Gifted To The Bear: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Gifted Series Book 1) (9 page)

After a few minutes, though, it was clear that he
did
want the meet-and-greet to end. Speaking in a low voice near my ear once a wave of greeters had left, he asked if I’d like to dance. A slow song was blaring from speakers suspended from the two walls of a wood-planked dance floor in one corner of the bar, and several couples were already on the dance floor, swaying to the music.

I knew dancing with Jim wasn’t something a person determined not to get too close to him should do, but I just couldn’t stop myself from saying yes anyway.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I couldn’t stop myself from accepting Jim’s offer of a dance because the feel of his hand, and the feel of his thumb slowly caressing the back of my hand, was really having an effect on my brain. Specifically, it was seeming to short-circuit all parts of my brain responsible for reasoning and logic.

So, I soon found myself out on the dance floor with Jim, with my arms around his neck, his hands at the small of my back, and our bodies swaying gently. We didn’t even speak at first, just looked into each other’s eyes, both of us kind of smiling a bit, or maybe
fighting
smiles was more like it. I personally was fighting not to grin like an idiot. I’d discovered that Jim’s fresh-out-of-the-shower scent was just as heavenly as his carrying-a-woman-up-the-lane scent, and it was making me a bit giddy. It was the same scent as far as masculine woodsy, musky, leathery notes, but with an added hint of soap. It was something I knew I could be very happy smelling all night. Maybe I could even be very happy smelling it for the rest of my life, I thought, as crazy a thought as that was. I knew that first, before I had any forward-thinking thoughts, we’d have to come to an agreement about me joining in training exercises with the rest of the Timberliners. And by
agreement
, I was really thinking along the lines of Jim agreeing to not join in. In the present moment, though, I’d decided to just allow myself to enjoy slow dancing with him. Leading with strong, sure steps, he was now pulling me a bit closer, and I found that I couldn’t resist even if I’d wanted to. The feel of his hard chest against the softness of mine felt far too incredible.

When the song was maybe halfway over, Jim spoke in a low voice near my ear. “I’m not sure that I’ve ever danced with such a beautiful woman before. In fact, I’m sure I haven’t. I feel like the luckiest man alive right now.”

Now I stopped
fighting
my smile; I just gave into it. “So, you really like the way I look wearing an outfit a little dressier than just a sweatshirt or pajamas?”

Jim’s delectable lips curved in a half-grin. “You’d look beautiful dressed in a potato sack. But, yes, I think you look especially beautiful tonight. I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me when I saw you, and it’s not easy to knock the wind out of a shifter. We’re supposed to be pretty tough and strong. Not men who turn to pudding after just once glance at a beautiful woman.”

Leaning into Jim even a little further, I laughed. “‘Pudding,’ huh? I’m going to remember that if I ever see you in bear form. I’m going to think, ‘Oh, look. There goes Jim. Everyone thinks he looks so fierce, but I know he’s really just full of pudding.’”

Smiling, Jim tightened his hold around my waist, bringing our lower bodies together. “Around you, I am. You can just call me Pudding Bear.”

I laughed again. “Or, maybe just PB for short. After all,
you
seemed to enjoy calling
me
BB PJs.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks for reminding me about that, BB PJs. But maybe now, we’ll shorten that to match with
my
nickname. We’ll be BB and PB. How’s that sound?”

Anything and everything was starting to sound great to me, and I was pretty sure it would continue to do so as long as I was in Jim’s arms.

“Sounds great to me, PB.”

“Good, BB.”

Teasing, joking, and laughing, we danced through the rest of the song, then continued dancing while another slow song began playing. Several times, Jim twirled me before taking me back in his arms, and several times I caught possibly envious looks from other women on the dance floor. Being with Jim, I was starting to feel very much like the belle of the ball.

After the second song ended, two women hopped up on a small stage adjacent to the bar and began taking requests for a karaoke duet. Jim asked if I’d like to take a break from dancing for something to eat, and I said yes.

