Bear in Mind

by Moxie North

  Jinger noticed that the big man hadn’t answered her, he was just staring at her and occasionally sniffing. That was weird.

  She watched as he dropped his hands to his hips and kicked at the dirt before raising his head.

  “Fine, let’s go.”

  “Excuse me? Go where?” she sputtered.

  “I’m Wyatt Rochon and I need to get back to work. So let’s go, I’m driving.”

  Chapter 3

  Jinger stared in astonishment as he turned on his heel, slammed the tailgate of his truck up and walked to the driver’s side door. Climbing in, he started the engine and rolled down the passenger window.

  “You coming, Red?” His gaze looked more annoyed than before.

  Jinger wanted to scream, she hated being called Red. More than anything she hated that nickname. Plus, it was just her dumb luck that this hunk of a man was the one she needed to spend the next few hours with.

  Fine, she could do this. She was a professional, darn it!

  Looking at the men still watching her, the one closest to her gave her a shoulder shrug and turned back to the others. Jinger figured they weren’t going to be any help to her, so she walked to the passenger side of the idling truck and ripped it open.

  Before climbing in, she wanted to get one thing straight.

  “Mr. Rochon, you ever call me Red again and I’ll cite you for the vaguest and most expensive fine I can think up. We clear?” she finished tossing her own hands onto her hips.

  A slow smile spread across Wyatt’s face. Nothing he liked more than a woman with some attitude. “You bet, Mrs. McCann.”

  “That’s Miss, or you can just call me Jinger,” she said coolly and climbed into the truck. It smelled of sawdust and diesel. Not a wholly unpleasant combo, it made her think of rugged men. Like the one sitting awfully close to her now.

  Shifting the truck into reverse, Wyatt backed up and peeled out a little too showy for Jinger’s taste. She swore she could hear the other men laughing.

  As they tore down the dirt road, Jinger hit the button to roll the window up to keep the dust out. She didn’t know what to say, so she twiddled her thumbs and waited for him to start talking.

  “You’re right,” Wyatt said out of the blue

  “I am? About what, Mr. Rochon?”

  “First, it’s Wyatt. Second, there is no way you are a Red. Reds are abrasive, pushy even. You are trying to come off that way, but deep down you are just too sweet to pull it off.”

  “Well, I’m glad you won’t be calling me that awful name. Not that you are correct about any of the rest of it,” she sniffed, looking out the window.

  “Oh, I’m right. So sweet and gooey on the inside you have to put on a hard shell to handle the rougher side of dealing with loggers and the like. Yup, just enough spice, kinda like a gingersnap. Oh, I like that. Gingersnap. Is that with a G or a J?”

  “It’s Jinger with a J thank you very much. I really don’t think nicknames are appropriate. Now will you be so kind to go over what you have done to the land since you finished harvesting?” She tried to sound professional but her voice wavered a bit.

  Wyatt Rochon was too good-looking for his own good and his teasing her was outside of her usual coping skills. She grew up with two sisters and no brothers. Her parents were quiet, reserved semi-hippies. Mom was a naturopath who taught at the local community college. Dad was a wildlife biologist. Her sisters hightailed it out of Washington as soon as they managed to secure a place in an out of state school. One lived in Oregon and the other moved to Kentucky, of all places.

  Jinger stayed home, went to school at the University of Washington and never even thought of leaving. She dated a bit, but she usually found quiet bookish types that didn’t challenge her carefully prepared life. Jinger always thought she was waiting for something, biding her time. She just didn’t know what for, so she kept to herself and waited.

  Now she wished she had an older brother growing up that teased her, so she would have some kind of defenses built up. Wyatt was charming and she really wanted to get mad at him for being so forward, but the girly side of her was giggling. Damn traitor.

  She heard Wyatt chuckle. “Whatever you say, Gingersnap.”

  Wyatt went on to tell her their process for clearing brush, culled logs that didn’t make the grade and their plans for a controlled burn to get rid of some of the debris. All in all, it sounded like they had everything under control. Jinger nodded and took notes while he spoke.

