Free Healing the Bear by Vanessa Devereaux Page B

that.
    “You’re
very quiet all of a sudden,” said Dane.
    “Post
sex makes me sleepy.”
    “As long as pre sex doesn’t.”
    “You
want something to drink, a soda or more tea?”
    “I
am sort of thirsty, but after my drink I’ll have to go because I have to be up
early for my job interview.”
    Melanie
slid out of bed. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. And I’ll be right back
with some soda.”
    ****
    Dane
flopped over onto his back. It was raining. He could hear the gentle plip -plop on the window pane. He loved rain. Depending on
what season it was on their planet, rain was sometimes colored blue or pink.
When they were kids both he and Lucinda used to lie on the hills and look up at
it falling. Sometimes they’d stick out their tongues and then giggle and point
at one another as the rainbow colors splashed over them.
    He
sat up and smiled when he noticed the teddy bear. Uggy. He reached over for it. The nose was the most bear like feature on him. In
fact, whoever made it had done a pretty good job with it. The mouth, well, not
so much. He turned it around to see if he could find a manufacturer’s name but
instead he spotted a slit in its fur. Not where it had ripped on a seam, but a
straight edge like someone had intentionally cut through its fur and into the
stuffing. He pressed his finger against it. There was something inside the
bear.
    Now
he was intrigued. He knew it was wrong, but he wanted to find out what it was.
He heard the bathroom door shutting and knew he had a few minutes until Melanie
came back. He pushed his index finger and thumb inside and they met with what
felt like papers. He pulled on them.
    Photos
fell out onto his lap.
    Melanie with strawberry blonde hair and
a man with dark hair with his arm around her, both smiling for the camera. Next one a wedding, Melanie and the man. Another
photo of Melanie with two older people. Her resemblance to the man was
uncanny and Dane guessed it was her dad. Another photo of
Melanie with a bunch of kids.   It
looked like a classroom.   More photos of
her and the man. He heard the toilet being flushed and knew he had to get all
the snapshots back inside the bear before she caught him snooping. He was all
fingers and thumbs, and as he pushed them inside he realized he’d bent a few. Damn.
    He
heard footsteps and then saw the door open. He set the bear on his lap.
    She
stopped dead in her tracks like she was scared at what she saw. Why would she
hide those photos? If it was the husband she’d lost wouldn’t she have them in a
frame somewhere on display like he did with his photos of him and Lucinda?
    “What
were you doing?” She looked at the bear.
    “Just checking out the teddy bear. He’s cute.”
    “Yeah,
he is, in fact to me he’s priceless.”
    Dane
looked at her. Bears knew when someone was hiding something. He could also
smell fear on her again. He wouldn’t push it now, but he wanted to know all
about those photos, the man in them, and why she’d opted to hide them so well.

 
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    Melanie
hoped Dane hadn’t thought she’d just wanted sex and then hurried him away. If
she’d had her way, she would have rather him stay the night. However, when
she’d gotten back to the room and seen him sitting with Uggy on his lap, her
nervous radar had gone into overdrive.
    She
turned the bear around, slid her fingers inside his back, and pulled out her
photos. She knew them well enough and how they were arranged to know they were
in the wrong order and one had a crease where it was bent by someone pushing it
into the crammed space, and it certainly hadn’t been her. She’d broken the
cardinal rule of keeping something that connected her former and present life
and identity. No one was supposed to know about those photos or even the bear.
    Dane
had seen the photos and he’d not said anything or asked anything. Something to be scared about?
    She
shook her head. She trusted him with her heart and soul. He was a kind