down a few choice details about Ambrose Morgan.

  After that, she watched a movie and then climbed into bed. Tomorrow she would decide what to do about everything. About her article, about her life, about Benjamin… But for now, all she wanted was the oblivion of sleep and to stop worrying about any of it for a few hours.

  She turned off the bedside lamp. Closing her eyes, she quickly fell into a deep slumber. Deep in the night, she woke feeling the need to use the bathroom. She yawned and stretched, and climbed out of bed to use the
facilities. Padding back into the dark bedroom of the hotel, she saw a flash of light outside her window and scurried to open the curtain and gaze out onto the square.

  The square was strangely dark. Not a single streetlamp lit up the night. She spotted taillights driving away and a strange shadow swooped across the moon. She blinked, not sure what she was seeing. As clouds passed over the thin crescent moon, she could swear that the statue was no longer resting on its podium.

  Telling herself that her eyes were playing tricks on her, she closed the curtain and got back into bed. A few moments later, Samantha was deep asleep, dreaming about what her life would be like if she could let herself love Benjamin.

  Chapter 6

  Ben drove to the shop early in the morning, as usual, but this morning he saw that the fire hydrant on the corner had been painted pink, along with the fire curb. Ben shook his head and pulled into the parking lot behind the shop. Midwest Mayhem was at it again.

  He opened the back door of the confectionery. He hung up his jacket in his usual spot, pulled on his chef coat, and washed his hands before getting to work. He pulled the powdered cocoa from the cabinet, along with sugar, spices, and a chocolate square tray and put them on the stainless-steel table in the middle of the kitchen.

  He grabbed butter and heavy cream from the refrigerator and began to whip up his first batch of chocolate of the day. The coffee had already brewed and was ready and waiting in the pot as the butter melted slowly on the stove. He poured himself a cup and sipped, smelling the rich bite of coffee and the sweet tang of butter and chocolate wafting through the air.

  This was his favorite time of day, early in the morning when no one had arrived yet. He could focus completely on his work of making chocolates, toffee, caramel, and taffy for the people of Fate Valley. He loved his customers and helping people find just the right confection, but nothing compared to the time he spent alone in the kitchen, making the sweet treats.