Second Chance Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 3) (3 page)

“I don’t have a choice; their plates need collecting.” They had needed collecting for a good few minutes, but she had put it off. Although Carla didn’t like to admit why. Whatever reason he had for staring at her seemed to be contagious, because Joel kept looking at her, too. His glance would flick to Liam’s, and then follow her admirer’s to where they were lingering on Carla’s body again.

It made her shiver, but not in a chill way. Damn, what if they wanted a threesome? That was most certainly
not
going to happen.

Eloise’s words echoed through her brain as she headed across the room to where Liam was. His eyes kept flicking over to her and then he kept dragging them away, only for them to attach themselves on her face again. It was as if he was fighting every moment to
not
look at her.

“Shall I take these for you?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Liam said.

As she moved her hand to pick his plate up, his allowed his fingers to stretch out and touch her skin. She jumped, almost dropping the plate. How could such a brief touch burn her skin like that? Her eyes flew to his, and she could see why. A fire raged there, a passion so deep she would be consumed by it if she allowed herself to get too close.

“Sorry,” he murmured and moved his hand off the table, placing it on his thigh. It was curled up, the tension evident, as if he was fighting himself not to reach out and touch her again.

She couldn’t help it; she looked him right in the eyes, wanting to accuse him, although of what she didn’t know. But what she saw in his eyes wasn’t lust, it was deeper than that, and although it was a cliché, she was sure the world stopped turning for a second, the rest of the room melting away as they shared a moment of knowing.

Their souls touched, their hearts beat as one, and their future roads seemed to entwine, crisscrossing each other’s as they headed into a beautiful sunset.

She snapped out of it and busied herself collecting the rest of the plates. Nearly dropping them as she turned to walk away, she gathered her wits and walked back to the kitchen, her legs feeling shaky. Taking a moment, she placed them down on the counter, and breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, just as she had been taught when she used to have anxiety attacks when she was a kid.

These had occurred frequently during the time her mom and dad were divorcing and they argued all the time, never thinking of how Carla or Mike might feel. It was strange: as brother and sister, they had shared that whole period of their lives and yet they had dealt with it in different ways. Mike had yearned for love and a steady home life, which was what he had found with Tammy, until the arrival of Sophia.

Carla grew up knowing she could never go through that kind of traumatic situation, and never inflict it on her children. As she grew up, she figured she would simply wait until she met a good man, the kind of man she could depend on. Instead she had ended up not risking her heart, and dating less and less, convinced Mr. Right was not out there.

“So why not embrace your needs?” she asked herself out loud. Shocked that someone might have heard her, she turned her head quickly, only to get caught up in Liam’s stare, which was holding onto her like one of those tractor beams in a sci-fi movie; threatening to never let her go.

“You OK there, Carla?” Howie asked, coming up beside her and dumping more plates onto the counter.

She jumped but quickly recovered, saying, “My, it must be busy if you are mucking in this side of the bar.”

“Tell me about it. Maybe if Eloise stopped flirting quite so much, we might not have everything stacked up.”

“You’re joking; she would die if she couldn’t chat up all these good-looking men.”

“Good job I have you, isn’t it?” He winked at her, and normally she would feel proud of her work ethic and be pleased she wasn’t like Eloise, who often joked she expected to have been married five times by the time she died.

“Sure is,” she murmured in return.

“You OK?” Howie asked again, this time aiming his penetrating stare at her, the one that could tell what kind of mood a customer was in even before he ordered his first drink.

“Yes, just tired. And Mike and Tammy are still bickering…” She trailed off. “I might need a few days off to go and see if there is anything I can do to help.”

“Sure, but can we talk about it tomorrow?” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek, making her giggle.

“You are incorrigible, Howie.”

“Have to catch those kisses when I can.”

“You know I could have you charged with sexual harassment. There’s a room full of lawmen who would be witnesses.”

“If I was going to harass you in any way, it would be more than a peck on the cheek,” he said, and walked off whistling.

