You Had Me at Cougar

by Terry Spear

  Everyone was hurrying to get ready for all the activities. Moms and dads were trying to keep track of all the little ones, most wearing floaties so they wouldn’t get themselves in trouble in the shallower water at the lake’s edge.

  As soon as Ava headed for the water, she saw the dreaded fortune teller booth, all decorated in purples and golds and little castle flags, near the concession stands where people were already grabbing lunches to go. It looked like it belonged at a medieval fair, and she thought it appeared magical and entertaining. And that made her feel better about working there. Especially since she was going to get a dip in the lake first.

  She set her mermaid bag down on the beach, kicked off her flipflops, tugged off her T-shirt and shorts, grabbed her mermaid float, and raced into the water.

  “Hey, Ava.” a male voice shouted at her.

  No, no, no. She was going to get some swimming time in before she did anything else. She could just imagine someone telling her she needed to start even earlier at the fortune telling booth. She hadn’t paid attention to see if there was a line at it, or anyone working it yet, just that the concession stands were crowded, and the booth was pretty. She just wanted to get away from the beach and into the water.

  She continued to ignore the man belonging to the deep voice. When she was far enough away, she turned to see who it was. Chet Kensington, pulling off his shirt, kicking off his shoes, and pulling down his shorts. Her jaw dropped in surprise. Oh, he had board shorts on underneath his Bermuda shorts. And a gorgeously bared chest. He waded out into the warm water. She frowned. Where did he think he was going?

  She wanted, needed solitude before she began to give up her psychic secrets. The problem with her serving as a fortune teller was that she made an awful actress. Keeping a straight face, if she thought something bad was going to happen to someone, and just making up something else that would be lame and not upset anyone wasn’t something she could do—and make it believable. Part of the problem was they were all cougars and could smell fear or deception on someone.

  She sighed. Even when she had seen Chet stripping out of his clothes, she had envisioned him wearing form-fitting boxer briefs, or…ahem, nothing at all and her mouth had gaped wide open. She was sure, if he’d seen her surprised expression, he would have been amused.

  He began swimming out to her, powerful muscles flexing as he pulled the water past him and drew closer. If he’d been her boyfriend, she could imagine him reaching her, pulling her from her float into his arms, and kissing the daylights out of her. It was a good thing he couldn’t read her mind and didn’t have any psychic abilities whatsoever. But after Chet had worked with Bridget, who could read minds, he had become a firm believer in psychics. Which she appreciated. Skeptics were one thing. She understood when they wouldn't believe in her abilities. But when they tried to say she was a charlatan, that was another thing.

  Maybe he was going to tell her that he had found a place to bunk, other than her place. Now she felt guilty for ignoring him when he was calling out to her from the beach.

  When he reached her, he sent ripples of water her way, rocking her float, but it was in a lulling manner and that was nice.

  “Hey, sorry about putting you out when you have to give me a place to stay for the weekend, but I really appreciate it,” he said.

  For the whole weekend? She sighed. “No problem.” So much for getting a reprieve.

  “Ava said that after spending the day with a lot of people, you need time to recuperate.”

  “I do, thanks, when I have psychic visions. It just wears me out. Baking in a hot kitchen does too.” Which made her seem lame—here she was a powerful cougar with lots of stamina. Not only that but he had some tough cases to handle and here she was talking about being worn out from baking cookies and cakes? He must have thought she was an idiot.

  “I’ll spend some time with the guys I work with and come to your place just to sleep then.”

  Now she felt really guilty. “You can, if that’s what you want to do, but if it doesn’t work out, you’re free to come and have a bite to eat with me at my house tonight, watch TV, or whatever you want to do.” What was the matter with her? He just gave her an out, and she was telling him it was okay to forgo other plans and chill out with her? When it was the furthest thing from what she wanted to do?

  “We’ll see.” He was treading water next to her, being nice, which he should be, considering she was giving him a free room for a couple of nights, and she felt grouchy—but mostly because all of a sudden she had to be a gypsy fortune teller and now allow a near stranger—male cougar hot—to stay with her. “Can I pay you something for the stay?”

