Naughty But Nice: A Bear Shifter Christmas Romance

by Mirajane

He shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not sure I want to go through with it.”

  “What? Why not? Do you not love her?”

  He smirked. “I’m not sure. I mean… honestly, this is the only really good, long-term relationship that I’ve ever really had. But I’m just wondering if I’m jumping the gun with this.”

  “Right on,” Drake said. “We are still young guys. If you aren’t sure about this then you shouldn’t marry the girl.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think it will get much better for me,” Cam said. “I’m still pretty much the same drip I was in high school.”

  I could tell that Cam was letting some of the sadness, some real feelings within him, bubble to the surface right then. The alcohol had lubricated his mind and loosened up his tongue enough for him to start to bring those emotions forth. I realized that he felt a bit jealous of me. Both of my friends did. That was not the reason I had agreed to hang out with them that night. And now I was feeling a bit bad about it all.

  “Hey, you are a great guy. You were a great guy then and you are now,” I said. “If you don’t want to get married then don’t string this girl along because of your own insecurities. That is not the way to live your life.”

  Cam smiled and nodded. “I guess you know everything,” he said. “After all, you went off and basically hit the lottery. You are going to be just fine, aren’t you? And now you can dish out advice left and right.”

  I looked him directly in the eye. I was getting a little bit pissed. “Hey. I didn’t win anything. I had a vision and I followed it though. I got out of this town and I went on with my life. It’s not my fault if you chose not to do that. That is on you.”

  Cameron sobbed a moment and drank some more of his beer. “You’re right,” he said. “It is my fault. I’m sorry. Sometimes I just wish I’d made some different choices.”

  “You are a young guy. It is far from being too late to do whatever you want. You just have to make that decision.”

  Drake nodded and chimed in. “Well, I’m just having fun going out with different girls,” he said.

  “You’re dating different women at the same time?” I asked.

  “No,” he said. “I usually only date them once or twice and then they tell me to never contact them again.”

  I tried not to laugh, but in his drunk voice and saying that in such a matter of fact manner, it was a bit hilarious.

  “Hey, look who it is,” Cam said. He was pointing towards the door. A group of women had just walked in. I recognized them as former classmates of ours. They all looked pretty much the same. I believed most of them went to the University, but I remember them in high school as being not particularly friendly to me. It didn’t bother me anymore. I’d decided that it was stupid and in preparing to come to the bar that night I had made the decision that this was the way to feel to prepare for these chance encounters. I knew going to the bar was like an accidental high school reunion all over again, especially during the holidays.

  I watched them enter and walk towards a table, all of them beautiful looking and wearing amazing dresses that were just stunning. I could see Cam and Drake’s jaws hanging open as they watched the same girls they’d been watching since high school continue to ignore them.

  I was about to ignore them too when I saw her. I couldn't believe it. There she was. She was pulling up the rear as she entered the room. It was like all the air in the place was completely sucked out of it and I felt a bit claustrophobic. My heart stopped, then skipped, and then stopped again. This was really happening.

  I was staring at the beautiful face of Angie Silvers. And she looked even more beautiful than she had in high school. It was astounding.

  “Hey, isn’t that—" Cam started before I cut him off.

  “It’s Angie,” I said.

  Instantly, I felt like that same little nerd who used to crush on this girl back in high school. This was really happening. I couldn’t get my mind around it as I felt my feet shifting and moving back and forth. I was starting to sweat. Yes, I was getting very nervous all of a sudden. What was I going to do?

  “Well, you should go talk to her,” Drake said. “Wasn’t she the only girl in high school who was actually nice to you? Hell, I bet you could actually get her now.”

  “I bet she’s been following you,” Cam said. “I know that girls do that, just in case any guy they used to know ends up being rich or something. I saw it on a show.”

  “You’re a moron,” Drake told him.

  “I doubt that is true,” I said. “And I’m going to ignore her. She might see me, but I doubt she will even give me a second look. It’s been years.”

  “Well, she will probably give you a second look, but she won’t remember who you are. You look so much different now, man,” Cam said. “I’m telling you, if you don’t go over there and talk to her then you are dead to me.”

  “What?” I asked with a laugh.

  “I need this for hope. I need this for me.”

  I rolled my eyes and took a swig of my beer. “No. It’s not going to happen. What? Do you think that she will suddenly swoon at my feet and realize that she was always in love with me? This isn’t some Hollywood rom com. This is real life. It just doesn’t work that way.”

  “She’s still smoking hot,” Drake said. “Remember that asshole she used to date? Oren.”

  “Yeah, what is he doing now?” I asked. “I’ve only heard rumors here and there.”

  “That dude is a real loser.”

  “Well, he always was. He sure as hell didn’t deserve a great girl like Angie. I’m glad she finally dumped his ass.”

  “Yeah,” Cam said. “And then the rest of the cheer squad and the football team blackballed her name. They really ran it through the mud.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did she seek comfort in you during that? I mean, if she did then you totally could have used that to your advantage,” Cam said.

  “Dude, what is wrong with you?” I asked. “You have severe issues. You need to get checked out.”

