Bear Next Door (Midlife Shifters Book 1)

by J. L. Wilder

  There was no mistaking that this was the man she had met last night. If nothing else, the scar on his cheek gave him away. But to think that he had been Brady O’Neal, her childhood friend, the whole time—it was staggering.

  It was almost impossible to believe.

  He looked so different now! She had thought that time had changed her parents, but at least they had been recognizable as the same people. But she would never have guessed that this was Brady. The scar on his face was only the most obvious difference between the man before her and the boy she had known. There was also the fact that he had bulked up, become thickly muscled. He had lost the baby fat in his face, which was now lean and angular. And the tattoos she’d seen when they were naked together—he hadn’t had those when they were young, had he?

  She was so busy staring at him that she didn’t even notice, at first, that he was staring just as avidly at her.

  What must he be thinking? It was obvious from the way he had treated her last night that he hadn’t recognized her either. She wondered what differences he was making note of, what had changed about her since they had known each other all those years ago.

  Her first reaction was to feel embarrassed—she was twenty years older, after all, and she definitely didn’t have the body she’d had the last time they’d seen each other. She had kept in shape and taken care of herself, but she knew that if she were to look in the mirror, she would see the lines on her face, marking the passage of time.

  But he clearly hadn’t found her terrible to look at, had he? He had gone to bed with her, after all. He must have thought she was at least decent looking.

  Oh, God, she realized suddenly, remembering. I snuck out before he woke up!

  She hadn’t ever expected to see him again. She had left the hotel early so that she wouldn’t be confronted with the consequences of that choice. But now here he was, staring her in the face, and Evelyn knew he must be wondering why she had treated him so rudely.

  “Evelyn?” Her mother’s voice broke the silence. “Are you all right? You remember Brady, don’t you?”

  Evelyn came back to herself. Everyone in the room was staring at her, she realized. Her reaction to Brady’s arrival definitely hadn’t gone unnoticed.

  “Sorry,” she said, averting her eyes, unable to look at him any longer. She wondered what he made of that sorry, if he was reading into it an apology for the fact that she had taken off this morning without saying goodbye.

  “Good to see you again, Evelyn,” Brady said.

  And what did that mean? To their parents, she knew, it would sound innocuous enough, as if he was simply welcoming her home after her many years away. But was he saying something more than that? Was he making reference to last night?

  This was impossibly awkward. Evelyn had no idea what to do.

  After a moment of silence, Mrs. O’Neal spoke. “Dinner is ready,” she said. “I’ll just go put it on the table, and we can sit down to eat.”

  “I’ll help you.” Brady hurried after his mother, and Evelyn wondered whether he was just being a dutiful son or if perhaps he was running away from her.

  Her own mother pulled her aside. “Are you all right?” she asked anxiously. “You’re as white as a sheet.”

  “I’m fine, Mother.” But Evelyn didn’t pull away. Being taken aside by her mother was a relief. It put off the moment when she would have to deal with Brady and his family.

  Her mother was frowning. “Maybe I shouldn’t have had you come out,” she said. “Maybe you should have stayed at home. You just left such a bad situation. I don’t know what I was thinking, asking you to come and socialize. You should be resting.”

  “No.” Evelyn shook her head. “Seriously, I’m all right. I was just...surprised. Seeing Brady again.”

  “But I told you he was going to be here,” her mother said.

  “I know.” Evelyn grasped for some kind of explanation. “It’s just been a long time, you know? He looks different than I remembered.”

  Her mother hesitated. “Is it the scar?” she asked. “I know that can be a little shocking when you first see it. Honestly, it’s been long enough now that I don’t really think about it anymore. I should have prepared you.”

  “How did he get it?” Evelyn asked.

  “There was a car accident a few years ago,” her mother explained. “It was a bit dramatic at the time—he spent a few weeks in a rehab facility after the accident, detoxing. He’s sober now.”

  Evelyn thought back to the bar and the fact that Brady had only had water to drink. It had seemed strange to her at the time that a man would sit at a hotel bar and drink a glass of water, but now it made sense.

  “He’s the pack alpha now, isn’t he?” she remembered suddenly. “He was the next in line.”

  Her mother was quiet for a moment. “That didn’t happen as planned,” she said carefully. “But I wouldn’t mention it over dinner if I were you. It’s a bit of a sore subject.”

  “Who’s the alpha?” Evelyn asked, puzzled. It wasn’t a question that would have occurred to her for a while, in the ordinary course of events, but she could see that there was nothing ordinary about Brady’s relationship to the rest of the pack.

  “You knew him, I think,” her mother said. “A young man named Steve.”

  “Steve?” She remembered him. He was close to her own age, and he had always been an idiot. “Who put him in charge?”

  “We can talk about this later, Evelyn,” her mother said firmly. “It’s not a good conversation to have while we’re guests at the O’Neals’ house.”

  Evelyn nodded, knowing her mother was right. She should have asked these questions before they had come over, or saved them for after dinner when they were back home. But seeing Brady again made it hard not to know everything. She found herself longing to find out what had happened during the years they had been apart, what had turned him from the young man she had known into the person he was today.

