“Why not?” Vera asked nonchalantly as she pulled a long strand of cheesy goodness from a fry.
“She left when I was too young to remember her. Just bailed. Some people aren’t meant to be parents, and my dad knocked up the wrong lady. He chose her, but she didn’t choose him back. And she never even knew what we were. She’s some fancy news anchor up in Anchorage. I tracked her down when I was fifteen, right before the first hibernation. Jenner missed her, or maybe he missed the idea of her. I didn’t, but I watched my brother pine for a mother figure, and I wanted to know how she could do that to her kids. Not for me, but for my brother. I love…” Tobias swallowed hard and cast her a sideways glance. “I love my brothers in my own way. I’m protective. I wanted answers before I told Jenner who and where she was. I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t hurt him again.”
“And?”
Tobias shook his head in disgust. “She would’ve hurt him. She didn’t have any feelings about what she’d done. She was proud she’d left and got the life she wanted. Even called us an anchor around her neck. Said cutting the weight was the best thing she ever did.”
Vera exhaled slowly and leaned against his arm. “I’m sorry.”
Tobias twitched his head. “Margo Costa.”
Vera nearly choked on a french fry. “Margo Costa is your mom?”
“Yeah.”
“Holy shit, McBeefcake. Wow.” Stunned, she frowned and leaned back into the soft cushion of the bench. She’d watched Margo Costa on the news for years. “I can toilet paper her house if you want.”
With a chuckle, Tobias spooned a pair of stuffed mushrooms onto her plate. “I don’t doubt you would, protective little mate. You shot my dad defending me. I can only imagine what kind of rampage you could unleash on my mom. Let her be, though. I like her completely detached from my life.”
Around a bite of food, she admitted, “When I was a kid, I used to toilet paper houses with my brother and his friends.”
“Is he older or younger?”
“Older by three years, but way less responsible than me. I had a tendency to be really nerdy in school, and he would always remind me to ease up on life and find the happy moments.”
“You do that,” Tobias said. “That’s one of the things I love about you. Even with all of the bad shit, you still laugh and joke and make the people around you feel happy. You’re pretty damned inspiring.”
“Really?”
Tobias downed his beer and nodded. “Really. Sometimes I like to just sit back and watch you talk to people. Strangers, Link, Lena and Elyse on the radio. You have this way of making people feel better, even if they’re having a shitty day, just by talking to you. Nobody would ever guess how much you’ve gone through. You kept your sweetness when you could’ve gone the complete opposite direction. You could’ve become cold and hard. I hope our cubs inherit that.”
“Our cubs?” she said, turning mushy. He’d only ever talked about the possibility of one, but she wanted a big family with him someday.
“Yeah. And I kind of hope they turn out to be little foxes.”
“So they don’t hibernate?”
“No,” he said, eyes going completely serious. “So we have a chance of having little girls that are just like you. Plus, if you had a bear cub, you’d realize real quick what little hellions we are and stop at one.”
She snorted. “I can only imagine what you and your brothers were like as kids.”
“Little brawlers. Always fighting.”
“For play or for real?”
“Both. Instinct trumps all for grizzly shifters. I think we loved and hated each other all at once. But we would’ve done anything for each other.”
“And now?”
Tobias shrugged. “I still feel the same. Especially over the past few months. I think seeing Ian and Jenner again, witnessing how good they are to their mates and realizing my dad was wrong about how life has to be for bear shifters, makes me want some kind of relationship with my brothers. I’d do anything for them. Yeah.”
Four plates of food showed up after that, and to her shock, Tobias ate everything she couldn’t. The sheer volume of calories he was taking in told her he was getting close to hibernation.
She’d done her research, and soon he would start getting tired.
Maybe she had a week with him.
Maybe less.
Tobias paid for their dinner and the older couples’, then took her window shopping after that. Outside of a winter wear store, something cold brushed her hand. She looked down in horror to find a perfect snowflake melting against her skin.
“It’s okay,” Tobias whispered, his eyes on the tiny white star. “I don’t want you to hate snow.”
“Snow will take you away from me.”