Holiday Bear

by Scarlett Grove

  Holiday Bear

  Fate Valley Mysteries

  Scarlett Grove

  Copyright © 2017 by Scarlett Grove

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  About the Author

  Also by Scarlett Grove

  Chapter 1

  Layla Watson stood from her spinning wheel and looked around her workshop. It was time to get ready for the Holiday Market, only she had no idea where to begin. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she took stock of her inventory. Two dozen plastic boxes were piled in the corner, ready for packing. Layla ran her palm over a stack of knitted shawls, and then tapped the pad of her finger to her lips.

  “I'm going to need some coffee for this,” Layla said.

  She left the workshop in her little re-modeled barn and hurried to the Fate Valley Café and Bakery for a large, steaming-hot mocha latte. Baker Bear, Grayson Baxter, dropped her change into her palm with a smile and a wink. The smell of chocolate and whipped cream filled her nose as she took her first sip.

  “Are you going to the Holiday Market tomorrow?”

  “I wouldn't miss it. I've been looking forward to it since I moved here.”

  She'd been living in Fate Valley for the last six months, having moved from Kansas to the more picturesque setting near the Lake of the Fates.

  When she got back to her shop, having downed her coffee on the way home, she quickly began folding shawls, blankets, socks, and hats into their respective boxes.

  Then she began to pack the specialty yarn she had spun herself from different kinds of wool and silk from around the world. Layla was a master spinner and knitter and was known in her industry as being one of the best in the country. But she had been hitting a wall in her business for quite some time. That was part of what had prompted her to move to Fate Valley. She’d thought the change in scenery would do her good.

  She'd even met a man at Fate Valley Brewing as soon as she’d moved here. He was tall and attractive with strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes.

  Last week, she'd found out he'd been cheating on her all along. He’d left his phone on the arm of the easy chair in her living room with a well known hook-up app open on the screen. When she saw it, she immediately picked it up and began scrolling. There were texts from several different women, clearly indicating that they had been together recently and were planning to do it again. When he came back from the bathroom, buckling up his pants, Layla threw the phone at his chest. It fell on the ground, the screen cracking when it crashed to the hardwood floor.

  “What the hell are you doing, crazy woman?” he’d demanded.

  “You've been cheating on me!”

  He had tried to deny it, but it was no use. She'd already seen the proof.

  Now that she was single again, she knew she had to focus on her business and find a way to make it thrive. All she wanted to do was spin and knit. The marketing, advertising, and Internet stuff just made her head hurt. She knew she needed to find people to help her, but she just didn't know where to start.

  Layla had half her things packed for the Holiday Market, when she heard a knock at the door of her studio and went to answer it. On the other side of the door stood the printer who had made her a new banner.

  “Come on in!” she said.

  They spread the banner out over a clean table in the studio, and she looked at the sign in bold cursive letters. “Layla’s Spin and Knit,” it read, with a woolly sheep in one corner and a llama in the other.

  “It's beautiful,” she said, covering her mouth with her hands.

  “I'm glad you like it,” said the printer.

  “I can't wait to hang this up at the Holiday Market. It's my first year at the event, and I've been excited about it since I moved to Fate Valley.”

  “I'm sure you're going to be a big hit,” the printer said, walking through her work room and looking at her wares. He picked up a pair of children's mittens and ran his fingers over the soft wool. “I know little Mary would love these,” he said, holding the pink mittens with the little pom-poms that hung from the wrists.

  “Well, you keep them and tell Mary to have a Merry Christmas from me,” she said.

  “I couldn't.”

  “Just consider it a tip,” she said with a wink. He held the mittens to his heart and smiled.

  “Thank you, Layla. You’re a sweetheart.”

  “Don't mention it, but I do hope to see your family at the Holiday Market. Come by and say hello.”

  “We sure will,” he said, walking toward the door.

  She turned back to her workroom and continued packing up her yarn bundles and the specialty monogramed knitting needles she had made for her company. The whole time she packed, she couldn't stop thinking about her breakup with her ex-boyfriend.

  She’d had boyfriends in the past, being a thirty-two-year-old woman, but Layla had really thought that in this new town, with her new life, that she’d found the guy she'd settle down with. Layla wanted kids and a man to love and take care of, more than anything. It drove her to distraction, but so far, she had not had any luck in that department.

  After packing up the yarn bundles, she packed up the little yarn dolls and other novelty items she'd been working on all year just for this occasion. The little Santa teddy bears made her think of all the shifters who lived in Fate Valley. The shifters had a tight community and she wanted that for herself.

  Layla sat in the middle of her studio, a year of work packed in plastic boxes all around her, and picked up her phone. She'd been hearing about a shifter-human dating app that matched humans with shifters. The shifters had what they called “fated mates.” A fated mate was a shifter’s one true love. She let out a long sigh as she tried to remember the name of the dating site. Mate.com!

