Marrying The Bear (Gray Bears 1) by Natalie Kristen Page A

her
dream job. But what if…
    Alisa's eyes drifted to the
window. She could see the sharp edge of the crescent moon slicing
through the clouds and the faint glimmer of stars. In her mind, she
heard the lyrics of an old, beautiful song. It was from a cartoon
she had watched with her parents so very long ago.
    Sighing, she rested her chin
in her hands and murmured the lyrics, “When you wish upon a
star…”
    With a dreamy smile, Alisa
made a wish. She closed her eyes and wished with all her heart. She
wished for what she wanted, more than anything else in the world.
    “...happily ever
after,” she finished and opened her eyes.
    Alisa squinted at the night
sky. The stars still looked the same. No star glowed brighter and
no blue fairy appeared.
    Blowing out a breath, Alisa
shrugged and turned back to her laptop.
    She blinked and stared at the
screen, her eyes rounding.
    The stars didn't glow
brighter, but her laptop screen certainly did.

CHAPTER
TWO

    There was a pop-up box at the
corner of her screen that screamed, “New Job! Click here!”
    Alisa moved the cursor over
to the flashing box and took a deep breath. With a loud gulp, she
clicked.
    The pop-up box expanded to
fill the whole screen. The screen flickered and the small white
light came on at the top of her laptop which told her that her
computer camera was on. Alisa scrapped her chair back and jumped up.
What was this? Some sort of spyware?
    Before she could shut down
her laptop, voices came over the speakers of her laptop.
    “Hello? Testing,
testing...”
    “What are you doing,
Neveah? Let me see!”
    “Get your hair out of
my face, Glynda! Oof!”
    There were sounds of
scuffling before two pairs of owlish eyes appeared on the screen.
The eyes moved back to reveal two excited, grinning faces.
    Alisa gasped. She watched
the two smiling elderly ladies on the screen and slid slowly back
into her chair.
    “Who are you?”
she asked, staring at their kindly faces. They didn't look like
crooks or voyeurs. They looked like sweet, little grandmothers with
their silver hair and gentle eyes. They were elbowing each other as
they peered into the screen.
    The two women chuckled and
hi-fived each other.
    “I'm Glynda Gray,”
one of the women replied. She had bright green eyes and curly white
hair. “And this is my partner, Neveah Wright. My business
partner. We run Broomstick Inn together.” The other woman, a
blue-eyed, bespectacled woman who wore her silver hair in a bun,
grinned and waved at her. Alisa waved back by raising her hand and
bending her fingers stiffly. She still didn't know what this was
about or if these two little old ladies were really there.
    Was this some sort of prank?
Or a hunger-induced hallucination? Her last meal had been two slices
of stale bread and an apple. Her fridge was empty and she didn't
have enough money to go out and buy groceries. Her stomach growled
to remind her of that fact.
    Glynda's green eyes flashed
as if she'd heard the sound. “Oh, you poor dear,” Glynda
mumbled.
    “What?” Alisa
said. “What is this about? Did you click on something by
mistake? What were you...”
    “Oh no, no, no. This
is no mistake,” Neveah answered. “You made a wish...”
    Glynda clamped her hand over
her friend's mouth and interrupted, “You're looking for
something, yes?”
    “Yes,” Alisa
said, still staring unblinkingly at the screen in disbelief. “I'm
looking for a job. That was what I was doing when I clicked on
this...”
    “A job!” Glynda
clapped her hands. “Perfect!”
    “We need a chef,”
Neveah said. “What's your name, dear?”
    “Alisa. Alisa Perez.”
    “Alisa, would you like
to work as a chef here? In Broomstick Inn?” Glynda and Neveah
asked together. They stared at her, looking so eager, anxious and
hopeful. In fact, the two of them seemed to be holding their
breaths.
    Alisa's eyes and mouth
rounded. A chef! Did she hear correctly?
    “I...I would love to!”
she spluttered at last.
    Glynda and Neveah