  Could his story possibly be as full of twists and turns as her own had been?

  She followed her mother into the dining room. Mrs. O’Neal had made comfort food—a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs occupied the center of the table, with a platter of garlic bread on one side and a tossed salad on the other. She waited until the others had taken their seats before she sat down in the last empty chair, the one between her parents.

  Brady was directly across from her.

  She stared down at her plate, afraid to look up, not knowing whether she would see friendliness or animosity in his eyes.

  “So, Evelyn,” Mr. O’Neal said, in an obvious attempt to break the tension. “When did you get back into town?”

  “This morning,” she said.

  Last night, actually. She was thinking it, and she was sure Brady was thinking it too.

  “Will you be here long?” Mrs. O’Neal asked. “It’s been years since we’ve seen you.”

  “I plan on sticking around.” She wondered whether anyone was going to mention her marriage outright. It certainly wasn’t a secret. She had caused a scandal by running away with a wolf.

  “Well, we’re glad you’re home,” Mrs. O’Neal said. “Pass your plate, dear, and I’ll give you some pasta.”

  Evelyn lifted her plate and passed it over to Mrs. O’Neal.

  But as she did so, she was forced to look up. Her eyes were drawn immediately to Brady’s as if his gaze was magnetic. She sucked in an anxious breath—

  But he didn’t look angry.

  He was looking at her the same way he had at the hotel bar. Curiously, as if she was a puzzle that needed figuring out.

  And hungrily. As if there was something about her that he couldn’t resist.

  It might have been twenty years ago, but she had no trouble remembering the fact that he had never looked at her that way when they were young. Nobody had. Back then, their relationship had been innocent. Childlike. They’d grown up together. They’d played as bear cubs in the forest. They’d been to each other’s
birthday parties. He had taught her how to bait a fishing hook, she remembered suddenly. It was a memory she had nearly forgotten.

  But there had never been anything romantic between them. She had never so much as dreamed that he might look at her the way he was looking at her right now.

  She drew a breath and felt goosebumps rise on her arms. She remembered the way he had looked at her in the hotel room, the way his mouth had felt on hers, the moment when he’d been inside her—

  She tore her gaze away and passed her plate to his mother to be filled with food.

  The rest of the dinner was painfully awkward. Evelyn was sure that everyone around the table could tell that something strange was going on. They probably just thought that she and Brady were being rude to one another—they kept trying to start conversations that Evelyn wasn’t sure how to participate in.

  “So, what will you be doing now that you’re back in Chicago?” Mrs. O’Neal tried.

  “Looking for a job,” Evelyn said. “I’ll be staying with Mom and Dad in the meantime.”

  “Are you going to be house hunting?” Mr. O’Neal asked. “A great new place just became available on Linden.”

  “Maybe,” Evelyn said.

  Silence fell again. Evelyn might have been away for a while, but she knew what it meant when homes became available on Linden Street. Linden was for single women. Someone had found a mate.

  And Evelyn was alone again. Everyone sitting here at the table knew about the utter scandal her marriage to Marty had been.

  “Well, it doesn’t look as though Brady’s going to get himself married anytime soon either,” Mr. O’Neal said.

  Brady met Evelyn’s gaze again and rolled his eyes.

  What was he thinking? Was it possible he was on her side?

  Only the two of them really understood the source of the awkwardness around the table. Only they knew what had happened last night. It tied them together, made them an automatic pair, even though they hadn’t seen each other for years.

  She looked away from him, collected herself, and then quickly looked back.

  He was still watching her. He seemed as if he was waiting for something.

  She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to explain what had happened last night, why she had left in the morning before he had awakened. But she couldn’t say anything about it in front of their parents.

  At last, the meal was finished, and Brady stood and helped his parents clear the table. His mother brought out a pot of coffee and a platter of cookies for everyone. His father began to pour brandy.

  Brady didn’t return. Evelyn heard the sound of water running in the kitchen and knew he had begun to wash the dishes.

  She got to her feet. “Excuse me for a moment,” she said to her parents and the O’Neals.

  She went into the kitchen to find him.

  Chapter Ten

  BRADY

  “Hey,” Evelyn said.

  Brady glanced up from the serving bowl he’d been washing. She was standing in the doorway, looking awkward and uncomfortable, as if she wasn’t sure she ought to come into the kitchen.

  That was how she’d looked all evening, though. Awkward. Uncomfortable. Like she didn’t think she should be there.

  And maybe she shouldn’t. She’d made it clear this morning that she didn’t want to spend any prolonged amount of time with him, right? She had left without even giving him a chance to say goodbye to her, or to thank her for the time they’d spent together.

  Brady didn’t know how to feel about that. But whatever he was feeling, it wasn’t anything good.

  Evelyn edged into the room. “Can I help you with that?” she asked, gesturing to the dishes.

  “I don’t need any help,” he said.

  “Oh,” she said. “Okay.”

  Now he felt bad, as if he had rejected her somehow. Stupid. I shouldn’t feel like I rejected her. She’s the one who rejected me. “You should go back into the dining room,” he said. “You’re a guest.”

