Page 102 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
“Does coffee count?” she asked wryly before nearly crumpling in on herself once the children were fully out of earshot. “I don’t know. Maybe ramen, yesterday? It’s all blurring together. There’s been a lot of appointments, and not a lot of sleeping.”
I couldn’t stand another moment apart, so I gently gathered her up and pulled her toward me. I knew she wasn’t a shifter, so she couldn’t smell my calming alpha pheromones, but I radiated them anyway, making a rumbling sound in my chest. Anything I could do to comfort her, I would. She deserved that and so much more.
“Oh, that’s so nice,” she murmured before suddenly yanking herself away. I didn’t quite let go, but I gave her some space.
“Is something wrong?”
“I’m sorry, I must reek. You don’t want to be hugging me!”
Was her scent slightly stale, like she’d worn the same outfit a couple of days in a row and hadn’t washed her hair in a while? Yes. Did I care? No. There were so many more important things in life that I hadn’t really noticed. And even if Ihadnoticed, it certainly didn’t matter.
“Au contraire,I can assure you, I most definitely want to hug you. And how about you take a shower when Max is finished. Stay in there as long as you want. I’ll take care of things out here.”
“But—”
I tried to mimic exactly how my daughter had done it just moments earlier. “No buts! You’ve been burning the midnight oil for a month now. Time to relax and let your community take care of you.” I leaned in slightly, not enough to kiss her, but enough for her to feel my presence. “And we’re your community, sweetheart. You promised me you would remember that.”
I hoped my words would bring her some solace, but I didn’t expect her lower lip to start trembling and tears threatening to spill over.
“I kept telling myself I should call you, but every time I went to pick up the phone I’d… I’d…”
And then the dam burst.
“Oh, baby,” I murmured before pulling her right back to my chest. However, this time I had one hand at the back of her head, holding her, and the other wrapped firmly around her waist. She felt cold, and I hated that. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You just cry it out. I’m here now.”
“I was just so scared that if I tried to rely on you that…”
“That it would be too much?”
She nodded into the growing wet patch on my chest, and my heartburnedfor her. I still had so much to learn about Jeannie, but I was certain she had good reason for being so worried about asking for any sort of support. Hopefully one day, and maybe even one day soon, she would trust me enough to tell me the story.
“Yeah,” she managed to choke out.
“I promise, you willneverbe too much, Jeannie. Ever. No matter what happens with Max, no matter what comes down the road. No matter what, that will never be an issue between us.”
She sobbed and hiccupped a bit more. I rocked her gently, soothing her. I was under no impression that holding her was going to fix everything, but that was fine. Not everything needed to be fixed. It only needed to bebetter.
“Why don’t you come to the kitchen and I’ll pull a chair in there so you can watch me cook until Max is out of the shower?”
“I, uh…” She sniffed a little. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Perfect. That’s my girl.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead, then got her settled before I hauled the care package to the kitchen to put some of it away. Firstly, there were perishablesin there. Secondly, I was well aware that it was far too heavy for Jeannie to carry on her own. She was strong, but she wasn’tshifterstrong.
It wasn’t our first time cooking dinner together, and not even the first time I’d had her relax while I prepared a meal. But there was still something… different. Like I was a little closer to Jeannie than I had been before.
Once I had the oven preheated and the chicken prepped, I went about putting the perishables away. I hadn’t just gotten her fresh ingredients, however. As awesome as a home-cooked meal was, sometimes something that could be thrown in the microwave or eaten cold was just as good. So, I’d gotten her some deli meats, a whole lot of cheeses, some salad mixes, some ready meals, and one-pot meals to go into the slow cooker I got her. Was that over the top? Maybe. But I remembered her mentioning she wanted a real one. She got a tiny one on Black Friday about five years ago, which could barely cook a bowl full of anything. So, it had seemed like the perfect thing to get her.
“Is… is that a slow cooker?” Jeannie asked somewhat incredulously as I started setting it up.
“Uh-huh. But don’t worry, I kept the receipt in case you want to return it.”
I had been mentally prepared for her to say she didn’t need it, or even insist that it was too much, and I had answers ready. What I hadn’t anticipated was her bursting into tears again.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s okay, I’m here!”
Chicken forgotten, I rushed to her again, pulling her up into my arms and then turning so I could sit down with her in my lap.
“It’s all right, just cry it out. Let yourself feel whatever you gotta feel, sweetheart. You don’t have to carry this all on your own anymore.”
