An Ember To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters 5) Read Free

drink across the counter toward him. “You could say that.”
    “Want to talk about it?” Kyle asked.
    “Nah, but I do want to eat this pie. Is it alright if I eat it in here?”
    Kyle shrugged. “Sure, man. Ain’t no skin off my back. Want me to grab you a fork and a plate.” The man nodded, and Kyle went to grab some dinnerware.
    Mindy watched the large man out of the corner of her eye as he downed his whiskey in several large gulps and slid the glass back across to Kyle. “I’ll take a refill on the whiskey, too.”
    Mindy snickered. “That’s how you drink whiskey? What a crime. It should be slowly sipped, and enjoyed.”
    The man turned his blazing, sharp blue eyes toward Mindy and raised an eyebrow. “Trust me, sweetheart, if you’d had the day I’ve had, you’d be drinking it that way, too. Or, really, the life I’ve had.”
    Mindy shrugged and went back to looking at her phone, picking up a fry and blowing on it to cool it down. She shouldn’t have bothered to even say anything to the man. She definitely didn’t want to get into a long discussion about someone’s life problems. She got enough of that at work. Many of her patients had been through rough times, and often had no one to talk to about it. As their nurse, Mindy strove to provide them with a sympathetic listening ear in addition to quality medical care. But she was off the clock right now. All she wanted to do was sit here and eat her chicken fingers in peace.
    After another double shot of whiskey, though, the man seemed to be getting in touch with his talkative side.
    “I’ll tell you one thing,” he said, as he lifted the lid of the pie box and cut himself a generous slice. “Pretty women like you are nothing but trouble. T-r-o-u-b-l-e.”
    Mindy raised an eyebrow at him and swallowed the French fry in her mouth. “Ah, I see. Girl broke your heart.”
    The man snorted. “Something like that. It’s not exactly what you think, though.”
    Mindy shrugged at his cryptic response, but didn’t take the bait. If she asked him what he meant, he would probably launch into a long tale about the girl who promised to love him forever and then ran off with his best friend or some shenanigans like that. She’d heard the same story a thousand times from her patients, in various forms. Everyone thought they had it worse than anyone else ever had. They all thought their heart had been broken in more pieces than any shattered heart before theirs. Mindy knew better, but she never said so. Pain was just the human condition. Whether the ache was physical or emotional, or both, everyone had their own unique form of sorrow to wrestle.
    The man closed the pie box, and Mindy saw a logo with the words “The Sweet Crust” embossed on the lid of the box.
    “Oh!” she said. “I love that place. Their pies are so good. I’m a nurse and I recently had a patient receive one of those pies as a gift. She shared a slice with me and I’ve been hooked on them ever since. Which is probably not so good for my waistline, but, oh well.”
    The man looked Mindy up and down. “You’re waistline looks pretty good to me,” he said, then shoved a forkful of pie in his mouth.
    Mindy blushed, and she heard Kyle at the other end of the bar, coughing to cover his laughter. He knew Mindy hated unsolicited male attention.
    Mindy raised her chin defiantly. “Well, in that case, I’ll take a big slice of that pie, please,” she said. She crossed her arms, daring the man to say no. He just laughed and slid the whole box toward her.
    “It’s all yours. Eat as much as you want. I got it for free from a friend, anyway.”
    Mindy’s defiance melted as the aroma of apple cinnamon hit her nose. “Mmm, it smells like heaven in a box.”
    The man chuckled. “I know. Probably because the gal that makes them has some sort of divine gift for pie-making. I’m Zach, by the way.”
    “I’m Mindy. Thanks for the pie, Zach.”
    “No problem. So, you’re a nurse, huh? Does that