Chapter 28
Flora
Bear had gone out with Spencer to do something work-related—they didn’t say exactly what—leaving me to study in the guest room.
I now had plenty of nesting supplies, thanks to Spencer's insistence. So I’d created a little nest on the guest bed and was studying there.
Chase had left me alone, too, understanding that I needed some space. When he asked me about dinner, I admitted that I had eaten so many tacos that I probably wasn't going to be hungry for a while. I couldn’t remember the last time I gorged myself on so much glorious Mexican food.
My vision was starting to swim with exhaustion, my eyes blurring from staring at textbooks nonstop, when the sound of footsteps alerted me to someone’s presence.
I had left my bedroom door open in case Bear got home early. Despite how crappy my situation was, I couldn’t deny being excited by the idea of him coming home.
Only, it wasn’t Bear in my doorway.
Nor was it Spencer or Chase.
“Percy,” I greeted, standing up and snapping my textbook shut.
“Hey. Chase let me in. I just wanted to pop down and see how you were doing. Mable has been worried sick and would be down here herself, but Maggie is keeping her busy,” he said. “The guys told me what happened. I am so sorry about your place, Flora.”
“Sure,” I replied incredulously. “I’m the one who’s apparently stealing your bodyguards now?”
Percy threw his head back in laughter. “Oh, don’t worry.
You’re not stealing them. We’ve needed less protection recently, anyway.
A few weeks ago, I stepped down from playing for the California Chargers, so I don’t need protection anymore.
They still follow me around anyway because they’re anal like that. ”
“You stepped down?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Mable was about to give birth, and one of us needed to be home with her. We couldn’t all be going to away games every weekend when she’d just given birth.”
“That’s really thoughtful of you,” I told him.
He snorted. “It’s not thoughtful. It’s the bare fucking minimum. You met Mable, though. She said she brought some supplies down here.”
“She did,” I confirmed. “She brought enough nesting supplies to deck out several apartments.”
“Yeah, that tracks,” Percy scratched the back of his head. “When she wanted to build a nest at our place, we got a little overexcited. Honestly, you’re doing us a favor by taking all that stuff out of our spare closet.”
“Only if you’re sure,” I insisted. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“Are you okay, staying here?” he asked. “I know you’ve only just met them, but they’re really good guys. I promise.”
“They didn’t exactly give me a choice about living here,” I said with a grimace.
“I thought that might be the case. Unfortunately, while they do have hearts of gold, they’re more stubborn and irritable than my pack,” he chuckled.
“Mable wanted me to let you know, though—you’re welcome to come stay in our apartment.
If you need to get away from them. My omega likes you and is adamant that you must be comfortable.
She’s the one who sent me down here to check on you. ”
I stared at Percy in shock. We’d literally had three conversations, and now he was offering to let me stay at his place.
“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” I said.
“You wouldn’t be. Mable’s been worried about you, and anything that alleviates stress for our omega, we’re happy to do.
Also, I can appreciate that you may not want to live with a brand-new screaming baby.
Our daughter is the light of our lives, but she’s got a set of lungs on her.
” He smiled wistfully, clearly thinking about his child.
“I’ll be fine here,” I said. “Hopefully, it won’t be for too long, and then I can go back to my own place.”
“Are you sure? They made it sound like your apartment was condemned.”
“Well, there isn’t a concierge,” I said defensively, “but it’s a perfectly good building.”
I was lying through my teeth. My apartment was lousy. But I desperately wanted to go back to living by myself—to the peace and serenity of my own space. While the guys had been doing their best to make me feel at home, I still felt out of sorts.
It didn’t help that I was surrounded by alphas I barely knew.
Then again, they made me feel safer than I had in years.
“And the guys are being good to you?” Percy continued.
“They are,” I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I want to strangle them, but when I’m here, I feel safe.”
Percy laughed. “I’m sure Mable wants to throttle us occasionally. I'll take your word for it and leave you to it, but please feel free to call me if you need anything.”
“I will,” I confirmed.
“Good.” Percy nodded. “I’ve got to rush back, but I’ve left some cookies on the kitchen counter.”
As soon as he was out of the room, I hightailed it to the kitchen to grab the cookies before the health monster known as Spencer could throw them away.
I could forgive a lot of things but not throwing away perfectly good cookies.
After a quick dinner, consisting of two amazing cookies I had pilfered from the kitchen while Spencer wasn't around, I finally needed to settle down for the night. Several hours of studying later, and I was peckish.
With a yawn, I closed the textbook and leaned over, placing it on the bedside table. I was still wearing my jeans and T-shirt. Normally, I would refuse to wear jeans in my nest, but I had so little clothing with me that I didn't have much choice.
After rolling out of my little nest, I padded toward the door. I needed to grab a bottle of water and potentially another cookie.
