Complete Bear Creek and Bear Bluff Box Sets: Including brand new exclusive book Best Man Bear

by Harmony Raines

  “Is that really fair to Chloe?” Olivia asked.

  “Who are you?” Yvonne asked, turning on Olivia.

  Olivia stood her ground, feeling Joshua at her back, giving her support, and boy did she need it, this woman was enraged. “I’m her best friend. I’m also her maid of honour.”

  “She’s getting married?” Yvonne faltered for a moment before recovering her anger. “Just like her father did when my sister wasn’t even cold in her grave.”

  “That wasn’t Chloe’s fault,” Olivia insisted. “Do you want to know how miserable your niece has been all these years?”

  “Do you want to know how miserable I have been?” Yvonne spun around, her eyes flashing with anger.

  “The difference is, you weren’t a kid,” Olivia said, and winced at her tone. She had come over all accusatory, not sympathetic at all.

  “I think you should go,” Aunt Yvonne said, heading to her door, key ready in her hand, and Olivia knew she was about lose the one chance she had.

  “I have some photos of her, would you like to see?” Olivia put her hand in her purse and pulled out the various photos she had brought with her, showing a happy Chloe, and thrust them in Yvonne’s face.

  Yvonne took a sharp breath, and Olivia’s hope grew. How could the woman resist helping her niece? “She looks just like her mom, doesn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Aunt Yvonne answered. “Just like her. It’s uncanny.”

  “You know she has a picture of her mom from when she married her dad, and they look exactly the same.” Olivia pulled out a photo of Chloe’s parents on their wedding day.

  Aunt Yvonne’s eyes filled with tears, and Olivia felt relief wash over her. But then Yvonne sniffed, taking a deep breath and said, “What do you want?”

  “Chloe loves this photo, and she is missing her mom terribly, with the wedding and everything. And she wanted to wear something of her mom’s, so she would feel she was with her on this special day.”

  “The pearl choker.” Yvonne put her fingers on the photo, touching it lightly.

  “Yes. It would mean so much to Chloe if she could wear it when she gets married.”

  “And she couldn’t be bothered to come herself?” Yvonne tensed. “I don’t even get an invite, and now she sends her friend to ask for the choker?”

  Yvonne’s hand slid to her side and then she said, “Get off my property.”

  “Please, the wedding is on Friday, please let her borrow the choker.”

  “If it meant that much to her she could have come and seen me, she could have put an end to the bad feeling between our families,” Yvonne said, opening her front door and going inside.

  “She didn’t ask me to come. Please, she doesn’t even know we are here,” Olivia shouted as the door shut in her face.

  Turning to face Joshua, she said, “Well that went well,” and promptly burst into tears.

  Chapter Twelve – Joshua

  “It’s OK,” he said as they drove back to Bear Bluff. Olivia had been sobbing on and off for the last few miles.

  “Why would she be like that?” Olivia asked. “Why would she want to hurt her niece?”

  “She’s hurting; it’s what people do when they don’t know how to handle situations. You did nothing wrong,” he said firmly.

  “What if I’ve made it worse?” she asked him, and blew her nose noisily, and adorably wiped her eyes. He had to keep a hold of himself, because otherwise he would have pulled over and kissed her tears away, and that would have led to more, so much more.

  His knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he fought for control; his bear wanted them to be mated so badly, he was struggling to contain him.

  “You haven’t made it worse,” he said, his voice strained.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to go on. And I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

  “Time I gave freely,” he said, giving her what he hoped was a comforting smile.

  “But you could have spent that time catching up with Nate. You travel all that way to be his best man and I drag you off on some wild-goose chase.” She shook her head, and tears threatened again.

  “Listen, why don’t you try to catch some sleep. You look exhausted,” he said kindly.

  “Oh no, do I look that bad?” she asked, looking at her reflection in the mirror. “All red and blotchy.”

  “I like red and blotchy,” he said to her, and he got a small smile in return.

  “Thank you, Joshua. I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “Me too,” he said, and inside his head his bear roared so loudly he had to look across to her quickly to see if she had heard it too.

