“How are you doing?” he asked as he sat on one of the stools in front of the bar and put his arms across the countertop. “You look… pensive…”
Chloe couldn’t help but laugh.
“Pensive?” she asked with a raised brow. “Well, I guess I am always deep in thought.”
He smirked.
“I can almost hear the cogs turning,” he teased. “Can I get a beer while I wait?”
Chloe nodded and reached behind her into the refrigerator, pulling out the brand she had seen him drinking each time he had been in.
“Thanks,” he smiled. “I think we can escape a little before your shift is over if you like?”
Chloe felt ready to tease him too…
“Oh, I don’t know about that, the boss is a real jerk…,” she grinned. “I’ve heard he doesn’t let employees sneak out early.”
Mason sat back in the stool and laughed. She loved the way his eyes seemed to shine, the way the green flecks were caught by the light and made them look even more alive and magical.
“Oh, really?” he asked. “Yeah, well, he sounds like a real hard ass.”
“Oh, he’s the worst,” Chloe teased.
The tension between them was already at breaking point, so much so that she couldn’t think of anything to say without worrying it would sound cringy. She smiled at him and felt herself getting lost in the perfect features of his face. He really was handsome, and it was hard to believe he had avoided love for so long. He must have women throwing themselves at him, and if what Emma had said was anything to go by, then he clearly did.
“You don’t need to hang around on my account, you know,” Emma said as she appeared from the kitchen. “I can cope just fine on my own for an hour.”
Another girl was coming in at four thirty and the bar was practically a ghost town.
Chloe looked to Mason for his approval, and he rose to his feet and tapped his hands across the countertop.
“Shift ends here,” he said with a wry smile. “Grab your jacket!”
He downed his beer and left the bottle still half-full on the bar top, before he jangled a set of keys in his hands and headed for the door.
Chloe felt all a fluster, as if she couldn’t believe any of this was even happening. She hadn’t spent a day without Harper since she was born, and now, here she was, in a new town, Harper was off on an overnight playdate, and she had a hot date with an even hotter guy who may or may not be a shifter bear.
Her life was insane.
But she had to embrace it. As they said… get busy living, or get busy dying…
And she had already nearly done the latter, and she didn’t like it much.
“Okay.” She grinned as she grabbed her purse, undid her apron, and put her jacket on. “Let’s go.”
She walked toward Mason and as her arm brushed against his, and she felt the rush of electricity between them all over again, she knew, with certainty, that this date was going to change her life.
She had been swearing off dating, and men, but it was clear there was something between the two of them that was defying all odds, so it was time to explore it.
Chloe and Mason smiled at each other as they headed out the door, onto Main Street.
“Your carriage awaits,” he joked as they approached the truck he had rescued her and Harper in, on that first night she had met him. He opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed inside, her heart a banging drum in her chest the entire time.
When he climbed in beside her on the driver’s side and she felt the truck sag with his weight, she was at ease and knew she was completely safe. She had spent so much of her time living in fear, and now, she was ready to let herself be free and enjoy her time. She deserved it, after all.
Mason started the truck and put it in drive.
“Where are we going, anyhow?” she asked as he pulled into traffic on Main Street and they started off toward the mountain roads.
“Oh, that would be telling.” He grinned.
She smiled back and looked straight ahead. It felt good to be entering the unknown.
The landscape outside of town was so beautiful; she was glad he had decided to take her away for a while. Mason’s truck bumped over the mountain roads, and Chloe looked out at the scenery she had missed the night she and Harper had driven this way and got caught in the snow. The blankets of white were still piled at the sides of the roads, but the roads were clear, and she could see they had been well salted.
“The mayor finally decided to get to work then,” she laughed.
Mason groaned and playfully slapped his forehead.
“That guy is painful,” he said. “He’s useless. I don’t know why he doesn’t get overthrown somehow. I’m sure I could do a much better job.”
“Overthrown?” Chloe laughed. “Sounds very medieval.”
“Well, you know, small towns make their own laws,” he joked.
“Tell me about it.” She rolled her eyes.
He looked at her, and she bowed her head slightly. It was the first time she had given him a hint as to where she may be from, and she wondered if he had ever heard of Bridge Hollow. If he was a shifter as she suspected, then she was sure he would have. There were packs there of their own, and she thought they all must be connected somehow.
Mason slowed as they reached a sign for a walking trail and he pulled into a parking lot. It had a few cars and people milling around, either setting off for a late-afternoon walk as the sun went down or heading home after a day on the trails.
Mason killed the truck’s engine and opened the door before walking around to Chloe’s side and opening the door for her. He held out his hand for her to take, and she did. He helped her out and made sure she was steady on her feet. He really was being the perfect gentleman.
Chloe checked her cell to see if there was any word from Harper, but the screen was blank. She also noted that it wasn’t even four pm yet. She had spoken to her and Jamie’s mom only around two hours ago; she would look way too overprotective if she called again so soon.
