Page 97 of The Grizzly Situation
“I hope so. Oh, forgot to tell you! I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“This weekend, how would you like to take a ride with me? We can sit in our field, hold hands, and stare up at the moon together to celebrate our anniversary.”
“That sounds like an awesome plan. I’ll get us a picnic together. Can’t wait. See you soon.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Then he disconnected the call. I slipped the phone into my pocket and was about to dive into recipes when there was a knock on the office door. I turned to find Amelia standing there, cup in hand.
“Brought you some hot cocoa,” she said. “His special blend.”
“Thank you, ma’am. You are a gentlelady and a scholar.”
The first sip warmed me to my toes. “Damn! How much booze did you put in this?”
She snickered. “Just enough to make you glow.”
“Mission accomplished,” I assured her, tilting the mug in her direction.
She squeezed my shoulder, then headed back out of the room. I smiled as I took another drink. Life was weird. One day you’re dropping things everywhere and unable to hold a job. The next you’re controlling a lifelong issue with medication, living in a billionaire bear shifter’s mansion with his sons and the staffyou regard as friends, and you find the happiness you’ve always worried was just a bit faster than you and you could never catch.
Yet, beyond all reason, I did. These past ten years have been nothing but transformative. The boys eventually caught up to their ages and began to excel in school and life. Brent and the boys’psychologist were over the moon. They both credited me, although I knew it was the hard work they’d put in.
On the other end of the family, we ended up telling Jamie. Eventually. Brent decided he didn’t like us lying to him, and he also wasn’t keen on me flying out to meet him, Debra, and their son, Wyatt every few months. After Wyatt was born they discovered he had profound hearing loss, and I wanted to give them a break when I could. However…. What Chaim and Benjy had said wasn’t wrong. Even though I wasn’t a bear, it was physically painful for us to be apart.
“We have to tell him,” Brent had said. “I don’t like you gone for weeks on end and not in our bed. They can come here to visit. Wyatt is old enough now to hear the truth and I know it’ll be a surprise for Deb and Jamie, but they’ll adjust.”
Once we’d agreed, I called and invited them to come for a visit. When they arrived on the jet, they were all chatty. Cullin brought them to the mansion, and Deb was in awe. Brent showed them around, took them to their rooms so they could rest or wash up or whatever. That night our boys watched Wyatt while we headed into the mountains. Brent wanted to know why we were going there, and I told him it was so Jamie couldn’t run away.
He didn’t.
“Brent is a shifter. That means he can transform from a man into a bear and back again.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t possibly think I’ll accept that,” Jamie scoffed.
“Should I show them?” Brent asked.
“Apparently you’ll have to, since he doesn’t believe us.”
Brent ducked behind the car, stripped out of his clothes, then shifted. When he ambled around in his form, Jamie’s eyes went wide, then his face went pale, and he passed out. Fortunately, Brent was close enough to break his fall.
“This is so awesome!” Deb squealed, without even seeing if Jamie was okay.
“Don’t you wanna check to find out if your husband, the father of your child, is all right?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “He’s fine. Now tell me, does shifting hurt? Were you born like this or did you get bit or what?”
The questions were relentless. I had to hold onto her so Brent could get his clothes on again.
“Why don’t the two of you head on back?” I asked. “She obviously has more questions, and I’m going to have to talk to Jamie when he wakes up.”
“Sounds good. I’ll bring the helicopter when I come to get you so you guys won’t have to wait so long.”
He gave me a lingering kiss, and extracted a promise from me that I owed him for dealing with Deb. I sat beside Jamie after they left and waited for him to wake up. They were gone about five minutes when his eyes fluttered open and he sat up.
“What happened?”
