Bears VS Wolves (Team Shifter 1)

“It was kind of you to buy it. I’m sure she loved it here.”

“She did. After she left me, though, it was hard to be home. I spent a lot of time at work. I spent way too much time with Foxy,” she rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but laugh at that. Foxy seems a little bit wild, but a little bit wonderful, too.

“And how are you doing now?”

“I have my good days and bad days.”

“Meredith, nobody ever really gets over a painful loss.”

“Like a death.”

“Or a marriage,” I tell her. “I don’t mourn for my ex-wife, but I still think of everything we lost. When you commit to someone in any way, whether it’s to a relative or a friendship or a marriage partner, and you lose that person, you usually lose a little bit of yourself, too.”

“That’s kind of sad.”

“It’s really sad,” I agree.

“So what do you do?” She whispers. She doesn’t sound jealous or upset about the fact that I brought up my ex. This makes me happy because as much as I don’t miss Karen, she was a big part of my life for a long time. Many of my past stories involve her. She was with me when I was in medical school and we had a lot of adventures together. As I move forward with Meredith, I’d like to be able to talk about my past.

I don’t want to have to censor out the stories where Karen was present or involved.

That’s just messy and sloppy.

No, I like the fact that with Meredith, I can be truthful. I like that she knows I was married before, but that she doesn’t really seem to care. That’s important because I don’t have contact with Karen in any way. We’re no longer involved. We don’t share children and no matter what happens going forward, I don’t have any reason to reach out to her.

“I take it one day at a time,” I tell her. “When I first got divorced, sometimes I had to take things one minute at a time.”

“That’s what I did after Mom died. Sometimes it hurt just to breathe. I had to take things in 10-second intervals.”

“And did that work?”

“I’m still here,” she whispers. “I guess it worked.”

“Loss is always messy.”

“So is grieving.”

“I’m sorry you went through this alone,” I tell her. I am, too. There’s a part of me that wishes I had been here with Meredith when her mom passed away. There’s a part of me that feels so very sad she was alone when she went through this.

I can’t change the past, but I can change the future, and right now? Right now, I want to make sure she has a wonderful future. I stand up and I take her hand. Tugging, I pull Meredith to her feet and plant a kiss on her forehead.

“Come on, little wolf. Let’s go to bed.”

Chapter 11

Meredith

By the time Robert and I reach my bedroom, I’m practically shaking with nervousness. I have no reason to be nervous around him. There’s literally nothing I have to be scared or uncomfortable about, but the idea of having him in my bedroom is just thrilling.

“You look nervous,” he smiles.

I push the door open to my bedroom and waltz on in ahead of him.

“About what?” I look back at him. “I don’t have anything to be nervous about.”

“That’s true. I’m very well-behaved,” he says, blinking innocently. “You don’t have to worry about me being a bad boy.”

“Too bad. Maybe I want you to be a bad boy.”