Flawless River (Grizzly Bear Lake #2) - Ruby Shae Page 0,1

cellophane, and a chocolate chip one was positioned in front of the row.

“More coffee? Dessert?”

The waitress was standing by the table holding a full coffee pot, and though the sight of the black brew was tempting, Stacey really wanted to find Bear Lake.

“No, thank you,” she said. “I’m going to grab one of those awesome cookies on the way out, but other than that, I’m good on the food. I do need some help with directions, though. Can you tell me how to get to Bear Lake?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s easy,” the waitress smiled, “and those giant cookies are from their kitchen. That whole property is owned by the Rivers’ family, and one of the boys recently married an amazing baker who is trying to revamp their little store. Sometimes she brings in samples for us to share with our customers, so the cookie is on the house.”

The woman’s description of the place almost made Stacey giddy. One of the people in charge of the place she wanted to work was a baker, which meant that if she got the job, she would be surrounded by yummy foods every day. It didn’t even matter if the food only consisted of pastries and cookies, either, because those things were amazing, and she definitely had a lot of catching up to do in that department.

The waitress talked about the types of cookies they had sampled so far—and which ones were her favorites—but when another customer came in the diner, she apologized and explained how to get to Bear Lake before rushing off to greet the other patron.

Stacey finished her coffee, gathered her belongings, and met the woman at the register. They exchanged a few more pleasantries while the woman cashed her out, and then she walked outside into the warm, morning sun.

The two men still sat in the entrance to the small walkway, and after tucking the cookie into her purse, she walked across the street and approached them. They smiled when she offered the food, but she momentarily felt bad when she hadn’t remembered to bring them anything to drink. Luckily, one of the men retrieved two bottles of water from one of his bags, and after chatting for a few minutes about the weather and other mundane things, she wished them well and started walking toward her car.

The meals she’d provided the men might not have been a huge gesture, but she felt good about sharing her food with strangers, and she couldn’t stop smiling as she drove toward Bear Lake. Deep down, she’d always known her father’s hatred toward everyone—including her—wasn’t right, but throughout her lifetime, she’d witnessed very few examples of kind behavior. Her parent’s, and their friends and coworkers, were all the same, and none of them had ever shared their food with strangers. Honestly, they didn’t share with each other, either. Not really. A party or social event always involved an exchange for money, and it was never to help anyone who truly needed it.

Stacey’s smile fell slightly as she remembered all of those events she’d attended in the past. She’d done it under the guise of not having a choice, but that wasn’t the complete truth. She’d had a choice, but she’d also still been trying to fit in, and that life-long quest had tainted a lot of her decisions.

Not anymore!

She’d lived that life because she’d never known anything else. She’d been molded to believe that all she had to do was find the right amount of perfect, and everything would fall into place. And she’d spent her whole life searching for it. Her asshole ex was proof of that. When he’d shown interest in her, she’d believed she was almost there—almost perfect—and she’d wanted that perfection. Wanted so desperately to belong that her happiness no longer mattered.

Until it did.

Until she realized that the kind of perfection she was seeking wasn’t possible, and even if she found something close—which she knew she never would—the price was way too high. She would never be perfect, not in the way that her family wanted her to be, and she was finally okay with that.

Now she was going to work on her version of perfection, and that involved doing what she wanted to do, thinking the way she wanted to think, and above all, being happy and finding a way to love herself, despite all of her imperfections.

She still had a long way to go, but she was finally on the right road.

Lael Rivers rolled his eyes as he