“Yep,” he said on a yawn. “I became so paranoid, I started to wonder if I should trust myself.”
“And Colorado? How did you get all the way to my home state from Jersey?”
“You’ll laugh.”
“Did you read it was the place to find other bear shifters in one of your romance novels?”
“Hah! No. It was instinctual. That’s the only way to describe it. After I stumbled around, trying to figure out if Toni was dead or alive, spent day after day in one homeless shelter or another, hatching plans to find just one damn cop who wasn’t corrupt and wouldn’t think I was out of my mind, I was losing hope fast. So I did what some might consider stupid. I took out a bunch of cash advances from my credit cards, leaving a big fat trail of where I’d been. My credit is obliterated by now. But I needed cash if I hoped to get anywhere or buy technology I could use to research these nuts. Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but bears need to eat. Often. The soup kitchen wasn’t cutting it in terms of addressing my hunger.”
“Wait until you see me mow down a seventy-two ounce Porterhouse in less than twenty minutes. Then we’ll talk about appetites.”
“You’re making me all gushy and tingly,” he teased, his voice enveloping her like a warm blanket. “Anyway, Colorado just came to me one night. I was probably at my lowest point. I was cold, tired, hungry, hadn’t showered in days, and the wound from Andre’s bite had all but disappeared. So I was freaked about that, too.”
“So you still hadn’t experienced the shift?”
“Nah. That almost happened on the bus to Colorado.”
That made her eyes fly open. “Oh my God!”
Cormac groaned. “Yeah. Tell me about it. Anyway, I was low—really low. I fell asleep at some point, but sleep had become really restless, my dreams were always weird and broken. But this night, I guess it all got to me and I passed out cold at a rest area on the border of Pennsylvania. But I was startled awake by what I thought was someone yelling in my ear. All I remember was the word Colorado, clear as a bell, and from that moment on, there was this crazy drive to get there at all costs. So I bought a bus ticket, and here I am.”
“You’ll probably say this sounds nuts, but there’s a legend amongst us bears, you know. One that says you’ll find where your roots should grow when the spirit of an aimless wanderer shouts it in your ear in a dream. That’s how I knew going back to Colorado after college in Utah was the right thing for my life’s path”
“If he’s aimless, how come he’s giving advice on directions?”
Rolling to her side, Teddy smiled, tucking the pillow beneath her cheek. “That’s why he’s so good. Because he spent his living years roaming aimlessly, looking for all the good spots. At least that’s what my mom told me. He’s like your personal GPS.”
“Through the entire ordeal, it was the smartest move I could have made. Going to Colorado gave me the chance to catch my breath, get my feet under me. Meet you…”
Her heart skipped at least three beats. “I darted you. You couldn’t possibly mean that.” But she hoped he did.
“Teddy?”
“Yeah?”
“If I could actually get out of this bed without feeling like I’d just polished off an entire bottle of JD, and I was sure I wasn’t going to drool all over your pretty face, I’d kiss you. I’d kiss the hell out of you.”
She fought a sigh. The biggest, girliest sigh ever. “If I thought my lips would cooperate rather than feel like two rubbery worms at war with one another, I’d kiss you back,” she said, a little breathless.
“Maybe we should save it for our first date. Like official date. Nice clothes, nice restaurant with a big Porterhouse, no pressure from the kill squad. Like prom, but not.”
“I never went to prom,” slipped from her lips without warning.
God, why had she admitted that? It only made her sound pathetic.
“What? How could someone as beautiful as you miss out on a hot dress, spiked punch, a kitschy theme, and some guy with hands like an octopus, mauling you half to death?”
She giggled into her hand. “Just lucky, I guess? Though seriously, my mom died when I was just hitting my teens. My brothers don’t know prom dress from a pile of horse dung. They were young when they took on the responsibility of raising me, and back then, we didn’t have a lot of money to go around. I didn’t have the heart to ask them to spend it on a dress when it was hard enough just getting food on the table. So I skipped it. Besides, nobody asked.”
“Well, we’ll just have to see what we can do about that,” he murmured, though it was likely just empty words from Archibald’s special brew. “Date?”
As her eyes closed and sleep began to creep in, Teddy nodded. “Definitely a date.”
“Night, Teddy. Sweet dreams,” his whispered, his husky voice lazy and comforting.