“I don’t think it works that way.” He, much to the delight of her daughter, bounced Ruby on his knee. When she placed her head on his shoulder again to take a longer nap, she assumed, he laid her back in the crook of his arms and held her. “You’re very good with babies.” “My sisters-in-law are both breeding, so I’ve been practicing. I can even change a poopie diaper, fill a bottle with one hand, and feed a rambunctious two-year-old.” He kissed Ruby on the forehead before rocking her back and forth. “I’ll have one of my brothers come by later and get you packed with the rest of your things, if that’s all right. I’ve spoken to my parents, and since your granddad is helping out, then they’d love for the three of you to stay with them. Mom needs practice too, she said. She’s not held a little girl for years.” As he was ready to go when she was, he gave her a lift to the hotel. The snow had begun to fall again, and she was afraid for Ruby. The little girl’s car seat was at the hotel, so she held her tightly as they took the slickest roads she’d ever been on. At least since living in Florida most of her life. Colton drove slowly but she was still afraid. Even as they made it there in one piece, she didn’t want to leave again. But Colton insisted that they come to his parents’ for dinner, and she couldn’t turn him down again. He’d been a nice man to her—the first nice man in a long time, it seemed. Gathering what she would need to perhaps stay all night at a strange home, Colton’s phone rang when she was taking him the car seat. While he was putting the cheap thing into his truck, the back split open and it simply fell apart. She looked at him as he threw it in the back of his truck and smiled at her. It was too much. Dropping to sit in the snow, she started crying again. “Come on now, get up before you get a cold where you can’t take medication. I have no idea what that means, but my grandma used to say that to me all the time. Asses can’t get colds, and cougars don’t catch them anyway.” He helped her inside and handed her a box of tissues. “My mom is coming with my brother. And they’re picking up a car seat for Ruby. And if you tell me no, I’m going to make you deal with my mom. She’s not one to mess with.” “Everything I have is cheap, or second hand and cheap.” She stopped crying enough to check on Ruby. “This child can sleep through anything. I swear, I wish I could have one nap as good as she does.” “You’re not very good at changing the subject, which is all right, but I have to go to the hospital for a psych evaluation. That’s why my mom is coming.” Again, she tried to tell him she’d just stay there. “No, you won’t. If you don’t agree, now that my mom is coming, she’s going to bully you into coming anyway. And Julian, my brother, he’s not having such a good day either, and a hug from Ruby will be just the thing for him. He’s the one that had Dexter arrested today.” “Then he’s great in my book. Probably could be king for the day too.” They were laughing when he went to the door with her. She smiled when he told her to lock up. “Yes, Daddy, and I won’t answer the phone until it rings once, then you call back.”
Laughing, he thanked her. As he moved out the door, Colton turned back to look at her once again. There was a strange look on his face and she nearly asked him what was wrong, but he was gone before she could. Strange, but a nice man. She locked the door and went to check again on Ruby. She, of course, was sound asleep.
Chapter 2
Julian knew less about car seats than he did about making a pretty bouquet of flowers. So, he pulled out his phone and started looking them up. Cost didn’t matter, Colton told him, just get the best one. Julian knew that cost didn’t always factor in on how well things worked. Mom found him about ten minutes later with a cart load of things. Pink seemed to be the color of choice, but he could also see greens and reds. He laughed when she asked him about diaper bags. “I thought he said just to get her a car seat that was worthy of his friend.” Mom smiled at him. “I’m going to get this one. Out of four thousand reviews, it has four and a half stars. I guess that’s the best we’re going to get. And I so love that you’ve gotten pink too.” “You have all those things at your house that are pink as well. I thought maybe when she gets settled, you’d take them to her.” Julian wanted to tell her no, but he nodded at his mom as they made their way to the front. “And honey, if you don’t mind, you’ll have to go get her yourself. Your dad needs me to help him in the clinic. One of the Rogers’ children has broken his arm.” “I’ll look into that too.” She thanked him. “All right. Where do you want me to drop you off?” She told him Dad was coming. “And when you bring her over, please try not to scare her.” He asked why she’d say that. “Because you carry a gun. That’s enough to scare most people. Just try to be super nice to her. I guess having that young man around terrorizing her is a little much on anyone.” When she left him, he went to the baby department again and picked up diapers. Dane said that kids always needed diapers. Reading the boxes, he didn’t have a clue, so he got the size for the months old he’d been told. Then, for added security, he got one size larger and one smaller. Just to be safe, he told himself. And while walking by the little shoes, he picked up a pair of little boots that looked like his. Smiling, he went to the cash register. Four hundred and eighty-four dollars later, he was reading the instructions on how to put the car seat in his truck. Several times after starting over he was sure that it had been made by some mad man in order to rid the population of second children being born. It was that, or he was going to have to sell his truck to get rid of the thing. Giving up, he just put it in the back and went to the apartment complex. Julian loved the old hotel, but his brother was right; there just weren’t enough safety measures in place for when someone was in trouble. Going up the elevator with several people, he felt good about people asking him about the bags. He wanted to tell them that he had a new daughter but knew that most of the people knew his parents and would be upset at the fib. Knocking at the door, he told the woman on the other side what his name was and who had sent him. The screaming child had his cat stirring badly.
