Page 21 of Luke: The Bears

Everything seemed very simple to Luke. She had a job waiting two hours away, so he was going to follow her there. Just… walk away from his den and friends and job and house. She knew that all mattered to him, and he mattered to his den. But he still made it seem like it was just a logical choice to him.

While she was over here hemming and hawing about her choices.

She’d seen firsthand how he was respected by the den when he’d made a planter box for Maggie. Not because she asked for one, but because he’d noticed that now that she was five months pregnant, she was having trouble tending to the flowers on her patio. So, he’d made her a planter box on legs so she didn’t have to bend over to prune and water them.

Maggie’s mate Tyler had come home while they’d been there helping to move the plants over to the new box and he’d been so happy that Luke had built it for her, he’d clapped him on the shoulder like they were brothers.

Luke belonged in King Lake.

But he’d said the simple choice, the right choice for him, was to follow her to a town where he would be the only bear.

He would leave everything for her.

It was insane on a hundred different levels, but it was also the damn sweetest thing she’d ever had anyone do for her.

She sat up with a grumble and rubbed her eyes.

Resting her hands on the bed, she focused on the meandering thoughts in her head. She’d met him Friday. People didn’t fall in love in four days. They fell into bed and bad decisions, but not into forever. Love was supposed to take longer.

Right?

She stood and looked for slippers, but couldn’t find them, so she dug flip-flops out of one of the boxes and headed outside. She made her way to her parents’ house under a sky full of stars, the warm June night smelling of the wood from her dad’s workshop and the honeysuckle her mom had planted around the house.

The back steps creaked as she walked up them, and when she opened the door, Kevin was there, wagging his tail and grumbling a greeting.

She patted his head.

She was going to call for her mom when she heard her parents’ bedroom door creak open and then shut, and her mom appeared, robe tied and hair loose around her shoulders.

“Hi, honey.”

She hugged her. “Did I wake you? I mean, I meant to but I’m sorry if I did.”

Her mom smiled. “I was reading. I should have gone to bed ages ago, but your dad was snoring and I couldn’t sleep, and then the book got really good.” She gestured to the back door and they walked out and sat on the swing. Kevin followed them, slumping to the deck with a sigh at their feet. “What’s up?”

Valley shared about how things had gone at the tavern on Tuesday, and what a great day they’d had. And then Margie’s call and Luke’s assurance that he would follow Valley anywhere.

“That’s a lot for a Tuesday,” her mom mused.

Valley snorted. “Yeah.” Then she sighed. “Mom, how can I be in love with him already? It’s been four dang days and I’m supposed to leave Friday.”

“Is the timing bothering you? Like do you feel that four days is too short to be in love?”

“Isn’t it?”

Her mom shrugged. “Love hits people differently. And Luke is a shifter. He has an intuition that you wouldn’t have as a human. So the quick love feelings you’re having aren’t necessarily bad or wrong, they’re just not what you’re used to. And you don’t have an animal nudging you toward your future like he does.” She paused, staring out over the dark yard and field beyond, and then she said, “Some people build a life a brick at a time, carefully stacking and arranging, making sure everything is where it should be. And some people just go with the flow. They follow their hearts and their instincts. So you think that Luke doesn’t know what he’s doing when he says he’ll leave King Lake behind and follow you anywhere. But he probably doesn’t understand why that is odd to you.”

“I just don’t like the idea of him giving up everything for me when…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

“Because part of you is wondering why it’s so easy for him, when it feels impossible for you to do the same.”

“That makes me sound awful.”

“No, it makes you sound human. Luke has instincts you don’t. His bear belongs with you and that’s all he needs to know. You’re battling the human worries of this new romance hitting fast and what the future looks like, while you’re also navigating a career and move.” She hummed out a sigh, and then continued, “You know my mom had big plans for me. When I strayed from her plans, she thought I was throwing my future away.”

She looked at her mom. “Were you?”

“No. I was choosing a future that was mine. It was my life to live. And although she never really forgave me for not choosing her safe, respectable path, I never doubted that I did what was best for me.”