“Well,” Mason said, “I brought you out here to show you the view… Come on.”
He held out his arm, Chloe took hold of it, and they began to walk down one of the cleared trails that led to the edge of the mountain. The air was cold up there, and it nipped at Chloe’s skin, but when she touched Mason, she could feel a heat inside of him that seemed to transfer to her, and it made her smile.
The mountain was covered in snow, but most of the popular trails had been cleared, and Chloe could see that there was a small café up there too, with walkers sitting outside with their dogs, drinking coffee and chatting amongst themselves.
“Everyone is so happy here,” she commented. “It’s lovely to see.”
“It’s a friendly town, and most of the people have kind hearts.” He smiled at her. “I’m intrigued as to what made you want to stay. You must have seen that it was a good place.”
“I did,” she said. “At first, I thought I would get my car fixed and be out of here as soon as I could. But even after just one day, I noticed how content everyone seemed to be, and I was feeling settled too, even without fully knowing it. It’s strange, isn’t it, how some places call to your soul?”
Mason smiled and they kept on walking. As they approached the ridge of the mountain, she slowed her pace and gasped.
The view was like nothing she had ever seen. It was like a painting, and it was so perfect, it was hard to believe it could actually be real.
“My goodness,” she whispered. “Look at that…”
She could see the whole town of Lone Reach and the way it was deeply embedded between the range of mountains. She could see Main Street cutting it in two, the forests that surrounded it, and the lights turning on from various cabins dotting the woodland. The town’s center looked multicolored and magical, and even from up there, she was sure she could hear the sweet melody of music from some of the alehouses.
Seeing it from up high made it seem ev
en more surreal. She felt as if she had actually found a slice of heaven.
Mason pointed to the other side of town to a patch of land that looked like it had recently been cleared. Some construction vehicles looked to still be on-site and a new, Scandinavian-style building had been erected.
“That’s my latest project,” he said. “The Brewery.”
From where they were standing, it had to be miles away, but she could see it so well that she could tell the scale of it had to be massive.
“I heard about this,” she said quietly. “Something to put Lone Reach on the map…”
Mason nodded and wrapped his big, muscular arm over her shoulder.
“Yep,” he laughed. “And boy, do we need it. This place is so hidden away and off the beaten path that we rarely get any visitors. The economy here was faltering, and we decided we had to act. We helped Mary and Joe overhaul the hotel, we started on The Brewery, and we encouraged lots of independent businesses to open along Main Street. We had to kickstart something here or we ran the risk of turning into another forgotten one-horse town, and it’s too beautiful here for that to happen. We’ve got a lot to offer, and we want this place to thrive.
I think about what it was like when I was growing up, and we didn’t even have half of this… There’s so much talent here that it would be criminal not to utilize it and make Lone Reach into something extra special.”
“So, it looks like I found you all at an exciting time,” she said with a grin. “And there does seem to be a lot of opportunity…”
“Tons of it,” he said.
The weight of his arm around her shoulder felt so good; she leaned in to him and the heat from deep inside enveloped her. She felt so very safe with him, no one had ever made her so at ease like that, and it was becoming addictive. She looked up at him and smiled.
“And what will happen with The Brewery?” she asked.
“Well, the plan is to start crafting our own ales,” he said. “We’ll sell them here in town, exclusively, at first, but then roll them out nationwide. We’re going to be creating a lot of jobs, and hopefully, make it a kind of tourist destination, so we will bring more people to the town that way too.”
“And you seem to be the one at the front, leading this whole thing,” she said warmly. “That must feel pretty good.”
“My family was one of the first settlers here,” he said as he looked wistfully over the mountains and back down at the town. “I have a lot of love for this place; it’s the only town I’ll ever call home and I want to make sure it doesn’t disappear. We want the young people growing up here to want to stay… To think, yeah, I can start a family and live my life in Lone Reach, because there is so much going on here. I want it to be somewhere people can visit and feel how special it is.”
He looked so passionate about it that it made Chloe smile. She looked deeply into his eyes.
“I felt it,” she whispered. “I really did… The moment I got here.”
He reached up and traced his finger down the side of her face, and she turned to face him. They were standing on the edge of the world, and he had just opened his heart to her. It felt so good to hear about his ambitions and how enthusiastic he was about his hometown and all he wanted to achieve and create. He wanted to give life… He was the complete opposite of her ex, who only seemed to want to take it and destroy it.
She felt a cloud cover her heart and she momentarily pulled back. She had done so well not to think of him… But somehow, she had let him sneak in and ruin an almost perfect moment.
She dropped her eyes to the ground and sighed.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m an idiot… I…”
“What are you running from?” Mason asked suddenly.
He reached for her hand and held it gently in his, and when she looked back into his eyes, she felt his sincerity and knew she could tell him anything… But she was just too afraid.
She faltered.
She could see something deep inside his pupils, something animalistic and ferocious, but she didn’t feel afraid. She gripped his hand tightly and willed herself to open up, but she just couldn’t do it. She wasn’t ready to talk all about what had happened to her back in Bridge Hollow… She was nervous to even tell him she was from there.
