Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(59)

"Truly," Jamie said with another snorted laugh. "As delicate as a daisy fallen upon a fresh drift of snow, our Erik."

Both girls cracked up - the first time Izzy had in about two and a half months, which was incredible, even though she was slightly afraid she was going to pee a little.

"What?" Erik snapped, turning to his two favorite women. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, it was nothing." Izzy's voice was still slightly raspy from how hard she'd been laughing. "Just that we expected you to rip his head off instead of actually, you know, tricking him. That was a sight I never thought I'd behold, dear love."

"Yeah, well," he shot off one of his smug grins, which went super well with the yoga pants. "I'm full of surprises, what can I say? But Jamie - you got some way of finding him, right? Whatever that weird vampire echolocation trick is? That's a real thing, right?"

Pursing her lips, Jamie started shaking her head. "Twenty years around a guy and... Sure, Erik. I'm not going to try and debate the finer points of vampirism, or of being a bat, with you, but I'll do my best to find him. But, what's the rush? I mean, you got rid of Branson, didn't you?"

It was Erik's turn to laugh. "I've seen television, Jamie. Those types? They never take defeat easy. You find Ryan, we'll do the next best thing to getting a budget and giving these people a bunch of money. We'll chop wood and act like we care."

She knew from the way he spoke that Erik didn't mean to sound quite as obnoxiously callused as he did, but she had to jab him anyway. "Act like we care? Isn't that a little too cool for school even for an alpha werewolf?"

"Er," Erik started. "I didn't mean that, I meant, that we were going to do actions, you know, that showed we cared. Not that I don't care, but I'm trying to act like it." He was getting flustered, which was always a lot of fun. "Ugh, what I mean is, we're going to let our actions show how much we care. And—"

Jamie started snorting again, Izzy was next. With her long, delicate fingers, Jamie smoothed Erik's lapel and patted his chest. "You're a good egg, Erik Danniken," she said. "No matter how hard you try to act like you're not. All right, I'll find my bear. Oh," she grabbed him as he started to turn. "What about West and Elena? They've got tons of produce. I’m sure they’ve got a bunch of milk, eggs, whatever else could be useful, too."

"Good thought," Izzy said, "I'll drop Erik off to chop wood or rub old people’s feet, and I'll go talk to them. Also, Erik?” she turned to her mate. “Go wait for me in the minivan. I've got about fifteen seconds of girl talk."

With a heavy sigh, Erik turned to the door and started for his newly acquired Honda Odyssey. "He acts like he hates it," Izzy said as she watched him leave. "But the other day I caught him adjusting the baby seat. Son of a bitch even had a level out there because he said he didn't trust the bubble in 'some plastic shit from who-knows-where.'"

"He's gonna make a great dad, you know," Jamie said, smiling. "I can't wait to see what it'll look like when he starts coaching little league or something, and takes to those shorts. You know, the red ones with the snap-up waist band?"

"Oh God, coach shorts. Yeah, and he'll wear a whistle everywhere."

Izzy and Jamie each threw an arm around the others shoulder and leaned in until their foreheads touched. "Thanks," Jamie said softly.

"For what?"

"For being the best friend a freak show like me has ever had? Isn't that enough? I'm closer to you three years on than I've ever been to anyone."

Izzy laughed. "We're all freak shows, Jamie," she said. "And anyway, yours looks damn good on you. Mine? Mine's all inside and bubbly and boiling, like one of Jenga's potions. Anyway, if Erik's a good egg, that bear of yours is free-range, cage-free organic. Don't let a guy like that get away. I say this as a warning from someone who received a limerick that involved the words "porking your mate" and "buy a pig" in it as some kind of strange attempt at romance. Did you have anything to do with that?"

Jamie smiled, warmly, and felt a little trickle of red tickle her cheek. "Oh my God, he did not," she said.

Izzy lifted one eyebrow and nodded. "He's Erik," Izzy said. "I took it as an earnest attempt."

"I... can't believe he actually did that. But no, no, I won't let him get away. Or at least I'm going to try," she said. "Although I'm not exactly sure what Erik was talking about with the echolocation thing. Does he think if I drink some blood outta somebody that I can magically track them or something?"

"He might," she said. "Or he might just have a lot of faith in you and not be able to articulate it. I gotta go. Good luck, girly."

Swallowing back the lump that had for some reason appeared in her throat, Jamie nodded. "Bear hunt," she said to herself. "Just like Teddy Roosevelt."





-16-


“All I can think right now is that I really wish I could find a cow, and get a long, long drink.”


-Jamie


The vast majority of the day passed for Jamie without any sort of event to take her attention at all. She swooped here and there, bobbing up and down, and trying to think of where she might find her erstwhile, beautiful, rugged bear. The morning chill turned shortly to midday warmth, and although she hadn't slept much, or eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours - which was normally a recipe for utter disaster in Jamie Ampton's world - she hadn't really thought much about it, in favor of letting every single thought she had be dominated by Ryan.