Page 13 of Bear My Heart

"I see you," Shanti said from a little way ahead of him. "Beating kids at their own game."

Peter brushed the melting snow off his hands and grinned at the woman waiting for him at the corner. "Hey, snowball fights are my native territory. I can't help it if they messed with a master. You look…"

He wanted to say 'cute,' which was true, but mostly, he had to settle on, "…warm…."

Shanti glanced down at herself and smoothed her gloved palms over the puffy coat she wore over what looked like very heavy tights, or maybe several layers of heavy tights. She had a pompom hat pulled over her ears, and a fluffy scarf wrapped up to her nose, leaving hardly more than her sweet shy brown eyes visible. "I am. You look like you should be freezing, but I don't think you are."

"Honestly, I'm a little too warm, but that just means if you get cold I can heroically give you my coat."

Her eyes crinkled, telling him she was smiling even if he couldn't see her mouth. "If I need another coat between here and Hold My Bear I'll be embarrassed."

"Well, we'd better not waste any time, just in case." Pete offered her his elbow, and she tucked her hand into it as if it was perfectly natural. He couldn't see her face, then, but he got a sense of surprise from her, as if she hadn't expected herself to do that. "How was your day?"

"Oh…quiet. Yours? Get a lot of work done on the railroad?"

"We're moving right along," Pete reported, pleased, but he also noticed that she hadn't really volunteered anything about her day. He hoped she would confide in him soon, let him know why she seemed so reluctant to talk about herself, but the last thing that would get her to talk was being nagged about it. "Tell you what, though, I ate so much last night I didn't need to eat again until lunch."

"I had an apple at about four," she said, sounding like she was smiling again. "I was hungry enough for more by then, but I thought if we were coming out to the pub again I might want to just tide myself over. I'm not planning to order another one of those brownies, though!"

"No, me either." They turned up the gastropub's little walkway and Peter pulled the door open for Shanti, only for them to both nearly walk into a very large man on his way out.

Grizzly! Pete's bear said instantly. A big one!

A very big one. The other shifter stood several inches taller than Pete himself, and had an extremely imposing physical presence that was immediately disarmed by his dismayed laugh and the way he spread his hands as he backed up. "Welcome to Hold My Bear, I'm Steve, I own the place along with Chef Charlee, and I'll be running you down in the doorway as a greeting today!"

Peter's bear exhaled. A friendly big grizzly.

Not that Pete had expected less, but even in a town full of shifters, walking straight into another enormous predator was a bit of a jolt. "Peter Baranov," he replied, trying not to sound like his heart had all but jumped out of his chest. "Nice to meet you."

"We ate here last night," Shanti volunteered. "It's so good we thought we'd come back again tonight."

Steve-the-owner looked between the two of them, clearly came to the conclusion that they were Together, and said, "Well, then, I guess it's fate!"

CHAPTER 7

For some reason, Steve-the-owner looked very pleased with himself for announcing that their meeting was fate. Peter, on the other hand, looked bizarrely pained, not quite hiding a grimace that made Steve blanch and wince and screw up his face in a silent apology that Peter seemed to accept with a sigh.

Shanti had no idea what was going on between the two men, but there certainly was a lot of it. Steve, who was huge, backed up another couple of steps and said, "Let me show you to a booth," then led them unerringly to the same booth they'd been at the night before. Shanti caught Peter's eye and they both smiled as Steve, still oddly apologetic, hurried off while they sat down.

"I guess this is our table now?" Shanti said as she unbundled.

"Now all we need is⁠—"

Shanti flicked an eyebrow upward and Peter squinched his face, looking embarrassed. "I was going to say, a song. But that might be getting ahead of ourselves."

"I've always wondered how people decide on their song," Shanti admitted. "Is it the one playing when they met? Who notices that? Is it the one they first dance to? Do people really pay attention to that? Is it one that's meaningful to them each separately so they choose it together? Or is it one playing at an important moment when they're together? Or—" She broke off and cleared her throat. "Not that I've thought about it."

Peter was smiling. "I bet it's all of those things, at different times. I can't tell you what song was playing when we met, though." He paused. "I'm pretty sure there wasn't one."

"No, the train station doesn't have background music yet and we more or less met outside, anyway. Maybe The Sound of Silence if you want to get…" Shanti waved her hand. "Metaphorical or metaphysical or something about it."

"I'd rather not," Peter said thoughtfully. "It's a great song, but not a romantic one. But now that I'm thinking about it, considering that it's after Thanksgiving, probably the first song we heard together was a Christmas carol of some kind. Do you have a favorite?"

Shanti felt her face heat and glanced down. "It's silly, but I love David Bowie and Bing Crosby's Peace on Earth and Little Drummer Boy."

"I don't know why you think that's silly. My favorite is Feliz Navidad."

Shanti jerked her eyes up and found Peter grinning but nodding. "It really is. It's so cheerful. I love it. But it's probably not an 'our song' kind of song."