Scottish Werebear: A New Beginning: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Scottish Werebears Book 4) (2 page)

As soon as he hit 'send' on the report, many hours later, he sat back and crossed his arms. He'd finished the job, somehow, but the image of the new woman next door had never quite left him. It was maddening. How was he meant to function like this?

Just with her presence, she'd upset the entire balance of everything. He'd skipped lunch as well as dinner, something he'd never done before, simply because he didn't think he could regain focus if he accidentally spied her through the kitchen window.

He'd missed the delivery of groceries that he'd scheduled for the evening, because the music he'd been listening to had blocked out the doorbell.

Still, he couldn't stay in the back room forever. He needed to blow off steam somehow.

After preparing a quick bite, he noted with relief that there was no activity outside. Even the usual neighborhood kids playing ball in the street had gone home already, so he headed to the back of the house again and looked out at the unfinished project awaiting him.

For a few nights now, he'd been working on building a patio with a barbecue pit in the backyard. The print-out with instructions he'd found online had said it would be spacious, and the barbecue could cater to 6-8 people. Not that he was planning on using it for entertaining, but he was rather fond of grilled meat and had a very healthy appetite himself.

Of course, the new neighbor changed a few things. For one, he'd have to grow a hedge of some sort for extra privacy. Luckily, this was the right time of year to order the plants.

He didn't mind the extra work, after all, he enjoyed having things to do at night when sleep was hard to come by. Gardening had proved a welcome outlet for his energy as well as creativity. But it would cut into his area a bit, leaving less space for the seasonal vegetables he wanted to plant in spring.

But there was no point debating it. Matt picked up the instructions again and started collecting his materials. Everything he needed for the patio had already been delivered. The ground had been cleared and mostly leveled, so all he had to do was lay the stones tonight, and he'd still be right on schedule.

So he got to work. He managed to carry a dozen stones across the yard and had just begun to lay them down when something roused his suspicion. It wasn't a sound as such, more of a vibe. A presence.

He was being watched.

Just as he was trying to convince himself he was being paranoid, he turned towards his new neighbor's house and was immediately greeted by a rustle and muffled curse. She was there.

Shit, now what?

It was too dark to see properly, but that didn't deter his brain from showing him fuzzy images of her stumbling backward behind the wooden fence. Like infra-red imagery captured by a hunting scope, except he wasn't seeing them with his eyes. Of course, that wasn't possible. His brain was playing tricks on him.

Still, he couldn't take the risk, and he rushed inside. From the safety of his dark back room, he looked through the gap in the curtain while rubbing the cold out of his hands. In his eagerness to get the project done, he hadn't even realized how cold it was tonight.

Her side of the fence wasn't lit up, so there was no way of knowing for sure whether she was still there, not scientifically anyway. But now that his mind had captured her presence, he seemed to be able to track her a little.

That's impossible.

He kept scanning the fence for a few minutes until his instincts told him she'd gone.

This was too much to deal with. Even his safe haven, his personal backyard wasn't secure anymore. Something had to change.

Matt took to the one outlet still open to him. The world-wide-web. The answer ought to be out there, hopefully.

With a swiftness his fingers hadn't shown all day during his work, he typed out his experience - anonymously - aiming to publish it for the world to see on a discussion forum he often lurked in. For someone with delusions such as his, what else could he do? Where else could he go for help?

He finished his piece with questions: Was there hope? Should he try harder to ignore her? Or was this a sign that the status quo simply wasn't sustainable anymore? Perhaps he should go with it, and give in to the irrational desire to watch her, admire her, perhaps try to reach out to her even?

He didn't know right from wrong anymore. Either way, he definitely was in trouble.

And for a change, others shared in it.

In the past, he'd mostly held back, reading other people's posts instead of writing his own. He'd come to recognize some of the names of regulars who liked to comment. There was the cheerleader who supported everything and everyone, no matter how ridiculous. Next came the troll and the pessimist, each leaving their standard comments.
Go for it. Ignore her; there's no hope. Etcetera
.

The more helpful members were less prolific in their responses, but he waited for them anyway.

After an hour of waiting a few comments had come in that didn't offer much other than sympathy. Oh well, maybe later...

"Be careful with that, please!" Leah blurted out as she noticed the two movers unloading the truck containing her belongings a bit more enthusiastically as she would have liked.

They barely took notice and continued their work at the same pace, one all but flinging each box out of the back of the vehicle, for the other to catch and set down on the pavement.

What's the point of labeling things as fragile if they're intent on throwing them around?

Leah took a deep breath and headed for the door, clutching the key to what was going to be her new home tightly in her fist.
If anything's broken, I swear to God I'll give them an ear full and demand damages.

Money wasn't the issue as such; Leah was most concerned about the supplies she needed to make a living from now on. Homemade candles and bath products can't just be replaced instantly by throwing money at the issue. These things take time and effort to recreate.

Her heart still hammered away in her chest as she looked around the empty hall, living area and open plan kitchen. It was a nice little bungalow, in a nice little village. Picturesque was the word. A far cry from the flat she'd called home ever since moving out on her own after her dad’s death.

As she came back out, the truck was mostly unloaded, with only the larger pieces of furniture remaining inside. She bit her tongue and let the two men do their job as they saw fit, noting that despite shifting everything inside of the house at record speed, they hadn't scuffed a single wall or door frame.

