“So I figured I’d come here since Martha sent me a text telling me it was okay.” He raised his eyes and looked at Martha. “I just wanted to get home to Jane.” His voice shook before he picked up the mug of coffee to cover his emotions.
“Maybe the snow will clear tomorrow, and we’ll be able to get there,” Martha said, going to Shawn and sitting down next to him. “Did you manage to get a message to Jane?”
“Yes, she’s with her best friend so I know she’s okay. But I’d rather be there in case anything happens.” Shawn sipped his coffee. “And not just for Jane, but for the rest of the people in Cougar Ridge. As far as I know, there’s no doctor in town and the chances of anyone getting up there in this weather is slim.”
“It’s not your fault,” Joey said kindly as they all stood around the table. “The snow came early.”
Shawn nodded and sipped his coffee while Martha put her hand on his shoulder and tried to comfort him. “Jane will be fine. And the people of Cougar Ridge are used to coping in weather like this. They’ll be okay.”
“If the snow came early, it probably means it’ll stop by morning.” Mac walked to the kitchen door and looked out. “But for now, I suggest we all stay inside and keep the house warm.” As he turned around, his eyes rested on their mom and Hilda. He was right, the shifters in the room could cope with the cold, but the two older ladies were vulnerable.
“I’ll get the fire lit in the living room,” Joey announced and left the kitchen.
“I’m going out to check that everything is secure.” Mac slid out of the kitchen door and was soon enveloped in the falling snow.
“I’ll make dinner.” Sue got up from the table and began opening cupboards as she collected the various pans and utensils she needed for cooking up a meal for seven people. “Did the rest of the men go home?”
“I don’t know, I can go and check with Mac if you want?” Hex pulled his jacket up around his neck, grateful for his shoulder-length hair, which would keep the snow from going down his collar.
“Would you?” Sue asked as Hilda got up from her chair and went to help.
“I’ll help, too,” Martha said as Shawn drank his coffee in worried silence.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Hex promised as he opened the door and a flurry of snowflakes blew into the room. Hex slipped out of the door and pulled it closed behind him as he hurried after Mac. His footprints were still visible in the snow, but Hex didn’t need them to locate his brother’s location. His senses could penetrate the heavy snowfall far enough to know his brother was in the main building where they cut the wood up into planks.
Jogging through the snow, being careful he didn’t end up on his butt, Hex reached the building and slid the large door open just enough to get inside. Before he went any further, he stamped the snow off his boots and shook it from his clothes. Then he took a look around. “Over here,” Mac’s voice came from the far end of the building.
“Mom’s cooking dinner and wanted to know if the guys all made it home.” He strode across the building, navigating the equipment in the half-light.
“I sent most of them home when the snow started,” Mac said as he inspected a couple of planks of wood before stacking them along the side of the barn. “Only Joey stayed to help me finish up.”
“I’m sorry I got caught up at the hospital and wasn’t here to help,” Hex told his brother.
“Hey, don’t be sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” Mac brushed sawdust off his hands and turned around to face Hex. “I’m so happy for you, Hex. Take all the time you need to care for Martha and Hilda. She’s looking well, by the way. Hilda, I mean.”
“She is,” Hex agreed as Mac headed toward the corner of the building that led into his office. “I just hope she doesn’t have a relapse like she did last night.”
“At least there’s a doctor in the house.” Mac stopped walking and faced Hex. “He seems like a nice guy. Martha seems close to him.”
“They’ve known each other since high school. Then there’s this whole mystery around him coming back home with a daughter. Jane.” Hex shrugged. “Martha cares for him. But as a friend.” He placed his hand over his heart. “I know how I feel and there is no way I’d ever be able to love another woman the way I love Martha. I don’t think my mate is ever going to go off with another man.”
Mac laughed loudly. “That is not what I was asking.”
“Sorry, I’m still a little sore on the subject,” Hex admitted then he laughed along with his brother. “I never saw myself as the jealous type.”
