Can't Bear To Run (Kendal Creek Bears, #1) by Lynn Red Read Free Book Online

I didn’t notice it until the warm droplet hit my neck. “I don’t... I’ve never been alone, not really.”
    The two of them exchanged another glance. “I’ve got some vacation time coming,” Karen said. “You want some company for a few days?”
    “I... I couldn’t ask you to do that,” I said. “Waste your vacation looking after me? I couldn’t—”
    “No,” Matt cut in. “It’s a good idea. A perfect idea. We’re best friends, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Well, what the hell do you think friends are for? Whenever I leave my old battle axe for a hot, nubile eighteen-year-old freshman, you can repay the favor.”
    Karen slugged him good right in the shoulder. He laughed at first, and then a second later, winced when she did it again. She was smiling too, but was hitting him hard enough that I knew it hurt.
    “You wouldn’t know what to do with an eighteen year old,” she said, still grinning.
    For the first time in a lot longer than I care to admit, I was smiling too. That warm sensation of comfort, of security, that you only get when you’re with people who really love you? That exact feeling flooded through me. “I can’t possibly thank you enough,” I said, as more tears ran down my cheeks. Karen reached over the table and grabbed my shoulders.
    “You don’t have to,” she said with absolute seriousness. “I know you’d do exactly the same thing for me. We are best friends, and this is what we do.”
    I swallowed hard enough to hear my own throat clicking. Then I started to reply, but I couldn’t find my voice. Instead, I just nodded, sniffing back another round of tears.
    “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Matt said, swigging back the last of his beer. “You gonna finish that?” he asked as he reached for mine. I couldn’t do anything but smile, and laugh just a little.
    “Go right ahead,” I managed to say, even though he already had the glass tipped back when I did.
    The night outside the bar was cool enough that it gave me just the slightest chill when we stepped through the door and waited for a cab. “I really appreciate this,” I said to Karen as Matt was wandering around waving his arms at cars to get us a ride.
    “Like I said,” she replied, “don’t worry about it. Truth is, I’d rather use my vacation time hanging out with you – who, by the way, I haven’t seen anywhere near enough in the past few years – than I would on another boring trip to Branson with Matt.”
    “Branson?” I snickered. “Is he eighty?”
    “In his heart, yes,” she said. “I have no idea how any thirty-three-year-old man could love Lawrence Welk and the dancing water show as much as he does, but... I’ll be damned if he doesn’t turn into a giddy little kid when we go.”
    “It must be nice,” I said, accidentally falling back into my thoughtful mood. “Having someone you love so much you’ll put up with Branson.”
    She shrugged. “He puts up with my Nintendo collection. Give and take,” she said. “It’s all about give and take. Don’t worry. You’ll find someone just like him. Although maybe with less of a belly and bigger arms.”
    We both laughed like we had for years and years... although she was right – we hadn’t been together anywhere near enough lately. When the laughter trailed off, she put her arm around my shoulder. “You will,” she said. “You’ll find someone you don’t care has a little too much of a gut, and who doesn’t work out as much as he should, and drinks a little too much beer. That’s what love is really about, you know.”
    I nodded. “So I’ve been told,” I said, smiling to try and hide the fact that in reality, my only idea of what love was supposed to be like was confused, clouded, and came mostly from Sandra Bullock movies.
    I felt my shoulders shake, and knew I wasn’t going to be able to fight off this round of sobs. Thankfully, by the time it came, Matt had found us a cab, and I was able to just bury myself in Karen’s