A Catamount Christmas, Paranormal Romance (Catamount Lion Shifters Book 5)

by J. H. Croix

  2

  When Max got outside, he looked both directions on Main Street before his eyes landed on the sign to the store—Roxanne’s Country Store, We Have Everything. His heart swelled. Once he’d gotten the nerve to ask Roxanne out all those years ago in high school, he stopped by this store after school almost every day to see her. He had nothing but good memories tied to this place. His eyes moved on, taking in the picturesque town green and the tidy tree-lined streets. Catamount was a fairly typical New England town in Maine. Its most distinctive detail was a well-guarded secret—the existence of mountain lion shifters. Max hadn’t realized how hard it would be to hide the duality of who he was until he lived away from Catamount. This morning when he’d seen the highway exit to Catamount, his entire being had relaxed a little. It wasn’t that shifters ran around shifting in the open in Catamount, but at least here he knew he was surrounded by other shifters who understood who and what he was.

  He stood on the sidewalk probably too long, mostly because he had to rein in the urge to turn around and walk back into the store to see Roxy again. She was everything he remembered and more. He had to wait a full day and then some to get his chance to talk to her. Given that he’d waited fifteen years, he figured he could handle it. He hadn’t counted on how strong his pull to her would be the moment he laid eyes on her. The lion inside knew with unshakable certainty that she was meant to be his. He had to find a way to convince her guarded heart of that truth. He could only hope she’d forgive him for leaving all those years ago.

  He took a gulp of the delicious coffee she’d made him and finally began to walk to his car, a black SUV parked across the street. He climbed inside and steeled himself to go to his childhood home. The home was only minutes from downtown Catamount, along a winding mountain road.

  Catamount had started centuries ago as a small town deep in the woods of Maine, tucked in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. At the time, mountain lions were struggling to survive as a species as their territory shrunk year after year with humans expanding into their lands. As such, they were considered largely extinct in the East and had been for over seventy-five years. What was missing from that account was the fact that a few centuries back, high in the Appalachian Mountains on the famed Mount Katahdin, a litter of mountain lions was born with the inexplicable ability to shift from lion to human and back. This genetic quirk carried on among a strain of mountain lions with the purely wild Eastern mountain lions dying out, while their shifter counterparts survived against all odds.

  Catamount was south of Mount Katahdin in the Appalachian Range where the mountains were smaller and where lakes were plentiful. The once small town had grown over the centuries to a mid-size bustling community. Shifters lived amidst humans, their existence a well-guarded secret. Max’s mind spun back to the afternoon he arrived home from school after learning his father had died. In the span of a few short hours, his life was turned upside down, and he was taken far away from the sanctuary of Catamount. He shook his head sharply as he rounded a curve in the road. He didn’t need to dwell. He was back here now and the one and only woman who held his heart was here. He just had to find a way to reclaim her.

  Max rounded another bend in the road and slowed in front of the driveway to his family’s home. He recalled Hank’s comment that the property was overgrown. That might have been a mild understatement. Vines had taken hold in the trees in the front of the property, almost completely shielding the home from view. He turned into the driveway, which was overgrown with weeds and grass, and rolled slowly around the semi-circle driveway before coming to a stop. The home was a classic cape style and had once been charming. The same couldn’t be said now. Weeds abounded in his mother’s old flowerbeds. Several shutters hung loose while a few had fallen to the ground. The home was in dire need of a fresh coat of paint, and it appeared several windows also needed to be replaced.

  He slowly climbed out of his car, memories assailing him. He approached the home and climbed up the steps. He fished his old house key out of his pocket. In another moment, he was standing inside the dusty home. He couldn’t help but wonder if anyone had entered this home since the day he and his mother left. He hadn’t thought to ask her if she’d had anyone check on the home all these years. A cursory walk around revealed someone must’ve stopped by, likely in the early days after they left, to empty and clean the refrigerator. It was dusty, but otherwise clean. The cabinets in the kitchen were also empty. He slowly circled the downstairs, which was a typical cape layout with a living room and dining room separated by the stairs. The kitchen and a bathroom with laundry were to the back of the downstairs.

