Bear No Loss

by Anya Nowlan

  She’d worked hard on that proposal. Not only hard, but she thought that finally they could use something other than slimy taglines and promises of mountains of booze and boobs, which seemed to be the common theme for all events coordinated by Tarley Events. Okay, so maybe she had gotten a little carried away with describing the options for the campaign leading up to it, but was that such a bad thing?

  Apparently it was.

  “This just brings me to my next point. I’m sure you know this is our low season. Past Christmas and New Year’s, nothing happens until the weddings start rolling up in the summer. We’re scraping at the bottom of the barrel here and frankly, I don’t have enough work to go around.”

  Oh no, April thought, her hazel eyes growing wide with worry. If I lose this job I’ll be so screwed!

  “Sally, I’m sorry for the mistake. It won’t happen again! You know me, I’ve been working for you for three years now!” April began, her fingers clutching the pages of her notebook.

  There was no love lost between Tarley Events and April, that much was true, but the thought of getting fired still sent bile creeping up in her throat. Coming from a wealthy family, she’d made it her life’s goal to manage her own finances and get by on her own merits now as an adult, and Tarley Events had been a big part of that.

  After picking up an English Literature degree, back when she had less qualms about living off of her parents’ fortune, it had become abundantly clear that there simply weren’t that many options out there for someone with her passion for writing and a lack of desire to ruin people’s lives. Journalism seemed to be more about screwing everyone else over than it was about getting a good story and writing books… well, that too was an uphill battle against agents and publishers and finding what spoke to her enough to try. So she never really had given it a fair shot, more preoccupied with her own doubts to make an honest go of it.

  “Stop it, I’m not firing you,” Sally said with a roll of her eyes, lifting up her hand.

  “Oh,” April sighed, letting out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

  “But I will put you on extended leave until the busy season starts again. You’ve been with me the longest so you have tons of vacation days saved up that you need to put into good use. I’ll pay you seventy percent of your usual wages past those. I think you really need to take some time off and figure out how you’re going to work with me, because this,” Stella said, holding up her reports again as if they were something dead and fermenting, “is unacceptable.”

  When April finally walked out of Stella’s office, after hashing out the details of her newfound free time, she was in something she could only describe as a haze of confusion. On one hand, she suddenly found herself with far too much free time and nothing to do with it. And on the other hand, her own boss had just told her what April herself already knew—that she wasn’t happy where she was.

  So what was a girl to do?

  “I need a drink,” she said and thought at the same time, her eyes meeting Nicky’s when she was only two paces from Sally’s door.

  “I’m game!” Nicky quipped with a wide, happy grin, scooping up her purse and jacket before April could even make it back to her desk.

  ***

  It was the fourth shot of something that included far too much vodka and not enough of anything else that did April in. Her phone had been sitting on the table and when Memphis pinged her on SassyDate and the alert showed as a notification on the screen, she hadn’t been fast enough to stop Nicky from snatching it up and reading the text.

  “Memphis Corley is messaging you!?” Nicky asked, half-gasping, half-sputtering as she braced herself with one hand on the table. “And you’re here talking about what you’re going to do with your vacation? Woman, we have far more interesting things to discuss.”

  Nicky shoved the phone in April’s face as if April wasn’t aware of the man hitting her up on the dating site, leaving her a tiny bit more sullen as she took her phone and read the notification quickly. It was a little pun about their names and how he thought Memphis in April was a fine place to be.

  That bastard, she thought with a grin and a shake of her head, but some of the amusement dissipated as she looked up into the brown, intense eyes of Nicky Volley, a woman not exactly known for her sense of decorum.

  “Yeah, I guess I sort of… forgot to tell you about the fact that I met him,” April said, cringing as she reached for another shot on the tray they’d bought after the first round of beers.

  One thing was for sure, she was going to feel this in the morning.