  “Is there a reason the DNR is checking up on us? I mean, we’ve never had any issues before. We always do our best to follow all the regulations to make sure we don’t create any hazardous situations,” Wyatt said.

  “Well, to be honest, Mr. Rochon, we did have an anonymous complaint stating your cut was left unfinished and that it created a viable fire risk.”

  “Anonymous, huh?” Wyatt growled. His hand gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. His bear was pissed and he could feel his fingernails itching to claw out.

  “It’s not uncommon for reports like this to come in. We have to review every one, we can’t risk there being an issue we miss,” she explained.

  “That I understand, but we’ve had a run of bad luck lately and I’m thinking this is not a coincidence that you got a complaint.”

  “What kind of bad luck?”

  “Equipment tampering mostly, but my brother’s fiancée was injured a few weeks ago and we believe it was sabotage,” Wyatt responded angrily. “It’s one thing to mess with equipment that delays our work, but it’s another crime entirely to hurt my people.”

  “Is your brother’s fiancée all right?”

  “Yes, she recovered. It isn’t something any of us want to be repeated. I know you are just doing your job, Jinger, but this is just another in a long line of pains in my ass right now.”

  “Well, I will make this as painless as possible, Mr. Rochon. Then I will be out of your hair and a distant memory,” Jinger promised.

  “What if I don’t want you to rush off?”

  “Why would you want me to stay? Most people like to see the backs of government flunkies,” Jinger said with a little laugh.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want to see your backside, Gingersnap. I’m just saying there is no need for you to rush off afterward. Maybe we could grab a bite to eat? My soon to be sister-in-law is a mean cook.”

  Jinger couldn’t believe it, he was hitting on her! Wasn’t he? Again her lack of social skills was rearing its ugly head, she thought.

  “Oh, that’s very nice of you to offer, but I really have to get back to the office and file my report.”

  Wyatt turned his shaded eyes to her. “Not your type, huh?”

  “What? No, that’s not it. I--uh--just want to keep this professional,” she stammered. Dang, he was flirting.

  “Huh, professional,” Wyatt said with a grin, turning back to the road.

  Jinger fidgeted in her seat, praying this day was already over with so she could curl up on her couch with a bucket of Skittles and forget about it.

  Turning down another dirt road, Jinger could see the clear-cut up ahead. Good, work she knew about.

  Spending less than an hour observing the cut, Jinger decreed that the area was up to code. Underbrush had been stacked in large piles ready for burns. There were fire breaks cut around the perimeter of the area. Not a thing looked wrong. Unusual for someone to be willing to file a complaint if there wasn’t a serious safety concern.

  “Your site is cleared, Mr. Rochon,” Jinger said turning and giving him his copy of the inspection report.

  “Wyatt, please.” He took the paper and folded it before tucking it into his shirt pocket.

  “If you wouldn’t mind driving me back to my car, I can get out of your hair--Wyatt.”

  Sighing and swinging his glasses towards her he nodded and turned back to the car. As they trudged through the uneven ground, a number of times he steadied her by grabbing her elbow or offering a hand over a
large log. She graciously accepted each time and the moment their skin touched, Wyatt felt tingles of electricity course over his palms.

  He wondered if she was The One, but his dad and Cage said it was like a bolt of lightning hitting you. The whole world stopped and finally made sense when you met your mate. Sure, she smelled amazing, her body was rocking, and he loved the touch of her skin. But he wouldn’t call that a thunderbolt.

  Maybe Cage was wrong, dating was a fun way to pass the time. You get company, someone to spend time with and hopefully some mutually satisfying sex. Was that enough?

  Chapter 4

  Making it back to the car, he opened the passenger side and held Jinger’s hand as she took her seat.

  “I really wish you would accept my offer for lunch, Jinger. I swear it’s the best camp food in the state,” he tried one last time with a cajoling smile.

