by Jane Jamison
Julia pretended not to understand. “You mean about how sexy they are? How great they are in bed? How I’m going to spend the rest of my life being loved and adored all while living on a beautiful ranch?”
“You know what I mean.” TJ arched an eyebrow. “About the other thing.”
“Are you asking me if I told them I’m rich? Not yet. I figured I’d lay that on them later. Right now, I just want to enjoy everything. Besides, it won’t matter to them.” She’d learned enough about her men in the past few days to know they weren’t the type of men who cared about money. They worked hard for their ranch and liked earning everything they had. Why should they care if she had enough money for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives? As far as she was concerned, the money could go toward securing their children’s future. Once they had those children, of course.
“Damn it, Julia, you know what I’m talking about.” TJ shot her an exasperated look. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner that they’re shifters?” She glanced around her, checking to see that no one had overheard her. “And cat shifters on top of that. How’d you ever get past them being cats?”
She shrugged. “Maybe with the help of The Allure? Maybe because they’re not simply cats but wonderful men? Maybe both? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just glad I did.” It was time, however, to give it right back. “Why didn’t you tell me that your men are shifters?”
TJ sat back. “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to be sure.”
“Right back at ya.” She grinned. “Maybe we both wanted to be sure. And maybe, just maybe, we wanted to enjoy our little secret for a while. Again, does any of that matter?”
“No, I guess not.” TJ gave a little squeal of delight. “How crazy is it that we came to the Shifter Days Festival and fell in love with shifters? It’s like straight out of a movie.”
“Or a book,” added Julia. “You really should read more, you know.” She’d ribbed her friend often about rarely reading, so why not now?
“So we’re both moving to Lonesome. Wow.”
“Yeah. Wow.” Julia glanced at Samuel and John Abraham bellied up to the bar. True to their word, the Conway brothers had accepted John Abraham into their lives.
“Are you thinking about having kids?”
Julia’s attention jerked back to TJ. “Talk about moving fast, but no. I mean we’ve talked about it, and we all want kids, but we’d rather take a year or so before getting to work on a family. Besides, practicing to have a child is a hell of a lot of fun.”
TJ lifted her beer in a toast then startled when Maitland Rogen, one of her mates, skimmed his hand over her shoulder as he passed by, headed to the bar where Samuel and John Abraham had turned their way. “It’s nice that our men are friends.”
Julia nodded, watching as the men greeted each other. The rest of their mates were nearby, but although the festival was winding down and the crowd was thinning out, she couldn’t locate them. “It’s nice that we’ll be able to raise our kids together.”
“Really nice.” TJ let out a sigh. “So if my kids turn out to be shifters, then you’ll have to help me chase them around, right? Or keep them from shifting in the middle of town?”
Julia’s mind jumped to the image of the boy changing behind the Dumpster. “Of course. What else would Auntie Julia do?”
“Auntie Julia. It has a nice ring to it.”
“Yes, it does. In fact, it sounds almost as nice as Auntie TJ.”
“We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”
“We’d be fools not to.” Julia took another drink and found her gaze settling on two young women who had just walked into the saloon. “Take a look at those two.”
“Who?” TJ twisted around, searching for whomever Julia was seeing. “The two girls? Why? Do you know them?”
The blonde girl, her curly hair bouncing around her oval face, pointed toward the bar. Her friend, a beautiful brunette, leaned closer as her gaze fell on Samuel and the rest of their men.
“Nope. But they’d better keep their paws off our men.”
“Damn straight,” agreed TJ. “If they don’t, I’m going to go all shifter on them.”
At first, Julia didn’t get the hidden meaning behind TJ’s words. “Wait. Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Have you been changed?”
“Not yet. But I plan on doing it soon. Just how great would it be to run with our men? Think of the strength and agility we’d have as lionesses.”
“Not to mention the super hairdo with the mane and all. I bet we’ll never have a bad hair day again.” Julia laughed. She’d given it enough thought to know that transforming was what she wanted. When the right time came, of course. “Just look at them. Don’t they remind you of us? We came to town, all wide-eyed and ready to have fun. Little did we know what would happen.”
“You’re right.” TJ twisted back to face Julia. “Should we warn them? Should we tell them shifters are real?”
“Nah. Where’s the fun in that? I wouldn’t have wanted to know right from the start. If I had, I might not have had the guts to stick around.” She shuddered at the thought. “Can you imagine missing out on all the fun and adventure we had?”
“I could’ve skipped the part with our boss’s wife. But other than that, no. Everything worked our perfectly.”
“Yeah, it did. Let’s hope those two girls have the same kind of luck.”
Tonk and Myler appeared out of the crowd. As their gazes met, the men lifted their upper lips into silent snarls, making Julia laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
Should she tell her friend? Or keep the secret? Since moving to the ranch, the men had started silently snarling at her. It was, as they said, their way of telling her that they loved her even from across a crowded bar. “Oh, nothing.” Still, she lifted her upper lip in a snarl of her own.
“Julia, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather join the men. How about going to the bar?”
Julia pushed her chair back and waved the two girls over, offering them a place to sit. The girls rushed over, eager to snag the table before someone else did.
“Yeah. Let’s be with our men.” Linking arms with her friend, she headed toward the bar.
THE END
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