“She is upset.” He told her he could see that when the woman shoved the baby at him and walked out of the room. “I didn’t hurt her. I was just taking a shower and I didn’t hear her. Then when I didn’t come right away, I guess she got more upset, and then more so, and now she hates me.” “You’re over doing it a little.” The baby calmed down when he spoke. “She’s okay now if you want to finish your shower. You still have shampoo on your—” “I know that. Why is it she is quiet for you?” He shrugged and handed the baby one of the many toys that his mom had purchased. “Where did that come from? It’s adorable.” “My mom. She went with me to get the car seat. Which I haven’t the slightest clue how to put in. You’d think with a PhD I could put it in without cursing.” She smiled, and Julian smiled back. “You’re very pretty. I’m sure you know that.” “I’m standing here in a towel with wet hair, and shampoo, as you so rudely pointed out, still in my hair. I have to finish shaving my legs, and.... Why am I telling you this?” He said he didn’t know but she could go on. “No, I think I’ll stop while I can. If you really don’t mind holding her, I’ll only be a few more minutes.” “Take your time. My mom said we have a couple of hours before dinner. Her and Dad are setting the arm of a little boy.” Julian took the baby to the couch and laid her on it. She was staring at him like he was going to do tricks, so he stuck his tongue out at her. When her lower lip started to quiver, he quickly picked her up and spoke to her. “No, come on now. Don’t cry for me. I was just playing. I don’t know much about little girls.” He could smell her diaper. And as much as he didn’t want to get into changing a nasty one, he knew that he’d not like that either. Taking her to the little bedroom where they’d come from, he looked at what he might need. “I’m hoping that you appreciate this.” He grabbed two diapers, glad that he’d gotten one box the right size, and the wipe things, and a little bag that people with dogs took on trails to clean up. “If this is up your back, like I’ve heard some babies do, then you’re on your own, kid.” The diaper wasn’t that bad, but the smell was nasty. He started talking to her just to make himself fe
el better about disrobing a child that he didn’t know. She sure was a pretty little girl, and he started there. “I guess you look like your momma, huh? Good thing, I guess. Looking like someone like me means you won’t ever get a date, much less a husband. I’m ugly. Well, not ugly, but I don’t look like a pretty little girl, now do I?” He got the diaper off her and then wiped her clean, using about a dozen of the wet things. “No powder, kid. I couldn’t find it. There was some creamy stuff in a tube, but I don’t think I know you well enough to go touching your privates with that stuff. What do you think?” “I think you’re very handy to have around.” He smiled up at Tess when she entered the bedroom with him. “I’m so sorry. I don’t usually freak out, but it’s been a day from heck.” “Yeah, mine too. My mom bought her a lot of little girly things. I brought them in with me. I think I might have dropped them when you gave me the baby. What’s her name, by the way?” She told him. “Ruby. I love that. She looks like a little gem too. And all this hair. I saw some hair things in the bags too.” While she was getting the bags, he was thinking about the clothing that he’d seen on the conveyor belt. Julian thought with her coloring, the little red dress with tights might be the ticket. When her mom returned, she dumped everything on the bed and sat down with a flop. That was when he caught her scent. “Christ.” She looked at him. Julian wasn’t sure what to say to her so he said nothing but held the baby a little too tightly and she fussed at him. “I’ll just wait for you in there.” Putting Ruby back on the bed, he darted to the living room. Christ. Christ. Christ. His mate—she was his mate, and he had a house for them. Perfectly groomed for them. When she came out of the bedroom dressed, Tess handed him the baby again while she put on her shoes. Ruby