Bear Skin (BBW / Bearshifter Romance): A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance (Bear Fursuits Book 5)

by Isadora Montrose

  “Who pays?” Zeke asked.

  “Medicare, VA, and Washington State. Our billing to patients doesn’t amount to much.” Jenna swallowed hard and turned to face Zeke. “That was last year. Washington State has canceled their grant. They decided there weren’t enough people using the clinic to make it economically viable.” She rolled her eyes.

  “So what will you do?”

  “Me? I don’t know. The same number of people won’t be able to afford the two other doctors in the area. The bridge will go out and trap the same number of people this side of the hospital.” Jenna squared her shoulders. “I’m going to have to talk it over with Dr. Robichaud when this crisis is over. Maybe he will be willing to work for what folks can afford.”

  “Are we talking big bucks here?” Zeke asked.

  She nodded solemnly. “A quarter of a million every year.”

  “Just from Washington State?” Zeke asked.

  “From all sources.”

  Zeke shook his head. They were closing an essential clinic to save chicken feed? “What will you do if you have no job?”

  Jenna looked determined. “I’ll think of something. I’m needed here and the Ridge is my home.” Her voice was stubborn. “There won’t be fewer pregnancies because they close the clinic.”

  “What happens if a woman in labor can’t get to a hospital until she’s in trouble?”

  “She or her baby dies. Or they get airlifted out and spend a week or more in ICU and neonatal in Yakima General Hospital. It’s a false economy if you ask me.” Jenna rinsed her sponge. “In fact, ten years ago, the clinic was opened in order to reduce the amount of money each birth was costing. The emergencies were sucking up the lion’s share of funding.”

  “So what’s changed to make the state want to discontinue the grant?” Zeke asked.

  “Probably the agency making the grant isn’t the same one that is saving money. Or the person who organized it all has retired. All I know is that the rationale we were given was that we were too close to Yakima City to justify our existence. Dr. Robichaud made some phone calls, but we just got sent the same report.” For the first time Zeke saw Jenna look discouraged. “Typical runaround.”

  “Hmm. So the clinic will close unless you find an alternative source of income?” Zeke asked sympathetically.

  “Yeah.” Jenna sighed harder. “My Uncle Ed is pretty rich and I’m kind of hoping he’ll see the way to using the Enright Trust to keep the clinic open.”

  “Is your Uncle Ed any relation to Will and Doug Enright?” Zeke asked.

  “Their dad.” Jen grinned. “I had to deliver Ed’s grandbabies on Christmas night because the bridge washed out and they couldn’t get Hannah to Yakima City. So I’m kind of hoping that Uncle Ed will come up with the money. But it’s a lot to ask, because it would have be a permanent annual grant.” Her voice petered out.

  “How long do you have?” Zeke asked.

  “I’m not really sure. I guess I didn’t read that far,” she admitted. “Just before Christmas the state sent out letters indicating which organizations weren’t having funding renewed in the new year. Funding isn’t my job. I just take care of patients.”

  “There are always jobs for nurses,” he said.

  “I have to stay on the Ridge,” she said obstinately. “I couldn’t live anyplace else. And I already have the only nursing job.”

  “No place else?” Zeke sounded cynical.

  She turned to look straight at him. “I was born here. I never want to leave. This is my place, my home. I went away to school, and never again. I literally couldn’t breathe in Portland.”

  “Huh.”

  “They told me I had asthma. But as soon as I came home, it all cleared up. It was more like an allergy to the city.” She finished putting stuff away and untied her apron and hung it up. “What about you? Are you going to go work in your dad’s heating company?” She led the way into the living area.

  Zeke almost choked. Well, so much for impressing this woman. But it beat the hell out of being married for his money like Jeremy. He shook his head. “I don’t want to sit at a desk all day and push paper.”

  “Couldn’t you get a job using your hands?” she asked.

  Zeke laughed mirthlessly. “The deal is I go to work in Denver at head office.”

  “Oh. That doesn’t seem active enough for a guy who’s spent time in the military. Could you work in the field in the telecommunications industry?”

