A Burn To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

gorgeous. He’s pretty much the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, and I was looking forward to actually getting to have some fun with a good looking guy, for once. But, of course, that didn’t work out the way I’d hoped.”
    Colleen stood up and smiled kindly at River. “You’re a beautiful, sweet woman, River. You’ll find the right guy, eventually. In the meantime, don’t give up hope on Luke. Give him a chance to explain what happened before you completely write him off. And go easy on those books. I know you’re frustrated, but we’re both going to be frustrated if you ruin library books by slamming them on the shelves like that.”
    River looked sheepishly over at Colleen. “Sorry. I’ll stop taking my anger out on the books. And thanks for listening.”
    “Anytime,” Colleen said, and then disappeared back to the front of the library.
    River stood there for a long time, looking at the pile of self help books on the floor next to her. Maybe she should check out a few of the less cheesy looking volumes and see if they contained any information that could actually help her get her life together. She scanned the titles half-heartedly, and eventually gave up. Nothing jumped out at her as particularly interesting.
    She finished re-shelving the books a few minutes before the library opened, and she checked her cell phone again. The display said 9:57 a.m. It had been nearly twelve hours since her failed date with Luke at the pub, and she still hadn’t heard a peep from him. Angrily, River walked out to her Jeep and locked her cell in her glove box. Let him try to call all he wants, she thought. I can be busy with work, too.
    River marched back into the library and did her best to focus on her job. She manned the front counter for a few hours, then taught an adult literacy class in the afternoon. She stepped in to help with the afternoon storytime reading for kindergarteners, since the girl who normally took care of that activity was out sick. Busy, and surrounded by books and book lovers, River managed to keep herself from thinking about Luke every few seconds. But when her shift ended and she walked back out to her vehicle, she felt nervous butterflies in her stomach. She opened the glove box, hoping there would be a missed call from him, or a slew of texts explaining how sorry he was for the major emergency that had taken much longer than he thought to fix.
    But her face fell when she realized that the only missed call she had was from her alma mater in southern California. Probably seeking donations. River quietly set her phone down in the middle console of the Jeep and put her hands on the steering wheel. She looked straight ahead at the large brick building that housed Red Valley’s main library branch, but she didn’t really pay attention to what she was seeing. Anger bubbled up from deep within her, and she let out a string of curses as she turned the engine on and shifted the Jeep into drive.
    She should never have let down her guard. She should have known better than to think she could spend one evening with a guy like Luke and leave it at that. Despite knowing that they were all wrong for each other, she had been drawn in by his contagious smile and soulful brown eyes. She had acted like a swooning, love struck teenager, and now she was mourning a relationship that had never even started. As much as she tried to tell herself she didn’t care and he didn’t matter to her at all, she knew that wasn’t true.
    One thing River knew with certainty, though—she wouldn’t buy whatever excuse Luke came up with for breaking their date and then ignoring her calls and texts. Her brief lapse of judgment had ended, and she was not going to give Luke a second chance at a date. As she pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and put her Jeep in park, she pulled out her phone. She would send him a text right now letting him know how she felt. She didn’t want to give herself another chance to fall prey to