Jake's comment about knowing that Hannah hadn't been able to find any dates lately had stung more than she had expected. I mean, why do I even care what that jerk thinks?
But after a few months of dud dates arranged through her ShiftMatch account, she had started wondering if she might be one of those shifters who never found a mate of their own.
No matter how good her prospective matches looked online, there had been zero chemistry between them when they met in person. And her bear's reactions to her dates had ranged from utter indifference to active rejection.
As if somehow sensing her dark turn of thought, Sam stopped petting Edgar. He reached over and took her right hand.
Just like his hand on her shoulder earlier, his touch felt simultaneously thrilling and comforting.
Sam's warm look full of masculine appreciation felt like a soothing balm on the lash of Jake's nasty comment.
"I'm still getting used to the steering wheel being on the wrong side of the car," he commented. "Back home, if I were sitting here, I'd be in the driver's seat right now."
Hannah laughed. "It would feel really strange to drive on the other side of the road."
She tried to imagine what Australia was like. All that came to mind were kangaroos and crocodiles. And spiders. Really big spiders.
Sam shook his head. "Oh, it's not the driving straight ahead part that trips you up," he advised. "It's making turns that's confusing. After we landed in Missoula and a hotel shuttle picked us up, I was convinced that we were going to have a head-on collision turning into the hotel's car park." He paused. "So, Kayla's your older sister? Do you have any other brothers or sisters?"
"I have an older brother. His name is Patrick, and he lives in Alaska, so I don't see him very often," Hannah said with a pang. "How about you? Any brothers or sisters?"
Sam shook his head. "I was a right terror as a kid. I think my Mum and Dad decided not to have any more after me. They worried that Oz might not survive more than one of us." His tone was gently self-deprecating, and he grinned at her. "That means I'm the heir apparent to a fair-sized cattle station about an hour's drive from Toowoomba. Have you ever been to Oz?"
"I've never been further away from home than Washington State, and only because Kayla went to veterinary school there," Hannah confessed. "I'd love to visit Patrick and Jessica in Alaska someday, but the problem is that they usually spend summers working on a dinosaur dig somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and by the time they get back to Anchorage, it's almost winter. And then there's my job here…Annabeth's got two kids, so she counts on me to run things when she can't be at work."
Sam nodded. "I feel guilty about not staying closer to home, especially now that Dad's getting older. They were a bit upset with me when I decided to become a firefighter and move to Gumdale on the coast—it's a suburb of Brisbane." He looked out the car's windows. "This place reminds me a bit of home, with all the hills and the trees. Even if they're not gum trees."
The nature programs that Hannah grown up watching had made Australia seem a giant red desert with kangaroos hopping around. She'd never imagined that it might look like home.
She couldn't help asking, "But are there kangaroos?"
Sam laughed. "Yeah. Lots of 'em. And wallabies, too. They come out at dusk and dawn to feed in our pastures."
"Just like the deer and elk here!" she said, surprised. "They seem to know that they can't be hunted near town, so there are always lots of them around at sunrise and sunset."
Sam nodded. "Yeah. And we've even got a few koalas living in the gum trees near the stream. If you came to visit, I could show them to you." His tone was hopeful, and it kindled a flutter of warm excitement deep inside Hannah's gut.
She spotted the sign for the Ornelas Organic Dairy just up ahead. "We're almost here, Edgar," she said, addressing the dog sitting patiently on Sam's lap. "I bet Erin and Ben are going to be really happy to see you."
* * *
There were tears of joy at the family's reunion with their beloved pet.
"I felt so guilty for leaving without him," Erin said.
The pretty blonde Ordinary woman was kneeling on the lawn in front of Ernie and Teresa Ornelas' big new house, her tears mixed with giggles as Edgar did his best to lick the salty drops from her face.
Her husband Ben, a big bear shifter with dark auburn hair and a bushy red beard, added, "But we couldn't stay any longer. The fire was moving so fast, we thought it might reach the road and cut us off."
He stood next to his mate, discreetly wiping away a few tears of his own as he watched the reunion.
Hannah had met the couple several times before, since Ben was a wildlife biologist who worked with her cousin Evan at the Idaho Fish and Game office in town, and Erin was a botanist working on a federal project studying the effects of climate change on the state's high-altitude vegetation.
Hannah smiled at them, happy for a little good news amid all of the tragic losses that this huge fire had inflicted over the past few days. "Well, I'm so happy that we could reunite you. We have to get going, though. I promised Sam that I'd treat him to some real American barbecue before I drove him back to the firefighting camp."
The white lie escaped her mouth before she had a chance to think about it. She glanced nervously at Sam for his reaction, and saw that the tall shifter was grinning down at her, his blue eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, my mates back at the camp are dead jealous that I'm goin' on a dinner date with a beautiful Yank," he said, happily. "Shall we?"
* * *
"I'm sorry about just blurting the thing about dinner like that," Hannah apologized twenty minutes later. "I don't know what came over me."
