But he knew that her business was important to her, so he restrained himself, contenting himself instead with a quick kiss on her lips.
“Hey, you. Sorry I left without waking you up yesterday. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
She gave him a bright smile that made his heart beat faster. “It’s alright. I completely understand, although I was a bit miffed that you took whatever gift you had for me away with you.”
Scott laughed. “You don’t miss a thing, do you? I wasn’t sure if you even remembered that I’d had something for you.”
“Oh, I remembered,” Caroline teased. “You can’t just dangle a gift in front of a girl’s face and then pull it away.”
“I guess I have a lot to learn about women,” Scott said with another laugh. “But it just so happens that I brought your gift with me.”
Caroline’s eyes sparkled and she leaned forward with interest. “Can I see?”
Scott grinned. “Okay, if you insist.”
Caroline looked like a giddy child on Christmas morning, and his heart felt like it might burst in his chest from the affection he felt for her. He held out the paper bag, only then realizing that perhaps he should have wrapped the items or put them in a gift bag. Too late now. He hoped that the gesture would be appreciated, anyway.
Caroline peered into the bag, and furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment. Then, she looked up at Scott and laughed. “Really? I guess you’re never going to let me live this one down, huh?” Out of the bag, she pulled a brightly colored sun hat and a large bottle of sunscreen. “I guess I’ll be prepared next time I go kayaking.”
Scott smiled at her. “That you will. But despite what it might look like, my reason for giving you this wasn’t to make fun of you. It was to let you know that I don’t want you to move away.”
Caroline cocked an eyebrow at him. “Okay…,” she said slowly, not quite getting it.
Scott reached over to take her hand. “Look, maybe I’m not the best at finding the words to say the things I need to say. But I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you to stay here and live on Bear Mountain with me. I gave you this hat and sunscreen so that you know that next time I go out on the lake, I want you to come with me. And not just the next time, but the time after that, and the time after that. I want to build a life with you here, and giving you this hat and sunscreen is my clumsy way of saying that.”
To Scott’s surprise, he saw tears forming in Caroline’s eyes. She squeezed his hand, and tried to blink away those tears, but a few of them escaped. She wiped at them, and gave him a sheepish look. “You must think I’m some crazy, emotional girl.”
Scott shook his head no emphatically. “I don’t think that at all. In fact, I’m quite happy to see those tears. It means that you feel something for me. Hopefully something good?”
Caroline laughed. “Definitely something good. I would love to stay here on Bear Mountain. I do have to tell you, though, that I have a lot of debt. So far, I haven’t made enough money this summer to cover all of my credit payments over the winter. I might have to go back home, at least for one more winter. If I work at the factory I’ll have enough money to live and keep up with my debt payments.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Scott said. “We’ll figure out a way to make things work. There are lots of jobs in Pine Springs during the Christmas season, when people come to enjoy the snow. Besides, it’s really cheap to live on Bear Mountain—especially if you’re sharing a cabin with me.”
He wiggled his eyebrows in a way that was meant to let her know that he definitely wanted her to share a cabin with him. But Caroline still looked doubtful. Scott didn’t know her full story yet, although he planned to learn every little detail about her over the next weeks and months. But he did know enough to know that she probably wasn’t going to have an easy time trusting a man. It sounded like the last guy she’d been with had screwed her over quite thoroughly.
Scott would have to show her that he was different, but he wasn’t scared off by that challenge. In time, Caroline would come to see that nothing meant more to him than her happiness. Soon enough, she would understand the lifemate bond and what it meant. She would understand that now that he had bonded with her, nothing in his life was more important than taking care of her, protecting her, and making her smile.
Scott knew that it wasn’t always easy for humans to understand this. He’d seen it firsthand when his best friend Joel tried to explain it to Anna, Joel’s human lifemate. But thanks to Joel and Anna, Scott had also seen that explaining this to a full human was not, in fact, impossible.
He would make Caroline understand, no matter how much time it took. For the moment, all he needed to do was show her that he wasn’t scared away by her tears. To do that, he decided the best course of action was to lean in with a kiss.
Caroline definitely seemed okay with that course of action. She leaned into his kiss, and let out a happy little sigh. Scott felt his bear roar hungrily within him. He didn’t know why he’d been so afraid of the fact that his lifemate was a human. Sure, that might present a few extra challenges, but nothing insurmountable. And he knew now that no one in the world, human or shifter, could compare to Caroline. She was, quite simply, perfect. He was going to spend the rest of his life showing her that.
A sudden, loud shout interrupted the magical moment between Scott and Caroline. Scott looked up to see the security guard from the day before running toward them.
“Hey! Get away from her! How dare you show your face here again?”
Caroline looked up, startled, and shook her head. “No,” she started to explain. “It’s okay. I want him here now.”
“Well, I don’t,” the security guard fumed. “We don’t need any folks from Bear Mountain coming in here and ruining the shopping experience for all the tourists.”
