“Perhaps because you were so caustic to him the entire time he was trying to have lunch with me. You do understand that I’m an adult the same as you and Joanie are, don’t you? I mean, I voted in the last election. I get to make my own money. All kinds of stuff.” She told her sister to be nice. “No, I won’t be nice to you. He was the perfect gentleman, despite the fact that I knocked him to the ground when he saved me from following that man into traffic. I hope he’s not either of your mate. I’m positive he can do so much better than you guys.”
After her sister left her, she stared at the work she’d been doing when the call had come in. Not that she didn’t know each and every line she’d drawn. Standing up, she stood over the drawing without seeing it anymore. All she could think about was how rude and bitchy she’d been to Quincey. Both her and Joanie had been. Making a decision, she grabbed her keys and told Joanie where she was going. Joanie asked if she could go as well. All three of them ended up going to find Doctor Bishop.
The houses along his street were houses she’d always had an attraction for. The last two houses she’d drawn had been the same sort of antebellum homes. As soon as his driveway came up, the house sitting far back from the road, she knew this man was a smart businessman. The house, along with the garden out front and the grounds, was well maintained.
Getting out of the car, she was shocked to her core when a large white tiger came running at them from the side of the house. The larger than life cat stopped not a foot from where she was standing. She looked up at the house when a woman in a white apron asked if she wanted the doctor.
“No. Not unless he tries to eat me. I’m assuming this is Quincey Bishop?” The woman laughed and made her way toward them. “I came to talk to him about my behavior earlier today. Is he going to hurt me?”
“I’d say not. But he is Doc. He wants me to tell you that you and your sisters are welcome to go inside the house, but he has to go to the barn to change into clothing. He’ll be naked should he shift right now.” The cat snarled at the woman, who told him to behave himself. “I just baked up some zucchini bread if you’d like some. The garden out back is just plum full of the little suckers.”
When the woman turned, heading back to the house, Joanie and Beth joined her. When Grace started to move to join them, the cat blocked her path. After he blocked her twice more, she stood where she was.
“I’m assuming you want me to stay here. I can do that. So long as you understand, I’m not going to let you hurt me. Or my sisters.” She thought of what Beth said to her about being mates. “Am I your mate? I don’t even know if you can understand me or not.”
Her cell phone ringing nearly gave her a heart attack. Grace wasn’t sure, but she thought Quincey was laughing at her. Answering the call from Joanie, she was laughing hard enough that it took her two tries to tell her why she’d call at this time.
“He said for you to put out your hand so he can nip it. Beth said it wasn’t at all painful, but he can talk to you after he tastes your blood. I’d do it, Grace. What harm could it do for you to be able to speak to a tiger when you need one?”
She didn’t ask her how she thought she’d need him but put out her hand. The lick across her entire palm made her realize he was hiding a lot of teeth from her. When he nipped gently on her hand, she wasn’t hurt at all. Pulling her hand back, noticing that it was still trembling a good deal, she asked him if it had worked.
It did. And yes, Grace, you’re my mate. She nodded and looked away. I won’t hurt you or your family. Not ever. I’ll protect them with my life, as I will you.
“I’m not asking for you to do that, Quincey. I’m a little overwhelmed right now.” He told her he was sorry for adding to her stress. “I came here to tell you how sorry I was for snapping at you so much. I’d like to tell you I was having an off day, but I’m snappish to everyone lately. I hate my job. I hate my life, and I just want to crawl into a cave and never come out. Nothing seems to be going right.”
Is there anything I can do to help you? Shaking her head, she looked at him. I’ll do whatever you need me to do, Grace. Just tell me what has you overwhelmed. I want to know. No, that’s not nearly enough. I need to know.
“I draw houses. Pretty pictures of them so people can hang them in their homes and be so proud of it. However, no one wants to see their house the way it really looks. They want me to make it look like something they’ll never be able to achieve. Not without a great deal of money and about five hundred years.” Quincey asked her if someone was disappointed in what she did for them. “Yes. They’re suing me for drawing a house that looks just like the one they sent me pictures of. No big trees out front, like they thought I’d just know they wanted there. The broken-down fence wasn’t fixed, and lord have mercy, I should have read their mind and just assumed they’d want the yellow shutters to be black and the house to be white, not pink. I kid you not, Quincey. It’s the ugliest pink you’ve ever seen. But they’re suing me for the house they had in their heads and not what they have.”
I can help you with that. I have a great many contacts to look into it for you. Or I could hire you a good attorney if you don’t already have one. She told him he was too nice. Thank you.
She laughed when he didn’t tell her she was as well. She knew she’d not been. But when she pointed it out to him, he stood up. Thinking he was going to attack her or something now that he was growling low in his throat, she bumped her head when he told her to get down behind her car.
The car came out of nowhere and slid to a stop not a foot from her own car. Gravel sprayed everywhere and hit her against the back of her legs. Quincey didn’t move from his position, but two men came out of the house then and leaned against the posts. She didn’t have any idea who they might be, but she thought they were much too relaxed compared to Quincey’s fur standing on edge and his stiff stance.
