Chapter Seven – Lia

“Dinner will be another ten minutes,” Lia said as she put a pan of water on to boil for the spaghetti.

“Is there anything I can do?” Sam asked.

They were in the kitchen, both fully dressed. Pity, she could get used to seeing Sam naked. And that was where she cut her thoughts off. If they were ever going to eat, she needed to get a grip. Her life was not going to descend into one of sexual obsession.

“You can open the wine.”

“This one?” he asked holding up the bottle he’d brought with him, which she had not even noticed when Sam arrived.

She turned, hiding the blush that crossed her cheeks. “There is a chilled bottle in the fridge. We can save that for later.”

“OK.” He opened the fridge and removed the chilled wine, leaving Lia thankful he hadn’t made any sexual innuendos about what else they might save for later. Actually, since they had left the bedroom, his manner had been easygoing and friendly; there was no weird sexual tension between them. Unless he was hiding it well.

Lia set the wine glasses on the table and then returned to heating the sauce, cooking the spaghetti, and warming the garlic baguette she had pulled from the freezer. Her mother would never know she hadn’t made everything from scratch.

“Smells delicious,” Sam said, keeping the conversation even.

“Thanks. My mom is a super cook. Some of it has rubbed off on me. Not as much as she hoped.” She dished everything up, her stomach growling in anticipation. While her bear growled in anticipation of what she hoped would come after.

Sam sat down at the small kitchen table that the previous resident had left. Lia barely used it; instead, she often ate curled up on the sofa with a good book, or a movie, which was how she had managed to fill the lonely void that had existed inside her since she arrived in Bear Creek. Until now. Who needed to read when she had her own romantic hero right here?

Was he her hero? Would he help her figure out the mess she was in?

“Where do your parents live?” Sam asked, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes. “I can’t quite place your accent.”

Lia paused and then took a long sip of her wine. “They are from the South originally. But my dad lost his job, so they moved East. That didn’t work out, so we moved again. Three times.” She took a bite of the baguette, realizing it might be a mistake, since they would both have garlic breath.

“So you have no fixed accent.” He nodded. “This is good, your mom will be proud.”

“Thank you.” She picked up her utensils. “What about you?”

“My parents live a couple of towns over. They have a small farm, which they figured I would run someday.”

“That sounds as if you have other plans.”

“I do. I like my job, I like helping people. Growing crops does not fulfill my life’s ambition.” His mouth dropped slightly at the corners, but then he smiled. “I think they are disappointed because neither of my brothers wants the job either.”

“That must be tough,” Lia said. “Do they pressure you?”

“No, not at all. But it’s the things left unsaid that often give the biggest clue to what people are thinking.” Sam lifted his glass and took a long drink. “This is good too.”

She smiled. “Anyone would think I was trying to impress you.”

He winked. “I was impressed from the first moment we met. The way you came at me with that broom. I will never forget it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.” He placed his glass down. “I like a woman who is not afraid to stand up for herself or other people. You were a fierce mama bear.”

“Yeah, I think I get that from my mom, for sure. She might like to cook and clean, but if you ever attack one of her cubs, she would not hold back.” Lia smiled wistfully.

“I’d like to meet them. Before we get married.”

“Married?” Of course, why would they not get married, hadn’t she been thinking how much easier it would be if she took his name and changed her appearance? There was only one problem. If her parents and the rest of her family suddenly converged on Bear Creek for a wedding, it wouldn’t take Mr. Delamere long to locate her.

“Too soon?” Sam asked.

“We did only meet today.” She loved his direct approach. Sam was a take the bull by the horns kind of a man, and she hated putting him off.

“OK, I’ll back off a little. Maybe if I ask you next week?” He grinned, an infectious sight.

“A little while longer.” Lia looked down at her dinner, trying to hide her pained expression.

Sam reached across the table, his big hand wrapping around hers. “Hey, I know I said I would not pry, but whatever it is. Whatever you are running from. Let me help.”

“Who said I was running?” Lia asked, wanting to pull back from him, but she didn’t; the warmth of his touch was hard to resist.

“Come on, don’t play games. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but don’t tell me I’m not reading the situation right. I have seen this too many times not to know what I’m looking at.”

“What do you mean?” Lia asked. She thought she had been so careful and not left a trail anyone could follow.

“You live here, in this house, but you aren’t living here.” He pointed around the kitchen. “You don’t plan to stay. I can see it in the lack of stuff in your kitchen. Your bedroom too.”

“What about my bedroom?” Lia asked defensively.

“You still have a suitcase propped up in the corner of the room, despite this being a two-bedroom property. Most people would have stowed it either in the spare room or the attic.”

“That’s it, you are basing your assumptions on my suitcase? I might simply have messy habits,” Lia said.

“The house is spotless. Mainly because you don’t have any real personal effects. No photos. No…”

“OK, you’ve made your point,” Lia said, putting her fork down, her appetite gone.

“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “This is why I don’t get out much.”

“Because you are so judgmental?” she asked, her voice harsh.

“No, because I go looking for problems, whether they exist or not.” He reached for her other hand, and she let him take hold of it, liking the way he smoothed his thumb across the back of her hand. “But I think the problem here is real. It exists, doesn’t it?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she stared down at her plate, trying to decide what to tell him. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He let out a pent-up breath. “As long as you don’t hurt my heart by telling me there is another man in your life, I can take it.”

“There is another man, but not what you think.” Lia risked looking at Sam, both hating and treasuring the look of concern he returned.

“Go on.” His voice reinforced his concern for her.

