Page 44 of The Bear's Chosen Mate
“I plan on it.”Alex turned his scowl in James’s direction.“Where’s Kaylee?”
Great.The distraction failed.“She’ll be here,” James said mildly.
Alex checked his watch.“The first event starts in under ten minutes,” he pointed out.
“Thank you, Big Ben.”
“Just saying.Kaylee is usually more punctual than this…” Alex trailed off as he frowned.“Hang on.Kaylee is punctual, but she doesn’t usually come to events like this.Are you sure?”
The look of concern on his brother’s face was annoying to the extreme.“I said she’ll be here.”
But as the afternoon faded into evening and there was no sign of Kaylee, James found it harder to maintain a happy expression every time Alex gave him a pointed look.
He went up on the stage as he normally would, by himself, proclaiming the start of children’s races and handing out prizes.All the things he’d done a million times.When he needed help, Amber stepped forward as always to offer a spare pair of hands, but it wasn’t what he wanted.
Something must’ve happened.He checked his phone for the millionth time.There were no messages, but he kept hoping.Kept trusting.
She would be there.She’d promised, and Kaylee had never broken a promise to him.Not once in all the years that they’d been friends.
Come on, Kaylee, I need you by my side.
18
Earlier that morning…
Kaylee finished getting dressed in the quiet of James’s apartment.The dread in her stomach disappeared quicker than she thought possible.Maybe all thosewhat ifsthat had jammed into her brain were actually working their way through far enough to make a difference.
She was scared silly to head to the gala and be expected to act as a master of ceremony, but for James, she was willing to try.
One quick stop and she’d join him.And hey, if nothing else, she could stress-eat cotton candy all afternoon until she had a reason for throwing up later.
She slipped into the post office and waved at the front desk staff, darting around the corner to peek into her box.
One parcel pickup and a delivery notice requesting her signature.Strange, or at least it was until she remembered that her parents were planning on inflicting something on her.
Nope.She wasn’t having any of it.She would ignore the delivery notice for now.Maybe if it worked in their plans later this week, she and James would head out to her parents’ house in the country and see if there was anything left to be moved.
Rebellion in hand, she was feeling pretty perky as she headed to the front desk, the parcel pickup notification flapping in her fingers.She even whistled a little bit.
Kaylee handed over the card.“You have something for me?”
“One here, and more.”The postmaster reached behind her to grab a box off the shelf.“This small one fit in the office, but the rest of them—took two trucks to get everything out to the main address.Bit of a surprise.Sign here, please.”
“My parental units are nothing if not unexpected,” Kaylee said.Drat.She hadn’t managed to completely avoid entanglement, but nothing said she had to go out to check the delivery today.She signed the paper a bit more cheerfully before accepting the box that was not much larger than a bread basket.
“Have a great day,” the postmaster called as Kaylee stepped outside, swinging the light package in her hand—
The package shrieked.
It took everything in her to stop from dropping the box instantly.Kaylee ignored the few tourists wandering the street as she lowered the box to the ground and examined it more closely.There were small holes under the top edge of the lid, disguised by a layer of protective material that was wrapped over the entire thing.Kaylee had to look hard but finally found latches that allowed her to open a small corner of the box.
Shock raced through her.
Shiny black eyes and a black nose poked up into the small opening.A little mouth with jagged teeth opened in a teenymeow.
“Oh my God, they mailed me a kitten.”
Kaylee examined the box for any kind of a message while the teeny thing behind the cage bars cried piteously.Beyond food and water dispensers, though, there was nothing else in the crate.
