Double Bear Chase: Werebear BBW Menage Romance (Hockey Bear Season Book 3) Page 5
Eli gave him a look that said he could turn down the attitude a notch.
“Sorry,” Foster sighed. “I’m sick of trying to explain myself.”
“You know the whole team is behind the both of you, right? We just want to figure out what’s going on, here. You two aren’t acting like yourselves,” Eli replied.
Foster knew that was true. He could sense he was different. There was a hollowness inside him that hadn’t been there before. But there was nothing he could do about that. He couldn’t change what happened. No one could.
This was his new reality, and he thought he had been coping with it as best as he could. The fact that he was now in forced therapy seemed to speak against that, though. And this wasn’t the first time someone on his team had approached him with similar sentiments as Eli was right now.
But Foster hadn’t wanted their pity then, and he didn’t want it now. Having always been a private person, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to any of the people close to him. Yet they still tried, some more forcefully than others, to pry the reason for his sudden shift in temperament out of him.
Foster just wanted things to be normal again, to be treated as he was before. But he hadn’t acted normally, so he only had himself to blame for others’ reactions. And now he couldn’t even do the one thing that managed to distract him, if even for a moment – play hockey. To say he was feeling bitter about it all would be an understatement.
He would do anything for his team, and the men on it. All any of his friends had to do was ask and he was there. Good friends were hard to find, and Foster knew that.
Needed someone to help you move? Done.
Needed a couch to crash on or a shoulder to cry on? He would be there.
But what he didn’t want to do right now was talk about anything more substantial than defense strategies or whether scotch was better than bourbon.
In theory, talking to Hanna should be easier. She was a stranger, so there was that. Everyone always says it’s easier to talk to someone you don’t know. She was definitely qualified to help, evidenced by the framed diplomas and commendations on her walls.
Maybe the fact that the pain he was carrying around wasn’t just his, it belonged to Finn, too, made him reluctant to share it with others. Or maybe it was just that looking at Hanna was a distraction like no other.
From the way she walked to the way her voice sounded, she was like a magnet to him, and he couldn’t help but stare. Clearly intelligent, alternating easily from kindness to being very sharp when she needed to be, Hanna was a mystery he found himself wanting to unravel.
But that was out of the question. The more involved you got with someone, the greater the potential for pain, that much he knew. And he didn’t need any more complications in his life right now.
Yet, all logic seemed to leave his head when he was around her. He just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. She was too fucking hot for him not to say anything. His bear would claw and thrash, urging him to let her know how beautiful she was.
It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. That scared him, and not many things did. But since she was his therapist, there was no way of avoiding her. His future literally depended on her and the evaluation she made at the end of this mandatory course.
“Hey, you still here?” Eli asked, waving a hand in front of Foster’s face.
“Yeah, yeah. Got lost in thought, is all,” Foster grumbled in response.
“I hope you at least tell that therapist of yours about what’s got you so preoccupied,” Eli remarked, sipping his drink and getting whipped cream all over his beard.
“You are ridiculous, you know that, right?” Foster replied, handing his friend a napkin.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you ever tried one of these,” Eli said, raising his cup at him with one hand and wiping his face with the other.
Foster’s phone buzzed in his pocket, reminding him he had an alert set up in his calendar.
“I’m going to have to cut this short,” he explained to Eli. “My appointment got rescheduled, so I’m going in today instead of tomorrow. Feel free to tell Coach Dunn what a good little boy I’m being,” he said, immediately regretting the acerbic tone creeping into his voice.
Eli didn’t comment on it. He just got up and gave Foster a quick bro hug.
“Take care,” was all he said.
“You, too,” Foster muttered before heading for the exit.
Pulling his jacket tighter around him, he walked to the side of the building, where his car was parked. Hopping in to his Land Cruiser, he set his sights on the counseling center, somewhat reluctant and also full of anticipation.
The drive over was a blur as he focused on driving and not getting lost in his thoughts again, watching familiar streets whiz by. Sioux Falls had been his home for a while now, but sometimes, he still missed his real home, the one his father had built with his own hands when the brothers were still in high school.
Both he and Finn visited Shifter Grove as often as they could, but right now, going back seemed far too painful.
He pulled up to the large, bleak-looking building, also housing some office spaces in addition to the center. Getting out of the car, he spun the keys around on his finger as he strolled inside. He could already pick Hanna’s scent out of the crowd of smells, and it drew him in like a beacon.
There was something else familiar, though. The scent of another shifter, far too recognizable to him. Brow furrowed, he walked over to Hanna’s office only to find Finn already waiting outside the door, looking surprised when he saw Foster.
“What are you doing here?” Finn asked.
“There’s got to be some mix-up. My session was rescheduled to today at four,” Foster replied, just as the door swung open, with Hanna in the doorway, hiding a smirk as she looked at them both.
