Bearly a Memory: Pacific Northwest Bears: (Shifter Romance) (9 page)

BOOK: Bearly a Memory: Pacific Northwest Bears: (Shifter Romance)
10.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
Chapter 18

T
anner felt
like kicking his own ass. Her tone was off when he spoke to her. He should have been more careful.

“Fuck,” he groaned, covering his face with his hands.

“Screwed up already?”

Tanner turned to see Eddie leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face.

“Just you wait, asshole. Try having a mate that has no clue who she is, and you can’t do anything about it.” Tanner stood and paced the room.

“Well, the odds of this scenario occurring in my life are slim to none. Why don’t you guys get out of this room? Brooklyn is fine to go on short walks. She’s only on the lightest medication. Get some fresh air, show her the town. Just have her back before dinner, young man,” Eddie said, wiggling his finger at him.

“Fuck off,” Tanner said with a grin. Getting out of that room sounded like a great idea.

“You know, she really needs to see you in the daylight, see all your flaws in natural lighting.” Eddie couldn’t resist another jab.

“Are you ever not sarcastic?” Tanner asked, propping his hands on his hips as he shook his head at Eddie.

Pausing to think about it for a few seconds, Eddie tapped his chin. “Hmm, can’t recall a time when I wasn’t. I think it’s in my DNA.”

“Sarcasm is not genetic, genius.”

“Says you. I have developed it into a highly effective skill. Someday I’m going to meet a woman who finds it cute and endearing,” Eddie said with a grin.

“Good luck with that,” Tanner scoffed.

Eddie gave him a chin lift and left.

Tanner busied himself making the bed. He was listening for signs of Brooke in the bathroom. What if she passed out? Or fell? He should be in there helping her. That thought immediately had his brain imagining what she would look like naked.

The image of her tawny skin still damp from the shower had his cock hardening. His brain worked up the image of her full breasts with dark nipples. He would like to be the one in there with her. Soaping, touching, hopefully tasting.

“Fat chance,” he mumbled to himself, realizing this was not helping him at all.

“What did you say?” Brooke asked as she opened the bathroom door. She had put on a long sleeved plum colored t-shirt over a pair of jeans. They were tight, hugging the flare of her hips and making Tanner want to drool.

“Oh, nothing. Just reminding myself that reality needs to be acknowledged. To deny it will only bring heartache,” he said. He didn’t bother mentioning that the more pressing ache was in his pants.

“That is rather melancholy,” she said, patting her hair with a towel.

“Maybe, but honest,” he said. His eyes went to her hair, now shining and soft around her face. He wanted to reach out and touch it, smell it.

Soon, he promised his bear. Soon they’d have her in their arms.

“Sorry about before. I don’t mean to rush you, Brooke. I know you are as frustrated as I am over your situation. I just feel the need to fix it. I like fixing things, and so far I’m failing miserably at this. I hope to keep you safe by keeping your parents in California. If someone is looking for you, they could be watching them.”

“I know, Tanner. I understand. I’m just feeling a little chickenshit right now,” she admitted.

“Hey, we can do this together. They already know me, and I’ll help out however I can,” he promised.

“You’ll stay?” she asked, worried. She didn’t want to call these strangers, but if he was there, she would be able to keep her grip on sanity a little better.

“Of course, I’m not going anywhere. My sole focus is Brooklyn Nishi,” he said. He didn’t want to tell her just how serious that statement was.

“Okay, let’s do this.” She flopped back onto the bed, wincing as she hit the lump that was still on her head.

Tanner pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number to Brooke’s parents. He hit the speaker button so she’d be able to hear.

“Hello? Sheriff?” the voice answered.

“Hey there, Maybelle. I wanted to give you an update,” Tanner said.

“Bout time, young man. I’ve been sittin’ here twiddling my thumbs. My husband is about to send me to the loony bin with his damn trains. It’s his only coping mechanism, so I can’t throw them out or run them over with a steamroller,” she said.

Tanner gave Brooke a nod towards the phone.

She didn’t know what to say, so she just offered a timid hello.