  Yes. He made a lot more money than she did as a special agent of the CSF when she just worked as a baker. But that wouldn't be very nice to make him pay for his stay. Though if he'd stayed at a hotel or one of the cabins, he would have paid top dollar for the summer. “No, thanks. I appreciate the offer though.”

  If he had been her boyfriend, and she had to admit he had the looks that counted—blond hair, blue eyes that peered right into her soul, and a nicely manly chin, and the rest of him wasn’t shabby either, especially the rest of him—she could envision his arms resting on her float, his chin on top of them as he smiled up at her.

  But he wasn’t her boyfriend, and he wasn’t touching the float or smiling. She would say he appeared to be at a loss of what to say or do next. She hadn’t expected that of the special agent who, according to Bridget, was good at taking the bad guys down without a moment’s hesitation. He never flinched. He was always up for the challenge. She knew he had been dating on and off in Cheyenne, Wyoming where he was from and worked out of, but she didn’t think he would be so tongue-tied with her.

  “Okay, well, I’ll leave you to it,” he said, hesitating, as if he hoped she would say something to encourage him to visit a while longer when here she thought he had come to Yuma Town to visit with his friends.

  “Uh, they’re having fireworks until eleven tonight. I’ll be at the townhouse after that.” She realized she wasn’t going to be chilling at the house either, but out here all day, and until late tonight. Which meant no dinner plans at home, just grabbing barbecued chicken, ribs or fish, chips, and drinks, and watching the fireworks out here.

  “Oh, sure, that's true. Okay, well, thanks. See you then.” He began to swim away.

  “Wait, do you know what time it is?” She wondered how much time she had to swim before she had to become a gypsy fortune teller.

  “When I looked at my phone before I swam out here, it was a quarter of one.”

  Quarter of one already? That’s when Ava saw her sister waving from the shore with a gypsy outfit in hand. Great. Just great. So much for swimming in solitude.

  “I hope Nina is waving at you with that garb and not me.” Chet cast a smile over his shoulder at Ava. He had a nice, sexy smile that said he could easily win a woman over and break her heart afterward.

  She chuckled. She liked a man with a sense of humor. "She needed a volunteer and volunteered me when someone else couldn't make it. But I don't see why a guy couldn't be a fortune teller. Kind of like a genie in a lamp, except not granting wishes but glimpses of their future. Not for real though."

  "Not like you can offer. I know I couldn't fit in that garb, so I'll give it a pass."

  She smiled. Then she sighed. Okay, so with dating men, Ava hadn’t had much luck. Not that she was interested in jumping Chet's bones. Well, maybe a little.

  She flipped over on her belly, but hadn’t judged just how much room she had, or kept her balance, and ended up in the drink. She was a cougar, for heaven’s sake. She should have had better balance and sense than that.

  She came up for air and found Chet treading water, watching her to make sure she was okay. That wasn’t necessary, but nice of him, she thought. Though she was thoroughly embarrassed, and she felt like she'd received an instant sunburn, her face was so hot. She climbed back onto the float, settling herself on h
er stomach, and began swimming for shore.

  He joined her. Though she figured he could swim faster than she could swim on a float, he was keeping pace with her.

  When they finally reached the shore, she dried off and then took the gypsy costume from Nina. It had a bikini kind of top with tassels and sheer fabric on the arms, banded at the wrists. The pants were made similarly, and she felt like Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie as she grabbed her bag and clothes she’d had over her swimsuit, went into the booth, closed the curtains and stripped out of her wet bathing suit. She pulled the towel out of her bag and dried off, then slipped on her bra and panties. Once she was wearing the gold and purple genie costume and her sandals, she brushed out her damp hair and wrapped it in a chignon.

  When she looked at her phone, she saw it was showtime. She sighed and opened the curtains to the booth and found a dripping wet Chet standing in front of her booth, first in line. “Madame Ava, I wish to have my fortune read.” Chet handed her a one-hundred-dollar bill.