  With an excited shriek, she searched for the app in the app store and it immediately came up. She installed it and opened the window with the prompt to sign up. Layla quickly created a profile, and a few moments later she was answering a series of strange questions that left her befuddled and cockeyed.

  When she finally finished the questionnaire, and pressed enter to load her mates, the loading sign spun for an agonizingly long time. Finally, the loading screen changed and displayed her matches. The first match was an eighty-five percent match, a man with dark hair and dark eyes. He was cute, but not the one. She grumbled and kept scrolling.

  An eighty-seven percent match. A ninety-three percent match. The website had said that only a one hundred percent match was a fated mate, and shifters only wanted to mate with their fated ones. Come to think of it, so did she. A ninety-seven percent match came next. Layla's heart was pounding in her ears, and she licked her lips in anticipation. A ninety-eight percent match.

  She scrolled to the bottom, and there he was, her one hundred percent match. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she saw the man's face. His profile name was Holiday Bear and he was the most gorgeous creature she had ever laid eyes on. Wavy brown hair framed his handsome face. He wore a suit and a tie with a sprig of holly attached to the collar. His smile was infectious, and it lit up his big brown eyes. She had to sit down and fan herself, trying to keep fro
m fainting. This guy was her fated mate? “Oh boy,” she groaned, pressing the picture to open his profile.

  He was a real estate investor in Fate Valley. Not only was he gorgeous, he was clearly loaded. Heat rose in Layla's face, and she put down the phone. Layla stood and peered at her reflection in the mirror across the room. She ran her hand down her long, beaded braids and scrutinized her generous curves.

  “Don't you get down on yourself,” she heard her grandmother's voice say. “You're a beautiful, talented woman. Any man would be lucky to have you.”

  She placed her hand on her hip and tried to embody her grandmother's words, lifting her chin. After her most recent ex, it was just so hard to believe. He’d broken her heart and wounded her self-confidence.

  “Things just aren't the same as they were when you were a girl, Grandma,” she said to herself. “Men like women who are magazine cover models, nowadays. They can't handle a real woman.”

  “Nonsense,” her grandma's voice said. “You give that Holiday Bear a chance. You never know. It could be your happily ever after.”

  With a sigh, she turned away from her reflection and went back to the phone. With trembling hands, she picked it up and pressed the “message now” button.

  Her fingers were shaking over the keypad as she tried to type. Layla squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them again, blinking several times and breathing so heavily she thought she might pass out.

  “Hi there, I’m Spinner Girl,” she finally typed and pressed send. She put the phone down again and shook her head. “Oh my God, I can't believe how dorky I sound. Well, at least it will give him a chance to reject me out right.”

  She continued to pack up her Santa bears and knitted reindeer into a plastic tub for the Holiday Market. At least she could dream about having a man as hunky, gorgeous, and rich as Holiday Bear. It would give her something to fantasize about. After the fiasco with her ex, she’d come to believe that happily ever after wasn’t meant for her.

  Chapter 2

  Liam Nash hung up the phone and looked at the schedule on his computer. He was booked solid for the next week, planning and preparing the Holiday Market with his crew at the Fate Valley Event Center. He owned many buildings throughout Fate Valley, but he got a special joy out of helping plan the Holiday Market.

  It was kind of like a hobby for him. He loved bringing all the crafters and venders together for the special holiday season. The market had singers, comedians, jugglers and magicians. The whole community gathered together for shopping, food, and fun. There was even a quartet of Christmas carolers, dressed in traditional Victorian clothing They walked through the market, singing classic holiday tunes.

  This year though, he was feeling a little bit sad and lost. He'd been on Mate.com for years now, ever since serving in the military. Being too young to be in the Great War, he had still joined up and had benefited immensely from the discipline and training he’d gained. The humanitarian missions and the front-line offensive action had honed his skills as a negotiator and as a fighter.

  When he’d come to live in Fate Valley, he’d used his shifter veterans’ benefits to purchase his first duplex. He'd fixed it up himself, with his own two hands. From there, his success as an investor just snowballed. There was nothing he loved more than buying a property, fixing it up, and turning it around. He considered himself an artist in many ways, even if most people just saw him as a businessman.

  His secretary, Bethann Rogers, walked into his office, holding a cup of cinnamon tea. She set it on the table and asked him if he needed anything else.

  “No, I'm almost done for the day,” he said.

  She looked at him pointedly. “What's wrong?” she asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” he sighed.

  “Don’t tell me that, Liam. I always know there's something wrong when I hear that tone in your voice.”

  “You know I love the Holiday Market. It’s my favorite event of the year.”

  “I know you do. You plan and prepare the entire market even though you have a whole crew of people who could do it for you. So, what's wrong this year?”

  “I'm just feeling a little lonely,” he admitted.