  ***

  She slept most of the way. Part of him missed the sound of her voice; the rest of him enjoyed the quiet, only because it gave him tie to think. Joshua knew that as soon as they got back to town he would be swept along with the final preparations for the wedding. Including accompanying Nate on his bachelor party. Although it wasn’t going to be more than a couple of drinks with some of the guys Nate knew.

  No strippers, no practical jokes. Like putting him on a train to Alaska ... yes, that one had crossed his mind. But it would only cause trouble for Chloe, and Olivia, and he couldn’t do that to her, especially when she was so miserable already.

  “Where are we?” she asked, her voice croaky, evidence of the tears she had shed over their failure to get the choker from Yvonne.

  “About a half an hour from home,” he said, and he startled himself at thinking of Bear Bluff as home. But home would be anywhere Olivia was. Even if he had to follow her to the desert, a place his polar bear would hate, he would. They would. Their fates were bound together no matter what.

  “Why didn’t you wake me? You must be exhausted,” she said, stretching, and he liked the way her shirt pulled tight across her breasts. He licked his lips in anticipation.

  “You needed to sleep,” he said, and then added, “So, do we know what our story is?”

  “Story?” she asked, still fuzzy from her nap.

  “Yes, the reason we went AWOL two days before the wedding.”

  “Oh, yeah, we need to get that straight.” Olivia sat up and picked up her purse, rifling through it until she found her phone. “I’ll text Nate.”

  The hit the outskirts of Bear Bluff, and still they hadn’t heard anything from Nate. Olivia kept looking at her phone, and he could tell she was worried. And then her phone beeped. After studying it for a moment, she smiled, and he dreaded to hear what Nate had given Chloe as an excuse for leaving town.

  “He told her you had cold feet and made a run for it, and I had followed to round you up.”

  “What!” he exclaimed. “And she believed I came all this way only to run out on the wedding?”

  “No, this is Chloe, she’s not the gullible type. So instead she thinks you have something awful planned for the bachelor party and I went along to keep you out of trouble. And to make sure you are absolutely clear that if Nate is not at the wedding, you will be castrated.” Olivia smiled again, and he turned to look at her, thinking how beautiful she was and how he didn’t want them to part.

  “That funny, huh?” he asked.

  “Chloe sent the text; I gave you the sanitised version.”

  “Nice. I like how the blame came down to me,” he said.

  “You have broad shoulders. You can take it.” She put her phone back into her purse, and then said, “You drive to Nate’s house, I’ll drop you off and then go home. I need a shower and something to eat before I double-check everything is ready.”

  “OK,” he said, wanting to say more to her, to tell her he had enjoyed the time with her so much he hated for them to part, but he couldn’t. After the wedding, he promised his bear.

  “Chloe is here too.” Olivia pointed to where her friend’s small car was parked outside the house. Joshua pulled up next to it and they both got out. “I’ll go and say hello quickly before I leave.”

  “When will I see you again?” h
e asked as he switched off the ignition.

  “I don’t know,” she said, blushing a beautiful shade of pink.

  “Tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Will you be in any fit state after the bachelor party?” she asked, her voice breathy, as if she was nervous.

  “I don’t drink much, and apart from the late night, I should be around for lunch. You have to eat, right?”

  She got out of the car, walking over to the front door, which Chloe had already pulled open. “There you both are! Josh, I hope you are going to look after Nate tonight?”

  “Certainly am,” Joshua said. He paused next to Olivia, who looked up at him shyly and smiled. “I’ll go in and see Nate. See you tomorrow, Olivia, about twelve thirty?”

  “Sure,” she said and blushed deeper, something not lost on Chloe. “I am going to get on home. I’ll come over later, Chloe. OK?”

  “Yes. About seven, and you can tell me what you two got up to on your road trip,” Chloe said, to which Olivia looked up at Joshua, guilt flicking across her face. “Did you two…?”

  “No!” Olivia said too quickly and too loudly, and then she turned around and headed back to her car. “See you later.”