She sighed. Howie must be about the best boss in the world; it was why she was still working here instead of moving on to something new and better. She liked the people, both customers and coworkers, and to Carla, happiness was more important than any material objects she could buy with money earned in a job where she was unhappy.

Who was she kidding? Now that Mike had left town, these people were her family, and she didn’t want to lose them.

“That guy just kissed her,” Liam said to Joel, his fists balled by his sides as he stood up.

“Hey, Liam, take it easy,” Joel answered. They were left at the table together while Freddy went to talk to some of the other guys. A lot of them were drunk, too drunk to keep their hands to themselves, so he had been watching Carla carefully, wanting to make sure she was safe, waiting for the moment when he might have to prove to all the men in here that she was his.

Was she his?
It had become a gray fog in his brain; it swirled around until he no longer knew what the truth was. Carla’s face blended with Louisa’s, it was as if he had taken some psychedelic drug.

He had.

He looked at Joel accusingly. But he kept his mouth shut, not knowing what to say, because he didn’t know how he felt about the tricks his mind was playing.

Before tonight he was in mourning, a mourning that cut into his soul so deep he could feel it draining away, leaving him empty. Now his feelings for the waitress were mending that hole. That didn’t mean he was healed, but he could feel it was possible. That he could find a way through this pain, in a way he had lost hope of in the last few days.

The comedown of toppling the drug ring had been immense. He was out of step with the rest of the office. They were celebrating, and he was trying to figure out how he was supposed to go on breathing, eating, and sleeping now that his focus had gone and he had nothing to put up as a barrier, nothing to convince himself to go on for.

Thoughts of joining Louisa in the next life had begun to creep in, and he was powerless to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Each step was the greatest of effort, taking all of his strength.

Until he drank the drug and looked at Carla.

Joel’s concerned voice cut in, and he realized he had his hands on the table, about to push himself up out of his seat and launch himself across the room. “Settle down. He’s walked away, it was nothing; he’s her boss.”

He settled back down. “She is mine,” he said, looking at Joel, leaving him in no doubt that Liam knew exactly what his friend had done.

Liam wanted to ask why. But the answer was already there in his friend’s dark brown eyes. As a fellow shifter, he knew what Liam had been experiencing; he knew that Liam had been sentenced to a life of loss. He had done the one thing he thought would help. In giving Liam Niq It, he had changed his friend’s future.

Niq It. The drug that had led to Louisa’s death was the thing which had the potential to save his life. An ironic bitterness welled up inside him.

“Just stay calm,” Joel said.

However, Liam stood up abruptly and walked over to where Carla was. She had her back to him, piling dishes on the counter, oblivious to him. Or was she? There was a rigidness in her body, her head rose, and she stood as if listening, letting her senses feel his approach. This confused him. Was she a shifter too? If so, she would know he wasn’t her true mate.

“Carla.” He was so close, his breath caressed her skin, the tiny hairs standing up on her neck, and he wanted to run his fingers along her naked flesh. Her ponytail, holding her blonde hair off her face, was hanging over her left shoulder, he longed to pull out the scrunchy, let her long locks fall down around her shoulders, and bury his face in it and inhale her scent. It didn’t matter that it was tainted by the smell from the kitchen and the other people in this room. Even under her perfume, he could distinguish the part that was all hers.

How he wanted to taste her skin with his tongue, to lick her, kiss her, and feel her writhe under him in ecstasy.

“Yes,” she said, a little sharply, and with a wary look on her face that told him she had noticed the change in him. He might be a little worried, but he also liked that she had at least paid attention to him. It meant his next words were not going to be completely out of the blue.

“I…”
I what?
Want to kiss you. Screw you, claim you as my mate. Even though I already had a mate and she was murdered.
He faltered. The words stuck in his mouth, unable to come out into the world because of the betrayal and guilt he felt, like a stabbing pain in his heart.

Her face softened. “Do you want to walk me home, Liam?”

