The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance (3 page)

Chapter 4

Willis ran as his bear through the frost covered fields on the farm.  The dried leaves crackled under his big brown paws.  The cold air felt incredible.  It always felt so good to just run loose once the air started to turn cold, and he didn’t feel overheated overwhelmed under his shaggy brown coat.

He stopped as he crested the hill that overlooked the main part of the farm.  He stood up on his back legs to take it all in under the full moon light.  
Mine
, he thought.  His ear twitched and he suddenly felt sad.  There were other things not on the farm that were his.  

Charlie
, he thought.  

He shook his head with a huff.  It had only been a few days.  There was no rush.  He would talk to her again.  

But it was hard.  He knew she was out there, his mate, his one person.  He wanted to jump straight into things, to skip all the getting to know you part of things and get right into the 'partners for life' period of a relationship.  

He growled at himself.  It would be best to run more.  Enjoy the cold, clear nights while he could.  He turned tail and bounded off to the edge of the fields, where he could skirt the woods and smell all the wild smells.  It always calmed him.

Hopefully soon, he would be able to share things like this with his mate.  

***

Charlie tucked her hair behind her ears as she looked in the mirror.  She had finished up her time as an elf for the night and changed out of her uniform.  Now she was giving herself the once-over in the mirror and trying to decide if it really was a good idea to return Willis’ hat herself.

She and Lynne were trying the whole roommates things out.  It was a cheap place, finally out of her parents’ house.  The fact that she’d put herself in debt to get a university degree and then had to move home because she couldn’t afford anything else, made her feel as if she had failed. She missed the friends she had made back in Ohio from university.  She missed going out regularly, at least having a club night once a month.  Something that was hard to find in her small home town.

She kept thinking of leaving, going further north or to the Midwest.  She wanted to actually have a job that wasn’t a bank teller and used her degree in some sort of museum setting like she always wanted.  Maybe it was a silly dream, but she kept thinking of it.

So, maybe she should give this hat to Jolie and smile politely at the big, handsome farm man from a distance.  If she wanted to leave North Carolina, she had the feeling that Willis’ honest brown eyes were going to give her second and third thoughts.  

Charlie turned the beat-up Duke cap over and over in her hands as she thought.  She jumped when Jolie reached out to touch her shoulder.

“You alright, dear?”  Jolie asked.  She glanced down at the hat in Charlie’s hands.  “Oh, is that Willis’?  Did you want me to pass that on to him?”

“I was…”  Charlie stopped and made a split second decision.  “I was trying to figure out if I had enough time to return it to him myself.  To say thank you.”

Jolie gave her a strange look, but nodded.  “He’s out in the workshop having a fight with that tractor again.  See if you get him to take a break!  He’s been at it for hours.”  With that, she tugged her farm boots on over her jeans.  “I’ve got to go check on my nephew and those reindeer.”

Charlie made her way out of the changing hut and eyed the light on in the workshop barn.  She could hear the faint sounds of country music as she got closer to the open door.  When she stuck her head in, she saw Willis stretched out underneath the tractor riding bench while he fiddled with the steering wheel.  He was singing along to the radio.  He couldn’t sing and was totally out of tune.  It was adorable, she decided.

He paused, then looked right at Charlie.  His face lit up with a smile.  “Hey!”  

Charlie had no choice but to shuffle forward to offer his hat.  “Here’s your hat back.”  She held onto it brim first, and Willis took it from her with a grin.  She tried not to stare at his muscled forearms, bare from his rolled-up flannel sleeves.  “Sorry that took so long to give back.  I started to give it to your mom, but I wanted to, ah.  Say thank you.”

He grinned at her.  “I’m glad you didn’t.  Would have defeated half the point of letting you borrow it. So I could have an excuse to talk to you more.”

Charlie couldn’t help but laugh.  It burst out of her with a loud snort and she smacked a hand over her mouth.  That made her laugh harder.  “Jesus!”

Willis just continued to grin.  “Worked, didn’t it?”

“Well.”  She sat down at the work bench.  “You’ll be glad to know that’s the other half of the reason I didn’t give it to your mom.”

“We’re slick,” he told her.  “Wanna be my beautiful assistant and hand me tools while I get this steering box fixed up?”

Charlie bit her lip; she knew she was blushing.  “I can do that.”

Willis smiled at her, all big and bold, just like the rest of him.  He shook himself and scratched behind his ear.  He was nervous, and it was so cute coming from such a big guy.  “Can you pass me that socket wrench with the e6 socket?”

Charlie dug around in his toolbox and climbed onto the foot of the tractor to offer them up.  Their fingers brushed as she passed it off.  She felt like a schoolgirl, wanting to giggle and blush at the hot guy for looking at her.

“General upkeep?” she asked, instead of giggling madly.

“More like Elvis repair work.”  He glanced at her and laughed at her expression.  “My youngest cousin, he’s named Elvis.  He’s sixteen and gets into everything.”  He twisted the steering wheel about on the tractor and went to work with the socket wrench.  “He decided he was taking a few of the girls from his high school out for a joy ride on the tractor.  They, of course, fell off once he sank it into a fresh dug trench for next planting season.  Steering column got wrenched out of whack.  Luckily, he didn’t break his neck, anyone else’s neck, or anything too complex for me to fix up.”  He passed back the socket wrench.  “Regular wrench, please.”

