“Somewhere warm,” Rachel added. “Oh, but first she’d like to go for a walk on the mountain. We’ve been meaning to since we moved here but we haven’t had time, or the weather has been too cold.”
“It’s too cold now,” Ella said. “So that might have to wait until it gets warmer.”
“What about a spa day?” Rachel suggested. “Or the theater. Or the movies.”
“Or a day of doing nothing.” Ella stretched her arms over her head and sighed. “That might be her favorite thing. She hasn’t stopped since we moved. Between taking care of us and working at the shelter, and her classes on dog grooming, she doesn’t have much time for herself.”
“I can do any of those things,” Matthew confirmed. “Or all of them. But we need to prioritize what she’d like to do most. I thought of surprising her. Soon.”
“We might need to think about it,” Ella said. “Maybe sound Mom out.”
“Yes, she hates wasting time. So even though a day of doing nothing would be bliss, she might feel guilty.” Rachel looked toward the door. “Mom says she wasted enough time being married to Dad. She doesn’t want to waste a minute more. That’s why she wants to build her own business, prove to herself she can do it.”
“Dad used to run her down and tell her she had let herself and her dreams go.” Ella placed her half-eaten piece of pizza down on the plate.
“And the grooming parlor means a lot to her?” Matthew asked.
“Yes.” Rachel nodded.
“Then the perfect day might be helping her to get her business up and running.”
Matthew’s suggestion was met with smiles of approval. “I think that would be her perfect day.”
“As long as there’s food afterward.” Ella picked up her pizza and took another bite. “I like you, Matthew.”
Matthew cracked a smile. “I like you, too, Ella.” He glanced at Rachel who looked uncomfortable at the turn of conversation. “It’s great that we all have your mom’s best interests at heart.”
“Why?” Rachel asked suddenly. “Why do you care about my mom so much?”
“Rachel,” Ella warned.
“It’s a legitimate question,” Rachel asserted. “Before the auction, you’d never met Mom or any of us. In fact, you were considered the boogeyman, the person who wanted to destroy the shelter. Then you flipped.” She clicked her fingers to emphasize her point.
“Yes, I did.” He couldn’t deny the truth. His feelings toward Sian had hit him hard and he could not deny them.
“So what’s to say you wouldn’t flip again?” Rachel cocked her head on one side as she surveyed Matthew. “Worse, how do we know you weren’t sent here by our dad?”
“Rachel, that’s not fair,” Ella said, reaching out for her sister’s hand. Rachel’s face had flushed red and Matthew wished he could say something, perhaps tell her the truth about shifters so she would know his intentions were true. But he didn’t want to tell them when Sian wasn’t here to pick up the pieces if they took it badly.
“It is fair.” Matthew looked down at his hands as he tried to compose his thoughts. “I wouldn’t hurt your mom. I can’t hurt your mom. It’s not in me to do anything that would make her unhappy. She...changed me. And I will prove to you all that I’m a better person because of her.”
“Second chances,” Ella told Rachel. “We all deserve them.”
“Except Dad,” Rachel murmured.
“Even your father deserves a chance to change,” Matthew said gently. And at that moment, he knew what he had to do. He knew of the one true way he could make them all see he was a good guy with the best of intentions.
Chapter Thirteen – Sian
Wrapping her freezing cold fingers around her phone, she reread the message Peter had sent.
We need to talk. Meet me outside the grocery store in ten minutes.
Her hand shook as she replied. More from the anger that built up inside of her than from the cold. If he wanted to talk, that probably meant he wanted to renegotiate again. The thought of taking him back to court seemed to zap her energy. Would this ever be over?
Sian punched in her reply. She would meet him, but she was not budging an inch on the agreement they’d made. Not when doing so would mean her giving up her own dreams of opening the pet grooming salon. She needed the money from the sale of the house to finance the extra equipment she needed to buy.
Sian opened the front gate that was half hanging on its hinges and turned left to head toward the grocery store. It was a five-minute walk, but with the sidewalk coated in ice, the going was tough. But at least she had time to focus her thoughts. If Peter thought he could walk all over their feelings again, he had another thing coming. Sian had tried being nice, she’d tried being tolerant, she’d tried taking him to court.
Now it was time to tell him what she thought of him. She wouldn’t spare his feelings. Because right now she doubted he had any.
When she neared the grocery store and saw Peter waiting for her, she didn’t falter. It was time he heard a few home truths. “Peter.”
“Sian. Hello.” He inclined his head, his eyes sweeping from her head to her toes. “Nice coat.”
“Thanks.” Her breath came out in puffs of vapor as she tried to figure out his angle. Peter always had an angle. Life was like a game to him, one he intended to win. But not this time. Not today. “What are you doing here, Peter?”
“Can’t I come to Bear Creek to see how my family is?” His smooth voice irritated her.
“But you didn’t come to see how we are, did you?” Sian pointed out. “You came to the museum to embarrass me and then what? What have you been doing for the past couple of days? Because you didn’t come to see your daughters, did you?”
“I came to the museum and watched as a man I didn’t know bid an extortionate amount of money for my wife.” Peter’s raised voice drew glances from passers-by.
