Too Much to Bear (BBW Shifter Ménage) Read Free Page A

needy
desires.
    “See you around. Oh, and Madison?” he called. She turned,
her heart stuck in her throat as the soft sunlight parted through the trees,
falling on his face and giving him a heavenly glow.
    “Yes?” she croaked out, her palms getting sweaty like she
was in high school all over again, eyeing her crush across the hall.
    “Don’t worry about Caleb. He’s always late.”
    “Oh, okay,” she said, surprised by the affectionate way he
had said it, almost as if he was laughing internally at a good friend’s bad
habit. But as she turned back down the road, the image of the celestially
gorgeous man burned into her brain, she realized they probably were still good
friends.
    As different as they were, like a wicked night and a beach
picnic day, they were inseparable as children. That was how she had met them. She
remembered how they were building a raft to float across the lake, Caleb trying
to command the younger Will, and Will, defiant in a silent way, doing whatever
he well pleased with a small smile plastered across his face at all times.
    Will was the daydreamer. Caleb was the troublemaker.
    She wondered how in the world she had nearly forgotten about
those two characters in her life.
    It’s not like life’s been a bed of roses back home ,
she reminded herself. Every summer she had spent up until she was twelve was
wonderful out here in Titusville. But when her father left, things turned for
the worse, and the months she had spent out in this mountain paradise became
more and more distant. Her summers became like sunny dreams that she could
hardly remember, let alone associate as a reality she had ever experienced.
    She pushed the terrible memories out of her mind as the
“downtown” area came into view. If she hadn’t been to Titusville before she
would have laughed. It was nothing more than a series of small buildings, most
of which were tourist shops for people on their way to the state park. Right
next to the gas station, as Caleb promised, was a small building with a sign
that said, in bold black letters, Bill’s.
    A normal girl would have run in the opposite direction. But
Madison knew what she was getting into. The Winder back in Pickford looked very
similar to Bill’s on the outside. It was attached to a gas station, but instead
of being tucked away in a mountain village it was sitting right on the exit ramp
of the highway, a choice destination stop for truckers looking for a beer and
an exotic dancer.
    She didn’t have too many fond memories of her job. But as
she smoothed out the front of her blouse a final time, she knew that Bill’s
couldn’t be as bad as it looked. For one thing, no semi-truck was bumbling up a
mountain road on its way to a marshmallow roast.
    And when she opened the door and looked around, she realized
that it was exactly what she thought—a place for the few old men in the
town to drink beer and shoot the shit.
    “Can I help you?” an old man with a leathery face asked.
Though he looked as old as time itself, something about the twinkle in his
light eyes, strong enough that Madison could see it even in the hazy bar light,
let her know that he was jovial and full of life.
    “Do you have a bud light?” she asked.
    “Sure do. But no one to impress around here so I wouldn’t
worry too much about an extra pound or two,” he said, giving her a
non-threatening wink.
    “Well, just wanted to start off the evening light.”
    “You’re Seth’s granddaughter, aren’t you?” he said as he
pulled a bottle from the cooler behind him, tucking it under the counter for a
moment to pop off the lid.
    “Yep,” she replied, taking the cold beer and giving it a
good swig, grateful for the refreshing wash of lager that fell back into her
throat. She loved a good beer, and whether it was the result of small town
living or working in a bar for so many years, she couldn’t ever feel too bad
about it. It was one of those small pleasures that made life worth it at the
end of a