“So, tell me a little bit more about yourself,” Bruce said, urging Vicky onward. She had been chatting with Greg about what her old house was like, and he could tell his sons were measuring the woman up and still trying to decide what they thought of her. There was something compelling about her. He wanted to find out everything he possibly could.
“I’m more interested in learning more about you. I’m sure Alice already told you everything there is to know about me.”
“Well, she did tell me a lot,” Bruce admitted. In truth, Alice had been raving about Victoria to him for the past week, ever since he had brought Marie over to find out what it was she wanted to talk to him about. He already knew that her father was deceased, and her mother was absent, though there seemed to be something about that that Alice was keeping to herself about. That was all right, though. Everybody was entitled to secrets. “But tell us a little more. If you do, I will tell you about myself. It can be a trade.”
The kids were watching them curiously. He knew they were probably just as interested in this woman as he was. They wanted to measure her up. Marie had already accepted her with open arms, but the boys would probably take a lot more convincing.
“Well, I have three younger siblings. That’s how I got into this line of work. I helped my mother take care of them and learned just how good I am at this kind of thing. It is a natural progression, I guess.”
“Do you get along with your family?” Michael asked.
“I try to,” Vicky answered with a small smile.
“Are they difficult?” Bruce asked. He could understand difficult family relations.
“Well, my brothers are all wonderful. It’s my mother that is hardest for me to get along with.”
Victoria clamped up suddenly; something that might have been hard for a human to read and understand, but to the four bear shifters at the table, it was easy to tell that she didn’t want to say any more. And Bruce would set a good example for his kids and accept those boundaries without putting up a fight.
“I see,” Bruce said. “Your siblings are lucky to have you. You are a very skilled childcare provider.”
“Thank you,” Vicky said quietly. “So, tell me about you then. Where do you work? What do you do there?”
“Actually,” Bruce said, instantly tired at the thought of his career. “I own my own business. We are working hard to do a lot of expansion. It’s actually been really stressful because there is a lot of demand for me; since it belongs to me, sometimes there are things only I can do, and combined with all the other responsibilities, it can be overwhelming.”
“What is overwhelming about it?”
“For example, we’ve been organizing a team-building retreat. Because of our expansions recently, that means I’m having a hard time being in a thousand places at once. It’s my job to make sure my team is doing what they can to move the company forward, but they want me to make an appearance at the retreats and help the people who work for the company to feel as if I am present and to give them that added incentive to work hard.”
“I can imagine that would be difficult to pull off if you are being a parent full-time.”
“Very difficult,” Bruce said with a small, resigned smile. It was why he had finally agreed to listen to Alice and bring Victoria in.
She had been asking him about looking into childcare ever since his wife had left, but he had been far too concerned about his kids being hurt or traumatized by being thrust into a new relationship with a woman they hardly knew so soon after being abandoned by their mother. He had done his best to be careful with them so they could survive with the least amount of confusion and difficulty possible. Marie had only been an infant, and the boys were significantly younger, mentally as well as physically.
At least now they had had a chance to adapt to being without their mother for long enough that it could almost be considered natural for them to have a new person introduced into their routine. Sure, it was always hard for them without a mother, but at least this way they would still be able to have a woman’s touch in their lives.
“But,” Bruce added quickly, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Still, having you here is really going to help to free up my time so I can get a lot done with my business. It’s been a long time, it’s good for me to be able to surrender a bit of control over the household so I can take care of other matters. I’ve gotten very behind. I have neglected my company for too long. It will be good to get back on top of things. I’d like to put these guys through college.”
He smiled out at his kids, who had been watching the conversation somberly.
“I want to be an artist at college!” Marie said with an enthusiastic nod.
“You can be an artist anywhere,” Michael said sharply.
“I will learn at college,” Marie pointed out.
“I want to be an engineer,” Greg said thoughtfully, picking at the food on his plate.
“That’s a good idea,” Bruce said. “You would be a great engineer. What about you, Michael?”
Michael was still feeling bitter about the altercation in Marie’s bedroom and Bruce could tell. But he knew better than to take it out on his father and thought carefully about the question.
“I want to be a doctor. Because I don’t like seeing people hurting.”
“That’s a really good career option,” Bruce said.
“And a great reason to want to do it,” Vicky added.
Bruce shot his look over to Victoria. She hadn’t been hurt or intimidated by Mike’s bad temper at all, and the fact that she was actually encouraging him was very positive.
“Yeah,” Michael said noncommittally. He continued eating and looked away from the adults as if they no longer interested him. “Bear shifters don’t get sick very much but they do get hurt a lot and I want to be able to make them feel better.”
“You will be very valuable.”
Bruce gave his son a reassuring smile and Michael shifted in his seat.
