Page 16 of Bear With Me

“That…doesn’t help.” Dennis sighed and returned to his own seat. “At least the seat’s leather so I can wipe it down.”

“That’s the spirit!” Bjorn picked up Dennis’s phone as Dennis shifted the truck back into Drive. “And to answer your question from earlier, I did indeed find us a hotel. It’s just outside Milwaukee. I’ll put the address in.” He tapped at the screen. “About two hours from here, it looks like. You good for that?”

Dennis nodded. “I’m fine.” He carefully pulled back into traffic. “Highway driving is easy.”

Bjorn nodded and tucked the phone back into its nook in the console. Then he reached between his legs to the floorboard and came up with a bag of Twizzlers, which he ripped open without care before stuffing one in his mouth. “God,” he said through a mouthful of licorice, “all this shifting is taking it out of me. I’d forgotten how tiring rapid-fire shifts are.”

Dennis had no point of reference for that, so he just grunted.

Bjorn pulled out another piece of Twizzler and held it out to him. “Want one?”

“I don’t think it goes with my coffee,” Dennis declined, picking up his coffee cup in demonstration and taking a sip. Ahh, black gold. The nectar of life. Coffee was necessary for a road trip like this.

“Your loss,” Bjorn mumbled, still chewing through his mouthful. “More for me.” He finally swallowed. “And now, back to the music!”

Oh, god.

***

Dennis sent Bjorn into the hotel to check in while he parked in the frankly overfull lot. He supposed he was glad that Bjorn had made them a reservation, because looking at all the cars, he strongly doubted that there would be a spare room otherwise. Was there a convention here or something?

With a sigh, he eased the truck into a too-small space. Yes, he was overhanging the ends of the lines a bit. No, he didn’t care at this point. He climbed out of the truck and walked around to get their suitcases out of the bed, wrestling them down with a grunt. He extended the pull handles and staggered his way into the lobby with his two enormous suitcases, only to find Bjorn still standing in front of the clerk. It had taken him a good ten minutes to park, so he was surprised Bjorn wasn’t already done.

As Dennis watched, Bjorn wrung his hands and said something very seriously to the desk clerk, who frowned and tapped away at her keyboard, then shook her head. Curious now, Dennis approached just in time to hear Bjorn say, “But he’ll be upset!”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the clerk said, sounding like this was the twentieth time she’d recited these words today alone, “but we are fully booked at this point. I understand that your companion might be uncomfortable, but you did book the single king bed, and I can’t -”

Oh, hell. Only one bed, again? Was he stuck in hell? Dennis strode forward the rest of the way. “We want two queens,” he said brusquely to the clerk, “not a king.”

“Yes, sir, I understand that, but as I was just telling your friend, we only have that room available tonight. All our queen rooms are booked.”

“What about a suite?” he tried.

She shook her head. “All booked. We’re hosting a convention this week.”

“Fuck.” He sighed. All he wanted was to relax into a bed and stretch out the muscles that were tight from hours of driving. Now, instead, he was going to have to share with a bed-hog bear. Again. “Fine,” he ground out. “Just check us in.”

“I can sleep on the floor,” Bjorn offered apologetically. “I don’t mind. It was my mistake to book the wrong room.”

Dennis snorted. While he might allow Bjorn to do that if he’d been able to control his shift and sleep as a well-padded bear, he wasn’t going to make the man bed down on the floor as a human. “We’ll deal,” he grunted.

Bjorn wrung his hands again and started to stammer something else, but Dennis cut him off with a wave of his hand. “Are we good?” he asked the clerk.

She handed him a clipboard. “Please fill in your car’s information here, and we’ll need a credit card for incidentals.”

Before Dennis could reach for his wallet, Bjorn handed over his credit card. “Thank you,” he told the clerk with a gentle smile. “I appreciate your trying to help.”

The clerk’s stern face softened a bit, and she nodded. “Thanks for saying that. It’s been a rough day. I’m sorry I couldn’t offer you anything else.” She cast her eyes to the side, then back at them, and reached under her desk, coming up with a handful of pieces of paper the size of business cards. She handed them to Bjorn in exchange for his card. “I can give you these, though,” she said with a wink. “Drink vouchers for happy hour. We’re only supposed to give out two per guest per day, but if you don’t tell, I won’t either.”

Bjorn accepted the slips and grinned. “Your secret is safe with us. Thanks.”

The clerk handed over two key cards. “Here you go. You’re in room 614. Elevators are to your left. Breakfast is 7am through 9:30am on the mezzanine.” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “I’d recommend getting there early, before the conference crowd. There’s…a lot of them.”

Dennis and Bjorn both nodded their understanding before stepping back from the desk. Bjorn took his suitcase from Dennis, who had honestly forgotten he was clutching the handle, and started wheeling it toward where the clerk had said the elevators would be. “So, sixth floor,” he said with forced cheer. “Should have a good view, at least.”

Dennis grunted and followed. It was going to be another long night.

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