“There’s no mix-up. Step right in, gentlemen,” she said, gesturing them inside.
What fresh hell is this? Foster wondered, exchanging confused looks with Finn.
Nine
Hanna
It was kind of funny, watching Foster and Finn look from each other to her in complete bewilderment. They stood around in her office, eyeing the couch but not sitting on it. When they both turned their baby blue eyes to her, however, it was more than a bit unnerving.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Finn asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
“I rescheduled Foster’s appointment so you could both be here at the same time. I thought it was time for a different approach. Think of it like… couple’s therapy,” she said evenly, waiting for their reaction.
“You do realize we’re not a couple?” Foster queried, while Finn made a disgusted face.
“Not in a romantic sense, no,” Hanna quickly replied. “But you are a team, and a family unit. You share a life, some might say. And that’s why I thought it was important I see you together.”
“You tricked us,” Finn accused, pointing a finger at her.
Hanna was in the middle of coming up with a response to that, starting to think that maybe this hadn’t been the best idea. She was trying to gain their trust, after all, and roping them into a shared session might not be the way to do that, considering their initial reaction. But she had a feeling the men wouldn’t have gone for it any other way.
She could breathe a sigh of relief however, when a grin suddenly spread across Finn’s face.
“You devious little fox. Pretty sneaky, I’ll give you credit for that,” he said.
“Don’t encourage her,” Foster remarked, the faintest trace of a smile on his face.
“Nah, I kind of like surprises. Keep them coming, Dr. Radley,” Finn winked.
“I’m not a doctor,” Hanna sighed. “I thought we cleared that up.”
“I like calling you that,” Finn replied. “How else am I supposed to work my ‘want to play doctor?’ line into our session today?”
“Okay, I see we’re getting a little off track, here,” Hanna interjected.
It’s something that concerns them both, I’m sure of at least that.
“Sit down, you clown,” Foster grumbled, rolling his eyes at his brother.
“That’s no way to talk to your only brother,” Finn replied, playing at being hurt.
“I’ll talk to you however you’d like once you start acting your age,” Foster shot back, sinking into one side of the couch.
The bickering would be something Hanna would usually take note of, if it wasn’t done so lightheartedly. It was very clear neither of them took this spat seriously. If anything, they were enjoying it.
Foster looked like he was holding back a smile and Finn sighed dramatically as he sat down next to his brother, a look on his face like he was planning to TP Foster’s house later on. Not very mature behavior, but not a cause for concern, either. This was obviously how they communicated with each other.
Now it was Hanna’s job to try and get at least something real out of them. And maybe try and figure out if the reason the men weren’t taking these sessions very seriously had anything to do with her.
I can’t be their therapist if they don’t have at least some respect for me as a professional.
“Let’s start with when you were kids. How did you both end up getting into hockey?” she started, opting for easier leading questions at first.
“Hockey is just kind of a thing you do where we’re from,” Finn shrugged.
“Idaho, right?” Hanna chimed in.
“Yeah,” Foster replied. “In a town called Rupert. Until dad decided that wasn’t isolated enough for him,” he chuckled.
“We moved right before high school to Shifter Grove,” Finn added.
“Home of the Shifter Grove Shovelers?” Hanna asked.
She didn’t know much about sports, but the name of the most recent Shifter Stanley Cup winner hadn’t escaped even her.
“It is now, but it wasn’t always. Anyway, that’s not where we got our skating bug,” Finn said.
“There was this lake in Rupert, close to our house,” Foster interjected. “That’s where we first put on skates. Our dad played hockey when he was younger, so he was like our first coach.”
“It didn’t take him long to see we were good at it,” Finn picked up the story. “So he’d drive us to practice next town over when we were old enough for the youth hockey league there.”
“Mom would come along most of the time, with enough snacks for the whole group,” Foster said with a wistful smile, before suddenly looking grim.
“Anyway, that’s how it started,” Finn rushed to wrap things up.
Something tripped the alarm in Hanna’s brain, but she knew she had to tread carefully, or these guys just might walk out of her office and never come back. There was more emotion attached to that story than either of them wanted to let on, but she’d have to put her curiosity on hold.
I’ve got them talking, at least. One step at a time.
“Your parents sound very supportive. They must have been happy when you ended up on the same team. Having your kids together, leaning on each other and all that,” she remarked.
“We didn’t think it would go this way, but here we are,” Finn replied with a shrug.
“Finn can be a pain in the ass, but most of the time he’s tolerable,” Foster said, grinning at his brother.
Finn didn’t even bother replying as he just shook his head and stretched out his long legs in front of him. Alternating between looking at Finn and Foster, Hanna felt drawn into their world. Being an only child, this was a dynamic she could only observe, never having experienced it herself.
