“Not when they have photographs.” He shook his head. “Oversharing on our first meeting probably isn’t a good idea, but I have no hope of keeping it a secret, and thought I’d tell you straight off.”
“Honesty, I like it.” Teagan chuckled, her shoulders shaking as she tried to stop herself from laughing too hard.
“Get it out now.” He patted her back as if she were choking, and her laughter erupted. When she could finally speak, she said, “I don’t have a family, so anything yours does will be a fascination to me.”
“No family at all?” Cal’s voice held sadness that was unfathomable. Many times, in his childhood, when he fought with his siblings, he would lie under the apple trees in the orchard next to his parents’ house and dream of being an only child. What must it be like to have the world of your parents revolve around you? But then Jax would bowl him over, and they would tussle before climbing the trees, pretending to be off on a pirate adventure.
“I have a mom. But she gave me up. Her mate didn’t stick around and so she drank her sadness away.”
“I’m so sorry.” Cal’s hand covered hers.
“It’s OK. I had a good childhood.”
“Have you ever spoken to your mom? Have you ever tried to find out what happened?” Cal asked.
“Nope. At least I’ve thought about it, and I intend to. But I’m scared of being rejected again.” Teagan had never confessed her fears to anyone, not even Fern or Fiona.
“If you do, I’ll be there. I’ll stand by your side, or wait in the car. Whatever you need.”
“Thanks.” She nodded, looking into the tea cup she held in her hands. “I like that you have a big family.”
“Want to meet them?” he asked, swiveling around in his seat and looking at his phone. “I am supposed to be there for dinner tonight. My mom will have made enough food for an army, since we’re all going. She has this thing about us all getting together once a week.”
Teagan’s face grew paler, her eyes huge. “I’d feel like an intruder.”
“Don’t. The others often bring friends unexpectedly. The more the merrier, my mom always says. Anyway, she’s so happy to have me back, she would forgive me anything. Not that I’d need forgiving, me bringing a mate home will make up for all those years of living away.”
Teagan smiled shyly. “I’d like to meet them.”
“Then come with me.” He got up and held his hand out to her. “I’ll go past my place, and get changed.”
Teagan slipped her hand into his. “Should I change?”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You look perfect just the way you are.”
“I could get used to having you around,” Teagan told him, her arms around his neck, her lips searching for another kiss.
“I sure hope so.” Cal stood up. “Shall we go?”
Teagan nodded. “Sure, what can go wrong?”
“With my family, you can never be too sure about that.” Hopefully they wouldn’t scare Teagan off, not that she would run too far. But still, he wanted them to get along. Teagan was his mate, that could never change, and his need to make her happy and have a life with her was the most important thing in his world right now. That did not mean his family weren’t a close second. They had supported him in his decision to move away, and had supported him even more with his decision to return.
“What are they like?” Teagan asked. They were running across to his truck, an umbrella held above their heads.
“Nice.” He grinned. “I’m being diplomatic. They are a little screwy.”
“I’m intrigued. The journalist in me wants to know more.”
“Journalist, huh?” he asked. “This might be fun.”
“Why, do they have skeletons in their closets?” she asked, and quickly added, “I won’t tell. Anything. I mean, I keep my friends’ stuff private.”
“There is nothing bad. But you know, they are bears. There have been pranks…”
“Tell me.” Cal yanked the door of his truck open and helped boost Teagan up, nearly getting hit in the head with the umbrella. Then he ran around to the driver’s door and got in, shaking the rain from his hair.
“If I tell you, I might have to kiss you.” Cal raised his eyebrows at her. “Hell, I’m likely to have to kiss you anyway.”
“I’m OK with that.” She scooted across the seat and kissed his lips. Cal forgot about starting the truck, and pulled her into is arms.
“You are irresistible. You might have to stay in my truck when I get to my place, or we might never leave. At least not for a few good hours.”