“You need something?” The men came down the stairs from the porch and made their way to the new arrival, sauntering in a slow walk. “I asked you something, Mr. Jacobson. You’ll live longer if you answer me and put that gun away.”
“He said it was suicide. That brother of yours, he told the police he’d seen my son jump into the front of that moving truck on purpose. He needs to take that back. Right now.” The sharp noise of a gun going off had her crying out, but she didn’t move when Quincey told her she was all right. “Where is he? Where’s Doc Bishop? I know he lives around here.”
“You need to calm down and put that rifle away before you get hurt.” Mr. Jacobson pointed out that he was the one holding the rifle. “You are at that, but that tiger right there is going to kill you if you don’t calm down and put the rifle into your car. We’ll talk to you then, but not with you waving that thing around like you’ve no idea who or what you’re going to kill with it.”
Someone else pulled into the drive, and she was afraid it was reinforcements for Mr. Jacobson. A woman and a man got out of the car and walked toward the elderly man. The woman was dressed in business attire, the man in a suit. The other two men nodded at them when they were next to her car.
“It’s William, isn’t it?” The man said he was, then told the woman talking that his son didn’t commit suicide. “But he did. You know me, William. You know what I can do. I helped you a couple of weeks ago to find the paperwork your wife put up. I showed you what I can do, didn’t I?”
“You speak to the dead.” Grace could hear the grief in the other man’s voice. “You got him there with you, Sasha? My son, he with you right now?”
“He is, and he wants to speak to you. Are you ready to see him? He’s not able to glamour himself because of him only being dead for a few hours. Are you ready for what he looks like?” He said he wasn’t, but he would like to see him. “All right.”
“Oh, Billy. Oh my, Billy. What did they do to you?” Standing up, she stared at the man. It hurt her heart to see him like this. William went to his knee
s and asked over and over who had killed him. “You’re all I have in the world, son. Did they take you from me?”
“No, Dad. No one took me from you. I did kill myself.”
The sobbing was painful to hear. Before she could think what a dangerous thing she was doing, she made her way to the grieving man and took the gun from him. Then she held him to her breast as he cried for his loss.
“You’re going to hear a lot of things about me, Dad, and most of them are going to be true. The woman I was seeing, however, is going to tell you the child she is carrying is mine. It’s not. However, if you could see your way to do it, I’d very much like it if you could find someone to care for him. Otherwise, she’ll sell him to someone, and you’ll never see him.”
“I’ll raise him myself, Billy.” Billy told his dad he didn’t want that. He knew his dad had failing health. “You left me, son. I don’t care what others are going to say. You left me here all alone.”
“Dad, I was dying anyway. You knew that. The doctor I saw this morning, not Doc Bishop, but the guy I’ve been seeing said my cancer had advanced, and I didn’t have but a few weeks to live. I couldn’t let you do that, go through that again like you did with Mom.” He said he would have. “I know you would have. I know that, Dad. But I didn’t want you to have to. So I ended it.”
William sobbed, his body becoming weaker with each passing moment. When Billy said he had to go, it was all Grace could do not to demand that he stay. When he was gone, she held onto William tightly, knowing some of his grief like her own.
“Grace?” She looked up at the man who’d been on the porch. “I’m Wesley, one of Quincey’s brothers. This is Gunner, and Chandler is standing over with his wife, Sasha. Quincey asked us to take you inside, and one of us will drive Mr. Jacobson home. All right?”
“Will he be all right?” Wesley said his dad was going to stay with him tonight and help him with arrangements in the morning. “He’s hurting very badly. I hurt for him.”
“We all do. Come on now, honey. Let’s get you into the house, and Quincey said he’d join you in a few minutes.” Being led into the house, she stumbled a couple of times on the way up the stairs. “Steady there. You get hurt, and he’s going to have my head. I’ll get you settled and call your sisters for you.”
As soon as she was seated, both her sisters came to sit with her. Grace was numb. She didn’t know what had happened with the man and his son, but she did hurt for them both. Not that she’d not thought the same thing over the years. Her mother had been arrested and put away. Everyone looked at the three of them like they might go off the handle, too, killing any and everyone that got into their way.
When Quincey joined them in the living room, he sat across from them. She thought she could really love a man like him.
Chapter 8
Jamie watched his parents. He’d not thought of Dwayne as anything else but his father for the last few days. Today they were in the courtroom for them to get married. Now it was his turn to be adopted by the best dad he’d ever met. While nervous, he only had to look around to know he wasn’t just getting a dad, but an entire family that loved him too. The judge said he had a few questions to ask him.
“Your Honor, I know you have a certain way you like to do things, but I want you to know that whatever you’re planning to ask me, I’ve thought of it too. Am I sure? Yes. With all my heart, I’m sure I want to be a Bishop and son to Dad here. Do I think they’ll care for me? You’ve no idea how many rules they’ve laid down that I’m going to have to follow, and you know what? I love them and the rules. It means they care.” The judge told him he thought he was getting into the best family. “I know that. Grandpa Saul is going to take me fishing next summer. Grandma Sippy is showing me how to cook. She said all men should know how to do that. I have uncles that are wonderful to me. They have all taken me into their family with open arms. I have a lot of cousins and aunts too. I’m about the luckiest kid in the world.”
