by Foster, Lori
Mike hoped she’d care for him, too.
Even Houdini had gotten under his skin. Mike wished the little buck would butt Norah in his direction now, but it didn’t take the goat to draw Norah to him. She came on her own. She entered the pen, amid a clap of thunder and the first fat drops of rain.
Hermes bleated Houdini off his mountain and coaxed him to the barn. Mike swore the buck winked at him in his retreat.
“Two by two,” he said as the pygmy goats took shelter.
Norah looked up at him. “Life’s better with a mate.”
He nodded his agreement.
Tucking her into his body, he kissed her long and slow. She tasted of cleansing droplets, deep need, and shared happiness.
As he held her tightly, Mike thanked the heavens for rain and romance. He was also grateful to Houdini, a pygmy goat with a whole lot of attitude and a mischief for matchmaking.
He faced a future with the zookeeper.
Along with all her incredible animals.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Dianne Castell
He loved this woman with all his heart and that was the problem.
Rex Barkley held on to a last bit of control as he kissed the soft inside of Jane’s delicious thighs. He wanted to make this good for her, prove his love for her, not that making love did that all by itself.
“Rex! I need you now! You’re driving me crazy.”
Thank God, he thought, his lips devouring hers and he slid into her soft wet heat. He loved her and she loved him … probably. Damn! Did that word have to pop up now?
In one last stroke she climaxed, taking him with her. The whole city of Savannah tilted, least it felt that way every time he made love to beautiful, intriguing Jane Louise Garrison.
“What you do to me, Rex.” Jane sighed as he rolled them over, her on top, her pearl necklace swaying gently as her long auburn curls tumbled down around their faces. She smiled, her brown eyes clouding with dreamy euphoria that turned his insides to fire. He stroked his hand down her spine, the sweet scent of their lovemaking filling his head and his small apartment over the clinic. His love for her filling every part of him.
But did Jane Louise feel that way about him or was he just … convenient? A love of the head more than the heart.
“You’re perfect, you know that, sugar.” Her pink inviting lips formed the words an inch from his. “You’re strong, steadfast, loyal—”
“Honest, trustworthy, faithful, low-maintenance.” He pointed to the little black and white dog of questionable parentage perched on the dresser. “Just like Maxwell. Your dog and I are two of a kind.” Did he really just say that?
She giggled. “And don’t you go selling my pup short, now. He’s the best, just like you.” She buried her face against Rex’s neck, her lips kissing and sucking and doing magical things to his earlobe. His insides clenched, and his limp dick lost its fatigue. See, that was more of the problem. He was consumed by her, but was he just good old Rex to her? Always there when she needed him? Well, he’d find out soon enough … like today. Before he and Jane Louise got any more involved, he had to tell her what was going on in his life and the only way they’d get through it was if she loved him way beyond probably.
“We need to talk,” he said in his most even voice as he tried to ignore his clenching gut. What if she ditched him? Turned him down flat? What if she thought he was out of his freaking mind! He’d had that thought once or twice himself.
“You’d better not be telling me you’re married and have a wife and kids tucked away over in Beaufort. If you do, I swear on Mama’s blueberry cobbler I’ll cut your heart out with her silver serving spoon.” She glared but there was a twinkle in her eyes. He hoped it was there ten minutes from now. “So, do I go get out the spoon and desert china?”
“No tableware needed. A sense of humor might help or a love of adventure depending on how you look at it.”
“You know my family, humor and adventure are constant companions. That’s why I adore you, Rex.” She grabbed his shoulders and brought her mouth to his, her nipples hard and firm and delicious. When it came to sex, he and Jane Louise were perfect together but what about the rest of the time? He kissed her. The real-life times when they weren’t in the sack.
Maybe there didn’t have to be a rest of the time. Screw life. Maybe they could just stay in bed and handle the screwing that way. But … “I need you to help me fix a problem.” He hated adding more to her already crazy life.
“Well now, I don’t know diddly about veterinarian stuff but I’d be tickled to give you a decent biscuit recipe. Yours are like … dog biscuits. Last time I tried one I think I chipped a tooth. But Maxwell loves them. Can’t get enough and they do seem to make his coat nice and shiny.” She wound her fingers into Rex’s hair, giving him a loving look until her cell phone rang.
