The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance Page 2

  “I let you steer with me while I drove,” John Henry quickly added. He then squeezed his earlobe between his thumb and forefinger, like he always did when he was nervous. “It’s, ah. It’s nice to see you, Charlie,” he offered.

  Her throat was suddenly very tight, but she managed to squeeze out a polite, “Likewise.” He was not only married -- he already had a kid, in less than a year.

  They paused awkwardly.

  “Well!” Jolie cut in. “You know what I think? I think there is a special someone that wants to say a special goodbye to Adam.” She took Adam’s hand. “Why don’t you come with me, dear heart?”

  “Say thank you to Miss Charlie,” John Henry was quick to say.

  “Thank you, Charlie! Thank you, Willis!” Adam shouted over his shoulder.

  John Henry waved at Charlie, all sheepish and handsome and kind, before he trotted after his son. He even turned back to give Willis the once=over, with a frown. That, at least, made her feel as if she had not entirely lost the break up.

  “Friend of yours?” Willis asked. He leaned down to her ear slightly while glaring at John Henry’s back.

  “Ex-boyfriend,” she told him honestly. Charlie tried to make it seem casual, and like his sudden appearance hadn’t been a sucker punch to her emotions. “He seems happy.”

  She didn’t look at Willis. She knew he was giving her an appraising look; she could feel his eyes on the back of her neck.

  Willis shrugged. “You were real nice to the kid. I told him about the time I farted on Santa real loud when I was his age.”

  “I knew that little secret you shared had to be about butts somehow!” She turned, then, and tried to laugh off the whole awkward ex encounter. “Is that even true?”

  “Swear it!” he told her with a laugh. “Mom likes to whip that one out every Thanksgiving, about how she couldn’t show her face in church for almost a month because I stank up the whole chapel and made Santa ill.”

  “Family. They’re so great with their long memories about stuff you just want to forget.”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine!” she heard her sister shout off in the distance. Charlie turned her head slightly. She could see Jeff trying to prevent Beth Anne from climbing up on the childrens' play tower by the tiny Christmas Tree Town play houses.

  “Speaking of family, I should go save my sister from herself. She keeps talking about all these pictures she wants to take for the babies before they’re born. Give them ideas of all the stuff she and Jeff used to do as kids.”

  Willis looked perplexed, and Charlie had to point toward the play area for him. They watched Jeff reach up to help Beth Anne down from the climbing tower, only for both of them to fall on their asses. Beth Anne shrieked in laughter.

  “I better go before she decides to try riding one of the reindeer,” Charlie told him. “Thanks for being so helpful.”

  “Hey.” Willis took her hand as she started to turn away. “You going to get home okay?”

  Charlie laughed. “I’m riding back with my sister. Besides, a little vomit wouldn’t prevent me from driving.”

  Willis laughed and rolled his eyes at himself. “Guy thing,” he offered. “Only wanted to be sure. Mom is your boss, but I own the place. Don’t want you to--”

  “Thanks.” She squeezed his hand. “I’ll make sure to wash my boss’ boss’ hat,” she teased him. “Even if it is a Duke hat.”

  “Hey now!”

  Charlie laughed as she skipped off toward her family. “Thanks again, Willis! I’ll see you in a few days!”

  ***

  His mother found him later, after they had both loaded up all the soccer kids into their parents’ cars. Willis was leaning on the gate out by the barn, watching the eight reindeer graze before he settled them into the barn for the night.

  Jolie knocked against his shoulder as she stepped onto the fence, her elf bells jingling. “Hey, honey bear.”

  Willis shook his head at her. “You gonna just be an elf all month, Mom?”

  “Hush up. You know I love this time of year.” She made kissy noises at the reindeer, and two of the older reindeer that had lived on the farm the longest shuffled over to shove their noses into his mother’s palms. She stroked their muzzles and their ears, and they snorted at her. “I think we’ll do all right this year. I’ve got Charlie to help me on the weekends and a few days a week, Elvis once he finishes classes next week, and a few of the firemen are volunteering again. I’ll think we’ll still have a profit at the end of the season.”

  Willis put an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll be good, mom. Considering everything, this year went okay.”

  “Considering everything…” Jolie repeated.

  “Hey.” He squeezed her. “Dad wouldn’t want you sad around Christmas,” he reminded her.

  “I know, I know!” She scrubbed at her eyes, and the reindeer grunted at her in displeasure when she stopped petting them. “Oh, hush. I’m going to spend time with you both once I tuck you in for the night. Needy things,” she told the greying deer fondly.

  “Marta asked me if you wanted to combine Christmas this year. Just either have it at the big house here on the farm, or we can go over there. Think you might like that?” Willis proposed. He was trying not to think about how quiet his parents’ house had been for the last few months.

  “...that sounds nice. Think she’d mind having it at the big house?” Jolie asked. “It’d make me get my act together and put up all the twinkle lights.”