“You have thought about this a great deal, then.” Jamie told the judge that being adopted had been in his mind since Dad had brought it up to him. “And what are you going to do with this newfound love, young man? I expect to never see you in my courtroom unless it’s a good thing. Like you’re an attorney, or you’re getting married.”
“I won’t promise you I won’t be here, but I can tell you that if I need to be standing in front of you as a judge, any one of my aunts will make whatever my sentence is seem minor. They’re very strict on following the rules.” The judge laughed. Everyone else did too. “My mom and I have just had each other for a long time, sir. Just waiting on Dad to come along and fall in love with us. I’m glad he didn’t wait too long and find us when I was too old to appreciate having a good family.”
“You see that you cherish these moments you’ve been given for the rest of your life, Jamie.” He promised him he would. “Good. I see no reason to hold you all up any longer. Jamison Bishop, let me be the first to welcome you to your new family.”
They were headed back to their house when it hit him that he was a Bishop. He had a family. His mom was happy and in love. While he wasn’t sure why anyone would love a girl, he was all right with Dwayne loving his mother. He’d never seen her so happy.
Going up to his room to change, he looked around his room. It was perfect. Not only did he have a computer that he was using for homework and stuff, but he had a fish and several plants in his room. Pulling off his suit, he was hanging it back up when Molly knocked on his open door. She asked him how it felt to be a Bishop.
“Amazing. Just like you said it would be. Dad and Mom are married too.” He sat down at his desk and she on his bed. “We’re cousins now, I guess. Did you know that your GGMa invited me to go on a cruise with you and her?”
“You’re stalling. Did you tell them?” He shook his head. “Why not, Jamie? You’re going to have to tell them sooner rather than later. You’ve been practicing with your magic, haven’t you?”
“Yes. I’m getting a lot better about it too. Also, I discovered something by accident.” He got up and handed her an unopened bottle of water. “Go ahead, drink out of it. I made it just for you.”
She unscrewed the lid, taking what he thought was too long to do it, and then took a small sip. Encouraging her to drink a big drink, she did after rolling her eyes at him. They both watched as the bottle not only refilled but also had a brand new lid on it.
“Jamie? Did you drink out of this to trick me?” He told her no, shocked that she’d even think such a thing about him. “How did you make this work? I’m sure it’s different than just simply drawing it on your skin.”
“I used a magic marker to draw it. Last night I was working on a project for class, and I got really thirsty. I only had a pencil and a magic marker on the desk, so I drew a bottle of water on my arm with the marker. The bottle came off my arm, and I set it there on my desk so I could finish one thing before I drank it. As soon as I finished off about half the bottle, it filled up again. Not only that, but it’s freezing cold all the time.” She drank more of her water after removing the lid. “Put the lid in the trash can. There is something else I need to show you.”
As soon as she tossed the lid into the can by his desk, he showed her the can. The lid was gone. She even moved the other scraps of paper around to look for it. When she put it back, setting the bottle on the desk, they both watched it as it filled to the top and a new lid popped onto it.
“That is way cool. I did wonder about all the extra lids when you took one off, and it reappeared like on the bottle. But this is better than the cookies you made the other day when I was here.” He said he was nervous. “Why? They knew you’d get some sort of magic from them helping you. You have this amazing ability that will keep you hydrated, and the earth clean too. Also, if you’re ever someplace without food and water, you won’t die from starvation.”
“Are you always this cheer
y?” She laughed when he did. Jamie really was nervous. “Will you go with me to tell them? I’d feel a lot better if you were there. That way, when they call me a freak, I can go home with you. Aunt Raven will raise me, won’t she?”
“I think she loves you more than me. But that won’t happen. You’re going to be just fine and dandy, as Grandpa Saul says all the time.” Deciding that now was as good a time as any, they both headed down the stairs to the dining room where his mom was working on her computer. She claimed that the light was better in there. Jamie thought it was because she was in the center of the house and could see everything.
“Aunt Brit, Jamie has something to tell you and Uncle Dwayne. I have to go. See you later, Jamie.”
He was going to murder her. It took him a second to realize his mom was talking to him. Turning to her, she smiled, and he thought that after killing his cousin, he was going to hug his mom before he would gladly go off to prison.
Dad joined them a few minutes after that and brought with him some summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. After nibbling on a cracker, he decided the best way to do this was to just show them. Picking up his mom’s pen, he explained as he drew cookies on his arm.
“I, quite by accident, discovered something a few days ago.” Mom told him not to write on his skin and offered him a sheet of paper. “No, this is important. Besides, it’ll be gone in a few minutes. Anyway, I was making notes the other day on a test that was coming up. And before you ask, no, I wasn’t making a cheat note for myself. I wrote this so that I’d have a hint on where to start on the—not that it matters. But I realized I could do this.”
Touching the cookies on a plate he’d drawn, he peeled the drawing off and put it on the table. It changed from a drawing to a plate of cookies instantly. Also, even as small as he drew it, the plate and the cookies were about the same size as the ones he got from the kitchen when he wanted a snack.
Dwayne: Bishop’s Snowy Leap – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 11