Bearly In Time (4 page)

Connor had spent the past two weeks in misery. He just had to come see her. To talk to her and try to learn what happened. He didn’t know what else to do so he rented a car and drove to New York. He found her address on the form that she filled out when she booked the excursion with his kayaking company. He found the building and had been waiting across the street for the past six or seven hours. It was the middle of the afternoon now and there was still no sign of her.

He didn’t want to go up in case her ex, or boyfriend now, was there. He didn’t want to cause her any grief or cause a fight between them. He just wanted to talk to her alone for a minute and see what happened. If he didn’t find out now he would spend the rest of his life wondering.

His mouth dropped open and his heart skipped when he saw her. Rebecca was walking out, looking more beautiful than ever. Her brown hair was bouncing over her shoulders and her eyes were sparkling in the afternoon sun. Connor’s hands began to shake. His bear purred inside him.

“I always get the jitters too when I drink too much coffee,” the girl said.

“Mm hm,” Connor grunted as he looked past her at his mate. His stomach dropped when he saw that she wasn’t alone. The guy was wearing a Yankees hat over the scowl on his face. Connor’s inner bear growled inside him. There was something about the guy that his bear didn’t like. It was probably the fact that he was with his mate.

“I’m Tiffany,” the girl said with a big smile.

Connor glanced up at her and gave a quick smile before turning back to Rebecca. Her ex wrapped his arm over her shoulder and it took everything Connor had not to sprint across the street and rip it out of his socket.

“I get off in about twenty minutes,” Tiffany said, with a shake in her voice. Her hands were fidgeting with the rag nervously. “I know you’ve had a lot of coffee. Maybe we could go for a beer or something?”

Connor sighed. He was being asked out by a very pretty girl but all he could focus on was Rebecca. He would’ve indulged in the past but now he only had eyes for one woman. He didn’t want anybody else.

“I would love that,” Connor said to her with a smile. “But I’m already taken.”

“Lucky girl,” she said, brushing her hand on his shoulder as she left.

Connor got up from the table and left the terrace of the coffee shop and followed the couple down the street. He stayed on the opposite side and far enough back that he could hide if Rebecca turned around.

Connor had to look away as Mark slid his hand into hers.
Maybe I should go back home.
But he kept following them. He couldn’t walk away. He had to see.

They walked a few blocks and then turned into a store. Connor froze on the other side of the street when he read the sign above the entrance.
Betsy’s Bridal Boutique.

All of his worse fears came crashing down on him. They were getting married.

His knees went weak under him, threatening to give out. He rushed to a park bench and collapsed onto it. He took short, violent breaths as he placed his head between his legs.

All he could think was why? How was this happening? Everything was going so well. She was his mate, for fuck’s sake.

He raised his dizzy head and stared at the sign with itchy eyes. There was a picture of a wedding cake with a little bride and groom on the top.

Connor finally got his breath under control. This was her decision.
She wants to be with him and not you. You have to respect that.

He loved her and that meant letting her live the life that she wanted. It meant letting her go.

Connor took a deep breath and stood up from the bench. He took one last look at the door as his pulse raced.

It was time to let her get married. She had chosen the man that she wanted to be with and it wasn’t him.

It was time to bow out.

Connor wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and headed back home.

eight

Four days before the wedding…

Rebecca drove down the winding roads with butterflies racing in her stomach. She didn’t think that she would ever be back here but her two best friends had moved from the city into the mountains of New Hampshire to be with their bear shifter boyfriends. Or mates, as they called them.

It had worked out for Angie and Grace. Their guys didn’t turn out to be lying cheaters. She was happy for them but a bit sad. It would’ve been nice if it had worked out with Connor. She could’ve lived up here in the mountains with him near her two best friends. Instead she was alone in the city with Mark.

The sweet and caring Mark that had shown up when she came back devastated and broken was slowly disappearing, being replaced by the grumpy, sullen Mark that she knew so well. But the wedding was in four days. It was too late to back out now.

The familiar sign popped out on the side of the road.
Brooke Excursions
. She drove past it looking straight, fighting the temptation to look inside, to Grace’s new address. There was a large spiderweb hanging from the sign.

That’s weird
. Connor was usually so detail oriented. He would usually never allow that.
You don’t know anything about him. Everything you think you know about him are lies.

She continued down the road trying not to think of Connor. She did that a lot over the past few weeks and she still wasn’t very good at it.

She pulled into the driveway of a little cabin sitting beside the river. Grace was on the porch painting. She had her hair up with a thin paintbrush sticking out of her blond bun. Music was blaring from inside. U2. She had a look of such concentration on her face as she stared at the canvas that she didn’t even notice the car pulling into the driveway.

Rebecca put her car in park and watched her for a moment. Her chest swelled up with happiness for her friend. She had never seen her like this before. So focused. So free.

Grace glanced up and smiled. “Becca,” she said, running over.

Rebecca got out of the car and Grace lunged on her, swallowing her up in her paint-stained arms. “I missed you,” she said, giving her a big, wet kiss on the cheek.

“Alright, alright easy,” Rebecca said, pushing her off playfully. She looked up at the cabin. It looked like it was straight off the cover of a Country Living magazine. It was cute with little wooden boxes under the windows stuffed with red flowers and a large porch. There was a stack of firewood beside a comfy porch swing. It was exactly the kind of place that Rebecca dreamed of when the city overwhelmed her senses with all of the crazy noises, lights and smells.

“A bit of a downgrade from my last house isn’t it?” Grace said, with a smile.

Rebecca just stared at it. A chipmunk ran across the tiled roof. “It’s perfect.”

Grace wrapped her arm around Rebecca’s. “I know. I love it.”

