Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,75

around to face him, leaning on its back. It was one of those moments that made her feel young again. She remembered sitting on the kitchen counter in the Strauss’s fancy kitchen watching Eric cook for her. It was usually something he’d learned from Cody, who had always been a natural in the kitchen. “Maybe you’re gonna burn yourself on scalding hot coffee. That’s it, that’s all my nightmare was about.”

Eric chuckled at that. He watched what he was doing as he carefully scooped grounds into the filter. Lydia watched his every move, happy to let her gaze rove over him as he worked. He had fine lines around his eyes now. He was still young, but she had spotted just a couple. She liked them. They pointed to a lot of laughter and smiles.

“That would be nice,” he murmured, flipping on the machine. He spun around and leaned against the small counter. “Would it have been worth the trip then?”

“Of course.” Her gaze dropped to the floor. It was hard to look right at him when things got more serious. It was frightening. “It would always be worth the trip to see you.”

“Then why didn’t you come before?” His voice broke. He sounded truly hurt.

Lydia breathed in and the silence of the moment was deafening as she tried to think of what to say. The coffeemaker gurgled.

“I didn’t think you wanted to see me,” she said it so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard her or that she wanted even him to. “The last time I came… It didn’t feel right-”

“You left out of nowhere-”

“Eric-”

“No,” he said fiercely. “We’re talking about this.”

He clamped his mouth shut and the juxtaposition would have been funny, if anything could have been funny at that moment. The silence stretched on until the coffee was done and she heard Eric sigh and turn around to put together two cups for them and bring them over.

Lydia turned around and sat properly on the couch before taking a long sip of coffee.

Eric sat across from her in a small easy chair that made him seem somehow larger.

She was halfway through her coffee, trying to get up her nerve, before she finally said, “I thought I was helping you. When I left.”

His eyes flashed and she saw the way his jaw clenched subtly, the little tremble of his cheek. “You broke me,” he said. “You broke me. I never… I pretended you didn’t. I didn’t want to admit it. I never got over you even a little bit.”

“You’ve forgotten what it was like,” Lydia said. She already had tears brimming and she blinked, wishing them away, but one stubborn drop slid down her cheek. “You were still at home with your family and your parents… You wanted to pretend it wasn’t a problem because it wasn’t a problem for you but your parents hated me-”

“They hated your sleuth.” He rubbed his eyes and she gaped at him.

“You know that’s the same thing, Eric.” She shook her head, annoyed. “It’s not like I loved where I came from. My childhood was miserable. You know that. If they’d cared they could have helped me, but they didn’t want to help me. They wanted me to just go away. Leave their perfect son alone to marry some perfect rich girl-”

“I would have left it all for you,” he said fiercely. “You know I would have. You didn’t give me the chance-”

“I didn’t want you to leave your family for me!” Lydia cried. “I would have felt worse!”

“But you ended up leaving your sleuth anyway,” Eric said. “You could have-”

“They would never have accepted me-”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Eric said. He grabbed her hand, gazing into her eyes. “They’re far away and I’m not eighteen years-old anymore.”

Lydia burst out laughing, snatching her hand from his. “Oh, like that’s it?” She threw up her hands. “It’s all fine now? You’ve been angry at me all this time but it’s all wiped away because-”

“It doesn’t matter,” he insisted. “If we were together, I won’t… That’s the past.”

Lydia got to her feet. It was tempting. She couldn’t deny it. But none of it felt right. You couldn’t just dismiss history. She knew too much about life now to think that would ever work.

“So you’re not still angry?” She paced in a circle. Her blood felt like it was humming. Eric didn’t answer. That was answer enough. “Exactly.”

“You should have given me a chance,” he said, rising from the couch. “You should have given us