“No! There is no way I’m going to let you stand your family up. What will they think of me?” Teagan slid away from him and put her seatbelt on, then ducked her head to look out of the window. “Is this rain ever going to stop?”
“Not anytime soon.” Cal started the engine and drove along the driveway toward the gates. “The creek is rising fast. I’m hoping it doesn’t flood.”
“It floods?” Teagan asked.
“Not often. I remember it did when we were kids. Flooded a lot of the lowland farms.”
“That must have been awful.”
“Yes, and no. Everyone came together, it was a real sense of community, everyone working together to help each other out.” Cal stopped by the gates. “How do I get out of this place?”
“I’ll do it.” Teagan boosted herself up onto the seat, and leaned across him. Her hair brushed across his face and he was reminded of strawberries, ripe, red, and delicious. “There.” She sat back down and the gates swung open.
“Man, this is quite a place.” Cal drove forward. “I’m not sure I’d want to lock myself away from the world behind big gates. I remember the couple who lived there before never had kids.”
“My friend Fern married Theo, his dad used to work here. Walt? Do you know him?”
“Walt. Yes. And Theo, a fellow escapee. Is he back here too?” Cal asked. Bear Creek seemed to pull everyone back in. But it was that kind of town: once it was in your heart, it never truly let you go.
“He is, he got married to my friend Fern a few months back, and she is pregnant.” Teagan stalled, and looked sideways at Cal. “This has come as a shock to me, so I’m going to lay it out. I want a career.”
Cal pulled onto the road, his attention on the traffic as the cars crawled along at a slower pace due to the heavy rain. Puddles on the side of the road had begun to meet in the middle; it was like monsoon season. While he drove, he mulled over Teagan’s words. Kids had always been important to him. But he understood her ambition, it was what had driven him from Bear Creek.
“There’s no rush for anything,” he assured her. “And don’t mind my mom if she expects us to have kids right away. She’s been waiting for grandkids for a long time.”
“Aren’t any of your brothers or sisters married?” Teagan sounded surprised.
“Nope, not one of them has found their mate. I’m the first.” Pulling up outside his house, he threw her a glance. “Wishing you hadn’t come with me now?”
“No. Am I going to end up feeling like an exhibit in a museum?”
“More like in an art gallery.” He grinned. “They are going to love you.”
“I hope so.” Teagan opened her door, put her umbrella up, and ran after him to his front door. He took the key out, and unlocked the door, pushing it open. “Ladies first.”
“I’m big on equality of the sexes, but since it’s pouring with rain…” She ducked under his arm, putting the umbrella down as she moved. “I wish these things would keep the rain off my feet. I should have worn waders.”
Cal stood in the doorway, looking out at the rain. “I’m going to be lucky to get through dinner without being called out on a job. Accidents have a habit of happening on days like this.”
“I’m going to have to be very understanding about your work,” Teagan said. “If there is a chance you could be called out anytime.”
“Yes.” He shut the front door, and turned
to her. “When someone needs me and my crew, we drop everything.”
“My very own hero, I can live with that.” Teagan crossed her arms. “I think I’d better wait here, or else I might be making my own emergency call.”
He ran for the stairs, going up them two at a time. The pull of her was intense, as if he were anchored to her. This was going to take some getting used to.
Chapter Five – Teagan
Teagan stood in the hallway and watched him run upstairs, the whole situation surreal. Her body itched to follow him, not wanting to let him out of her sight. But that would lead where she didn’t want to go. Although her bear tried to tell her it was a place she would like to go.
Not yet, she told her bear firmly.
To distract herself Teagan wandered into his sitting room, to find unpacked boxes stacked in a corner, a new sofa, and two chairs looking as if they were still in the position they had been placed on delivery. There was no TV, and no personal items anywhere, except a couple of books. It had the air of temporary, as if Cal didn’t know whether he was here to stay.
She walked into the room, across to the window, her eyes on his books. You could tell a lot about a man from the books he read. Teagan took two steps toward them, but the creak of the stairs told her he was coming back, and the sense of his presence confirmed it.
