Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

“I might be,” he said, pulling the poorly-tied knot in his tie loose. “I may very well be unbelievable, but here you are, coming toward me.”

She pushed his shirt open, sliding her hands around his waist, and getting a handful of Erik’s muscled ass. “What can I say?” Izzy asked. “I guess two weeks at Sea World just wasn’t enough for me.”

Erik grinned and pulled her inside his office. The door squeaked on the hinges as it closed, and then clicked shut.

“I guess I should tell Duggan to order someone to get some WD-40 on those hinges,” Jamie whispered to herself as she gathered her things.

Jamie’s office, which was directly above Erik’s, was only accessible via a bat-friendly passage in the ceiling which Erik seemed to constantly forget. It wasn’t
technically
a belfry, but it was good enough. She giggled as the noises from Erik’s office started, then got quicker, then got slower, then quicker again.

When something fell off his desk, she had to bite a finger to keep from laughing. “Never change, Erik,” she said under her breath.

She decided to take the window out, instead of disturbing the two lovers by walking down the hall. Jamie opened the window and stuck her head out, then climbed out, closed the window, and spread her wings.

“Jamesburg,” she said, taking a deep breath, and looking back over her shoulder at the building as it vanished in the distance. “Gotta love it.”

––––––––

“I
’m pretty sure this would be going better if I was on a date with a literal stick in the mud, Henry.”

My finger hovered over the send button. I really didn’t want to tell my friend she set me up with another lunk.

I really didn’t.

Henrietta tried so hard to hook me up with guys she thought I’d like. Tried so hard to hook me up with guys of a similar, uh, stripe to me. So to speak.

It never worked.

Eustace – seriously, his name is Eustace – stuck his head out of the bathroom door and looked around. He was so squirrely, so mousy and twitchy that it even made
me
seem calm.

And, I am
not
calm. I promise.

Were-fox with a supercharged sex drive? Pushing twenty-five with nowhere to turn said sex-drive? Holy hell, me calm? Please.

Eustace poked his head around and then asked the obviously tired and not-very-interested-in-life bartender something. The poor guy who was probably just hoping no one would ask him anything before his shift ended took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Violet Larue?” a voice, scratchy and unaware, came over the Applebee’s speakers, which I looked toward and laughed at the stock image of people clinking beers together.
I doubt there are any other franchises run by a rhino who always wears a sky-blue blazer with gold buttons
. “Violet Larue, your date is at the bar. He... got lost. Can you come pick him up?”

My cheeks were just about on fire. I was so flushed I couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or me being hot-tempered and sick of this dingus, but it was one of the two.

“Violet Larue,” he repeated. “Date is, uh – hey! You can’t do that!”

The speaker squeaked and hissed a nasty static sound. A second later, Eustace started talking, his voice booming through the whole restaurant. “Violet! I forgot where you were! I’m worried that you’re lonely.”

“Over here, Eustace,” I called out. I tried to hide my irritation. I doubt I did a very good job. “It’s fine,” I waved to him. “Come on back.”

I pushed
send
, and immediately felt good about my decision. On the one hand, at least I didn’t have to go fetch my date from the bar. On the other hand, that was actually a possibility.

He was grinning when he came back to the table.

I felt like I was gonna die. But, he was a nice guy. He really was. So, I sucked it up and smiled back.

Eustace drank like half of his no-ice-add-lime water in one gulp. Little droplets stuck to his face for a second. At least I hoped they were from the water and not sweat on his upper lip. That would have been one step too far, even for me.

“I’m sure having a great time,” he said. “Want to go out to the mini-golf place after this?”

Eustace chugged the other half of his water. I wondered if his metabolism was so high that he was constantly thirsty. Then again, I kinda wondered if he was cranked up on something. He’s a sweet guy. All the ones Henry sets me up with are good guys. I always feel bad when I complain about them, but after my first real relationship fizzled out a year in, and the second one ended after three in a whole lotta tears... I was ready for something
more
.

My phone buzzed. I hoped to whatever is holy that it was Henry covering my ass. I wasn’t sure my constitution could handle an extended night of miniature golf and pinball.

Actually, the pinball sounded pretty good. Anything that came with endless pitchers at the local dive sounded pretty good. But mini-golf? That sounded about as appetizing as something that could gag a possum.

