Page 11 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

Penny looked so shyly hopeful that Ashely immediately felt guilty for snapping at her. She held her breath a moment, mumbled, "Sorry for growling," and then after another holding of her breath, said, "I would appreciate any ideas."

She'd completely lost her mind already, after all. There was no way Penny had really thought she needed to return the t-shirt, which meant the Sixty Pix drummer had been looking for an excuse to come talk to her. It was apparently one thing for Ashley to approach Penny, even if shewasher fated mate. If Penny came to her, well. It would be rude not to flirt. And Penny had looked socute, admitting she would listen to Ashley read a phone book. And suggesting she could find something better for Ashley to read aloud.

Ashley really, really wanted to find out what Penny had in mind.

Which she absolutely couldn't do right now. Thinking about how she'd leaned in to Penny, who was so tiny it was easy, was a distraction Ashley didn't need. The fact that Penny had been wide-eyed and receptive wasdefinitelya distraction Ashleydidn't need. At least, not while Laurie was right there, making her life even harder than it had been five minutes ago.

"We have tents," Penny said. "Venue tents, not just, like, tents for camping in. The band does, I mean. Huge ones. Wedding-sized tents."

Ashley saw where she was going with it, but said, "Why?" almost plaintively. "I don't think bands normally have venue tents, do they?"

"No." Penny hesitated, glancing between Ashley and Laurie, whose expression was still stricken. Ashley almost felt sorry for him. She could believe he'd been trying to be helpful. But she could also believe he really,reallyhadn't been thinking anything through, so 'almost' was as far as she went with the feeling sorry. Penny shrugged, a big loose motion that drew Ashley's attention back to her. "We've played a lot of weird venues, is the thing. In a lot of bad weather. And we have somereallyenthusiastic fans, see…"

"The Fits," Laurie said. Ashley quirked her eyebrows at him and he spread his hands. "The Sixty Pix's fans call themselves the Fits."

"Because they pitch sixty fits when they get to see us," Penny said, embarrassed. "Anyway, so we were performing at a festival a couple summers ago and the weather was incredibly bad, and the Fits decided they'd just make themselves comfortable and bring tents. Somebody worked for a company that provided festival tents, and these ones were being retired because they'd gotten torn up a bit, so the fans rescued them, fixed them up, and after the festival asked if we wanted to keep them."

"You have somewhere to store venue tents?" Ashley asked faintly. "That must take up a lot of space."

"Myles owns a warehouse in an industrial park.Because," Penny said as Ashley and Laurie both boggled at her, "because he wanted somewhere to practice bass when he was a teenager,so he developed an app, some kind of game, and it did well enough that one of the big tech companies bought it, so he had money when he was like, seventeen."

"And he decided to spend his life trying to make it in aband?" Laurie asked incredulously. "I would have written another app and made bank."

"He did," Penny assured him. "And he's worked in the tech industry since, but yeah, in his off time, he plays bass in the band. It's not abigwarehouse," she said, almost defensively. "But it's big enough to hold the band's gear. Including venue tents."

Ashley laughed. "Your lives aren't normal, Penny." Not that she should talk, she realized. She, after all, was the one who could turn into a bear whenever she wanted to.

"Most of the time they're very normal," Penny promised. "It's just this one aspect where it gets weird."

"Normal people haven't written game apps that get snapped up by big companies," Laurie pointed out, then looked hopeful. "What game is it?"

"Oh, God, I don't know, I don't play phone games. It's one of those geocaching things where you run around collecting digital prizes and fighting other teams. Anyway," Penny said strenuously, "I could drive back over to Denver tonight and get the tents, if you could get the parking lot cleared to pitch them. Maybe the back lot? It's big but not as many people park there. So you could host the charity event and not risk the bookings you've already got for the main building. And I can get a lot of volunteers on short notice, although it might mean me and Gwen have to do a pick-up gig to say thanks and I should check with her first."

"What a good idea," Ashley hissed, "checking with the rest of the team before making any promises."

Laurie, who was two inches taller than she was, cowered at her tone. "I said I was sorry!"

"No you didn't!"

Her cousin froze, rolled his eyes like he was reviewing a transcript of their conversation, and winced. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks, but it doesn't help. A bunch of tents for an outdoors venue in December in Colorado doesn't seem like a great idea."

Penny, quietly but with determination, said, "Beggars can't be choosers, can they? This charity thing, they've got to know they're in a bind, right? Obviously an outdoors venueisn'tideal at this time of year, but they're good tents, they've got sides, so body heat and space heaters can help keep them warm-ish. But what choice do they have? Is there really any chance they'll find somewhere else on barely twenty-four hours' notice?"

"No! That's why I said we could do it!" Laurie hunched his shoulders apologetically again as Ashley gave him another glare. "Well, it is."

"Ashley!" The staff door flew open and Jon came through it, stopping abruptly to find Ashley, Penny and Laurie all crowded into the hall just a few steps beyond the door itself. He double-took at them, said, "What's going on?" and then skipped over his own question to say, "Ash, did you know the rest of your family is coming down from the mountain for the week? And that so are Uncle Richard and Aunt Pam with their crew and Uncle Dave and his kids? And that Steve and Charlee might be coming in from Virtue?"

"What? No. That's ridiculous, we just all saw each other in June at Steve's wedding. And Mom and Dad never come down from the mountains in the winter. They like to hibernate."

Penny bit back a laugh, although Ashley was completely serious. Since her youngest brother had left home a few years earlier, their parents had decided the winter months were their time to relax completely. Ashley was certain they'd slept throughChristmas entirely the year before. Not that Penny could possibly know that.

Jon shrugged. "Well, Uncle Rich and Dave thought it was so great that they decided we should have another family reunion and now they're trying to get Aunt Carol and Uncle Phil to come down from wherever-the-hell-Alaska that they settled in?—"

"Shkalnik," Laurie said under his breath.

Jon ignored him. "So now Mom and Dad think we should close up the pub on Christmas Eve for a family reunion."

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