Chapter 23
Jeannie
The Aftermath
I woke up sore, my legs aching from the hike and certain other parts of me from other activities.
I groaned as I tried to sit up, and a chuckle came in reply. Cracking a single eye open, I saw Remy standing in his briefs and undershirt, looking even more scrumptious than usual.
“Mornin’, sunshine,” he said, grinning at me like the cat that had stolen the cream. Or perhaps more appropriately, a bear who got to the honey.
“Morning,” I tried to say back in a sexy, coquettish voice, but it came out as a smoker’s rasp. Huh, I was probably a little dehydrated.
“Don’t worry, I got you. You had a very active day yesterday.”
“And whose fault is that?” I murmured. Remy huffed a laugh and disappeared around the partition.
I appreciated the break, however, because it gave my brain time to come online and remember everything that had happened. Because, holy hell, a whole lot had happened.
First of all, shifters were real. Or at least bear shifters were.
And it wasn’t just like Remy could transform into a massive grizzly.
No, the massive creature Remy had turned into was something akin to a prehistoric creature.
Still a bear, obviously, but way bigger, with longer teeth and a wider head.
Which made sense, in a weirdly practical way, since the bears that were roaming around today had thousands of years to evolve, whereas shifters just…
hadn’t. Whether they were magic or somehow biological, they were relics of a time before humans dominated the planet.
I must have been batshit crazy because that registered as slightly less perplexing than the fact that Remy and I had had sex. And not like… just sex, but intense, kinda kinky, really fulfilling sex that made me feel like my hips would sway a lot when I walked.
Oh boy.
What did this mean for us? Was it a one-off? Were we friends with benefits? Were we… something more? More importantly, which one did I want it to be?
Some people would feel I was moving at a glacial pace or that I was stupid for having any doubts, but I’d learned long ago that trusting people was a dangerous thing.
And yet, I really wanted to trust Remy in every way.
I already did with so much, so surely it wouldn’t be too reckless to fully open myself up to him, right?
I thought back to my conversation with Ana. She’d made everything seem so simple. But now that Remy and I had taken a leap of faith, I found myself feeling a bit… overwhelmed? Worried that I’d fucked up?
“How about a little breakfast in bed to start your day?” Remy asked as he walked over, with a bottle of water in one hand and a steaming container in the other.
For a second, I wondered how he’d heated the food, then I remembered the fire and the cast-iron pan I’d seen on the wall.
I’d dismissed it as decoration, but… duh, of course it was for cooking.
The thing was, had Ana put them there, or had Remy woken up early enough to go thoroughly clean them in the snow?
Either way, the food smelled fucking delicious.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, stifling a groan as I scooted up, my body protesting every move. Wow, it had been ages since I’d done any sort of calisthenics.
Remy shrugged. “Seemed the right thing to do. Do you want this literally in bed, or do you want me to set it up at the table?”
As much as I would have loved to stay under the covers and be a toasty little burrito, it would probably work out better for me to eat while sitting up.
“The table is fine, thank you.”
“Whatever you need.”
I blushed a bit, my stomach flipping. It was strange to feel both nervous and relaxed around Remy, but eh, what fun would it be to be a woman if it didn’t come with a lot of complex contradictions?
I didn’t regret that we’d been incredibly intimate and shown each other our vulnerable sides. In fact, I would do it again right now if my body was up for it, but my abs, calves, and vagina were all waving the white flag at me.
No, it was the blank slate of our future that was making me jumpy. Last night, however fantastic it had been, but tomorrow? That was much less certain.
“Aren’t you gonna eat?” I asked as I sat down, wincing slightly as my sore bottom touched the seat.
“I ate earlier, but I do have some more heating up right now. Small pan, so I wanted to make sure you’d have enough when you woke up.”
There I went, blushing again. Remy needed to be careful, because a girl could get used to being taken care of like this. It was going to be a blast of cold air when I got back to reality.
Unless… unless I didn’t have to.
“Thank you,” I murmured after a few bites, because I felt like I should say something.
“It’s no problem. What kind of gentleman lets his lady go hungry?”
“His lady?” I parroted, but I made sure to put just enough of a teasing tone in my voice so he’d know I wasn’t serious.
Because sure, we’d need to have a conversation, but that would have to happen when we were both completely clothed and I couldn’t get distracted by his broad shoulders and muscled arms.
“Heh, surely you can’t blame a man for being a tad possessive the morning after when you still ain’t even in your drawers.”
Ooh, interesting. His accent got thicker with afterglow. Good to know.
But is it, though?
I ignored that thought and returned to my food.