“You’d never met your mate before.” Mac swung around and went to his office where he switched off his computer and checked that the place was secure before he locked the door. “This is the earliest I’ve finished work for months.”
“Years,” Hex corrected. “You should get out more.”
“Maybe if I ever meet my mate, I will.” Mac strolled through the building, checking that everything was switched off and secure. “Work has become a way of life for me. Ever since Dad died, it’s all I’ve focused on.” He glanced up at Hex. “Which is why I want you to have the time off to spend with your mate. I want at least one Winter brother to have a great family life.”
“And I need to know I’m working to provide for my family. So as soon as the snow clears and the sawmill opens up again, I’m back on my usual shifts. Unless Hilda does get sick again.” The two men left the building and hurried through the snow back to the warmth of the house. As Hex opened the door, the smell of onions sizzling in the pan met them. “Just the seven of us for dinner.”
“Everyone else made it home,” Mac added.
“Thanks for letting me stay,” Shawn announced to the room as he lifted his head from his phone.
“Shawn finally got a text through to Jane,” Martha said. “So he’s going to stop worrying.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Shawn admitted. “A child is a huge responsibility and if anything happens and I’m not there…”
“Nothing is going to happen,” Martha assured him as she made a big fresh pot of coffee. “Except for some snowball fights.”
“Oh, we used to have snowball battles,” Mac said, his eyes wide as he recalled how the three brothers and their father used to go out in the snow and enjoy extended snowball fights.
“You all used to come home with your clothes soaked through, but you never seemed to get cold,” Sue reminisced. “Your father used to love taking you out in the wilds. I’m teaching them to be boys, he used to tell me.”
“He sure did raise fine boys,” Hilda told Sue. “He’d be proud of them.”
“Just as your husband would be proud of Martha.” Sue winked at Hilda. “We all did good, didn’t we?”
“We did.” Hilda nodded, a wistful smile on her face. This was the first time Hex had heard his mom talk about their dad so openly. Maybe meeting Hilda, a woman who had to deal with a similar loss, would help her to heal. Would perhaps help them both to heal.
“Hex, I think we should celebrate you meeting your mate and open a couple of bottles of wine. What do you think?” Sue asked.
“I think that’s a great idea. It’s not as if any of us are driving anywhere in this weather.” Hex left the kitchen and went into the small storeroom next to it that was filled with dried herbs and the produce they grew in the gardens. At the back of the storeroom was a wine rack full of bottles of wine. Red, white and everything in between. Hex pulled out a couple of bottles and took them through to the kitchen. “I’ll open them now.”
“Great, then we can do a toast,” Sue said. “To Hex and Martha and their lives together.” His mom caught Hex’s eye and a look of intense pain crossed her face before she masked it with a smile.
Hex could read her thoughts. She was scared that history would repeat itself and his dream would come true, just as her dream had come true. Hex would do everything in his power to prevent anything from happening to his mate.
But if it did, and he c
ouldn’t bear to think about it, then his mom would be there for him.
But that wasn’t how life was supposed to be and he’d fight for his mate until the last breath left his body.
Chapter Eighteen – Martha
“I can’t remember the last time I saw my mom laugh so much.” Martha leaned her elbows on the windowsill in the living room and stared out at the snow.
“They say laughter is the best medicine, don’t they, doc?” Mac asked Shawn.
Shawn smiled. “Yes, if only it were true, I’d be out of a job.”
“And what would you do if you weren’t a doctor?” Hex asked as he handed Martha a second glass of wine.
“Are you trying to get me drunk, Hex Winter?” Martha asked.
“Never.” He smiled down at her as she took the glass from him. Her finger brushed his, lingering as sensations flooded up her arm and fanned out across her body.
“I think I’d have liked to have done something with my hands, something manual. I like being outdoors, so maybe a landscape gardener.” Shawn put his hand up and refused the glass of wine Hex offered him.
