Chapter 22
“I’m really sorry, Cece,” Briggs said.
She nodded, staring into her mug of tea.
She’d given Briggs a quick explanation of what happened on the drive home, but had gone to her bedroom as soon as they got home.
She’d had a long, hot bath while she cried and cried and then cried some more.
She had an emergency text session with Kinsley and Maisie, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening wrapped in blankets in her bedroom, scrolling aimlessly through social media, missing both her aunt and Elora with a fierce ache that made her chest hurt, while she tried to pretend she hadn’t just blown up her entire life.
She hadn’t emerged from her bedroom until Briggs knocked on her door and told her dinner was ready. She came downstairs to discover Briggs had made a giant stir-fry. It was good, and she told him so, but her queasy stomach hadn’t allowed her to eat very much.
Briggs hadn’t been upset by her lack of eating. He’d simply put the leftovers in the fridge and then made her a cup of tea.
Now, sipping hot tea in her cold kitchen, her head aching and her nose all stuffed up, Cece didn’t know whether to laugh or start crying again when all the lights went out in the kitchen, and the hum of the refrigerator died.
“Shit,” she said.
Briggs was already on high alert as he stood and moved to the window. He stared out into the darkness as Cece turned on her phone’s flashlight. “The breaker blew. It happens all the time because my house is a complete disaster.”
“Where’s the breaker box?”
“Basement,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m going with you,” he said.
She didn’t argue. She wanted Briggs with her, wanted the comfort she got just from being around him.
Five minutes later, the lights were back on, she was sitting on the sectional in front of a roaring fire, and Briggs was making her a fresh cup of tea. He brought the tea to her, and she took it with a smile of thanks.
He sat on the other end of the sectional, keeping a healthy distance between them. “You know your boss is an asshole, right?”
“Yeah,” she said. “The worst part is, Leonard wasn’t always an asshole. He just… changed, and I didn’t want to see it because I loved my job, you know?”
He nodded, and she sipped at the fragrant tea. “I was really good at it too, and now some stupid jerk has my dream job because she sucks Leonard’s dick on the regular.”
She sighed. “Sorry, that was crude.”
“But accurate,” he said.
“Maybe it isn’t,” she said. “Maybe I just want that to be true because I refuse to believe Lori got the job on her own merit.”
“It’s true,” he said. “I could smell your boss’s scent all over her when she walked past me in the hallway.”
“Gross,” Cece said before staring into the fire.
“What will you do now?”
“Starve, lose my home, and die in a snowbank?” Cece said before grimacing. “Pity party, table of one, please.”
“You’re allowed to feel sorry for yourself,” Briggs said.
“It won’t solve any of my problems,” Cece said.
“Still allowed.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks for not judging my pathetic life. I swear I’m not bad with money, it’s just this house sucks up a lot of my extra cash, and as much as I love it, I also feel…
trapped. And now with both my mom and my aunt gone, it almost feels like it holds more bad memories than good.
I don’t want it to be like that, but I can’t help how I feel, right?
Being in this house without them feels…wrong. ”
“Have you considered selling the house?” Briggs asked.
“Honestly, that’s what I’m trying to do, but I need to do so many repairs first,” she said. “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly great at home repairs.”
“I can help,” Briggs said. “I’ve worked construction, and I’m handy with that type of shit.”
She smiled wearily at him. “I appreciate it, but without a job, I don’t have the money for any supplies or tools needed to make the repairs.”
She stared moodily into the fire. “At least now your job of protecting me will be easier, right?”
“You’ll find another job,” he said.
“Let’s talk about something else, can we?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You,” she said. “Do you have any siblings?”
“A sister,” he said. “She lives in Wellington, near my parents’ place.”
“Younger or older?”
“Younger by a couple of years,” Briggs said.
“Are you close with her and your parents?” Cece asked.
“I am,” he said. “Polar bear shifters tend to have tight-knit families and communities.”
“That’s really interesting,” she said. “The polar bear animal leads a solitary life.”
He nodded. “It’s about the only way polar bear shifters differ. Otherwise, we’re pretty similar.”
“What is Wellington like?”
“Beautiful.” She liked the way Briggs’s face softened in the firelight.
“The town is built close to a major river, and it’s about a two-hour drive from Fairbanks.