“Oh, my baby girl! You are in so much trouble running away like you did. You think you are too old to be taken a switch to, but you don’t know how wrong you are. I don’t care what your father says about corporal punishment; the man could use a good smacking around himself,” Maybelle said.

“Maybelle, Brooke hasn’t gotten her memory back yet. You might want to take it easy,” he suggested.

“Boy, don’t you tell me how to talk to my daughter. I’m sitting here in California when I should be next to my daughter, but noooo. You told me to stay put, so I stayed put,” Maybelle said, her tone brooking no argument.

Brooke just raised her eyebrows at him and smiled. Brooke had been worried that her mother was going to cry or be angry. She didn’t expect the woman to flip Tanner a bunch of shit. Her mom sounded kickass, like someone she’d like to meet. Maybe she was like her mom, all sass and attitude. That would make the sheriff happy, she thought.

She was enjoying this, damn her, he thought watching Brooke.

“Brooke, who the hell is calling her Brooke? My girl has always been Brooklyn, wouldn’t let us call her anything but. She said only blonde, blue-eyed sorority girls were called Brooke,” Maybelle declared.

Tanner looked at Brooke, and she just shrugged and smiled. She clearly thought this was amusing.

“Uh, sorry. I guess Brooklyn didn’t feel like it fit, so I was trying out Brooke,” she explained.

There was a snort. “Clearly you hit your head. You think nicknames are for lazy people.”

Brooke thought about that. True, if your name was one thing and someone couldn’t be bothered to pronounce the whole thing, then it was kind of lazy. But she liked when Sheriff Tanner called her Brooke.

“Maybe hitting my head is the start of a new me,” Brooke offered. She didn’t feel like someone who was so rigid that she couldn’t at least accept a nickname.

There was another loud snort. “Girl, you are gonna be so surprised when you remember who you are,” her mother said. “But baby girl, your daddy and I were so worried about you. Don’t you ever do that to us again. I didn’t know if you were dead or someone had you.” The fear in her mother’s voice was very real now.

“I’m sorry,” Brooke said, quietly. “I’m sure I had a good reason for leaving. I hope I wouldn’t do it without feeling it was my only option.”

Her mother sighed. “I have no doubt that was why you did what you did.”

“Maybelle, I’ve been in contact with the SFPD, and I have some concerns about Brooklyn’s safety. I’d appreciate it if you and your husband could still hang back until I can feel confident that Brooklyn is out of danger,” Tanner said.

“You think it’s that serious?” Maybelle asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“You think you can keep her safe? And I don’t mean that bullshit like one of those dumb TV shows where they set her up at a rundown safe house and leave the two most stupid cops to watch her,” Maybelle said.

“Ma’am, I not only have a great set of deputies, but I also come from a large family of basically lumberjacks. They don’t take kindly to anyone causing trouble in our town,” Tanner informed her.

“Well then, I’ll stay here. But Brooklyn, you need to talk to your father and tell him you are okay. If you don’t, he’s gonna start in on his birdhouses. I don’t trust him not to cut a finger off. He still needs them for surgery.”

“Surgery?” Brooke asked confused.

“Oh, I forgot, baby – your daddy is a doctor, a surgeon. I’m an HR manager. We both live in San Francisco just about thirty minutes from you. I’ve been going over to your house to water your plants, by the way. I’m no green thumb like you, but they are surviving,” her mother explained.

“Wow, that must be why I know about medical procedures,” she mused.

“No, sweets. You’re a nurse, too. You just didn’t like all the blood and guts that came along with it. You finished your nursing degree then went into business administration before getting your job,” her mother said.

At the words
blood and guts,
a flash of memory hit Brooklyn. She closed her eyes at the image of someone’s head exploding. Blood painted a picture in her mind. Blood everywhere, she could almost hear the sounds. It terrified her to the core.

“Maybelle, can we call you back in a bit?” Tanner asked, his eyes on his mate. Her face was ashen; her eyes squeezed tight.

“Sure can. Oh, Sheriff – send me some pictures of those lumberjack friends. Bye, baby,” her mother said to Brooklyn.