  He climbed the stairs, which led to a short hallway that held three bedrooms. A bath was off the hallway, along with another in the master bedroom. He peeked into his parents’ old bedroom first to find the furniture there, but everything else emptied out. With a breath, he turned and walked past the empty guestroom to his old bedroom. Just as with the other rooms, it was bare save for the furniture. His stomach felt hollow. He stepped to the window that looked out over the yard. A tumbledown stone wall circled the large yard. The home was tucked in a dip between two hills, not quite a valley because Catamount was in the foothills of the mountains. A small stream wound along the hillside and crossed the back corner of the yard with two small arches in the stone wall accommodating it.

  As he scanned the view, memories of afternoons spent with Roxanne slammed into him. Back then, he’d looked for any and every chance to find time alone with her, so he’d thrown himself into making his old tree house nice enough to bring Roxanne there. His father had gamely helped him drag beanbag chairs up the rickety ladder. They’d gone on to spend many an afternoon lounging in them when the weather was nice. Only a few boards remained in the tree, the rest clustered on the ground, likely blown down by wind over the years.

  He recalled leaving in a rush and that his mother had packed most of his belongings before he arrived home. All those years of wondering why they left so abruptly sent a flash of anger through him. He might have more of an answer now than he ever did, but it hurt. Seeing Roxy made him wish he’d been a little older and wiser at the time. He’d missed her with every fiber of his being for so long, missing her had woven itself into his life. Looking back, he wished he could’ve found a way to handle everything differently. Between reeling from his father’s death and his mother’s insistence that he had to cut ties with anyone in Catamount, he hadn’t known what else to do other than say goodbye. He only hoped he could have the second chance he wanted with Roxy.

  He turned away from the window, shuttering his memories, and jogged back downstairs. He needed to get back to town and get checked into the inn until he could get the house in shape.

  Roxanne rolled the full rack of dishes into the industrial dishwasher in the back of the deli kitchen. Once the rack clicked into place, she tapped the button to start the machine and stepped to the sink to wash her hands. The deli closed a full hour earlier than the rest of the store, which Roxanne appreciated because it gave her time to clean up and make sure the schedule was set for the following day. The store had been running smoothly for decades by the time she formally took over after her father passed away. Her mother had a stroke the year before her father died, so for all intents and purposes, Roxanne had been managing the store long before it was officially hers.

  She’d savored the busy work throughout the day as she tried to stop obsessing over Max Stone’s abrupt reappearance in Catamount. From what he’d said, it sounded as if he planned to stay. Until she’d seen him today, she’d convinced herself that her memories of how powerful their connection had been were overblown. Then, he’d walked into her life again. In a flash, his very presence wiped out her confidence that she’d moved on and obliterated any idea that she’d imagined the depth of their connection. It was like a living, breathing force connected them. She didn’t like how much power he held over her heart.

  She pulled off her apron and tossed it in the
laundry hamper in the back corner before making her way to the front of the store. Diane Franklin finished ringing up a customer and leaned her hip on the register counter when she saw Roxanne approaching.

  “You heading upstairs for the night?” Diane asked with a grin as the customer exited the store.

  “Just checking to see if we have tomorrow’s shifts covered up front.”

  Diane turned and clicked the screen to the scheduler. Her long dark hair, streaked with silver, hung in a braid down her back, which swung as she turned back to face Roxanne. “All set. Need any extra help in the deli? You were working double all day with Becky out.” Diane managed the front end of the store. She’d started working for Roxanne’s parents years ago. Roxanne didn’t know what she’d have done without Diane’s steady hand. It gave Roxanne room to do what she enjoyed most—the cooking and bantering that came with the deli—and time to handle the behind the scenes work of ordering, accounting and then some for the store and deli.