Caroline crossed her arms indignantly “I don’t know what your problem is. Just because someone is from Bear Mountain, that doesn’t mean that they’re not a good person. He’s not causing any trouble by being here.”
“I’ll decide who’s causing trouble or not,” the security guard said.
Scott saw Caroline open her mouth again to protest, and he held up his hand to stop her.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll go. I don’t want to cause trouble for your jewelry business, and clearly this guy is determined to stir up trouble for you if I stay.”
“You’re not causing any trouble,” Caroline said. “This guy can’t just kick you out of a public shopping mall for no reason!”
Scott gently squeezed Caroline’s hand. Technically, she was correct. The man shouldn’t be able to kick him out of a public area for no reason. And maybe he couldn’t. But even if the man couldn’t kick him out, he could make Caroline’s life miserable. All it would take was for the guard to go talk to the owner of the shopping center and tell him that Caroline was bringing in shady types. The owner would tell Caroline she was no longer welcome to sell her jewelry in the shopping center, and Caroline’s jewelry business would be done just like that. As much as Scott appreciated that Caroline was sticking up for him, he didn’t want that.
So, he gave Caroline’s hand one last squeeze, and then started to step away from the booth. Caroline kept trying to tell him not to leave, but he just shook his head at her.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” he said. “Just focus on your business for now, and don’t worry about the haters. I’ll call or text you later today, I promise.”
Caroline kept calling after him, but Scott didn’t slow down. He didn’t want to cause trouble for Caroline’s business, and he had more important things to worry about than one obnoxious security guard.
Things like the rest of his life with Caroline. Nothing else mattered, and he knew that Caroline would see that soon enough. At least, that’s what he told himself as he left the shopping center.
But Scott had lived long enough to know that nothing in life was ever guaranteed.
Chapter Eight
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Caroline watched helplessly as Scott disappeared around the corner into another section of the shopping center. Part of her wanted to go after him, but she knew that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted her to stay here, selling jewelry and not letting the security guard ruin her day.
But how was Caroline supposed to continue on like nothing had happened? Now that she’d fallen head over heels for Scott, it pained her to see him treated like a second class citizen. It pained her to see him shrugging off the security guards words as though they were no big deal. And it pained her most of all to think that she had ever let the Pine Springs residents make her think less of Scott.
She felt her cheeks heating up with embarrassment as she realized that she hadn’t acted much better than the security guard. She’d been all too happy to believe that something was wrong with Scott, just because he was from Bear Mountain. And yet, he had completely forgiven her for that. He cared for her so much that he had easily overlooked her shortcomings.
But as Caroline watched him go, she wondered if he was better off without her. She knew that he was leaving to help her. He didn’t want to cause a scene in front of her jewelry booth, but she was sure he’d be calling or texting her later, just as he’d promised. She knew enough about Scott to know that he kept his word.
She also knew enough about him to know that he wasn’t afraid of a fight. He hadn’t walked away a few minutes ago because he was afraid. He’d walked away because he thought he was helping her business. Caroline appreciated the gesture, but she knew that if she stayed here and tried to make a life with Scott, this wouldn’t be the last time someone gave him a hard time for trying to spend time with her. Maybe she should leave and make his life easier. If she wasn’t around Pine Springs anymore, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting into a fight with someone from Pine Springs over her.
Caroline chewed her lower lip, still watching the spot where Scott had disappeared around the corner. In the end, perhaps she wasn’t going to even have a choice over whether or not she could stay in Pine Springs. She hadn’t made quite enough money this summer to afford to stay here. No matter what Scott said, she didn’t want to stay unless she could stand on her own two feet. He had been generous to offer to let her stay in his cabin on Bear Mountain for free, but Caroline wanted to know that she could make it on her own. She wanted to prove to herself that she was stronger than any of the people in her past had ever given her credit for.
The way forward for her seemed clear at this point. Although it would kill her to leave Scott behind, that was probably what she needed to do. She didn’t have the money to stay here in Pine Springs, and even if she did, she didn’t want Scott to be constantly dragged into drama because of her. So far, he’d dealt with quite a bit of drama for her sake. Their first meeting had been that dramatic scene at the club when that awful man had attacked her. From there, Caroline had managed to stir up more and more trouble.
It was time for her to stop stirring up trouble.
It was time for her to quietly pull away from Scott and prepare herself to head back to her hometown. She had done her best to make it on her own here, but her best hadn’t quite been good enough. Unless something drastically changed in the next two weeks, and Caroline managed to somehow sell significantly more jewelry than she had thus far, then she wasn’t going to come out as far ahead financially as she’d been hoping.
With all of these troublesome thoughts rolling around in her head, she hadn’t realized that the security guard was still standing by her booth until he started speaking again.
“You’re only going to cause trouble for yourself if you hang out with the likes of him, you know. You should stick with your initial plan to tell him to stay far away from your jewelry booth.”
Caroline turned to glare at the security guard, her cheeks heating up with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. She felt ashamed that she had ever told Scott to leave her booth, and she felt rage at this man for the way that he was now talking so derisively about Scott.