had on the red dress and the little white tights with hearts on them. Also a ribbon in her hair. “You’re upset about something.” He nodded, then shook his head. “In there, with Ruby, you seemed to be having fun. Then when I put the clothing on the bed, you freaked out. I need to know what I did. Was it the clothing? I can’t, at least right at the moment, afford to pay you back for—” “No, that’s not it. Mom would have my head if I even thought of you paying her back. No, that’s not it.” He started to pace the room. “I’m a cougar. I’m sure you’re aware of that.” “Yes. Your dad and my granddad are friends.” He nodded, distracted by her legs sticking out of the bottom of her skirt. “Your name is Julian. Do you go by Jules?” “Not usually, but then if you want to call me that, it’s fine.” How to tell her? “I bought a house a while back. I just moved in a couple of weeks ago. The couple got a divorce, and since they couldn’t decide on who got what, the judge ordered it sold. I bought it from the auction house, as is.” She nodded. “I don’t know you well, but you seem to be rambling. Is that your normal way to get around the bush?” He shook his head and told her he was nervous. “Nervous? From what I heard, today you took down Dexter. Not once but twice. I wish that I could have seen that.” “He hurt you and Ruby. That’s going to be a problem for him now.” She asked him why it would be one now. “You’re my mate, Tess.” He let her think while he went to get Ruby. She was fussing, and while he had read someplace that you didn’t pick them up when they fussed, he needed her more than she needed him. Picking her up in his arms, he spoke in low tones to her. “You’re going to be something, I’m betting. I wonder if you’ll like me. Probably not. I’m not going to allow you to date until.... Well, never. I don’t care what your mom says. I was a boy once, and I am not going to allow any one of them to touch you.” A throat being cleared had him turning. “I’m nervous still.” “She’s not going to date? How do you figure that’ll work?” He said he didn’t know anything about babies. “Yet she quiets when you hold her. And I’m thinking that she’ll have you wrapped around her finger in no time. But that does not mean you will me.”
“No, I didn’t think so. I had hopes, but no, I didn’t think so.” She shook her head. “I’m going to take you both to my parents’ house where we’re going to have a nice meal, and then we can talk. Is that all right with you?” “I’m not sure.” He felt his cat stir when the baby fussed at him. “She doesn’t normally trust others. I think it has to do with Dexter always trying to harm me.” “If he touches you again, he’s dead.” Tess only stared at him, then nodded. “You believe me?” “Yes, I do. I’ve been around shifters before. Not cats, but mostly wolves. I saw a bear once as well, but that’s not important. If I am your mate—” He told her that she was. “If I am your mate, then you’ll be subjected to a lot of male scents on me. I’m a social person. I love to hug, and if you hurt my grandfather or my daughter while we’re figuring this out, you’ll be dead. Understand?” “Yes. I understand.” He kissed the baby on the fat cheek and then licked her throat. “If he hurts her or takes her, I want to be able to find her and him. Also you, if you’ll allow it.” “Not yet.” He understood. “All right. I have to gather a diaper bag up. And fill it. I didn’t have one before your mom went shopping. Things have been extremely tight for me.” “Dexter?” She nodded as she picked up the pretty outfits and then folded them gently before putting them in the bag. “There’s something else you should be aware of. The house, the one I was telling you about. It has a nursery in it. It was a little girl’s nursery.” “Did anyone die in your house? I know you said that they were divorced, but no one died there, correct?” He told her what he’d heard. “Oh. Yes, I can see why he’d not want the baby things after finding out the child wasn’t his. Kind of selfish. Are you going to be like that? Treat her differently because she’s not your child?” “Never. As far as I’m