They walked to the back of the car and Rebecca popped the trunk. “This is your dress,” she said, pulling out a turquoise bridesmaid dress. She was delivering them to her two bridesmaids in case they needed some alterations before the wedding.

Grace frowned when she saw it. “So you’re going through with this?”

Rebecca dropped her arms and exhaled. “Yes. I thought that you’d be supportive.”

“I am,” Grace said. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t give Connor a chance. You seemed so into him and he’s such a nice guy.”

She pictured the ‘nice guy’s’ fingers running through the pretty girl’s auburn hair as he whispered softly to her. It had looked so intimate. It still made her nauseous whenever she thought about it.

“It just…” she said, trailing off. “It wouldn’t have worked out.”

“But why?”

“I’ve made my decision Grace,” she said. “I want to be with Mark.” She got a bad taste in her mouth from just saying it.

Angie walked down the driveway, breaking the awkward silence. “Becca,” she called out. “I thought I saw your clunker driving down the road.”

Rebecca gave her a hug. “I can’t believe
you
of all people moved here.”

Angie turned, pointing up to Mount Washington in the distance. There was a little speck of yellow at the peak. “See that crane up there? It’s building my new observatory. That’s why I’m here.”

“That’s why?” Grace asked with her arms crossed across her chest.

Angie rolled her eyes. “Maybe Sidney had a little something to do with it.”

Rebecca sighed, feeling a sudden drain of energy. “I’m really happy for both of you,” she said. And she meant it. She just wished that she had been as lucky as them.

Angie grinned at her. “I guess it’s too late to talk you out of-” She stopped mid-sentence when she saw Grace shaking her head with wide eyes.

Rebecca glanced down at the dirt. “I thought you guys would be happy for me. Seeing you’re supposed to be my best friends and all.”

Angie put her hand on Rebecca’s arm. “We just want you to be happy,” she said. “And we’ve never seen you happier than when you were with Connor.”

The words felt like a dagger in her heart. She winced from the pain.

“We just don’t understand why you won’t give him a chance,” Angie continued.

What could she say? She couldn’t tell them the truth. That Connor had cheated on her. When she had told them that Mark had cheated on her they looked at her with pity and a know-it-all look. It was horrible. She never wanted to be looked at like that again.

“He’s been so miserable these past weeks Becca,” Angie said. “He doesn’t understand why you just walked away.”

He doesn’t know that I saw. That’s why.

But it was a surprise to hear that he was upset. Why would he be upset? “What are you talking about?”

“He misses you,” Grace said, joining in. “His bear bonded with you.”

“A shifter bond is the strongest bond there is,” Angie added.

Lies
. Just more lies. Why was he with another girl if his bond was so strong?

“The wedding is in four days,” Rebecca said, feeling a flutter in her stomach. “I’ve made my decision. It would mean the world to me if you two were beside me, supporting me and my choice.”

Angie and Grace glanced at each other with worried looks on their faces.

“Alright,” Grace said nodding.

“Fine,” Angie said, looking up at the trees.

The rest of the afternoon was tense. Rebecca sighed when the two girls tried on their dresses. They would look prettier than her. As usual.

Only Angie’s dress needed a slight alteration, that she said she would do herself. Rebecca felt a bit unsure leaving it with her but she insisted she knew what she was doing. “I read a book on sewing,” she said.

“Of course you did,” Rebecca answered.

They had asked her to stay the night but their earlier comments were still ringing in her head. Was Connor actually miserable? Did he really miss her?

Being here was stirring up too many thoughts and too many unhelpful emotions. She was getting married in a few days and didn’t need these doubts in the back of her mind. This was supposed to be the happiest time in her life. So why was it the most stressful?

It was the evening when she finally left. It was too hard being here and she just wanted to go home. She would drive through the night and try to convince herself for good that she was making the right decision.

She waved to Angie and Grace as she pulled out of the driveway. She squeezed the steering wheel and took a deep breath as she turned onto the road.

The sign was up ahead. Her eyes locked on it as she drove. Her car slowed down, her foot acting under its own volition, and parked on the side of the road in front of the sign.

She had to know.

She couldn’t get married to Mark without knowing the truth. It would haunt her for the rest of her life. Every time that Mark snapped at her or came home really late at night; she would always wonder. Wonder if she had made the right decision.

She pulled the keys out of the ignition and took a deep breath. It was time to hear Connor’s story. It was time to hear the truth. No lies. She would make him tell her the truth.

She stepped out of the car, squeezing her keys in her hand, and made her way down the path. Her heart was pounding, her pulse in fifth gear. What was she going to say to him? How would he react when he saw her?

She made her way down to the familiar cabin. She held her breath as she glanced at the porch swing. It was empty. The image of Connor and that girl in her mind still made her wince.

Rebecca continued down to the river. She could hear it in the distance, babbling and gurgling, as if it was talking to her.

She froze in her flip flops when she saw him. He was sitting on the river bank with his back to her. And he wasn’t alone. The same girl with the long, auburn hair, was sitting beside him, rubbing his back.

Her reaction wasn’t as intense as the last time. Oddly enough she felt a sense of relief. She had been right about him all along.

She stared at the girl’s hand, rubbing Connor’s muscular back. She wanted this image seared into her brain so that every time a nice thought of him popped into her head it would be quickly replaced with this. With his true nature.

The girl leaned into him, placing her head on his shoulder, and Rebecca had seen enough. She hurried back to her car with no tears or nausea this time. Just an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had cried enough over Connor. She had no more tears left for him.

She started the car while staring vacantly down the road.
I’ll never come back here
, she vowed to herself.
I never want to see him again.

She put the car into drive and pulled away from Brooke Excursions, relieved to finally know the true nature of Connor Jacoby.

It sucked. But at least now she knew.