Oberon Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Welcome to Oberon

by P. G. Forte

  “Yeah,” she told him. “So am I.” She was really sorry about that. She couldn’t understand what had come over her. Except, nothing about his kiss had felt casual. And she seemed to recall he’d been doing a fair job of groping, too, for a while there. Obviously there’d been a communications failure, somewhere along the line.

  “We need to talk about this,” he insisted, again.

  Talk about your one-track minds! She shook her head. “I don’t think so, Ryan. Let’s just forget about it, huh?”

  “No, I won’t forget about it.” He reached out to touch her arm, but she pulled it away. “I don’t want to forget about it.” he said harshly, as his hands closed into fists. “I can’t.”

  “Well, you’re the music aficionado, right? I’m sure you know what The Stones would have to say about that,” she said as she began to move, once again, down the stairs. Cautiously. Keeping one eye on him the whole way. “You can’t always get what you want.”

  This time, he didn’t try to stop her.

  Ryan watched as Siobhan hurried across the parking lot. Jesus, but he’d been an idiot. It had occurred to him, somewhere in the middle of the night, that he may have made a minor miscalculation in judgment letting her run off like she had, before he’d had a chance to explain things. But when he’d followed her back to the center and found his dog waiting for him on the porch, and the door already locked, he’d been happy to take the hint and just go home. He hadn’t known what to say to her, anyway. He still didn’t. But if he’d realized then that she was this upset—

  Shit. This was not good. This was huge. Major. A much bigger problem than he’d thought it would be. He might need to develop a whole new strategy for dealing with the situation now.

  With a sigh, he headed back into the station, determined to finish what he had come here to do—run a thorough background check on the woman, so that he didn’t inadvertently put his foot in his mouth again, like he had yesterday, asking her about children.

  And then? Then, perhaps he’d check and see if Nick was not too busy to answer a few questions for him. That dinner, for example. That could prove useful. Music. Dancing. A quasi-romantic atmosphere in a semi-social setting. Something that was not quite a date might be the perfect next step in this not quite an affair they were almost having.

  * * * *

  Oh, man. I love this car,” Jesse enthused from the Jaguar’s back seat. “When are you going to let me drive it, huh?”

  Sam met the boy’s eyes in the rear view mirror and smiled. “As soon as your mother says it’s okay.”

  “Well, that’ll be never,” Frank remarked. Surprised, Sam slid a glance across at his other passenger. The boy colored slightly and added. “I mean, not ‘till we’re fifteen anyway.”

  There was a brief pause during which Sam pretended not to notice the look that passed between the two boys. “If you’re still around then,” Frank concluded, staring out the front window.

  “Don’t see why I wouldn’t be,” Sam said, matching the boy’s oh-so-casual tone. “I have no plans to go anywhere.”

  “You don’t really like living in that cabin, do you, Sam?” Jesse asked, abruptly, leaning forward and peering at him anxiously.

  “Sure, I do,” Sam answered. “Why not? It’s comfortable. There’s just me, so I’ve got plenty of room. And it’s really pretty out in the canyon. Especially in the morning. I get to wake up and see deer in my backyard, that’s pretty special. Plus, it’s got the shed for my bike. And the hot tub.” In fact, he liked everything about living there – except the driving back to it each night, when he’d rather be headed for their mother’s bed. If she’d let him, he’d trade the deer and the hot tub for that in a New York minute. Probably best not to say so, though.

  “But don’t you ever get, you know, lonely?” Jesse pressed.

  Sam smiled. “Well, sure. That’s why I hang out with you guys, right?”

  Jesse pressed harder. “Ever think about maybe living someplace else?”

  “Someplace else in Oberon, he means,” Frank clarified, still staring out the window, seeming now to be enormously interested in the row of mailboxes they were passing. “You know, someplace closer. Like maybe right here in town.”

  “Yeah, like maybe with us,” Jesse blurted, abandoning his previous attempts at subtlety.

  Oh, boy. Sam took a deep breath while he thought about how to answer that one. “Well, that would kind of have to be up to your mother,” he said at last.

