Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(38)

Every muscle, every nerve in her body flared to life as her wings caught air and lifted her up, up, up into the sky, high above her courthouse office, high above the forest. She reckoned her normal cruising altitude was about two-thousand feet - plenty to stay above most of the animals except the odd albatross or eagle that decided to get grandiose. Every now and then a vulture who had caught a draft would watch her pass, but mostly, up here in her particular part of the heavens, it was just Jamie, alone with her thoughts.

Of course, right then, her thoughts were about Ryan.

She threw her gaze to the east, toward West's farm which she could see. Past it, she knew she'd find the odd little compound of Ryan's massively extended "family" but even knowing where it was, the overgrowth was too thick to spot. Still, she knew where she was going, so just swooping around in a general direction would get her there soon enough.

*

Cherry pie and a gallon of sweet tea weren't exactly the reaction she was expecting.

"We've been wonderin' when you were comin' back this way," Boston said as he pulled his chair up and stared down at his slice - which was almost a quarter of the pie - with a very lusty eye. "Moo-maw, bring her another piece, she’s hungry." He reached across the table and grabbed Jamie's slice before dumping it on top of his, and mashing it down with his fork so it just looked like one big mound instead of two.

"Another one?" Maude asked, calling from the kitchen. "She don't look like she's the sort to eat all that."

"No, uh, thank you," Jamie said back. Boston urged her on. "I really liked that one though, it was great!"

"More tea, then?"

Jamie eyed her still-full mason jar. Just the thought of what all that sugar would do to her guts put the agony of eating a little bit of chocolate to shame.

"Can you even eat this stuff?" Boston asked. "I knew a bloodsucker once - er... that isn't offensive, is it? I can't keep up."

Jamie laughed softly. "Nah, bloodsucker’s fine. It's more the intent that upsets me sometimes than the word used, you know? And yeah, I mean, I can eat it. I have a digestive system. It's just really, really not what I want to do if I can help it, if you catch my drift."

Boston laughed, then took an absolutely massive forkful of pie, crammed it in his mouth, and groaned like he was a cow being fed on by a vampire. "Oh lord, do I ever. Sounds like me and sauerkraut."

"God almighty, don't you get started with all that. She's a lady, or at least if she ain't, she don't want ta hear about your digestive distress upon eating cabbage!" Maude - Moo-maw - yelled from the kitchen.

Shortly she reappeared, and hit Boston directly on the back of the head with a fairly hearty thwap from her wooden stirring spoon.

"What the hell was that for?" he asked, recoiling and rubbing his head, but not perturbed enough not to take another bite of pie.

"Don't think I'm stupid enough to not know she gave you her pie, you big oaf. I was just offerin' her the pie to be hospitable." The old bear got a wry look on her face, followed by a very funny smirk. "Actually, I do have something for you though."

Jamie cocked her head a little, wondering what on earth it was she was about to be offered, when Maude grabbed the side of Boston's head. "He's old," she said, "and he's about as dumb as a sack of bricks, but his ticker's good. Go on, he won't miss any! Matter of fact, that might keep him from rubbin' on me at night for a day or so."

Jamie, surprised at what she'd just heard, snorted, and accidentally blew through the straw in the tea, which she'd been playing with but not drinking from. The laugh became a bubble, and the bubble became a small volcanic eruption, most of which landed directly on Boston's pie.

Without skipping a beat, he tapped part of the latticed crust with the end of his fork, scooped a bite, and smiled as he chewed.

"I'm just kidding anyway," Maude said, stroking her mate's grayed hair. "Nothing could stop him from jabbing at me, even if he can't do anything with it once he convinces me to let him try."

She gave him another whap on the back of the head, and slung her towel over her shoulder, scooting back into the kitchen with Jamie's empty plate. Boston shot her a playful glare and then turned back to Jamie. "I love her more than anything. I'd die if she were gone."

The sudden gravity took Jamie a little by surprise. Boston just kept chewing. "Everyone should find that someday," he said. "That sounds like a fairly hefty helpin' of co-dependence, to keel over dead if someone left, but—"

"No," Jamie said, suddenly. "No, I absolutely know what you mean. I, uh," she looked down, aware that she was about to spill more beans than she meant to spill. "I get it."

Boston smiled, scooping up another bite, this one nothing but tangy, tart, sweet, cherry filling. He pursed his lips and sucked a macerated cherry between them, leaving a red residue on his lips. "He's looking for you," he said in between bites. "But was too bashful to go back to the courthouse, after that scene he made with Danniken."

"You have officially surprised me, which doesn’t happen very often," Jamie said. "First with the serious talk about your wife and now about Ryan."

"I've had a lot of years to practice with being unsettling to women," he said, a twinkle in his eye when he looked up. "He don't know what the hell to do with himself when it comes to women. Bears almost never do, but that ain't particularly well known. Mating for life means we don't have much of a chance to practice the finer points of finding that mate. We just kinda see 'em and know." He finished the pie and patted his bulging stomach. "Which can be quite a surprise for the mate in question, 'specially if they don't like us right off the bat."