  “All I ever wanted was to be in the Army. Hell, I didn’t even want to make Colonel in case they stopped letting me have fun.”

  Jenna looked at Zeke’s hard, sad face. He looked frustrated and angry. Of course, that was it – he wasn’t ready to leave the Army. He was being discharged unwillingly. “How long have you served?” she asked quietly.

  “Eighteen, no nearly nineteen years,” he said bitterly. “Half my life.”

  Jenna’s smile was both compassionate and wise. “Your life isn’t over just because your Army days are behind you. Everyone’s entitled to a little peacetime.”

  Just for a moment he had a glimpse of paradise with this angel before his misery returned.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Their serious discussion had squelched Zeke’s ardor. Probably because Jenna’s revelation about her precarious job and having to tell her about leaving the military, were too much like reality intruding on his little glimpse of heaven.

  He found himself sitting on her couch staring out the window at the winter wonderland that was her back yard. It was pretty fantastic, but he couldn’t really see a way to insert himself permanently into this bucolic picture. Except by offering to fund her clinic. Somehow that didn’t seem like enough to fool her.

  As he watched, blue jays darted jauntily through the trees. A full sized buck appeared at the edge of her clearing to nibble lichens from the tree trunks. Jenna was pretty much living in the forest. He didn’t know what she meant about having to live here, but it sure was a lovely location. And it seemed she was a vital part of her community.

  It wasn’t as if he thought of Success, Colorado as home anymore. Hell, the house he and Patrick had grown up in changed like a kaleidoscope every time Jeremy changed wives. And he changed far too often to suit Zeke. Best he could say for any of them was that each new one made her predecessor seem more attractive in memory. Double B Ranch land was available to him or his cousins to build on, but he had no urge to do so.

  If he persuaded Jenna that she had a future with a mental case, what the hell could he do here in the woods? Once he had pumped some cash into their internet set up and funded the Free Clinic, his usefulness would be over. No way in hell he could just sit and clip coupons and feel like a man.

  He didn’t have the faintest idea how he could make a life for himself up here in the Kittitas. He was rich enough that he never had to work again, but idleness didn’t suit him — never had. Even this sitting around with the juiciest, loveliest woman he had ever met was making him twitchy.

  Jenna was knitting away on another pair of socks. Dark grey this time. He wondered if they were for him or another pair for her brother. Just went to show what kind of a low down skunk he was, wanting to steal the socks from off the feet of a serving soldier.

  He tried to imagine holding out funding for the clinic to persuade Jenna to marry him. She probably would box his ears. Making a baby seemed like the best grasp he could get on her. Underhanded, of course, but he would do whatever it took to keep his angel. Because being around her felt like salvation.

  They both heard the sound of the snow plow at the same moment. Jenna put down her knitting and looked at him with a laugh in her eyes. “I better go flag the driver down and get the news,” she said. “Maybe he’ll have a spare suit or something you can wear.”

  She headed to the back door and put on her boots and snowsuit. “I’ll wait for him at the end of the drive.”

  Zeke watched from the front window as their splendid isolation ended and heaven leached away
and the world returned. The big, yellow snow plow had an enormous blade but it was little more than a big tractor. One guy sat solo in the closed cab. He drove slowly down the narrow road towards Jenna’s drive pushing snow to either side. He returned her grin and wave with equal enthusiasm.

  The big guy in the cab stopped his rig just past Jenna’s drive and turned it around and jumped down. He waded through the snow bank towards her. Zeke couldn’t hear what they were saying. But when the driver had navigated the windrow that the plow had left, he picked Jenna up and spun in a circle with her before kissing her on both cheeks. She slipped an arm around his middle and walked up to her cabin and around to the back.

  They came in laughing and talking over one another like old friends — or lovers. Was this the big son-of-a-fricking-bear he was going to have to kill to keep his angel?

  “Joey’s still in Idaho with Caitlyn’s family. Although their engagement party is just around the corner.” The deep voice was cheerful. But as soon as the visitor caught sight of Zeke lounging in the kitchen doorway, the big broad face so like his own looked narrow eyed and unwelcoming.