  “You forgot to tell me that you met Memphis Corley?! Only my number one, most favorite hockey player of all time?! Oh, I know when this was,” Nicky said, leaning back in her seat with her mouth gaping. “It was that night, wasn’t it! When I thought I smelled Calvin Klein and SEX in the apartment! Did you make him climb down the fire escape? You did, didn’t you?”

  April was nodding before she could even attempt to stop herself, and then throwing back another shot just to make herself stop giving Nicky more ammunition. The “but you don’t even watch hockey” died on her lips along with any denial she might have been formerly ready to rattle out.

  “I can’t believe you,” Nicky said with a shake of her head, her expression tight but her smile wide. “You should have at least introduced us!”

  “I was embarrassed, honestly. I mean, we met at a bar and we ended up hitting it off and one thing led to another and then he was in the cab and in the apartment and… God, I’m such an idiot,” April said, letting her head fall on her arms with a thunk, the loud music in the bar one block down from the office drowning it out well enough.

  “Why? I mean, I’m not mad,” Nicky said, making April glance up.

  Nicky’s eyes seemed a little cold and distant, but her smile was genuine enough now. Nicky reached out her hand and put it on April’s, rousing her from the fit of self-pity she’d been trying to disappear into all night.

  “Honestly?” April asked.

  “Cross my heart and hope to d… well, not die, but at least meet the rest of the Bluehawks if I can’t get my claws into Memphis,” Nicky said with a giggle. “I swear, I won’t touch him. I don’t steal from friends!”

  That last part was said a bit too lightly and with maybe a tiny bit of undertone that April was quick to dismiss as Nicky clinked the shot glasses together with her and they both swallowed another bitter mouthful.

  “That’s good to hear. I’m really sorry Nicky. I just don’t really follow hockey that much and even when he said his name, it sounded familiar but I didn’t put two and two together and—”

  “Say no more, I get it! But tell me, what are you going to do now? Is he hitting you up a lot on SassyDate? Have you seen him again?”

  April shook her head, fighting the desire to pick up the phone and scroll through their old messages again like she’d been doing far too often lately. He was sweet and a bit raunchy just like he was in person, but she never felt uncomfortable chatting with him. Quite the contrary. Putting the phone down every night was hard as hell because she just wanted to keep going!

  “I haven’t,” April admitted. “He’s in Idaho for practice games. Though I understand their rink is about to go up so they’re going to start playing in an official capacity again.”

  “Ooh! Do they have a name yet?” Nicky asked, obviously more up to date on the whole world of NSHL and hockey in general than April was.

  “I think they’re calling themselves the Shovelers or something. Not sure.”

  “Ew. Okay. Has he maybe invited you to a game or something…” Nicky asked, trailing off, obviously fishing for information.

  “He has,” April admitted, feeling the corners of her mouth tug up a little. “He has a training camp and a practice game next week that’s supposed to be low-pressure and he and the team would have time to hang out. There’s even some kind of an inn or something near town, but I was supposed to be working and I didn’t really want
to go alone.”

  April pursed her lips in thought, shaking her head a moment later as Nicky visibly perked up.

  It’s a stupid idea. You just hung out with him for a few hours, there’s nothing there! And he’s a hockey player, they’re all players… it’s in the title!

  “You know, Sally has been pushing me to grab some time off too. I could totally come with you! Then you wouldn’t be alone, and you have free time now too!”

  “You’d do that?” April asked, surprised.

  “Hell yes! A week of hockey bear hotness? Sign me up!” Nicky hooted, throwing her hands up.

  April couldn’t help but smile. Was she drunk or did that sound like a really good idea? Well, she was definitely a little bit drunk, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a good idea, right?

  “Are you sure?” April asked again, trying to find all the reasons why it would be a horrible idea and coming up annoyingly short.

  “I’m sure! Now pick up the damn phone and text your lover-bear so we can plan the trip!” Nicky yelled, shoving the phone into April’s hands.

