Page 12 of Bear My Heart

Shanti's earmuffs bobbled with her nod. "They're really good doughnuts. That's 'Jewelry Row' up there, three whole jewelry stores," she said with amusement in her voice. "If you go right on that street you end up at the grocery store, and there's an ice cream parlor where you can get an old-fashioned soda with the syrup mixed, kind of like my ginger ale, in between the jewelry stores."

"I've never had a ginger ale that good. I'll have to try the sodas." They walked through 'Jewelry Row' and were at the town square again, with a B&B off to their right and the fantastic playground more or less in front of them. "Are adults allowed to climb around on that thing?" Pete asked hopefully.

"Yes, which is a good thing, because it's impossible to stop them. There are even a couple of sections that are built to scale for grown-ups."

"Was that the wonder kid's idea too?"

Shanti's quiet laugh spilled onto the cold air. "I'm not sure, but it's had a lot more grown-ups out playing and exercising than you'd think. Apparently adults miss having somewhere to play."

"Yeah, that makes sense." They veered right, past the B&B, and cornered at the doughnut store, although Shanti pointed down the street stretching right beyond it.

"The Italian restaurant is down there." She swung her point to straight ahead of them, past the doughnut shop. "And that's the town hall and courthouse. If you keep going this way far enough past the gastropub you'll get to the diner. And that's Virtue, pretty much. Most of the rest is residential." They paused at the far corner of the square, the town hall and courthouse now behind them and Shanti glancing around. "Yes, that's pretty much it."

"It's great," Pete said sincerely. "And I couldn't have asked for a better local guide."

Shanti dimpled shyly. "I'm pretty sure anybody else could have given you the exact same tour."

"Wouldn't have been as good," Pete declared. "And the walk was good for me."

Shanti put her hand over her stomach and almost laughed as she nodded. "Me too. I don't feel as much like I might explode."

"How about I give you my number and you can text if you want to have dinner again tomorrow? I promise not to order a dessert the size of the table."

Her laugh escaped that time, soft and sweet. Peter didn't know why she tried so hard to keep it contained all the time, but he loved hearing it come alive. She took her phone out and handed it to him, and he put his number in, then returned it. "I can find my way back to the train station if you'd like to get out of the cold. Or I can drive you home, if you want, though I understand if you'd rather not."

"I don't live too far from here, so I'll walk, but thank you." Shanti's eyebrows crinkled with consideration as she looked up at him. "You're very thoughtful. Thank you for that, too."

Pete wanted to think that it didn't require a lot of thoughtfulness for a man to understand why a woman might not want to show him where she lived a few hours after they'd met, but he knew that wasn't really the case, so he nodded. "My pleasure. I hope I'll hear from you tomorrow. Good night, Ms. Davis."

Shanti's soft laugh sounded again and she put out her hand for a very formal, but obviously amused, handshake. "Good evening, Mr. Baranov."

They grinned at each other and turned to go their separate ways, although Peter couldn't resist a glance over his shoulder after he'd taken a dozen or so steps. To his absolute delight, he caught Shanti glancing back over her own shoulder, and her smile blossomed to catch him in the act, too. Pete headed back to his truck, a huge grin spread across his face, and was still grinning the next day as he came on for his shift at the railroad.

The good-natured roughnecks he worked with gave him hell about it all morning, too, with commentary ranging from sly winks to crude suggestions. As long as they stayed polite about his imagined hookup, he was fine with that, though one guy got rude and even Peter's bear rumbled a warning about that. Pete himself sent the guy a look, and although he wasn't the biggest man on the job, the other guy raised his hands in apology and kept his mouth shut after that. Pete's bear settled, satisfied, and Peter went back to whistling cheerfully as he worked.

He was starting to be afraid Shanti wouldn't text, though, until a message from an unknown number came in around mid-afternoon. All it said was, I'd love to have dinner, if you're still interested, but it made Pete's heart soar. He saved Shanti's number, responded with Name the time and place, and they had another dinner date at the gastropub set up within minutes.

He usually didn't mind working late to finish up the bits of the job that would make the next morning easier if they were done now. There was no point in doing them badly, so he made himself take his time to finish then up well, but he was also out of there like a shot when their shift ended. The roads were clear on the drive back to town, and he had plenty of time to get showered and dressed in something clean and halfway decent before he was supposed to meet Shanti, but he was…

Nervous, his bear said, amused. Why are you nervous? She's our fated mate and you got along fine last night.

"I don't know! Because last night was a chance meeting and now I want to impress her!" He pulled a comb through his hair, considered the result a disaster, and threw it into a braid to keep it out of his face.

You impressed her enough, the bear said calmly.

On one hand, Pete couldn't argue with that. On the other, his hair was stupid and terrible and the braid had pieces coming out already, even though it was still damp. With a grunt, he unbraided it and tried again, this time starting higher on his head and folding the stubborn strands inward until he'd gotten them under control. Then he straightened his shirt and looked at himself in the mirror. "Do I look okay?"

His bear stared at him. Actually stared at him for once, Peter able to see the animal's presence in his own brown eyes, instead of just feeling the expression in his mind. After a long time, the bear said, You look exactly like you always do, which was not the reassurance it intended.

"I want to look nice!"

You look very nice. There was a distinct 'for a human' air about that statement, but Pete guessed he'd have to take it. He'd at least changed his usual flannel for a nice soft blue cotton chamois button-down and his black jeans maybe fit a little better than usual. He pulled his boots on and grabbed a coat, more so he wouldn't draw attention than because he needed it, and took his truck into town, parked at the train station, and walked over to meet Shanti at the gastropub again.

It was Friday, and the town was busier even though he'd arrived later than the day before. People were clearly out doing their holiday shopping, though a lot of that seemed to involve standing around in the cold cheerfully conversing, or waving at distant friends as they went different directions around the town square. There were colorful lights going up at businesses, and doors standing open despite the cold so that shoppers could get in and out with their bags. The doughnut store on the far corner was filled to overflowing even though it was after seven, and there were kids outside it, scraping together snowballs to assault each other and their adults with.

It looked nothing at all like Shkalnik, but it made Pete miss his home town. He had a brief, wistful thought of bringing Shanti home for the holidays, but let it go almost as quickly as it came. Alaska was a long way away from everything. Even if fate told him that what he and Shanti had was real, that did not mean she was going to want fly to Alaska in two weeks' time to meet the family. It certainly didn't mean she'd want to move to the far ends of the earth to be with him, in the long term. He was already out in the world, away from home. Better to assume she'd want him to stay in Virtue.

And there would be worse places to stay. Pete laughed as a nearby kid threw a snowball and it went wide, nearly hitting him. The kid—a girl who was probably under ten—froze in horror, eyes and mouth perfect Os of apology. Pete waved it off, bent to scoop his own handful of snow, and pitched it at the girl. She shrieked in happy relief, kicked more snow at him, and ran off giggling.