  “You didn’t tell me that you had company, Jen,” he said in the hard flat voice of command.

  Jenna didn’t seem to hear the note of warning in her companion’s tone, for she laughed merrily. “You didn’t give me a chance, Lenny. This is Zeke Bascom. Zeke, this is your cousin and mine, Lenny Benoit.”

  Zeke stuck out a hand and found his clasped firmly by one nearly as big as his own.

  “Major Bascom?” Lenny asked with an even more severe look.

  “Yeah, that’s me. How did you know?”

  Lenny Benoit was a large man known for his pleasant, good-natured ways but he was favoring Zeke with the squinty-eyed look of a seriously pissed off bear. “Your wife wants to know where you are.”

  “Not married,” said Zeke flatly, looking straight at Jenna. “Word of honor. Dunno why you think I might be married.” He returned Benoit’s hard look with one of his own.

  “Some woman has been calling the Ranger Station for two days, demanding to know where you’ve got to. Said her name was Bascom. Wanted us to mount a search and rescue for an Army Ranger.” Lenny sounded derisive.

  “Jesus.” Zeke flushed.

  “We don’t have a working phone between us and the internet is still down,” said Jenna apologetically.

  “Tell me about it,” said Lenny. “That is on my list. And it’s a long list. You can use the Fire Department satellite phone for two minutes, Major.” He handed it to Zeke, who put his boots on and added the old coat from Jen’s lean-to to his outfit of blanket and cut down vest. He went outside to stand in the brisk wind to call Colorado.

  Patrick answered on the third ring. “Bascom,” he snapped.

  “And a happy new year to you too, bro,” Zeke said.

  “Zeke! Where the hell are you?” Patrick’s voice faded and then he could be heard shouting. “He’s turned up.”

  “Where the hell are you?” demanded another voice, just as deep, laced with the same mixture of anger and relief.

  “Washington State, Dad. I’m on Yakima Ridge, staying with a relative,” Zeke said calmly.

  “I’ll be jiggered. Told Pat you’d show up like a bad penny. Take more than a blizzard to kill you, son.” Jeremy Bascom replied proudly.

  “I got lucky and found some shelter before I passed out. Who’s been calling the Forest Rangers demanding a search and rescue?” Zeke asked.

  “That’d be Laura,” said Patrick taking the phone from their father. “She’s been in a state since you stopped checking in after Christmas.”

  “Well I’m fine. Haven’t had a phone in days. Lost my satellite and the truck in a mudslide. No charger for my mobile. Probably no service anyway. Wallet’s gone too. Can you send me some clothes and a charger a.s.a.p.? Like yesterday. I’m wearing a blanket and socks.”

  “You okay, Zeke? Really?” Patrick asked worriedly.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty good.” Zeke realized it was true.

  “You got a letter from the Army waiting for you. Looks like orders. Been here two weeks.”

  Zeke swallowed. Time to take his punishment. “You better read it to me,” he said quietly and waited for the ax to fall. He could hear Pat slitting an envelope and a muffled noise. “What?” he asked.

  “Col. Rivera has put you up for another Distinguished Service Medal for actions related to your last mission. You’re going to get your silver cluster, boy. He wants you back in time for the ceremonies.” Pat sounded a little awestruck. “Jeez, Zeke, you sort of made it seem like your last job was a total cluster fuck.”

  “It was. That’s it?

  “Well there’s a whole lot more. Hang on, I’ll read it to you.”

  “This isn’t my phone. Gotta go. Stick it in with my clothes and charger and courier it. Tell Laura I’m okay.” Zeke ended the call and went back inside. Len had taken off his parka and was sitting in Jen’s kitchen drinking coffee. His boots were making puddles on the floor.

  “Thanks,” Zeke said handing the phone back. “My people were worried. My cousin Laura has been calling asking for me. I’m good for the charges,” he added. “Don’t have a wallet. But I’ll make arrangements.”

  Lenny grunted and drank coffee. “Jen, honey,” he said, “Mom’s out of double A batteries. Can we bum a half dozen off you? I gotta turn around and go plow out half the Ridge yet. I’ll be past closing time before I make French Town.”

