Chapter Fourteen – Spencer
Today’s the day, Spencer’s bear could barely contain himself.
Yes, Spencer agreed. Today is the day.
After those kisses and the looks they had shared across half-finished rooms and coffee mugs, it was time to take the risk.
He had thought it through for half the night. How to tell her. Or perhaps better, how to show her.
Simple, his bear said as they drove toward Pine Cottage. Tell her to watch us shift. Once she sees me, once she meets me, it will all work out.
Confident much? Spencer thought with a quiet huff of amusement.
Very, his bear replied.
But the closer they got to Pine Cottage, the more Spencer felt his nerves tighten. What if she wasn’t ready? What if he’d misread the signs?
You haven’t, his bear said at once.
No, he hadn’t. Spencer knew what he had seen in Meryl’s face last night. In the way she looked at him under the stars.
And more, in the way she had begun to look at Pine Cottage. She was falling for the place.
He only hoped she was falling for him, too.
His phone buzzed in the phone holder, and a message from Kirk flashed up.
Don’t forget Mom’s birthday dinner on Saturday. And bring your mate!
Spencer stared at the message for a second longer than he meant to.
His bear was instantly pleased. Exactly. Take her. Let her meet everyone.
I haven’t even told her what mate means yet, Spencer replied.
That is why we are going there now, his bear said. To tell her.
Spencer shook his head. This changed things.
No, it doesn’t, his bear insisted.
It does, Spencer replied.
When Pine Cottage came into view, he slowed to take it all in. Better. More settled. The porch no longer sagged. The newly cleaned windows now caught the light. Even the rose by the gate looked less wild now that it had been cut back. Their hard work was beginning to show.
Home, his bear said quietly.
Not yet, Spencer replied, though the word gave him hope.
He parked beside Meryl’s car and got out, rehearsing the opening in his head.
Meryl, there’s something I need to tell you.
Too stiff.
Meryl, I need to show you something.
Better.
He reached the door and knocked, but there was no answer. He tried again, then pushed it open when no answer came.
“Meryl?” he called.
Her voice came from deeper inside the house. “In here.”
He followed the sound and stopped short in the doorway of the dining room.
Meryl sat at the table with her laptop open, headphones on, her notebook beside it, and loose sheets spread around her in a careful mess.
One page held sketches that had nothing to do with Pine Cottage.
Another had color notes, type treatments, and little thumbnail layouts.
Her phone sat face up by her elbow, lighting every so often with new messages.
This was not Meryl making lists for the cottage.
This was Meryl at work.
She looked up, and her face changed at once when she saw him. Her mouth curved into a smile, and at once he remembered the taste of her lips and the quiet sound she had made when they kissed.
“Hey,” she said. “Sorry. I’m nearly done.”
He stayed where he was for a moment, taking in the screen full of design work and the coffee mug gone cold beside her hand.
Our mate is talented, his bear said with quiet satisfaction.
She was. But what hit Spencer harder was the reminder that she had another life outside of Pine Cottage and Bear Creek.
And him.
She had clients and deadlines. Commitments.
“Sorry,” Meryl said again, closing one window and opening another. “I thought I’d have the house further along before I had to refocus on work, but apparently my inbox had other plans. Thank goodness I plugged this thing in before it was too late.”
Yeah, thank goodness, Spencer’s bear grumbled.
Spencer stepped further into the room. “Bad morning?”
“Busy one.” She blew out a breath and pushed a hand through her hair. “A client moved a deadline, another one suddenly has opinions after weeks of silence, and now I’m trying to remember how to be a professional person while also living in a building site.”
Her tone was dry, but the strain under it was real.
And he did not want to add to that strain.
No. His bear shifted uneasily. Tell her anyway.
Spencer looked at her more closely. At the tightness in her shoulders. At the work spread across the table like a shield. At the way she had stepped out of his world and back into the life she understood.
He had come here, ready. Truly ready to tell her everything. To bare his soul.
But looking at her now, he understood with painful clarity that the truth would not land well if he told it today.
If he showed her now, she might panic. Worse, she might pull away before he’d helped her understand what it all meant.
But there was another part of him he could share with her first.
The warm, welcoming part.
A world of family and noise and shared food and people who noticed when you were missing and turned up when you needed them, without being asked. Without judgment.
Meryl shut the laptop at last and looked up at him properly. “You’re quiet. Is everything okay?”
Spencer realized, a little too late, that he had been standing there saying nothing for longer than was reasonable.
“I was thinking.”
“That sounds ominous.”
He almost laughed. Almost told her anyway. Almost said her name and took the leap.
His phone buzzed again in his pocket. Another message from Kirk, no doubt ready to push him off the edge.
His bear was all impatience now. Tell her. Or ask her. But stop standing there looking at her mouth like a fool.
That last part stung because it was true.
Meryl’s eyes flicked to the screen, then back to him. “Spencer?”
He looked at her, at the work still spread around her, at Pine Cottage around them, and made the choice.
A choice that disappointed his bear, but felt right all the same.
“My mother’s birthday is on Saturday,” he said. “There’s a party at the restaurant. I was hoping you might come with me.”
For a moment, she only looked at him, caught off guard.
“To the party?”
He nodded. “Yes. It’s nothing formal.”
Meryl glanced down at the closed laptop, then back at him. “I’d like that.”
Relief rushed through him before he could stop it.
His bear went quiet for a moment, then said, with deep satisfaction, She said yes.
She said yes, Spencer repeated.
She doesn’t know what she’s agreeing to, his bear added.
No, Spencer replied. Not yet.
Because he hadn’t been completely truthful when he’d used the word party. But he was afraid that if he’d told her it was a family dinner, she would have said no.
It wasn’t exactly a lie, his bear said. And she’ll love them. And they’ll love her.
“Do I need to bring anything?” Meryl asked.
“Just yourself,” he replied.
That made her smile, though there were nerves in it now, too.
And she wasn’t the only one feeling nervous about Saturday. Because after the birthday celebration, he was going to tell Meryl the truth.