Bear No Loss Read Free Page B

There’s even some kind of an inn or something near town, but I was supposed to be working and I didn’t really want to go alone.”
    April pursed her lips in thought, shaking her head a moment later as Nicky visibly perked up.
    It’s a stupid idea. You just hung out with him for a few hours, there’s nothing there! And he’s a hockey player, they’re all players… it’s in the title!
    “You know, Sally has been pushing me to grab some time off too. I could totally come with you! Then you wouldn’t be alone, and you have free time now too!”
    “You’d do that?” April asked, surprised.
    “Hell yes! A week of hockey bear hotness? Sign me up!” Nicky hooted, throwing her hands up.
    April couldn’t help but smile. Was she drunk or did that sound like a really good idea? Well, she was definitely a little bit drunk, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a good idea, right?
    “Are you sure?” April asked again, trying to find all the reasons why it would be a horrible idea and coming up annoyingly short.
    “I’m sure ! Now pick up the damn phone and text your lover-bear so we can plan the trip!” Nicky yelled, shoving the phone into April’s hands.
    Before she could chicken out, April was tapping out a hurried reply that may or may not have had a few typos in it, asking Memphis if the invite still stood. The “Hell YES!” she got in response about a minute later confirmed it.
    “Guess we’re going to Idaho then,” April said, feeling a little drunk on excitement.
    And vodka.
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
    April
     
    “I can’t believe this is happening,” April muttered as she shifted around in her seat, having changed with Nicky a few hours ago.
    “Oh, it’s definitely happening,” Nicky said with a beaming grin as another sign post read “Shifter Grove” and the impossible was starting to seem like the probable.
    Nicky had taken up the brunt of the organizing, finding the flight to Idaho, booking the rental car from Idaho Falls so they would have some mobility since Shifter Grove didn’t have any rentals, all the way to talking to the one family in Shifter Grove who ran a quasi-bed and breakfast. April was grateful for the help because frankly, she was far too busy freaking out about both her future and the fact that she was going to see Memphis Corley again.
    She wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting from this trip, but among warm clothes and one too many pairs of sexy lingerie—just in case, obviously—she’d also tucked a fresh new lined notebook in her bag with a couple of pens, hoping against hope that maybe she could sit down and write again. Just for herself, no one else. While she’d kept a diary for years, it didn’t really feel like it was enough. Now with more time on her hands than she knew what to do with, it almost felt like she owed it to herself to give it another shot.
    You won’t live forever, after all, April thought, gnawing on her bottom lip.
    “What if he changes his mind?” April asked, voicing a fear that she’d had since she’d woken up the morning after the night at the bar, with a killer hangover and an ecstatic polar bear shifter asking her on SassyDate when she’d be arriving.
    “Then we get to party with a bunch of hockey players and get over your heartache. Or, you know, I can snatch him up. Kidding, kidding!” Nicky said, waving her hand dismissively at April before she could say a thing. “Ooh, that’s the parking lot, I think!”
    And so it was. The team’s bus was parked there, along with the Detroit Coyotes’ one. The parking lot was packed with cars, with people streaming toward Wolf’s Eye Lake. Nicky parked the car and April got out on shaky legs, grabbing her purse and pulling on her hat low over her forehead.
    While she’d never been particularly shy, there was this inexplicable nervousness that took over her when she thought of speaking with Memphis face-to-face. There was just something about him, a sort of animal magnetism that