Page 51 of Once Upon A Bear

Perhaps it wasn’t the most enthusiastic of yeses, but it was a yes, and that was all he could ask for at this point.

Well, that and getting his hair to come back.

Chapter nineteen

Guinevere

Guinevere looked down at the potion cupped in her hands, unwilling to meet Gideon’s eyes.

He was so sure. It was adorable, but at the same time, it was incredibly naive of him to think that because he promised everything would be fine, that it would be.

She did not have that kind of faith in the Rendon family. His family, she knew, meant well, but there was a reason she stayed a hermit in the woods. Even though she had friends now—friends who loved her and were there for her—she still had to remain on her guard, no matter what.

And she hated it.

She tried to get herself to loosen up. She couldn’t, not with her grandfather’s warnings ringing in her ears. Warnings that told her she needed to keep her guard up, no matter how Gideon looked at her.

But there was something about the way he was smiling at her because she said yes to going to his brother’s ball that was far too endearing.

She turned her attention to her potion, refusing to look up at him, because she didn’t want him to see the look on her face. And perhaps if she did, she would see that same look on his face—or perhaps she wouldn’t.

She didn’t want to find out either way. Because she couldn’t fall for Gideon Rendon.

It simply wasn’t possible.

She had to keep her guard up, had to protect herself.

But protecting herself was hard when his gaze wandered to her shelves scattered across the room with all her supplies, genuinely interested in everything she did. When he drank the potions with a smile, knowing they were going to be disgusting, just to make her feel better. When he asked her to a ball just because he could.

It wasn’t fair for him to be sweet and kind and funny. The way his sense of humor had stayed, even through the trials of becoming a bear, was astounding. If it had been her, she knew she would have fallen into melancholy.

But not Gideon, no matter how much he’d been through.

He even made bear puns.

She let out a snort, and Gideon’s attention snapped back to her, meeting her eyes with a questioning gaze.

Guinevere shook her head. She didn’t feel like explaining.

Instead of pressing, like others would have, he simply accepted that she didn’t want to talk about it and turned back to perusing her shelves.

Why was he like this?

She let out the slightest groan under her breath.

“Can I help with anything?” he asked.

He needed to stop being so wonderful. She couldn’t handle it.

“I think the potion is almost done,” she said instead of answering the question. It was glowing sufficiently to have the necessary effect.

“It’s a good thing I trust you,” Gideon quipped as he stared at it with the faintest hint of apprehension. “You could have poisoned me by now.”

“I swore an oath to do no harm,” Guinevere said as she gently swirled the potion in the bottle. “Even to people who turn into bears and scare me in my own home.”

“I wasn’t trying to scare you,” he said apologetically. “Will you forgive me?”

Guinevere could have thrown her hands in the air in frustration. Could he be any more exasperating?