“Are you staying sober so you can disappear into the night?” Joey asked as he lounged in a chair, a book in his lap.
“No, the snow is still falling, and I won’t risk getting lost and freezing to death out there. That wouldn’t do me or Jane much good, would it?” Shawn yawned widely and covered his mouth with his hand. “But I am going to make a run for it in the morning if the snow stops.”
“Jane will understand you not being there,” Martha told Shawn as she tore her gaze away from the mesmerizing falling snow. It was a good four feet deep, but with a stiff breeze pushing it into drifts, there would be pockets of much deeper snow that would prove treacherous to the unwary.
“I know. She’s a good kid and used to me being out on call. I just miss her. And I also have a few patients in Cougar Ridge who I need to check up on, although with your mom being here, that’s one less patient I have to worry about.” Shawn glanced toward the door. “She’s made an almost miraculous recovery.”
“She has,” Martha agreed. “I was so scared I was going to lose her and yet here she is laughing and joking, no sign of memory loss.”
“Which is great news.” Shawn watched her closely, he was leaving something unsaid.
“What is it?” Martha slipped away from the window and her view of the white world outside and went to the sofa. With her wine glass in her hand, she leaned forward, wanting to know what Shawn was thinking.
“She misses you.” Shawn pressed his lips to stop himself from saying more.
“I know.” She nodded. “I’m beginning to realize just how lonely she’s been.”
Shawn nodded. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Yes, you should, because friends are supposed to be open and honest with each other.” Martha sniffed and wiped her hand over her eyes. She was being silly, her mom wouldn’t want her to feel guilty over her career.
“She’s proud of you,” Hex joined the conversation and sat down next to her. “You can see it when she talks about you.”
Tears pricked Martha’s eyes and she nodded, her eyes cast down to the patterned rug covering polished bare wooden floorboards. “I know. I hope she’s still proud of me when I move back here and retrain.”
“Retrain?” Shawn asked. “I had no idea you were thinking of leaving your hotshot life in the city.”
“I’ve done that. I pushed myself hard and made sacrifices to work hard and get promoted. But now that I’ve met my mate...” She held out her hand to Hex and he came to her. As he sat down beside her, his thigh brushed against hers and she knew her decision was right. “Now that I’ve met my mate, I want to make a home and raise a couple of kids.”
Shawn grinned. “You have no idea what you are letting yourself in for. Raising a child is the single most scary thing I’ve ever done, but the reward is the best.”
“Are you getting all misty eyed on us, doc?” Mac asked. He’d been sitting thoughtfully staring into the fire while the conversation went on around him. However, Martha suspected he was listening, always listening.
“A little. Jane is my world.” Shawn shrugged. “I just feel blessed to have her in my life.”
The others in the room fell silent, each one of them with a headful of questions they’d like to ask the doctor, each one of them respecting his privacy.
“I should go check on my mom.” Martha sipped her wine and tried to summon the energy to get up from the sofa. The room was warm, and her mate was by her side, she could just curl up in front of the fire with him and go to sleep in his arms.
Except there are other people in the room and that would seem a little weird, her cougar told her.
True, Martha laughed.
“I’ll come with you,” Hex said and got to his feet. He offered her his hand and she took it.
“Don’t want to let me out of your sight?” she asked.
“Never. If that was possible.” Hex led her out of the living room. They were heading back to the kitchen where Hilda and Sue were camped out around the warm stove with a large helping of cocoa each and a box of cookies between them. “You’re serious about retraining?”
“Yes, I am. I am serious about wanting to move back here and live somewhere between Cougar Ridge and Bear Bluff.”
“My bear is happy he doesn’t have to give up his wild life in the mountains,” Hex admitted. “But we would have followed you anywhere.”
“I know. And my cougar is happy she doesn’t have to live in the city and hide away. She looks forward to your bear introducing her to his wild life.” She grinned at her mom. “It looks as if our moms are experiencing a wild life of their own.”
