Free Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Melissa) BBW Werewolf Romance (Hope Valley BBW online dating app romances Book 3) by Ariana Hawkes Page B

for now.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Melissa said. “That must be really hard.”
    “It is sometimes.” He shrugged. “But luckily other shifters have been really accepting of me, and I’ve made some great friends in Hope Valley. I’m the doctor for pretty much all the shifters here too.”
    They stared at each other for a long moment.
    “Melissa, I know there’s a lot to think about,” he said. “I feel that you’re beginning to trust me, but I want you to be 100% assured of my part in what happened. If there’s anything else I can do to help prove my innocence, can you please let me know?”
    Melissa stared into her mochaccino while she gathered her thoughts.
    “What you’ve said to me just now has reassured me a lot,” she said slowly. “Nothing in your account has jarred with my experience of what happened to me. What I can remember of it anyway. There’s just one more thing I need to do though, to set my mind at rest.”
    “Of course. Please take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere. And when you’re sure about me, I’ll be waiting.” His eyes sparkled with emotion. “My feelings haven’t changed. You’re the girl I’ve always wanted to be with, ever since I was a kid. I’ve spent years thinking about you, hating the fact that you’ve probably been thinking about me too, but for entirely different reasons. I’ve felt so privileged to be able to get to know you over the past few days, and to discover that you have a personality every bit as lovely as I imagined. When I saw that Shiftr had identified us as a perfect match, I was so, so happy, and it gave me a glimmer of hope that one day, you’d be mine.” Melissa was stuck for words. No-one had said anything like that to her before. She’d never thought of herself as the kind of girl who aroused passionate feeling in men. Even when her husband had proposed to her, he’d used phrases like ‘ we work well together’, ‘I think you’d be a great mother to my children’. Harley had been thinking about her ever since high school. Even though rescuing her had left him scarred for life.  
    “I don’t think I need long,” she said. “Maybe only half an hour. I’m not sure. Is that ok?”
    “Of course,” he said.
    When Melissa stood up and left the cafe, she felt like she was tearing herself away from him. She walked quickly across the town square and returned to her car. Closing herself in, she dialed her mom’s number again. Her mom answered immediately.
    “What’s going on, baby? Are you ok?” she said, her voice full of anxiety.
    “Yes, I’m fine, mom,” she said. “But I need to ask you to do something for me.”
    “Of course. What is it?”
    “Do you remember my high school math teacher – Miss Henson?”
    “Yes I do. She’s retired now, of course. She’s a little frail these days, but she still has all her mental faculties.”
    “Could you find her number in the directory for me, please?”
    “Sure, honey, but why?”
    “I just have something important to ask her.” Melissa’s mom laid the phone down while she searched for it, and Melissa smiled to herself as she listened to things being moved around. The farmhouse kitchen always accumulated a lot of stuff, and finding anything took a lot of dedication. There was a rustle as the phone was picked up again.
    “Ok, it’s 975-8845.”
    “Thanks, mom.”
    “You’re welcome. But please tell me what’s going on as soon as you can, ok?”
    “I will,” Melissa promised, and they ended the call. 
    Melissa’s hand trembled a little as she dialed Miss Henson’s number. It took a long time before a soft, quavery voice answered. Melissa realized that her old math teacher was now a really old lady. She’d seemed ancient at the time, although all adults did when you were a teen. But she was likely in her mid-eighties now.
    “Hello, Miss Henson,” she said. “My name is Melissa Ericson. You used to be my math teacher. I’m not sure if you remember