“Seems like this might be a good time, and besides, maybe we should check on the ham-and-pineapple pizza supply. I kind of forgot about that, and something tells me Jen’s not going to be too happy if it’s all gone by the time she gets here.”

Against the back wall, behind all the tables, was a long buffet-style table filled with pizza boxes, and there we found Jen, actually already happily munching a slice of her favorite pizza. With her eyeliner heart still on her cheek, she greeted Jim and me with hugs, then asked if we’d eaten yet. When we said that we hadn’t, she told us to start digging in.

“There’s not much pizza left, and you guys are gonna get stuck with just crusts! Probably mine, because I pretty much just eat the toppings part of the pizza.”

After squeezing my hand, smiling, Jim said he’d go get us a few beers. While I watched him walk away, studying his broad back, muscular shoulders, and tight rear, Jen grabbed a plate and started piling it with pizza, saying part of a best friend’s job was to load up plates sometimes. I smiled at her but then went back to taking glances at Jim while trying not to be obvious about it. From the looks of it, several women near him at the bar were doing the same thing, giving him quick little glances from under their lashes. However, he didn’t return any of their glances, just seeming intent on getting our beers. This looked like it was going to take him a minute, though. A few men had slid off their bar stools and had come over to talk to him, and I knew he might have to make a little conversation with his friends in order not to seem rude.

Jen soon finished loading up my plate, along with another for Jim, and she and I took a seat at an empty table to wait for him.

After dashing over to the buffet again and returning with two cans of pop, Jen gave me a comically obvious wink. “Don’t worry. I’ll scoot right on up and out of here when Jim gets back. I know three people is too many people for a private date. Unless you want me to follow you guys around all night and be your official person to put your hands together to make you guys hold hands all night.”

I laughed. “Well, thanks, but that’s okay. I think we might do okay holding hands on our own from now on.”

Jen shrugged, smiling. “Well, all right. If you say so.”

Still smiling, she cracked open a can of pop, but then her expression changed to one more somber. To me, it looked like she’d suddenly become troubled about something. After she’d taken a sip of pop, I asked her if anything was wrong, and she shrugged for the second time.

“Well, I’m just deciding whether to ask you something. It has to do with why I brought two pops over here.”

“Well, you can ask me anything. Just go ahead.”

“All right, well... see how everyone in here is drinking beers, but I can’t, like I’m some sort of weird, lame baby?”

I could see where this was going.

“That’s not because you’re a ‘weird, lame baby.’ That’s just because you’re not old enough to drink alcohol yet.”

“Yeah. But I still feel lame and dumb. But you know what might make me feel better?”

“If someone drank pop along with you?”

Eyes wide, Jen just stared at me for a long moment. “Whoa. I think that was best friend telepathy!”

I laughed, cracked open a can of pop, and took a sip. “I’d be glad to drink pop along with you if it’ll make you feel better.”

“And do you promise to drink only pop all night? Just so I’ll never be the only one drinking just pop?”

Really wanting a beer, I hesitated for just a second or two. “Sure.”

Grinning, Jen clinked her can with mine. “Awesome. Thanks, BB PJs.”

I laughed. “Just so you know, my nickname has officially been shortened to just
BB
, by Jim.”

Jen grinned. “Awesome. A toast to BB, and pop drinking.”

She clinked her can with mine again, and we both took drinks.

When Jen set her can down, she abruptly changed the subject from nicknames and pop. “So, do you know why people are kind of freaking out in here tonight?”

People seemed to be having a good time, dancing, drinking at the bar, and eating at the tables around us, but I hadn’t been aware of anyone really “freaking out.”

In response to Jen, I shook my head. “No. Why?”

“Well, people are freaking out because you and Jim showed up holding hands. And it’s mostly girls who are freaking out because so many girls here in Timberline have big crushes on Jim, even a lot of girls with boyfriends do, but he’s never picked a girl to be his girlfriend here before, and he’s never even acted like he’s had a crush on any girl here before in the whole year since this place got started. So now, people are freaking out because the two of you showed up holding hands, even though you basically just came here to town. And girls are whispering all this stuff you can’t hear to each other, like, ‘Did you
see
them holding hands?’ and ‘Look at how close they’re dancing!’ All that stuff is basically making them sound like sixth-graders, which is pretty funny, because everyone always calls
me
immature. All these girls are in their twenties, and some of them are even in their low thirties. So,
now
who’s the immature one? Not me, right? It’s not me right now.”