concerned, she is my child, now and forever.” He watched her face, and when she seemed to believe him, he helped her put the baby in the parka coatlike sack thingy. “What the hell is this thing? I swear to you, I’m selling my truck once we get that car seat in and we don’t need it anymore. I might have to get something roomier I guess, too. You drive?” “Yes. Why?” He just shrugged. “Why did you ask me if I drove or not? Don’t do that, Jules. I can’t have you doing things just because you think they’re best for me or Ruby. While she might love you for it, I won’t.” “I won’t. But I was thinking you’d need a four-wheel drive car. The roads around here are shit—” Tess cleared her throat. “I guess I’d better clean up my act, huh?” “I don’t know what you should do, but cursing around my daughter is a no-no.” Jules, as he figured he was going to be called by her, thought of not cursing around her daughter. He wanted to tell her that it was their daughter but knew better. She wouldn’t like him until he could prove himself to her through the little girl. After she showed him how to put the snowsuit—what she called the monster suit from He...Hades—on Ruby, he carried the bag out to the car and started it. Warming it up for his girls, he reached out to his dad. Dad would tell the world he had a mate, he didn’t doubt that one bit. ~~~ Tess wasn’t sure what to do about the man. He was polite, kind, and Ruby seemed to really like him. When she was fussy, all Tess had to do was hand her over to Jules and the two of them would bond. It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. “Would you come into the kitchen with me?” Nodding at Mrs. Stanton, she followed the women, Dane and Allie too, into the large kitchen. “Dane wanted to let you know about Dexter.” “Dexter? I thought you were having me in here to warn me off of Jules. And I have to tell you something. I’m not sure that I’d let you. He’s a kind man. Courteous to everyone he meets. When I was putting the car seat in his truck, I scratched the paint and all he did was laugh. Laugh. What man laughs when a woman does that to his truck?” All three of them said Julian. “Oh. Well, I won’t let you. Warn me off, I mean. I’ve.... Why did you call me in here?” They all three laughed. She was so embarrassed that she laughed with them. “Dexter, honey; we called you in here because Dane has some information on your tormentor.” “Dexter passed his psych test today. Colton went to give it to him, and when he was finished, there was no reasonable explanation as to why he went off on you today.” She said that he was mourning. “I don’t think that’s all of it. Did you know t
hat at one time he had a girlfriend, Alma? We’re still looking into that, but so far all we’ve been able to find out is that she’s missing. Her parents are looking hard, but they don’t suspect Dexter at all.” “Who do they suspect?” They looked at each other, then at her. “Not me. I didn’t do anything with her.” “I don’t think they know anything just yet, but it might come back on you. I’d not worry about it. And in that, they’ve been feeding their local police force information, like how you have everything, and their little girl is out there without. We think that might be Dexter’s reasoning for taking all that you have.” She asked Dane what she thought. “Right now? Nothing. Accusing, beyond the information I have, isn’t going to get us what we want. But if you’re asking me if I think you had anything to do with her disappearance, then no, I don’t. None of us do.” Tess sat down. There was such a feeling of relief that she didn’t have it in her to be upright at the moment. When she put her head between her knees to catch herself a breath or two, the noises in the room changed and a pair of men’s boots were suddenly in her sight. “They call you in here?” Jules laughed and said that they had. “I’m not guilty of doing anything to Alma. Who names their child that?” “I don’t know. Who’s Alma?” She told him what Dane had said to her. “Ah, well, she had some far-reaching hands. Do you feel better now? I’d like to kiss you.”
