Librarian Bear Page 15

Matthew did not, in fact, imagine that it would stop Doc from murdering him in his sleep. He didn't know how she'd manage it, but he was sure she would. They stayed there like that, at a stalemate, for quite a long time before Sarah woke up, rolled over, saw the stand-off, and laughed. "I see you've been pinned down by an eight pound cat."

  "I believe she's putting me in my place."

  "Cats do that." Sarah reached up and scritched the top of Doc's head. The cat turned her gaze toward her human, then leaned a little harder into Matt's forehead before getting up and walking away as if nothing had occurred. "So have you two reached a peace accord?"

  "If her obvious promise to murder me in my sleep if I mistreat you in any way is a peace accord, then yes."

  "Oh good." Sarah kissed him, then rolled out of bed. "Pancakes for breakfast?"

  "Does anyone ever say no to that question?" Matthew followed her, although if he were perfectly honest, it was not pancakes he was thinking of having for breakfast. Not with Sarah's lush, gorgeous figure waltzing ahead of him like a promise of delicious decadence.

  "Noah Brannigan has been known to try to negotiate up to waffles, which he likes better than pancakes," Sarah offered. "Does that count?"

  "Maybe," Matthew said absent-mindedly as they got to the kitchen. "What if I just put syrup on you and licked it off?"

  "That sounds very sticky," Sarah said dubiously. "I've never really been sure food is really sexy in that way. Washing it out of hair would be a pain."

  "Well..." Matthew crowded up behind her to kiss the back of her neck. "You could lean over the table and I could pour it down your spine and you could hold very, very still while I...cleaned it off..."

  "Know what?" Sarah said, her voice suddenly gone hoarse, "I think maybe I'm willing to try anything once."

  More than once, as it turned out, and if the kitchen was a mess afterward, Matthew had never minded less about cleaning up. In the end, they ordered dinner in again, and neither of them even talked about leaving the house until they had to go to work the next morning.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sarah couldn't remember the last time she'd been so reluctant to get up and go to work. Hiding away with Matt for...well, ever...sounded ideal. And if forever was too much to ask right now, hiding away with him until he left Virtue seemed pretty great.

  Work was better than thinking about him leaving, though, so she went, and for the course of the day, she was able to forget that the end of this new, breathtaking relationship might very well already be in sight. There were kids to chase around the library, people to help with the computers, moments of stolen kisses in the archive room...it was as close to perfect a day as Sarah could remember.

  Now all they had to do was figure out where the charter was, why Wallace Evans had threatened them, and on whose behalf he'd done so.

  This was not, Sarah thought ruefully, a usual day in Virtue. At least, not for her. Maybe there were secret threats going on beneath the surface all the time. After all, it appeared there were secret shapeshifters going on, so anything could go. Maybe it wasn't a sleepy upstate town after all. Maybe it was really the hub of an international spy ring. Maybe there were assassins and powerful politicians lurking in Virtue.

  Maybe Sarah should read fewer of the thrillers in the mystery section. Grinning, she went to close up the library, and found Mabs Brannigan dashing for the doors before they closed. "Sarah! I caught you! Thank goodness!"

  "Come on in." Sarah closed the doors behind her, then lifted her eyebrows. "What's up?"

  "First, where have you been? You didn't come to the table planning yesterday and you weren't answering your phone!"

  Total horror swept Sarah. "Oh no. I completely forgot. I am so, so sorry!"

  "You?" Mabs asked, astonished. "You forgot an organizational party? You forgot anything? Are you feeling all right? Do you ne—oooh." Sudden suspicion lit her face in a grin. "Ooooh. Wait. Now I remember everybody talking about Matt standing up to the developers at Kate's cafe and you two heading off together afterward. And nobody's seen you since. Sarah Ekstrom! Spill!"

  Embarrassed delight heated Sarah's face.

  Mabs apparently didn't need any further confirmation. She actually did a little dance of glee right there in front of the library doors. "You did! You hooked up with him! Hooray! Wait, hooray? Was it worth it?"

  Sarah, in a small voice, said, "Oh my God," and Mabs did another gleeful dance.

  "That's amazing! Congratulations! He's such a knockout!"

