Page 46 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"Horizontal mambo, maybe," Penny said, to Ashley's snerk of surprise.

"Not in front of eighty of my relatives, Pen."

"You've got the keys to the staff room, don't you?"

"So do at least nine other people here!"

Penny gave her mate a wicked smirk. "Adds to the spice."

"I have hadenoughspice for tonight."

Penny laughed. "Coward."

"Yes, but only because I've been a shifter long enough to know that shifters have excellent senses of smellandhearing and I can one hundred percent guarantee you there would not be a single soul at this party who didn't know exactly what we'd been up to, and what we'd said to each other while we were doing it."

"Oh, dear God. Okay, right, the regular ol' dance floor it is."

"Wait, though." Ashley pulled her closer and gazed down at her in bewilderment. "How did you even do that? My guts are still burning. I think they're going to keep burning for the rest of the month."

"Luckily it's the 24th," Penny said cheerfully. "Only a week of burning left. I've always liked spicy foods, ever since I can remember. The heat's never bothered me at all. I just get this really complex layering of spices and flavors, not the heat, not the way everybody else does, I guess. But do you know what I learned when I was reading about being a bird, this week?"

"That technically a bird as big as you can get shouldn't be able to fly?"

Penny laughed. "That too, but no. I learned that birds can't taste capsaicin. The hot stuff in chilis that makes it burn when mammals eat them."

Ashley stared at her, trying to take that in before her jaw dropped. "Wait. Wait, what? You just couldn't taste all of that?That'swhy you were so sure we could win?"

"'Fraid so. All I tasted were the yummy yummy flavors, not the burning heat."

Ashley burst out laughing and picked Penny up, spinning her around. "Well, aren't you just magnificent!"

"Yes," Penny said modestly. "Also I'm a rock star, did you know that?"

"Idid. In fact, I'd make you and your bandmate perform for us tonight, but if I do that, I can't dance with you. So we're just going to have to make do with—" Ashley burped and paled. "Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom again."

"Oh, poor honey! Okay, you go." Penny, eyes sparkling, watched Ashley bolt for the bathrooms, where a woozy-looking Jon was now emerging. Grinning, she made her way over to him. "So that trip to Disneyland…"

Jon groaned with true pathos. "We'll pay up, but can we not talk about it now? I don't know how you're even still standing. You're half my size and you ate twice as many wings. You should be basically dead right now. Laurie's in there lying on the bathroom floor moaning."

Penny giggled. "Small but mighty, you know?"

"What I know is every single bear shifter in this entire family now respects the hell out of you," Jon said wryly. "I mean, they would have anyway, and they would have liked you anyway, because you're Ashley's mate, but damn, woman. You just ate us under the table."

"Good thing it wasn't a drinking contest," Penny said. "I couldn't have won that. But hot wings, well, I told you I liked them!"

"Yeah, but damn, woman!" Jon grinned down at her a little messily, his stomach still obviously in rebellion. "I think you're good for her, you know? Ash has always been really, I don't know, structured? She wanted things to be just exactly right for everything. Makes her an incredible costumer and amazing at running a business, but she never knows when to step back. Not that I'm saying she should, with getting her feet under her as themanager here, but you're kind of a little chaos in her life, right? I think that's good for her. She can't get so dug into plans and everything having to happen at exactly the right time when your job means you'll be in and out and if she wants to spend time with you, she'll have to adjust to that." He finished, "Oh, God," and ran toward the bathrooms, leaving Penny to laugh after him, and to call, "She's good for me, too!"

Ashley's mom, Holly, came to tuck her arm through Penny's. "Those three are going to be useless for the rest of the night. I'm going to re-introduce you to everybody, since they're all talking about you anyway. Out-eating a bear is once-in-a-lifetime entertainment for these guys."

"I did meet most of them once," Penny protested, slightly embarrassed.

Holly snickered. "Yeah, and if I re-introduce you, you might remember five or ten of their names tomorrow."

By the time Ashley came back out to sway with Penny on the dance floor, she'd met nearly the entire clan again, and could remember almost a dozen of their names, which would have been more impressive if she hadn't already known about that many.

"It's fine," Ashley whispered into her hair. "You've got lots of time to memorize them. You're perfect, you know? And not just because you can eat capsaicin and put my dumb cousins in their place over that silly beef. You're my dream come true."

Penny grinned. "But putting your cousins in their place didn't hurt, right? How's your tummy?"

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