Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) (159 page)

An hour later, Jesse’s friends arrived. Tyler was the first one out of the truck and he enfolded Jamie in a bear hug.
 

“Jamie!” he said squeezing her. “You look tired and stressed, but do not fear, your salvation has arrived.” Then he turned to the rest of them his arms wide, “Am I right?”

“You’re an ass,” Jesse said but he hugged his brother. “Thanks for coming, bro.”

“Hey, it’s nothing and you know it,” another man said. He was tall and broad shouldered with dark blonde hair and a joker smile. He extended his hand to Jamie, “The name’s Kyle, ma’am. Pleased to be of service.”
 

“Jamie,’ Jamie said. “Ma’am was my mother.”
 

Kyle nodded gravely. “Good woman from what I hear.”

‘She was,” Jamie said.
 

Then she was introduced to the last two members of the gang. They were Ryan Hunt, tall with dark hair, and Wyatt Wade, who doffed his hat to her.
 

“And just so as you know, Wyatt’s about to get married so no flirting with him,” Jesse said. Jamie slapped his arm again.
 

“Do you have any social filters at all?” she asked.
 

He shook his head. “Not really.”
 

They took Wyatt’s truck out to the cattle with Jamie directing them. She and Jesse were sitting next to each other up front with him, the others in the back. They could hear them laughing and cracking jokes. Jamie noticed that Wyatt had the exact same eye color as Jesse and remarked on it.
 

“Well, he’s my cousin,” Jesse said smiling.
 

“Yup,” Wyatt said. “Guilty. So if this little squirt gives you any trouble, you call me and I’ll sort him out for you.”
 

Jamie laughed at that.
 

“I think I can handle him,” she said.
 

Wyatt eyed her. “Of that I have no doubt,” he said.
 

They spent a long day in the fields. The sun came out breaking the clouds into huge floating islands. This made the day humid and uncomfortably warm. Soon all the men had their shirts off as they worked. Jesse had a plan and everyone took direction from him Jamie included, even though she didn’t really understand what they were doing all the time. Some of it seemed highly suspicious but they assured her that when it came to werewolf proofing, they were the best in the business.
 

“How do you know what to do?” she asked Tyler when he was taking a break. He rubbed his arm across his forehead.

“Well.”

“We’re were-bears,” Kyle said with no preamble at all.

Then when Tyler and Wyatt threw clods of earth at him, he held up his hands saying, “What? She was going to find out anyway.”
 

“How do you figure?” Wyatt asked.

Kyle just smiled. “It’s all over her and if you can’t smell it then…”
 

“What is?” Jamie said, sniffing her arms but the guys just laughed. “No seriously guys, what are you talking about?” And then as it sank in, Jamie stood with her mouth open. Of course. That’s why Jesse was so good with animals, why he had known that the creature who killed the cow was a werewolf. It all made sense now. Jamie searched inside herself to see if this revelation about the guy she had kissed earlier changed how she felt about these people.
 

“What’s going on here?” Jesse asked as he walked over to them.
 

Jamie just about choked on her own saliva. He glistened, each perfectly formed muscle just there. He stood so close to her that her arm hairs stood on end. And then he smiled and Jamie had to go back to the truck urgently to get more water for everyone.
 

Standing at the truck she realized that she didn’t give a rat’s butt that he was a were-bear. She was falling for Jesse in the worst possible way and his species was the furthest thing from her mind.
 

When she came back she was much more in control and she handed out water bottles. Jesse took his and their fingers touched. Jamie broke out in goosebumps.
 

By the end of the day they were all exhausted, but the werewolf proofing was up and Jamie was happy. Jesse held her hand in his as they surveyed the work.
 

“Your cattle should be safe tonight,” he assured her.
 

“Thank you so much,” she said turning to him. “You’ve been such a blessing.” She reached up to kiss him but Jesse pulled back a little.
 

“Listen, before we go any further, I have to tell you something,” he said, his golden eyes serious.
 

She reached up and pulled his face to hers, “You’re a were-bear, I know.” Then she kissed him. He was surprised but he leaned into the kiss after a moment and wrapped his arms around her as she tangled her hands in his hair.