  Bethann was an older woman who had been with him from the very beginning of his investment days, helping him with administrative tasks and organization throughout the years. She was a loyal and good friend. And in many ways, he couldn’t get by without her.

  “You still haven't found any matches on Mate.com have you?” Bethann asked.

  “Oh, I've had matches. It's just that none of them are a one hundred percent match.”

  “Have you tried dating any of the girls who are less than one hundred percent matches?”

  “Yes, I've dated a few. But they just aren’t my fated mate, so what's the point?”

  “At least you wouldn't feel so lonely,” she reasoned.

  “Things don't work the same way for shifters as they do for humans. The only woman that will make me happy is my fated one. My mate and I will get each other on a spiritual level and everything will fall into place.”

  “How many years have you been waiting for that special someone?” Bethann asked. “Maybe it's time to get over the fantasy.”

  “It's not a fantasy,” he assured her. “Every shifter waits for his fated mate.”

  “Well, I hope she appears soon, Liam, because when you get like this I worry about you. The company needs your spirit and your energy. When you get down, it's hard for everyone.”

  “I know,” he said, taking a sip of his spicy tea. “I'm sure when the market begins I'll start feeling better. I always do. You know how I love Christmas music.”

  He started to sing Jingle Bells Batman Smells off-key, and Bethann left the room abruptly with a goodnight and goodbye. He chuckled as he finished his tea, going over the schedule for the Holiday Market.

  He’d brought together the best crafters and vendors from across the state and country. There would be baked items and coffee from Fate Valley Café and Bakery. There would be sweet treats from Fate Valley Confections. There would be arts and crafts and food and wine and music and dancing and all the holiday cheer that the people of Fate Valley deserved in the dark, snowy, cold winter.

  He ran through the list of vendors, noting several new additions to the list. “Layla’s Spin and Knit,” he said to himself. He hadn't seen this vendor before. He clicked his spreadsheet and saw several examples of her work. It was quite good. He saw the little Santa bears and smiled. He knew the children would love those.

  Liam closed his spreadsheet and stood from his desk, looking out the window onto the snowy yard below his corporate headquarters. He owned an office building in Fate Valley, and his company took up the entire second floor. Gusts of snow flurried over the parking lot and the gray sky hung low overhead. Usually, this kind of weather got him excited for the holiday season, but now it just made him feel cold and lonely.

  Bethann was right. He needed to pull himself together for the company, the vendors, and the guests of the Holiday Market. He was the master of ceremonies, and if he was grumpy, that would affect everyone in Fate Valley for the whole holiday season! He didn't want that.

  He sat down at his computer and scrolled through pictures of children opening Christmas presents on Google images, while listening to holiday music on YouTube. That brought some joy to his heart and a smile to his lips. The festivities were something to look forward to, even if he wasn't getting what he wanted for Christmas. As he listened to a moving rendition of “Oh Holy Night,” he heard his cellphone buzz on his desk.

  Liam picked it up and looked at the text. “Congratulations, we found your fated mate.” He nearly dropped the phone.

  Liam had been waiting so long for this message, he could barely believe that it had arrived. His eyes glazed over, and he couldn't see. He clicked on the text as another appeared below it. It said, “Hi there, I’m Spinner Girl.”

  His heart fluttered in his chest. He could barely breathe as he opened Spinner
Girl’s profile. Liam was struck dumb by her loveliness. Big doe eyes the color of a mocha latte. Dark mahogany skin and hair that hung around her beautiful round face in long beaded braids. His bear growled inside him, standing on its hind legs.

  “Mate, mate, mate!” it roared.

  Liam shook his head and blinked several times. He scrolled through her pictures, seeing her spinning at her wheel. Spinner Girl’s lovely, curvaceous body mastered the spinning wheel. Her deft hands held a skein of yarn as her foot pumped the treadle.

  “Oh my God,” he said, barely able to breathe.

  He could just imagine running his hands over those curves, cupping her beautiful face in his hands, kissing her full, rosy lips and gazing into those beautiful, sweet eyes. He fumbled with his phone, nearly dropping it on the ground.

  Liam was a composed and in control businessman. But one look at Spinner Girl and he could hardly contain himself. He mashed on the “message now” button and replied.

  “Hi there from Holiday Bear!” he typed and pressed send. He fisted his forehead. “Stupid,” he said. She was going to think he was an idiot. He pursed his lips, thinking of something suave to say. “I'm Liam. I love Christmas. How about you?” He pressed send. “Stupid,” he said again.

  He let out a deep breath, trying to think of something else to say that would peak her interest more than “I love Christmas.”

  “I’d love to meet you. I’ll be at the Holiday Market all day tomorrow. But maybe after that, we can grab some coffee?”

  He waited for several long minutes, his heart beating hard. He hoped he hadn't put her off by his idiotic texts. A moment later, a text arrived on his screen. His eyes were so glazed over, he could barely see.