Loving The Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Gray Bears Book 2) (3 page)

The thought made her smile
and blush.

She didn't have a single
friend in this town. Perhaps given time, they could be...more than
friends?

The deputy sheriff was one
hot, sexy hunk and from what she could tell, he was a good,
protective guy. He had even taken the trouble to get his family to
meet her so she could feel safe with him.

When he held out his hand to
her, she took his huge, strong hand immediately.

“I'll call the station
and request for an officer to keep an eye on your bakery,” he
said. “I don't think your ex-husband will come back here
tonight, but it's better to be safe.”

She nodded. “I don't
think Skinner will trash the shop. It's me he's after.”

“He won't get to you.
I won't let him hurt you, Elle,” Aidan said.

Elle gave him a small smile.

No one had ever looked out
for her and protected her before. Not even her mom. Her mom had
been too busy with her string of lovers to pay much attention to her.
She had told Elle that being pretty was the most important thing.
If you're pretty, you could get a man to love you, her mom said.
That's why her mom taught her those glamor spells. To make herself
pretty so she could be loved. Her mother made it clear that no one
could love Elle the way she was. No one wanted a short, chubby,
red-headed half witch.

Just for a moment, Elle
allowed herself to forget all about Skinner and the danger she was
in.

It felt real good to hold
Aidan's hand and walk down the street with him. If only she could do
this every day, she thought sadly. She would be happy to hold his
hand and walk with him for the rest of her life.

CHAPTER
FIVE

By the time Aidan drove up to
the spacious double-story house, he knew that Gramma and Ne-ma had
called Mason and Jackson and told them to roll out the welcome mat.

This was their parents'
house, and the Gray brothers continued living in the family home
together. Tristan only moved out after he got married but he and
Alisa were always dropping by to deliver food for the boys.

Alisa was a great cook. She
was the chef at Broomstick Inn, and she always made sure that the
guests at the inn and her own family were well fed and happy. She
was like the big sister they never had, and she enjoyed fussing over
Tristan's younger brothers, whipping up all their favorite dishes and
using them as her guinea pigs for her new recipes.

All the lights in the house
were on. The porch lights were blazing and the front door was thrown
wide open. As he cut the engine, Aidan could see Mason rushing past
the window with an armful of dirty laundry. Mason was eleven months
younger than him, but Mason always insisted that they were the same
age. Jackson was the baby of the family, but he was the tallest and
brawniest of the lot.

Jackson was scrambling around
with a broom in his hand, and when Aidan got out of the car, he heard
Mason shouting, “They're here! Hurry up, Jackson! Never mind
now, just sweep the wrappers under the carpet!”

Aidan put his hand over his
mouth to hide his chortle. His brothers were trying to clean up the
place to welcome their guest. None of them were very good at
housekeeping, and Gramma and Ne-ma sometimes cast a Clean-Up and
Clear-Out spell on their house out of exasperation and to teach them
a lesson. Their house got cleaned in a jiffy, and old, dusty things
that were past their use-by dates got thrown out. But the spell made
no distinction between old junk and old collectibles. All old things
got thrown out. Even precious, beloved, highly valuable old things.

Aidan and his brothers would
return home to find their old posters, prized possessions and
collections, favorite old t-shirts and jeans in the rubbish bin.
They would spend all night retrieving and rescuing their treasures
from the bin while Gramma and Ne-ma looked on and clucked their
tongues disapprovingly. “Serves you right!” they said.

Mason threw the last armful
of their dirty clothes into the washing machine and skidded out to
grab the broom out of Jackson's hands. Jackson snatched the dirty
cups off the coffee table and rushed to the sink. Then he pirouetted
out of the kitchen and pulled the kitchen door shut behind him.
Another door slammed and Mason ran to the front door, mopping his
brow.

“Welcome!” Mason
and Jackson bowed low as Aidan came up the front steps with Elle.
“Welcome to our humble but homely abode.”

Aidan rolled his eyes. This
was over the top.

His brothers eyed Elle
curiously and grinned. Elle was looking around with a bewildered and
amused expression. She smiled at Mason and Jackson and said, “Thank
you. You have a lovely house. I hope I'm not imposing...”

“No, no, not at all.”

“Please, make yourself
at home.”

“I'm Jackson...”

“I'm Mason...”

“And we're Aidan's
brothers!” they recited together.

“I'm Elle,” she
told them. “I'm really happy to meet you.”

Aidan shook his head at his
brothers and said, “I saw you running around trying to clear
the laundry and the trash. You didn't have to...”

“It's not for her,”
Jackson blurted out. “Gramma and Ne-ma are coming!”

The three brothers shared a
look of understanding and commiseration. “Good job, guys,”
Aidan said, surveying the place. “Gramma and Ne-ma won't be
able to find anything to clear out this time.”

Elle turned at the sound of
excited female voices down the driveway. “Is that…?”

“Yep. That's Gramma
and Ne-ma. They…”

Two silver-haired ladies
burst into the house, chattering at the top of their voices. They
seemed to be congratulating each other, giving each other high-fives
and low-fives and bumping their hips.

They ignored the boys
completely and simply made a beeline for her. “Oh, there you
are!”

“You're such a pretty
little thing!”

“Perfect!” they
trilled. “Just perfect!”

CHAPTER
SIX

Elle sat down at the kitchen
table with Gramma while Ne-ma put the kettle to boil and made three
mugs of strong tea. Aidan was watching TV in the living room with
his brothers, and Elle had a feeling that Gramma and Ne-ma had
ordered them to stay out of the kitchen.

Elle put the bags of cookies
on the table and said, “These are from my bakery. I didn't
manage to sell them today, so...”

Gramma grinned and
immediately grabbed two plates and filled them with cookies. “I'll
go out and give these to the boys. This bigger plate is for us
girls.”