Chapter 19

A
ll Brooke could do was shake
her head at Tanner, her eyes still closed. Tanner hung up the phone and reached over for her hands. They were cold and shaking.

“Shhh, Brooke, what do you remember?”

“Blood,” she gasped. “So much blood.”

Tanner watched a lone tear escape from her closed lids. His bear was chuffing in his head in frustration.

“Whose blood?”

Shaking her head at him, she said, “I don’t know. A man, his hair was short. I can see his head exploding; I can remember the sound.”

Tanner saw a shiver roll through her body. “It’s okay, don’t force yourself to remember it. You might have witnessed the shooting at your work. If you ran, logic tells me that they must have seen you. We need to keep you safe until we can catch the people who are after you. Brooke, I believe you saw those men being murdered. I think the men that saw you are looking for you. I will not, under any circumstances, let anyone get close to you.”

“Is that why you told my mom about your family? Why would they care about me?” she asked, utterly confused. Brooke knew enough to realize that because someone was after her didn’t mean the population of a small town needed to rally behind her.

Tanner wasn’t sure how to explain the situation to her without freaking her way the fuck out. Or worse, she’d just think he was crazy, and she’d run from him too.

“Brooke…” he started, trying to gather his thoughts. “I believe that the universe puts certain people in our paths for a reason. Sometimes they are there for a short time and only make the slightest impact on our lives.” Tanner watched her cock her head to the side in that cute way she did as she tried to understand him.

Taking a deep breath, he continued. “Then I think people are put in our paths who are meant to make a much bigger change to who we are. I trust the universe, fate, whatever you want to call it, to guide my life. I know that every person that I interact with on a daily basis is an opportunity for me to grow, to learn, sometimes to just keep me humble. I believe that you are important to my life. To my future. There is a reason you ran to Apex. There is a reason I was there with you in the woods. I can tell you that you are important. So very important to who I’m supposed to be in the future.”

Tanner watched her as he spoke. Her eyes going from confused, to shocked, to wary. Not scared, just cautious.

“Now, you might think it’s a bunch of crap I’m spouting. Maybe it is for you. But I have, well – let’s just say, an inner instinct that has always guided me true in life. That instinct is telling me to keep you safe. To do whatever I have to, to make sure that your future is secured. I have every intention of doing just that.”

Brooke watched him, sitting in his chair, leaning forward, still holding her hands. She liked his touch, so she hadn’t pulled away from him. This handsome man was talking to her, low and quiet, and she could feel the words resonating somewhere deep in her chest.

He wasn’t talking to her. He was speaking to her. He was telling her something so important that her instinct told her that she needed to remember every word he said. That what he was saying wasn’t for show, it was for her. The thought was earth-shattering.

“Why me?” she had to ask. This sheriff wasn’t just telling her she was a case or a job. Even without her memories, she was still a woman. She couldn’t miss the flashing signs this man was putting off.

“You’re important to me.” His words were so heavy with meaning that it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

Brooke was trying to soak in his words. She felt like they were a blanket wrapping around her. A safe and warm cocoon that she really didn’t ever want to leave. But she didn’t know this man. She felt like she did, that there was a history between them?

She also had no idea whether she had a boyfriend or a lover. Her mother hadn’t mentioned anyone, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t someone she hadn’t told her parents about. What if she was seeing someone, and he was looking for her?

Thinking romantically about someone she didn’t know and just met was beyond impractical. It didn’t seem like something she would do. Again, something inside told her that she was not frivolous with her affections.

“I don’t know what to say to you, Sheriff,” she admitted.

Tanner smiled a sad smile. “I don’t expect you to say anything. Can you just give me a chance to keep you safe? Trust me to do what is right for you until you can take care of yourself?”

Tanner had no intention of her ever taking care of herself again without his help, but that wasn’t something he could say to her.

Brooke wanted to ponder his question, but the truth was the answer was already waiting on the tip of her tongue.

“Yes, Tanner. I’d appreciate your help. I feel like I should be taking care of myself, but I have no idea how to do that.”

“Then just let me help. I’m here for you, and we will get through this together,” he promised.

That sounded nice. Someone to help; someone to take some of the burden off her. It gave her a sense of weightlessness like her heart had filled with something other than dread.