Behind them, a car horn started to honk, and some kids were whooping and cheering, and it broke the intensity between them. Chloe smiled and so did Mason, and they looked back over their shoulders to see the kids climbing into a truck of their own, honking the horn again, turning up the music and starting to drive on back down the mountain.
“The future of Lone Reach,” Mason said with a wry smile as he shook his head and stepped backward, taking her with him as he held her hand. “Come on… Let’s get something to eat.”
10.
This was the first time he had ever taken a date to his favorite restaurant in Lone Reach, but there was a first time for everything, and Chloe was more than worth it.
The more time he spent with her, the more he could see himself falling in love with her. She was so gentle and nurturing, and he had the overwhelming urge to look after her. But not only that, he could see her vulnerability, and he felt that she was afraid and running from something.
They sat opposite each other and he watched her discreetly as she surveyed the menu. He knew what he would order, but he wanted to get a feel for her tastes and wondered what she would choose. In the back of his mind, he thought she may be the kind of woman who would order a burger just to make a statement, but she had so much class, he didn’t know whether her standards would allow it in a nice restaurant like this.
“Come on then,” she said as she closed it and sighed. “It all sounds delicious, so I’m going to need you to help me.”
Mason grinned.
“Well…,” he said as he rubbed a hand over his stubbly chin. “This is a classy joint, so I usually go for the wild Salmon.”
Chloe raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side as if she were trying to figure him out. He had wondered if she had a feeling about his truth. This was a woman who had appeared out of nowhere and was so secretive; she obviously had a lot of her own to hide.
Had she come across his kind before?
Did she see the bear in him, like he could see the fear in her?
“Salmon?” she asked knowingly. “Interesting choice.”
Mason shrugged.
“Okay, I’ll do the same,” she said as she sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. She was full of sass, and he loved it, even if he could tell that, deep down, she was terrified of falling in too deep.
She was the first girl he had met in a number of years who hadn’t just thrown herself at him, and it was making him want to know more. Now that he had started to peel back the layers, he was hooked. Chloe was deep and there was a lot to learn about her, he could see that much. And Harper by her side only made him more interested; she was raising a little girl all on her own and doing an amazing job. That just reinforced what an incredible person she must be.
He watched her from across the table and every time their eyes met, he felt himself become more deeply bonded to her. He had heard stories of how his kind found their mates… and he knew, all too well, that his connection to Chloe was the kind to change the way he looked at everything.
“Where are you from?” he asked once the waiter had taken their order and they were getting settled into good conversation. “I don’t even know that about you. You’re so mysterious.”
Chloe seemed shy to answer, but finally, she sighed and put her hands palm down on the table.
“Okay,” she said, “I guess there’s no harm in telling you…”
Mason waited with bated breath.
“I’m from a town called Bridge Hollow,” she said without taking her eyes from his. He could tell she was waiting to see what his reaction would be, and he had to try hard not to let his eyes go wide and his mouth sag open.
Bridge Hollow?
Now, things we
re certainly getting interesting.
“Really?” he asked, trying to keep the deep sense of interest and shock out of his voice. “You’re seriously from Bridge Hollow? The biggest paranormal hotspot of the entire country?”
Chloe nodded slowly.
“Yeah, that’s home…” she said with a weak smile.
If he had suspicions that she may be on to him and the fact that he was a shifter, then he may as well have just had it confirmed. Bridge Hollow was crawling with shifter packs and a whole host of other phenomena, it was very unlikely that Chloe hadn’t encountered something before.
“Why did you leave?” he asked.
She looked at the table and began to fidget with the serviette. He could tell she was hiding something, and it was clearly something to do with her hometown. Had she done something terrible? Or had something terrible happened to her?
“I know a lot about that place,” he said in a whisper so that other diners around them didn’t hear. “I know what went on there recently.”
Chloe’s eyes widened and she nodded and swallowed. She looked nervous.
“Yes, a lot of bad stuff happened there,” she said.
She looked sad as well, as if the memory was painful and she was trying to banish it from her mind. He didn’t like seeing her this way; she looked distressed and uncomfortable, and he knew he shouldn’t push her too hard.
“Do you still have family there?” he asked, just wanting to make sure she hadn’t been left without the ones she loved in the series of horrific events that had rocked Bridge Hollow.
Chloe nodded.
“My family are all okay,” she said with relief. “But I couldn’t stay, for a number of reasons.”
Mason nodded and looked at the table. He knew a broken soul when he saw it, and he didn’t’ want to be the one to open her wounds. She was clearly still trying to heal.
“And what about you?” she asked him. “You’ve heard of my hometown and have, no doubt, seen the documentaries and weird conspiracies about the place… But what makes Mason… Mason? And why were you out in the middle of the night when you found us in the avalanche?”
Bear For Her (Lone Reach Shifters Book 1) Page 7