Hopefully Spencer wasn't around, because if he saw me eating another cookie, he was likely going to make me drink a kale smoothie, or something equally gross and healthy.
The apartment was dark, given the late hour. I had to walk through what I thought was the empty living space to get to the kitchen. Only, there was a lamp on in the corner of the living space, and the room wasn’t empty.
Bear was sitting on the couch, a basket in his lap, and what appeared to be several balls of yarn.
He had a bulky set of headphones on, but as I approached, his head shot up.
He took the headphones off, his face breaking into a grin.
His smile made the scarred side of his face crinkle, the eye closing ever so slightly.
The force of it hit me in the gut, and all I wanted to do was crawl into his lap.
“What’s this?” I asked, cocking my head to the side as I padded over to him, refraining from clambering all over him like I wanted to.
He looked between me and his project. Once I was close enough, I could make out these small squares of fabric and the hook he was holding. “This? Just a little hand-eye coordination.”
“Are you knitting?”
Bear nodded. “Crocheting, actually, but it’s kind of similar.
I do both. I know it’s not the most masculine of hobbies, but after my accident, I saw a physical therapist, who suggested knitting as a good way to work the muscles in my hands and my eyes.
For a while after it happened, my depth perception was slightly off. ”
“That’s really impressive. What are you making?” I asked, taking a seat on the sofa next to him.
Initially, I sat a few inches away, but he placed his arm on the back of the couch, opening his side, a clear invitation to get closer.
Well, I wasn’t going to say no to that.
“This is going to be a throw blanket,” he said. “I thought these colors were good for fall, but now they’re making me think of a seventies Thanksgiving dinner… I’m not sure why.”
I bit back a chuckle. The blanket consisted of stripes of dark teal, mustard, russet red, and brown.
“It looks like the perfect fall color scheme,” I said. “I love it!”
He preened at my praise. “Thanks. Both Chase and Spencer have throw blankets on their beds that I made. I also made a baby blanket for Maggie upstairs.”
My heart ached with happiness at the idea of him making cute little baby blankets.
“I wish I could do something like this,” I said. “It’s always so baffling to me.”
“You know, I could teach you. It’s really just a lot of numbers and counting.”
I cocked my head to the side. “That does sound like something I would enjoy.”
“It’s a date.” He smiled.
“It’s a date,” I confirmed, snuggling into his side.
He picked the project up and went back to working on it as I stayed snuggled into his side. His hands moved with incredible dexterity.
“Does it help?” I asked.
“I think so. It’s been a few years, so I’m not sure if it’s just time that’s made everything better or the physical therapy.”
“If you don’t mind me asking… How did it happen?” I asked quietly. “You don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable,” I rushed to add.
Bear shook his head. “I don’t mind at all.
Most people are just morbidly curious, but I know you’re different.
Seven years ago, we had only been working in security and military operations for a few years.
We were tasked with helping local marshals transport a witness across state lines.
We thought we had a secure route, but someone must have let the information slip because halfway to the location, we got into a crash. ”
“Oh no,” I whispered.
“I was in the back with the witness. We were T-boned on the side where I happened to be sitting. I managed to lift an arm, but that did nothing. The shattered glass from the windshield did a number on my face and hands. My leg was crushed and broken in two places.” He took a deep breath, putting down his project and absentmindedly touching his leg, no doubt remembering.
“It hurt more than anything I had felt before. I was crushed, and there was nothing I could do about it. Spencer was in the driver’s seat, and Chase was following in another car. They had to secure the witness and neutralize the threat before they could see to me.”
“Neutralize?” I asked softly.
“Let’s just say, the people who ran their car into us weren’t exactly friendly.” Bear smiled gently.
My hand reached out to take his, clutching desperately as I tried to avoid tearing up from how he was hurt.
“I was there for about thirty minutes, and I couldn’t see shit because of the blood in my eyes. I could hear shouting and gunshots, but I was unable to help myself, let alone my pack mates. Spencer took a bullet that day.”
“Spencer got shot?!” I squeaked, sitting straighter.
Bear nodded. “His shoulder. Next time he’s prancing around here shirtless, you’ll notice it.”
“How the hell did you get out of there?”
“Backup arrived.”
“I never really considered how dangerous your job can be.”
“It’s not right now. Protecting the Garnetts is simple.
It’s kind of nice. We were out of work for a few months.
I needed surgery. The glass scraped my eye and caused a few issues, and one of the tendons in my hand was nicked.
It wasn’t the end of the world, but I have to keep on top of it.
The docs prioritized fixing my leg and hand—my face wound was ugly, not dangerous. ”
“It’s not ugly!”
He looked down at me, his gaze soft. “You’re one of the only people to think that.”
I snuggled deeper into his side. “Well, everyone else is stupid. Come on, show me how you’re making this seventies monstrosity.”