“There you are,” Cal said, standing in the doorway wearing clean jeans and a dark blue T-shirt.
“Here I am,” Teagan confirmed. “I was wondering what you were reading.”
“Oh, a mystery thriller and a book on gardening.”
“Eclectic.”
“Not really. I have the biggest weed patch in the world outside, so I figured I should do something with it. The mystery is what. I’m not your rose garden kind of a guy.” Teagan eased her attention away from him, and looked outside. He was right, the grass was overgrown to the point that there were no flower borders.
“I’ll help.”
“You’re a gardener?” Cal asked. “Is there no end to your talents?”
“The people who raised me, Dave and Hatty, they liked to garden, and I’d help. Mainly with the heavy lifting, they were well into their sixties when I was a teen.”
“You love them.”
“I do. They gave me the best childhood a kid could hope for. And I don’t just mean a foster kid. They never made me feel as if I didn’t belong.” Teagan sighed. “It makes me feel bad that I want to track down my real mom.”
“Hey,” Cal said, coming over and wrapping her in his bear hug. “There is room in a heart for all kinds of love. Finding your mom doesn’t mean you are being disloyal.”
“Feels like it.” She took a deep, shuddering breath and fixed a smile on her face. “Shall we go? I can’t wait to meet your family.” Teagan paused. “They know I’m coming, right?”
“No.” His answer was short and to the point, while his eyes danced with a humor she liked.
“I’m like a surprise birthday party—you never know how the birthday girl is going to take it.”
“They’ll love you, and love that I’ve found you.” He kissed her quickly, and then guided her from the room. “Tomorrow we garden, if it stops looking like a pond out there.”
They left the house. The rain seemed to have eased a little, it was no longer a deluge, but it was steady, unrelenting, the skies still leaden. Was this an omen of how Cal’s family would feel when they met his mate?
Teagan brushed those thoughts aside; there was no reason for them not to like her. She was the one who would make Cal happy, she was the one who would one day bear his children. What was there not to like?
Cal drove carefully through town, turning down a side street that narrowed; terrace houses side by side lined the street, before it widened. The houses here were bigger, older, built when the town began to expand. It was one of these houses that Cal parked in front of. Turning off the engine and getting out, he came around to open her door, and offer her his hand.
“It’s stopped raining. The sun is going to break through soon,” Cal said, looking up.
“Funny how quickly the weather can change,” Teagan mused, as she followed his gaze. He was right, the rain had stopped, and there was a dull glow in the sky where the sun fought to burn through and reveal itself and cast warmth on the Earth.
“Like life. Only an hour ago I was single, then I stopped to pull a crazy woman out of the creek.” He grinned, not looking too displeased at having found his crazy woman.
“Maybe we should skip that story,” Teagan said.
“Oh no, this one is going to be told to our grandchildren.”
Teagan slipped down into his arms, her feet landing with a splash in the surface water that covered everything. “One day I’ll be a crazy grandma.”
“Yes, you will.” He took her hand, and led her up the path that ran alongside the driveway, where three cars were parked, reminding Teagan she was about to walk into a family home, bursting with people who knew each other inside and out, who had spent years growing up together, nurturing each other.
“This is more nerve-wracking than I thought.”
Cal put his hand on the door. “You can always change your mind.”
“No.” Teagan shook her head, just as the door before them was pulled open and a young woman with the same dark hair and facial features as Cal stood looking at them, a wide smile on her face.
“You found your mate!” she exclaimed.
“I did,” Cal agreed.
“I thought you said you hadn’t told anyone,” Teagan half accused.
“Oh, he didn’t, but since Cal has never brought a girl home for dinner, it’s not hard to guess.” The woman pulled Teagan into a hug, which she was beginning to guess was a family trait. “This is the best news ever. Damn, you broke the curse, Cal.”
“Curse?” Teagan asked breathlessly when she was finally released.
