Chapter Two – Adam

Impossible. This was impossible, yet here she was, the woman who made his heart race and his breath catch in his chest. But it was impossible.

Yet when their eyes met, he knew it was true. The impossible made possible. But how?

Adam held out his hand and she took it, her touch setting his soul on fire. It had to be real.

“Thank you.” Frankie turned back toward the table and the two confused children seated around it. “Don’t eat all the cakes before I come back.”

“We won’t,” Jenny answered, her face full of concern.

“I’ll only keep your aunt for a couple of minutes,” Adam promised.

Liar, his bear replied. We are going to keep her forever, and never let her go.

Adam wanted to agree with his bear, but he couldn’t. After all, they had already let her go once.

“Shall we go to my office?” Adam asked her gently. Frankie looked pale and fragile, and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the world and everything in it.

“Yes.” She followed him. He could hear her heart racing and she placed a hand on her chest, her worry deepening.

Adam opened the door and led her from the dining room, she took one last look over her shoulder as the door closed. “They’ll be all right. Hank will watch them.”

“I’ve ruined their afternoon,” Frankie said sadly.

“Have you? I find children are resilient and bounce back quickly. Especially if you give them something to take their minds off things.” He smiled softly. If only adults were so easily distracted.

“Do you mean more cake?” she asked lightly, her voice composed as she recovered from the shock of meeting him.

“No, I thought when you’ve finished, we could walk down to the Gothic folly, it overlooks the hotel grounds. I could even tell them a ghost story or two.” Adam opened the door of his office, holding it open for her to enter. As she walked past, he took a deep breath, inhaling her scent.

“You don’t smell so bad yourself,” Frankie answered, turning to face him. “What is this?”

“You don’t know?” Adam asked warily. “I thought you were…” Of course, he knew Ruth wasn’t a shifter but hadn’t he heard that Frankie was a half-sister and had the power to shift?

“I am.” She placed her hand on her chest once more, her eyes unfocused, before she snapped to attention. “I wanted to be sure.”

He gave a soft laugh. “I’m sure.” He didn’t sound convincing even to his own ears, but how could he explain to her why there might be doubt?

“Good, because I thought I was having a heart attack.” She made light of it, but he sensed an underlying fear.

“I’m as shocked as you,” he admitted. Shocked, overjoyed, confused at the impossible.

“In a good way, I hope?” Frankie asked, searching his face for answers.

“In a good way.” A beeping filled the room, and he looked down at his phone. “I’m on duty. Can I meet you later?”

“For our walk?” Frankie watched the confusion cross his face.

“Yes, the walk on the grounds.” Although he wanted to meet her again much later, under the bright full moon with the stars above their heads and love in their hearts. A deep love forged between two people whose hearts and souls belonged together.

Where do you get this stuff from? his bear asked in annoyance.

I have no idea, Adam responded with a lopsided smile.

“If you are not too busy.” Had she noticed his preoccupation with his bear and thought he wasn't interested?

“No, I’m not too busy.” His phone beeped again, but he kept his eyes on Frankie as if to prove she was the most important thing in his life. “Do you think an hour is enough time for Jenny and Jason to stuff themselves silly with cake?”

“Oh, I do.” She nodded, a smile spreading across her face. “I’ll see you later?”

“Yes.” If he reached out and grabbed her, would she object to a kiss? But that wasn’t Adam’s style. He’d spent so long putting up barriers, telling him he could live a life alone, that any act of spontaneity toward his mate would have to be planned. He shook his head, he was a hopeless case.

No, his bear said. We are a hopeful case once more.

Adam followed Frankie out of his office and pulled the door shut, lingering a few seconds longer to watch as she walked back toward the dining room. When she was out of sight, he let out his breath and huffed like a man who had run a marathon. What did this mean?

Who cares, his bear replied. Don’t go looking for trouble. We’ve been given a second chance.

But as far as Adam knew, second chances didn’t exist in the world of shifters. You had one mate, and that was it.

