Too Much to Bear (BBW Shifter Ménage) Read Free

helped her stand up.
    “I’m surprised you remember me,” he said, his voice deep yet
melodic. It was so smooth and gentle that she wondered how it was even real.
    “And you remember me?” she nearly laughed, checking out her
arms for any scratches. There was only some dirt on the front of her jeans that
dusted off pretty easily.
    “Of course. You always had a face that was hard to forget,”
he said. “Though I must admit, I’m surprised you came back.”
    Madison found it hard to look him in the eyes as she fought
back another inevitable blush. What was it with these seductive mountain men?
“I guess news travels quickly around here, huh?”
    “You’d be amazed.” He laughed lightly. “Are you okay? Didn’t
bruise anything did you?”
    The genuine look of concern in his cerulean eyes was killing
her inside, making her heart skip a beat.
    “No, I’m fine. Thanks to you. I didn’t even see you there,
it’s like you came out of nowhere,” she marveled.
    “I was just right here,” he insisted, indicating the empty
space beside him. “Enjoying the view. You’d better be careful if your eyesight
isn’t too good.”
    “That’s strange,” she muttered, sure that she hadn’t seen
him at all. “I guess I should have my vision checked next time I’m in
civilization. Not that this place isn’t great,” she said, quickly covering her
tracks. While she would have intentionally tried to spite someone like Caleb,
Will just seemed so sweet-tempered that he didn’t deserve it. He was always
protecting her when they were little, to the point where she had developed a
small summertime crush on him.
    Will just laughed again, the buoyant quality of his voice
intoxicating her. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not in any sort of denial about
where I live.”
    Madison smiled sheepishly, looking down to the ground
momentarily, amazed at how his gaze still made her feel bashful all these years
later. “Yeah, well, I obviously came here for a reason. It’s really beautiful
out here.”

    “I sure think so. Is that why you came down to the
lake?”

    “Yeah,” she admitted, turning her head back to look at the
beautiful water sparkling in the sunset. “I know it looks really nice around
this time of day, and I wanted to take a quick look at it before I...Oh crap!
I’m late!”
    “Meeting Caleb at Bill’s?” he offered.
    “Yeah...how did you know?” Madison said, slightly taken
aback.
    “You said it yourself. News travels fast here.”
    She hesitated, looking over his gorgeous face. Part of her
didn’t want to go with Caleb. She wanted to stay here with Will, looking over
at the beautiful sunset, listening to the sound of his deep, musical voice.
    He was the kind of man she never met in Pickford: kind,
earnest, and drop-dead gorgeous. He was the kind of man you only read about in
books or saw on TV, the kind that would do anything for his woman and would
never dream of leaving his kids.
    And she was going to ditch him to drink beer with a man who
tormented her as a child.
    As her mother always said, “You sure know how to pick ’ em .”
    “Yeah, well, I’d better get going since I’m already late,”
she hesitated. “But please, let me thank you some time from saving me from a
broken limb. I can’t imagine that would be much fun to deal with all the way up
here.”
    “I broke my leg when I was fifteen,” he said. “Believe me,
not a fun car ride. And don’t worry about it, up here we’ve got nothing but
time. I’m sure the favor will come back to me at some point.”
    She nodded and felt the strange magnetism pull through her
core, like it had with Caleb.
    That’s insane , she thought. Stop being so boy
crazy.
    She wondered for a moment if she was just trying to fill the
gap that Dustin had left in her, aching and sore like a festering man-needing
wound.
    “Thanks again,” she said, walking away as quickly as she
could back to the road without tripping, trying to escape her own