Or, I guess, gag a fox.

“Sorry,” I said, faking an embarrassed laugh. “It’s my friend Henrietta. Said she came down with something.”

I had to fight not to roll my eyes at the lamest excuse anyone ever gave anyone else. Eustace, bless his heart, reached over and poked my water glass. When I shook my head, he grinned, lifted it to his lips, and sucked the whole thing down at once.

“How’s the kangaroo rat?”
Henrietta’s text said. I could have slapped myself in the head. Of
course
, a kangaroo rat. How else could he drink that much damn water at once?
“Eustace is a super-nice guy, huh?
”

“Yeah, nice,”
I replied.
“I feel bad talking about him while he’s sitting there, but he drank like a gallon of water. He keeps going to the bathroom and he wants to go play miniature golf.”

I smiled at Eustace, wondering what he would do now that the entire table’s supply of water had been demolished. Also, I was worried that Henry wasn’t going to text me again, which would be really, really bad.

Miniature golf. Just the thought sent a shudder through me – and not the kind that I desperately needed to feel. I needed a
man
. Someone with strong hands, thick arms, and a waist that I could wrap my legs...

“Your phone,” he said. “It’s like buzzing.”

I shook my head. I had to get that stuff out of my mind. If I didn’t stop thinking about wrapping myself around a big, thick, strong bear or a wolf or hell, even a badger if he was big enough, I was going to go nuts.

“Sorry,” I said again, grinning. “She’s... anyway.”

“Well I guess you want an excuse? Pip pip, my car’s broken and I need to go to the pharmacy. Have some strep throat. Or, uh, pneumonia, or whooping cough? I don’t know. Make something up. You always manage.”

I pursed my lips, not quite sure how to take that. Mostly because she was right.

“Hey, Eustace?” I asked, looking up from my phone. I dropped it in my bag and slipped my feet back inside the super-cute, pastel purple with pink dots ballet-style shoes I’d worn.

“Yes, my dear?” he said. His voice was about an octave deeper than it had been only seconds before. “Anything you want, just ask. I’ll do it for you.”

I cocked an eyebrow, not really meaning to, but that seems to happen to me a lot. I imagined him pushing a fedora back on his head and smiling at me like that one famous picture of Frank Sinatra. Except instead of burning, sexy blue eyes, I was staring at a couple of beady brown ones.

And a twitching nose.

I balanced one of the forks in front of me on my fingertip to calm my nerves. It was either that or go all twitchy fox-girl, and no one wants that.

“Violet?” he asked, voice still hilariously affected. “What’s wrong?”

“Uh... Oh, sorry,” I said. “Nothing’s wrong really. It’s just...”

I started standing up, not even realizing how petrifyingly rude I was being. But still, fake Elvis voice? Thank-you-very-much.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Sorry,” I repeated. “It’s my friend, you know Henrietta, right?”

Truth is, I had no clue if he did or not. She’d found his profile online and figured since there were approximately eight personal ads for the entire Greater Jamesburg area, the one within ten years of my age was the best option.

“I... yeah, I guess?” he looked taken aback. “Is everything okay?”

I nodded. “Of course, she’s just sick.”

“Oh no,” he said. The Elvis voice was back. “Do we need to drop something off for her on the way to the golf course?”

Golf course
, I thought. “Right, er, no. I don’t think you need to do that,” I said, getting a little fast as I went. “It’s really sweet of you though. Really, seriously, that’s so nice of you. But, uh, no, she’s contagious I think and I can’t get the flu from her because I’ve already had it once.”

Mentally I rolled my eyes at myself. If I wasn’t about a thousand times more obvious than the sun in the sky about wanting to get away from him before, I certainly was then. Eustace stared at me for a second.

“You can still get the flu,” he said. “It doesn’t work like chicken pox.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to assess what he’d just said.
Get... the... flu... chicken pox?
Only about half of it processed, and the part that did made no sense.

“She doesn’t have chicken pox,” I said, before trailing off.

I stood there holding my purse. My nose, I remembered, was itching. So was my back about three inches under my shoulder blade. Eustace was sitting there, staring at me. I wondered if any part of him itched.

