Page 19 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"He's lying," Maggie said in a terriblesotto voce."I can put on SunBlock Ten Thousand and still burn if I lie on a beach for more than ninety seconds. Stick around," she added. "There's supposed to be a visiting swan later tonight. Tame, apparently." She winked at Ashley again, and went back to meeting-and-greeting the crowd around them.

Penny clutched Ashley's arm and dragged her far enough away to not be overheard. "Did she just propositionbothof us? She kept winking at you and what was that about the mile high club!"

Ashley stared toward the wrestler for a few more seconds, then shook her head. She was now almost certain the womanwasa swan shifter, and out loud, said, "No, she couldn't have been. Swans are monogamous. So are wolves, for that matter."

"What?"

"Uh. Nothing. No, I don't think she was propositioning you, but…" Ashley trailed off, gazing down at Penny in confusion, then shrugged it off. "No, I don't have any idea what that was about. Unless you actually fly a lot?"

Penny snorted. "We don't even have a tourbus, never mind a tourplane. We drive around in a 1970s van like a bunch of Scoobies."

"Yeah, then I don't know. Never mind," Ashley said firmly. "I have to be in and out to check the pub for emergencies, but I've still got a few minutes here. Should we check out what they've done with the place?"

"Ah, yes." Penny dropped into a soothing nature-documentarian-type voice as they wandered around the tents. "Here we have Holidayus Erroneous, where two or more young people are making a drunken holiday decision they'll be regretting in the morning. Over there you'll see the less-common Partyous Pooperous, who disapproves of anyone having fun at a holiday gathering. But here we have the extraordinarily common yet much-beloved…" She went on, sometimes drowned out by Ashley's giggling, and leaned on Ashley as they stopped to watch a group of young women in elaborate Renaissance Faire garb dancing. A number of young men joined them, and Ashley suddenly gave a braying laugh.

"Oh, no. They're nine ladies dancing and ten lords a-leaping. Count them."

"I can't, they won't hold still!" Penny laughed, though, as she realized Ashley was right. "Please tell me they're not going to have six geese a-laying around here. Oh my god, though, theydohave the drummers and the pipers. I thought they were flautists!"

Ashley, in as severe a tone as she could manage, said, "If you're going to flautist, go to the bathroom," then giggled proudly at herself as Penny first gave her a look much more severe than her tone had been, then dissolved into her own giggles.

"So what I've learned on this important first date?—"

"Second, or I can't bring you to the family reunion on Tuesday?—"

"This importantseconddate is that you have a juvenile sense of humor. Which is excellent, because I've long suspected myself of being a twelve year old at heart. I wouldn't have thought it of you, though. You're so tall and elegant."

"Tall people can't be twelve at heart?" Ashley asked, amused.

"Well, when you say it like that it sounds ridiculous, but from down here in the trenches where I'm the height of the average twelve year old girl, it seems morelikeI should be and you shouldn't, right?"

"See," Ashley said wryly, "that's one of the things that actually sucks about being tall. They figure you're older and therefore more mature than you are. Maybe I never really got to revel in my inner tweenage idiot."

Penny made a show of looking for Ashley's cousins. "Withthosetwo around?"

Ashley grimaced dramatically. "Yeah, okay, fair, you called that one. Sometime I'll tell you about the Disneyland Incident."

A slow grin stretched across Penny's face. "Now is sometime."

Ashley laughed and shook her head. "No. I'm still in the 'trying to make a good impression' stages here."

"Excuse me, I have to go talk to a man about a water barrel." Penny headed toward Laurie until Ashley collared her and pulled her back. The petite drummer's eyes widened a bit and went dark with an intent interest that took Ashley's breath away. She hadn't exactly meant to get all raar and pushy, but it appeared Penny might like that kind of thing. She was warm and soft and had pulled herself right up against Ashley, all at once, murmuring, "Or not," breathlessly. "Seems like you might have something better in mind."

Take our mate to your den right now,Ashley's bear said enthusiastically.She wants to go to the den right now!

It was hard to argue with that. Ashley couldn't think of much better to do with her time, either, except the fact that she was very much still at work and had just spent the afternoon yelling at her cousins for blowing off their shifts. So all she could really risk right then was ducking her head toward Penny's and whispering, "I've got a whole list."

To her surprise, Penny threw her head back and laughed unexpectedly. "Of course you do. A list. I bet you've got an actual list somewhere, too, don't you? You're so organized."

Embarrassed laughter crawled through Ashley. "I don't have anactuallist…"

"Okay, no, no, you've probably got a hundred neatly filed bookmarks under a private tab in your phone, and a checkbox to go through and try the things that look most intriguing." Penny's eyebrows rose challengingly. "Am I wrong?"

Ashley, blushing furiously, said, "I'm not going to dignify that with an answer."

"I cannotwaitto earn your phone password," Penny said gleefully. "You're wonderful."

Still blushing, but suddenly almost wistful, Ashley said, "Am I?"

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