  “I wish I could, but I still have a lot of work to do today,” she mumbled. She felt ridiculous turning down this gorgeous man, but he was probably just being polite. Beautiful men like him could have any woman they wanted. They did not choose short, round office monkeys.

  Wyatt made his way to the driver’s side and took off without another word. They rode in silence the whole way back to the work site. It was horribly awkward. Like fifth-grade spelling bee awkward, when you knew you needed to say something and nothing would come out and the whole school was watching you.

  Except it wasn’t the school watching, it was Wyatt Rochon and he seemed annoyed. She could feel a strange tension coming off of him. Like she had actually upset him by not taking him up on his offer. Was she being a bitch? She never wanted to come off as a bitch. Professional and competent sure, but not a bitch.

  “Uh, Wyatt?”

  “Gingersnap…”

  “I’m actually a little hungry, is that offer for lunch still available?”

  Turning his eyes away from the road, he looked back and forth between her and the dirt path and finally a stunning white grin stole over his face.

  “Yeah, darlin’, offer still stands.”

  Wyatt altered their course and headed down to their base camp. Less than thirty minutes later they pulled into the clearing where Jinger saw a number of work trailers laid out in a U-shape. Each marked with a crude hand-painted sign. She knew a lot of the crew stayed out at base camps like these so they didn’t have to make the often long and boring drives into secluded forest lands each day. Some of the loggers didn’t even have homes, they just moved from site to site as needed.

  Pulling the truck up to a building marked Office, Wyatt turned it off and jumped out. Jinger had already had her door open when he reached it. He still took her hand and helped her down from the truck.

  “I’ll be just a minute then we’ll walk over and see what Sophie’s got cooking,” he said, before heading into the building.

  Jinger took a moment to look around, it was tidy if not rugged. She had managed to calm her nerves during the drive. It was just lunch, they could talk trees and then she would be on her way. No fuss, no muss.

  The door to the building kicked open and Wyatt stormed out. He looked a little pissed, but wiped the look off his face when he saw Jinger. Grabbing her hand he gave it a tug and he practically dragged her across the parking lot towards a trailer marked Mess.

  Walking into the trailer, she had to let her eyes adjust to the interior. She realized her sunglasses were on so she pulled them off and tucked them into her shirt pocket.

  Wyatt didn’t spare her a glance, when he pointed to a table and said, “I’ll grab us some grub, I’ll be right back.” Then he disappeared through a swinging door that must have been the kitchen. She saw there were already trays of food out in a long buffet in the middle of the room. Smelled like enchiladas. Jinger’s tummy gave a growl. Yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing.

  A few minutes passed and she saw Wyatt returning with two heaping trays of food. He placed one in front of and sat down across from her with the other.

  “Wanted to make sure you had something fresh, these guys can be savages in here.”

  Looking down at her plate she saw it was mounded with enchiladas covered in red sauce, Spanish rice and what looked to be real homemade refried beans. Still staring at her plate, she said, “This looks delicious, thank you.”

  Jinger saw Wyatt’s sunglasses hit the table when he tossed them down. She wanted to see what color his eyes were, but was almost afraid to look. He was already too pretty for her. She wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he had good eyes.

  “Gingersnap,” she heard a whispered call.

  “Hmm?” she answered as she started to poke at her food.

  “Jinger, hey I just want to be friends. Nothing hinky, just friends. We both deal with the forests, it would be good to have a, what did you call it, professional working relationship.” She could almost hear the chuckle in his voice.

  Taking a deep breath to answer him, she looked up and saw the most amazing green eyes. They were the color of the forest, dark and alight with something she couldn’t name. The edges were almost yellow, brighter than the middle of his iris. Beautiful.

  Damn, his eyes were pretty. Which made him unholy gorgeous in her book.

  Wyatt was looking at her now with a crinkle in his forehead, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.