  “He took a Hockey puck to the face a while back; he hasn’t been quite the same since then,” Drake said.

  “So, are you really just going to sit here, or are you going to make a move?” Cam asked.

  “I’m going to sit here and continue to enjoy myself,” I said. “Whatever was between us then is just not going to come back now. It’s been too long.”

  I wasn’t sure I really believed that. Truthfully, I was scared to death to go over there. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cared if a woman actually was interested in me or not. Since putting other things in my life to the forefront, I found that I was no longer intimidated by beautiful women as I’d been as a teenager. I’d grown past that.

  But right there and then I’d been magically transformed back into that nerdy, awkward teenager I used to be. It was silly. I should have gone over and talked to her, but I just felt awkward about it and I kept coming up with excuses. She just walked in. She was with her friends. She was not going to remember me. Or she might just want to be left alone as I did.

  “Did you ever come close to anything happening back then?” Cam asked me.

  “No,” I said. “It wasn’t like that between us. She was just not interested. We were friends, and just barely at that. I considered myself lucky to be her friend.”

  “Well, I think it’s time to take the friendship to the next level,” he said. “Don’t you?”

  “I certainly think so,” Drake added.

  I ignored them and turned my eyes away from Angie. I wasn’t going over there though my heart wanted to, badly. I wanted to go over there and tell her how much she meant to me and how I had not been able to get her out of my head these past few years. I wanted her to know how I had always felt about her, but I had a feeling that this would somehow backfire and cause me some sort of pain.

  Besides, I didn’t want to crash and burn in front of Drake and cam. But it pissed me off. I’d been thinking about how I would go to her family
and ask them for her contact info, about how much I definitely wanted to see her and talk with her. And now I was finally getting that opportunity and I was just letting it slip through my fingers. How lame was that?

  “Fuck it,” I said.

  I stood up with my bottle of beer and marched slowly towards her table. “That’s what I’m talking about!” Drake cheered. A second later I heard Drake and Cam slap a hard high five.

  Within seconds, I was standing in front of the group at the table. They were all looking at me, but my focus was on Angie whose back was to me.

  “Angie,” I said.

  She turned around quickly. It took her a second to recognize me, but when she did, I saw those beautiful eyes lighting up, following up with a sweet smile.

  Here we go…

  Chapter Seven

  Angie

  “Wow, that guy over there is gorgeous!” Heather said.

  We’d only been seated for a few minutes when I noticed she was looking behind me. The other girls all glanced in that direction as well. I craned my neck to glance casually that way, but not enough to be obvious. I had to be careful. I didn’t want to start gawking at some guy who would take this as an invitation to come over to our table and hang out with us. It was just us girls tonight.

  My eyes caught sight of the man they were talking about. He was about half turned and was talking to two other guys. The guy looked familiar, but I wasn’t overly sure who he was at first. But the other two guys leapt out at me right away. They were Cameron and Drake, old friends of Tyler’s.

  That’s when it hit me. The guy looked just like Tyler. But as I looked closer at him, I began to realize… that he was Tyler. What the hell? I stared at him for what had to have been ten seconds. I couldn’t help myself. It was him. Oh… wow… I couldn’t believe it. He was there.

  And he looked amazing. I could not understand how this hunky looking guy was actually the nerdy guy I had become friends with in high school. He’d been such a sweetheart, and now he was a total fox as well.

  I quickly turned around. “That’s Tyler Chambers.”

  “Shut up! It is not,” Heather replied. But she was really checking him out now.

  “Yeah, it is,” I said. “Don’t you remember Cameron and Drake? And then Tyler… it’s him.”

  “Holy shit! He is hot, now!” Lori said.

  “I’ll say. Fuck…” Jackie added.

  Nia was checking him out, too. “Yeah, he is hot. Was he not hot before?”

  We all laughed. “No. He looked a lot more like his friends there,” I said. “He has gotten taller, filled out, his skin has cleared up, and his hair is done nicely. And… wait… is that a Rolex on his wrist?”

  “Damn. That is nice…” Heather replied.

  “Hey, weren’t you good friends with him?”

  “I was,” I said. “He was one of the few people, besides you guys, who was still nice to me after I dumped Oren’s stupid ass.”

  “You should go talk to him,” Lori said. “Bring him over here. I’m sure we’d love to hang with him.”

  “But I don’t want his nerdy buddies coming over,” Jackie said.

  I gasped at her. “What the hell? They are very nice guys. Did you just have a high school flashback? You aren’t sixteen anymore.”

  Jackie rolled her eyes. “Ok,” she said. “Fine.”

  “But, I’m not sure I should,” I said. “He looks busy, and besides, didn't he just kind of cut ties with everyone? He left town and hasn’t looked back. I can’t believe he is here.”

  “Yeah, but he is here now. Why not?”

  “I… I’m not sure…”

  “What’s the deal?” Nia asked.

  I sighed. “Can I tell you guys something?”

  “Sure,” they all said practically in unison.

  “I’ve been thinking about him lately,” I said. “Just randomly, recently I started to have thoughts about him. I know it sounds crazy, but yeah…”

  They all looked at me like I was crazy.

