The Bear's Nanny: A Shifter Romance

Chapter 1-2

MALLORY’S FEET HURT. Like, really hurt.

She’d had to hunt for a job before. In a city of millions, like New York, it shouldn’t be this hard. Every place she’d tried this morning had accepted her resume with either a smiled apology or else a blunt statement that there were no positions available and to try back later.

For Mallory and her dreams, there was no later.

It was already after noon. She took a moment to check in her little black clutch purse: fifteen dollars in change. That was enough to get a bite to eat. Dinner would be a question but there was Rice-a-Roni back at her apartment. So.

There was a diner she liked to go to up on 108th Street, a couple of blocks down from the People’s Garden. It was a small place, easy to pass by on a busy sidewalk without even noticing it. Steps led down from the street to the sublevel business. A heavy oak door opened into a brightly lit space with friendly staff and decent, simple food.

Her stomach growled as she let the door close behind her. She smiled at herself. It didn’t matter that she’d lost her job or even that she’d broken up with her loser boyfriend. It didn’t matter that her whole damned world was falling apart around her. The body still needed food. Life went on. Just like momma used to say. Life always went on.

She took a seat on a stool at the counter, wanting to get her food quickly and then get back to her job hunting. There were still hours left in the day. Something would turn up; she hoped.

After ordering a turkey club sandwich and a cola, she sat and waited alone with her thoughts. Behind the bar, her reflection stared back at her from the wall-to-wall mirror. Tall and slender Mallory Rose. Long auburn hair held back in a ponytail. Her black skirt with its matching blouse had been chosen specifically to flatter her figure. The shirt was cut low in the front, showing off the round tops of her breasts.

In a tight job market, a tight outfit couldn’t hurt her chances.

“Everything all right, Linda?” the waitress asked as she came back around the counter to grab two wine coolers for a table.

She smiled. “Barb, you know nobody calls me Linda.”

Barb, an older woman with tired eyes, a quick smile and skin the color of hot chocolate, winked at her. “Nobody but me. How long you been coming in here, honey?”

“I’ve been in the city for five years now.” She’d stumbled onto this place by accident back then. It hadn’t taken long for her and Barb to become friends.

“Uh-huh. That’s what I thought. All that time, you always had something worrying you.” She twisted the caps off the drinks. “Today it’s worse. I can tell. Anything I can do to help?”

“Depends.” Mallory didn’t want to spread her troubles around but Barb was a friend, and right now, she could sure use one. “Can you land me a good paying job so I don’t lose my apartment?”

“Oh, honey. You know if there was something here I’d make sure you got it in a heartbeat. Things that bad?”

Sudden tears stung Mallory’s eyes. It was a strange reaction, letting her realize exactly how much stress she’d been living under the past two weeks. All the stuff with her boyfriend and her boss and her mother, wondering why she didn’t just give up and move back out west to Oklahoma; it was too much.

Her dream of performing on Broadway seemed so foolish now.

Wiping at her eyes, she sucked in a breath and got control of herself. She had to keep her walls in place, be strong and soldier on. Life went on. Right. Sure.

Barb put her hand over Mallory’s and squeezed gently. “Tell you what. I’ll keep my eye out for you. I hear of any jobs opening up and I’ll call you. What’s your number?”

She took the pen from Barb’s hand and scratched out her cell number on a napkin. “Thanks, Barb. Um, nothing that I need to take my clothes off for, okay?”

“Heh, with those legs? You’d make a killing.”

“I’m supposed to be a dancer, Barb. Not a stripper.”

“All right, all right. I have to get these over to table four. I’ll come back and check on you in a bit, okay?”

Mallory nodded, and went back to waiting for her food. Pulling another napkin out of the dispenser, she began twisting it in her hands. If she had to move back to live with her mother, she would never hear the end of it. What choice did she have? She had no source of income, she had no friends in the city to speak of. Well, Barb, but they only ever saw each other here at Jake’s. And her love life died long before her boyfriend left her.