“He’s a good man,” she spat out. “I shouldn’t have told him to leave in the first place. I don’t know what’s wrong with all of you people in Pine Springs. As far as I can tell, the people of Bear Mountain have never done anything to hurt you. No one can tell me why you all hate them. Seems to me that you don’t have a real reason.”
The security guard frowned at her. He shook his head slowly and leaned in until his face was only inches from Caroline’s. Caroline shrank back from him, feeling uncomfortable at the closeness and cringing at the awful smell of his breath. But the security guard seemed to enjoy her discomfort, and he leaned in even closer.
“You’re asking too many questions, woman. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut, stay away from the people of Bear Mountain, and stick to selling jewelry to tourists.”
Caroline felt indignant. She jutted her chin out stubbornly at the man, and dared to reach up and give him a good push backward.
“Don’t get in my face, and don’t tell me what to do. Scott wasn’t causing any trouble, and all he’s ever been to me is kind—unlike you, and unlike many of the people in Pine Springs. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that if you don’t have something nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all?”
The man narrowed his eyes at Caroline. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were one of the Bear Mountain residents. You’re certainly obnoxious and weird enough to be one of them. Maybe you should go live up there.”
“Maybe I will.”
The man rolled his eyes and shook his head in disgust. Caroline felt her hands shaking a little with adrenaline, despite her best attempts to steady herself. This man was clearly itching for a fight, but Caroline didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of stooping to his level. Shoving him away had been bad enough. He could have used that moment as an excuse to shove her right back, claiming that she’d attacked one of the shopping center’s guards.
Caroline took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. She turned her back on the man and started rearranging her jewelry pieces.
“I wasn’t causing any trouble, and neither was Scott,” she said in a calm voice, keeping her back to the man. She was hoping that her calm demeanor and her refusal to continue to fight with him would frustrate him enough that he would just leave and leave her alone. If she made it clear that she wasn’t going to continue sparring with him, then maybe he would get bored with this whole situation.
For nearly a minute, he didn’t say anything. Caroline kept her back to him and continued to rearrange her jewelry display, until finally she couldn’t take the silence anymore. She still didn’t turn around as she spoke, but she couldn’t manage to keep her mouth shut completely.
“Besides,” she said. “It’s none of your business who I hang out with.”
The man snorted. “We’ll see about that.”
Caroline heard him striding away. When she turned around a minute later to look, he had already disappeared. She breathed out a long sigh of relief. She’d begun to think that he was never going to leave her alone. As another customer approached her jewelry booth, she forced herself to relax and to paste a friendly smile onto her face. The best thing she could do for herself now was to sell as much jewelry as possible, and ignore obnoxious people like the security guard. He was all bark and no bite, anyway. Wasn’t he?
It turned out, he wasn’t. Caroline must have really ticked him off, because about fifteen minutes later, she looked up from helping a customer to see that the guard was returning to her booth. His face was scrunched up in an angry scowl, and he wasn’t alone. Walking beside the guard, with a scowl that looked just as angry, was the owner of the shopping center.
“Uh-oh,” Caroline whispered under her breath. As quickly as she could, she finished up with the customer she’d been helping. She didn’t need any customers witnessing whatever confrontation was about to take place—and the looks on the faces of the guard and owner left no doubt in her mind that
there was definitely going to be a confrontation. She did her best not to look intimidated as they approached.
“Can I help you?” she asked, keeping her voice impressively calm.
The owner pointed his finger right at her chest, then pointed it toward the nearest exit. “You, get out.”
Caroline blinked in confusion. “You want me to leave? But I have a contract to sell jewelry at this booth for the duration of the summer.”
The owner sneered at her. “You had a contract. And that contract is now ended. Get out. I don’t want anyone here who hangs out with those crazies from Bear Mountain.”
Caroline bristled. “You can’t just kick me out! That’s the point of a contract! It’s a legal document that gives me the right to be here all summer long.”
The owner and security guard looked at each other and laughed, as though privy to some sort of inside joke. Caroline got the feeling that she was the butt of that joke, and she could feel her cheeks heating up with anger once again.
When the owner finally stopped laughing, he gave her a look of disgust. “You obviously didn’t read your contract very well, but what would I expect from someone hanging out with the Bear Mountain crazies? That contract allows me to terminate your rights to sell products here at any time if you exhibit a lack of morals.”
“But I haven’t done anything to show a lack of morals!” Caroline choked out in protest. She had read her contract carefully, and she’d seen the section about a lack of morals. But no one had ever accused Caroline of not being moral. She was a good person who always attempted to do the right thing, and so she hadn’t worried about that tiny clause in her contract.
Perhaps she should have worried.
The owner was laughing once again, shaking his head like she was the stupidest person he’d ever met. “I’d say that hanging out with folks from Bear Mountain shows a pretty clear lack of morals. What do you think, John?”
Claimed on Bear Mountain Page 6