  Before she could chicken out, April was tapping out a hurried reply that may or may not have had a few typos in it, asking Memphis if the invite still stood. The “Hell YES!” she got in response about a minute later confirmed it.

  “Guess we’re going to Idaho then,” April said, feeling a little drunk on excitement.

  And vodka.

  CHAPTER THREE

  April

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” April muttered as she shifted around in her seat, having changed with Nicky a few hours ago.

  “Oh, it’s definitely happening,” Nicky said with a beaming grin as another sign post read “Shifter Grove” and the impossible was starting to seem like the probable.

  Nicky had taken up the brunt of the organizing, finding the flight to Idaho, booking the rental car from Idaho Falls so they would have some mobility since Shifter Grove didn’t have any rentals, all the way to talking to the one family in Shifter Grove who ran a quasi-bed and breakfast. April was grateful for the help because frankly, she was far too busy freaking out about both her future and the fact that she was going to see Memphis Corley again.

  She wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting from this trip, but among warm clothes and one too many pairs of sexy lingerie—just in case, obviously—she’d also tucked a fresh new lined notebook in her bag with a couple of pens, hoping against hope that maybe she could sit down and write again. Just for herself, no one else. While she’d kept a diary for years, it didn’t really feel like it was enough. Now with more time on her hands than she knew what to do with, it almost felt like she owed it to herself to give it another shot.

  You won’t live forever, after all, April thought, gnawing on her bottom lip.

  “What if he changes his mind?” April asked, voicing a fear that she’d had since she’d woken up the morning after the night at the bar, with a killer hangover and an ecstatic polar bear shifter asking her on SassyDate when she’d be arriving.

  “Then we get to party with a bunch of hockey players and get over your heartache. Or, you know, I can snatch him up. Kidding, kidding!” Nicky said, waving her hand dismissively at April before she could say a thing. “Ooh, that’s the parking lot, I think!”

  And so it was. The team’s bus was parked there, along with the Detroit Coyotes’ one. The parking lot was packed with cars, with people streaming toward Wolf’s Eye Lake. Nicky parked the car and April got out on shaky legs, grabbing her purse and pulling on her hat low over her forehead.

  While she’d never been particularly shy, there was this inexplicable nervousness that took over her when she thought of speaking with Memphis face-to-face. There was just something about him, a sort of animal magnetism that made her a little starry-eyed and far less rational than she thought she should be. And as far as April Whitaker was concerned, she figured she was far too old to have starry-eyed crushes anymore, or to let boys have such an effect on her.

  “Come on, slowpoke! We’re missing it,” Nicky hissed, already pushing through the crowd to make it to the stand in time for the face-off.

  “Now or never,” April muttered to herself, catching up with Nicky, who was easy enough to spot in the crowd with her wild mess of curly hair and chocolate skin.

  They found decent seats not too far from the Shovelers’ bench, the former Chicago pro team having recently relocated to Shifter Grove and had yet to pick a new name—or had one assigned to them as was usually the case with wealthy backers. It was going to be a friendly match, both teams made up of some of the best and hardest players in the league. The lake upon which the Shifter Grove team held their practice matches at the moment had gathered some notoriety after both the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves had been beaten on it by a less-than-perfectly-manned Shifter Grove team.

  Everybody wanted to see it now and to play on it to make sure it really was as difficult as the Montana and Seattle boys claimed it to be.

  “There’s Memphis!” Nicky squealed as the teams took up their positions, the wide, hulking form of the gray-eyed devil who made April’s core throb with longing standing as one of the tallest men on the ice. “Memphis!” Nicky screamed, standing up from her seat before April could get a grip on her and pull her back down.

  “Shhhhh! Nicky!” April gasped, tugging her friend down, who was beaming happily. “He’ll see us!”

  “Isn’t that the point?” Nicky scoffed.

  “I don’t want to mess up his game,” April murmured in response, though it was only half the truth.