However, there was no mistaking the connection between him and Frankie. It was real.

Did that mean that what he felt before wasn’t real? Had he spent the last few years drowning in a sea of hopelessness for nothing?

“Mr. Painter.” Emily’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Yes?” He shook off thoughts of Frankie for a moment. His self-control couldn’t last longer than that, her face swam in his head, her scent lingered in the air.

“Mr. Painter?” Emily’s concern forced him to get a grip on himself.

“Coming. What can I help you with?” Adam asked.

“Mr. and Mrs. Douglas wanted to know if we have any availability for weddings this summer,” Emily said brightly, indicating a couple standing to one side in the hotel lobby.

“Wedding.” Adam lost his hold on his imagination for a second and an image of him and Frankie getting married crossed his mind. She was dressed in white, walking toward him, while everyone looked on.

“Yes. Wedding.” Emily raised her eyebrows at him. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Absolutely.” Adam straightened his tie and pulled his jacket straight, and walked over to the couple. “Hello, Adam Painter, I hear you are considering The Catherine Hotel as your wedding venue.”

“Yes, we read an article in Bear Creek News about how the owner named the hotel after his long lost love. It’s so romantic.” The female half of the couple entwined her fingers with her fiancé’s.

“Shall we go through to my office, and we can have a chat. It’ll give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.” Adam walked back along the corridor to his office. His duty was to spend as much time as needed with the prospective clients. But he was going to make sure he was finished in an hour so he could spend time with his mate.

As Adam went over the wedding package, thoroughly, but with a sense of urgency, he realized just how much his life was about to change. Julius had only recently promoted him to the hotel manager and given him a princely pay raise, and a large apartment at the hotel, to go with the added responsibility. At the time, Adam had welcomed the extra workload as a way of fending off his eternal loneliness.

Meeting Frankie had changed all that. How would their lives fit together? He knew nothing about her, only that she had recently moved to Bear Creek, the next town over.

“Thank you so much, Adam.” The couple was getting up, ready to leave.

“Thank you. I can promise you, your wedding will be in good hands. The Catherine Hotel prides itself on making sure our bride and groom have the best day imaginable.” He smiled, infusing the couple with confidence.

Walking back to the hotel lobby, he shook hands with them and wished them well. Then he stood and watched them leave, maintaining his usual dignity until they were halfway across the parking lot. Then he took two steps backward, then three, before spinning on his heel and striding toward the dining room.

Adam pushed the door open, a little too eagerly, much to the amusement of Emily, whom he could hear smothering her laughter. What did he care, his mate was here!

“Mr. Painter,” Hank said as Adam crossed the dining room. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you, Hank.” Everything I could possibly want is right here.

Frankie sensed his presence and half turned to look at him. Across the table, Jenny and Jason were sipping hot chocolate, but they looked up as he approached, and Adam instantly knew Frankie had told them.

If Adam was not already convinced Frankie was a shifter who experienced the mating bond, then he was now. If she had told her nephew and niece, it must be true.

Of course, it’s true, his bear told him.

Yet Adam had harbored a small seed of doubt. Only because it was impossible.

“Hello, Adam.” Jenny smiled, her eyes wide as she then switched her gaze to Frankie. “You’re going to be part of our family.” Adam reached out and put his hand on the back of the chair, as Frankie shook her head at Jenny. “Sorry.”

“We have to be discreet,” Frankie explained.

“Because not everyone is a shifter, silly goose,” Jason said and received a glare from his sister.

“I am not a silly goose,” Jenny insisted.

“Quack, quack,” Jason flapped his arms.

“Enough, Jason,” Frankie warned. “This isn’t the playground.”

“Sorry,” Jason said quietly.

“And anyway, geese do not quack and flapping your arms makes you look like a chicken.” Adam kept his face perfectly straight, and the two children stared at him, not knowing if they were supposed to laugh.

