Page 4

4

J ack

I’ve read books where a character says, “My heart dropped into my stomach.”

I always scoffed.

That’s not how anatomy works.

But standing there, staring at Mike in shock …

My heart dropped into my stomach.

I heard a funny sound and realized Jed was standing next to me, growling softly, and I shushed him. Not that Mike looked the least bit intimidated by the two tiger shifters facing him.

He winced, though, when Ruby punched him in the arm. “What in the world is wrong with you? Our girl loves this man! And he loves her. If you think?—”

“No,” he repeated, and she trailed off, clearly speechless with surprise.

“I expected a stern talking to,” I said carefully. “Maybe of the ‘hurt my Tess, and I’ll make sure they never find the body’ kind. But ‘no’? Just, no?”

Mike shook his head. “Tess would never forgive either of us if you asked for permission, or I thought I had the right to grant it. She’s an independent woman.”

“Oh. Oh. ” Relief flooded through me. “No. Of course. I wasn’t asking permission to marry Tess. That’s between me and her. I was hoping you’d give me your blessing to be part of your family if she says yes.”

Mike’s stern expression finally faded into a grin. “Well, of course we will, Jack. The only way I ever get bacon for breakfast is if you visit!”

He shook my hand. Ruby hugged me again, and Jed thumped me on the back so hard I almost knocked over the grill.

And then a ten-year-old dynamo came racing around the corner, a pug puppy chasing her and barking, and Shelley leaped into the air and into my arms.

“I KNEW IT!” she shouted so loudly I thought my eardrums might be permanently damaged. “I KNEW YOU LOVED TESS! NOW YOU’RE REALLY MY brOTHER!”

I hugged her and kissed the top of her head, feeling a lump form in my throat. “Can I still go to the father-daughter dances?”

“YOU BET!” She threw her arms around my neck, kissed my cheek, and then jumped down, scooped up her pug, and started dancing and singing.

“Shelley!” I had to call her name a few times to get her attention. “I haven’t asked Tess yet, so it’s a secret. I want it to be a surprise, okay?”

“YES! Ooh! I know! You can tie the ring to Pickles’s collar, and I’ll hover dog her into the room!”

Ruby clasped her hands together. “Oh, that’s right! I forgot! You need a special proposal. And the ring—can I see the ring?”

“Special proposal?” I tried to smile. “I thought I just asked?”

Jed and Mike gave me blank looks and shrugged.

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Not today! These days, you need to do something super fancy for the InstaSpace or FaceGram or whatever.”

“I don’t think Tess?—”

“I know!” Her pink cheeks flushed even rosier, and her “I love my hair stylist” blonde hair fluttered around her face as she whirled around with excitement. “You can rent out city hall and get it all decorated and ask everybody in town to come! I know the mayor. You can get a great deal on renting the hall.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Mike said.

“Thank you,” I began, horrified at the idea of a huge spectacle.

“I mean, he’s going to be family. We should cover the hall rental,” Mike said solemnly, but then he winked at me.

I’m going to have to kill him. He’s going to be my father-in-law, and I’m going to have to kill him. I’ll just tell him to lie down in front of the tractor, and …

“Is anybody going to help us with this?” Tess called out from the kitchen door, smiling.

With all the excitement, I’d only barely registered the sound of her car driving up a few minutes before. I stared at her blankly until Jed poked me in the ribs.

“Act normal, or you’ll give away the surprise,” he hissed.

“We’ll talk about the ring later,” Ruby whispered, and then she rushed over to the house.

Mike, Jed, and I stayed by the grill, and I tried not to look as gobsmacked as I felt.

“The town hall? She was kidding, right? Ruby doesn’t really expect?—”

“What if we go borrow Leroy the turkey?” Grandpa Jed said, looking thoughtful. “We could ask one of those little pixies to ride in on Leroy, carrying the ring.”

I closed my eyes. This was going to be a long week.

D inner, despite all the excitement that preceded it, was fairly uneventful. Jed and Millie’s announcement wasn’t really a surprise: the two of them were going to move out to Los Angeles for a year to consult on a film.