  Another look passed between the brothers. Sam thought he detected a faint note of disapproval in Frank’s voice when he spoke again. “She really likes you, you know.”

  It was not quite a question, but Sam answered it anyway. “Yes.”

  “A lot,” Frank said.

  “Well, I hope so,” Sam said wryly, immediately repenting when he saw the look in Frank’s eyes. “Yes, I believe she does,” he said, more gently.

  “And you like her, too. Right?” Jesse demanded.

  “Yes, Jesse.” Sam smiled into the rearview mirror again. “I like your mother. A lot.”

  “So then what’s the problem?” Jesse wanted to know.

  Sam pondered the worried expression on the boy’s face. “I don’t know. Is there a problem?” he asked, carefully.

  “Jasmine thinks there is. She thinks you’re going to hurt Mom,” Frank said, accusingly. “She thinks you’re going to leave. She thinks you don’t really care about any of us, that you’re just—”

  “Did she tell you this?” Sam interrupted, not really wanting to hear any more of their half-sister’s opinions.

  “We kind of heard her talking about it. A few days after Christmas,” Jesse admitted. “When she and Mom thought we were doing something else.”

  She’d talked to Marsha about this? Right. He should have figured that. The spoiled brat needed to grow up and get her own damn life and stop messing with her mother’s.

  “So, is she right?” Frank asked.

  “I already answered part of the that, didn’t I?” Sam snapped. “I told you. I’m not going anywhere. And the last thing I’d ever want to do is to hurt your mother.” He was kind of surprised it needed saying. He thought they knew.

  “You know, she really was happy,” Frank told him. “Mom, I mean. Before she talked to Jasmine. I think she really liked having you around last year.”

  Sam felt his mood plummet at the boy’s use of the past tense. “Yeah, I thought so, too.”

  “Maybe if you tried hanging around a little more,” Jesse suggested. “You know, like at night, and on weekends and stuff? Maybe then she’d see that Jasmine was wrong. And then she’d be happy again.”

  Well, one of them would certainly be happy with that arrangement. Sam just didn’t think it would be Marsha. “I told you, Jess. That’s gotta be up to your mother. And I’m afraid things might be a little more complicated than that. For one thing, I don’t really think she wants me hanging around much more than I already am.”

  “Shit,” Frank muttered, staring out the window again.

  “Women!” Jesse growled throwing himself back against the seat and scowling.

  Sam sighed. There was probably something more he should be saying here. Something parental and adult. But he’d be damned if he could figure out what that might be. And damned, too, if he could find fault with either of the boys’ sentiments. “Yep,” he said at last. “I’m afraid that pretty much covers it, guys.”

  Back to Top

  * * * *

  Chapter Seven

  * * * *

  The wounded bobcat was in terrible shape. Siobhan hurried to set up the IV and then went to work on the worst of its lacerations. The cat was so weak it hadn’t even struggled when she’d put it in the restraints. And she hadn’t have the heart to tighten them as much as she probably should have – not when there was clearly no point to it. Injured, dehydrated, and obviously starving, the poor thing probably didn’t weigh more than six or seven pounds – less than half the weight of a
healthy adult female. Even if she did get free, she was in no condition to run very far.

  “What did you say did this to her again?” she asked the animal control officers who’d brought the cat in.

  “It’s like we told you,” the first man answered with a shrug. “As far as we can tell she was mauled by a pack of wild dogs in the greenbelt, several nights ago. She managed to get away, but my guess is, they’ve kept her treed since then. The guy who called in the complaint said he’d been hearing dogs barking for at least the last three nights.”

  “Wild dogs?” Siobhan repeated in disbelief. “In the greenbelt?”

  “Looks like,” the second man told her. “Leastways, they were definitely dogs, a half dozen or so. And it didn’t look like any of them were wearing collars. But you know, they took off pretty fast when we got there, so we really didn’t get too good a look at them.”

  “Unbelievable.” She shook her head in dismay. The cat grumbled weakly as she squirted antiseptic into one large wound, which still oozed with a bloody discharge.