“Does this mean you’re going to be working all the time?” Greg asked suddenly, looking straight at Bruce with something akin to panic in his eyes.
“I will work more, but don’t worry. I’ll still see you guys a lot. Probably all the time really.”
“All the time when you’re not working,” Greg pointed out.
“Well, yes, all the time when I’m not working,” Bruce agreed. “That’s not really a time that I can spend with you, but you already knew that.”
“Yeah,” Greg said with a small but proud smile.
“I don’t know why you ask such a stupid question sometimes,” Michael said. Bruce scowled at him.
“Mike, what did you just say to your brother?”
Michael clamped up and looked down at his plate, glaring at it as if it were his greatest enemy.
“Answer me, boy.”
The children were staring at Bruce now, all of them but Michael. He could tell their attention was on him and they were afraid. Sometimes, he had a tendency to slip into the same type of temperament that his own father had succumbed to when he was a child. He was repeating the same cycle, and it was not necessarily a good one. His father had never been there for him, but when he was, it was usually only to punish them, and quite severely at that.
“I said I don’t know why Greg asks such a stupid question sometimes.”
Michael was giving him quite an attitude, and it was starting to severely piss him off. The kid had been mouthy with the new nanny, and now he was taking it out on his brother. Bruce could let one thing go, but now, Michael was testing him and pushing his buttons. Didn’t his children know better by now?
“You need to apologize to your brother for the way you’re behaving and go upstairs.”
“But I’m not finished eating!”
“Then you should’ve thought about that before you opened your fucking mouth.”
Marie let out a soft gasp, and Greg kept looking at Bruce and turning his attention back to his brother, knowing for sure that he was going to receive far more punishment from his brother for all of this than his brother was probably going to see for speaking out. This made Greg anxious and he whimpered, turning his eyes to his father. “No, it’s okay. I do ask a lot of stupid questions. Don’t get Michael in trouble.”
But Bruce was already committed and turned his cool gaze onto his middle child.
“It’s not okay for Michael to keep acting out so much. He isn’t being kind to our guest. Not only that, but he is’n’t being kind to his own brother. That’s almost worse, don’t you think? You guys are going to be together forever. He needs to treat you with respect and dignity, and if he’s not going to do that, then what kind of leader is he? You can’t let him treat you badly just because you look up to him. In fact, you should never look up to anybody that doesn’t treat you with respect.”
“But, Dad, all he said was the truth.”
“It isn’t true. There is no such thing as a stupid question, especially when you are young and learning about the world. I was patient with him when he had questions, and now he should be patient with you and your sister. He’s just taking out his vile temper on someone smaller than him. That makes him a bully, not a leader. Do you understand?”
Bruce could feel the stern gaze of Victoria upon him as he spoke to his son, and although he almost regretted the outburst, there were certain things that the bear shifter needed to teach his children, especially his sons. He was pretty lost in the ways of nurturing with the delicate ways that Victoria seemed to be a natural, but he did need to teach his children how to behave and lead, not how to get away with having temper tantrums just because they knew they were powerful leaders.
“I understand, but I don’t like seeing him get in trouble,” Greg mumbled.
“Then he should behave himself.”
“Okay, Dad,” he said.
Greg nodded and went back to eating, and Bruce stood up to go talk to Michael. He hated the way he could hear his own father in his voice sometimes. Sure, his dad had been somewhat worse, but there were times when Bruce knew he was mirroring some of the worst qualities about his father. That was one of the reasons he had finally given in to Alice’s suggestion that he bring in some hired help to deal with his children. At least this way, they would have a soft hand to help them deal with this harshness. That was something that had been useful when he was with his wife.
Even though she didn’t like to be a mother, she had a natural tendency toward being more gentle with the children than he was. And although he was kind and fair with them, he had a hard time with the nurturing aspect. It just wasn’t in his make-up. He wanted to raise them to be strong and to be able to take on the world around them. And for the most part, he was able to do that. However, they needed a soft approach that he wasn’t capable of giving. And now, with Victoria here, maybe they would be a little bit happier.
As Bruce headed through the house up to his son’s room, he thought about Victoria. She was beautiful, in a way he had never seen beauty in anybody before. Especially not a human. Humans had a tendency to be selfish and consumed with their looks. And although it was clear Vicki took pride in herself, it wasn’t to the same shallow extent many of the humans he had encountered had a tendency to fall into.
It was strange just how drawn he was to this woman. He had been avoiding dating for a long time. In fact, he had been blessed with many opportunities to go out with some very interesting and gorgeous women around Oak Mountain, and beyond, especially during his conferences. But he always wanted to make sure he was doing what was best for his family and dividing his attention among his children and a woman who probably wasn’t going to be wife or mother material was definitely at the bottom of his list. He wanted to take care of his children and himself and had been doing his best to avoid dating. It just wasn’t something he needed, especially when he was already struggling so badly to create the time he needed to work and to raise his children at the same time.
