Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1) Read Online Free Page A

about her future career as a reporter. She had to wait tables the next day, but this whole shifter thing in the news had captured her imagination. It was nuts. And it was also just the kind of story that could make her as a reporter. Right now, all the network had was an anonymous video recording, with the promise of more to come. But she knew that every investigative journalist on the planet would be scurrying to learn more. Who was this self-proclaimed ‘shifter’? What were his motives? How many others were there? She walked back home, opening up the cabin door.
    “Hey, Haley,” Laila said.
    “We got your text,” Katie said. “Does the job include free food for your friends?”
    “I’m not going to push it,” Haley said. “Wiley is nice, but I’m not sure how happy he’d be if I brought the whole neighborhood in to eat for free.”
    Katie giggled. “Well, we’ll just have to pay, then. I can trust you not to spit in my burger, right?”
    “Oh, definitely.”
    “So,” Laila said. “Anything else happen?”
    “By else do you mean did I fill ketchup bottles?”
    “No, I mean did you happen to run into any tall handsome strangers?”
    That Laila. What had she heard?
    “Kind of,” Haley said, referring to Ethan.
    “He came by here,” Laila said. “I was booking a rental car for one of my clients and in walks Ethan the surfer dreamboat.”
    “Dream- er might be more correct,” Katie said. “He has that faraway look in his eye.”
    “Dream-whatever. He said he was just passing by. Wanted to make sure everything, meaning you, was all right,” Laila said.
    “What did you tell him?” Haley asked.
    “That you just got a job at the Surf Shack. Did he go see you at work?”
    “Yeah,” Haley smiled.
    “So?” Katie asked.
    “So, nothing. He came by.”
    “Did he ask you out?” Laila asked.
    “No.”
    “Oh, okay.”
    “We talked about that shifter thing on the news.”
    “I know, crazy, right?” Katie said.
    “Yeah. I was going to look into it. Try and find an angle.”
    “Haley, Haley. Always the reporter,” Katie said.
    “Well, before you do that, you want to come out with us for a stroll? We’ve been stuck inside all day,” Laila said.
    Haley glanced at her laptop. Work started at ten the next morning, and she really wanted to look into the whole shifter thing before then. “Okay. But only a short walk. If I’m ever going to be a reporter I need to break a real story.”

    **********************

    They walked to the beach and along the promenade. The cabin was close enough to the ocean but not so close it was one of the multi-millionaire dollar homes that lined the waterfront. Haley couldn’t help but wonder who the people who lived in those places were. Coop Cove seemed like such a down-to-earth place. A few laid-back tourist hotels, surfers, and then the million-dollar beach mansions. For some reason, the mansions didn’t seem to fit. Or maybe they fit just fine. Maybe, Haley thought, Coop Cove was the kind of place where it didn’t matter how much money you had or who you were. Maybe everybody just got along.
    “So, Haley’s got her man,” Katie said. “What do you think, Laila? You figure you and I are going to find a couple of eligible bachelors?”
    “Stranger things have happened,” Laila said.
    “Come on, Laila, you promised,” Haley said.
    “Promised what?”
    “That you would be entirely positive as soon as you crossed the state line.”
    “I did not.”
    “You did. Aaron the philatelist is in the past. Bye bye, Aaron,” Haley said.
    “A—he may be in the past, but he’s still a friend. And B—I still don’t appreciate you making fun of his stamp collecting.”
    “Philatelist,” Katie teased.
    They continued along the beach, past the campers and vans and tents where the protestors were hanging out.
    “Forget all that,” Katie said. “We’re in California now. Land of milk and honey!”
    “And organic beer,” a male voice chimed in.
    Haley’s