“Before I moved to Bear Creek, I had a well-paying job, I was the personal assistant to the CEO of a big corporation.” She took a big gulp of her wine, while Sam sat quietly and waited for her to continue. “You’re a good listener.” She smiled softly at him, her heart racing to think that he was hers.

“I’ve had more practice than you would believe.”

He gave her the strength to continue. “It was a good job, and I enjoyed it. I had a lot of responsibility, organizing my boss’s work day, and often his personal life. I booked both working dinners and dinner for him and his wife.” She pressed her lips together. “The longer I worked there, the more my boss relied on me. Both in his professional and personal life.”

“Did he pressure you to sleep with him?” Sam asked.

“Goodness, no. Nothing like that.” She shook her head adamantly. “He only had eyes for his wife.”

“So what happened?”

“Some very valuable jewelry went missing.”

“And you got the blame?” Sam asked in disbelief.

“Yes.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “It seems my boss wasn’t everything I thought he was.”

“He let you down?” Sam’s voice was soft, coaxing.

“I thought he trusted me. Anyway, he sent some men to search my apartment and one piece of jewelry was found there.” She gave him a weak smile. “I ran.”

“How did it end up in your apartment?” Sam’s expression changed. “You were set up. Why?”

She picked up her glass of wine and sipped it. “I have analyzed this from all sides, and I still have no idea. Only my boss knew the combination of the safe. But I was in the presence of my boss enough times, that it was assumed that I watched and learned.”

“That’s it? That’s not a lot of evidence. The jewelry could have been planted. What about fingerprints?”

“What do you mean? You have accused me of not planning to stay in Bear Creek because I didn’t put my suitcase away.”

“Ahh, but I’m an expert.”

“They found the evidence in my apartment. Any reasonable person would accuse me.”

“But I am not reasonable,” Sam told her. “I know you are innocent, and I am going to prove it.”

“No!” Lia shook her head. “I don’t want you involved in any of this.”

“I can help you. That’s what I’m here for.” His voice was fierce. “I will not let anyone hurt you. And the best way to prevent that from happening is to prove you are innocent.”

“You don’t think I’ve tried? Before I came here, I went over it all.” Lia stood up and began to clear the table. “There was nothing to prove I didn’t take it.”

“Security videos?” Sam asked.

“Offline.” She turned to look at him. “I could have done it.”

“And the safe. You say only your boss had the combination?”

“Yes. But the theory I could have learned the combination is accurate.” She sighed and folded her arms across her chest. “If I close my eyes and think about it, I probably could put in the correct combination code in a couple of tries.” She closed her eyes, held her hand up and mimicked the action of Mr. Delamere as he stood in front of the safe. “559735.”

“Are you sure?” Sam asked, sounding impressed.

“I remember things,” Lia explained. “I can read an article in a magazine, and recall it months later. I can watch a documentary, read the instructions, recipes… You name it, it’s filed away somewhere. I can’t help it.”

“You are a genius,” Sam said in awe.

“Not really, I can regurgitate facts and arrange information. But I don’t come up with original ideas. Those are the people who are geniuses.”

“You are selling yourself short,” Sam said.

Lia let out a long breath, her shoulders sagging. “Look where I’ve ended up. I think we can both agree I have not played things smart. Somewhere along the line, I upset someone enough to make them want to hurt me.”

“Your boss’s wife?” Sam asked.

“No,” Lia answered quickly. “I don’t know her enough to upset her. I may have made dinner arrangements and bought theater tickets for them. But I didn’t have a relationship with her.”

“You never met her?” Sam asked.

“I met her, but when she walks into a room, she ignores everyone who isn’t important. And I am not important to her.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed. “But you have been in the same room as her? You’ve listened to her talk. You knew her well enough to buy her gifts from her husband.”

“From listening to him and the conversations they had.” She blushed. “I don’t mean in an eavesdropping kind of a way.”

“You don’t have to explain it,” Sam got up and came to stand next to her. “We’re similar. It’s why I’m good at what I do.”

Lia leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. “I just want it all to go away.”

“I know, honey, which is why I’m going to help you straighten it all out.” He kissed the top of her head. “Tell me your boss’s name, and I’ll go take a look.”

“No, I don’t want you involved.”

“I am involved.” He tipped her chin up so that she had to face him. “I was involved the moment we first met. And if we are mates for a reason, maybe it’s because I am the one person who can help straighten this out for you.”

“OK. Mr. Delamere, the company is called Total Solutions.”

“Well, that is an ominous name if ever I heard one,” Sam said easily.

“Yeah.” She rested her head on his chest. “But I think you are looking in the wrong place if you think Mrs. Delamere has anything to do with this.”

“You would be surprised how often it turns out to be the wife…or the husband. I am not being sexist. Which is why I am so grateful I am a shifter, and my mate is one too. There will never be any cause for us to think the other is being unfaithful.”

“Wait, you think Mrs. Delamere set me up because she thinks I’m having an affair with her husband?” She shook her head again. “No way.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“And how did she get the necklace into my apartment?” Lia asked.

“That is what I aim to find out. Now, write down all the details. Do you have a key for your old apartment?”

“You’re going there?” she asked, fetching a pen and paper.

“I am going everywhere.” He began to wash the dishes, while Lia wrote down every single last detail that she thought might help him. It wasn’t much, but once it was done, she felt a small amount of relief. She included his routine, including his lunch and power-nap time. Just in case Sam needed to sneak into the office and look at the safe.

A problem shared, her bear reminded her.

Is a problem halved, Lia ended. As she glanced back at Sam, she decided it was time to let her defenses down around him. Completely down. She wanted to be naked to his eyes, in every possible way.