“Ah, the young ones have come to spoil our fun,” Hilda winked at her daughter. “Sue and I are going on a vacation together after you two are married.”
Martha’s head jerked back. “Married.”
“Yes, what’s the point putting it off?” Hilda asked.
“None, I guess. It’s just that we haven’t discussed it or anything.” Martha looked at Hex for help, but he simply looked amused, his eyes sparkling as he watched his mom and Hilda laugh while Martha just looked damn awkward. “A little backup.”
Hex held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not going to argue. I’d marry you tomorrow.”
“I suppose the argument ‘but we’ve only just met’ is not going to get me anywhere,” Martha joked as she let the idea sit with her for a moment. Why shouldn’t they get married right away?
It only seems strange to us because we’ve lived around non-shifters for so long it would seem like a whirlwind romance doomed to failure, her cougar said.
True. Lots of shifters, particularly in Cougar Ridge, met and married fast.
“So, a vacation?” Hex asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, we were thinking of a cruise somewhere warm.” Sue shivered. “These cold mountain winters don’t do our old bones much good.”
“Go for it.” Martha let go of Hex and slipped her arms around her mom’s shoulders. “Go and enjoy yourselves. I’ll even treat you. As a thank you for the help you’re going to give us over the wedding.”
“I have some savings,” Hilda insisted.
“I’d like to do this for the two of you,” Martha said quietly. “It would make me happy. Maybe it could be your wedding gift to us.”
“That’s a backward way of gift giving,” Sue said. “But I see the sentiment in it, and I think we should accept, Hilda.”
Hilda looked at her daughter for a long, long moment before tears stung her eyes and she nodded, pulling her daughter into a hug. “Thank you.”
“You are more than welcome. I want to thank you for everything, and this seems like a good way.” Martha kissed her mom’s cheek before she pulled back. As she did, she saw the pained look on Sue’s face and the way her eyes rested on Hilda and Martha. She knew of Hex’s dream, she’d experienced her own dream coming true. “I love
you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.” Hilda finished her cocoa. “I ought to get some sleep.”
“Have you taken your antibiotics?” Martha asked.
Hilda’s cheeks flushed red and she hid her face from her daughter as she mumbled, “They are back home.”
“In Cougar Ridge?” Martha asked as if her mom had another home.
“In Cougar Ridge.” Hilda looked up at her daughter. “I took one this morning before we left and then I put them down on the counter...”
Martha sighed. “Missing one won’t hurt.” She turned to Hex. “When Shawn goes to Cougar Ridge tomorrow, why don’t we go with him?”
Hex’s jaw set firm and she waited for him to argue that he’d go alone. However, despite wanting to keep her safe, he nodded in agreement. “Sure, we can go with him. If the weather is settled.”
“If the weather is settled,” Martha repeated. “Which means we should get an early night.”
“I’m sorry to put you to so much trouble,” Hilda said. “I never thought about it until we ate dinner. I guess I feel so much better that I forgot about them.”
“It was an easy thing to do,” Martha agreed.
“I didn’t forget them,” Hilda continued. “You know, like I forgot you were in town. This was more of a careless forgetfulness. I just put them down not thinking that we wouldn’t be back tonight.”
“That is a relief,” Martha admitted. “I don’t want you to suffer any more relapses. So we’ll get you the medication you need one way or another.”
“Okay. Sleep well,” Hilda stood up, her legs stiff as she took a step forward and hugged her daughter.
“I love you, Mom.” Martha hugged her back while Hex said goodnight to his mom. “It’s so good to see you happy.”
“I am happy.” Hilda looked up and smiled sadly. “The happiest I’ve been for years.”
“It shows.” Martha let go of her mom and took one last look at her before she and Hex left the kitchen and went upstairs.
“No relapse tonight,” Hex commented as he shut the bedroom door and pulled off his sweater.
Hex (Winter - Shifter Seasons Book 1) Page 13