Charlie laughed as she found the next tool.  “Bless his heart.”

“Stupid shit, more like,” Willis grumbled.  “Mom has him working here to pay back for all the trouble he caused.  He’s on nothing but reindeer mucking duty.”

“Gross.”  

“There we go.”  Willis turned the steering wheel on the tractor.  Charlie watched the front steering wheels turn smoothly with each twister.  “Only had to waste two hours fixing it.”

“But you fixed it,” Charlie reminded him.  “And no one got hurt.  That’s the important thing, right?”

Willis looked down at her from the bright yellow tractor seat.  He grinned at her, and Charlie felt gooey inside.  

“Yeah, you’re right.”  He patted the seat next to him.  “Why don’t you come up here, see my handy work?”

Charlie laughed at their flirting, but climbed up the big tire.  Willis helped pull her the rest of the way up.  With one arm.  It was sexy, she decided.  She was allowed to think a big man lifting her with one arm was sexy even if he was her boss’ boss.  She settled in on the wide tractor bench next to Willis.  They had to squish close together, which she was sure was the whole point of the venture, and Charlie was perfectly fine with that.  Willis even smelled like cologne, an earthy one that suited him.  She wondered if he wore it in hopes she would stop by.

They were only looking at each other.  Charlie took in his clean flannel shirt and tight work jeans as he rested his wrist on the tractor steering wheel.  She watched him take her in, the nice turtleneck sweater and practical but cute boots – chunky wide heels instead of the stilettos she preferred -- and her careful make up.  Boys always liked her barely-there pink lipstick.

“What do you think?” he asked her quietly.  

She didn’t think he was talking about the tractor, but she played along.  “Hm.”  She scooted closer to Willis so she could take the steering wheel in both hands.  He laughed and let one arm drop his knee while he very casually lifted the other to drape across the back of the tractor bench and around her back.  That made Charlie smile even more as she pretended to steer the big tractor.  “I think it's pretty smooth.  Turning, I mean,” she added with a tease.

“I thought so too.”  He stroked his fingers along her side.  It was a like a static shock went up her spine, but it was a good shock, all warm and pleasant.  “Go out with me.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.  “I’d like that.”

A giant smile burst across Willis’ face.  He squeezed her side and pulled her a bit closer to him.  

“I’ve got to work here and at my main job,” Charlie added, “most of the week.  But I’m free this weekend.”  She felt silly, as soon as she said it.  She didn’t like to make herself so available to guys:  they always disappointed her when she showed them how interested she might be.  

Willis, however, did not disappoint.  “How about Friday night, after we finish up here with some of the church kids?  A friend’s band is playing over at Dusty’s.  We can pretend we can both shoot pool while telling each other doofy stories about growing up around here.”

“Or I can hustle you at pool.  Which ever works out.”

Willis barked out a laugh, and that made Charlie laugh herself.  “I’d be okay with that,” he whispered.  He was leaning in toward her, glancing down at her lips and back at her eyes.  

“Willis, are you still in here?  Can you-- oh!”  

Charlie closed her eyes and tried to will herself to fall through the earth instead of being caught by a guy’s mom as they were about to kiss.  Willis let out a huff, the hot arm hitting her face and her mouth.  She opened her eyes to see Willis’ sparkling at her.  “Sorry,” he mouthed at her.

“Yeah, mom?” he called down as he leaned around Charlie’s back.  

Charlie tried to school her expression into a neutral sort of friendly instead of flustered.  “Hi, Jolie!”  she called with a wave as she turned about.

Jolie looked both suspicious and embarrassed as she eyed the two of them pressed together on the tractor bench.  “I’m sorry!”  She honestly sounded sorry.  “I didn’t know you were still here, Charlie.”

“I was just heading out.” Charlie turned back about and started to climb down.  “Willis was just showing me how he was fixing up the tractor.”

“Oh, you don’t have to leave!”  she heard Jolie shout.

“Hey, I got you.”  Willis jumped down the other side of the tractor and reached up.  He put his hands on Charlie’s waist and lifted her down the rest of the way.  “There we go.”  He grinned at her as he pulled her against his side.  Charlie flushed and glanced at his mother.  Willis glanced at his mother as well, then let her go.

“Please don’t rush out,” Jolie went on.  She eyed Willis but flashed Charlie a smile.  “I was only going to ask Willis if he had seen his cousin.”

“Elvis?” he asked.  “He’s probably asleep in the hay loft again.”

Jolie scrunched up her nose.  She marched over to the rack of farm tools and pulled down the pitchfork.  “We’ll just see about that,” she muttered as she made her way out of the workshop and back toward the barn with the reindeer.

“Should...should we be concerned?”  Charlie asked.

“Nah.  She hasn’t managed to kill him yet, and Elvis has only gotten smarter as he’s gotten older.  He’ll be fine.”  Willis glanced down at Charlie again.

Was he going to go for their interrupted kiss?  Or was this an awkward silence?

“Can I see your phone?” she asked quickly.  

He blinked at her, then dutifully dug his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to her.  

“You don’t have a security code on it?” she teased as she unlocked it and flipped to his contacts.

“I’d forget it,” he admitted.  He was close, leaning in right behind her and breathing on her ear.  “What are you doing?”