Blake: The Whitfield Rancher – Tiger Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Know that I love you, Shadow, and the man you married. I cannot remember his name, but I do like him. The little boys too. I don’t remember you giving birth to them, and that saddens me too.

  “Do not grieve for me. Celebrate the good times that we had together. The friendship that we had despite being mother and daughter. Tell my mother that she is in my heart as well and that I’m sorry for leaving her too. I love you with all my heart, and then some. Love you, bunches, your loving mother, Mom.”

  Carter held her while she cried. She also had a good sob over the words that were written there. Putting the letter back into the envelope, she pulled Shadow from the chair and laughed a little.

  “You’re lucky that I was the one that got chosen to come talk to you. Dylan wanted to slap you around a couple of times. You don’t even want to know what Sunny was going to do.” Shadow laughed with her, then hugged her tightly. “I love you too, my friend. You and I, we’re going to be great friends from now on. We’ll let the others think they will be. But us, we’re going to rock the world one of these days, and make the rest of them jealous.”

  “You are a fruit cake. But I do love you, Carter. All of you, you’re like the sisters that I never had. Dylan might pass for both sister and brother, but that’s fine with me as well.” Dylan said she heard that and was fine with that distinction. “You would be. Thank you all. So very much. I just have had so much going on that I forgot to lean on people that were more than willing to hold me up when I needed it.”

  Carter gave Blake a thumbs up and was happy that he looked relieved too. Things were going to be all right now. While not perfect, they were going to be all right.

  Chapter 10

  Ollie watched from his usual space in town. People knew just where to find him if he was needed. Also, if they wanted to just sit for a spell and shoot some arrows. Well, not any arrows, but it was sort of his time and place to find out what was what in town, as well as get a little fun out of the afternoon.

  It had been nearly seventy years since he’d come back to this little burg to be with his son and lovely Eve. A long and very prosperous seventy years. He didn’t like thinking about how old that made him, but on his last birthday, last month, as a matter of fact, he’d turned a ripe old age of one hundred and sixty-two.

  Rose, his great granddaughter, came and sat down next to him. She was the only one in this whole wide world that he talked to. Not only had a conversation with, but she knew more about him and him about her than any of the others in his family. She was also the only one that knew that he’d had enough.

  “They don’t tell you when you have immortality that you still hurt if you’re given it too late in your life.” She put her hand into his, and he held it. His heart, like the rest of his old worn out body, was aching today. “What is your plan for the day, my dear child? You got them grandkids coming over for lunch again?”

  “No. They’re going to the pack house for a celebration. I guess there were identical twin cubs born yesterday. A rarity in shifters, I’m told.” Ollie nodded. “I’ve spoken to Tanner. As you can well imagine, he’s not happy with what you want to do, Grandda. I told him that if he’d have asked first, it might have been different, but since he didn’t, then— Well, he’d do what you want or I’d take care of him. You know what he did? He laughed at me. Right up until I pulled out the picture of his mate.”

  “You didn’t.” She said that she had. “Honey, I don’t want him to do this because of some kind of blackmail. I’m just a decrepit old man that is tired of living and wants to rest with my wife.”

  “And Grandda, that’s what I want for you. More than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I want you here. It was an honor for me to have you walk me down the aisle when I married Peter. I loved that you were there for my first child and her child when he was born. But I see you every day, and I see that you hurt that you’re tired. While you are rarely alone, you’re forever lonely.” Looking away so she’d not see how true her words were, he thought about the decision he’d come to last evening. “Whatever you’re thinking, I’m game if you are. One more bout of trouble we can get into? A day of picking berries, eating more than we put in our pails? Whatever you want. I’m here for you.”

  “Bea, she went off and found her a vampire that took away her mortality. I never did find out who did that or how they did it to her. I miss her more and more daily. She was with me more than the rest of you and knew me better than even you do. I want, for my last bout of trouble, to have you come with me when I pass over.” Ollie could tell that she didn’t want to do it, not to be with her grandda when he passed over. “I know that it’ll be hard on you, love. I know that all the way to my toes. But I need to hold onto your hand until I got no more life in me. I knew who you’d be to me long before you were born. And even though you weren’t the first child of Blake and Shadow, you sure were the most wonderful gift to me. I know you named your own daughter for my Rose. And I feel such a bond with that little grandboy of mine that is your grandson. While I know that I’m their great-great something, I don’t care about that. When they call me Grandda in that little voice, it does so much to me that I feel like I can go on. But I’m so tired, honey. I just don’t think I got it in me to even go on for another day. Please, I know that it’s a great deal to ask of you. But you are my partner in crime.”

  She looked around. The businesses were getting ready for the Fourth. There were red, white, and blue things all up and down the street. Even posies were planted that were of the same colors. Flags were blowing in the morning breeze. There were children running up and down the streets with their decorated bikes for the bike parade later today. When Rose turned back to him, he knew she was about to turn him down.

  “I’ll stay with you, Grandda.” Squeezing her hand, he nodded thanks to her. “You only need to— You’ll miss so much. I heard that Uncle Adrian is coming home today. And that Aunt Mason is going to be bringing a few guests with her. How many times has he been president now?”