They had just been seated at Justin Long's Wildcat Springs Texas BBQ restaurant on Main Street. Hannah had decided to bring Sam here to give him a quintessentially American experience. Plus, the food was outstanding.
The whole place was decorated in a rustic style, with wooden tables and chairs, and floors made from wide, weathered pine boards.
Sam seemed suitably impressed by the large collection of Texas-themed memorabilia covering the exposed brick side walls of the restaurant's interior. There were framed vintage black-and-white photos of the town of Wildcat Springs, located in the Hill Country near Austin, along with lariats, an assortment of cowboy hats, vintage Texas license plates, coils of barbed wire, spurs, antique saddles, and even a stuffed armadillo.
Sam and Hannah were each holding menus and their wolf shifter server Ethan Jacobsen had departed to pour them a couple of Brown Bear Ales from the restaurant's bar.
Sam waggled his dark gold eyebrows at her in an exaggerated leer. "Oi just love it when a sheila can't control herself around me," he intoned, deliberately exaggerating his Australian accent for comic effect.
Hannah laughed just as Ethan Jacobsen returned with their drinks.
"Your meals and drinks are on the house tonight," Ethan informed them. "Justin told us that he won't accept any money from the firefighters who came here to help out."
"I guess just I'll be paying for my own dinner then," Hannah said, cheerfully. "That's really nice of Justin."
Ethan frowned down at her. "And I know that you and Annabeth have been working your butts off to feed the fire crews," he said. "Justin will blow his top if he hears that I charged you anything."
"That's incredibly generous," Hannah replied, touched to the core. "I'll have to thank Justin when I see him."
He was her uncle-by-marriage, so she usually saw him at least once a week, at Aunt Elle's Sunday dinners.
Sam asked her a few questions about some of the menu items, and declared that he was starving, since he'd only managed to snatch a couple of cookies while back at camp, so they ordered one of the enormous Wildcat Springs Special sampler platters to share.
After placing their order, Sam raised his glass of dark amber ale and toasted her. "To pretty Yank bakers and their choc chip biccies."
Hannah grinned and raised her glass in return. "
To hunky Aussie firefighters and their cute accents from Down Under," she intoned as solemnly as she could.
They touched glasses and drank.
"Accent? What accent? I don't have an accent," Sam informed her, putting his glass down on the table and wiping the foam from his mouth. "You lot are the ones who talk funny. As you'll discover when you come to visit me." He paused. "I think your Yank accent is pretty cute myself."
He wants to keep seeing me! An intoxicating wave of happiness rose from Hannah's middle.
"But I don't even have a passport," she protested, smiling.
"That's an easy problem to solve, innit?" Sam leaned back, studying her. "So, tell me about that wanker back at the camp. Mr. Grabby Hands. Is he your ex?"
"Oh, hell no," Hannah replied with an exaggerated shudder. "We went on one date. That was plenty for me. Would you believe that he demanded an explanation about why I didn't want to see him again, and then tried to argue with me when I told him that I didn't think we were a good match?" She shook her head in remembered disbelief. "I mean, why? Did he think I was going to date him again if he won the argument?"
Instead of taking Jake's bait, she had blocked without a further reply. At the time, she'd felt a tiny twinge of guilt that she was being rude, but mostly she had just felt relief at not having to deal with him again.
"Well, that's good. I mean, that you two weren't serious or anything," Sam amended hastily.
"Everyone was disappointed that things didn't work out," Hannah said. "I had a couple of friends ask me if maybe I wasn't being too picky."
"And why shouldn't you be picky when it comes to choosing a mate?" Sam demanded. "It's a lifetime commitment, after all." He shook his head and added, "and what kind of friends would want you to settle for a yobbo like Grabby Hands? He doesn't deserve someone like you!"
"But—" Hannah began to protest, both flattered and unsettled by Sam's unexpectedly passionate reaction to her story.
She also wanted to ask what the heck a yobbo was, but Sam wasn't done speaking. "Never undervalue yourself, Hannah. You deserve everything, and more."
"It's not like there are a ton of eligible bear shifter bachelors who live within driving distance of Bearpaw Ridge," Hannah tried to explain. "I mean, there's a lot of us in this area, but I'm related to most of them." She wrinkled her nose.
"So, does that mean I've got a chance? I know for sure that I'm not related to you." Sam's intensity dialed down as his grin returned.
Yes! Her bear all but shouted this, startling her.
"Maybe," Hannah said coyly.
She picked up her ale and drank, mostly to keep from staring at Sam. The more time she spent with him, the more she found herself liking him. He seemed completely unaware of how hot he was, and she loved his gentle sense of humor.
"And at least you've got a decent number of other shifters in these parts," Sam continued. "My family are the only bear shifters in the Darling Downs. There are a few other shifter families on the east coast, but they're located hundreds of kilometers away, in northern New South Wales and in Far North Queensland. Not exactly convenient for a coffee date, if you know what I mean."
