“I don’t know, son. Delivered the baby? You’re a might upset about something we all knew was going to happen. What else has your panties in a twist? Is it closing down them stores?” Thinking about it for a second, he told his dad he really didn’t know why he was so upset. “You do that a lot, son. You’ve got to be less stressful. Your momma told me you were going to be less stressed about stuff. Don’t sound to me like that lasted all that long. I worry about you sometimes.”
“I’m going to work on it. I think Demi just threw me off. She did say she came here for calmness. For some reason, that sort of hurt me a bit. I thought I was being too calm about things, but I think you’re right—I’m stressing too much.” He put his hand over his chest, right where his heart was. “I’ve been having some trouble lately with catching my breath when I get too worked up.”
“Have you seen anyone about it?” He told his dad he’d been thinking it was nothing. “Well, I think you’re thinking wrong. You go on out and get yourself an appointment. You might be a bear, but anyone dealing with stress is going to be a goner. Especially the way you’ve been going all your life. You need to just let it go.”
“That might well be easier said than done.” Dad told him to work on it, or he’d have him put in a hospital so someone would make him work on it.” Nodding at his dad, they both stood up when Mom came down the stairs with a bundle in her arms. “She’s finished?”
“What a thing to say. Yes, she’s given birth. Just look at him. He’s the spitting image of Lucian when he was a little one. Eleven pounder too.” Before he could think about what he was saying, he said that sounded like a good sized turkey. “What is the matter with you? Did you just call your nephew a turkey? Pierce, I swear to John, there is something very wrong with you today. Do you need a snack or a nap?”
He didn’t care for being treated this way in his own house, but he also knew better than to tell his mom that. She could and would take him to the woodshed on this. Not an actual woodshed, but he’d feel the sting of her anger at him all the way to his heart. Pierce told her he was sorry. Dad told her what he’d been telling him about stressing. Mom told Pierce to sit down and behave, then handed him the baby.
“He’s so tiny.”
Mom said he really wasn’t, but he was too busy peeling the blanket from him to think about what she was telling Dad. When he unearthed his tiny hands, Pierce nearly sobbed out loud when the baby wrapped his little bitty fingers around one of his. His little fist wouldn’t even fit around his finger.
Getting down on the floor with him, Pierce unwrapped him a little at a time. Discovering that he had all ten of his fingers, his toes were just as tiny as his hands. The fatty thighs nearly had him wanting to nibble on them. As he lay there, looking at the little guy, his brother joined him in the room.
“Why is my son on the floor?” Pierce just looked up at him. “He’s a miracle, isn’t he? I mean, I’d not say this to Demi, but doesn’t he look like someone put a big person in the dryer for too long? Pierce, look at his toenails. They’re no bigger than a pencil point.”
“He took my hand into his. Well, my finger. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to have fifty of these around all the time.” The baby yawned, and both he and his brother, grown men, just about lost it. “Lucian, I want one of these.”
“You have to find a mate first, moron. Are you still stressing?” Demi walked into the room. She didn’t look like she’d just given birth to anything, much less the little guy he was looking at. “I told Cindy to bring him down here to you first. You did let us use your house. I’m sorry I freaked you out.”
“I’ve been doing that a great deal lately.” He wrapped him up again and handed him over to his brother. “Just the other day, I thought for sure I was having a stroke. I need to learn to chill out. I don’t even know how to do that. But when I was resting at the house you lent me, I did a lot of thinking. I’m not sure what else I can do and make money. Understand?”
“You need to find your mate.” He didn’t bother saying anything back to Demi. That was something he thought they all strived for. “I’m serious here, Pierce. I’d just tell you to go and get laid, but you’re not that sort of person. To have sex without some kind of attachment. I’m not saying you haven’t, but—”
“Can we please change the subject? My parents are right there.” Dad said he’d figured out a long time ago that his boys were having sex. “Christ, you guys need to gather your stuff up and go home. I have work to do.”
“Nope. Everyone is coming here now to meet the baby. Why hasn’t anyone asked his name?” He’d not even thought about it, he told her. “So you’d be all right if we were to just call him baby, or it, for the rest of his life?”
“Sure, why not? I mean, it would be easier than trying to remember it.” She tossed a pillow at him. “What is his name, by the way?”
“Lucian Alden Morgan McCray.” Dad sat down and pulled out his handkerchief. While he was wiping away the tears, Demi continued. “I have no one on my side to name him for, and that’s why he’s Alden. Grandma would have loved him called that.”
“I do as well.” Taking the baby from his mother, Pierce sat on the floor again with him. “I need a favor. From all of you. I need some help with my stress levels. I’ve been having a great deal of trouble with…I guess you could call it holding it in. I can’t continue to do that. Being on vacation showed me that I can’t hold things in any longer.”
