Tex looked at the clock, which seemed to be crawling towards closing time too slowly, and poured the beer more sloppily than he usually did, requiring him to mop up the counter afterwards.
Mr. Canada was unimpressed. “Americans,” he said scornfully to his armcandy as they moved away from the bar to one of the tables overlooking the pool.
Her silly laugh made Tex long for Laura’s intelligent warm chuckle.
But… she doesn’t want us? Bear was not the swiftest animal that could have shared his head.
She will, Tex replied to him, not entirely convinced himself. She has to.
He tried not to think too hard about the fact that he’d always considered himself unlucky in love… and that maybe that was really the truth.
The cottage that Travis had put Laura up in was at the very edge of the jungle, nearly swallowed in vines and flowers. The path was an obstacle course of concrete fractured by roots, not yet replaced with white gravel like the rest of the updated paths.
Tex wandered there directly following last call, and nearly lost his ha
t to one of the overhanging branches.
Graham was sitting on the lowest front step, a menacing shadow with a machete, but when Tex approached, he stood up. They exchanged a look that didn’t require words, and Graham shrugged and left Tex to take his vigil.
Tex mauled his hat in his hands as he stood at the doorstep, but didn’t knock.
Finally, he simply sat where Graham had been.
He could no more push himself on her than he could leave her unprotected. Her doorstep was the best place for him, for now.
Chapter 21
Laura didn’t sleep until Tex arrived.
She sensed him changing places with the surly landscaper, and spent several long moments anticipating the knock on the door before she realized he wasn’t going to.
It was strange to be courted by someone who listened to her refusals, who treated her with respect.
Once she figured out that he planned to stay the night on her doorstep, she fell easily into a deep, restful sleep. Her dreams were of a strange field of tall grass, brightly lit as if by daylight, but the sky had no sun.
The cottage had not been fitted with curtains or blinds, so the rising sun woke her early. She looked at it curiously for several moments, trying to recall the details of the fleeting dream.
Laura dressed in the same sundress she had been wearing the night before, and went out onto the front porch to find a gigantic brown bear that took up not a step, but all the steps, head laying on crossed paws next to a tidy pile of Tex’s clothing topped by his ridiculous hat. He sat up when she came out, moving aside so she could get down the stairs.
He is a fine bear, her wolf told her suggestively.
He is a fine man, she responded with a sigh.
Instead of walking past, she sat down beside him. She ought to be afraid, she thought. Each of his paws was the size of her head, trimmed with sharp claws as long as her fingers.
“My secrets are mine to keep,” she said severely. “I choose who to share them with, not you. I get to decide how to keep myself safe.”
The bear gave a whine, then shifted gracefully down to the form of a man sitting beside her. A gorgeous man.
A gorgeous, very naked man.
And to Laura’s surprise, the gorgeous, naked man did not offer a single excuse. He could have pointed out, rightfully, that Scarlet would probably have figured it out anyway, or that he needed her help to protect her.
All he said was, “It was wrong of me. I am sorry.”
Laura waited, too experienced with men not to expect the ‘but…’
It didn’t come.