Cougar Magic

by Terry Spear

  "No way," Ava said. "Not when the two of you so obviously need the privacy." She fanned herself.

  Nina's face and whole body heated. She glanced at Stryker and he was smiling, as if in total agreement with her sister.

  "You'll stay with us, Ava," Bridget insisted.

  Chase agreed. "Then, Nina, you and Stryker will be staying at his house?"

  “Yes,” Stryker said, without waiting for Nina to respond. He smiled at her though, as if he knew he should have asked.

  “Where is your vehicle and clothes?” Nina asked Ava, wondering where she'd hidden her things all this time.

  “Out at the old homestead we were talking about earlier,” Ava said. “I parked the car in the old barn.”

  “We’ll help you get it,” Chase said.

  “Yeah, and one of us can ride with you on the way over to Bridget and Travis’s place,” Dan said.

  Ava eyed them with suspicion, as if she thought they were keeping an eye on her so she wouldn’t slip off.

  But Nina said, “Right, because Ava said there are three of the men coming for us, so two of them could still be out there.”

  Ava agreed then.

  "How did the shooter know to come after us at the caves?" Nina asked her sister. "I couldn't believe the one shooting at my car could have gotten there so quickly. Wait, you had some of your clothes up in the cave."

  "Yeah, I stayed up there when I left the barn. They must have followed my scent up there and figured one of them might get lucky and shoot me if I returned. It would have been easy for the one who fired at us at the car, to call the other and say we could be headed that way."

  "Okay, that makes sense," Nina said.

  Toddler Denise flipped a spoonful of gooey mac and cheese on the middle of her daddy’s plaid, flannel shirt. No one said anything for a moment as they looked at the cheesy noodle and splatters of cheese stuck to the flannel fabric.

  Then everyone laughed.

  "That's what you and Bridget have to look forward to," Hal said, grabbing a napkin off the table and wiping off the mac and cheese. "And you too, Dan."

  Dan just chuckled. "I didn't think we'd be going to our prenatal classes this soon, Kate."

  "I guess it's about that time. I haven't given any in a while. Boy, is Dr. William going to be surprised when he returns from conference to learn we have oodles more cougar babies coming in the new year."

  "That's what happens when the lights go out," Nina said, raising her glass of water.

  “So you see the future like Nina does?” Stryker asked Ava.

  “Yeah, not that I ever wanted to admit it.” Ava glanced at Nina, looking a little sheepish.

  “I see ghosts, but only if we have a séance. Chase is a master at setting up séances. I’m not sure it would work if he wasn’t there to be the one to set it all up and say the magic words,” Stryker said.

  Smiling, Chase shook his head. “You are the one with the ability to see them.”

  “I see them too, though I didn’t know it until we had the séance in Anderson. Talk about a shock,” Leyton said.

  “I think it’s really neat,” Kate said, kissing his cheek.

  He kissed her mouth back.

  “I wish I could do any of those cool paranormal things.” Then Ricky frowned at Bridget. “Can you read my mind?”

  Bridget smiled and picked a pickle up off her plate. “Always.”

  “You’re an open book,” Dan said to Ricky. “All of us can read what’s on your mind.”

  Kolby laughed. “That’s a good one.”

  “Yours too,” Bridget said.

  “But not mine, right?” Hal’s foreman asked.

  Bridget just smiled. Her reaction had everyone but Ava laughing. She appeared amazed.

  14

  Stryker was glad Ava was staying with Bridget and Travis. They’d protect her well, and he’d have the time with Nina alone. He’d thought about the baby blanket again, and how Nina hadn’t had time to touch it. He wondered what she’d “see.” He half wanted to know, and half didn’t.

  Ava seemed to feel more comfortable with sharing with others about her ability of having future visions like her sister when she’d learned Bridget could read minds and that Stryker and his brother could witness ghosts. So she and Nina weren't an oddity at all. Not here among the cat shifters of Yuma Town.