  “Tell me about it,” said the first man. “If I hadn’t seen it, I don’t think I’d have believed it, either. But listen, it looks like you’ve got things well in hand here. And it’s getting kind of late. So, if you don’t need us for anything else, we’re going to head back.”

  “Oh, sure,” Siobhan murmured, her attention on her patient. “We’re good here. Thanks for your help, guys.”

  A lot of the wounds looked infected, she thought. And there was a good chance of renal failure. If she could just leave the shunt in place – at least overnight – it would make administering fluids a whole lot easier. The cat was going to need a lot of them, too. Along with glucose and massive doses of antibiotics. Even then, the odds were against its survival. If she didn’t see any improvement in a couple of days, the kindest thing she could do would be to put the poor creature out of its misery.

  “What’ve you got there?” Ryan asked, leaning over her shoulder to see. She was so focused on the animal in her care, she hadn’t even heard him enter. He’d sneaked right up behind her, and at the sound of his voice, soft and dark and close, she jumped a foot. The tray of instruments she’d been using clattered to the floor and the bobcat twisted frantically in a sudden attempt to free itself.

  “Oh, jeez. You, again? Shit. Ryan, what the hell are you doing in here?” She stared in helpless frustration at the frightened animal. She knew better than to try and soothe it with a touch. It was a wild creature after all, and the touch of even a gentle human hand would not be comforting to it right now.

  “Sorry I startled you,” Ryan murmured softly. “I did call, you know, from the other room. There was no answer but since your door was open, I figured you had to be here somewhere.”

  “But why were you here in the first place?” Siobhan breathed a sigh of relief as the bobcat subsided in exhaustion. She picked up the scattered instruments and went in search of another tray, Ryan trailing along in her wake. Just like a lost puppy, she thought, irritably. But a lost puppy who was no longer limping as badly as it had been yesterday. Interesting.

  “I was looking for you,” he answered, with a shrug. Adding after a moment, “You know, I don’t like the way you leave that outer door unlocked when you’re working back here. It’s not safe. Anybody could just walk right in.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that,” she muttered. Then the rest of his words sank in. She stopped in her tracks and glared at him. “And what do you mean you don’t like it? Since when is it any of your business what I do?”

  “I’m not going to touch that,” he said, dismissively. “Just don’t do it again, all right?”

  “Oh, sure. And is there anything else around here you’d like me to change while you’re at it?” She batted her eyes and smiled with sardonic sweetness. “Because, honestly, I don’t know how I’ve managed all my life without you.”

  He grinned, and his eyes crinkled up, she felt her treacherous heart lurch a little at the sight. “Yeah, I figured you’d come to feel that way about me sooner or later. But I gotta say, I’m surprised to hear you cop to it so quick.” He raised his hands in a defenseless gesture when she scowled again. “Chill. It’s just a joke.”

  “Yeah? Well, it wasn’t very funny. And I repeat, what are you doing here? Other than causing your usual chaos.”

  “I came to ask you for a job,” he answered, a little too smoothly. She nearly dropped the new tray in surprise. “Now, I’m not looking for money, or anything,” he continued, before she could respond. “But you did say you’re short of volunteers at the moment, and I’m going stir-crazy stuck at home. So, what do you say? It sounds like a win-win proposition to me.”

  “Does it really?” She stared at him in disbelief. “Because, you know, I was kind of thinking that it’s just about the worst damn idea I’d ever heard of. No, make that the second worst idea. But still—”

  “What? Aw, no, I hate being in second place. What was the first?” He was grinning like a fool and she just wanted to slug him. Except, with her luck, she’d really hurt him – then she’d never be able to get rid of him.

  “Never mind,” she said, resisting the urge to tell him that he had nothing to fear – that the other idea had to do with him, as well. “The answer is no. If you’re really that bored with yourself, I’m sure there are plenty of other volunteer opportunities you could find.”