  "He really is," Sarah said dreamily, then snapped to attention. "Mabs! Mary Anne Brannigan! I have a question for you!" As Mabs's eyebrows rose with interested confusion, Sarah suddenly realized why Matthew had just gone right ahead and turned into a bear in front of her, rather than trying to explain it. If Mabs didn't know what she was talking about, what she was about to say would sound certifiably bonkers. "Um. Maybe never mind."

  "Well, you can't leave me hanging!"

  "Nothing. It's...no, it's weird. I just found out something about Virtue's history and the families that settled here originally and if I say it and you don't know it you'll think I'm a lunatic."

  "Sarah." Mabs reached up and put her hands on Sarah's shoulders, her expression dramatically serious. "Sarah. Babe. I already think you're a lunatic."

  A blurt of laughter escaped Sarah and she stepped in to hug Mabs. "Well, that makes me feel better. I think. But seriously, maybe it's something I should come over to your place to talk to you and Jake about. It's nothing bad," she added hastily. "Just...would that be okay? And would it be okay if I brought Matt?"

  "Oooh, he's Matt now. Yeah, of course. Tonight, if you're not otherwise busy? Jake's at home making super supper salad. I can ask him to make more for you guys."

  "'Super' supper salad?"

  "It's what you call a large dinner salad when you're trying to get a five year old to buy in," Mabs explained.

  Sarah laughed. "Of course it is. Yeah, that sounds great. Should I bring anything? Wine?"

  "You really don't have to, although there is no universe in which I'll ever say no to wine, so it's up to you. Are you going to make it to the dress fittings on Wednesday or will you be too busy with, uh, extracurricular activities?" Mabs's grin widened at Sarah's embarrassment.

  "I'm so sorry," Sarah said again. "I can't believe I missed the seating arrangements yesterday. I'll be there on Wednesday."

  "It's fine," Mabs assured her. "Better than fine. You totally deserve to have a hot sexy weekend with a hot sexy gu—oh, hi, Matthew..."

  Matthew, with a broad grin that reminded Sarah about shifters having good hearing, came down the hall from the archives. "Hello, Mabs. Nice to see you again."

  "You'll see me again-again," Mabs told him. "You and Sarah are coming to dinner tonight."

  "If that's all right," Sarah added. "I invited you along before I asked you about it."

  "Oh, I hear I'm supposed to admire the renovation job your fiancé has done on your house," Matthew assured Mabs. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

  "Great! See you there in about half an hour? Just enough time for you to go get wine," Mabs said to Sarah with a wink.

  "Not that it matters," Sarah replied, amused, and Mabs smiled.

  "Not at all. The company is what matters. See you in a bit!" Mabs scurried out of the library, leaving Sarah and Matt to smile at each other.

  "She seems really nice," Matt said. "I like her."

  "Me too. She's only been in Virtue a little over a year, but she really fits in here. I can't wait until she gets her massage clinic set up!" Sarah wiggled with excitement, then, just as suddenly, stamped a foot in frustration. "Virtue's had some hard years, just like everywhere lately, but it's really coming to life again. I just hate that there are these big developments trying to come in and say the only way back for it as a town is through their resorts and lodges and garbage."

  "We'll stop them," Matthew promised. "After dinner."

  Sarah smiled. "Yeah. After dinner."
<
br />   * * *

  She knew, from the quick nod that Matthew gave her when he met Jake at the Old Brannigan Place, that her suspicion had been right: Mabs's fiancé was a shifter. Somebody she'd known since she was six years old was a shapeshifter, and he'd never told her.

  Part of her wanted to be hurt about that, but honestly, it wasn't like the topic came up in casual conversation. And she wouldn't know now, either, except she was Matthew's fated mate, and that allowed her into a secret club that hardly anybody even knew existed.

  Mabs had to know, though. At least, Sarah sure hoped Mabs knew, because otherwise the after-dinner discussion was going to get really awkward really fast. But she had to. Mabs was probably Jake's mate, the way Sarah was Matt's.

  Maybe they could start a club. The Secret Shifters Wives' Club. Not that Sarah was anybody's wife!

  "Auntie Sarah!!!" Noah Brannigan thundered down the stairs as Jake and Matt were shaking hands, and launched all four feet and sixty pounds of himself at Sarah with the absolute confidence of a child who had never been dropped. In his wake came a ten month old husky puppy, all legs and eager love. Noah slammed into Sarah's arms, yelling happily in greeting, but the puppy skidded to a stop several feet away from Matthew and stared at him, ears half-cocked with uncertainty.