Tess looked up at him and didn’t know what to think about him. He was really charming and kind. And she had no idea why he made her feel like she could curl into his arms and never worry about herself or Ruby again. “What is it about you that makes me want to let you take care of me?” He pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat beside her. “You give me comfort by just being in the room. My daughter has never made me feel like I could just let her roam a house with strangers in it until you came along. And for that matter, Ruby doesn’t like any man but my granddad. Yet she lets you not only hold her, but you can change her diaper, put her in a little outfit, and she says not a single thing.” “I’m a cougar. And before you dismiss that, let me explain. I’m a cat, someone that nurtures and loves. Also, within my DNA is this thing that compels me to care for my other half. But with you, I have to be honest with you, Tess, I think even without that little extra, I’d want to hold and take care of the two of you. You already own a part of my heart. Ruby has the other part.” She asked him what he’d do if she said no to the kiss. “Then I’d ask again and again until you say yes. Or you kiss me. Shall we join the others?” The man was going to drive her bonkers. He took her hand and she went with him to the living room. They were all gathered in small groups—if you could call men as large as these small. Even Dr. Stanton was a big man. And she’d bet that not one of them had an ounce of fat on them. When her granddad showed up, she felt balanced. And why that thought popped into her head, she didn’t know. Ruby started getting tired right before dinner. Tess told them to go ahead without her and asked for a room that she could nurse her in. She had wanted to sit alone and feed her baby, but when Jules asked if he could sit with her, she couldn’t turn him down. When she had her daughter at her breast, he sat back in the other chair and watched her. “You’re making me feel uncomfortable.” He smiled at her but said nothing. “When you smile like that, all I can think of is how you must have gotten your way as a little boy. I’m betting a great deal too.” “No, not nearly as often as I wanted. But my mom had good reason to want us to be nicer than most. She told me that since I was a cat, I’d have to be nice to people. Otherwise they’d be thinking that we’re all monsters—that we only want to hurt. Then about two months before I was to retire from the force, a shifter—a cat too, but a tiger— went nuts and killed several people in a hotel that dealt by the hour, and not usually by the night.” She asked him why. “Well, I’m not telling you this story to make you come to me, but his mate, a woman of some repute, had told him that she wanted other lovers. It was her job, you see. Anyway, I guess, because he loved her, that he thought that he could let her do what she seemed to enjoy. I don’t know how he thought that would work, but then she was killed by one of the men.” “Oh, how terrible. Would you let me do that?” He simply said no. “Finish the story before I have to tell you how I don’t like that word.” “All right. Okay, so she had all these lovers, and one of them supposedly killed her. He was distraught. His heart was broken, and he decided that he wanted to die, by the police. It happens a great deal. When he decided to rob a bank, that’s where I stepped in.” She had forgotten he was a cop. “You see, I had just seen his mate not two days before working a street in another town that my brothers and I had gone shopping in. When I asked him if he was planning to join her, he said yes, thinking to die. But when I told him that she wasn’t gone, he went a little berserk, hurting everyone around him and killing several more when he found her in another hotel with several men. At once.” “You were hurt.” He nodded at her. “And you what? Killed him too. Surely they saw that as self-defense, didn’t they?” “Oh yes. I was cleared of the charges of killing him, almost immediately. But in my need to heal myself, I shifted. It was that or die. And people saw me.” She nodded, terrified of what he’d just said. “I was, politely mind you, asked to step down and retire. So, since I was ready to do it anyway, I did, and moved back home. It was the best...well, the second-best thing that has happened to me.” “Me being one of them.” He told her she was the first, along with Ruby. “I’m not ready for that, I don’t think. I’m a woman who for the most part stayed by myself. The only reason that I was with Kenneth was that it was going to be beneficial for us both. We wanted our careers more than we wanted a home life. Then there was the added fact that his lover, who was also a good friend, wanted a child. Ruby isn’t either of theirs, but an artificially implanted baby that they were to raise. I had no trouble with that—I had my focus on other things. The money would have paid down my debt from med school, and I would have been there to help them raise her. But he was killed.” “Do you think that Dexter did it?” Ruby had long since fallen asleep, but when she moved her to lay her down, Jules took her and turned his back so that she could adjust her clothing. It was too much, to have a man like this want to be there for her all the time. Tess felt tears gather in her eyes as she answered his question. “We weren’t married. Everyone thinks that we were. Even, I think, Dexter. But the baby wasn’t supposed to.... What I mean to say is, these things usually take time, to have a child this way. I got it in one. And after that, things started to surge forward faster. I wanted Dexter to give me away; he is...was my best friend. But when I told him about the baby he went a little nuts. I was knocked out. And when I woke, Kenneth was dead, and I was alone.” He asked her about the lover. “Daniel. Daniel killed himself a few weeks after the funeral. He couldn’t take it, losing his lover, the responsibility of a child. He left her everything, but because of the fact that we weren’t married either, his family fought for it and won. Ruby is all that I have.” “What does he do? Dexter. What does he do when he sees you?” Tess asked if they could do this later, she was starving. “Of course. I forgot about that. Come on, we’ll have some dinner, then we’ll see what you want of the things in the house. You don’t have to stay there. I’d like it, but you don’t have to. The room, as far as I can remember—I’ve only been in it once—looks like it’s never been used. For all I know, none of it has been.”
Julian Page 2