Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(28)

Scared? Is that all it was? Was it just fear? Or was it seeing a little bit of that weakness they showed at the end... in myself?

"Come on," Ryan said, grabbing her hand.

It felt so good to hold his hand, although he was just leading her. This wasn't the sort of hand holding that happened at Sandra Bullock movies, or in the back of a car on a deserted road overlooking a river. But she wanted it to be so badly, and still, she didn't understand her own desire.

"No," she said, digging in her heels. "I can't. I just can't, I—"

His eyes were level when he caught her gaze. "You're scared," he said. "I shouldn't have called you a coward. That was wrong. I can see the fear in your eyes though. What is it? What's making you act like you just saw a," he trailed off, realizing that he'd stumbled upon the truth.

Jamie's mouth moved before she knew what she was saying. "My parents," she breathed. "They... I took care of them. They were so frail and helpless. They—"

"Frail, yeah," Ryan cut in, sensing that she didn't know what else to say. "People are frail. But helpless?" he shook his head. This was obviously close to home for him, too. "They're not helpless. Up until the very end, the very last, they aren't helpless. They've got spirit, they've got heart. Even if they can't feed themselves, Jamie, they're not helpless. They can give us strength."

She was just watching him. She hadn't even noticed that Ryan had taken both of her hands in his. But he was staying quiet, like he could sense that she had something to say, and he was patiently waiting for her to frame the feelings into words.

"I can't promise I won't cry," Jamie finally said. "And when we cry, it's a little weird. Blood tears, the whole thing."

“Trust me?” he gave her another one of those smiles. Those damn smiles with the dimple and the twinkling eyes and the whole thing. She wanted to hit him right in the mouth, or kiss him, but a lot of times for Jamie the impulse felt just about the exact same.

She took a deep breath. "Okay," she said. "Do your worst."





-9-


“I don’t know what I was expecting, but this probably wasn’t it.”


-Jamie


The walk to the home of the couple - a pair of koalas who Ryan said had been together for about a half a century to that point, and, in the words of the big bear "will both die within a week of each other. They say it's because no one will hassle them to stay alive, but really it's because they can't imagine living without the other."

As soon as they rounded the well-worn dirt path to the small house, Jamie wrinkled her nose. "Next time I'm having sinus problems I'm coming here. What are their names?"

"Cora and Marmite," he said. "Or, well, Tom, but he goes by Marmite because... well, you'll find out."

Jamie shook her head, but couldn't help smiling as a very loud order to "fold the towels right or don't do it at all" wafted through the air and met her ears. That was accompanied by a very decided chugging sound from what she assumed was a washer or a dryer, judging by the noise.

"Cora?" Ryan called as he knocked on the screen door. The back door was wide open, and the closer they got to the house, the easier Jamie breathed. "Marmite? Cora? You two hear me?"

"Oh of course, you damn fool," came the voice of a very crotchety koala who sat with his feet propped up on the edge of a metal bucket.

"She's right about the towels," Jamie said out the corner of her mouth. "Gotta go lengthwise first."

Ryan snickered without an ounce of sarcasm. That was enough to lighten Jamie's spirits a little. The hand he had on her back, just above where the neck of her tunic dipped low, also had her smiling enough to be obvious.

"I heard that," Marmite said, squinting one of his eyes.

He was definitely an ancient thing, though through the wrinkled skin and drooping ears, Jamie could see that he had a hell of a spirit. He whistled through his two front teeth, and slid his feet into the bucket. "Gout," he said. "Hell of a thing. Cora! Get in here! Ryan brought a girlfriend."

"Hey, now," Ryan said, defensively. "Not a girlfriend. Just someone who I wanted to meet you. She works down town, at the—"

Suddenly, Marmite's face got very drawn and sour, like he'd just drank a beer that was about six years past it's shelf date. Ryan sensed it and headed off the irritation. "She's not the enemy," he said. "She's trying to help."

"Trying," Marmite said. "Always trying. But never doing. Never helping us old, useless—"

"Lay off her, Marm," Cora said, shuffling out from the back of the house. "Forgive him, dear, he's just... well, bless his heart, he's gotten on in his years and thinks that means he can say whatever it is what comes to his mind. Any friend of Ryan's here is a friend of ours. Are you expecting?"

Jamie smiled and thanked her, and then opened her eyes wide when she realized what just got said. "I'm... I'm sorry?" Speechlessness and blushing were two things not normally part of Jamie Ampton's personality, but getting asked if she was pregnant out of the blue had those exact effects.

"I'm... wait, what?"