Not now, dammit, he thought. Not when he’d finally gotten up enough nerve to risk it all and tell her. With Jane Louise reaching across him to the nightstand he had just enough time to plant another kiss on the sweetest skin that belonged to the sweetest girl in all of Georgia.
“It’s Mamma,” Jane said, studying the little phone screen. Her jaw clenched, then unclenched, then tightened again. She eyed the clock on the nightstand. “And it’s not going to be a good thing if she’s calling me in the middle of General Hospital. What has Mamma gone and done now? When God was handing out common sense, Fanny Lou was last in that particular line right behind Aunt Sadie, Uncle Will, Cousin Hilly, and the rest of the Garrison clan.”
“Maybe she thought you were working over at the Foxy Snoot today and when you weren’t there, she wondered where you and Maxwell were? Maybe she just wants you to pick out a new purse or something.”
Jane gave him a slit-eyed look.
“Right. General Hospital. What was I thinking?”
“It’s not that I don’t love Mamma and all my kin to pieces but I plucked out three more gray hairs this morning and at this rate of family agitation I’ll be bald before thirty and that’s only six months away.”
Letting out a deep breath, Jane answered the phone, paused, rolled her eyes, cracked her knuckles, then downed the two Tums that Rex handed her before she disconnected. “Okay, here it is in a nutshell. Mamma says it’s a surprise for me, which means it’s for her and one that is truly outlandish because she wouldn’t tell me one clue over the phone. Something’s up.” Jane Louise nibbled her bottom lip. “I’d better go right now before things get worse.”
Jane slid from the bed and snagged her dress off the lamp. It had been one of those can’t-wait-to-get-you-in-bed moments. Her hips twitched and he knew it was for his benefit. Thoughtful girl.
“Now what was it you wanted me to help you with? Oh, yes, the biscuit recipe.” Jane hopped on one foot then the other while pulling on her heels and combing her hair with her other hand. How did she do things like that? Amazing creature. “You stop by the house a little later on after you have office hours and I’ll give you Aunt Sadie’s prize concoction.” She blew Rex a kiss off the tips of her fingers and he could almost feel it land on his cheek. “You stay just the way you are, you hear. Rock-bottom normal.”
“Boring.”
“I like boring.” She opened the door, snagged her purse in one hand and Maxwell in the other, then let herself out.
So much for spilling his guts. He could have interrupted her but when a Mamma situation surfaced, Jane had enough hassle. And now he was going to add to it. He wanted to marry Jane Louise, make her life easier, help her deal with her family. Even have babies with her despite the questionable gene pool that scared the bejeebers out of him. Of course, Jane’s love of family more than made up for that glitch.
But he didn’t want a wife who saw him as a security blanket, a woman who loved him because he was the logical choice, because he was the easy choice. He didn’t want a wife who only needed him. Rex glanced at the western sky. Tonight he’d find out if she really loved him in spite of … everything. In seven hours they�
��d be together forever or they’d be history. And that possibility pained him to the depths of his soul.
Jane parked in front of the white Victorian that needed a paint job, roof job, gutter job, and had been the Garrison family home with random additions here and there for six generations. It was one of those places where the doorknobs stuck a little, the lights shorted out for no good reason and every stick of antique furniture, every bit of cut crystal carried over from Ireland, and every piece of sterling silver hidden in the cellar away from those damn Yankees during that unfortunate Northern occupation had a story all their own. Jane undid Maxwell’s puppy seat belt. She slid him into the navy stripe purse she rented from the Foxy Snoot, then headed for the front door painted half red and half green because Mamma couldn’t make up her mind which. A car horn tooted, drawing Jane’s attention to a …
“Oh, please.” She groaned to Maxwell. “Don’t let that be Mamma sitting behind the wheel of that pink Mustang convertible. Please let it be another fifty-five-year-old woman with Hol lywood sunglasses, bouffant hair and a polka dot scarf sitting there.”
“Yoo hoo, Jane Louise, honey. Over here. Looky what I have.” Mamma gave Maxwell a pat, then took off her glasses, her big blue eyes flashing. Jane found a Tums in her skirt pocket. That it was lint-coated and a little mushy didn’t matter.
