Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(39)
He coughed. "Er, so to speak."
"He did come on a little strong," Jamie said, thinking back to that morning at the courthouse. "With the glaring and the jaw clenching and acting like super captain alpha and all that. But here's the thing - it didn't seem like an act. He really, honestly, seemed like he was doing what was in his heart."
"Always does," Boston said. "It's got him in trouble a time or two or eight. But that's a different sort of thing. It's about time he followed his heart in something that really matters."
Before Jamie could respond, Maude came back from the kitchen with her own slice of pie, and a disarmingly large cup of coffee. "Won't you stop teasing the poor girl and just tell her one of the four places Ryan might have gone? You know that's why she's here."
"Well, Moo-maw," he said, "I was waiting until she asked. Seein' how long it took. Unfortunately, she's far too polite for any of that so I thought we may just sit here forever until she moved in. That way, whenever Ryan came back from his little retreat, he'd find her here and there'd be no more issue. Everything would solve itself."
"Well ain't you just thought a' everything?" Maude chuckled. "Look at Chuck Woollery over here, getting everyone all ready for mating without them even knowing it."
Maude sat down and took a similar sized bite to those Boston had taken. "Now look, there are three places Ryan goes when he wants to get away."
"I thought you said four?" Jamie asked.
"Well, one of them is the back of the house. And I haven't seen him there, so there are three places he might go."
For the next several minutes, Maude and Boston agreed, disagreed, and debated on the various places that their nephew went when he was getting away. Through the whole thing, Jamie never thought to ask them why he'd gone away if he was sending her all those letters, and evidently, trying to get her attention.
"Actually," Jamie asked, after the maps had been drawn and directions given. "Are you sure he wants me to find him? I mean, I don't want to intrude if he's off gallivanting around and doing whatever it is bears do when they're trying to get away from it all. Honestly all I’m going on – the only reason I came – is because I got a bunch of, er, kinda naughty poems in the mail. Which, I know, doesn’t seem like romantic courting, but..."
"That would be a heavy dose of pining after you, and also moping," Boston said. "Lots of moping. Were they limericks? That boy could rattle off a dirty limerick if he were staring down the barrel of a pistol aimed at his head. Matter of fact, I think he’s done just that."
Jamie tried to stifle a laugh. “I’ll just say that I’m too embarrassed to recite any of them, but, yep, you nailed it.”
"Oh, he isn't moping, he's just... well, he's Ryan, that's all. Brooding sort of person, he gets to be from time to time. The limericks are how he deals with it, I guess. I told him to take up knitting more seriously, but he never listens."
Jamie was still chewing her lip, still wondering if she was treading into territory where she wasn't entirely wanted.
At some point, I'm just going to have to start taking these leaps instead of worrying about them so damn much. At some point I'm going to learn that regret hurts a lot worse than never having done something in the first place and missing the chance forever.
From the way she looked, Boston and Maude could both easily tell that she had steeled her nerves, she was ready to go looking for someone she might not find.
Like she could read Jamie's mind, Maude cleared her throat and said, "You know, dear, it's always worth it."
"What is?" Jamie asked, already knowing the answer.
"The things you're feeling, the things he's feeling - it's never easy for anyone to admit that it’s the first time they knew something was right. But I bet the first time you saw that ridiculous flannel shirt he never stops wearing, something in your gut told you there was a reason you couldn't look away from him."
Jamie studied her face, letting her thoughts roll around inside her skull for a moment. When he got all growly with Erik, I wanted to dive across that damn table and start gnawing on those biceps is what she wanted to say. Instead, she just looked down at the floor for a second and offered a smile and a "you're probably right."
*
The first place she checked was entirely uncomfortable looking - just a rocky outcropping that overlooked the Greater James River. Jamie could see how it would appeal to someone wanting to get away from civilization, but with the constant spray of river water coming off the rapids underneath the outcropping, she was fairly satisfied with not finding her bear.
As she beat her wings, casually sweeping and swooping to the next place, which was about thirty miles from the first, and of course, deep in the damn woods, the sky began to thicken and grow heavy. Fat, silver-bottomed clouds and a telltale blue haze on the horizon meant rain was coming, and from the smell in the air, it wasn't going to be a light fall shower.
In the distance, Jamie could hear the drumbeat of raindrops, and knew that sooner than later, she'd need to find a place to wait out the storm. She didn't mind a little rain shower every now and then, but as dangerous as storms can be when you're on a golf course, it's an even worse idea to be up in the air, bobbing around just waiting to get beaten to death by hail.