The Bear's Bride (Mail-Order Mates #3)(9)

“Could you maybe keep my Bride status just between us? I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet.”

Gwen mimed zipping her lips. “You can count on me to keep your secret. But don’t make me wait too long!”

“I’ll do my best.”

Gwen set Amy up in a room on the second floor of the hotel. The rooms had obviously been remodeled since the hotel was first built. It was cute and very clean.

Amy flopped back on the bed. So far, so good. She was starting to feel hopeful about the whole mail-order bride thing. Maybe she had found her match.

***

Frank got to work once he dropped Amy off. It was only a week until his interview with Allison. He needed to get his menu set and go over what he was going to say when he was cooking. It wasn’t too late, so he pulled out his phone before he started baking.

It rang twice before Olivia picked up. “Hello?”

“Olivia, it’s Frank Franklin out in Sunset Falls.”

“Hi, Frank. I’m sorry to say I don’t have an update to give you.” Olivia still sounded chipper. “I’m not quitting on this woman yet. I feel very strongly about this match. I think she’ll come around.”

“That’s why I was calling, actually. I don’t need to get matched anymore. If the woman is this unsure, she doesn’t want to meet me. It’s fine. You know LK Brides has to strike out sometimes.”

“Are you sure? I have no problem starting over, but I’ll repeat, I feel very good about this match. Don’t give up on me now, Frank. I think she’s starting to come around.”

“No, I don’t want to start over. I don’t want to get matched at all anymore. I think maybe I need to cool it for a bit. Play the field a while longer.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Olivia’s voice was cold and formal when she spoke again. “If that’s how you feel, Mr. Franklin. Best of luck to you.”

She hung up without even saying goodbye. Frank felt terrible, but he didn’t want to explain to Olivia why he had to ditch the service. He didn’t want to jinx anything with Amy by telling Olivia he’d found his mate. He still had to woo the woman. He hadn’t expressly told her he was a shifter yet, and for all he knew, she would run for the hills screaming when she heard he was a bear-shifter.

He hoped not. If she ran, he was going to spend the rest of his life alone. There was no doubt in his mind that she was his mate. His bear wouldn’t be able to settle for second best now that he’d met her. It happened now and then. Some shifters ended up missing out on their match and being alone for life. At least he’d still have his shop and his friends to keep him busy.

He tried to push that possibility out of his mind as he set up all the ingredients he would need. He had to stay positive and not put those negative thoughts out into the universe. His mom had told him that if you thought in a positive way, positive things would come your way. With that in mind, Frank spent the rest of the night thinking about all the things he would do to Amy when he got her alone and how much she would love it. He was going to send the best thoughts into the universe and hope they came back to him soon. It couldn’t hurt to try.





Five


“So what’s he like?” Karen asked again, exasperated. Amy could picture her sister pulling at her auburn hair, annoyed.

“He’s nice.” Amy tried to think of a better descriptor but they all seemed to fall short. There was no better way to describe Frank’s personality. He was just the sweetest, nicest man she’d ever met.

“Is he boring? Come on, Amy. You can tell me if he’s boring. I would understand.”

“No! Being nice doesn’t make a man boring.”

Karen snorted. “Could have fooled me. You’ve never described a guy as nice and meant it as a compliment.”

“I know, but Frank’s not that kind of nice. He’s actually really a nice person but he’s so interesting. He has all these things going on in his life. A big group of friends and he’s close to his family. He’s so much more than just nice.”

Karen always knew what Amy was thinking. What if he was boring? No man could be that nice, successful, kind, and drop-dead gorgeous without having some flaws. Amy had spent the evening trying to trick Gwen into revealing some of Frank’s character flaws.

He had pushed their “date” back until after closing. His shop had gotten swamped and there was no time for them to talk. No problem for Amy. She’d taken some coffee to the hotel hostess and talked for a very long hour. She only took three things from the conversation. First, Frank was really as great as he seemed, according to Gwen. Second, she and Gwen had very similar dating histories. Gwen had never been married but she’d still had her fair share of heartbreak. Third, if she did happen to move to Sunset Falls to be with Frank, she’d have a great friend in Gwen.

“Does that mean you like him?” Karen asked hopefully.

“I don’t know,” Amy answered truthfully. She told Karen all the intel she’d gathered from speaking with Gwen. “So, you can see my problem.”

“He’s sounds great,” Karen said dreamily. “That means we must be missing something, right?”

“Exactly! Karen, no one is this great.”

“Tom is.”