“This is not the place to have this conversation,” Sian said tartly.
Peter straightened up. “I agree.”
She looked around, the streets were dark with only the street lights keeping the shadows at bay. But she trusted Peter no matter how he had behaved. He might be an expert at hurting her mentally, but he had never hurt her physically. And she didn’t believe that was about to change.
She ignored the voice in her head that told her that’s what most other women probably thought before they wound up dead in a ditch.
“Let’s walk through the park.” She led the way, and after a moment of hesitation, Peter followed.
The park was situated a couple of streets away and Sian kept on walking, not looking back to see if Peter was still there. Instead, she relied on her other senses, just like a shifter. His footsteps, somehow familiar, even though she’d never paid attention to them before, clipped on the frozen sidewalk in a regular rhythm, only interrupted when he slipped on ice. His breath came in hot puffs that filled the quiet night as they turned onto the footpath that led to the park gates. All things she’d heard a million times before but never noticed.
Coming to Bear Creek had opened her up to so much else. So much that she hadn’t exactly ignored, but had never been aware of. Finding Matthew had led her to opening her heart and her soul to the chance of love. But seeing Peter, she now understood she could never truly give herself to another man while this chapter of her life was unfinished.
Sian reached the park gates and turned to face Peter. They didn’t have to go inside, there was no one around at this time of night. “Why did you come to Bear Creek, Peter?”
“To see you and the girls. I heard from a friend that you were organizing that stupid auction for some animal charity.” He shook his head as if in disbelief. “He was so impressed.”
“And you wanted to ruin it for me?” Sian might have been upset at this knowledge before, but now it didn’t matter. It was expected behavior.
“I don’t think I came here to ruin the auction. I just wanted to see how you were doing.” Peter looked down at hi
s feet. “I thought when you left that you would fail and come running back to me.”
“That’s why you never paid me the money from the sale of the house. You figured if you left it long enough I’d come back.” Her hand balled into a tight fist. She would love to smack him in the mouth just so he could have some idea of how she felt. But violence never helped in any situation, so she flexed her hand and let the tension go.
“Why should I give you the money? You left.” Peter was repeating the same argument he’d used countless times.
“You heard the judge, Peter. I’m entitled to half the proceeds from the house.” She shook her head in disbelief. “When will that ever sink in?”
“When will you realize we were meant to be together? You and me.” He pointed at her and then at himself. “We got married, remember? We made a promise.”
“And you broke it… I’m not doing this. If you don’t give me the money I’m entitled to, I’ll see you in court. And it won’t end well. You know that.” She went to walk past him, but he blocked her path. Cold fear gripped her heart. Had she misjudged Peter?
“So, who is this guy you are seeing? Matthew Lewis, right? A billionaire! I’m sure the judge will see things differently when I tell him you are cheating on me.”
Sian rolled her eyes. “I am not cheating on you. We are not together. We haven’t been together for four months. And our marriage was over in all but name long before that. You haven’t been part of our family for years. If ever. You know it, I know it and sadly, the girls know it.” A sob threatened to rob her of breath.
“You know I never wanted children,” he accused. “And I was right. They ruined our life together.”
Sian sighed. “And that is why we are no longer together. We’re different people. We want different things from life.” Her face softened. “I’m truly sorry, Peter. I wish it were different. I wish you were different.”
“That makes two of us. You are not the woman I married. We’d talked about one day owning our own company. Of building an empire. But instead, you got pregnant.” There was that accusation again.
“It takes two to have a baby.” She stepped around Peter and walked back toward town. “Pay the divorce settlement and let’s make a clean break of it. Then we can both move on.”
“I told you I don’t want to move on.” Peter hooked his hand under her elbow and pulled her back toward him. “Listen, the children are nearly grown up. I can stick it out a couple more years and then when they leave home, we can go back to how things were. Rebuild our relationship.”
The air puffed out of Sian’s lungs, covering them in a cloud of vapor. “That’s not what I want. We’re done. Over.”
“I don’t think you’re seeing straight.”
She pulled her arm away from him. “You’re wrong. I’m seeing it all very straight. I have for a long time, I just didn’t act on it. I should have left you years ago.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I hoped you would change. I hoped you would somehow see the two beautiful people we made together. Instead, you just saw the inconvenience of it all.” She shook her head sadly.
“I tried.” Emotion tinged his voice. “I really tried. But the mess.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Toys on the floor. Food on their faces.”
“That’s all part of it.” Sian’s sadness deepened. “You shut them out and never gave them a chance.”
“And this new man in your life? Is he going to give them a chance? Because I can’t see a stranger taking on someone else’s kids like that. You’ll end up in the same situation.”
“No, I won’t. Matthew is special, in a way you could not understand.” Her temper flared and the blood pumped through her body, giving her a flash of heat in her veins. “He won’t let us down.”
Peter shook his head. “You know, I never saw you as delusional.”
Sian shook her head. This conversation was over, she wasn’t going to stand here and argue with Peter. It had never gotten her anywhere before and it wouldn’t now. “Have a nice life, Peter. I’ll see you in court.”