“And you’re all invited to the premiere!”

Tess smiled, but looked concerned. She didn’t like to go anywhere with sizeable crowds, which heightened the chances that she might inadvertently touch somebody. Tess’s gift—or curse—was that sometimes, when she touched a person for the first time, she could see how that person was going to die. The vision was more like stepping into the reality, she’d told me, and she’d suffered through some terrifying experiences since the ability showed up when she was only eighteen.

Everyone at the barbecue knew about this, though, even Millie. Tess has touched us all, too, except for Millie.

Jed leaned over and patted her arm. “Don’t worry. People in L.A. are weird. They won’t bat an eyelash if you wear elbow-length gloves everywhere you go.”

“Ooh! Like Doris Day in Pillow Talk !” Ruby said. “I love Doris Day!”

“In a funny coincidence,” Tess said, laughing, and then we had to tell them about the disco ball and the Frosts.

Everybody was howling with laughter at the end of the story.

“What exactly happened at Eleanor’s wedding?” Jed asked, leaning forward. “My new phone blew up with the town texting tree. I’m sorry I missed it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Tess mumbles.

“Oh! I meant to tell you, I got that stain out of your dress,” Ruby said.

Tess closed her eyes and moaned. “Please. Please give it to Shelley for Pickles’s dog bed.”

“It’s never a dull moment with you, Tess,” I said, putting an arm around her where she sat curled up next to me on the couch.

Shelley was across the room sneaking pieces of veggie burger to Pickles, who looked like she’d rather have steak. When Shelley started making kissing noises, I threw a pillow at her.

She laughed and whipped it back at me. “Pickles can’t have that dress! Aunt Ruby says she’ll cut it down to my size for the next school dance!”

“And it will be beautiful on you,” I tell her, ignoring Tess’s elbow jabbing into my side.

After that, we all pitched in and helped clean up, because Jed and Millie were flying out of Orlando the next morning.

“So soon?” Tess hugged Jed.

“Life’s too short to waste time,” he said.

“For some of us,” I pointed out, grinning when he pretended to glare at me.

“I have that new smartphone Jack gave me,” Jed said. “Millie has been teaching me how to use it. I’ll call and text so much you’ll be tired of me.”

“Never,” Tess said, and then she hugged him again. “We’ll miss you.”

“I’ll visit a lot. It’s a lot easier to travel by airplane than it was by horse and wagon,” he said.

I gallantly refrained from any comments about chariots and shook his hand before pulling him in for a hug. “Call me if you need anything. I know people out there.”

My grandad shook his head. “Why am I not surprised? You know people everywhere.”

“I’m surprised you’re not part of the newly formed North American Consortium of Shifters,” Millie said. “It seems to be a big deal and picking up steam.”

“I’m happy to avoid big deals, especially those picking up steam.”

We all hugged goodbye, and Shelley was careful enough to wait until Tess went back inside to stage whisper at me. “I didn’t tell! But you have to hurry! I can’t hold this secret in for long!”

I’ve heard that a lot today.

I stopped by the side of Uncle Mike’s truck to talk to Ruby. “No town hall proposals, okay, Ruby?”

“Hover pug?”

“No, Shelley. No hover pugs. I appreciate both of you and your ideas, and I’ll keep them I mind, but I think I want to do something more personal.”

“Don’t forget to get down on one knee,” Mike advised dryly. “Or you’ll never hear the end of it.”

They were happily bickering when they drove off.

I waited for Tess by her car. “Catch a ride? I can get my truck in the morning.”

“Sure.” She stretched and then handed me the keys to her new Mustang, a gift from her banshee grandmother. “Or you could drive. I’m pretty tired.”

Banshees had good taste in cars. Who knew?

We talked a little about not much on the way home, and I was content just to be with Tess. Despite the disco ball, Joe Bob and his attempted robbery, Horatio the snarling magic mirror dude, and Mike nearly giving me a heart attack, it had been a pretty good day. I’m pretty sure I was even smiling when the garage door opened.

Until we saw the dead body.