  Roxanne leaned against the opposite side of the counter from Diane and shrugged. “I’ll manage. Tomorrow’s not her regular shift anyway.”

  Diane’s brown eyes coasted over Roxanne. “Okay. If you need help after that, I could find someone to cover.”

  Roxanne shook her head. “Don’t call anyone. It’s just a few days. Anyway, how’d things go up here today?”

  “Same, same. Always busy.” Diane paused, her eyes considering. “So, Max Stone is back in town?”

  Roxanne’s stomach flipped at the sound of his name, while her heart clenched and emotions swirled inside—anger and pain offset by an intense longing. His appearance had set off a tornado inside of her. Any spare moment when she wasn’t completely preoccupied today, she’d wondered what it meant when he said he missed her. She desperately wanted to know if he’d missed her the way she missed him. Countering that desperation was her anger with herself for caring so damn much about him. She finally met Diane’s eyes. “Guess so.” Her brief comment belied the turmoil she felt inside.

  Diane nodded slowly. “How do you feel about that? I mean, you and him, well, everyone thought you’d be together forever.”

  Roxanne wanted to cry at Diane’s comment. She’d thought they’d be together forever too, and it stung like hell to have that dream ripped away. At that moment, the bell over the door jingled and Shana Thorne walked in. Shana’s dark blonde hair blew in a swirl with the soft gust of wind that followed her through the door. Closing the door behind her, she smoothed her hair and glanced over to the check out counter. “Hey, didn’t expect to see you up here,” she said, her blue-gray eyes crinkling at the corners with her smile when she saw Roxanne.

  Roxanne shrugged. “I’m all finished up out back.”

  Shana’s eyes shifted to Diane. “I forgot I was out of flour after I already started baking.”

  Diane grinned. “Good thing we’re open ‘til ten. Hang on, I’ll grab your flour.” Diane rounded the corner of the counter and headed down one of the aisles.

  Shana reached Roxanne’s side and leaned against the counter beside her. “How’s it going?”

  Roxanne shrugged again. “Okay.” Shana was one of her closest friends, so Roxanne was wrestling with the pull to tell her about Max when Diane returned, holding a bag of flour aloft.

  “Here you go,” Diane said, setting the flour on the counter and quickly ringing Shana up.

  Shana paid, her eyes flicking back to Roxanne as she returned her wallet to her purse. “So what’s up?” she asked generally.

  Roxanne swallowed against the emotion welling inside. Shana had been there for her after Max left. At seventeen years old, she’d been young and hurting in the way only angsty teenagers can hurt. Shana and a few of Roxanne’s closest friends had circled the wagons and helped her get through his abrupt breakup and move away. Roxanne didn’t know if she wanted to relive the turbulence only Max seemed to elicit inside of her.

  Diane piped up. “Max Stone is back in town. He stopped by today. Rumor has it he’s here to stay.”

  Shana’s eyes widened and swung to Roxanne. “Oh. Wow. Did he talk to you?”

  Roxanne nodded and sighed. “Yeah. He came to the deli and got a coffee.”

  “And?” Shana asked, circling her hand.

  “And said he missed me and we needed to talk.”

  Two pairs of eyes widened as her friends looked at her. She almost laughed.

  “He actually said that?” Shana asked.

  Roxanne nodded emphatically. “Uh huh. No idea what to think. Hank happened to be here when Max was here. He told Hank he planned to stay. I guess his mother never sold their old house.” She was simply stating a few details, but the concrete reality of Max being here was starting to sink in and it made her feel panicky inside.

  Shana eyed her for a long moment and angled her head to the side. “Sooo…how do you feel about all this?”

  Diane glanced to Shana. “I asked her the same thing right before you showed up.”