  They said their goodbyes and Nina gave her sister a hug. Ava hugged her back, but she also gave Stryker one too, and whispered in his ear, "You hurt my sister, and you'll be answering to me. And…sorry for the taser business."

  "If there's to be a wedding, you'll be in it."

  Ava smiled then at him. "Thanks."

  Stryker knew the sisters were at odds at times, and they needed the closure. He didn't want to come between them.

  “I guess we’ll pick up your things and you can drive over to my place and I’ll follow you,” Stryker said as they got into his Jeep and drove to the Robinson’s house. The sky looked gray and he suspected the snow might begin to fall again, sooner than expected. He was glad to get her moved over to his place and they’d start a warm fire and have dinner later. He really would have liked having the dogs with them since she seemed to be such a dog person, but if he and she ran into trouble at his home, it was best that the dogs weren’t there.

  He much preferred staying at his house, rather than vacationing in the Robinson’s home when they didn’t even know anyone was living there while they were gone. Especially when they could have had a shootout there.

  “I need to do a load of wash first though. I want to set everything back to the way it was,” Nina said.

  “I’ll help you do whatever you need to so that we can get moved over to my place.” As fast as they could. He was thinking about having mugs of hot cocoa, building a warm fire, and cuddling on the couch—for a little bit. He was hoping she'd be agreeable to taking a nap with him.

  “You’re worried about the weather,” Nina said, breaking into his thoughts.

  “Yeah, you know it might not come until later like they said, but I’d rather get this finished sooner than later.” The weather was also a big factor, though he was certainly thinking about the rest.

  “I agree.” Nina started to write something on her phone. “Just making a list so I don’t forget anything. Clean out the fridge and cupboards of any of my food I didn’t eat, wash the sheets and bath and hand towels, oh, and you still need to check on that trap.”

  “Right.”

  When they reached the house, he carried her through the snow to the house, since she was still wearing cute little bunny slippers and red sweats. First, she changed clothes, and then they hurried off to get all the chores done. Stryker went to the cage out back and found it empty, thankfully, so he packed it up in his Jeep to drop it off with the vet on the way back to his place. He placed his bags in the Jeep, then went inside to see what he could help Nina with.

  “I need to pack my clothes, and I can pull all the stuff out of the fridge and cabinets that I need. You wouldn’t know which was mine or I'd let you do that and I could do the laundry. Would you mind putting the sheets and towels in the wash machine in the meantime? Oh, and Tracey's sweats too.”

  “I can do that and make up the bed with fresh sheets also.” So that’s what Stryker did, though it would take a while for everything to wash, and then they had to wait for them to dry. In the meantime, he started the wash and then found a set of fresh sheets to put on the bed.

  When he finished making the bed, he joined her in the kitchen and hauled out the sacks of groceries that she’d gathered to the Jeep.

  “I didn’t use any of my aunt and uncle’s food, and I left all the skunk deodorizer ingredients there to replace what we used. I’ll write them a note also. They’ll smell all our scents in the house and wonder what was up.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

  She began writing a note then.

  After he took out her luggage, he grabbed the baby blanket out of hi
s bag. It would take another half hour to dry the laundry, so he might as well see if Nina could get any visions from the blanket.

  “I just threw the laundry in the dryer.” Then Nina saw the blue blanket. “Oh how cute. I had a pink one when I was a little baby. Like yours appears to be, mine was well-worn and well-loved.”

  She sat down on the couch and he handed her the blanket, then sat down next to her. She closed her eyes as she held onto the blanket for a moment. Then her eyes popped open.

  “What did you see?” he asked, feeling anxious.

  “My sister was with a man who looked a lot like you and Leyton, only the man’s temples are starting to gray. It’s just totally bizarre that they would be together when we have no clue where he is.”

  “Then my dad is all right,” Stryker said, feeling some relief, and annoyance too that his dad had never looked for him and his brother. Then he frowned. “No sign of our mom though?”