The curtain-less windows facing the modest front yard revealed that the sun was out. Odd not just for the time of year – mid-November - but also for the area. It wasn't for nothing that Scotland had the reputation of being cloudy and wet most of the year. Some stereotypes were true. But today was a perfectly bright, icy day.

Leah felt chills run down her spine and remembered that she should probably switch on the central heating. The house had sat empty for a while the rental agent had told her. Although everything looked in good condition, you could never be certain that everything would work as expected.

Luckily, everything seemed to switch on as it should, and soon she could hear the hot water stream into the large radiator below the living room window.

Leah halfheartedly told the movers where to put all her belongings, though they had pretty much done everything on auto pilot based solely on the meticulous labeling system Leah had stuck to while packing. Kitchen boxes in the kitchen and so on.
Obviously
.

Though she did do a few spot checks to make sure the contents were all intact, she couldn't find anything amiss. Soon after, the older one of the two movers presented her with a clipboard containing a form for her to sign. Then they were off, and she was left alone in her newly rented bungalow, surrounded by boxes and wrapped up furniture.

Unpacking would be a thankless task. One Leah didn't have the energy for just yet. Anyway, it wasn't like she had a job to go to come nightfall; she'd quit her night shift position at the call center a month ago.

And so the only two boxes she did open up properly were the ones containing the electric kettle and mugs, and of course, her bedding so that she could catch some rest later. Thanks to the groceries she'd picked up on her way, she soon had a steamy cup of tea in her hands as she sat down on her still wrapped up sofa.

Made it.

It was hard not to feel just a little bit nervous about the big step Leah had taken today. She'd been ready for a change. Ready to slow down and live life somewhere quieter, on her own terms. But was this the right decision? Or the right time?

Her homemade bath supply company was just starting to pick up steam, and the internet was a fickle place to do business. What if her orders dried up suddenly? What if her savings ran out before she was able to make things work?

She took a deep breath, and then a big sip of her hot drink and tried to suppress all those doubts and worries that were attempting to claw their way to the surface.

Everything will be fine.

She closed her eyes and forced her nerves to calm, when the doorbell rang and made her spring into action yet again.

"Yes?" Leah asked, while opening the light wood front door.

"Hi!" a woman sporting a wide smile and larger than life platinum blond curls greeted her on the other side. "I'm Caroline- but everyone calls me Carrie. I noticed you moving in and thought I'd say hello and welcome you to the neighborhood!"

Leah reluctantly met the woman's outstretched hand, who warmly shook it while continuing to flash her teeth at her.

"Thank you so much. I'm Leah."

"It's nice seeing this old house in use again. It's been empty for so long..." Carrie's voice trailed off towards the end of the sentence, as if there was something she was thinking that she didn't want to share.

"It seems to be a nice area. I've been meaning to get out of the city for some time," Leah responded.

"Mhmm. It certainly is. Very good for families. Do you have children?"

Leah shook her head.

"Oh well. Maybe later, aye?"

"Right."

Carrie hadn't taken her eyes off Leah throughout the short exchange, except to inspect the as yet barren hallway behind her. She was clearly curious what this house looked like on the inside, but Leah was in no mood to invite her in. Nobody was going to come in until everything was set just how Leah wanted it.

"Anyway, I live just next door. If you ever need anything." Carrie pointed to the neatly kept house towards the right of Leah's bungalow. "I'm sure you'll meet the rest of the neighborhood shortly."

"I'm sure." Leah smiled. "So, who lives there?" Leah pointed at the other house next door to her towards the left. Its exterior was equally polished, but the windows were dark almost as if they were boarded up from the inside.

"Oh... I suppose
him
you probably won't meet. Matthew Argyle," Carrie's voice suddenly didn't seem so upbeat anymore. "He doesn't tend to mingle."

"Oh yeah? How come?" Leah tried not to sound too suspicious but was having a hard time to disguise the concern that she'd been tricked into putting down a rather sizable deposit on a house right next door to a difficult neighbor. Or worse, a pervert.

"It's not that he's not a nice guy; he's fine enough. Grew up with him. He just doesn't really socialize. Not sure what happened to him, but ever since old Mrs. Argyle passed and left him the house, he's been really withdrawn. It's a shame."

"I suppose the death of a parent can do that to a person." Although Leah was still a little suspicious, she did feel bad to have judged her new neighbor so harshly before even finding out the first thing about him. She'd had a difficult time when she'd just lost her dad years ago, so she could sympathize.

Eight years in a bad part of the city had clearly taken their toll and hardened her up. That was part of why she'd moved here, to get out of the hustle and bustle and allow herself to smell the roses more. If there was one thing she didn't want - despite herself - it was to start off on the wrong foot with her new neighbors.

"Well, thanks anyway and lovely to meet you. I'm sure we'll see each other around," Leah said her goodbyes to Carrie, who shot her one last bright smile before turning on her heel and heading back home.

Leah glanced to the left once more at the dark windows of Matthew Argyle's house before wrapping herself up tighter in her sweater in an attempt to ward off the persistent chill in the air. Perhaps she ought to make the first move. It must be a lonely existence, living all on your own in your mother's house after she had passed away.

Yes, that was exactly what she should do: go over there and introduce herself. In time. Perhaps in the morning.