“Mamma where did you get … why did you get … how are we going to pay … take it back!” Jane ate the Tums.
“Now before you go getting yourself all out of kilter, hear me through. I got this deal from Jeremiah over in Garden City … which is nothing at all like a garden I might add and I’m never going to get used to that. It’s just a jumble of concrete and weeds and I don’t know why on Earth they don’t fix the place up. Anyway, someone over there turned in this little beauty with only a few teensy weensy thousand miles on it so I got Henrietta here for a steal. Isn’t she precious!”
“Steal is the only way we can afford Henrietta.”
“And don’t the two of us appear right smart together?” Mamma fluffed her hair and looked sublime. “Like you and Maxwell, we’re a team.”
“Maxwell’s from the shelter, eats a thimble full of food and doesn’t get ten miles to a gallon of gas.”
“Well, your Aunt Sadie and Uncle Will will think Henrietta is a fine idea.”
“They think their chicken taxidermy business is a fine idea.”
“Roosters are a prize possession in these parts, you know that.”
Jane wanted to add so are horses but thought it best to keep that piece of information to herself. Mamma tossed her long scarf over her shoulder, the silk polka dots floating off in the autumn breeze just like Jane’s protests. “I need to be off now and show the garden club ladies my new ride. That’s what the young man at the car dealership said. Lady, that is some sweet ride you have there.”
“I thought T-Bone and the guys were fixing up the Suburban for you. The Suburban’s a fine car and it’s paid for.”
“T-Bone’s a good mechanic and a fine man, and I’m sure that there car is just peachy for someone. But for me to pick a blue ’88 Chevy over a new pink car! Mercy!” Mamma giggled, looked more thirty than fifty-something, and purred off down Julian Street pretty as you please without a care in the world. She could do that because she and the whole rest of the Garrison clan left all the caring up to Jane Louise. It was her duty to take care of them all and that was fine. Aren’t we lucky as a bouquet of shamrocks to have Jane Lousie in the family to get us through. How many times had she heard that? A bazillion. To the point where she often wondered if she was adopted. ’Course she wasn’t. She was the spitting image of Big Daddy … minus manly hair patches, a hundred and fifty pounds, catastrophic cholesterol, and the ability to drink anyone under the table … God rest his soul.
“Jane,” came Rex’s voice behind her. “Did I just see Mamma in a pink convertible? Sweet ride.”
“No ride. She should walk. Take the bus. Skip. A unicycle would work, though Mamma on a uni is a bit over the top. But that we could afford.” Jane snagged Rex’s arm, dragged him behind the row of blooming magnolia trees in the front yard, put Maxwell down and threw her arms around Rex and kissed him. She added a good deal of tongue to help forget the Mustang and get her brain infused with more pleasant thoughts. Rex was a very pleasant thought indeed with his black hair, gray eyes, fine build, incredible lovemaking skills, and abundant sanity. His strong protective arms slid easily around her, making her feel warm and secure just like he always did. His hands cradled her bottom, bringing her close to his glorious arousal. “I can always count on you to be here and make things right.”
She felt him stiffen all over and when they were in this type of situation there was usually only one stiff part of Rex’s anatomy. “Are you okay, sugar?”
“Fine as can be.” He grinned but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Now what? “This is a nice welcome,” he added before she could ask him what was going on. “Mamma needs to buy cars more often.”
“Don’t you dare even think such things, Rex Barkley. My family’s loopier than ever today. Mamma and the car. My aunt and uncle out recording rooster crows for a CD they’re putting together to go with their business. It must be a full moon tonight or the stars are lining up in the heavens or something.” Her lips drew his bottom one slowly into her mouth, her insides doing a slow Savannah meltdown over him.
“Now that you mention heavenly bodies …”
“Are you talking about little ol’ me?” She administered little love bites to his chin and did a suggestive wiggle in his arms.