  She shook her head.

  “Could you see a location?”

  “No. And I have no clue when it occurred. Maybe winter. My sister’s wearing a sweater, jeans, and boots. He was wearing a corduroy jacket and jeans. So maybe winter or fall.”

  “That’s an amazing gift you have. Are you ever wrong?”

  “Not wrong, exactly, but it’s not exact. I mean, I see bits and pieces, like your birth certificate, but nothing else in the ‘scene.’ With my sister and what looks to be your father, all I see is them. No setting, no location, just like a black void. Now at other times, I see a lot of details in the setting and I can pinpoint a location better.”

  “What are they doing in your vision? Emotionally, how are they acting?”

  “Contemplative. They’re not talking, not smiling. They’re serious. They were looking down at something, but I couldn’t see anything else but their heads bowed a little. I’m sorry. I know how frustrating this can be. It’s frustrating to me too.”

  “But you see your sister and my dad and they’re alive, so that’s good, even if we don’t know where they are at that moment in time.”

  The dryer timer finally dinged, and Stryker was relieved they could finally get out of here. They both headed for the laundry room.

  “I need to drop off the cage at the vet clinic, and then we’ll head over to my place.”

  “I guess we need to drive the two cars there.”

  “Uh, yeah, that’s right. On second thought, I’ll tell the doc we’re going to take it to my place and I’ll just follow you to the house like I said we’d do initially. If she needs it sooner than later, she can ask someone else to run by and get it.” Stryker’s priority was providing backup for Nina for now and with driving two vehicles, he preferred going straight to his place.

  Once they had put the clean sheets away and hung up the fresh towels, she took his baby blanket, Tracey's clothes, and her purse and headed out to the car. Snow flurries mixed with sleet had already started falling, and he hoped they didn’t lose sight of each other on the way to his house.

  “Do you know the way to my house if we lose each other?” Stryker asked her, though he asked for her phone and pulled up her GPS, then added his address in it—just in case.

  “I do, but if I can’t see the road, that’s another story.”

  “I agree. For me too. Just go slow. I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t want to run into you either.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, I can see us calling that into the sheriff’s department when we both need a tow truck." She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. “Can’t wait until we’re snuggled up on the couch, mugs of hot cocoa in hand, and a fire is burning in the fireplace.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking of. Great minds think alike.” He kissed her back, and then got her car door for her. He didn’t want to delay this a moment longer due to the weather.

  The snow was getting worse as they headed back to his place and it was practically whiteout conditions by the time they were halfway there. She was driving slowly, which he was glad for. He didn’t want her to end up in a ditch along the way.

  He could at least see her taillights and he was following them, hoping that she stayed on the road because he’d follow her right off the road, if she headed for the ditch. He couldn’t see the markings on the pavement at all.

  He called her on her Bluetooth. “Hey, are you doing all right up there?” She was going at a snail’s pace now, not that he blamed her in the least. If he'd been in the lead, he would have been doing the same thing.

  “Yeah, there’s a truck ahead of me that I’m following. Hopefully, he sees the road better than I am.”

  “Okay, well, just don’t follow him off on some other road.”

  She chuckled.

  Then the truck turned off, and she said, “He turned. Uh-oh. I’m following the GPS, but I just hope we make it all right.”

  “You’re doing great. We should be there in another fifteen minutes or so.” They would have been there half an hour ago if they hadn’t been delayed so long at the Robinson’s house while doing the laundry, but he knew she’d wanted to straighten the place up before they left. And he had also.

  “I…I think I see the driveway.”

  “Not yet. Just keep going. That’s a road that leads to another house.”

  She drove a little bit further and then he saw her taillights brighten as she slowed down to a stop.

  “What’s wrong?” He was thinking there was an obstruction ahead.

  “Can you pull around me and then I’ll follow you into the drive? I really can’t see anything and you know the area better than me. My GPS keeps telling me to turn. And now it’s telling me to make a U-turn and go back the way I’ve come.”