  “Is it real?” She couldn't believe he would give her that much money for a reading.

  He chuckled. “I take down the bad guys, remember? So I wouldn't give you a counterfeit bill.”

  “Uh, sure.” She smiled and put the money in a box on a shelf below the window of her booth. "And thanks. The big cats at the reserve will appreciate it."

  “Anything for the cougars. So how do we do this?” he asked.

  “I can make something up,” she offered helpfully. She noticed a line was already forming behind him and she heard someone say, "One of the psychic twins is giving fortunes."

  “Or?” He smiled at her.

  She thought he was too masculine, too adventurous for his own good and would want to know the truth. And he had contributed a lot of money to the Big Cat Reserve for this. But she didn't want to learn that anything bad was coming up in his life and with the kind of job he worked, it could.

  “I can read your palm,” she said.

  He reached his hand out to her, palm up.

  She knew this wasn’t a good idea one iota. Not if she learned something really bad was going to happen to him, though she figured if she did, maybe a warning would help him avoid getting killed over it.

  Chapter 2

  Chet sensed the tension in Ava as soon as he offered his hand for her to give him a reading. He knew she was a true psychic, and he wondered if she would give him a true reading or something that was just made up. He could handle it if she wanted to tell him his life was in danger or something like that. He lived for danger. It was all part of his job. Though he hoped she could tell him a bit of good news. Like if he had to apprehend or eliminate rogue cougars, he would survive the mission.

  She frowned as she took his hand and ran her finger over his lifeline. “It’s good news. You’re going to get a pay raise.”

  “Really?” He was so surprised at her reading, he wasn't sure what to think. Was it for real, or made up to disguise something bad? Maybe she’d just been tense because she’d worried she might see something bad and she couldn't see anything about him.

  “Take the good news and go spend some more money on something else,” Chase Buchanan said behind him. He was a part-time deputy sheriff and the owner of the Pinyon Pines Resort on Lake Buchanan, and Chet knew he was just joking with him.

  Chet arched a brow at him. “I just paid a hundred dollars. I need a little more of my fortune read.”

  “Isn’t a pay raise enough?” Chase asked, frowning at him, but he was just playing with him. “Tell him what he wants to hear, Ava. He’s going to be in a world of danger before he knows it.”

  Chet laughed. With the kind of work he did, that was a given.

  “Tell him he’s going to lose the canoe race to me if he doesn’t paddle hard enough,” Chase added.

  Chet doubted she would see anything like that. It wasn't a situation that would be dire enough, as far as he thought.

  “I can tell you right now, neither of you will win,” Ava said, looking perfectly serious.

  “Oh, so who does?” Chase looked surprised that she would know that, despite knowing she had real psychic visions.

  “Me.”

  Chase laughed. Chet smiled, but he again wondered if she knew it for real or she was she just playing with them.

  “You are going to be in the worst sort of danger,” Ava said, looking really serious, frowning. Then she smiled brightly.

  “Seriously?”

  “Of course, with your line of work it’s inevitable. Next.”

  Smiling, Chet moved out of the way and folded his arms, watching while Chase got his reading. Ava took his hand and said, “Oh, you are going to be in the worst kind of danger.”

  Chase smiled and shook his head. “I know. It goes with my line of work as a deputy sheriff.” Chase left to let the next person in line get their fortune read, Mandy Jones, their nurse at the clinic. He was about to say something to Chet but stopped to hear what Ava had to say to Mandy. She was one of the newest members of the cougar family, having been accidentally turned by her former boyfriend Ricky, also a deputy sheriff, who had also been newly turned earlier—not born as cougar shifters like the rest of them.

  “You are expecting twins in the fall,” Ava said, smiling.

  “Ohmigod, really? For real? No joke?”

  “Yeah, for real.”