I smiled and agreed.

“Oh, and you know what’s a cool thing I just thought of?”

“What?”

“Well, it was me who had the idea for you and Jim to hold hands, and I’m the one who even actually made it happen by just going ahead and doing it myself, so basically, since everyone’s freaking out about you guys holding hands, basically everyone’s freaking out about
me
.”

I didn’t quite get Jen’s logic, but I got it well enough. Was tickled by it, even. I got the feeling that the things that tickled me about Jen and made me really like her were precisely the things that annoyed her sister most.

In response to what Jen had said about people freaking out about
her
, I nodded, again smiling. “I think you’re right. In an indirect, yet kind of direct way, you definitely had a big hand in all the freaking out going on here tonight.”

I’d thought Jen might smile in return, but instead, she just looked at me for a long moment, with her expression one of complete seriousness.

“Avery, can we not only be best friends, but can you also be my sister, too, instead of Annie?”

With my heart instantly melting, I reached across the small, circular table and gave her hand a little squeeze. “I tell you what. From this moment on, we are officially soul sisters. And soul sisters are very special, because you’re not just born with them, you actually choose them.”

Jen grinned just about from ear-to-ear. “I like this. I really, really like this!”

Just then, Jim returned with two bottles of beer and took a seat beside me.

Just as she’d said she’d do, Jen immediately hopped up and began leaving the table, giving me another comically obvious wink. “Bye for now, soul sister and pop sister!”

I winked back, smiling.

With his dark green eyes twinkling, Jim gave me a quizzical look. “What’s a ‘pop sister?’”

“Oh, thanks for bringing me a beer, and a beer does sound great, but I promised Jen I’d only drink pop tonight, so she’s not the only one in here drinking only pop. She feels a little embarrassed about it. So, we’re ‘pop sisters,’ which I don’t mind at all, since it seemed to make her feel better. I can have a beer any old night.”

With his expression unreadable, Jim just looked at me for a long moment, then took my hand. “You’re really a very kind woman, Avery.”

I wasn’t sure if it was because of the touch of his hand, or what he’d said, or both, but my face suddenly became very warm.

“Thank you.”

With his mouth curving in a slight half-grin, Jim gave my hand a squeeze before releasing it to pick up a slice of pizza. Soon after, conversation at all the other tables around us seemed to pick up again, a low hum beneath the fairly loud karaoke music still coming from the stage adjacent to the bar. This didn’t surprise me, since I’d been able to
feel
many sets of eyes on us when Jim had taken my hand.

We’d each only just finished our first slices of pizza when everyone around us seemed to hush again. But this time, it didn’t seem to be because of us. A tall, muscular man with reddish-brown hair had come into the bar, had a quick look around, and then started making a beeline for Jim, striding so fast his pace was really a near-run.

Instantly, Jim stood, frowning. “What is it, Aaron?”

The reddish-brown-haired man, apparently named Aaron, came to a stop and said something to Jim in a low voice I couldn’t quite hear, despite the fact that all conversational murmuring around us had come to a grinding halt. The karaoke music was still blaring, but not for long. Within seconds, the music cut off mid-song, and the singer warbled to a stop.

Immediately, with a faint crease between his eyes, Jim addressed everyone in the bar, his deep voice carrying far without him even having to raise it very much. “We’re all needed. Our northernmost patrol scouts have just brought word that a group of Angels is coming. Those of you who’ve had too much to drink already, and I hope this number is very small, stay back and join us when you can be effective. The rest of you, outside, and then we shift. Gifteds, you find whoever your ‘taxi’ bear is, and get on. Then we’ll head to the north clearing and wait. Let’s go.”