Elle helped Ne-ma carry the
mugs of tea to the kitchen table and sat down with her. “Mmmm...”
Ne-ma took another cookie. “These are divine! Yum!”

“Are you going to eat
them all, Neveah?” Gramma demanded as she waltzed back into the
kitchen. “Leave some for me!”

“You can have the
crumbs, Glynda,” Ne-ma answered, snagging another cookie.

“Oh no you don't.”
Gramma snapped her fingers and the cookie flew out of Ne-ma's hand.
Gramma snatched the spinning cookie out of the air and bit happily
into it. “Crumbs, eh?”

Elle watched in awe and
wonder as Gramma and Ne-ma used their spells effortlessly to spar
with each other over the cookies. Colorful sparks landed on the
kitchen table as the cookies danced from the plate into Gramma and
Ne-ma's grasping hands.

“Gimme!”

“I'm having the last
chocolate chip cookie!”

“Hey!”

As Gramma and Ne-ma giggled
and tried to outdo each other with their playful spells, they turned
laughingly to Elle and encouraged her to join in the spell-fest.
“Come on, hit her with your best shot!” Ne-ma grinned.

“I...I c-can't.”

Gramma and Ne-ma stopped
fooling around and the cookies clattered lifelessly back onto the
plate. “But you're a witch, right? Like us,” Gramma
said, frowning. “I can sense you have magic in your blood.”

Elle shook her head. “I'm
a half witch. My dad was human, but I never knew him. He was...just
one of my mom's many lovers.”

“But your mother's a
witch. She should have schooled you in basic spell-casting and
manifesting,” Ne-ma said, blinking in surprise.

“The only spells my mom
ever taught me were glamor spells.” Elle swallowed. “She
said that was all I needed to know. And since I'm not a full witch,
she said there's no need for me to know anything else. She wanted me
to be pretty, but...” Elle blew out a long sigh. “I'm
not the pretty daughter she wanted. I'm short and plump, with unruly
curly red hair. My mom was tall, blond and slim. She wanted me to
use my glamor to look more like her, but...I just couldn't do it.”
Elle looked down and mumbled, “I'm not good at spells. I'm
not good at anything—except baking.” She shook her head
and added softly, “My mom...wasn't a happy woman. She never
found what she was looking for. I think...she was looking for true
love, but she never found it. Not in this life. She's gone now, and
I hope...she's happy where she is...” Elle blinked away the
sudden tears in her eyes and reached for her cup with shaking hands.

Gramma and Ne-ma came round
the table and sat on either side of her. They put their arms around
her and held her lovingly.

“I...I'm okay,”
Elle said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

“Of course you are,”
Gramma said. “You're wonderful.”

“You are a witch,
Elle,” Ne-ma said firmly. “A half witch has magic in her
blood, just like a full witch. You just have to learn to use what
you have. And you have a lot of potential and talent. There are a
lot of spells you can cast, not just glamor spells. Those are pretty
useless, in my opinion. What's the use of being a pretty but
hollow-headed thing?”

Elle smiled sadly. “It's
too late now. My mom's gone...”

“It's never too late,”
Gramma snapped. “You can start learning now. We'll teach
you.”

Elle's eyes rounded. “You
will? T-teach me?”

“Of course! We'll
teach you to be a proper witch. You'll learn to focus your will and
cast all kinds of wonderful, good spells, not just airy glamor spells
and nasty love spells!” Ne-ma made a face.

Elle let out a short laugh.
“I don't think I can even cast a simple love spell properly. I
made a wish, and see how that turned out!”

“What wish?”
Gramma said slowly.

Elle lifted her shoulders in
a tired shrug. “I wished that I would finally find true love
and live happily ever after. What a silly wish, eh? And as soon as
I made the wish, my ex-husband appeared and tried to kill me. I
can't even make a wish properly. I can even screw up a wish, fancy
that!” She laughed mirthlessly. “True love doesn't
exist, at least not for me. The little love that I thought I'd found
turned out to be cold and twisted. That wasn't love. That was a
terrible mistake.”

Gramma and Ne-ma shared a
long, silent look.

Finally, Gramma patted her
hand and said, “You didn't screw up your wish, dear.”

“Huh?”

“You must be exhausted
now. Go have a good night's rest. Put all your unhappiness behind
you. We'll begin our training tomorrow. You're going to learn how
to be a real witch!” Gramma smiled.

Ne-ma pushed her glasses up
her nose and said, “We'll teach you everything we know.”

“I...I don't know what
to say. Thank you, thank you so much!” Elle whispered.
“Nobody has ever done this for me.”

“You're going to be a
fine witch, Elle,” Ne-ma said. “Everything will be fine.
You'll see.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Aidan hesitated for a
heartbeat at the door of the spare bedroom, and continued walking.

Nope, Elle wasn't sleeping
alone in that bedroom. She would be sleeping with him tonight, in
his
bed.

Aidan opened the door to his
bedroom and ushered Elle in. She looked around in surprise.
“This...is your room,” she stuttered.

“Yes.” It's
our
room.

She smiled awkwardly and went
to stand at the edge of the bed. “Um...where...”

“You'll sleep here.”
Aidan patted the bed. “With me.”

Her lips parted, but before
she could protest, he said, “This is your side. And this is
mine. I'll draw an invisible line right down the middle, like this.
I won't cross over to your side—unless you want me to, of
course.”

“Of course,” Elle
repeated in a monotone.

Aidan went to pull out one of
his big t-shirts from the drawer. “You can wear this,”
he said. “The shower is over there, and there's a new
toothbrush on the shelf. I'll go downstairs and talk to Gramma and
Ne-ma for a while, but just holler if you need anything.”

At the door, he heard her
whisper, “Thank you, Aidan.”