The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance Read online

  Jolie gave her a strange look, but nodded. “He’s out in the workshop having a fight with that tractor again. See if you get him to take a break! He’s been at it for hours.” With that, she tugged her farm boots on over her jeans. “I’ve got to go check on my nephew and those reindeer.”

  Charlie made her way out of the changing hut and eyed the light on in the workshop barn. She could hear the faint sounds of country music as she got closer to the open door. When she stuck her head in, she saw Willis stretched out underneath the tractor riding bench while he fiddled with the steering wheel. He was singing along to the radio. He couldn’t sing and was totally out of tune. It was adorable, she decided.

  He paused, then looked right at Charlie. His face lit up with a smile. “Hey!”

  Charlie had no choice but to shuffle forward to offer his hat. “Here’s your hat back.” She held onto it brim first, and Willis took it from her with a grin. She tried not to stare at his muscled forearms, bare from his rolled-up flannel sleeves. “Sorry that took so long to give back. I started to give it to your mom, but I wanted to, ah. Say thank you.”

  He grinned at her. “I’m glad you didn’t. Would have defeated half the point of letting you borrow it. So I could have an excuse to talk to you more.”

  Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. It burst out of her with a loud snort and she smacked a hand over her mouth. That made her laugh harder. “Jesus!”

  Willis just continued to grin. “Worked, didn’t it?”

  “Well.” She sat down at the work bench. “You’ll be glad to know that’s the other half of the reason I didn’t give it to your mom.”

  “We’re slick,” he told her. “Wanna be my beautiful assistant and hand me tools while I get this steering box fixed up?”

  Charlie bit her lip; she knew she was blushing. “I can do that.”

  Willis smiled at her, all big and bold, just like the rest of him. He shook himself and scratched behind his ear. He was nervous, and it was so cute coming from such a big guy. “Can you pass me that socket wrench with the e6 socket?”

  Charlie dug around in his toolbox and climbed onto the foot of the tractor to offer them up. Their fingers brushed as she passed it off. She felt like a schoolgirl, wanting to giggle and blush at the hot guy for looking at her.

  “General upkeep?” she asked, instead of giggling madly.

  “More like Elvis repair work.” He glanced at her and laughed at her expression. “My youngest cousin, he’s named Elvis. He’s sixteen and gets into everything.” He twisted the steering wheel about on the tractor and went to work with the socket wrench. “He decided he was taking a few of the girls from his high school out for a joy ride on the tractor. They, of course, fell off once he sank it into a fresh dug trench for next planting season. Steering column got wrenched out of whack. Luckily, he didn’t break his neck, anyone else’s neck, or anything too complex for me to fix up.” He passed back the socket wrench. “Regular wrench, please.”

  Charlie laughed as she found the next tool. “Bless his heart.”

  “Stupid shit, more like,” Willis grumbled. “Mom has him working here to pay back for all the trouble he caused. He’s on nothing but reindeer mucking duty.”

  “Gross.”

  “There we go.” Willis turned the steering wheel on the tractor. Charlie watched the front steering wheels turn smoothly with each twister. “Only had to waste two hours fixing it.”

  “But you fixed it,” Charlie reminded him. “And no one got hurt. That’s the important thing, right?”

  Willis looked down at her from the bright yellow tractor seat. He grinned at her, and Charlie felt gooey inside.

  “Yeah, you’re right.” He patted the seat next to him. “Why don’t you come up here, see my handy work?”

  Charlie laughed at their flirting, but climbed up the big tire. Willis helped pull her the rest of the way up. With one arm. It was sexy, she decided. She was allowed to think a big man lifting her with one arm was sexy even if he was her boss’ boss. She settled in on the wide tractor bench next to Willis. They had to squish close together, which she was sure was the whole point of the venture, and Charlie was perfectly fine with that. Willis even smelled like cologne, an earthy one that suited him. She wondered if he wore it in hopes she would stop by.

  They were only looking at each other. Charlie took in his clean flannel shirt and tight work jeans as he rested his wrist on the tractor steering wheel. She watched him take her in, the nice turtleneck sweater and practical but cute boots – chunky wide heels instead of the stilettos she preferred -- and her careful make up. Boys always liked her barely-there pink lipstick.

  “What do you think?” he asked her quietly.

  She didn’t think he was talking about the tractor, but she played along. “Hm.” She scooted closer to Willis so she could take the steering wheel in both hands. He laughed and let one arm drop his knee while he very casually lifted the other to drape across the back of the tractor bench and around her back. That made Charlie smile even more as she pretended to steer the big tractor. “I think it's pretty smooth. Turning, I mean,” she added with a tease.

  “I thought so too.” He stroked his fingers along her side. It was a like a static shock went up her spine, but it was a good shock, all warm and pleasant. “Go out with me.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “I’d like that.”

  A giant smile burst across Willis’ face. He squeezed her side and pulled her a bit closer to him.