  “Only if you promise no climbing around on the roof.”

  Jolie frowned at him. “Well, how am I supposed to hang the icicle lights without getting up there?”

  “Mom,” he warned. “No falling off the roof. Let me do that.”

  “Oh fine!” she huffed, with a laugh.

  “I’ll call Marta later tonight then.”

  “Bless your cousin,” Jolie told him quietly.

  Willis gave her a squeeze, and they watched the reindeer together. It was the first Christmas without his dad. It was so quiet without Big Ed threatening to buy out every store of all their Christmas lights, and Willis yelling at him from the bottom of ladders while he worried his sixty-eight year old father was going to fall off the roof again this year. Jolie would stay inside their big family farm house, the main house on the property, and sing Christmas carols at the pair of them through an open window.

  He missed the big bear.

  “You’re all quiet tonight.” Jolie pulled away slightly and touched his face. “What are you thinking about, honey bear?”

  He thought about telling his mother that he had found his mate, the girl. That maybe there were going to be baby bears on the farm again. It would be the best Christmas present for her that he could think of. But he kept it to himself for now. He wanted to have a real conversation with Charlie first before his mother started trying to marry them off in an attempt to gain grandchildren at the soonest possible moment.

  “Nothing, mom.” He tugged her down from the fence. “Why don’t you go change, and I’ll get the reindeer in for the night?”

  Jolie hummed at him. “All right, keep your secrets. For now! I’ll get them out of you later.”

  “Yes, mom,” Willis agreed, with a laugh.

  Chapter 3

  “I could have gotten to the top of that tower,” Beth Anne told the car.

  Charlie looked up from her phone and glanced at the back of Jeff’s head. Jeff hummed in agreement at his wife but kept his eyes on the road.

  “I used to be queen of the castle all the time when I was in school,” Beth Anne went on.

  “I seem to remember you used to shove some of the other girls off the play castle when we were kids and mom had to have a lot of talks with your teachers.” Charlie reminded her.

  “Traitor!” Beth Anne shouted and swatted at her sister in the back seat. They shrieked at each other and tussled they both laughed.

  “Sounds about right,” Jeff agreed. He pulled to a stop at the red light before tu
rning to his wife. “I love you. You are the queen of our castle. I know you could have climbed three play towers if you put your mind to it.” He smiled at her, then placed his hand on her large belly. “How all y’all doing?”

  “We’re all very hungry.” Beth Anne admitted. “I think we have a future soccer star in there.” She stroked her stomach and Jeff’s wrist, and the pair shared a sweet smile.

  Charlie pretended to disappear in the backseat, texting to her friend Lynne that she was on the way home. Her little sister and her husband were adorable, and they tried to not be too much public displays of affection, but it was a little too much right now after seeing John Henry again.

  “What about you, Charlie?” Jeff asked. “You want to come out with us?”

  “Chicken and waffles,” Beth Anne sang out.

  “Love to, normally. But I still feel kind of gross.”

  “Oh yeah.” Beth Anne turned around and squinted at her sister. “Sorry, pregnant brain. All I can think about right now is food and naps. Where’d you get that, anyway?” She tried to snatch away the Duke hat on Charlie’s head. “You hate Duke.”

  “Hey!” Charlie ducked out of the way and tugged the cap tighter on her head. “I don’t hate Duke, so much as--”

  “You hate them,” Jeff supplied. “You yell at me if I put a game on and they’re the rival team that the devil is going to come through the tv and end us all.”

  Beth Anne narrowed her eyes. “You’re being weird.” She pretended to whisper to her husband, “I think a cute guy gave her that hat.”

  “No, no--”

  “Oh, it was an ugly guy?” Beth Anne cut in.

  “It was Willis, Jolie’s son--”

  “The owner, Willis? Big guy?” Jeff asked. “I haven’t seen him in ages, not since right after Big Ed passed after that heart attack. He’s been real private.”

  “Is he cute?” Beth Anne was on the war path. She was worse than their mother about matchmaking. “Married? Divorced?”

  “I don’t think he’s seeing anyone… And I don’t know about cute. He ain’t my type,” he teased his wife.

  “He was being nice, after that kid threw up on me. He let me borrow the hat since it got in my hair, which was great because the kid was John Henry’s kid--”

  “What?!” Beth Anne shrieked. “That skunk has a kid? How old was he?! He can’t be more than two!”

  “No, he’s eight – and get this, it’s his stepson.”

  “Oh, Kendall's little boy?” Jeff asked.

  There was silence in the car as both sisters turned on Jeff.

  “What do you know?” Beth Anne asked him slowly.

  “Ah.” Jeff swallowed. “Kendall Griffith. Well, Goodwin now, I guess.”

  “They’re married?” Beth Anne asked in a rush.

