Read Online Bearliest Catch by Bianca D'Arc - Free Book Online Page B

a chance to meet them today.
Lynn is usually in town for lunch, since she runs one of the
galleries. Remember the one with all the bamboo?”
    Jetty laughed. “I should’ve guessed. Pandas
love bamboo, don’t they?”
    “They do. I was surprised that Lynn wasn’t in
today, but everyone needs a day off now and again, right?” He put
the steaks on the grill, then walked over to refill her wine
glass.
    Unable to resist her allure, he sat down on
the edge of the wide chaise, facing her as they sipped their wine.
The mood was intimate. Quiet. Charged.
    “What did you think of the town? The people?”
he asked over the rim of his wine glass.
    “The town is charming. The people…” She
paused, seeming to think. “The women were nice, the men, a little
intimidating.”
    “Not to you, surely?” he asked, knowing his
Jetty was made of sterner stuff.
    She laughed. “No. Not to me. But if you take
all those men as a group, I can see where humans—and a lot of
Others—would be somewhat intimidated. You’re a powerful unit.”
    “We were the best the Special Forces had to
offer. When we were working all together, nothing could stand in
our way.” He knew he was speaking no less than the truth, and he
felt pride in what his friends and he had accomplished.
    Of course, he’d been sidelined well before
the other guys. Personally, he thought maybe his injury had been
the beginning of the end for his team. Right after he almost got
blown to bits, the other guys had started thinking seriously about
retiring. Oh, they’d brought up the idea once or twice over the
years, but after Drew got hurt, it seemed like priorities had
changed.
    They wouldn’t admit to it, but Drew knew. He
could put two and two together. While he’d been healing, his team
had been starting the process that eventually resulted in Grizzly
Cove. He hadn’t asked John about it outright yet, but he would one
day.
    John was a long-term strategist. He always
planned things out—years in advance, sometimes. Grizzly Cove was
one of those. John had revealed that he’d been quietly buying up
the land around here for decades before he was ready to reveal his
plan for the town to his men. They’d gone along with it, to a man,
which said something about John’s leadership and the faith his
people had in him.
    “Why did you all decide to retire?” Jetty
asked, unknowingly opening an old wound.
    Drew sighed. He could gloss over it, but for
some reason, he wanted her to know the truth.
    “In my case, it wasn’t a choice. I got blown
up by a roadside bomb, and they had to send me back State-side to
glue what was left back together.” Jetty was frowning, but she
didn’t say anything, which was good. He wouldn’t be able to get it
out if she interrupted. “My mom took over my healing, and thanks to
her stubbornness and determination, I lived. And I didn’t lose any
limbs, though that was a close thing, she tells me.”
    She sat forward, putting her hand over his,
but it felt like she knew not to say anything until he’d finished.
They were in tune already.
    “I spent months healing from something that
would’ve killed anyone else. Anyone without my mom pulling for
them.” They both knew that for a shifter to take months in
healing, the wounds had to be serious. Most shifters healed
incredibly fast due to their accelerated metabolisms. “The mental
scars were harder to deal with than the physical ones.”
    “Which is why you seek the peace of the
ocean,” Jetty whispered, moving closer. Drew didn’t object when she
reached out and put her arms around him, offering the comfort of
her embrace. “I understand that. Perhaps better than anyone
here.”
    She cupped his cheek in her palm and turned
his face toward hers. And then, they were kissing. It was a gentle
kiss filled with understanding and banked passion that threatened
to overtake them given the slightest provocation. Drew had never
felt anything like it with any other female. Jetty was