  “I’ve got to work here and at my main job,” Charlie added, “most of the week. But I’m free this weekend.” She felt silly, as soon as she said it. She didn’t like to make herself so available to guys: they always disappointed her when she showed them how interested she might be.

  Willis, however, did not disappoint. “How about Friday night, after we finish up here with some of the church kids? A friend’s band is playing over at Dusty’s. We can pretend we can both shoot pool while telling each other doofy stories about growing up around here.”

  “Or I can hustle you at pool. Which ever works out.”

  Willis barked out a laugh, and that made Charlie laugh herself. “I’d be okay with that,” he whispered. He was leaning in toward her, glancing down at her lips and back at her eyes.

  “Willis, are you still in here? Can you-- oh!”

  Charlie closed her eyes and tried to will herself to fall through the earth instead of being caught by a guy’s mom as they were about to kiss. Willis let out a huff, the hot arm hitting her face and her mouth. She opened her eyes to see Willis’ sparkling at her. “Sorry,” he mouthed at her.

  “Yeah, mom?” he called down as he leaned around Charlie’s back.

  Charlie tried to school her expression into a neutral sort of friendly instead of flustered. “Hi, Jolie!” she called with a wave as she turned about.

  Jolie looked both suspicious and embarrassed as she eyed the two of them pressed together on the tractor bench. “I’m sorry!” She honestly sounded sorry. “I didn’t know you were still here, Charlie.”

  “I was just heading out.” Charlie turned back about and started to climb down. “Willis was just showing me how he was fixing up the tractor.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to leave!” she heard Jolie shout.

  “Hey, I got you.” Willis jumped down the other side of the tractor and reached up. He put his hands on Charlie’s waist and lifted her down the rest of the way. “There we go.” He grinned at her as he pulled her against his side. Charlie flushed and glanced at his mother. Willis glanced at his mother as well, then let her go.

  “Please don’t rush out,” Jolie went on. She eyed Willis but flashed Charlie a smile. “I was only going to ask Willis if he had seen his cousin.”

  “Elvis?” he asked. “He’s probably asleep in the hay loft again.”

  Jolie scrunched up her nose. She marched over to the rack of farm tools and pulled down the pitchfork. “We’ll just see about that,” she muttered as she made her way out of
the workshop and back toward the barn with the reindeer.

  “Should...should we be concerned?” Charlie asked.

  “Nah. She hasn’t managed to kill him yet, and Elvis has only gotten smarter as he’s gotten older. He’ll be fine.” Willis glanced down at Charlie again.

  Was he going to go for their interrupted kiss? Or was this an awkward silence?

  “Can I see your phone?” she asked quickly.

  He blinked at her, then dutifully dug his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to her.

  “You don’t have a security code on it?” she teased as she unlocked it and flipped to his contacts.

  “I’d forget it,” he admitted. He was close, leaning in right behind her and breathing on her ear. “What are you doing?”

  Charlie quickly typed in her name and her cell. “Giving you my number.” She offered the phone back and tried to be smooth. “You could text me. If you like doing that.”

  “...yeah, I’d like that.”

  They were leaning close together, smiling at each other. Charlie shook her head and turned to go.

  “I should--” she started.

  “Hey, wait.”

  Willis hooked two fingers in the back belt loop of her jeans and tugged her back. Charlie let out a startled laugh. He pulled her back against his chest then slid an arm around her waist. He tipped her head back against his shoulder so she had to look up at him.

  “I know I should wait for an actual date before I do this, but--”

  She closed her eyes as he leaned down to kiss her. It was… soft but so intense. They kissed with closed mouths, touching and tasting each other’s lips. That warm shiver that had gone up her spine before happened again, then settled all warm in her stomach. Charlie grabbed on to Willis’ wrist as he tipped her head with his hand to pull her closer.

  Willis pulled away slightly. Charlie opened her eyes and met his big, brown ones. He shook his head, then leaned in again, pulling her even tighter into the curve of his body. He pressed hot kisses against the corner of her mouth, her neck, even her ears. Charlie breathed out and couldn’t help but whimper, and that was all the consent Willis needed to charge back and plunder her mouth.

  Charlie found herself pressed against the side of the tractor with her fingers twisted up in Willis’ short hair as they kissed, and kissed, and kissed. He kept his hands on her waist, his fingers flexing on the edge of her shirt across her lower back. She wanted nothing more than to jump up and wrap her legs around his waist.

  He pulled back with great reluctance. “You need to go home,” he told her with a groan, “or I’m going to introduce you to the hayloft.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed and gulped for air.

  They parted reluctantly. Charlie bit her lip before leaning up and rubbing her lipstick off Willis’ face with her thumb. He looked confused until she showed him her hand, then just laughed.

  “You should try to miss my mom,” he told her. “You look like you’ve been making out with a horny boy.”

  “Wasn’t that what I was doing?” she teased.

  “Hope I at least rate suave older gentleman.”