It’s small and isolated, but we have a medical facility, two grocery stores, a library, and a pretty big community hall. Everyone knows everyone.”
“It sounds nice,” Cece said.
“It is as long as you’re okay with practically everyone knowing your business.”
Cece laughed. “I suppose that’s a downside to small-town living. How many people live there?”
“It has a population of around four hundred.”
“All polar bear shifters?” Cece asked.
“Mostly. There are a few black bear shifters, and there are two humans,” Briggs said.
She smiled a little. “Only two, huh?”
“Until a few months ago, there was only one. But now there are two - both women. One married Jed, a local bartender and black bear shifter, and the other married one of the black bear shifters I worked with at the logging company.”
“How did they meet?” Cece asked.
“Not sure about Jed and Barbara, but Imani and Duke met in Fairbanks,” Briggs said.
“Do they like Wellington?”
Briggs shrugged. “I think Imani gets lonely for humans sometimes. She’s only been in Wellington for a few months now.
She’s around your age, and Barbara is in her sixties, so they don’t have a lot in common.
At least according to my sister. She keeps me updated on the town gossip, even when I tell her I’m not interested. ”
“Because she knows you actually are interested,” Cece said.
“Yeah,” Briggs grinned, and her stupid chest got all tight, and her heart thudded against her ribcage. God, he was so handsome.
Handsome enough to make her forget she was unemployed and would probably be homeless within a month or two.
She shook off that thought and focused on Briggs. “So, why did you leave Wellington?”
That gorgeous smile dropped from his face, and she hated herself a little. “Sorry, I’m being too nosy.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I left because I was engaged, and we broke up. She was cheating on me.”
Her jaw dropped, and she quickly shut it before Briggs glanced at her. “I needed some space. Needed to get away from the memories and my love for -”
He grimaced at the look on her face. “Never mind.”
Feeling weirdly sick to her stomach and like she would cry again, she said, “You’re still in love with her.”
“No,” he said, “I’m not.”
She gave him a look, and he shook his head. “I’m not, Cece. I left because I was still in love with Lucille despite her cheating on me, but I’m not in love with her anymore.”
“It’s okay if you are,” she said softly.
“I’m not,” he said. “I haven’t been since…”
“Since what?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It’s not important.”
“Okay.” She stared into the fire again, hating the shift in the mood, hating that she’d ruined a perfectly good evening with Briggs.
Perfectly good evening? You lost your job today, Cece.
Yeah, she had, but somehow, sitting in front of the fire with Briggs and learning about his life had made the day… better.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Briggs said, “It’s getting late, and we didn’t get much sleep last night. We should probably go to bed.”
Her laughter was a little bitter. “I had a great sleep last night. It wasn’t me who was forced to sleep on the floor.”
Waking up to find herself in Briggs’s bed and him on the floor was one of the most shameful moments of her life.
He’d explained what happened, and after apologizing profusely for losing control of her magic again, she had vowed never to think about the moment ever again. The humiliation was too much to bear.
She’d thought she succeeded in pretending it had never happened. Until now, when the embarrassment and the worry over her loss of control over her magic returned with a terrifying speed.
Briggs inhaled deeply before saying, “Little witch, I told you this morning that you don’t have to be embarrassed.”
“It’s humiliating, and I’m afraid to go to sleep for God’s sake. Can you please reconsider locking your door at night?”
He shook his head. “I can’t. I won’t waste any extra time helping you at night if necessary. A locked door will slow me down.”
“No one is going to break in. Protection spells, remember?” Cece said.
“I won’t lock my door,” he said, “and I don’t want you locking yours either.”
“I know,” she said.
“It’s no big deal if it happens, okay?” Briggs said. “I’ll just move off the bed again.”
“If you wake up,” she said. “You didn’t the first time.”
“I know, but now I’m expecting it, so like last night, I’ll wake up if they bring you into my room.”
She sighed. “So now you’re not sleeping much either.”
“It’s fine, little witch,” he said. “I promise.”
“At least you’ll have the next two nights to sleep in your own bed without me being dropped on you like a sack of potatoes,” she said.
She immediately regretted the reminder that he was leaving her tomorrow. As if her life didn’t suck enough, now she didn’t even get to ogle a hot polar bear shifter for the next two days.
Who cares? It’s not like we get to do anything but look anyway.
