Page 104 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
It was a dark comment but a true one. There was a lot of cost that came with having a healthy kid growing up, and while I was sure Jeannie was happy to have that issue, it meant a lot of bills stacked up, and no doubt a lot of medical debt. I was more than willing to help her wherever she would let me, but there was only so much she would be comfortable with me doing while we were still in such early stages of dating. I’d be more than happy to completely cover Max’s education no matter how far into his schooling he decided to go, but that felt like far too heavy of an offer to make before we’d even dated for six months.
We hadn’t even said “I love you” yet.
“There’s a lot on your plate. But for right now, let’s just forget all that and have a night in. I’ll cook, so we can put something on your literal plate instead of your metaphorical one, the girls will chill with Max until they all fall asleep, and I’ll carry them out to the car and drive them home when you’re ready for us to leave.”
Her lip quivered again, and God, I wanted to kiss it, but it wasn’t the time. I would save that for later, because now that I knew what was up, there was most certainly going to be a later, and it wasn’t going to be a month in the future. No, as long as Jeannie was fine with it, I planned to visit every day. I didn’t even have to hang around long. I could just unload the dishwasher, load it back up, make them dinner, do their laundry, then leave. As long as it meant she knew she was taken care of.
“It’s really hard for me not to feel guilty. I feel like a failure for not being able to keep up with it myself.”
“That’s perfectly natural,” I answered calmly. “Remember, we can’t always control our feelings, but what we can control is how we react to them and what we do because of them. So feel how you feel, and we can process it together, but I think it’s time for you to stop punishing yourself because of the coping mechanisms you’ve had to learn to get this far in one piece.”
“I don’t understand how you know me so well. It’s like I’ve been walking one step to the left of everyone my whole life, but you came into my life like a hurricane and somehow you get me. As if we’ve always known each other.”
If I wasn’t so concentrated on making sure Jeannie was all right, I might have started to tear up a bit. Because I knew what she meant. While I didn’t think I was the most peculiar person on the planet, I had spent much of my childhood feeling like I didn’t understand the things that were so implicit to everybody else. For a while there, I’d thought I wasn’t just a shifter, but potentially an alien dropped on the planet and had to learn all the things people knew instinctually.
That feeling had vanished once I met Zara, once I found somebody who got me, who could translate for me to others the same way I could translate for her. The idea that Jeannie had never had that was a true tragedy, so it was an honor in every sense of the word that she considered me her person in that way.
“It’s because I see you, Jeannie. And what I see isamazing.You are quite literally one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.”
“I don’t know how you see me that way, but I won’t argue. Thank you. You?—”
Whatever she had been about to say was interrupted by a sturdy knock on the door. Her confused expression told me she wasn’t expecting anyone.
“I’ll go get it,” I said, standing up and gently placing her on her feet. But her hand on my chest gave me pause.
“No, no, let me do it.” Normally I would have argued, because she’d just bawled her eyes out, but we were in Jeannie’s house, and this was a way for her to get herself under control. Although I was her protector, although I wanted nothing more than to sweep her away from anything that troubled her, I also knew I needed to respect her authority in her territory. Until we lived together, I was a guest in her home.
Until we lived together?
I had no clue where that thought had come from, but I tucked it away to daydream about later.
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
She splashed some water on her face, then wiped it with a paper towel. The knocking persisted. Straightening her shirt, she strode toward the door, and I followed at a respectable distance behind her, ready to interfere if it was a salesperson or otherwise solicitor who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Except it wasn’t anyone trying to hawk a product at all. No, the moment that door opened, I became aware of several things all at once.
First of all, Jeannie’s scent spiked like it never had before, growing acrid and bitter, almost putrid in a tidal wave of stress hormones. Secondly, of the two older people standing on the small stoop, the woman was almost an exact copy of Jeannie.
Was that?—
“Juniper!” the woman cooed, opening her arms like she was expecting an embrace, but Jeannie had turned to stone, tension radiating from her so intensely I could feel it all the way from where I was standing.
Surely… surely they couldn’t be…
“Look at you! My, you’ve grown into a real cutie, haven’t you? And oh! I love what you’ve done with your hair. Remember how you always used to wear it in those tight ponytails? This suits you much better.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Goodness,” the woman continued as if she couldn’t sense the overwhelmingly negative reaction that Jeannie was having. Sure, I had just given a whole monologue about really seeing her, but I felt like even someone who was both deaf and blind would be able to sense the giant, neon unwelcome sign practically flashing above my sweetheart’s head. “Do parents need a reason to visit their baby? Especially since it’s almost your birthday. Besides, we wanted to visit our grandson. We’ve been dying to see him!”
I was right. I was totally right. These had to be Jeannie’s parents. There was no other explanation. The whole time we were dating, I hadn’t known if they were alive or dead, and I’d been reticent to ask.
I’d never heard Jeannie mention her family, and the whole reason we had ended up getting together was because she and Max spent the holidays alone. I had kind of hoped that it was because they had died young rather than the many other unpleasant alternatives. But now it was clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that while the people standing on Jeannie’s doorstep were related to her, they most certainly weren’tfamily.
I braced myself, preparing to intervene, but Jeannie took an aggressive step forward, her shoulders squared. “How do you know about him?”