“I wondered when you were going to ask for help.” He looked at Demi. “It’s not just the other day either, is it Pierce? Two weeks ago, I thought for sure you were going to die when you were in California for me. The manager you’d been sent to look into told me you had to sit down with your head between your knees for a good thirty minutes. Then there was just the other day when—”
“I know.” He smiled at Demi. “I know. You’d think it would have scared some sense into me, but all it did was make me more determined to get things finished up. Like—I kid you not—I had to get things lined up for you before I died. Because you’d been so helpful to my family.” When she stood up, Pierce asked her if she was going to hit him. “If so, please don’t. It’s taken me a while to get my head out of my ass and think of this the way you would. You didn’t help us. You only gave us the tools to make things work for us.”
“Pierce, I love you. Please, just learn to say I’ve got enough on my plate.” He said he was going to work on that. “I surely hope so. Because if you keel over on me, I’m going to kick your ass until you wish you’d died.”
“My goodness, Demi.” Mom came and sat behind him in the chair he’d been in earlier. “Are you really that worried, Pierce? I know you well enough to know you’re a person who likes things in order. Are you worried you might be taking on too much?”
“Not really taking on too much. However, I do—no. I did worry that if I didn’t find things out that Demi and the others wanted to hear, they’d fire me. And I do love my job more than I can explain to you.” Demi asked if he was giving her the truth of what he found. “Yes. Always. However, it is seldom good. I mean, I understand that is why you’re sending me there, to find things that are going wrong. But it’s always so wrong. I’m not making any sense, am I?”
“You are. And I know when I send you someplace, I’m not only going to get a good rundown of things, but you always include something you think will help it. Even if it’s to tell me to shut a place down. As you did for Shepherd’s.” He said that was what was stressing him. “That I might have to shut a place down? Pierce, I’d rather shut a place down and lose a little money than keep one running to lose a great deal. You’ve done nothing but exactly what I wanted you to do. With the exception of making yourself sick. Please, for the love of it all, take a breather. I’m not ever going to shoot the messenger.”
“I need to remember that too.” He looked up at his mom while the baby slept on his lap. “I�
��m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“I’m just glad you’ve told me now. I want you to go see Doc Evans. He’s more than likely going to tell you just what we’ve said, but I’d feel a good deal better if you’d see him. To make sure there isn’t anything else wrong. Pierce, please, just be careful. I want all my sons to be healthy.” He leaned back on her legs while he sat there. “Find you a mate and have you a houseful of little ones. That’ll stress you out too, but it’s the good kind.”
“There is good stress?” They were all laughing when Demi took Alden up to the bedroom to rest. Lucian was going home to get some clothing for the two of them, then he wanted to spend the night. “I’d love that. I don’t know what room you’re in, but whichever it is, please make it your own. I’ll never fill out these rooms at the rate I’m going.”
Dad and Mom went home too. They were going to plan a nice celebration for the new baby and then come back later. Feeling a little better, Peirce didn’t mind at all going to the store for Carol and getting some of the much needed foodstuffs it would take to feed his family. He was met at the door by Jilly.
~*~
“Aunt Mel has some things she needs to get done this morning. I could have stayed and cleaned up, but she said she’d rather I went out and had some fun. Since I knew you just got home, I wanted to spend some time with you. I’m glad you suggested having lunch.”
“Me too. Mom was going to go and get some things for the baby, and Dad wants me to have fun too. I’m working on that.” Demi had told them both to have fun. Jilly told Pierce she hadn’t realized he was having issues. “Don’t call them that. I’m stressing, that’s all. I need to chill out.”
“I don’t know what you think issues are, but that is one.” She looked around the restaurant, then back at him. “Ian told me you can read a person better than anyone he’s ever met. I didn’t have any idea what that might mean until I asked Aunt Mel. That’s a cool thing to know how to do if you ask me.”
“It is if you’re looking at them in a positive way. That, I think, was my problem. I wanted to find the good in everyone.” She told him she didn’t think there were many people left like that. “I’m beginning to see that. Do you see that woman over there with the three kids? In about ten seconds, the kid with the frozen drink is going to dump it on her. On purpose too.”
Right on time, the kid did just like Pierce said. The entire back of her skirt was covered in a sticky purple mess. Pierce went on to tell her that the woman wasn’t their mom, more than likely not related to them at all. But she was dating their father, he thought. And she was trying to make a very good impression so she could be the next in line as their momma.
The woman simply walked away, leaving three kids there in front of the counter of the restaurant without anyone around them. She and Pierce watched as the kids started for the door. He told her they were going to hide so that when she returned, she’d be freaked out. Again, he was dead on with it.
“How do you know she’s not their mother?” He asked her how the woman was dressed. “How she’s dressed? Okay, I guess. Even Cybill wouldn’t go to this place with a white skirt and a fur on. I bet you she’d be able to tell you what brand that was too. Cybill is weird like that.”
“She’s not weird, just not you.” They both laughed as the woman pulled out her phone, crying, and made a call. The kids came back in the place and were seated at another table until a man came in, obviously pissed. “He’s going to take it out on the woman if I don’t miss my bet. She’ll be happy to not have to be around the brats anymore. I blame that on him. They’re terrible kids.”
They watched the entire thing unfold. The man left without the woman. The kids didn’t tell her they were sorry, and it was finished. Jilly looked at Pierce. She had wanted to talk to him for a few days now, but there hadn’t been any time, it seemed. Today, she thought, was as good a time as any.