  “Ohmigod. I’ve got to get back to the clinic. I just had a break to have my fortune read. I guess I’m going to have to have a blood test then.” Mandy reached into the booth and gave Ava a hug. Then she pulled out her phone and hurried off. “Ricky, we are having twins. No, I didn’t know. Ava told my fortune. Yes, for real. No, she wasn’t making stuff up. Aren’t you glad? Yes, yes, I’m getting a blood test to confirm it. Aren’t you glad?”

  Chet chuckled. “Ricky is going to be experiencing fatherhood sooner than he planned, it appears.”

  Chase agreed. “So how are things going for you?”

  “Oh, busy as usual.”

  Vanessa Rugel, the veterinarian in Yuma Town, smiled at Ava. “So what do you see for me?”

  “You…” Ava frowned. “Have you ever heard of white cougars?”

  “They’re rare. I’ve never seen one for real. I’ve just seen them in books.”

  “So you save one’s life.”

  Vanessa stared her. “Truly?”

  “Yeah, really.”

  “Wow, thanks, Ava. A white cougar.” Vanessa thanked her again and then moved out of the way for the next person in line.

  Carl Nelson, the reporter who had been a pest in Yuma Town earlier as he tried to figure out what was going on with the cougars and was bitten and now was one of them and writing for the local newspaper, was up next to have his fortune read.

  “You will be chased by a hunter all over the surrounding area as a trophy,” Ava warned.

  Carl frowned. “Seriously? Do I evade him?”

  “Trees are covered in yellow leaves at the time he’s after you. Then when it’s snowing, I see you photographing snowmen sculptures for the newspaper. So I think you’re good.”

  Carl sighed with relief. Now he would know how it felt to be one of them when a hunter was on their tail, just like when he was always trying to learn what was going on with them.

  “How are things going with you with the cabins and deputy sheriff business?” Chet asked Chase as Ava continued giving readings.

  “Busy too. It seems I’m always doing renovations on the cabins, updating them, doing some more woodwork and then we’ve got to deal with deputy sheriffing issues.”

  Chet saw Chase’s mate, Shannon, waving at him and then pointing to their girls.

  Chase waved back and smiled. “Looks like I’ve got kid duty. We’ll talk later. I’m so glad you finished that assignment and were able to make it here to celebrate with us.”

  “Me too.”

  The next person in line didn’t smell like a cougar, but rather like a bear.

  Ava confirmed that he didn’t bel
ong here. “You don’t have an invitation to be here. This is a by-invitation-only event. I'm afraid that you have to leave.”

  “My money is as good as anyone else’s,” the man gruffly said.

  “That’s not the point. This property is privately-owned, and the owner is hosting the private party by-invitation-only,” Ava said.

  “You smell like you handle bears,” Chet said, getting involved when the guy didn’t seem to be planning to take Ava’s advice.

  The man stood six-four, had curly black hair, a black beard, and dark brown eyes that focused now on Chet. “You smell like you handle cougars.”

  Chet smiled. “Fair enough. Why don’t you come with me and we can have a private talk?”

  “I heard the fortune teller is really psychic. I need to know where my sister is.”

  Ava was already texting someone, Chet figured Chase or one of the other deputies or the sheriff.

  But he was surprised to see Bridget show up. Like Chet, she was CSF, not with the sheriff’s department. Bridget nodded to Ava and she said, “Okay, I’ll give you a reading. But that’s it. Then you need to leave.”

  Chet saw Chase and Dan Steinacker, the sheriff, headed their way. Ava must have sent a text to all of them.

  The man reached his hand out to Ava, and she held his hand and closed her eyes. “I see a woman breaking into a cabin and then a big brown bear trying to break in after her.”

  “Where? What does the woman look like? The bear?”

  “She has long, chestnut hair, and she’s wearing hiking boots, jeans, and a T-shirt, a light jacket tied around her waist. Her skin was perspiring.”

  “That’s Ursula. Where is the cabin?”

  “I don’t know. It’s in the woods. Predictions can be unreliable. It may happen now, tomorrow, a month from now.”