  “What exactly happened between you?” Chloe asked Josh while she stood waving to Olivia.

  “Nothing.”

  “Please tell me.” Olivia was halfway down the drive and Chloe now switched her full attention to Joshua. “Really!”

  “What?” he asked, as a smile spread across Chloe’s face.

  “She’s your mate?”

  He ran his hand over his face as if trying to hide what must be evident to Chloe. “She doesn’t know. And she has no idea about Nate either, does she?” he asked.

  “No.” Chloe shook her head. “And you haven’t told her anything?”

  “After the wedding.” He thought about it, checking it was the right thing to do. It was; it wasn’t as if he was keeping the secret from her for any other reason than he didn’t want to ruin the wedding. Was he? “She’s put a whole lot of work into the wedding, I really don’t want to mess it up for her, or you.”

  “I just hope she isn’t really pissed when she finds out. If it’s after the wedding, I won’t be here for her, to help her come to terms with the truth.”

  Chloe had a point. But he still wanted to wait. Or was he just a chicken in wolf’s clothing?

  Chapter Thirteen – Olivia

  “More wine?” Chloe asked Olivia as they sat on her porch, wrapped up in coats and blankets.

  “I might need something stronger to keep me warm,” Olivia joked. She knew why they were out here, Chloe’s dad and stepmom were having a not-so-quiet lovers’ tiff.

  “Like a certain Alaskan man who has caught your eye?” Chloe asked. She had drunk three glasses of wine already and was a little bit tipsy.

  “This will be my last, I have to drive home tonight.” Olivia had paced herself, she had only drunk one glass, and that had lasted her for the last two hours. “Least the wine is still chilled.”

  “Sorry,” Chloe said.

  “Hey, it’s OK. At least you’ll be out of here soon.” Olivia took a sip of her wine and set it down; she wouldn’t drink it all, unlike Chloe who was steadily getting drunk.

  “I wonder what life would be like if my mom was still here.” Chloe leaned forward and picked up a potato chip, before putting it in her mouth and crunching it noisily.

  “You might not have met Nate,” Olivia said. “You know, he wouldn’t have seen you and fallen in love with you.”

  “He would have,” Chloe gulped her wine again. “We’re destined to be together. It’s fate. Just like you and Joshua.”

  Olivia went cold. Well, if that was possible, she was already freezing, but a shiver passed through her and she waited for Chloe to say more. When she didn’t, she prompted her. “What do you mean, fate? Like love at first sight?”

  “Something like that. I could see it in his face when you two came back from your trip.”

  “See what in his face?”

  “The same look Nate had when we first met. The look that says they want you, but don’t know what to do about it, how to tell you about … well, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know.” Olivia shook her head, and reached for her wine, wanting something to hold, rather than needing a drink. The cold glass anchored her here, on Chloe’s porch when her mind wanted to drift elsewhere, to a bar where Joshua might have an armful of Bear Bluff women hanging off his every word. Damn, she was jealous.

  Chloe sighed. “He’ll tell you when he’s ready.”

  “OK, Chloe, you can’t half say something and then leave me hanging. What does he have to tell me?”

  She put her finger to her lips. “Shh, it’s a secret. Now, how about some music?”

  Chloe got up, and swayed dangerously. Olivia sprang from her chair, and put her arm around her drunk friend’s waist. “I think someone needs to get to bed.”

  “I want to dance.”

  “No, Chloe, you need to sleep. You are going to regret this in the morning, and you only have one more day until your wedding. I sure hope Nate doesn’t get this drunk. Or maybe he will end up in Alaska on a train.”

  Chloe giggled. “I told Joshua that if anything happens to my Nate, I will skin his bear hide.”

  “Bear hide?” Olivia said.

  “Yep. Nice white bear hide would look great on the floor of our sitting room. It would go right in front of the hearth.” She sighed. As they approached the door, they could hear the argument continuing. “I want Nate.”