  Sarah, over the top of Noah's head and in the midst of his hug, watched the dog look to Jake, clearly to see how he should react. Jake chuckled, said, "It's okay, boy," and clucked the dog over. He trotted to Jake's side, leaned against his legs, and staring up at Matt with the tip of his tail thumping cautiously.

  So animals really could tell about shifters. Sarah wondered if she could learn to read animals well enough to figure out there were shapeshifters around, herself. Jake said, "I can see we're going to have a lot to talk about."

  "Like my new game!" Noah yelled, more or less directly into Sarah's face. "I got a new GAME, Auntie Sarah! It's called Twister and you twist yourself all up playing it and then you fall down and then Mommy says a word I'm not supposed to and Wolf climbs on you and the board gets twisted up too and then you wrap yourself in it like a BURRITO and then Daddy says he's gonna EAT YOU and I'll set it up in the living room!"

  He squirmed down and ran off, leaving Sarah feeling, as she always did in the wake of Noah's departure, like she'd just had a brief encounter with a child-sized hurricane. "I am not dressed for Twister," she said to the world in general, and, "'Daddy,' huh?" to Jake in specific. "That's great. Congratulations."

  Jake's smile shone. "He started calling me that a few weeks ago. Not gonna lie, Sarah. I cried the first time, and I still get teary. Anyway, if we're lucky we can keep him distracted until bedtime and he'll forget about the game. Come on in. We're eating in the formal dining room." His eyes sparkled as he led them back to what had recently been the house's makeshift living room. His renovations had restored it to its original purpose, with a large table, handsome chairs, and a dish hutch that Sarah bet he'd made himself. Salads were already set up, and Sarah had, in fact, stopped to buy wine, so she poured it into the glasses Jake laid out.

  Mabs came in with a plate of garlic bread, and after some negotiation, convinced Noah to eat six pieces of lettuce along with the grilled chicken and hard boiled eggs that were part of the super supper salads. Sarah was amazed how full she felt after the meal, and was glad to retire to the living room, where Noah spent the better part of thirty minutes demonstrating how he could touch every spot on the Twister board in a variety of combinations. Mabs bribed him with chocolate mousse for an early-ish bedtime, and the rest of the adults had their share of the mousse while Jake put the little boy to bed.

  "He'll be down at least twice to tell us something he forgot," Mabs predicted when Jake came back in. "Just so he doesn't risk missing anything."

  "I suspect there will be things for him to miss," Jake said as he sat down with her on a big soft couch. Sarah liked how they looked together, Mabs small and curvy with purple hair and Jake tall, lean, and going silver. She wondered if she and Matt looked like they fit together as well as Jake and Mabs seemed to.

  Not that it mattered. Matt was leaving soon, unpleasant as that thought was. A shadow must have crossed her face, because Jake said, "That is why you came over, isn't it? Mabs said you had something weird to ask her about, and now that I've met Matt, I know what it is."

  Mabs tipped her chin up to look at him, baffled, then raised her eyebrows at Matthew and Sarah. "I guess I'm the only one in the dark, then?"

  "Matt's a shifter," Jake said, and for a moment, Sarah's heart froze with the sensation that saying it out loud like that was a terrible betrayal.

  "Oh, is that all! Jeez, I was worried!" Mabs laughed, then laughed again at Sarah's expression. "Oh. Oh, I see, that's why you didn't want to talk about it at the library. You knew Matt was and...for some reason you suspected Jake? But you were afraid I didn't know?"

  "My cat doesn't like Jake," Sarah said weakly. "And she reacted the same way to Matt, so he thought maybe Jake was a—a shifter—and I remembered his family has been in Virtue since forever, so...yes. Basically, yeah."

  Jake looked offended. "I thought I'd won Doc over."

  "That is...maybe not the important point here," Sarah said, still weakly, and to her relief, Jake laughed.

  "No, I guess not. You know, I thought a lot about telling you in high school, Sarah. I just didn't know how. It's not an easy topic to bring up."

  "But you always laughed when I said you were a lone wolf! You could have said 'totally' and turned into one!" She paused. "You are a wolf, aren't you?"