Now, this was going to be a completely different dynamic. He was going to be living with a woman that he was struggling not to get to know too well. The bear within him was eager for a chance to get closer to her, and he was afraid that if he wasn’t careful, she might end up being claimed. This was the last thing he wanted, but everything that had happened so far seemed to be pointing to a greater pull between them than anything he had experienced before.
“Michael,” Bruce said, stepping into the bedroom. The son stared at him, his face silky. Michael was standing in the middle of the room, bracing himself for the ultimate storm.
“I understand there are a lot of changes going on,” Bruce began, trying his best to stay patient. He really hated when his father’s temper came out of him like it had. And although he couldn’t apologize to his son, at least not yet, he wanted to make sure Michael knew he was only trying to be fair. “But there is never any reason to take your temper out on somebody smaller than yourself. Just because it seemed easy at the time, it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to take it back in the future. A man can destroy himself with guilt, especially when he makes bad choices toward the people he loves. Choices he shouldn’t have made and wishes he could take back.”
“I do feel bad when I’m mean to Greg sometimes,” Michael said, heading over to his bed and sinking down on it with a small sigh.
“Yes, and that is a good thing. It means you know you are not being fair to him. The leader should always be fair. You understand?”
“Yeah, I understand. It’s just hard sometimes. He gets on my nerves so much.”
Bruce laughed and shook his head.
“I know, but that’s just the way it has to be sometimes. Little brothers don’t know everything big brothers know. And sometimes, they are going to be annoying. But you must try to be fair even when that happens. Can you try that?”
“Yeah.” Michael was quiet for a few moments and then looked back at his father. “I don’t think I like having the nanny here. She is not our mom.”
Bruce looked at his son suddenly with a new understanding.
“You’re right about that, buddy. But she isn’t trying to be your mom. She’s just here to try and keep things running smoothly. Nobody will ever replace your mom. And she knows how much you love her. Just try to be patient, everything will turn out all right.” Bruce smiled. “You might even find that you like Victoria. She has a lot of tricks up your sleeve, and she is really fun to be around. So just give her a chance. And if you don’t like her within the next six months, we can talk like men and figure out a solution. Okay?”
Michael smiled, relief clear upon his features. “Okay,” he said.
Bruce tousled his son’s hair and headed back downstairs, sighing heavily to himself. This was going to be a challenge, but hopefully, Victoria would be able to sail through it with flying colors. He could only hope.
That night, the kids were all tucked away in bed and Bruce was readying himself for the trip he had to take for work. It was such a relief to be able to go where he needed to go without anybody bothering him about it. His conscience would nag him to leave his kids alone for so long, but he trusted them with Vicky somehow. It just seemed right. Nothing was going to go wrong with her around. He had a strong belief in that being the case.
He cursed inwardly, suddenly realizing he hadn’t remembered to give her the spare key. It was something she was going to need, especially when it came to bringing his kids back and forth throughout the mountain. If they were happy staying put then maybe it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but they were active cubs and had all sorts of activities they liked to participate in. It was part of why Bruce was so concerned about money. They always seemed to need it for this or that. And if his business was floundering, there was no way he would be able to keep up with the things his children liked to take part in.
He rummaged through the junk drawer in the kitchen until he pulled out the keys and smiled to himself, heading upstairs to Vicky’s bedroom. He didn’t think twice before opening the door. He thought she was still in the shower and was just going to leave them on the end table for her with a note. But when he pushed the door open, he froze. She was changing her clothes, fresh out of the shower, her body revealed for his eyes to scan entirely.
Instantly, all the blood rushed to his abdomen and he felt a hot, urgent pressure build there as he grew erect, gazing at her beautiful curves. He had never seen anybody so desirable in all his life, and it was probably obvious just how deeply he had been affected by it.
“Bruce,” she gasped, looking frantically around the room for a towel or anything to cover her body with. But she couldn’t find anything in arm’s reach, and her eyes suddenly seemed to find the bulge in his pants. He could instantly sense her arousal and the bear within him almost struck right then and there. It took all he had to restrain himself, and he backed out of the room, dropping the key onto the end table.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, breaking his eyes away from her body and turning away, closing the door quickly behind himself. His entire body was surging with adrenaline. He had never wanted anything more in his life than to take her in his arms and claim her without delay. But that would have been wrong. Everything about this was all wrong. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to do what was right for his kids and not fuck the babysitter senseless, no matter how deeply the bear wanted it. That wasn’t going to help any of them. He had to go on a trip and he had to make sure everything went smoothly. Otherwise, there would be hell to pay. For all of them.