  “Yeah, sure, I’m passing you now.” He pulled around her and then he continued on about another three-hundred yards and then turned onto the long drive.

  He saw her headlights white in the heavy mist of snow and continued up the drive until he could open the garage door and drove into the garage. At least he had a three-car garage—for two cars and storage, and then she pulled into the garage next to his Jeep.

  In that instant, he felt both relieved and something more—like she was staying with him for good, sharing the garage with him, and more. He just hoped she’d be amenable to sharing the bed in his master bedroom suite with him tonight.

  They hauled their bags into the house, and then they both carried in the food supplies. He set the skunk cage outside in the snow beside the driveway, in case someone needed to pick it up. Then he shut the garage door and went inside to make a fire.

  “Do you want me to make the cocoa and whipped cream?” she asked, putting her groceries away in his fridge and cupboards.

  “Yeah, sure, that would be great.” He noticed she was putting a couple of T-bone steaks in the fridge. "For dinner?"

  "Yeah, if that appeals."

  "It would be great. What did you want to have for New Year's Day?"

  She opened his freezer door. "Are you saving the standing rib roast for anything special?"

  "For you, it appears."

  She smiled. "Okay, a standing rib roast it is."

  He felt as though she were truly moving in when she was stocking his fridge and cabinets with the kinds of foods she ate. And planning meals? He had to admit he liked the feeling. If any other woman he'd dated had done that with him, he would have been feeling mighty uneasy.

  "What had you planned to do for New Year's Day before I dropped into the picture?" She brought out cocoa mix and mugs.

  "I was going to spend half a day working, and Chase was taking the other half a day."

  "Oh, so now someone has to cover for you?"

  "Only because I'm watching out for you."

  "When is your shift?"

  "From six in the morning to three in the afternoon so that Chase and Shannon could have breakfast and lunch together and some play time with the kids. Then he'll work, and I'll be free for dinner."

  "Okay, well, tell Dan
you're still on for it."

  "You want to go with me?" He shouldn't have been surprised.

  "Sure. I can watch you do your job." She smiled brightly.

  "How come I feel like this is going to be a test."

  She chuckled. Before she started the cocoa, she brought out flour, white sugar and brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs. He wondered what she was doing. But when she pulled a big bag of chocolate chips out of one of his cabinets, he smiled. "Homemade chocolate chip cookies?" He joined her in the kitchen and watched her mix the sugars and melted butter, then stir in the vanilla and eggs, flour, baking soda, and salt.

  "Yeah, they're the best. They only take about eight to ten minutes to bake and I always add triple the chips."

  "A mouthful of chips in every bite?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down to watch over her shoulder as she dropped the dough in rounded tablespoonfuls a couple of inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. "Maybe you should make triple the number of cookies."

  She chuckled. "You'd better not eat all of them, or you'll see my territorial side."

  He laughed and released her to get the fire going.

  Once he started the fire in the fireplace in the living room while Nina was making the cocoa, he asked the big question, “Did you want me to take your bags into the master bedroom?”

  “Are you staying in there?”

  “Uh, yeah…” He figured that was a no-go.

  “Good, then yes.”

  “Hot damn!” He smiled broadly.

  She smiled at him and he headed back to the room with her bags and his. After her sister had knocked him out with the taser and taken off with Nina, he thought this day was only going to go one way—downhill all the way, but things were really looking up now.

  When they were sitting before the fireplace with mugs of cocoa topped with whipped cream and chocolate chip cookies she'd placed on a snowflake platter he used for Christmas parties and the like, the lights on the Christmas tree twinkling, he was really glad he'd left all the decorations up through New Year's Eve. He usually put them away shortly after Christmas, figuring no one would be visiting him who would care. But this was like having Christmas all over again, only with the best present of all. The beautiful she-cat sitting beside him and enjoying this afternoon with him in the blizzard whirling about the house, the wind howling away.