  Actually, she just wanted to watch him for a little while without him knowing she was there, just to get a feel for him again. She hadn’t had that much to drink the night they’d spent together, but the over-worrying nit inside of her kept wondering if she’d maybe imagined something that hadn’t been there and maybe all of it was some elaborate hoax! But the two screaming orgasms she’d had couldn’t have been a figment of her imagination, right?

  And neither could the man who’d straightened up, leaning slightly on his hockey stick, and giving her a toothy grin and a wave.

  It was a good thing she was sitting down, because the odds were in favor of her knees buckling underneath her if she’d spotted that smile while she was standing up. She couldn’t see his scraggly mop of blond hair underneath the helmet very well and the padding made him look even bigger than he was—not that he needed any help—but she definitely remembered him in all his HD glory. And God was he hot!

  “I think he saw us,” Nicky said, jabbing an elbow into April’s ribs just as the puck was dropped on the ice and the game started.

  For the next two hours, April watched with bated breath as the men went blade to blade with one another, snarling and giving no quarter without it being beaten out of them. Memphis was constantly on the ice, barely being given rest, but that seemed to be because he didn’t need any.

  She knew he was supposed to be a beast on the ice and Nicky kept yammering about how fantastic he was, but seeing really was believing. He was a true predator on the ice, a disruptive player worth every dollar he made and April found herself completely taken with his playing. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of him, not even when he plowed into some of the Coyotes’ players, the game going from friendly to furious in a few seconds flat.

  It took four guys to pry Memphis and one of the Coyotes’ grinders off of one another. For a moment, April truly saw the warrior and the bear in him as his eyes flashed dark brown and he snarled at the other guy. He was dragged away by Cannon Wright and a guy Nicky identified as Jax Darmuth. It was almost scary how intense he was, but a moment later, Memphis was back to his regular self, grinning and cracking jokes as he took his spot on the ice.

  By the end of the game, the two teams had tied and it took overtime for the Shovelers to finally get in one more goal to give them the win. April was up on her feet, hooting and hollering with the rest of the spirited crowd, much to the chagrin of the few
Coyotes’ fans in the audience.

  She was smiling wide, taken with the adrenaline that seemed to course through everyone in attendance, most of them clearly local or new Idaho fans, though April saw some people with old Chicago Bluehawks caps or jerseys. Nicky had worn her jersey as well, the one with Memphis’s number, 17, which April thought was a sweet gesture.

  The crowd started filing out slowly, chattering amongst themselves and walking to their cars—predominantly trucks—but April hadn’t even gotten up when Memphis skated as close to them as he could, leaning on the makeshift railing that now separated the lake and the stands. He pulled off his helmet and his hair stuck to his forehead and neck in sweaty strands, his face gleaming with perspiration and apparent happiness at seeing April there. A happy little shiver immediately passed through April.

  “Hey there, sugar. Thought you weren’t gonna show there for a moment. Glad you did. Is this the infamous Nicky I’ve heard so much about?” Memphis asked as Nicky already flitted down the steps to shove her hand in his big paw while April was still debating whether she could stand up when he was looking at her like that.

  It was the I’ll-fuck-you-until-you-forget-your-name-the-moment-we’re-alone look. April opened her mouth to reply but all she could get out was a mewl that might have once been a hello if someone translated it into human. It only made Memphis’s smile smugger, which was definitely not a bad thing.

  “Indeed it is,” Nicky said, slipping her hand into his and giving it a shake, tugging the man forward a bit on the ice. “And I’m so glad to finally meet you! I’m your biggest fan!”

  “That’s what April told me,” Memphis chuckled in response, his gaze moving from Nicky back to April, who felt like a deer caught in headlights as she tottered down the steps.

  She wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to do, but she definitely felt how wide she was smiling. Memphis pulled her into a hug over the railing, his heady, masculine scent filling her nostrils and making her head spin a little with pure, unadulterated happiness. He was actually here! And so was she! And the night hadn’t been all in her head, which she’d still considered as a likely option after everything.