  “It’s not like I’m some stranger,” she said.

  “It’s kind of like that,” Brady said. “I haven’t seen you since we were teenagers, practically. I don’t know you at all. It’s been twenty years.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about,” Evelyn said. “You have seen me since then.”

  Brady sighed. He put down the dish he’d been scrubbing, turned off the water, and dried his hands on the bottom of his shirt. “Are we really going to talk about this now?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “We can’t just never talk about it, can we?”

  “Sure we can,” he said.

  “Brady, if we’re going to be in each other’s lives—”

  “What makes you think we’re going to be in each other’s lives?”

  She looked taken aback. Had she been taking the prospect of a continued friendship for granted? “Our parents are friends,” she managed at last.

  “My parents have a lot of friends,” Brady said. “I’m not friends with all of their children.”

  “Brady—”

  “Your parents have a lot of friends too,” he added. “Not that you would know that.”

  She looked slapped. “You don’t have to be so mean,” she said. “You don’t have any idea what I’ve been through.”

  “I know your story,” Brady said. “Everyone does. You ditched the pack and ran off with a wolf.” He laughed bitterly. “Now I get why you lied at the hotel and told me you were pure human instead of shifter.”

  Her eyes widened. “I did not.”

  “You did. You said you weren’t there for the conference.”

  “I wasn’t there for the conference!”

  “But that was when you should have told me what you were. You knew what I was. You knew it was safe to tell.”

  “I didn’t have any idea what you were,” she said. “You told me you were in networking. I thought it was some kind of computer conference! How was I supposed to know it was a shifter thing?”

  “Do you really mean to tell me that you didn’t smell bear all over that building?” Brady asked. “You must have known. That has to be why you chose that hotel in the first place.”

  “I chose it because it was near my parents’ house,” Evelyn snapped. “I wasn’t trying to trick you, Brady. I didn’t know you were a shifter either.”

  He hesitated. Was that true? Maybe she hadn’t lied to him. Maybe she really hadn’t known.

  “I suppose I can believe that,” he said begrudgingly. “It’s not as if you’ve proven yourself unwilling to screw around with other species.”

  Evelyn stared. “You thought I was human too, you know. You just said so. I don’t know where you get off judging me.”

  “I’m not the one who ran off with a wolf.”

  “No, you’re just the one who grew up to be a complete asshole.”

  They stood staring at one another for several seconds.

  Brady’s anger subsided. She was right, really. He didn’t know anything about her life. And what had happened between them last night had clearly been a miscommunication. Neither one had known who the other really was.

  “All right,” he said, composing himself. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said anything about your marriage. That was out of line, and I’m sorry.”

  She nodded warily.

  “Did you need something?” he asked her. He felt bad about the way he had spoken to her, but that didn’t mean he was eager to spend any more time in her company. He wanted to return to washing the dishes in peace.

  “I...” She hesitated. “I wanted to apologize to you, Brady. I feel like I owe you an explanation for last night.”

  “You don’t.” He didn’t know whether that was the way he actually felt about it or not, but the last thing he wanted was to stand in his parents’ kitchen and listen to some contrived excuse for why she had snuck out in the middle of the night. He got it. He knew why someone would do that. It was because she hadn’t wanted to see hi
m or speak to him the morning after, simple as that.

  It stung, but he could deal with it. What he couldn’t deal with was some fake explanation about how she’d had somewhere she really urgently needed to be at four in the morning, or whatever she was about to come up with.

  “I do,” she insisted. “I want to explain, Brady.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Brady said. “Look, I wasn’t trying to get into anything serious with you anyway. It was a one-night thing. We both knew that. If I’d known who you were, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  She flinched slightly, and he regretted the words. “I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he added. “I just mean that I know you thought you were getting involved with someone you wouldn’t have to see again. And that’s what I thought too. So there’s no need for us to get worked up about it now.”

  “We were friends once, Brady,” Evelyn said. “Don’t you remember?”

  Of course he remembered. It might have been twenty years ago, but that wasn’t so long, really. He remembered running around these streets with the other young members of his den. He remembered the brash, youthful confidence he had had in those days, so sure that he would one day take over as alpha and that nothing could get in his way.

  And he remembered Evelyn. He remembered watching her from the porch while she and the other girls of the den went by, noticing that she had become the prettiest one seemingly overnight. He remembered evenings sitting out in the yard with cans of soda and occasional cigarettes poached from their parents, being so close to her that he felt he could reach out and touch her.

  He had always been attracted to Evelyn. It was really no surprise that his first instinct upon seeing her again had been to take her to bed.

  He would have expected her beauty to dim with age, but it hadn’t, somehow. She looked just as appealing as she ever had, even though she had lines around her eyes now.

  Even now, he found himself fantasizing about how it would feel to pull her into his arms. To feel the length of her body against his, the softness of her curving around him, her breathing in time with his own—

  He pushed those thoughts away. Their parents were in the next room, for God’s sake. “That was a long time ago, Evelyn,” he said. “I don’t even know who you are now.”