“There is this guy in one of my online classes that is pestering me.” He didn’t say anything, but then she knew Pierce well enough to know he’d get all the facts before he would tell her what to do. As soon as their dinner was set in front of them, she continued. “I’ve not told anyone. Lucy would have a fit. Ian would want to murder him, and I just want some advice on handling it on my own.”
“What do you consider pestering? Since it’s an online class, I’m assuming he’s not doing anything to you personally.” She told him not yet. “Not yet. So he’s threatening you. With what, may I ask?”
“Okay. Now, this is going to sound way worse than it really is. He asked me for a picture of myself. I didn’t send him one of me. I found a picture in a magazine and sent him that one. I don’t want some pervert hanging my picture around so he can do his thing with it.” Jilly felt her face heat up. “Anyway, he figured it out, and now he’s threatening to tell everyone online that I’m ugly as sin—not that I care—but also that I’ve sent him naked pictures of myself. I swear to you, I didn’t. Just that one picture, and that was it. I’ve tried ignoring him, but he’s somehow gotten my email address. I’ve changed my password and even got a new email address when that didn’t stop him. He’s now sending me pictures. He’s very naked.”
“Why have you not told your sister or Ian?” She played with her napkin for a few minutes, trying to make her answer sound like she meant for it to. “You’re afraid of them? Or what they might do to you?”
“No. I know they won’t do anything to me. At least, I don’t think so. But I don’t think this guy is right in his head.” She looked at her new uncle. “I was wondering if you could tell me if he’s…I don’t know. Off his noodle or something.”
“The only person I know who can tell you that is himself. Or Meadow. We can involve her, but she’ll want you to tell Ian and your sister first.” She thought that was what he’d say and said as much to him. “You knew that, yet you came to me first. I have a feeling there is more to this than just a kid sending you naked pictures. Give it up, Jilly. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me it all.”
“He’s the teacher of the class.” She didn’t look at him. Didn’t look at anything other than her food. “I’ve been turning in all my homework, as well as the things he said we didn’t have to do. That’s how he was able to get into my email address, as well as the—”
“Meadow. I need you pronto.”
When she suddenly appeared at the table with them, Jilly knew on some level that she wasn’t really there. Pierce explained to her everything Jilly had told him, even asking her questions when he didn’t know the answer. Meadow didn’t say anything for several minutes, but she could almost feel her anger.
“I’m a little pissed that you let this go so far, Jilly. How long ago did he send you the picture of himself?” She said it was in her inbox that morning, but she’d not been checking it daily. “Okay. You have to tell Ian and Lucy. Mostly Ian, but Lucy will know because he’ll tell her. This is bad—you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” Meadow said she wasn’t pissed off at her, only disappointed for her not coming clean sooner, but was furious with the man. “I’ve wanted to ask others in the class if he’s done this, but I’m terrified he might have. Understand?”
“Yes. I really do. I’m sending Ian to you. He’s in town with me right now. Honey, you will need to speak up about shit like this. He might well have been doing this a very long time, and no one spoke up. All right?” She nodded, then looked at her aunt. “What is it? You have more to share?”
“Yes. He’s got my address too, I guess you know. Right now, there is a box in my room under the bed. That was there this morning too. I’ve not opened it. I don’t plan on it, but I’m scared to death. That was why I ended up at Uncle Pierce’s home when I found it. He’s the closest to where we’re living now. Please, don’t be mad at me. I don’t think I could take that.”
Ian joined them, and Jilly had a feeling he’d already been briefe
d as to what was going on. Once he sat down, she confessed everything to him, including things she’d forgotten to mention to Meadow and Pierce. Like that, he was failing her for the class because she wasn’t cooperating with him.
“I’ll help him with his cooperation issues.” She couldn’t help it. Jilly laughed and cried at the same time. “Honey, I’m not pissed at you. Well, a little, but not nearly as much as I am at him. I’m going to take this fucker out, even if I have to step over dead bodies of my family to get to him.”
Jilly shoved her food away, no longer wanting to put anything on her belly. As Ian worked with someone on the phone, she noticed other people in the restaurant coming and going. While she was watching the door, the teacher in question walked in and was seated in the room next to them.
“That’s him?” Jilly told Ian it was that he must have followed her. “At least he’s smart enough to know better than to sit next to you. The mother fucker. Lucy won’t let me go near him until she and Meadow get here. I’d say he’s in for a world of hurt. The police have gone by and gotten the package as well. I know you didn’t want to cause any trouble, but this is much too important to a great many people for you to just try and work it out on your own. Next time, you have to let someone know.”
“I will.”
Her sister came into the restaurant and came to her. After giving her a hug, she told her she was grounded. “Not really. This isn’t your fault. I’m upset with this fucker, but not at you. He’s going to wish he’d never been born.”
No one moved toward the table where the man was sitting. It made her sick to know he was watching her every move. Ian told her to act like she was having the time of her life, and Uncle Pierce told her a story about one of the people he’d observed one day. It was just what she needed to laugh. When his phone rang, Ian moved toward the door to take it.
Pierce: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 2