  "Like my fathers and foremothers before me," he agreed.

  "And Wallace Evans?" Matthew asked.

  "Old Mr. Evans is a shifter?" Mabs asked, startled.

  Jake looked equally startled, but for different reasons. "I don't know. I mean, yes, he's a shifter, and he's been around since I was a kid, but I never knew what his other shape was. Why do you ask?"

  Sarah explained the strange encounter after their visit to the Whelan house, interrupting herself to say, "Are you related to them?"

  "Different packs," Jake said absently, like it was a perfectly normal thing to say. "We can call my folks and see if they know anything about why Wallace would be carrying water for the Whelans or the Barlows. I wouldn't have thought he'd have much to do with them. They like to keep things the way they were, and Old Evans out in the woods is about as the-way-it-was as anything can be. What time is it in Colorado?"

  "Still two hours behind us," Mabs said patiently. "If you call them now you'll catch them at dinner and your mother will be annoyed with you."

  "Yeah, but they'll be home." Jake got up to make the call while Mabs rolled her eyes, then drew her feet up and studied Matt curiously.

  "Sooooo...?"

  "A bear," Matthew said, amused. "From Argentina."

  Mabs's face lit up with delight. "A spectacled bear? Oh, you must be really cute. Jake's cute," she informed Sarah. "His eyes are blue."

  "Yeah, I know, he was always cute and his eyes were alwa—oooooh you mean as a wolf. Whoa. I didn't think wolves had blue eyes."

  "They don't, usually. Oh, I'm so glad to have somebody to talk to about this. I know Jake says there are other shifter families in Virtue, but they don't seem to hang out with everybody else, so I've been all kind of out here on my own with this. What'd you do when you found out?"

  Sarah, sheepishly, said, "Screamed and fell off the couch. You?"

  "I collapsed into the chair next to me. Noah was sleeping, so I couldn't scream, but basically, yeah. That must be hard on you guys," Mabs said to Matthew, sympathetically. "All the shrieking and hysterics."

  "It's one of many reasons we don't often tell people," Matthew agreed. "You seem to have adapted, though."

  "Apparently Sarah has too!" Mabs waggled her eyebrows and Sarah put her face in her hands, somewhere between mortified and laughing.

  Jake came back into the room to all of that and sat beside Mabs again. "You were right, Mom wa
s annoyed I called during dinner, but she says she'll see us in two weeks anyway."

  "If she canceled coming to our wedding because you called during dinner I'd say there were larger problems afoot."

  "Fortunately, there aren't." Jake stole a kiss from Mabs before adding, "She also says there's an old woman out in the woods, too, if we can find her. I don't know her, but Mom says she's been around as long as Wallace Evans, maybe longer."

  "More old-school shifters?" Sarah asked cautiously.

  "The Barlows and Hartnells are old-school," Jake disagreed. "They want to keep the bloodlines closed. Marry into other shifter families, all that kind of thing. They'd shut the rest of the world out, if they could. Old Mr. Evans just wants to be left alone, and I guess the old woman must, too."

  "Well, that's what we'll do, if we possibly can, but I'm also going to find that charter!"

  "I hope it helps. That Pat Harsnick fellow has been lurking around town like he can intimidate people into doing what he wants."

  "It will," Sarah said with more confidence than she necessarily felt. The charter had to scare Upstate Resorts off, though. She didn't know how to chase corporations out of Virtue if three hundred year old royal decrees didn't do the trick.

  The living room door creaked open before she could voice her worries, and Noah appeared, all big innocent eyes. "Mommy, I...uh..."

  Mabs somehow managed to keep a completely straight face and a very serious tone indeed. "You what, Noah."

  "I, uh...I...need...a drink of water?"

  "You do not need a drink of water. You're supposed to be in bed."

  Noah's face lit up. "I need to pee?"

  "Then you should be in the bathroom, not the living room."

  "Oh." Noah, crestfallen, backed out of the room and, a moment later, his footsteps were audible on the stairs.

  Mabs's stern demeanor cracked into a grin. "Wretched child," she said, almost beneath her breath. "Anybody want to place bets on what his next excuse will be? He didn't think that one out very clearly ahead of time."

  "He's really cute," Matthew said to her, and she snorted.