  “Yeah.” Jeff glanced in the rearview mirror at Charlie and took in her downturned face. “...I guess that means you guys didn’t know. Ah, sorry. It was maybe a few months ago, real fast. Maybe just a few days after her divorce was final from that guy that ran out on her.”

  Beth Anne punched him in the shoulder.

  “Ow! Sorry! I thought we were being tactful!”

  “I’ll deal with you later,” Beth Anne promised. She turned around and took up Charlie’s hand. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I am.” She squeezed her sister’s fingers. “I promise. It was just a shock. The kid, Adam, he was real sweet. And John Henry was really attached to him.”

  “All right.” Beth Anne let her go. “We’ll drop you off at mom and dad’s, then. But we’re going out after work tomorrow! Sister date!”

  “Sister date,” Charlie agreed. “But, ah. You can drop me off at Lynne’s, actually. You see, her roommate moved out last week, and with the part-time job and everything--”

  “Holy shit, did you move out?! Did you tell Mom and Dad?! They didn’t say--”

  “No, I haven’t moved out yet,” Charlie was quick to cut in. “And I haven’t told Mom and Dad yet, so don’t spill the beans! But her roommate left most of her stuff, so we’re sort of trying it out for a week or two before the holidays to see how it goes before I officially move in. Make sure we don’t hate each other after two days.”

  “Oh my god, everything is changing,” Beth Anne whispered. “Next you’ll be telling me that you’re moving back to Ohio and we’ll see each other once a year.”

  “Now you’re being the melodramatic pregnant lady,” Charlie teased her. Even though, she did want to move out of their tiny home town. At least partially. She liked being close to her family, especially her sister, but the smallness and the limitations on her career sometimes chafed at her. She hadn’t told Beth Anne all of that yet: her sister would look at her all sad and hold her belly while saying it was okay, they would text a lot.

  “Hush up or I start crying on you,” Beth Anne threatened.

  “More tissues in the glove compartment,” Jeff offered.

  “Thank you, sweet husband.” Beth Anne kissed Jeff’s cheek.

  Charlie let out a sigh and pulled up her text messages again. Lynne had sent her a picture of ‘roommate chilli’, which seemed like any other sort of chilli that her friend made, but enough to feed two people for days on end.

  Yes, things were changing. She tugged on her borrowed hat and tucked the brim over her face. The faint smell reminded her again of cut grass and open fields, and she thought of Willis, all big and in his tight jeans, smiling at her.

  Maybe change wasn’t such a bad thing

  Chapter 4

  Willis ran as his bear through the frost covered fields on the farm. The dried leaves crackled under his big brown paws. The cold air felt incredible. It always felt so good to just run loose once the air started to turn cold, and he didn’t feel overheated overwhelmed under his shaggy brown coat.

  He stopped as he crested the hill that overlooked the main part of the farm. He stood up on his back legs to take it all in under the full moon light. Mine, he thought. His ear twitched and he suddenly felt sad. There were other things not on the farm that were his.

  Charlie, he thought.

  He shook his head with a huff. It had only been a few days. There was no rush. He would talk to her again.

  But it was hard. He knew she was out there, his mate, his one person. He wanted to jump straight into things, to skip all the getting to know you part of things and get right into the 'partners for life' period of a relationship.

  He growled at himself. It would be best to run more. Enjoy the cold, clear nights while he could. He turned tail and bounded off to the edge of the fields, where he could skirt the woods and smell all the wild smells. It always calmed him.

  Hopefully soon, he would be able to share things like this with his mate.

  ***

  Charlie tucked her hair behind her ears as she looked in the mirror. She had finished up her time as an elf for the night and changed out of her uniform. Now she was giving herself the once-over in the mirror and trying to decide if it really was a good idea to return Willis’ hat herself.

  She and Lynne were trying the whole roommates things out. It was a cheap place, finally out of her parents’ house. The fact that she’d put herself in debt to get a university degree and then had to move home because she couldn’t afford anything else, made her feel as if she had failed. She missed the friends she had made back in Ohio from university. She missed going out regularly, at least having a club night once a month. Something that was hard to find in her small home town.

  She kept thinking of leaving, going further north or to the Midwest. She wanted to actually have a job that wasn’t a bank teller and used her degree in some sort of museum setting like she always wanted. Maybe it was a silly dream, but she kept thinking of it.

  So, maybe she should give this hat to Jolie and smile politely at the big, handsome farm man from a distance. If she wanted to leave North Carolina, she had the feeling that Willis’ honest brown eyes were going to give her second and third thoughts.

>   Charlie turned the beat-up Duke cap over and over in her hands as she thought. She jumped when Jolie reached out to touch her shoulder.

  “You alright, dear?” Jolie asked. She glanced down at the hat in Charlie’s hands. “Oh, is that Willis’? Did you want me to pass that on to him?”

  “I was…” Charlie stopped and made a split second decision. “I was trying to figure out if I had enough time to return it to him myself. To say thank you.”