Page 45 of The Bear's Chosen Mate
“It’s okay, baby.I’ll get you out of there in a minute.I need to find out what my idiot parents were thinking.”
It took a couple minutes for Kaylee to settle the creature down before she could pull it out and nestle it in her lap.Black and tan markings made it look like some kind of Bengal tiger—not a shifter, obviously, considering the size of it.
When the tiny beastie finally curled up in a small fluffy puddle in her lap, Kaylee pulled out her phone and frantically opened her email.
Sure enough, one had arrived from her parents barely fifteen minutes ago.
Friend of a friend in the US informed us of a really good deal on these caps, so we decided to purchase them all and have them shipped north from New York State.Your father plans to purchase a logo machine so we can start up a sports enthusiast paraphernalia shop.
Toss everything in the shop until we get back, there’s a good girl.I don’t expect it will be any later than the fall, or possibly the new year.
Keep us up-to-date if you manage to find a job.Or if you plan to go back to school.We’re always eager to encourage your scholastic achievements.
Smooches.
Mother and father.
She read the note three more times, but it never made any more sense.What on earth?It certainly wasn’t acapcurled up in her lap.
What if all the boxes out at the house were the same?What if by some freak mistake, her parents had sent a delivery of live animals into the wilderness?
She stared at the message, cursed loudly, then opened her phone.There was no way she could go with her original plan and simply ignore the boxes.Not if living things might suffer as a consequence.
Only, considering everything that James had to coordinate today and the magnitude of the gala, she didn’t want him dropping everything to come and help her.
Heck, she didn’t even know if she needed help.No, she kept her cool and calmly told him she was going to be a late without once letting him know she was in the middle of a potentially weird situation.
Her heart turned over a little at the end of what she thought was an amazingly reasonable conversation when he blew her a kiss.Stupid how hard her heart thumped as she pictured him doing it.Her big oversized bear being all cute and puckering up for her.
Then she got in her truck and headed out to her parents’ house, a baby tiger nestled in her lap.
It was sound asleep at the end of the nearly hour-long drive, so she took off her sweater and left the creature curled up in a nest of soft fabric.She parked her truck in the shade and left the window cracked open so the little creature would be safe.
Then she went to work on the stack of boxes sitting out on the front porch where they were about to be hit by the sun.
Caps?No.
Cats?Definitely.Of all shapes and sizes.
They’d been shipped in large, roomy crates with food and water, but it was definitely time to give them room to roam.A few oversized kitty litter boxes would be handy, as well.
Kaylee debated for all of three seconds before making a decision that was going to really piss off her parents.
She unlocked the first crate and scooped out a pair of Siamese cats.“Welcome to Chez Feline.Make yourself at home.”
She opened the door of the house and let them in.
It took hours because Kaylee had to make sure every one of them had access to water and found their own space to settle.Plus, she searched the entire house to find what was available that would make good kitty chow.
Thankfully, her parents had left a fully loaded supply of meat in the freezer.Everybody liked a good filet mignon.
It was good that Kaylee didn’t have to leave the cats cooped up, because while she couldn’t understand what they were saying, she read feline body language just fine.Getting free rein of the house turned their pissed-off attitudes into wild curiosity.
“I will get help as soon as the gala is done,” she promised, leaving the door to the garage open.She’d created the world’s biggest litter box by emptying emergency sandbags into a hastily created square.
Maybe it was her sincerity, or maybe the cats sensed she was reaching the end of the line, because miraculously, they settled peacefully, each one claiming different areas of the house for their own.
Every time she opened the door and came in, they watched.Dozens and dozens of eyes tracking her every move.If she hadn’t been a cat herself, she would’ve been massively creeped out.As it was, she stopped and glared once or twice.Not to be mean, but to make sure they knew who was top dog in the room—so to speak.