  “Come on,” he persisted. “Why not? It’d be perfect for me. It’s close. It’s convenient. I can bring my dog. And besides, like I told you the other day, I really enjoy the work here. It’s your own fault, you know. I never knew there was anything even slightly interesting about rocks until this week. And I’d never even considered working with kids before.”

  “My fault?” She laughed mirthlessly as she went back to tending to the wounded cat. “Oh, that’s rich. But sure, why not? I suppose next you’re gonna tell me that everything that’s happened these last few days has been my fault. Right?”

  “No, not quite everything,” he answered, his voice way too low and quiet, it made all her nerves tingle.

  “And anyway,” she continued. “You know damn well why not. It’s a lousy idea, Ryan. Forget it.”

  “I don’t want to forget it,” he said, laying a hand on her arm. She stilled and shot him an angry glance which he ignored. “And please don’t start quoting songs at me again, because this is what I need. Being out of work this long . . . I really have been losing it, you know. I think we’ve both seen evidence of that this week.”

  She gasped in outrage as his meaning sank home. So that was how he viewed the impulse to kiss her, was it? As evidence of insanity? “Well, that is an interesting explanation for some of your recent behavior,” she muttered, cheeks blazing, when she’d recovered enough to speak. “Thank you for sharing. I feel so much better now, knowing that I was just a temporary lapse in judgment.”

  He sighed. “Oh, don’t even go there. You know damn well that’s not what I meant either.”

  “Look, I just don’t—”

  “Shit. Watch out!” his hold on her arm tightened abruptly and he swung her away from the table just as the bobcat slipped one paw free and made a weak attempt to claw at her.

  “Oh, hell.” She pulled away from him. “Look, I really don’t have time for you right now. So, would you please just leave?”

  “How did she get free like that?” he asked, scowling as he helped her readjust the restraints. “Were these straps too loose?”

  “She’s just so thin, I didn’t realize . . . I guess I’d better tighten them after all. But it’s no big deal. There’s no danger of her getting away. She’s too weak for that.”

  “Getting away? I’d think that’s the last thing you should be worried about.”

  “Look,” she sighed, trying her best to remain calm. “If you really want to help, then just shut up and do what I tell you. You think you can manage that?”

  He shot her a furious look and then, to her lasting surprise, h
e did just that. He didn’t say another word as he helped her clean the rest of the cat’s wounds. And then, after she’d gotten the worst of them stitched up, using a topical anesthetic since she did not want to risk further stressing the cat’s system with anything stronger, he helped her get the cat settled in one of the vacant pens.

  But then, just as soon as everything was cleaned and put away, he started pestering her again. “So, what time do you want me here tomorrow?” he asked, trailing behind her as she went into the kitchen. Selke wandered out from the other room and watched her with a hopeful expression on his furry little face. He wanted his dinner, she realized. Well, so did she, but she wasn’t about to start fixing anything to eat while Ryan was around. She was not cooking another meal for the man. He could just find someone else to play house with him, if that’s what he was looking for. “Well?” he prompted when she didn’t answer.

  “Well what?” she muttered, measuring food into the dog’s bowl.

  He waited, saying nothing more, until she’d put the bowl on the floor and straightened up and then, before she had any idea what was happening, he’d hauled her into his arms. She was so shocked by the intimacy of the gesture that she didn’t even try to resist. Last time they’d done this, there’d been several more layers of thick, padded clothing between them, but now, she was very much aware of every hard, solid inch of him. His arms tightened around her. “What time... do you want me here... tomorrow?” he enunciated slowly.

  “Let go of me, Ryan,” she said. But her voice lacked conviction and she made no effort to extricate herself, so she was not surprised that he paid no attention to her demand.

  “I will,” he promised. “As soon as you give me an answer.” She could feel the heat in him; it caused her heart to race and she could not seem to keep her breath from catching. He smiled, and she knew he could see the answering flush of heat that was rising in her cheeks. She just hoped he couldn’t read the need she was sure was gleaming in her eyes, as well. “You need me here, Siobhan. What nearly happened just now with that bobcat proves it. Stop being stubborn and admit it.”