Her inner voice sounded decidedly sulky, and Cece didn’t blame it one bit. It wasn’t fair that she would never get to see Briggs naked. Not one fucking bit fair.
Briggs stood abruptly, his face as stormy as her insides felt. “I think we should both try to get some sleep.”
She thought about arguing her case for sleeping right here in the warm living room in front of the fire and, more importantly, a safe distance from her plants and their newfound interest in getting her and Briggs to fuck.
But the look on Briggs’s face made it clear that he wouldn’t agree to it even with the protection spells in place on the house.
She stood and silently followed Briggs up the stairs, saying good night at the top and trudging to her bedroom. She shut the door and studied the plants in the room, specifically the ones hanging from the ceiling.
“Listen up,” she said. “I need you to behave tonight, okay? I appreciate that you’re just trying to be a wingman… wingplant? But Briggs doesn’t want to have sex with me. So I need you to stay put and not carry me to his bedroom. Okay?”
The plants didn’t move an inch, and she took that as a good sign. Already cold and wishing she was back in front of the fireplace, she changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and put on her hoodie before climbing under the blankets.
With one last muttered, “stay” at the plants, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep.
The soft thumping and muttered curses woke Briggs instantly. He slid out of bed and sprinted out of his bedroom when there was another muffled thump in the hallway.
He skidded to a stop in the middle of the hallway, staring in disbelief at the scene in front of him.
Cece, wrapped in plant vines from chest to hips, was hovering in the hallway.
Her hands were wrapped around the door frame of her bedroom, and she cursed again when the vines gave a terrific yank, and one hand peeled off the frame.
“Goddammit, stop it!” she snapped in a furious whisper.
“Cece,” Briggs said.
She shrieked in surprise, and Briggs winced when the plant vines abruptly released her, and she fell like a brick, face planting into the floor. The vines retreated rapidly into her bedroom as Briggs knelt beside Cece, his hand hovering a few inches over her back.
“Cece, baby, are you okay?”
“I’m great. I’m just fucking great.” The carpet muffled her voice.
“Sit up, baby.”
“I don’t want to,” she said, her body already beginning to shake from the cold air. “Just leave me here to freeze to death, Briggs. Please.”
“C’mon, baby, sit up.”
With a groan, she sat up, leaning against the wall and pushing her hair out of her eyes.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“Just my pride,” she said, but she winced when she rubbed at her knee.
He wanted to touch her, wanted to push up the pant leg of her pajamas and check her knee for himself, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t touch his own fucking mate, and it was killing him.
“Can you stand?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, but didn’t move.
He sat beside her, making sure he didn’t touch her as he leaned against the wall. “You can sleep in my bed again. I’ll lock the door to keep the plants out.”
“You can’t keep sleeping on the floor,” she said. She looked and sounded a bit weepy, and Briggs desperately wanted to pull her into his lap and comfort her.
“I don’t mind,” he said. “It’s more important that you’re safe and getting some sleep.”
Her bottom lip quivered as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
“I want to say that I don’t normally cry this much, that it’s just because of everything that’s happened the last few weeks, but that’s a total lie,” she said before sniffing. “I’m an enormous crybaby.”
He grinned. “There’s nothing wrong with crying.”
“Oh yeah? When was the last time you cried?” She swiped at the tears on her cheeks.
“Last month,” he said. “Hudson made me see that dog movie with him.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “The one where the dog nearly dies after getting lost in the woods?”
“That’s the one,” he said. “I full-on wept in the theatre when he was reunited with his family.”
Her smile was watery, but genuine. “Are you telling me the truth?”
“Hand to God,” he said. “Ask Hudson.”
They sat for a few seconds before he couldn’t stand to see her shiver any longer. “Baby, I want you to sleep in my bed tonight, okay?”
She sighed and then nodded. “All right.”
They climbed to their feet, and he said, “I’ll grab your blankets, go crawl into my bed.”
She walked slowly to his room, and he grabbed the blankets from her bed. The plants hanging from the ceiling brushed lightly against his head in soft caresses, but when they tried to follow him out the door, he growled lightly.
“Stay,” he said, glaring at the slowly growing vines.
They quivered and twisted before retreating, and he headed toward his bedroom and the mate he desperately wanted to touch but couldn’t.