“I am so sorry,” she groaned at her near faux pas and was grateful there were no normals in the shop.
“Are you Clan then?” whispered Lacey Devlin.
“Well, unofficially-”
“Not unofficially since you mated Tonic,” Nita waddled over and introduced herself to Maya’s new customer and started playing with the toddler.
“You got a baby in there?” the child asked.
“Sure do,” Nita nodded.
“Hmm, he’s gonna be squished,” the little girl said knowingly and the adults laughed.
“It is nice to meet you both. I love to support Clan owned small businesses,” Lacey said, “and this place is just superb!”
“Thank you, so much, my stepmother and I have worked hard building it up,” Maya said ridiculously pleased at the compliment.
“Hey, didn’t you used to be a model?” Nita asked.
“Yes,” Lacey turned around and answered, but Maya could tell she wasn’t thrilled about that part of her life, “but it wasn’t for me. I like being a wife and mother a lot better than I liked modeling.”
“I see,” Maya said and gave Nita a pointed glare before turning back to Lacey, “so describe your idea one more time so I can write it down. I don’t want to miss a thing!”
“Okay, so, the thing is, I want a teddy bear!”
“What? Like a stuffed animal?”
“No, well, yes, but no. I want one made out of flowers. Can you do that? With a big blue bow that says, ‘Happy Birthday, Daddy! Love, your precious cubs’. Can you make sure the ‘s’ at the end of cubs is big? You see, I’m pregnant again and this is my way of telling him,” she whispered and bit her lip.
“I think that’s a great idea!” Nita chimed in.
“Me too and I know exactly how to make what you want. I just received this shipment of cappuccino-tinted roses that would be perfect for the body of the bear,” Maya explained to Lacey.
After taking the delivery instructions down, Maya waved goodbye to her new customer and her pretty daughter. Then she said her farewells to Nita who was waiting on Locke to get her.
Her head was spinning with ideas on how to bring Lacey’s creation to life as she walked back inside the shop to work. She had all the right materials, it was just a matter of making the frame first using chicken wire.
Flowers By Jill stopped using floral foam after Maya had presented a project on it in eleventh grade that revealed how harmful the stuff was. Plastic waste was not a joke and she and her stepmother had made the effort to make their shop as green as possible.
This was a special order and normally she would require at least a week beforehand to get it right, but she liked Lacey and her sweet cub. Maya was going to see to it that the teddy bear arrangement for her husband was just perfect.
Her mind was already buzzing with possibilities. She knew that she was going to be late getting home, but Tonic wouldn’t mind. Maya bit her lip but thinking about the way he’d greet her when she got in a little bit late would make it all worth it. She decided to call him just so he wouldn’t worry.
After trying and failing to reach Tonic by phone, she typed a text message then dropped her old cell on her desk. She did her best design work with music on, so she turned on the radio and went to the back room to begin her creation.
The warning beep that her battery was about to die, went by unnoticed as she walked inside the refrigerated room.
Maya began bending and shaping the chicken wire until it resembled a teddy bear sitting on its rump, using wire clippers and tiny little metal fasteners to hold the bits together.
Inside the chicken wire, she filled a short stout vase with water that would keep the flowers fresh then began to build out the shape of the bear with some pliable twigs and the cappuccino-tinted roses.
She used black glass rocks in just the right shapes for the eyes and nose, and a bit of black ribbon for the mouth, but the best part was the large baby blue bow that held the card with Lacey’s inscription in a heart-shaped frame made of pink roses that the flower teddy bear held between his paws.
Maya took photos and placed the boxed up arrangement in the delivery fridge before she glanced up at the clock.
“Holy crap!”
The project had taken her hours more than she’d anticipated. Turning off the music Maya reached for her cell phone, frowning when she saw it had died.
She got into her car and took off for home, hoping her mate was not too worried or upset by her being so late. When she arrived, the house was empty and Maya frowned.
Where was he?
Nine
“What’s up, man?” Bolder asked as he tipped back his beer.
Tonic had gone home to an empty house and nearly lost his mind. He tried calling Maya, but he got no answer. He didn’t want to look like a crazy Bear, and without knowing quite what to do, he asked his only remaining single brother to meet him at Bar None, the nearby Shifter-run bar they all frequented.
“Nothing. I mean, fuck, okay,” he growled and took the seat next to his typically quiet brother, “I mated Maya.”
“I know, dude, it’s why I’m sleeping at the fucking Den. But what I don’t know is why you are here when you should be home with her?”
“Bolder, she’s my mate,” he infused meaning into the word that hadn’t been there before and Bolder stilled.
“Like for real for real? Fuck, congrats I guess,” Bolder said but the way he shook his head said otherwise and Tonic growled.
His brother was sort of a misogynist, but he was the only person Tonic could talk to right now. It wasn’t that he hated women, but from what Tonic knew, Bolder had his heart broken before.
He thought by now that old wound would’ve healed, but apparently not. Bolder’s eyes narrowed as he tossed back the rest of his beer and signaled the bartender for another.
“Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“What? Then how did you guys come to terms about mating?”
“I mean, I didn’t have to tell her. She needed help and I was in a position to provide it,” Tonic toyed with his own empty beer bottle and placed it on the counter.
“And now what, you lost your mate?” laughed Bolder, but the sound was without humor, and Tonic almost thought he heard him say something like join the club.
It was too loud in there, too close for comfort. The noise inside the bar was grating on his nerves. He shouldn’t be there. Something could’ve happened to her. He should be out checking.
Tonic growled and grabbed his cell phone to see if she called or texted. But there was nothing new. No alerts or pings. Damn, maybe she’d grown tired of him?
Grrr. No, it was unthinkable. She might be at the market or something. That was all.
“Want another?”
“Nah.”
Normally, he enjoyed the locally brewed IPAs Bar None sold, but tonight they tasted like shit. He’d gone home expecting to see Maya curled up with a book or sitting at the table with some tea like she sometimes did when he was late getting in.
He often brought home meals for them since they both worked and he was hopeless in the kitchen. Tonic hated asking her to cook, to do more than she already did, so it had become habit.