Bear No Loss (5 page)

“Nothin’,” Memphis said with a wave of his hand, peeling himself off the counter and walking past April on his way to the living room. “Nicky was just tellin’ me about Cheyenne. Let’s get back to our drinks!”

He really needed that damn beer. As much as he didn’t believe Nicky, he didn’t really have a reason to doubt her. But one look at April made his insides twist with worry regardless of the uncertainty, while at the same time his bear threatened to kick his ass if he didn’t go and get that girl alone as soon as possible.

The fuck am I gettin’ myself into,
he wondered, feeling the sting of a ghost of a relationship where he’d trusted more than he should have as well, and gotten kicked for it.

One thing was certain: he needed to get April alone to figure out what was really going on. And he needed to do it fast.

CHAPTER FIVE

April

It was a cold day in Shifter Grove and April had pulled her fur hat low over her ears, her nose getting pink as she cradled a Thermos mug between her knees, warming her hands against it. Regardless of the biting cold, she couldn’t help but smile as she watched the action on the ice, the Shovelers doing endless speed drills just a day after the game.

Groups of four went on the ice, racing against a whistle, practicing sharp turns and trying to get from one end of the marked area to the opposite end before Coach Wiley, a scraggly old man who seemed to glare at everyone with equal ferocity, blew on the whistle.

There were men who were far faster on the ice than Memphis was, but his power could not be denied. Every time he ground to a halt, shards of ice and snow flew in his wake as he sped back, seeming far more determined to work out his aggression that day than most others. While some of the guys looked a bit ragged from the game, Memphis looked like he could dive into another round and barely break a sweat.

“This is
so
great,” Nicky said, bouncing up and down, probably to get warmer as much as she was just boiling over with energy, as usual. “It’s not every day people get to see a NSHL team practice like this. I mean, the whole Shovelers-Bluehawks thing is so damn insane! A team practicing on a frozen lake? Cleaning the snow off every morning themselves, no Zambonis in sight? It’s ludicrous!”

“If you say so,” April commented with a grin, though her gaze was still strictly tracking Memphis and really paying little attention to anything else.

Her lungs were filled with the fresh mountain air and despite the fact that it was cold, she couldn’t really remember when she last felt so at home somewhere. Raised in Cheyenne, she’d traveled a fair bit with her parents, but most places left her feeling distant rather than as a part of something new and exciting. Shifter Grove felt like home more than her actual home ever had. It was an odd sensation.

The little town was an oddity through and through, really. Started only a few years ago, it had slowly and steadily built itself from a few guys deciding to set up businesses into a growing haven for humans and shifters alike. Anyone and everyone looking for a new start was welcome there and it seemed to attract a very colorful bunch of shifters and humans, both running from their pasts and rushing toward better futures.

In a way, April couldn’t help but feel a certain similarity of spirit with what Shifter Grove stood for, as she herself had struggled for a long time to find her own voice, and she was still in the process of it. Much the same as Shifter Grove seemed to be.

You’re getting all needlessly romantic,
April reminded herself with a soft sigh, focusing her attention again just as Nicky bounded down the stairs to go talk to Heath and Cannon, the Shovelers’ killer first line, who were taking a small break down and to the left of where April was sitting.

She wasn’t entirely sure if she was imagining it or not, but Memphis seemed to make a beeline for her the moment that Nicky engaged in conversation with Heath and Cannon, coming to rest at the partition and giving her a clever look. He motioned for her to come down, while taking his helmet off and scruffing a hand through his rich blond hair.

“Practice going well?” April asked, her smile easier now than it had been the previous day.

Despite there being some awkward tension at the end of the evening that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, April had thought the dinner had gone very well. She hadn’t participated in the conversation as much as she would have liked, but she’d been glad to listen and answer questions where there had been any to reply to, though Nicky had easily monopolized the topics.

In retrospect, she would have probably enjoyed the meal more if it had just been her and Memphis, but having Nicky there had really bolstered her confidence and let her ease into the new situation. It had taken her years to really peel herself away from her parents and try to make it on her own, and this seemed to follow much of what she did with her life. She was always cautious, perhaps overly so and it was something that she was working to handle better as time passed.

“It’s all right,” he said with a heavy shrug of his shoulders, the padding that he wore making him look even more towering than he was.

She saw him toss one quick look at Nicky, who was explaining something in an animated fashion to Cannon and Heath, both of them looking a little bit confused. Memphis grinned and April matched his smile, liking the way his face looked when he smiled. He had a scar on his forehead and another on his cheek that didn’t take away from his rugged features, but when he wasn’t smiling, he could look almost haunted at times.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you somethin’. I have tomorrow off, the whole day. What do you say you and I sneak out together? I wanna show you a place and I’d like to have some one-on-one time without the chaperone. How does that sound?”

Memphis looked a bit too hesitant when voicing his question, but April thought nothing of it. It wasn’t like she was entirely calm and collected around him either. Maybe he had a shy streak to him that she just didn’t know about yet?

Should I go? But Nicky… no, that’s why I came here! I need to get to know him better to know if there’s ever a shot for anything more…

Just the thought of there being something “more,” or even the same as that one evening they had shared in her apartment, made her flush up with pink a little and give an uncertain nod of her head. Okay, so maybe it looked like she was waggling her head far too eagerly, but she couldn’t really stop herself at that point and Memphis quirked one amused brow at her.

“Is that a yes, Miss April?”

“It’s a yes,” she confirmed with a nervous laugh, getting a chuckle in response from Memphis.

