Hold My Bear (Virtue Shifters Book 5) by Zoe Chant

Author:Zoe Chant [Chant, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Just walking to the gazebo was almost enough exercise to settle lunch. Steve thought the town square was probably a couple hundred yards per side, more than twice the size of a football field, and the gazebo was smack in the middle of it. He mumbled, "Well, maybe not," aloud as they crossed the street to the square's wide sidewalks, then struck off across the green toward the gazebo.

Charlee glanced up at him, eyebrows lifted with interest. "Are you talking to your bear again?"

Steve felt a blush building. "No, just to myself. I was thinking it was almost a long enough walk to the gazebo to settle lunch, but maybe not. It's only a couple minutes, really."

"Walking around it would be enough, though. It must be what, half a mile?"

"Pretty close," Steve agreed. "I've never seen a town square this big in a town this small."

Charlee dropped her voice. "You said there were lots of shifters here, right? Do you think maybe it's for them, somehow?"

"Might be, at that. Virtue was settled by shifters, according to Jake's parents. Maybe this was all forested at some point, like a little hideaway right in the middle of town."

"Oooh." Charlee stopped on the green, looking around as if with new eyes. "You know what, I bet you're right. I bet this is about a three acre square, now that I'm thinking of it that way. Three acres is quite a lot of woods to put in the middle of a town. It'd be a pretty good refuge. But why wouldn't it still be wooded?"

"A million reasons," Steve said as she caught up with him on the walk to the gazebo. "People who didn't know about the shifters moved in, or some unsavory element was staying in the woods, or the fashion just changed over the centuries. Green spaces where parents could see their kids instead of sending them out running through the trees probably got more popular."

"They should totally reforest it. At least line it with trees for shade. Better for the environment, too. Seriously, though, it's so huge they could have a football field on one side and trees and a playground and benches and there would still be tons of room. Somebody should do that."

"Sounds like you should run for town council once the restaurant's up and running!"

"Oh." Charlee visibly faltered, slowing and shaking her head. "No, I couldn't. I…no. I could never get involved in politics or anything. People ask too many questions." She shook her head again as they reached the gazebo, and climbed the steps to sit on one of the internal benches with her knees drawn up and her arms around them.

Steve sat beside her, not too close. Worry came off his bear in waves, and he felt it too, making a furrow of concern between his eyebrows. "Questions about what? Not that you have to tell me, but…if there's anything I can help with, Charlee, I will. I know you're carrying something that bothers you."

She met his eyes momentarily, then glanced down again with a tiny, dismissive shrug.

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