Whatever is going on with them, at least they have each other, she briefly thought.
As twins, the brothers had grown up together since the day they were born, and pretty much had a support system built into their lives. It was something Hanna definitely could have used back in Florida.
The close friends she’d made in college all started to drift away once she started her own practice, a combination of people moving all over the country for their careers or families, and herself being swamped with work, trying to get her practice off the ground.
Maybe I would have come to my senses earlier, if I’d had someone to really talk to…
Realizing her mind had gotten off track, she quickly focused back on the brothers. Not that they weren’t distracting in their own way.
“How about you, Hanna? Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Finn asked, his muscles moving beneath his shirt as he readjusted himself on the couch.
“We’re not here to talk about me,” Hanna reminded him.
“Come on, Doc,” Foster said teasingly, tilting his head to one side as he studied her. “We’ll show you ours if you show us yours.”
Hanna could feel her grip on the notepad she was holding tighten at the very obvious underlying message in Foster’s words. Subtle these guys were not. Yet the way her core clenched told her that her body appreciated the confidence with which the brothers operated.
“No, I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” she replied, just so she wouldn’t be sitting there, quietly thinking whether Foster looked as good shirtless as his brother did.
God, I’m just as inappropriate as them, she groaned internally. Only difference is, they have the guts to say what they’re thinking out loud.
But that’s what these were – just harmless thoughts, daydreams of an overactive imagination. Not only were these men her patients, and entirely not what she would ever look for in a man, she wasn’t ready for any sort of relationship right now. Not after Vince.
Even thinking of the name made her feel nauseated, and she quickly stopped herself from picturing his face in her mind. That would send her brain down a spiral, remembering events that she’d rather not uncover, especially right now, in the middle of a session.
For the umpteenth time, Hanna couldn’t help but wonder if she had done the right thing by going along with Matt’s request, and taking the brothers on as patients. Then again, they at least seemed to be making a little bit of headway. Now that she had the brothers together, it was a bit easier to get them to talk.
If she passed them on to someone else now, that could undo what little progress they had managed to achieve.
I better get used to being stuck with them, she sighed to herself, her gut swirling with a weird combination of fear and a sense of relief. I just hope I haven’t gotten in way over my head, she thought, faced with two faces wearing downright devilish grins. Or maybe I already have…
Ten
Finn
It was clear to Finn his brother was just as into Hanna as he was. They were both pretty much devouring her with their eyes, while she just sat there, prim and proper, the whole session through.
The only hint she was affected was how her heartrate spiked sometimes. And the way she sometimes looked at them just a second too long before catching herself.
Finn enjoyed trying to rile her up. She had already shown she could put him in his place when she wanted to, and the plan to get them here together had some deviousness to it. He wanted to know what else lay behind that professionally detached veneer of hers.
But then again, he knew this couldn’t go beyond flirting. He couldn’t stop himself from saying what was on his mind when it came to Hanna, but he could stop himself from acting on those thoughts.
Being their therapist and all, it was unlikely Hanna would ever even consider crossing a line into something personal with either of them. But if for some reason she would, it could never work. Finn knew he wasn’t ready for anything serious right now, and Hanna deserved more than some sort of fling or one-night stand.
Accomplished, smart, gorgeous
and kind, Hanna deserved someone who could give her everything – their time, their commitment, their honesty. At this point, Finn was all but sure he was unable to give her any of that. Even as her patient, he couldn’t seem to tell her what was really weighing on him.
Looking at his brother, he knew Foster was the same way. They were both struggling too much right now to even consider dating. Yet they were both under Hanna’s spell, and there was no escaping her.
Unless they wanted to stop coming to the sessions and say goodbye to their careers.
Their session was nearing its end, and Hanna was looking at them curiously, like she had a question on her mind but she wasn’t sure if she should ask it or not. After a moment’s hesitation, she shook her head slightly before giving both him and Foster a quick smile.
“I’d like to continue seeing you both like this. Together. I think it could be beneficial. But I can’t force you into that, of course. If you’d be more comfortable with private sessions, I completely understand,” she said, in that clear yet somehow also smooth voice of hers.
Now I’m even thinking about her voice of all things as the sexiest thing ever, Finn groaned internally.
Foster was looking at him, brows raised.
“What do you think? Want to spend even more time with your little brother?” he asked.
“An opportunity to tell Hanna here all the embarrassing stories about you I’ve collected in my mind-bank over the years? How could I resist,” Finn replied, giving Hanna a quick wink.
Somehow, it felt right, having Foster here as well. Hanna had touched on the truth – the reason they had been so out of sorts lately was something they shared. Finn still didn’t think talking about it, dissecting it here with Hanna, was the way to go. But maybe coming here together would get him and Foster talking about in in private, at least.