  Charlie giggled, then leaned up to kiss his pouting lips. “You’re only a few years older than me. How about mysterious farm man?”

  He took the kiss but was still frowning. “What about cowboy?”

  “You don’t even own any horses!” She laughed as she escaped his arms. She walked backwards out of the barn. “How about we discuss this more on Friday?”

  “I’ll have a list!” he shouted.

  Charlie turned back around and bit down on her lower lip as she walked back to her car. Maybe this wasn’t the smartest thing she had ever done, but it was fun.

  As she slid into her car and checked her phone, she found a new text message. “Brilliant cowboy farm poet?-W,” it read. It made her smile.

  Chapter 5

  “Charlie, are you sure you want to go over to the farm tonight?” her mother Brenda, shouted up the stairs.

  Charlie paused comparing earrings against her outfit, a plain black off-shoulder top she could cover with a cardigan. “It’s fine, Mama!”

  “Are you sure? Dad says the weather--” Brenda started.

  “--the weatherman says we might get an inch of ice before it switches off to snow! They think we might get six inches of snow!” her father Bobby shouted.

  Charlie rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the update, Daddy!”

  “I will keep you all informed!” he shouted back. The corgis, Mork and Mindy, barked in time with him, then skittered after her father as he went back down into his man-cave in the basement.

  Her mother appeared in her doorway. “Charlie, I think you should stay home. You know Jolie would entirely understand.”

  “I’ll be fine, Mama.”

  Brenda watched her as Charlie got ready, throwing her favorite cardigan over the tight jeans and off-shoulder top. “You look nice,” her mother told her.

  “Thanks.” Charlie smiled. She touched her flipped-up hair self-consciously. “Lynne and I were thinking of going out tonight.”

  Her mother wrinkled her nose. “I think that plan might be out the window, baby.”

  “I know, I know. But I’m still going out to Christmas Tree Town. I promised Jolie I’d come tonight, and I don’t want to leave her to run the place herself.”

  Her mother trailed after her down the stairs to the main part of the house. Mork and Mindy bounded up the stairs, their little claws clicking on the tile, and danced in glee around Charlie’s ankles.

  “Hey hey, babies!” she greeted them, and scratched their ears.

  “Well, call before you leave the farm, okay? Otherwise, we’ll worry.”

  “Yes, mama,” Charlie agreed. She grabbed up her bag as she was heading out the door, scooting the corgis back so they couldn’t follow. “I’m staying at Lynne’s this weekend, remember? I’ll see you guys on Tuesday!” she shouted over her shoulder.

  She had not told her parents about trying out the whole roommates thing with Lynne yet. She had told them she would be staying off and on with her this month, then thought they would have the conversation after the holidays. It seemed less stressful for her parents – and her, she could admit to herself.

  Her mother waved at her from the screen door, the corgis whining about her heels, as Charlie got in her car and pulled away.

  If she let on to her mother that she had a date, she would want to know everything and try to convince her to have Willis over to the house instead. Bless her mother.

  She glanced at her phone again to Willis’ text message. “Excited for tonight. Snow can’t scare me off.” He had even put a smiley face. A guy comfortable enough with his masculinity to use emojis. She liked him. Which was still stupid and wasn’t in any of her plans, but there it was. She liked this guy. She wanted to talk to him, sit with him, and she sure as hell wanted more of those intense kisses from him.

  So, why did the weather hate her?

  What was normally a twenty minute drive out to the the farm took less than ten. There was no one out on the roads. She pulled up the dirt driveway to the main area of Christmas Tree Farm, and she could hear the frozen ground crunch under her little car’s tires. There were no cars in the blocked-off area the Barnetts used as a parking lot.

  Willis met her as she was getting out of her car. He looked dangerously sexy in wrangler jeans, boots, a leather jacket, and a sweater.

  “Hey,” he greeted her, and didn’t hesitate to lean down and press a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

  “You look like a sexy secret agent.” After a slight hesitation, Charlie tucked her cold hands under Willis’ coat against his sides. The sweater was snuggly soft, and he was incredibly warm. “A warm sexy secret agent,” she added.

  “I run hot,” he explained. He tugged her close, and they hugged in the faint afternoon light. He was tall enough that he could rest his cheek on the top of her head. It felt so nice as they quietly held on to each other. Eventua
lly, they pulled apart, but Willis kept a hand on her waist. “I think our plans for tonight might need a rain check.”

  Charlie eyed the empty parking lot, then the greying sky. “Yeah, I am getting that feeling.” She sighed. “Well, let me at least check in with Jolie. Maybe she wants me to stick around for a bit.”

  Willis walked with her back toward Christmas Tree Town. Their fingers kept brushing together, and she felt him start to grab for her fingers more than once, then hold himself back. This boy was going to be very dangerous for her: not even on the first date, and he wanted to hold her hand.

  Jolie was standing next to Bill Poole by Santa’s throne. Bill was only in his Santa’s pants and a heavy parka, and Jolie had not bothered to put on her elf costume.