Hannah nodded in sympathy.
"That's one of the reasons I applied for the job with Queensland Fire and Rescue Services. It was a good reason to move to the Brisbane area. Before I came here, I thought I was going to have to ask ShiftMatch for an arranged mating."
No! Hannah felt a sudden, weird pang at the thought of Sam Wilson getting mated via a traditional arranged match.
"I've got a ShiftMatch account, too," Hannah admitted. "That's how I met Jake. He actually lives in Montana, about a four-hour drive away. That was part of the problem with our first date. He thought he'd at least get laid, so he was pretty annoyed about driving all the way over here to meet me, and then…" She let her hand fall limply to the tabletop, mimicking a bird shot out of the sky. "Splat. Dud."
Ethan returned with an enormous oval platter heaped high with sliced brisket, grilled sausages, and pieces of BBQ chicken. The delectable smell of mesquite smoke rose from the platter, mingled with savory scents from the generous selection of side dishes held in a row of white crocks on the platter's perimeter. One crock held a generous portion of Justin's house-made barbecue sauce. The rest were filled with an assortment of coleslaw, beans, and mac-and-cheese.
"Enjoy your meal," Ethan said as he lowered the platter to the middle of the table. "I'll be right back with the cornbread and honey butter. And don't forget to leave room for dessert. It's included with the sampler platter."
Hannah and Sam dug in to the feast.
She was starving—lunchtime had been a long time ago, and she and Annabeth had worked hard to prepare and bake all of the extra goodies for the firefighters.
Sam looked like he was impressed with everything he put in his mouth.
The conversation went on hiatus for a short while as they each gave the excellent food their full attention.
At last, the bounty had been reduced to bones and empty crocks standing among a few smears of sauce. Sam surveyed the demolished platter with a satisfied expression. "That was some outstanding tucker."
"Just wait until you try the banana pudding. My whole family loves Justin's food," Hannah said. "He's originally from Texas, but he moved here after he mated my Aunt Elle." She drank the last of her ale. "I know you haven't had a chance to do much here except work, but what do you think of the US so far?"
"It's great. I love it," Sam assured her. "The drive down from Missoula to Bearpaw Ridge was beautiful, and most of the 'firies' I've met here are great, especially your cousins. I feel like we're all good mates now."
He reached across the table and took her hand. That same exciting jolt of contact that she'd felt earlier ran up her arm now.
"I'm really glad you invited me along to meet the Harpers and to go out on this date." He lowered his gaze, studying their linked hands, and she noticed that he had long, honey-colored lashes. "I'll be honest with you, Hannah—I've been feeling a little down over the past few days, but spending time with you has cheered me right up."
"Did something happen?" she asked, concerned. She gave his hand a comforting squeeze.
Sam shook his head. "Oh, no, it's nothing anyone did, and I'm sure it'll all turn out right. It's just…well, you know that the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, yeah?"
Hannah nodded, curious to hear what he had to say. His thumb stroked the back of her hand, causing interesting frissons of sensation.
"Well, as long as I can remember, my family's celebrated Christmas in July, because that's winter in Oz…not that Queensland ever gets cold, mind you. It's semi-tropical and we only have two real seasons—the Wet and the Dry. So, anyhow, this'll be the first year that I've ever missed my family's 'Christmas in July' dinner."
"I'm sorry—" she began, but his fingers tightened around her hand.
"No worries. Being here with you pretty much makes up for everything." He sounded sincere. "This is a better Christmas dinner than I ever hoped for."
Then he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. His lips were warm and soft, and their touch sent a bolt of heat searing along every nerve down to the pit of her belly.
He felt it, too. His blue eyes grew hot, and she saw a hint of shifter gold in their depths.
Oh my God. I want him so badly, and all we're doing is holding hands! Hannah cleared her throat. "Um, can I show you my favorite place? It's just a short drive—"
She stopped speaking because Ethan returned to their table. He held a tray with two bowls of creamy vanilla pudding topped with fresh sliced bananas over a base of crisp Nilla Wafers.
His gaze fastened on Hannah and Sam's joined hands and Hannah knew that everyone in town would hear about her date with Sam by tomorrow morning, at the very latest.
Hannah reflexively tried to pull away her hand, but Sam maintained a firm but gentle grip. Which was okay with her, because she didn't really want to lose his t
ouch.
"Hope you left room for dessert," Ethan said cheerfully, putting the banana pudding on the table. Then he began piling their dinner plates and silverware on the platter in preparation for clearing everything away.
"Hey, mate, would you mind putting those in a takeaway box for us?" Sam asked, indicating the bowls of pudding. "We've got some plans that can't wait."
He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He counted out a generous tip one-handed and tried to hand the bills to Ethan.
Ethan waved away the money. "Like I said, your money's no good here. Your Australian crew saved my dad's barn and his prize stud yesterday. His ranch is the one right off Wolf Run Road."
Christmas in July Page 3