Remy’s food was heated sufficiently, and we ate in silence, enjoying the ambiance. Truly, I wished that I could stay in that moment forever; chewing, swallowing, resting, but reality waited, and we went about getting ready to make one helluva walk of shame back to the main cabin.
We were only just getting our shoes on when Remy froze. Alarm shot through me, and I worried there was another bear or that the one from last night had come back with friends.
But that worry only lasted a beat or two, because a sappy, chagrined smile spread across Remy’s face.
“We have guests arriving,” he said somewhat wryly before going to the door.
Curious, I followed him, peering over his shoulder as he opened the door to our kids bounding into the clearing. Ana was behind him, loaded up with a cooler and a large duffel bag.
“Bears! Bears! Bears!” Eva and Max were chanting while Addy had a self-satisfied smile on her face.
“Hey there, y’all,” Ana said, waving like she wasn’t carrying a huge bag in that hand. Shifters, man. “You never came home.”
“Why do I get the feeling that it’s not a surprise to you?” Remy countered.
“Bears, bears, bears, bears!” Max and Eva continued as they jumped around.
Clearly, several someones were pleased with themselves.
I stepped forward, hands on my hips. As much as I loved what had happened, I wasn’t sure I approved of their methodology. So much could have gone wrong! Lying was—
Wait a minute!
Did this mean Max knew about the bear shifter thing?
“We thought you might be hungry and need a change of clothes, so we brought a peace offering,” Ana said, like we also didn’t need to give her a good talking-to.
While I was glad the kids had involved an adult, I wasn’t quite so sure what lesson she had taught them.
Sure, The Parent Trap was full of fun Hollywood hijinks, this was real life.
“I hope you had a good night,” Addy said slyly. Oh, she had definitely learned the wrong lesson.
Sigh.
“You think you can buy us off that easily?” Remy countered, but his smile made the threat completely boneless. And frankly, I wasn’t exactly that worried myself. What had happened would complicate things, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to take it back.
“It’s a start, I figure.”
Fair enough.
Remy stood to the side so they could come in.
I studied Ana’s face to see if she could tell that certain extra-curricular activities had gone down.
It turned out I didn’t really need to watch her all that closely, because she wasn’t even fully in the door before her gaze slid over to us, her lips twitching coyly.
“Not a word,” Remy warned.
Her expression only grew more beatific. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She knew. She totally knew, and suddenly I found myself recontextualizing the whole world from the scope that I was surrounded by people who could hear my very heartbeat and smell every change in me. Wonderful.
Wait a damn minute. Did this mean Addy and Eva were little bears? That I had to see!
“So, did it work? Are you together now?” Max asked as he hopped onto the threadbare couch.
Remy and I froze. Ana hid her chuckle behind her hand. She didn’t look sorry at all.
“Yeah, are you dating?” Addy asked.
“Dating!” Eva repeated.
I was sorely tempted to tell them it was adult business and not theirs, but I wasn’t the type to shut down things Max was exuberant about. However, he didn’t usually focus on my romantic life.
“Adelaide…” Remy murmured, sounding about as stressed as I felt. How did we explain to them that we’d been occupied with other things and hadn’t had a chance to discuss it?
Despite all the normal conventions that would say it was much too soon, too quickly, and we needed to have far more adult conversations, I asked myself something simple.
In a perfect world, what would I want to tell Max? If I didn’t have trauma or worries, or anything like that, what would my answer be?
“Wanna try it?” I asked.
Remy’s head snapped in my direction so quickly, I thought I’d have to get him a gift card to a massage parlor to make up for the injury. Unless he had accelerated healing like most shifter stories I read.
Yeah, definitely a lot of questions to ask.
“Pardon?”
I shrugged, wanting to appear nonchalant. “Wanna try it? The whole dating thing?”
“Do you?” he asked, and the whole room seemed to be waiting with bated breath. Well, no need to belabor the point.
“Yeah, I do.” Was I scared out of my mind? Yes. But I’d tasted something wonderful last night, something beyond mind-blowing sex. What I’d tasted was pure connection despite all the old wounds and troubles.
“Then, yeah,” Remy said, and goodness, the grin that spread across his face made me want to kiss him all over again. “It looks like your plan worked, Max.”
“Our plan,” Addy corrected.
“Just… let’s not do this again, okay?” I added. “No more secret plots.”
“Don’t worry, I already got everything I wanted,” Max said in a way that totally didn’t sound like an evil genius coming into his power. “At least for now.”
He managed to keep his face straight for several long minutes before all the kids broke out in uproarious laughter. Remy, Ana, and I exchanged a look.
I didn’t know what the future held, but one thing was for certain; it certainly wasn’t going to be boring.
Apparently, I’d gotten myself a bit of a boyfriend for Christmas.