“Yes.” He panted. “Definitely you and that planet thing doesn’t come along as often as you think. Some combinations just happen every five years, in fact. Transits of Venus is one. It’s where the Earth and Venus line up with the sun and did you know that Venus is the goddess of love and that’s a very powerful goddess and—”
“And what about the goddess you have right in your arms, Rex Barkley?” She stopped biting and thumped his chest with the flat of her hand. “I’m kissing you like crazy here in case you didn’t get the point. This is called making out and if you’re lucky, mister, maybe I’ll even let you get to second base.” She winked. “I so do like you getting to second base, Rex.”
But instead of taking her up on her offer, he held her hand and led her over to the front steps. “You’d better sit down, Jane Louise.”
“What on Earth is wrong with you?” He set her on the top step and pulled the bottle of Tums from his pocket. “You forgot these at my place and you’re going to need them.”
Jane jumped up, the something’s wrong feeling back in full force. “Are you breaking up with me? That must be why you’re acting like … like you’re from my family.” She threw her hands in the air and walked in little circles around Maxwell to try and get calm. “How could you do this and on such a pitifully rotten day when—”
“I’m not breaking up with you, Jane.” He followed behind her. “I just have this problem. I’m not exactly what I appear to be.”
She stopped and faced him. “You’re going to go and tell me you’re gay? That’s what Jimmy Harris told Ida Jones when he wanted to break up with her. ’Course it was a big fat lie and she went after him with that derringer her daddy keeps in his desk drawer and—”
“We just made incredible love an hour ago. I think the gay issue is off the table.”
“Right. Off the table.” Jane pulled in a deep breath feeling a bit better. “Well, you’re acting all weird and no one knows weird better than me.”
“I’m … Oh, boy.”
“You’ve already established that, give me something else to go on.”
“I mean I’m … I’m … I’m a werewolf. There, I said it, it’s out in the open and it’s true and I’m going to try and fix it … with your help so we don’t have to worry about this any longer and we can get on with our lives.”
She stared at the most handsome man God saw fit to put in the great state of Georgia an
d tried to imagine him as a … “How dare you, Rex Barkley. You think I’m a blooming idiot because I’m a Garrison. If you want to break up with me just say so, you don’t have to fabricate some idiotic—”
“You think I’d make this up? Good God! Would anyone make this up? And why would I?”
“A werewolf? Even if this is Savannah and for sure some mighty strange things happen around here all the time, a werewolf is completely … nutty. And here I thought the gay excuse was pitiful and I have no idea where Big Daddy’s derringer is these days and what do I say to everyone who wonders what happened to us being together? That I broke up with Rex because he’s a … wolf ?” She stomped up the stairs. “I doubt if any man ever wanted to break up with a woman as much as you do to dream up a story like this.”
He took the steps two at a time and pulled her into his strong arms that weren’t very pawlike at all. “I love you.”
“Are you going to howl at the moon for me? And how does someone get to be a werewolf? Eat those dog biscuits of yours?”
“See, that’s the very point. Think about it. Why would I like those unless I was what I said I was? Why do you think I have the biggest vet practice in Savannah; why I wrote that book on how to train your dog that everyone swears by; why I opened the shelter where you got Maxwell; why I know where to find the strays all over Savannah? I have unusual communication skills and I get around. We all do.”
“We?” Jane felt her eyes bulge to cover her face. “All?” Her voice shrank to a squeak and her head started to spin. “There are …” She couldn’t get the word out.
“Five.”
“Holy mother in heaven.” She blessed herself and plopped down in the wicker settee. “Five werewolves in Savannah. You must think I’m the most gullible female east of the Mississippi.”
“Not exactly werewolves so much as … dogs. Minerva’s powers aren’t as strong as they used to be, thank heavens for that much. Ever see that ‘Dogs Playing Poker’ picture.” Rex shrugged. “That’s us. We took a picture during one of our poker games and a friend of T-Bone did the painting. The dog that found the missing girl in Forsythe Park last week, that was T-Bone. We all sort of crossed Minerva in one way or another over the years. Never ever tell Minerva that her scones aren’t as good as the ones at the Pink House, or refuse to accompany Minerva’s bitchy niece to the spring cotillion or take Minerva’s parking space at the Piggly Wiggly. If you do any of those things the next time there’s a full moon you are in for one hell of a surprise and it just keeps happening every full moon from there on out.”