  “This will be his sixth term, but not all of them in a row. I can’t thank you enough….” When she put up her hand to stop him, Ollie finished thanking her by kissing her on the back of her hand. “Ivy, she’s been touring with that book she wrote on how to keep your children safe at home. She sure has made us all proud. That Adam, he hangs on every word like he’s not heard it about three hundred times.”

  They watched Evan wave at the patient that was leaving his office. “Uncle Evan must have had an emergency. Aunt Dylan, she said that he’d be working at the clinic every day if she’d not put her foot down. I think he enjoys being a doctor so much he doesn’t care that sometimes he can take a day off.” They both laughed as they spotted Dylan walking toward her husband. “She looks ready to blast his head, doesn’t she? But you watch. Uncle Evan, he’ll distract her enough. He’s been good at that with her since I can remember.”

  Sure enough, Evan picked up his lovely wife and swung her around. When she laughed, long and loud, he put her down on her feet and kissed her. It had always been that way between the two of them. They didn’t do anything by half measures.

  “Oh, lookee there. That Sunny has a delivery today. I wonder what kind a stories will be with that stuff. They must really want something sold if they’re doing it here today. I’m betting it’s got it a haunter, don’t you?” He and Sunny would have so much fun making up stories about a new piece of furniture she bought. The antique store she had was visited by people from all over this here world. They all wanted to know if she had anything special, like something that had an outrageous story that went with it. “You know, I asked her one time if she was a making up them stories, and she told me that she’d never do that to a customer. But only to Mrs. Bishop. She needs the stories for her pieces.”

  “Yes, I heard her telling Dad that Mrs. Bishop expects her things to have some outlandish story. Even if it’s only a rug beater that she found out in
the shed, she’d tell her that the rug it beat had the most romantic things done on it.” Rose sighed heavily. “The poor old thing. It was a sad day for a great many people when she passed away. And when they cleaned out her house, it was said that she had boxes and boxes of things that she’d picked up to have Sunny read for her. It was lovely of her to leave all that stuff to Sunny to sell off, don’t you think?”

  “It was right nice of her.” Adam went into the shop then to help her move the things around. He could read the merchandise, too, but he didn’t do it much. Adam had told him that it freaked him out a tad to see what was done on and to some of the pieces. “There yonder, is that Carter and your momma? Up to no good if I know them two. I ain’t never seen two women have so much fun together. I think it’s on account of them not being related, but they’re closer than the two nickels I have in my britches, I tell you.”

  “They are close. Mom told me once it was because Carter hadn’t hit her. I never understood that story, but I’m sure that it has some great meaning.” Ollie thought of Jaclyn then and how she’d jumped in the creek. So far as he knew, Shadow had never been back there. Not even as a cat that Blake finally got around to changing her into. “It looks like they’re headed to Cobb’s Mercantile. Someone told me once that he was the president before Uncle Adrian. I can’t believe that. The man just doesn’t look like he has a care in the world. How on earth did he run the entire country with that sort of laid back sort of way about him? But he’s rich, I guess, and only runs that store to visit with people. I think that’s why Aunt Dylan goes by so much.”

  Henry hadn’t just run the country, but he’d done a darn fine job of it too. When he’d retired, Adrian stepped right into his place, and it was as smooth as peach butter on a cold Sunday morning’s pancakes. Things got done too—none of this putting off. If either of them said they were gonna put in a new highway, then you could bet your last dime that it’d be in on time and under budget most of the time.

  “Grandda, will you tell me a story about Grandma again? Any of them will do.” She could not have asked him for a harder thing on this day. It was hard for him all the time, but knowing that he’d be with her soon, he just wanted to go be there now. “Tell me about the booties.”

  “When your daddy and momma told me that they were going to name their first girl after my Rose, all I could think about at the time was her knitting booties for all the kids. She’d be busier than a mouse in a cheese factory too if how many kids I got around me is any indication. Well, I went to looking for anything that she might have made for your dad and uncles.” He smiled when he remembered that day. “Your grandma, she was good at putting things by. I don’t rightly know why she called it that, putting things up to use up later or for something else. But she would get these big old plastic things and put labels on them with what was in them. Anyways, I’d been looking in my totes that I had of hers for about near a week when I was ready to give up. There must have been fifty of them suckers.”

  “You forgot the part about how there were different colors for different things. Grandda, tell the story right.” She laughed when he did. Then he told her to tell him the story if she knew so much. “All right, I will. There were different colors for different things. Pink was, of course, for girl clothing that she’d knitted. Blue for the boy things. The red ones were for blankets that she’d pieced together out of old clothing of yours and hers, or anything that Grandma Eve would send over that the boys had worn out. There were orange totes for the decorations for Halloween and green ones for the Christmas things. Grandma must have loved Christmas the most because there were more green totes for that holiday.”

  “It included her Christmas dishes and glasses, too. Oh, and those beautiful napkins that she made for each place setting.” Ollie even remembered her hand stitching each of them in the evening while he watched Jeopardy, getting nearly every answer wrong. Rose would say the answer after him and have it durn near right all the time. He loved her for that. “I think we’d be a little short if anyone were to bring them out again.”