He did the whole goldfish thing. Mouth opening and closing, taking in air, looking like a real imbecile or a drunk. But he wasn’t drunk, even if his brain was clogged with confusion. “Yes.”

“A man of few words,” she said and smiled, a rose-pink tingeing her cheeks. This was hard for her too, a step out of her comfort zone. He liked that. He liked that she wasn’t the kind of woman who usually went home with strange men. He liked that she wanted to go home with him.

“I’m just a little rusty,” he said, not meaning to sound so enigmatic. There was no mystery in the way he was behaving, only uncertainty.

“I get off in…” She looked at her watch and sighed. “Three hours. If you want to wait that long. Or we could just meet tomorrow. Unless this is just a one-night stand and by tomorrow you’ll have come to your senses.” The words tumbled out in a rush and he was in danger of losing her, because she was going to change her mind.

“No. I can wait.” He wanted to tell her he would never change his mind, that she was the one for him now that he had taken Niq It. He frowned. What happened if it wore off?

“I’ll meet you later then. I have tables that need me.” She brushed past him, and he inhaled her scent one more time, savoring it.

“Great. Yes. Of course.” He went back to the table and sat down, putting his head in his hands. “What have you done, Joel?”

“Given you a second chance.” Joel looked at him honestly. “You deserve it, Liam. Louisa wouldn’t want you to pine away. She would want you to be happy.”

“How do you know that?” Liam asked.

“Because that was what she told me, the night she went out and that bastard murdered her.”

“I never knew that.”

“She knew you didn’t want her to go. The guilt of knowing she was leaving you behind must have been unbearable … at the end. Maybe if you find love and happiness again, her spirit will rest more easily.”

Wiping tears from his eyes, Liam let that news settle in his chest and found the air hard to drag into his lungs. He watched Carla weave through the tables, and the sight of her was like pure oxygen. His chest began to expand. He took a long draw of air, filling his lungs, letting his heart swell. What was done was done. He closed his eyes and asked Louisa for forgiveness and promised never to forget her. He would make a new life for himself.

And then he forgave her for leaving him, even though he knew she had no choice, and she had fought so hard to stay alive.

What was she doing? Taking control of her life and having a little romantic fun with a guy who liked her. All she had done was ask him to walk her home. Nothing more.

So why had she swilled her mouth out so it didn’t taste of the garlic bread she had eaten on her break, and freshened her makeup? Because she wanted him to like her. Just because she didn’t intend to sleep with him tonight did not mean she only wanted him to walk her home. A kiss and a next date would be just fine with her.

“Hey, you waited.” She had tried to prepare herself for him not to be there, especially when half an hour before her shift ended she had glanced at his table and found it empty.

“I said I’d walk you home. I am a man of my word.” He smiled and set her at ease.

“That’s good to hear,” she said and walked past him. He fell into step beside her.

“I came outside for some fresh air and to clear my head,” he said, looking up at the stars above them.

Her eyes drifted upwards too. “I love this time of night. Everyone else is in their homes, probably asleep, the world seems so different, so much emptier. After the noise and smells of the diner, I like it.”

“Me too. Although I’m surprised you walk home on your own at this time of night,” he said, his voice settling down and sounding more normal, not so strained.

“I wouldn’t walk home alone, there are rumors of bears and wolves in the mountains.”

“So do you pick a different man each night to walk you home?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Only tonight.”

“Then how would you have gotten home if I had said no?” he asked.

“I would have driven my car.” She pointed behind them. “It’s back there in the parking lot.”

“Then I am honored.”

“You should be,” she said flirtatiously. “I sound like Eloise.”

“The other waitress?” Liam asked.

“Yeah. She has men falling over themselves to date her.”

“Date, but maybe not get serious?” he asked, and she glanced at him sideways.

“There’s nothing wrong with dating a lot of men.” She felt the need to defend Eloise.

“I didn’t say there was. I’m just glad you’re not like that.”

“How do you know I’m not?” she asked defensively.