The tears threatened to come back again as she rolled through her limited options again. Find a job today or move out of the city. The napkin was torn into little shreds by the time she’d made up her mind, her decision settled like a cold lump of lead in her belly.

When her food came, she picked at it. Her previous motivation to eat quickly and get back to pounding the pavement had disappeared. What was the point, she thought. The city had chewed her up and spit her out. She didn’t have anything left to give.

The guy next to her finished his burger and tossed his newspaper down on the counter. Slurping the last of his soda through a straw, he tossed down a twenty dollar bill and left. It was the money that caught her eye first. It brought to mind all the problems she had and how just having a few twenties to her name would give her hope enough to stick it out here and chase her dream.

Her face settled into a scowl. Her dream was dead. Being a dancer on Broadway was all she had ever wanted to be. No way it was going to happen now.

As her eyes slid away from the cash, they snagged on the folded page of the newspaper. It was the help wanted section.

Mallory sighed out a breath through her nose. This was just fate being cruel. Right when she’d abandoned all hope it held out a hand, expecting her to reach for it just so it could be yanked away again, Charlie Brown style. No way was she falling for that. She was done.

Her stomach growled again, and she grudgingly ate the sandwich and drank her soda. She set the ten from her purse down next to the plate. That would give Barb a decent tip, at least. Someone should earn a living in this damned city. New York could kiss her ass.

“Oh, honey, let me get you the change,” Barb said to her, suddenly at her elbow as she stood to leave, collecting the plate and glass from the spot next to her.

“No, that’s fine Barb. Keep it for your tip.” She looked up at the mirror again, touching up her hair, forcing a smile onto her face to ease away the frown lines.

“Now, Linda,” Barb said to her in that motherly tone she used sometimes, “you know you need this money more than me. You take—oh!”

She had been looking at Mallory instead of watching what she was doing, and her hand accidentally toppled the empty soda glass she’d been trying to clear. Ice tumbled out, across the newspaper.

Mallory grabbed the paper, trapping the ice on it. She dropped the melted chips onto her own plate to keep Barb from having a worse mess to clean up.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” Barb said to her. “Been on my feet too long, I guess. I tell you what, Linda. You find a job, make sure it isn’t one that keeps you walking around for eight hours straight, you hear?”

Linda hugged her friend with one arm, careful of the dishes in Barb’s hand. “Thank you for being a friend,” she said. It felt like goodbye.

Out on the sidewalk again, in the muted light from the overhead smog, Mallory breathed in the city air rich with the smells of people, industry and car exhaust fumes. It was an aroma that no one would ever call sweet but she was used to it by now.

Her thoughts turned dour again as she thought about all these months in the city, trying to be something she would never, ever become; it was such a waste.

It was then that she realized the newspaper was still in her hand. Water spots marked the page of help wanted ads. Mallory rolled her eyes. She’d meant to leave this behind. There was no reason for her to hold onto it. She was done.

Up the street, next to a bench by the curb, was a wire mesh trash can. She could just drop the paper where she stood but she didn’t. Even now she couldn’t bring herself to break even that little rule. She was a good girl, and good girls always finished last.

She marched up the sidewalk, lifting the paper up as she held it over the trash can, ready to drop it in. Then she stopped.

A water stain had circled an ad in the middle of the page. Well, sort of. It was a messy, squiggly line and not a complete circle but it ringed this one ad.

Wanted. Live-in Nanny for young boy. Apply at 542 Applegate Road.

No mention of references or experience. No mention of a starting salary, either, but the fact that they wanted to hire someone to live in their home... No. No way. Was she actually considering this? Why, in the name of God, would she do that?

Because she needed a job, because she didn’t want to go back to Oklahoma and be a failure. She didn’t want to face her mother.

Mallory rolled her eyes. Why couldn’t she just give up when the chips were down and there wasn’t any way to win?

“Oh, Mallory,” she said to herself. “When are you ever going to learn?”

Not today, obviously. Tucking the paper under her arm, she watched the street and hailed the first taxi that drove by.

***