  “You can see him tomorrow.” Olivia placed her hand on the door, just as a crash, as if a vase had been thrown, ricocheted through the house.

  “I can’t stay here,” Chloe whispered miserably. “Take me to the cottage.”

  “Chloe, Nate’s not expecting you there.” Olivia turned them around and headed back towards the chairs, at a loss as to what she should do. “Listen, come back home with me.”

  “I can’t,” Chloe said, her face pale. “I don’t think I’ll make it without throwing up.”

  “Oh, honey, what are we going to do?” She looked down at Chloe, who was shivering so much her teeth were rattling. Against her better judgement, she said, “OK, you win, let’s get you home.”

  “To our little house? I love our house so much, Olivia.” She began to cry then. “I love Nate so much too. I’m so happy I’ll never have to worry about him straying, and our kids will never have to worry about him going off with another woman if I die. The mating bond is for life, you know?”

  Olivia stopped, halfway to her car, and asked, “What mating bond?”

  “The one between me and Nate. Bears mate for life, you know that,” Chloe said, her weight resting on Olivia.

  “No they don’t. The mom raises the cubs alone.” She had seen enough nature documentaries to know that.

  “Not my kind of bear,” Chloe said confidently and Olivia decided it was best to let it go. No use correcting Chloe now; she was too drunk to take anything in.

  “And there was me thinking the boys were going to be a problem,” she said to herself after she had managed to get Chloe in the car and was now going around to the driver’s side. Slipping in behind the wheel, she started the engine, turning the heater up full blast. But still it was freezing.

  Olivia thought about going back and fetching some blankets for Chloe, whose teeth were still chattering. But in the end she just put the car in drive, and left the big mansion behind, too busy going over what Chloe said to risk getting caught up in the heated argument inside the house. It was true, money did not buy you happiness.

  She’s just drunk, Olivia thought as she turned onto the road, heading towards Chloe’s house. That was all it was. But then the image of Joshua in the darkness, the night she first picked him up on the road came to her. Or rather, the reason she had stopped that night.

  She remembered the white blur crossing her path, she remembered slamming on her brakes, sure sh
e had hit an animal or something. And then he had been there.

  Impossible, humans and bears were two very separate species. She might have believed that if it wasn’t for working in Bear Bluff for so long. There were rumours, odd calls to the sheriff that when she passed them over to him, he went into his office and shut the door for privacy. And then he would disappear out the door and sort out whatever problem the call involved.

  OK, maybe she had more wine than she thought. No, she was clear headed, way below the drink drive limit, and perfectly focused.

  “Perfectly sane too,” she said out loud. And that was an end to it. Bears were bears; men were men.

  Chloe seemed to have fallen asleep in the passenger seat, and she concentrated on the road, looking for the turn that would take her up to the house in the woods. There it was. Taking it slow, she crawled up the track and parked outside, turning off the ignition and then looking at Chloe.

  So many emotions rushed in at her. Olivia desperately wanted Chloe to have a fresh start; she wanted her to have a man who would love and cherish her, and be there for through everything life threw at them.

  “Be happy, Chloe,” she said, stroking her friend’s head.

  “Uh, are we there?” Chloe said groggily.

  “Yes, come on, you’ll have to walk to the house. I’ll get you settled in bed and then head home.”

  “Thanks, Olivia, thank you for bringing me home.” Chloe put her hand on the door, and opened it, Olivia got out quickly and went around to help her, looping her friend’s arm over her shoulder.

  One stumbling step at a time, they headed towards the front door. “Do you have a key?”

  “It’s open,” Chloe said, and sure enough, the door wasn’t locked, much to Olivia’s relief. They staggered through the doorway together, Olivia was glad the fire was still burning, even if it was mostly embers, but at least the house was warm.

  “Now, let’s get you into bed.” Olivia guided them towards the bedroom, and there she sat Chloe down on the bed. “Do you want some coffee?”

  “No. I just want to crawl into bed. I’m sorry I drank so much, Olivia. Ignore what I said.” Chloe seemed a bit more herself, and lifted the covers up to climb in.