“Anyway,” we both said at once.

“Yep,” I said, and then he said at almost the same time. “Been nice,” I said, as soon as I figured he wasn’t going to match up with me again. “Really appreciate the date.”

“Me too!” Eustace said, unfortunately smiling wide and standing up. “I had a great time, didn’t you? Say, why don’t we do it again?”

Do it again? Oh he’s such a nice guy
, I thought. I couldn’t tell him no. He just has one of those faces I can’t bear.
A bear. That’s what I need. A big, strong, muscled-up bear.

Without thinking about it, I started getting all excited. I knew I had to stop, or Eustace would end up thinking I was getting all worked up over him, and that was bad news. So, in the interest of preserving my sanity and his feelings, I cleared my throat.

“I really gotta go,” I said, hoping he’d take the hint. “Henry – er, Henrietta, she’s—”

“Yeah of course,” Eustace said, stepping around his chair and pushing it under the table. “Can I walk you to your car? And what about next time? We could just go to the mini-golf course straight away. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

It almost broke my heart to tell him that no, in fact, this had been one of the most horribly awkward hours of my life.

“Call me, okay?” I asked, surprising myself. “I’ve got a pretty busy week coming up,” I lied. “After that though, yeah, sure, we can do something else again.”

Just like regretting the choice to consume a whole bag of Oreos and a half-gallon of milk, it hit me halfway through what I was saying. I didn’t want to see this guy again. As sweet as he was, I just knew that all we’d ever share were awkward dinner dates at Applebee’s.

“Great,” he said with a big grin. “That’ll be great.”

“Yeah,” I said, faking a smile. Well, faking is a little harsh. I think I meant it, at least partially.
Oh God what did I do and why did I do it?
was running through my head, but thankfully, before I could totally implode into a Violet-the-fox black hole, my phone started buzzing again.

“I’m so sorry, Eustace,” I said. “It’s Henry... I’ve got to take this.”

“Of course,” he said, opening the door to my car for me. “And next time, call me Andy. I have no idea who told you to call me Eustace. That’s my grandpa’s name.”

I had no idea how to react to that.

“Henry?” I asked as soon as my Civic’s door swung closed, only squeaking a little bit. “Did you hear that? Why did you have me call him Eustace?”

She smacked some gum very slowly. “I dunno,” she said. “Wasn’t that the kid’s name in those
Narnia
books? The one who liked the Turkish delight?”

On the one hand, I was glad that I wasn’t sitting in that Applebee’s staring at a fried onion blossom anymore. On the other, I kinda wanted to hit Henry in the side of the head. “Want to get a beer?” I asked instead. I could hit her at the bar.

“Just one?” she asked. “I think I know you a little better than that.”

I could hear the grin in her voice. “You know I can’t say no to something like that. Where do you want to meet up?”

“Actually, I think I might have something else we can do.” Henry had a naughty hint in her voice.

“When you talk like that,” I said, “I can’t ever figure out whether to be afraid or excited.”

Henry laughed in her slow, patient, but very naughty way. “Oh, definitely excited,” she said. “Anyway, meet me at the roadhouse and then we’ll go to the fight. It’ll be awesome. Probably find you a boyfriend.”

Just thinking about a nice, cold beer had me grinning already. “Great, yeah, roadhouse. Mmm... beer,” I said.

Henry kept right on chuckling. “Meet me in ten?” she asked.

“I’m already there,” I said, turning into the parking lot. “Hurry up. I’m going to start without you.”

*

“F
ight?” I said. I took a much bigger gulp than I meant to, and choked a little. “What fight?”

Henrietta just started laughing in her slow chortling, ha-ha-ha kind of way and looked at me over the square-framed glasses that slid down her nose. “How do you do it, Viola?”

She had called me that since we were sophomores at Jamesburg High. My family moved here back when I was just the cutest little fox cub in the world, and Henry and I had been best friends ever since.

I never did figure out why she started calling me Viola. Probably had something to do with joining the orchestra.

“Do what?” I asked, craning my neck and hoping to catch a glimpse of my hottie ex-boyfriend who tended bar at the roadhouse. We were still friends, and besides, he was the key to beer. “You see Lex anywhere?” I asked Henry as I surveyed the room.