  “I have them. Grandda Oliver gave them to me my first Christmas as a married woman. We don’t use them except for Christmas breakfast just for him and I. I love them very much, Grandda.” She would take care of them too, and then, perhaps, pass them down to the next Rose in her family. “Finish up, please?”

  “There was only a single purple one in the bunch. The thing was bigger than the rest of the plastic things. And with it being bigger, it sat all by itself in the corner of the room. It didn’t have a label on it, and that surprised me. I didn’t want to open it, didn’t need to find them booties that much. For in my broken heart at not being able to find them, I knew there was gonna be something in that tote that was going to bring me to tears.” He thought about sitting in his son’s basement bawling like a baby when he’d finally opened the box. “It was for me, you see. I’d forgotten that we had purple in our wedding. Everything you saw that day had a bit of purple in it here or there. In the box was her wedding dress. Just as pretty as it was the day that she’d become my bride.”

  Rose had been the most beautiful person in the world to him then. And nothing had changed in all the years since. She’d been his rock and foundation. The person that he could turn to when he needed someone to hold, and even when he needed to vent his anger. Rose never got angry with him. Never was cross at him unless he’d done something that he knew he shouldn’t have. Which, he was proud to say, wasn’t that often.

  “There in the bottom of the tote was a single purple flower, dried up, of course, but it had the seeds still in it. I had Oliver take them seeds and plant them out by her grave. There was just enough left over to plant me a bush of them by the back stone where I sat and had my tea.” He looked at his second Rose. “Them flowers grew up and had seedlings of their own. Then those had their own seeds. It was just as if she was telling me that there was more coming. More family with them seeds. Do you still have a garden of them, child?”

  “I do. And every year, when I have to trim them back, I save some of the seedlings to pass along to the next family building a home. I always feel as if the home is blessed somehow by Grandma Rose. That with her seedlings there, the house cannot have anything but love and affection in it. And you taught me that, Grandda. You taught me that there has to be affection with the love. One cannot exist without the other.” He asked her if she remembered everything he’d ever said to her. “I do. I’ve even written them down when I remember some that you don’t use much anymore. The conversation that you used it in is there as well. I never want to forget anything about you.”

  Joshua came by then and told them that they were lowering the value of the buildings they sat in front of, and to move along. Then he sat on the other side of him and hugged him with an arm around his shoulder.

  “We know.” Ollie looked over at Rose, and she shook her head. “It wasn’t her, Grandda, it was Tanner. He said if you’re going to leave us, it’s only fair that we know. He loves you as much as the rest of us do. But before you go—and I’m not going to stop you—before you go, you’re going to have dinner with your family. Mom, Dad, and the six of us boys, one more time.”

  ~*~

  Oliver was nearly one hundred and one years old—his own mom had been gone longer than she’d lived. But the thought of losing his dad sent him into a fit of tears that seemed to have an unstoppable flow. He looked at Eve when she said his name.

  “You get that out of your system right now, Oliver Whitfield, or so help me, I’m going to bash this pan right over your fool noodle.” She burst into tears as she held him close to her. “Why is he doing this to us? Didn’t he like living here with all these grandbabies? You do this to me, you old fuddy-duddy, and I will never speak to you again.”

  He could have told her that he’d be dead, so there’d be no talking anyways, but he chose to be quiet on that. She was upset enough. Holding her, the timer went off, and she
released him to see to her cooking. Oliver had been smelling things cooking all afternoon, and he was about ready to start taste testing things.

  “I don’t know how anyone is going to want to eat with this going on. Even the ice cream maker is annoying me to no end with its infernal squeaking.” Oliver kissed his wife on the cheek as he went to the mudroom to check on the ice cream. “And you know as well as I do that that man is going to be haunting me from the grave. He’s nothing but a pain in my bottom, and I want him to know about it.”

  Oliver thought perhaps that his wife was only going on to cheer him up. She loved that old man as much as he did. And he knew that Dad loved her too. Perhaps more than he did him at times. Sniffing a little, he saw him in the yard talking to Joey.

  Over the years, Dad and Joey had gotten very close. He knew the reason for it. Dad had bailed Joey out of a terrible situation a long time ago, then sat him down and had a long talk with him. Oliver did know why Joey had been in trouble and what it had taken for his dad to get him out of it. That night was the first time in longer than he could remember, not since his mom died, had he’d heard his dad cry.

  Joey had been about twenty then, old enough to know better than to be caught out with a bad crowd. When the kids he was with had decided to rob a liquor store, using guns and knives, Joey had declined. Walking home from the place they’d been, the kids took exception to him bailing on them when they needed a fifth man—a driver, as it turned out.

  Refusing to drive the car, Joey had been beaten badly, then thrown in the back seat of the getaway car. As they drove to the liquor store, he’d reached out to his grandda and told him what was going down. Before anyone could have reacted to the news, nearly all the people were dead, one of them a police officer. The others were part of the gang.