“You’re still going after the money from the house even though your new beau is loaded?” Peter spat.
“Take care of yourself, Peter.” She strode off into the night, wishing she’d never come to meet him. It had accomplished nothing. All she wanted was Peter out of her life. A sob strangled her throat, but she forced herself not to let it out, not to allow him to see her pain.
If he wasn’t in her life, then he wouldn’t be in Ella and Rachel’s life and that hurt more than any of the words or actions Peter had ever aimed at Sian. All she’d ever wanted was for them to be a family, for their dad to see the two beautiful people their daughters had become. Yet right now it seemed impossible that they would ever have a relationship with their father. Particularly if Peter made Sian go back to court. There was only so much even a child was willing to forgive and Sian was fairly certain Peter was teetering on the edge and one more step, one more attempt to hurt Sian or make their lives miserable would be too much.
As she walked away from Peter, she pushed him out of her thoughts. It was time to think of herself and the girls. Time to plan their future, and Matthew would be a part of that future. Not because he was loaded, Sian wouldn’t care if he didn’t have a penny to his name. But instead, she wanted to experience unconditional love and perhaps open her heart to return that love without fear of getting hurt.
Her future lay ahead of her, her past behind.
A lightness spread through her, she was ready to move on. She would find the strength she needed to make her pet grooming business as success. How could she fail when she had the love and support of her family and friends?
Chapter Fourteen – Matthew
Matthew sensed Sian returning with some relief. His fear for her had grown until he wanted to yank the front door off its hinges and run out into the street with his nose to the ground, following her scent until he found her.
“We saved you a couple of slices,” Ella said as Sian opened the front door. She looked pale, maybe it was just the cold air outside that had robbed her of the color in her cheeks, but Matthew suspected it was more than that.
His fists clenched, and he had to force himself to relax. She was here, she was safe, and his job was to try to reunite the family and smooth over their differences. Or at least get them to a point where they spoke to each other civilly.
You have no idea what you are taking on, his bear said in his head.
You mean what we are taking on, Matthew corrected him. We are in this together, remember.
Oh no, this one is on you, since Peter will never know about me.
His bear had a point, but he was forgetting that they were a team, and this was concerning their mate and her family. Which meant they were both responsible for healing the rift between Sian, Ella, Rachel and the man who had tried to embarrass Sian at the auction. He flexed his hands once more. Whenever he thought of Peter and that moment in the auction, he was overwhelmed with a need to bite the man’s head off.
This might prove to be one of the hardest tasks he’d ever taken on.
“You look like you’re freezing,” Rachel said and hugged her mom. “Come and warm up. I’ll get you a coffee.”
Rachel escorted her mom into the living room and sat her down in front of the dying embers of the fire. “Thanks, love.” Sian held her hands out to warm them.
“Here. Let me.” Matthew crouched down next to her and wrapped his large hands around his mate’s and rubbed them together.
“My, what big, warm hands you have.” Sian’s eyes met his and they danced with humor, setting him at ease.
“All the better to warm you with.” He grinned wolfishly.
“Thanks for everything.” The smile dropped from her eyes to be replaced with an unfathomable deep longing.
“It’s the least I can do.” He looked down at her hands. “Did everything go okay with the person you went to meet?”
S
he nodded. “It was Peter.”
He nodded and caught her eyes once more. “I know.”
“Is that it, your super senses will always see through me?” she asked.
“No, I’m just good at reading people and you were a little agitated when you went out.” He reached up and stroked her cheek, and color flared across her skin. “Did you resolve your differences?”
She gave a short laugh. “No. I don’t think we ever will unless we go back to court.”
“Court?” Matthew asked. “Is he fighting the divorce?”
“No, he’s fighting the amount of money he wants to hand over. Since I was the one who left the house, he thinks he is entitled to more of it.” She looked tired as she stared into the fire. “He sees things differently than other people. I don’t know if he has something wrong with him.” She frowned. “Wrong isn’t the right word. But his social compass is a little skewed.”
“Was he always the same?”
“Yes. I just didn’t see it before. He’s brilliant at what he does. Unfortunately, I got swept along by his brilliance, it blinded me. We made great plans as to how our lives were going to be. Then I got pregnant and that shattered his dreams.” She ran a hand through her hair and sat up straight as Rachel approached. “Thanks, Rachel. How is the packing going?”
“We are done and waiting for you.” Rachel nodded at Matthew. “Matthew helped carry everything out to the truck.”
“It’s all in the truck already?” Sian asked, peering into the hallway. “I didn’t even notice.”
“You were a little preoccupied when you came in,” Rachel said pointedly.
“I was.” Sian sighed. “I’m tired, the lead-up to the auction was hard work and now I’m feeling the comedown. I think I could sleep for a week.”
“You could have a day off.” Rachel placed her hands on her mom’s shoulders. “You need a break.”
“I have so much to do,” Sian said wearily. “I need to find a way of getting the grooming parlor set up.”
The Bear Buys a Bride (A Second Chance Christmas in Bear Creek Book 1) Page 10