  “What?” Jackie asked. “Thinking about him in what context?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know… just the thought of him has been popping into my head recently. I think just being back here, thinking about all the stuff that happened, and he was there in those memories. And now he is here right across the room from me. I’m not sure what to do with that.”

  “People have odd dreams and weird things,” Lori said. “Don’t worry about it. The guy looks hot, and he might still be a good guy. Hopefully his hotness didn’t corrupt his soul. Go over there.”

  I shook my head no. “I’m not going over there. This is our night. This is a girl’s night. I want to reconnect with you. We don’t need to include any random guys.”

  “I vote you go over there and stop being chicken,” Nia said.

  “Yes,” Jackie seconded.

  “I also vote for this,” Lori chimed in.

  “Agreed,” Heather finished.

  I laughed. “No. Why don’t one of you go over?”

  “I’ll go,” Nia said starting to stand up. I held her arm and she sat back down quickly with a laugh.

  “There we have it,” Heather said. “Angie has volunteered to go over there and find out what old Tyler has been up to.”

  “No,” I said. “Why is this so important to you? None of you ever gave him the time of day in high school. You were all actually pretty terrible to him.”

  “Whatever,” Heather said. “He was weird and not at all interesting.”

  “But now because he looks like he has money you want me to go over there and flirt with him?”

  “No, his money has nothing to do with it, but that’s always a nice plus. We want you to be happy.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Heather bit her lip for a second, but then she said, “We know you haven’t dated anyone for a while, so this is an opportunity to see if something clicks. Besides, you already know this guy. Why not see if it can go to another level?”

  I sighed. “You guys are crazy. And how do you even know anything about my love life?”

  They were silent and then they kind of glanced over at Nia. I looked at her with my eyes growing wide. “Nia… what the actual fuck?”

  Nia laughed. “When you were in the bathroom, they just casually asked me about it. I was honest. I told them you were taking a break just because. It is your choice and everything. We all know that.”

  I shook my head with a laugh. “You are all ridiculous. I don’t need to be pushed into anything. Did you know he was going to be here?”

  Jackie and Lori shook their heads. “No.”

  I looked at them sternly with a lot of question in my eyes. They shook their heads again. I was inclined to believe them, but I was still unsure. If this was their weird attempt at some kind of a setup, I was going to be furious. I didn’t want set up with anyone, and for them to drudge up someone from the past this way…it just didn’t really seem right.

  “Ok, well I’m not sure I believe that,” I said, “But, at any rate, I am not doing that.”

  “Well, he is coming over here, so I’m not sure if you have a choice,” Heather said.

  I felt my eyes widen and then I started to turn my head. The second I caught Tyler coming at us out of the corner of my eye, I turned my head back around. I didn’t want him to know I was looking at him. Wow, I felt like I was in junior high or something. How messed up was this? I took a sip of my drink. It was my first rum and coke of the night.

  “Angie?”

  The voice was behind me. I recognized it instantly. It was that same exact voice, saying my name in that very same way that I was remembered, and I could feel his energy with it as well as he stood behind me. It felt good. I hated how much I barely remembered Tyler, but I do remember him being such a good friend to me when I really needed it.

  I turned and looked at him then. I tried to turn slowly, so as not to give it away how excited and nervous I actually was, but it came out
a bit faster than I planned. There he was. He looked so different. He was several inches taller, and he’d filed out, he looked so athletic, and he was so handsome. He was also much more confident and strong acting just standing there looking down at me.

  “Tyler,” I said. “Wow…it is great to see you.”

  I turned my body around so that I wasn’t looking back awkwardly at him. Tyler stood there glancing down at me with a slight grin and those wickedly beautiful eyes that were peering right into my soul. They were enough to make a woman melt. And they were having that very effect on me right then.

  My heart was clenching in my chest, skipping a beat and then double thumping in my chest on the next one. I felt my breath catching in my chest and my whole body began to tingle. I’d said that I had no intention of meeting any men right now, that I was busy with other things, and for the most part I’d meant exactly that. But sitting right there under that man’s gaze, I felt absolutely under his spell.

  “Likewise,” he said. “You look amazing.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. “So do you. Hell, I almost didn’t recognize you.”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t sure I should come over to you or not,” Tyler said. “I didn’t want to interrupt anything.”

  “Ah, no we were just hanging out and having some drinks. You should tell your friends to come over. We have plenty of space.”

  Tyler hesitated and looked over at his friends who were both smiling and joking around nervously. Those guys had obviously not changed a bit.

  “Are you sure?” Tyler asked.

  “Yes, bring them over,” I replied. “The more the merrier.”

  Tyler sighed and waved them over. I could tell he might have been slightly embarrassed by his friends. I wasn’t sure that was cool. Nerdy or not, if they were his friends then he should not have been ashamed of them. But something told me he was more worried about how my friends might behave. They were not exactly kind to these guys in school. Hell, they weren’t even nice to Tyler. I had totally forgotten that part when I asked him to bring them over.

  Tyler waved them over and those two guys quickly jumped to their feet. They grabbed their beers and moseyed on over to join us. This was going to be interesting.