“I like it when you visit,” she admitted.

“I like visiting you,” he said with a smile. He let his thumb rub over the back of her hands. Her skin was soft, and he wanted so much to bring the back of her hand to his mouth.

“What if I never get my memory back?” she whispered to him. A very real worry that she’d been thinking about since she woke up. What if who she’d been before hitting her head was forever lost?

“You stay here with me, and we’ll grow old in the woods together,” he joked.

“Promise?”

Tanner saw the frightened look in her eyes. “Ahh, sweetie, you’re breaking my heart,” he admitted.

“I’m scared, Tanner.” She was trying really hard to keep her lower lip from trembling, but she could feel it starting to twitch.

Seeing her start to break, Tanner did the only thing that came to mind. He leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her mouth. He felt her mouth open as she sucked in a shocked breath. He didn’t press in; he just kept his kiss light and reassuring. When he felt her kiss him back, he broke away and left his forehead against hers.

“Shit, I’m sorry. That was inappropriate, and probably against some law I can’t really think of right now,” he moaned. Fucking hell, he probably just screwed the pooch with that move.

“Don’t be sorry. It was nice,” she said to him. It wasn’t some toe curling kiss; it was all comfort and caring. It was good.

“You don’t know who you are. I’m supposed to be protecting you.” He felt like a jerk. He should call Cage to come kick his ass.

“You can’t protect me and kiss me at the same time?” she asked. It felt like a forward thing to say, but it also didn’t feel wrong to her.

“Technically, yes. Ethically, it’s potentially a gray zone.” He laughed. Tanner didn’t want to press his luck, so he sat back in the chair. He kept her hands. Since she hadn’t pulled away, he’d be damned if he’d be the first one to let go.

“I thought we’d go for a walk. Get you some fresh air. What do you think?”

“I’d love to get outside. I have no idea what the weather is like. Is it cold out there?” she asked, excited at the opportunity to get out of her room and the hospital.

“Shouldn’t be too bad, you can borrow my coat if you need. Yours wasn’t salvageable from the woods,” Tanner explained.

“I don’t want you to get cold,” she said, feeling bad.

“I run hot. It’s fine,” he assured her. Tanner found her shoes in a cupboard. They were mostly dry and would have to do.

“Ready?” He offered her his arm.

She gladly took it and had to keep herself from skipping next to him. They walked side by side out of the hospital. Brooke liked how they perfectly matched steps. She knew that this was not something easily done when Tanner had to be well over six feet, and she was a number of inches shorter than him.

Stepping through the front doors, Tanner paused, sensing that she would want a moment. He watched as her head tilted back, and she let the sunshine wash over her face.

Brooke felt her face heat up as the rays warmed her cheeks. “This is so nice,” she moaned.

Tanner thought her beauty from within was even brighter with the sun on her face.

“I like the sunshine too,” he said, enjoying the view of his mate at peace.

Turning to him, Brooke gave another of those dazzling smiles that made his heart ache.

“Let’s walk,” he said to her.

She nodded back and looked towards the grassy park across from the hospital. There were trees with fresh leaves and brightly colored playground equipment.

“Can we swing?” she asked.

“Yeah, sweetie, we can swing,” he said, walking towards the park.

“Sweetie? We are moving up in the world. What’s next? Baby, hot pants?”

“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever called a woman hot pants in my life,” Tanners said thoughtfully.

“Shame,” she said saucily as they stepped onto the grass. Tanner guided them towards the swing set and made sure the seat on the closest swing was dry. In Washington, everything was damp, even in the summer months.

Holding the swing for her to sit, Tanner appreciated the way the rubber seat cupped her ass. Damn, if he didn’t know he was a bear, he’d think he was a dog.

BOOK: Bearly a Memory: Pacific Northwest Bears: (Shifter Romance)
10.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Aelred's Sin by Lawrence Scott
White Out by Michael W Clune
Lust & Wonder by Augusten Burroughs
Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky
All For Love by Lucy Kevin, Bella Andre
Dropped Dead Stitch by Maggie Sefton