  “Sure,” she said. “I’ve got some somewhere.”

  As soon as Jen had disappeared through the door of the kitchen Len turned on Zeke. “Jenna is by way of being my favorite cousin,” he said in a deadly cold voice. “We take family seriously here on the Ridge. If you’ve knocked her up, I’ll only be the first one in line to take you apart, soldier.”

  “You think she’s pregnant?” Zeke asked hopefully.

  Len narrowed his eyes. “You don’t seem put out by the notion.”

  “I’d be just as pleased. If you think she’d marry me because she was.”

  “She might at that. But I’ll tell you for nothing, women prefer a little romance to a shotgun wedding.”

  Zeke swallowed his angry retort. “I’ve only known her three days,” he admitted.

  Len raised his brows. “Took me but a minute to know when I met my mate.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Think she’ll have me?” Zeke asked.

  “Only one way to find out. And you keep in mind that our Jenna doesn’t want to leave the Ridge.”

  “I know. She belongs here.”

  “Damn straight. If she does agree to marry you – and it beats me why she would – you make sure you don’t change your mind. Our cousin Asher is a Forest Ranger. He took that first call from your cousin and looked you up on the internet.

  “You may have more money than Trump, but your whole damn family is a disgrace. I never yet heard of bears marrying and divorcing and carrying on with women young enough to be their daughters like your father does. You marry Jenna and you stick. You break her heart, I’ll make sure your life ain’t worth living.”

  “Fair enough. What if she breaks my heart?”

  “Your problem, soldier.” Len looked Zeke up and down and shook his head. “I was you, I’d wait to do my courting till I was dressed decent.” He stood up as Jen came back into the kitchen. “I gotta be running along.”

  Jen handed Len a package of batteries. “Give Aunt Debbie my love. I don’t suppose you have a spare pair of pants in your cab?” she asked hopefully.

  “I do not. But I guess I could run you over some spare duds this evening — or more likely tomorrow. I said I’d give the power guys a hand, when I got the plowing done. And Hilda Miller got a burst pipe. And we gotta get the microwave towers cleaned up. Nobody’s had a signal since the storm.” Len rattled off a list of chores.

  “Zeke here is an expert,” Jenna said.

  “Expert what?”
>
  “Telecommunications. But I can handle power lines,” said Zeke. “I can lend a hand if I have clothes.”

  “That mean you can get our internet up?”

  Zeke shrugged. “It’s what I do. I’ve got towers working in worse conditions than a little ice and snow.” It did seem unlikely that here in the deep woods, snipers would be aiming at a repair crew.

  Len looked him over and nodded once as if satisfied. “We’ll get you some gear and add you to the crew. We can always use a willing worker.” He held out a hand to Zeke and smiled for the first time. “I’ll pass the word along to the Ranger Station that you’ve been found. They got more to worry about this week than one missing soldier.”

  The two men shook. Zeke’s commitment understood without words.

  Zeke watched with Jen from the front windows as Lenny drove off in the snow plow with the blade held high above the cleared road.

  “So why is a firefighter clearing snow?” Zeke asked.

  “Lenny has a contract with the county,” Jen said. “He is the Captain of the French Town Fire Department, but it’s all volunteers. He doesn’t get paid. He has a bunch of other jobs. Some pay, some don’t.

  “Life’s good here on the Ridge, but most people are like Lenny and they make a living a bunch of different ways. Len and his brother Joey work at Enright Lumber during the summer. Winters they do renovations and make overs — mostly for cottagers. They make good money too.” Her blue eyes were looking significantly at him.

  “And dealing with the internet service is just another job?” Zeke asked curiously. Was she hinting he could get a job at the mill? Did she want him to stay around?

  “Unpaid,” Jen answered. “The Yakima Ridge Internet Service is a non-profit. Everyone paid a little bit to get it set up. And there’s a group of volunteers who run it. Lenny is on the crew because he’s just that kind of a guy. Pulls his weight and then some. Trouble is every single volunteer is an amateur. But hey, it’s way better than no internet.”