  Roxanne was accustomed to being more in control of her feelings and was usually the one who could throw out a sarcastic comment to lighten the mood. Right now, she couldn’t seem to find any of her jaunty humor to pull her through. She felt like she’d been thrown back to those first few months after Max left and she had to face her first heartbreak. Well, her only heartbreak because she’d never let anyone get as close to her again. She took a deep breath, trying to ease the tension in her chest. She looked over at her two friends—Shana who’d shared every phase of her life with her growing up in Catamount, and Diane who was more like an overprotective aunt and the closest link to her parents since they both passed away.

  “I have no idea how to feel about any of it. I have a ton of questions for him, and I’m still kinda pissed off. I guess I thought I wasn’t, but then I haven’t seen him in fifteen years, so there’s that.”

  Shana stepped closed and slipped an arm over her shoulders. “Well, that makes sense. If you need any of us to kick his ass, just say so.”

  That brought a wry smile. Roxanne glanced over to Shana. “Good to know. I guess I’ll finally get the chance I wanted to find out what the hell happened.”

  3

  The following morning, Max stood in the center of his hotel room and glanced around. Funny how he finally managed to find his way back home, and yet he still felt like he was living a borrowed life. It wasn’t that he’d expected his family’s home to be in great shape, he just hadn’t been prepared for how empty and barren it felt there. Fifteen years and all he’d ever wanted was to get back to Catamount where he felt like he was home. Having seen Roxy finally, he wasn’t sure if his longing to return to Catamount was because of the place or because of her. He’d rented a room at Catamount Inn. A massive old mansion, built over two hundred years ago, had been renovated into a lovely bed and breakfast to cater to the tourists that flocked to Catamount and many other towns in Maine throughout the summer and winter. Maine had the blessing of warm summers with the ocean on one side of the state and the mountains on the other. Winter brought the skiers for visits. While Catamount didn’t have its own ski lodge, a neighboring town did, so Catamount reaped the benefits.

  Max’s suite consisted of a lovely old bedroom with a sitting room to one side and a bathroom with a massive claw foot tub. The owners kept the home true to its era with gleaming oak flooring, high ceilings and tall windows throughout the inn. The inn was furnished with antiques in the simple Shaker style favored in this area. While they kept the inn aesthetically historical, they added modern amenities as well. The old radiators were purely decorative now and the bathroom had been entirely updated.

  He’d sold his mother’s home in Virginia and just about everything in it before he came back to Catamount. He’d been determined to close that chapter of his life, so he had. As such, all he had with him was the duffel he’d tossed on the floor by the dresser and a few boxes wending their way to him through the mail. He turned to the window facing Main Street and pushed the curtain back
. Roxanne’s Country Store was visible down the street. The store was housed in another lovely old home. All of New England was dotted with these original homes, many lovingly maintained over centuries. The store was in a stately colonial home on a corner. Roxanne’s grandfather had started the store during the Great Depression and renamed it after her when she was born. He’d moved his young family into the two upper floors of the three-story home and renovated the entire first floor into a store. The store had gone on to become such a fixture in Catamount, Max couldn’t imagine the community without it.

  He wondered how Roxanne had been all these years. He’d done a little online sleuthing before he came back, mostly because he didn’t dare cling to the hope he might have a chance with her if she was committed otherwise. He knew she wasn’t married, but he didn’t know much else. It didn’t surprise him, but Roxanne wasn’t too active online. He turned away from the window, letting the curtain fall. He snagged his jacket off the hook by the door.

  Moments later, he was walking down the street with no particular destination in mind. He had to physically force himself to turn in the direction away from Roxanne’s store. If his lion side could dictate what he did, he’d march straight to her again. He reminded himself, quite sternly, that he’d be seeing her tonight. He could’ve used a cup of her coffee, but he’d find something else. There were many familiar stores lining the streets of Catamount, but a few newer ones as well. He pushed through the swinging door of a gas station where he helped himself to the coffee and a muffin from the tiny deli there before retracing his steps to the inn.