Saving Her Bear: A Second Chances Romance Read Online Free PDF

sure?”
    He grinned. “Of course I am, lady. You know I am.”
    He patted a hand on the tailgate and gestured for her to climb in.
    The truck bed smelled of cedar wood mixed with a hint of tire rubber, but it was warm and bug free, a gentle breeze drifting through the screened windows. She settled onto the mound of air mattress and sleeping bags as John shut the tailgate, shutting her in her little cave. She listened to the rest of the camp settling in for the night. There was a strange rhythmic whimpering in the distance, and she cringed, remembering how her new friend Jean had decided to spend her evening.
    Gross, she thought.
    She wrapped the sleeping bags around her, trying to burrow in, as though burying herself would protect her from bears, and if not bears, at least it might drown out the sound of Jean’s ongoing threesome. The memory of the bear kept resurfacing, causing her to twitch and jerk as though she might fight the thoughts off with a well-placed kick.
    It wasn’t working.
    Then the memory of John’s solid shape stepping between her and the bear came to mind, of the way he held her behind him, overlooking his own safety in lieu of hers. He’d felt like stone then. The thought of it was the only thing that calmed her.
    A few more exchanges passed outside and John appeared outside the window, smiling in as he spotted her awake.
    “Sorry,” he whispered. “Deacon forgot his pillow.”
    John unlatched the tailgate and rummaged through a bag by her feet. She watched him, willing herself brave enough to say what she wanted to say.
    Catherine, suck it up. He was your best friend for years - more than your best friend. Just ask, damn it. Catherine, just ask!
    John shot her a look, and a little bit of a side eye, then tossed the bag back inside and disappeared with the pillow. He’d left the tail gate open.
    Catherine swallowed, willing herself brave. She didn’t want to sleep alone. She couldn’t sleep alone. Something would come in the night and tear her to pieces, tear the truck to pieces and there would be no pillar of stone between her and her demise this time. Just damn well ask!
    John appeared at the tail gate and hopped up into the truck bed. He latched the tail gate behind him, tossing his own pillow onto the mattress beside her. She startled, watching him as he crawled across the truck bed and plopped down on the mattress beside her. She furrowed her brow at him in confusion.
    “Were you not going to ask me to sleep with you?”
    She exhaled in a startled laugh and smiled, almost tearful from relief. “Sleep with me? No! I’m not that kind of -”
    “Slow down, Rambo. I meant sleep. Just sleep. I can go if you’re all set -”
    He sat up, scooting back toward the tailgate.
    Catherine grabbed at his sleeve. “No! No. Sorry, I’m sorry. Yes. I was going to ask.”
    John nodded, padded his pillow on the mattress and plopped down onto it, making a point of fluffing it up as he kicked off his boots. With that, he crossed her arms and closed his eyes.
    They lay there in silence a moment, Catherine watching his familiar face. “How’d – how did you know?”
    John Fenn cracked an eyelid to look at her and smirked. “You never had a great poker face, Calhoun.”
     

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
    “Storm’s coming.”
    No one believed her when the winds kicked up that morning, turning every leaf on the trees upside down.
    “Naw, weather said clear skies all weekend,” Paul Merlotte assured her.
    Yet, Catherine stared up at the trees as another gust picked up. This was one of the many lessons she learned from her father, Philip, before he passed when she was twelve years old – if the wind turns up the leaves, the weather’s about to shift. Sometimes you have a day to prepare, other times, the sky rips open and gives you what for.
    This was one of those days.
    She didn’t even have a chance to say a proper goodbye to John as their camp disbanded and Bennett piled her into his