Frankie’s lips twitched, but she kept it together. “Adam is right.” She stood up and turned to him. “And maybe we might see some geese or ducks in the gardens. Adam offered to show us the Gothic folly in the gardens.”

“Yesss.” Jason got up, his face flushed with excitement.

“I think they need to run off some of the sugar,” Frankie admitted.

“Then let’s go.” Adam shepherded them out of the dining room, turning right and leading the way down a corridor that took them out into the gardens. Jenny and Jason instantly took off across the grass, laughing in the late afternoon sunshine.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Frankie stood for a moment, admiring the neatly trimmed lawn, and the abundant flowerbeds. The lawn sloped gently down to where a Gothic folly stood next to a small lake. Built over a hundred years ago, by a member of the family who used to own The Catherine Hotel when it was still a family house, before they lost their fortune. It conjured up visions of Gothic romance, with its high domed ceiling, and arched abbey windows, complete with ever watchful gargoyles carved into the stone, looking down over the large arched doorway.

Next to the folly, a building that had no real purpose, despite its ornate stonework, a weeping willow trailed its branches into the small lake. Which wasn’t much bigger than a pond, but in the summer dragonflies skimmed the surface, and tadpoles turned into tiny frogs.

“It is. I like to come out here each day and walk the grounds.” He waited until she was ready to follow the children, who had reached the Gothic folly but hadn’t ventured inside. Instead, they were approaching the pond with stealth.

“If I had a garden like this, I’d be out here all the time.” Frankie lifted her face to the sun. “The house I rent has a garden, I’m slowly trying to finish what Ruth started and reclaim it from the weeds.”

“Can I help?” Adam asked. “Not that I don’t think you can manage alone. And I don’t want to impose.”

Frankie took Adam’s hand in an act of spontaneity. “I’d like you to help. Goodness knows I need it.”

“I’m sure you are capable of anything.” Adam winced inwardly at his words.

“I can see why all the guests like you.” Frankie flashed him a smile. “You have a reputation, Mr. Painter.”

She lifted his hand and looked at his palm. “Julius always tells us he knows he’s leaving The Catherine in safe hands when you are in charge.” Frankie traced the lines crisscrossing his palm with her finger.

Adam closed his eyes as he fought to control the overwhelming need to kiss her. She excited him, her nearness arousing, and he longed to pick her up in his arms and carry her down to the Gothic folly and make love to her.

“Come on.” She took off at a run across the grass, carefree and wild with abandon. Adam followed. If anyone in the hotel saw him, they would puzzle over the strange sight of the man in a suit and tie, running around the garden. But he didn’t care, he wanted to whoop with happiness.

“What can you see?” Frankie asked when they reached the lake.

“Tadpoles. Look, they have all their legs.” Jason pointed at the water.

“In a few more days, they will be all hopping around in the grass.” Adam hunkered down next to the pond. “Look, there’s a newt.”

“I’ve never seen a newt,” Jason said, inching closer to the water.

“When I was a boy, I used to love looking in ponds and under rocks and leaves to see what I could find,” Adam remembered the days well.

“Will you teach me?” Jason asked. “To identify all the mini beasts.”

Adam looked into Jason’s eager face. “I’d like that.”

“Me, too!” Jenny said.

They spent half an hour looking in the pond and under rocks, the children more interested in wildlife than the Gothic folly. Perhaps he could bring Frankie here one evening. Just the two of them, and he could kiss her under the stone arch, while the stone gargoyles watched.

“I have to go.” Adam’s phone beeped. “No rest for the wicked.”

“I don’t think you could ever be wicked,” Frankie told him.

He took her hand briefly, while the children scampered around the edge of the pond. “I could be. If you wanted me to.”

She blushed. “Mr. Painter, I don’t know what to say.”

“That you’ll meet me tonight after my shift has ended. Anywhere. Anytime.”

Frankie took a piece of paper out of her purse and scribbled her address on it before handing it to Adam. “Anytime. I’ll be waiting.”