  Wyatt saw eyes that were not quite blue, more gray and they were warm and concerned. He felt himself falling into those gray eyes. His heart was pounding, he couldn’t pull in air. His vision, hell his whole world, was focused on the eyes in front of him. His soul ached, his bear roared in his head.

  “Wyatt? Are you all right?” Jinger asked, starting to get a little concerned. Those green eyes were staring back at her in shock and awe. There was no other word for it.

  Wyatt looked like he was trying to shake himself out of his stupor for a moment then a low growl rumbled out of his chest.

  “Mine.”

  Chapter 5

  Jinger must have heard him wrong. Maybe he was talking about his food. ‘Mine’ was not your typical response to ‘Are you all right?’ What if he was diabetic and his insulin was low, that would explain it, she thought.

  She watched him swallow over and over as his eyes kept scanning her up and down. Looking at her like he hadn’t already spent hours with her today. Like he had never seen her before. She was starting to get uncomfortable.

  “Wyatt, you’re staring. Is something wrong?”

  Wyatt was trying to get words to form, something other than the blurted ‘mine’ which was mostly his bear’s fault. His animal was roaring inside his head, he wanted out. He wanted out because his mate, HIS MATE, was sitting across the table from him. Right now, this very second. He’d been with her most of the day and it wasn’t until their eyes met that his world stopped spinning, the lightning flashed through his soul and he knew.

  She was his, his One. This wasn’t possible, Cage had just found his mate and now him. After all these years of waiting and they both find their mates within a few weeks of each other? Were the fates just messing with them?

  He wanted to reach across the table and pull her into his lap. He wanted to nuzzle her neck and soak up as much of her sweet scent as he could. His bear wanted to mark her, claim her. He understood and tried to calm his animal. They had to approach this slowly, cautiously. They didn’t want to scare her away. Not after waiting so long to find her.

  “Sorry, you have very pretty eyes. I was a bit taken back how they are almost gray not blue.”

  Nice one brainiac, he thought.

  “Oh, thank you,” she said with a blush, looking back at her food. She forked a bite into her mouth and chewed while looking out the window. She really didn’t want to look back at him. It was too hard to look away once they connected. Weird. His eyes were intense or maybe it was just the way he was looking at her that was intense. Either way, she didn’t want to seem like she was the one staring.

  Wyatt sat across from her trying to figure
out what to say next, and how to quiet his bear who was still clawing on the inside to get out. He instead, decided to stick to the meal and weather. That was something he didn’t have to focus too hard on and he’d be able to keep control of the animal within.

  Jinger was thrilled when Wyatt moved the topic off to the mundane. The food was really good, so that was an easy conversation. The weather, well another easy one for Washington, as it was either raining or about to rain or had just finished raining.

  Finishing her meal, she saw that Wyatt had barely touched his. Great.

  “Not hungry?” she ventured.

  “Huh? Oh yeah, actually I am. I was just interested in what you were saying. Forgot to eat. I’ll take it to go. I know this might seem weird, but could I maybe see you again? Maybe see a movie or just have coffee sometime?” He rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.

  He wanted to see her? Jinger’s brain spun trying to read him, was he asking her out? Like on a date? Or was she taking a business request way too personally?

  “Hmm, that’s very nice of you, Wyatt. But really, I think we should just be glad today went as well as it did and move on. I really need to get back to the office, so if you wouldn’t mind taking me to my car…” She waited for him to respond.

  He clearly did not like her refusal as she noticed the muscle in his jaw start to tick. His forehead wrinkled like he was trying really hard to think of something. If she didn’t know better she would think he was angry she hadn’t jumped on the opportunity.

  “If it’s too much trouble, I could call someone for a ride,” she offered with a whisper.

  Wyatt shook himself out of the terror of letting her go. He was trying to think of a rational reason for her to stay. And maybe go home with him and never leave his bed until she was round with his cubs. But clearly that was not something that was going to happen today. Damn, he was totally unprepared for this. If she was a shifter it would be easy. They both would know the rules, who they were and how to act.