“Great! I’ll pick you up bright and early. I’ll text you the details. Don’t let your little friend know, okay? I promise I’ll be on my best behavior,” Memphis said with a wink, pushing away from the railing and skating away from her backward as Nicky popped up at her side again, her dark eyes narrowed as she glanced from Memphis to April.

“What was he saying?”

“Oh, nothing. Just confirming if we’re going out for drinks with the team tonight,” April said, turning away from Nicky and climbing back up to her seat with a private smile on her lips.

She was impossibly thankful to Nicky for having decided to make the trip with her, but dammit, she needed some alone time with the big hunk of hockey bear who had been keeping her mind so preoccupied, and she wasn’t above using a tiny bit of secrecy to achieve it.

You’re turning positively devious,
she thought with a snicker, shaking her head as she sat back down and looked at the pristine ice and the snow-capped mountains jutting out behind it as far as the eye could see.

For a moment, the realization that she could live there and be perfectly content crossed her mind, and she shooed it away just as quickly. No sense in getting too invested too early, right? This was just one extended SassyDate meetup, after all, nothing serious!

At least that’s what she tried to believe.

CHAPTER SIX

Memphis

“Oh come on, I swear, I won’t bite. Hard,” he teased, dancing up in the snow in front of April, his back turned in the direction of where they were heading.

She gave him the cutest little scowl and it took all he had to keep from sliding down the hill, scooping her up, throwing her over his shoulder, and running off with her despite all her objections.

“I’m telling you, I have two perfectly fine feet. They can trudge through snow on their own,” she said, sounding exasperated, but a smile tugged at the corners of her pink lips, and so Memphis decided to take her jabbing for the good-natured fun that it was.

It had been a long day so far, starting with a hearty meal courtesy of Cerise, a drive around Wolf’s Eye Lake with detours to a couple of the more notable mountains, like Sleeping Dragon Hill, which really was a mountain despite its name, and now they were heading toward the last in Memphis’s list of surprises. April didn’t know it, but there was a track about half a mile to their left that led exactly to where they were going, because Memphis had been up before the crack of dawn, setting everything up where they were going. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“As the lady wishes,” he said with a swooping bow, causing him to almost stumble back over some roots as he got carried away with the antics.

He couldn’t help it. He felt energized. Full of life. Ready to tackle anything that life had to throw at him—but preferably April, really. She simply had that effect on him. At first, he’d thought that his bursts of adrenaline and energy during the game against the Coyotes and then the practice after it had just been Idaho getting to him, but today he realized the real cause of his good mood.

It was April Whitaker. His little good luck charm and the sexiest woman he’d ever met. The fact that she had no idea how damn hot she was only made it that much better.

After the stumble, he turned around and took the last couple hundred feet with his eyes actually on the goal. He took April’s hand as soon as there was enough room amongst the trees to walk next to one another. To his relief, she didn’t pull away from the touch and together they came upon the campsite he’d set up.

“Memphis! Did you do all this?” she asked, looking at the sight before her with the kind of surprise that made Memphis feel all the more better for his attempt at some proper romance.

He’d set up a big tent along with a heater and mattresses in the middle of a secluded patch of forest, placed on a slight ledge that opened up to a view of the forests below and Wolf’s Eye Lake glistening in the setting sun, with reds, golds, and yellows creating streaks upon the smooth ice. There were two chairs by a fire pit, which was stocked with logs and waiting to be lit, and a container of food, snacks, and drinks for them to enjoy.

“I wanted us to be somewhere where no one can barge in,” he said sheepishly, squeezing her hand before letting it go.

“So you took us to the middle of nowhere to camp?” April asked with a laugh, warm and adorable.

“I believe the term is ‘glamping,’” Memphis shot back, pulling a lighter from his pocket and moving to set fire to the kindling.

Soon enough the sun was so low it barely lit the sky at all and a hearty fire was crackling in the pit. Memphis and April huddled around it on their chairs, close to one another as they sipped on whiskey and shared sandwiches that Cerise had prepared. Like most of the day, they’d mostly been chit-chatting and having fun, managing to steer clear of the truly difficult, heavy topics that had to be discussed eventually. But Memphis was a patient guy.

His first instinct after talking to Nicky had been to call the whole thing off, and just give April the cold shoulder or maybe sleep with her again before her time in Shifter Grove was up, but he’d quickly realized he couldn’t do it. Having seen plenty of puck bunnies in his days, he couldn’t imagine April as one of them. Despite the possibility of coming to regret his decision later, he decided to give the two of them an honest shot.

It was that or get internally mauled by his polar bear, and as any shifter knew, disagreeing on a topic as important as whether or not someone was their mate was not something that would end well for the human side of any shifter!

Taking another sip of his drink, he glanced over at April, smiling as her hazel eyes glittered in the light of the fire. She looked luminous, almost angelic. He felt lighter when he was around her and even while they discussed nothing of importance, he was incredibly happy for the conversation and the fact that she felt comfortable enough to joke with him.

“So why did you decide to come here, after everything?” Memphis asked, deciding to take the proverbial bull by the horns.

It was getting late and while he was looking forward to the prospect of maybe snuggling up with her for the night, he would have preferred a cold walk home than allowing himself another night of happiness only to later find out it was for the wrong reasons. April sputtered into her drink a bit, inhaling it wrong, and coughing once or twice to clear her airway.

“Sorry! That just… caught me off guard,” she said, smiling apologetically.

“I try to keep you on your toes,” Memphis said, reaching a hand to her and squeezing her wrist gently for a moment.