Free Hero Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance by Zoe Chant Page B

they’d at least found the nearest Wal-Mart and Target. Michaela spent way more than she should have on curtains and new pots and pans and decorations, but came home feeling better than she had since the whole mess with Caleb. Maybe there really was something to retail therapy.
    The very first thing she did was strip off her old comforter and replace it with the new one she’d bought, one that Caleb Bentley hadn’t touched. She’d put the old one in the closet, and never wanted to sleep under it again.
    They spent the afternoon puttering around the apartment, hanging things on the walls, rearranging furniture, and by the time they were done, Michaela looked around with a deep sense of contentment.
    “Now it looks like a home,” Brenda declared.
    Michaela impulsively gave her a hug. “Thank you. I probably never would have gotten around to it without you.”
    “You would have eventually. Now what do you say we go make a mess in your kitchen?”
    They cooked enormously. Michaela had a pile of vegetables from Miss Harvelle’s garden, and they needed to be used. Brenda made a giant pot of green beans like Michaela’s mom used to make, with plenty of salt pork and some bacon fat, while Michaela fried the zucchini and summer squash, slices coated with a crispy layer of cornmeal. There were fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumber, and Brenda insisted on making cornbread (from scratch, Michaela noted with a small, mean pleasure). There was so much to choose from, there was no need for a meat.
    “Look at that, we’re practically vegetarians,” Brenda declared as they sat down.
    Michaela laughed. “There’s pork in the beans, I think that rules us out.”
    “I don’t trust anybody who makes beans without salt pork. It’s just not natural.”
    Michaela, who was going to be eating green beans for a week from the looks of it, didn’t complain. With the smell of good Kentucky cooking in the place, it really did feel more like a home. They took their plates out on to the back porch. The duplex butted up onto a patch of woods, and between that and Miss Harvelle’s lush garden off to one side, it felt like they were sitting in the middle of a forest.
    While they were eating, Brenda asked, almost too casually, “When you were working with us, did you ever see anything that... just seemed wrong?”
    Michaela tried to be just as casual. “I don’t know, seeing that client who kept coming in wearing a skirt and high heels and trying to use a balance ball was pretty wrong.”
    “Lord, I remember her.” Brenda flashed a brief smile. “No, I mean, from our side of things.”
    Michaela had seen plenty, but she’d sworn to stay quiet. The wrong word would be the end of her career. She shrugged. “What did you see?”
    Brenda paused for a second too long. “Never mind. It was probably nothing.”
    She didn’t mention it again, but the question stuck with Michaela. Were things still bad at Silverwood? She’d hoped that after she left, they would have improved.
    Monday morning came and Michaela headed to work with a vague sense of unease. Since Brenda had left the night before, her apartment felt a little emptier, and she was forced to face all of the feelings she’d been avoiding since ending things with Caleb. And since it was Monday, Caleb would be coming in for his physical therapy today.
    As soon as she walked in the door, she knew something was wrong. Marty was looking at her funny, and Dottie wasn’t looking at her at all. Before she had a chance to put her things away, Dottie called her into her office.
    “Shut the door, please,” Dottie said, and Michaela did, a tense knot in her belly.
    “Morning, Dottie. What’s going on?” Michaela tried to smile.
    Dottie didn’t smile back. In fact, she looked as grim as Michaela had ever seen her. “Have a seat.” Dottie opened the folder in front of her. “You had some glowing references when I hired you. Did they know the whole story?”
    Oh god. She knew. How did she