Boarlander Bash Bear 2(48)

Emerson didn’t know how she knew where he was, but some long buried instinct must’ve kicked up in light of almost losing her mate last night. Maybe she was still losing him, she didn’t know. Bash had wanted a mate, claimed or married he hadn’t minded either way, but he wanted to be bound to a woman, and now that wouldn’t be possible for them.

She stumbled through the woods in the early morning light, her hiking boots squishing against the soft ground. Dew clung to everything and quieted her normally clumsy footsteps. Bash wasn’t right under Bear Trap Falls, but she hadn’t expected him to be. She was looking for a special place. The orange place.

Emerson made her way up the beach, her shoes sinking deep into the sand with every step, but when she did see him, she stuttered to a stop. He sat on a bench in front of the two intertwined trees, elbows resting on his knees, shoulders hunched as he looked at something in his hand. He closed his eyes, clenched his fist, and let off a long exhale, then he slid his troubled gaze to her. His eyes were still the unnatural green that said his bear hadn’t settled.

After a slow approach, she sank down onto the bench beside him. It smelled like sawdust and new stain, and on a plaque nailed to the backrest, it read, Emerson’s Favorite Place.

Her lip trembled, and she slid her hand into the crook of his elbow. She stared over the river at the mountains. “Did you build this for me?”

Bash swallowed hard and wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I got you two presents for yesterday. The flowers and the period stuff if you weren’t pregnant, and this if you were.”

She stared at the woodgrain and the rich, dark color of the finely made wooden bench and shook her head, baffled. “I don’t understand.”

“Not the bench.” Bash unclenched his hand, and on his calloused palm sat a sparkling antique diamond ring. The main jewel was round and brilliant, but the setting had smaller, intricate diamonds all around that tapered into a thin band.

“Bash,” she said on a breath.

“Don’t. Not yet. I know your answer. I just wanted to tell you what I had planned before everything got so fucked up. I bought a ring before I met you. I was on the hunt for a mate, and I was ready for commitment. Platinum. Two carats. Gaudy as hell, but I thought I would have to put a fancy ring on a woman’s finger if she was gonna marry a man like me. But then I met you, and that ring didn’t feel right. It wasn’t you. It was big and flashy, but you’re a classy, quiet, understated lady. You want simple things, like me. So I got this one. I showed it to Audrey, but she told me the same thing she always does.”

“Slow, Bash,” Emerson whispered, blinking hard.

“Yeah. I’m ready. I was ready that night at Sammy’s Bar. You’re mine, and it don’t make no matter to me whether we get married today or ten years from now—I’m in this. But you’re human, and time moves different for your kind.”

“Bash, you are my kind.” She swallowed hard and blew out a steadying breath. “Ask me if you want.”

He jerked his wild gaze to her and froze. She couldn’t even tell if he was breathing as the seconds and silence stretched between them. Then slowly, Bash dropped to his knee in the sand. He took her hand in his and offered up the ring between his finger and thumb. “This isn’t how I wanted it. I wanted you to be able to plan a big fancy wedding and invite all of Saratoga and have a chocolate fountain and piles of pizza rolls. I wanted to throw a big party and shout to the world that you picked me, but all I can give you is a rushed wedding up at city hall.”

“That’s not all you have to offer.”

He cocked his head and smiled. “Okay, also a shitty trailer in a shithole trailer park and a crazy crew of—”

“Stop it. I’m being serious. What else do you think you have to offer me?”

“My body. I’ll always protect you, no matter what. I’ll always have your back. I won’t make you raise our cubs alone. I’ll hold you when you cry and feel damned proud to have you on my arm. I’ll never stop trying to make you happy because that smile on your face, the one you’re wearin’ right now, is the best part of my day. You’ll have to deal with all my gritty parts, but you can have all my good parts, too.”

She smiled and spread out the fingers of her left hand as her vision blurred with her tears. “That sounds like a damn fine offer to me, Bash Bear.”

A slow grin curved his lips. “You mean you’ll marry me? Even though you aren’t carryin’ my cub?”

She swallowed hard over and over so her answer would come out strong. “Of course I will.”