I woke up again with the feeling that I was late and had forgotten something important. I fought to sit up, tangled up in a blanket and Jameson’s arm, and searched for the girls. There was a fireplace right there, and the sort of Christmas tree that could have toppled over on them, and all the stuff in the kitchen….
Jameson yawned and wrestled me back, kissing a path along my shoulder and neck up to my cheek. “What’s wrong?”
My heart raced as I looked around, but there was nothing wrong. Nothing. The girls played quietly together with a bunch of blocks and stacking cups, and I’d been curled up on the couch taking a nap. Like a perfect morning. I wiped my eyes to try and wake up, yawning along with Jameson as I struggled to orient myself. “Uh, what time is it?”
“Almost ten.” He rubbed his jaw and brought his feet down from where they’d been propped on the coffee table. “You should head downstairs with the girls.”
“I should?” I eyed him sideways. “What are you going to be doing up here all by yourself?”
“Drinking myself into a stupor,” he said, but he winked so I was almost certain he didn’t mean it. Jameson set up and helped me stand, swatting my butt when the girls weren’t looking. “Besides, I heard that Santa visited last night, but there was some other surprise he wasn’t sure would make it in time.”
The girls lit up but my bullshit detector went off. “What are you planning?”
“Moi?” Jameson widened his eyes like Aviva did when she wanted me to think she hadn’t eaten the cupcakes even with blue frosting smeared across her face. “Absolutely nothing. I’m sure Kara wants to see you and wish you a merry Christmas, plus they’ve got the little guy and she’ll need a break. If you can pry the baby away from every other female in the building.”
Something else was going on. I wanted to interrogate him but the girls heard ‘Santa’ and ‘downstairs’ and decided that was their cue to shriek loud enough to scare away the reindeer. So we made our way downstairs in our matching pajamas, and joined a complete maelstrom of Christmas nonsense. Four or five couples, at least a dozen kids, a mountain of presents… I blinked and fought back the immediate urge to flee back upstairs, since the girls stampeded into the crowd and started throwing elbows to get to some of the presents. There was no order at all to what they were doing, and as Aviva and Viviana helped themselves to some of the Santa presents, I retreated to the wall to take a breath.
At least the girls were easier to track in the red pajamas, since the other families had color-coded in white and green and gray. I exhaled and waved to some of the other kids who squealed and bounced around, and let some of their joy bubble up around me. So this was a real Christmas, all boisterous and overwhelming and noisy and exhausting.
I’d just caught my breath when a semi-familiar voice said from right next to me, “Do they do this often?”
Dr. Rossi, the cool-eyed woman who’d saved Kara and her son, eyed the melee but stayed back from the fray. She wore clearly borrowed clothes, since apparently Jameson dragged her out of the hospital without anything but her medical bag and I didn’t peg her as someone who wore track suits or sweats often. Her rich, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and she looked like she’d just walked off a Caribbean beach even in the middle of winter.
I vaguely remembered Kara saying she was a tiger, but didn’t dare bring it up. I had no idea about the social faux pas — social faux paws? — that could occur with werewolves and were-bears and were-tigers. “I really have no idea. I’m told this is the first big Christmas they’ve done together, but I’m just passing through.”
“Jameson mentioned that,” she said. “As did Kara. After the other day, though, I wish you’d stay.”
I blinked as I looked at her. “Why?”
She snorted, shaking her head. “You’re a good nurse. We don’t have enough of those even on a good day, and even fewer who actually know the truth about shifters. The hospital is always understaffed, and having someone like you around would be a huge relief.”
My heart skipped but I didn’t dare look at her directly. A job offer. I wasn’t that lucky. “I don’t know about that. I’m not very good at labor and delivery, as I’m sure you noticed.”
“I don’t need labor and delivery nurses,” she said. The doc folded her arms over her chest and frowned as she studied the kids playing and tearing into presents with such gusto they almost knocked the tree over. “I’m sure you don’t realize how often these idiots get injured or shot or break bones or get torn up. I need an ER nurse or at least someone who can handle blood and guts and stress. I don’t care if you’re squeamish about staring up someone’s vagina, just as long as you can tell an enraged lion that he needs to shut up and get his ass back on the gurney so you can stitch him up.”
An enraged lion? I rubbed my mouth. What the hell had my life become? “I’ve worked in ERs since nursing school, but I don’t know about the dealing with animals part. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
“You’re still here,” she said. “Most folks would have bolted already, blizzard or not. Especially with kids.”
She wasn’t wrong. I took a deep breath. “Thought about it, but Kara asked me to stay and then Jameson…”
I trailed off because I didn’t really know how to end that sentence. Jameson told me I was his soul-mate and asked me to stay. How would that confident, intense doctor react to that kind of nonsense?
“Yeah,” she said, not taking her attention off what appeared to be a game of Red Rover happening near the tree. “Somehow the universe lines up and puts you right where you ought to be, whether you realize it or not.” She shook her head, and I wondered what she thought about, because it damn well had nothing to do with me.
“I’ll think about the job,” I said. “The hours might be an issue, I need to make sure…”
The doors to the backyard squealed as they opened, and I glanced back to see an absolutely enormous polar bear — wearing a Santa hat — waddle through.
A polar bear.
Wearing a Santa hat. And a red scarf around his neck.
My jaw hung open as I stared, but the kids squealed in excitement and jumped up and down as Kaiser said something about Santa’s sleigh needing a little help. The doctor and I stood back as the polar bear lumbered in, dragging a giant bulky sack, and brought snow and cold, crisp air in with him.
The bear winked at me, and even though my heart fucking raced at being next to a bear the size of a goddamn SUV, I smiled. Ridiculous. So that was what he’d been planning? A Santa bear? I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing as his bear butt waddled past and I saw his little tail, and I had to keep my shit together as the girls stared with wide eyes. As far as I knew, they hadn’t seen anyone turn into a bear. I braced for the screams as Aviva backed up and Viviana held tight to Mischka’s arm, but when the older kids squealed and ran to climb on the bear, they tentatively approached. Aviva wouldn’t be out-braved by anyone and looked like she meant to sock the bear right in the face to establish dominance, but Josie’s eldest niece scooped her up before she could do any real damage.
I breathed easier and watched from a safe distance as Jameson the bear swung the sack of presents around and started to paw out boxes and bags and random shit. He grumbled and made bear noises whenever the kids got too nosy, and the little ones scampered away with shrieks and cheers whenever he pretended to chase them away.
it didn’t even matter what presents arrived or were shared or set aside, the game and the joy were all focused on playing and the bear and family. It made me a little misty, so I had to step into the backyard to let the snow fall on my face and stare up at the sky where white blotted out the sun and everything else. How long could the snow fall? It had been almost a week of complete white-out. I’d never be able to find my car.
“Hey, there’s a box here for you,” Kara said from the door, grinning. “And both Felix and I need a nap, so you’d better open it fast.”
I laughed and went in with her. “I’m impressed you’re even up, does Owen know you’re out of bed?”
“He’s not brave enough to stop me,” she said. “He makes a lot of noise but I do what I want.”
I shook my head, even though I believed every word, and was just about to call out to Owen to get her in trouble, but I stopped dead in my tracks. Jameson, once more wearing his red polar bear onesie, was down on one knee in front of me, in the middle of the room, holding up a box. A very small box.