“Since none of us have mates, it’s become a joke. That the family must be cursed.”
“And now you’ve met my sister Ronni.” Cal smiled, but his lips were pressed together and his eyebrows raised, a silent warning.
“Good to meet you, Ronni,” Teagan said, a smile breaking out across her face. Cal might be worried their interaction might upset Teagan, but the opposite had happened. It set her at her ease. With at least one goofy sibling, Cal became normal, his family became normal. If his family had been perfect, then she would have felt out of place. “I’m Teagan.”
Ronni cocked her head. “I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
“Really?” Teagan asked, her cheeks flushing red. “I’m not sure where.”
“I do.” Ronni waggled her finger at Teagan. “Theo’s wedding reception.”
“You were there?” Teagan asked.
“Yes, we all went. It was so good to see him married. I went to school with his sister, Cathy.”
“Wow, small world,” Teagan said.
“Small town, more like it,” Cal offered.
“Which is why my baby brother wanted to leave.” Ronni put her hand on his shoulder. “And to think your mate was here in Bear Creek, after all.”
“I’ve only just moved here.” Teagan wanted to stick up for Cal. Wanted to protect him. From what, she wasn’t sure. This was his sister, she held no threat, but still her bear wanted to rear up and bat Ronni away with her paws.
“It’s OK,” Cal said. Did he sense her mood? “Ronni hated the idea of me leaving. She begged me to stay. On her hands and knees, weeping like a child. Please stay, Cal. Don’t go to the big, bad city.”
Ronni erupted into giggles. “I did not. But I am glad you are back, and that you have broken the family curse.”
Cal shook his head. “Now you have met the eccentric member of the family, why don’t we go and find the sane members?”
Ronni frowned. “If you ever find them, let me know. On the other hand, everyone else is already in the dining room. Waiting for you. Because you are late.”
“That would be
my fault,” Teagan offered.
Ronni winked, put her hand to the side of her mouth, and in a theatrical whisper said, “House rule, never take the blame when you can put it on one of the boys.”
Cal rolled his eyes. “It would be funny if she were lying.”
Teagan giggled. “Wow, you must have had fun growing up.”
“We did,” Ronni said, turning around and leading the way to the dining room, where the sound of chatter came to an abrupt halt as Teagan entered.
“Hi, everyone. This is Teagan.” Cal stood next to her, and reached for her hand to give her some moral support, which Teagan welcomed. With so many eyes on her, she felt like the time when she was Cinderella in the school play, and the pumpkin stayed a pumpkin instead of turning into a coach because Toby Frust was too busy playing with the mice. A minute is a long time on a stage when nothing is happening and all eyes are on you.
“Hello, Teagan. I’m Cal’s mom. And mom to the rest of the brood too.” A middle-aged woman, with gray hair pulled back into a tight knot, stood up and came toward her. They both stood awkwardly looking at each other before Cal’s mom pulled her into a tight hug. Yep, a family trait, for sure. “You can call me Tansy, or Mom. I don’t mind which.”
“Thanks, Tansy,” Teagan wanted to call her Mom, but the word was stuck in her throat. She’d never even called her foster parents Mom and Dad.
“Let me introduce you to the rest of the family,” Tansy said, smiling broadly at Cal, her expression conveying more than words ever could.
“Ladies first, this is Fleur. The eldest.”
“Hi, Fleur.”
“Good to meet you, Teagan.” Fleur got up, came around the table, and, unsurprisingly, gave Teagan a hug.
“And these two are my other sons, Jax and Davy.”
“Hi,” Teagan gave a wave, and the two men, cast in the same image as Cal, left the table to say hello, and hug. Always with the hugs. Then everyone hugged Cal, and patted him on the back, and smiled, so many smiles, which made Teagan smile, until she thought the north wind had blown and made her stick like it.
“Right. Set another place, Cal. Sit down here, Teagan. I want to know all about you,” Tansy said.
Forvever Bear (Return to Bear Creek Book 4) Page 3