 
They stopped kissing and he rubbed the tip of his nose gently against hers. “How did you find out?”

“Kyle,” she said. “He told me. Said he could smell something on me and that I’d find out sooner or later.”
 

“Remind me to thank him later,” Jesse said and kissed her again.
 

“Oh, holy shit! She’s eating him alive!” Tyler cried. “Seriously guys get a room!”
 

Jamie and Jesse pulled apart and they got into the truck and drove back to the farm house.
 

Jamie invited them all in for dinner. They all accepted and insisted on helping to cook. It was the first time the Campbells had entertained company in a long time. They sat around the kitchen table and laughed, joked and ate. Even Ander let his guard down, guffawing as Tyler spun a raunchy tale.

Jamie noticed though, that Oliver was not joining in like everyone else. He seemed a little sour, watching the were-bears over the rim of his glass. He pretended not to hear Wyatt when the latter asked him to pass the salt. She reached across the table and helped Wyatt.

It was just his way, Jamie decided. Her cousin was a passive aggressive little shit most of the time. And of course anything that made her and her father happy seemed to make him unhappy, so why would this be different? He sulked until the meal was over and then went up to his room.
 

Her father watched him go and shook his head. “He isn’t used to farm life,” he said making an excuse for Oliver. Why couldn’t her father see the little jerk for what he was?
 

The evening ended too soon for Jamie, but she was beat. So when Jesse and the gang had helped clear up and walked out of the door, she accepted a rather chaste goodnight kiss from him and watched them drive away.
 

That night she slept in the guest room downstairs, her room not being a place she wanted to be in yet, after the accident.
 

Next morning Jamie woke to rain pattering on the windows. Dressed, she found her father in the kitchen muttering to himself.
 

“If I’d wanted wet feet I would have moved to Canada,” he moaned.
 

“We need the rain, dad,” she said.
 

“We need the sun too,” he said.
 

Jesse arrived just after breakfast and they set about making plans for the day. The cattle had all made it through the night, but they needed the feed taken up to them. Jamie and Jesse were just pulling their ponchos on to go and take care of that when there was a knock on the front door.
 

Her father went to open it.
 

“Okay, well hopefully we won’t get too wet,” Jamie smiled up at Jesse who planted a quick kiss on the tip of her nose.
 

“You know I
am
an adult,” she said, “You won’t be the first man my father has had to watch me kiss.”
 

Jesse pretended to be shocked, “I’m not the first?”

She looked at him.
 

“No really, I’m just a little old fashioned about that sort of thing,” Jesse said. “I feel I should write a letter stating my intensions or something.”
 

“And those are?” she asked coyly.
 

“Well,” Jesse said pulling her towards him.

Just then Ander came storming into the kitchen.
 

“Jamie!” he yelled.
 

Jesse and Jamie jumped apart like two teens caught making out under the bleachers.
 

Recovering slightly Jamie turned to her father. “Dad?” she asked.
 

He was angry, his face flushed, his nostrils flaring. “What is the meaning of this?”

He shoved a sheaf of paper in front of her face.
 

Jamie took it looking blank. She had no idea what he was handing her. She looked down at the paper in her hands. It was the accounts.
 

“Dad?” she said. “These are the accounts aren’t they?”

“How could you do this?”

“Do what?”

“I knew you blamed me for what happened…but sabotage?”

Jamie felt her knees go weak. She stumbled to the table and sat down. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s just too much!” her father roared. “Joe, please. You deal with her. I’m not sure I can control myself. My own flesh and blood!” he stormed out of the room revealing a small man, grey haired and bespectacled who stood clutching a brief case to his chest.
 

“Hello, Jamie,” he said sitting opposite her.
 

Jamie stared at him. “Joe,” she said tears building in the back of her throat. “What is going on?”

Jesse was next to her taking her hand. “You want me to stay?”

She shook her head. “The cattle need to be fed,” she said, “take my dad’s truck, it’s all loaded.”

She gave Jesse the keys. He looked at her, his concern etched on his face. She tried to smile but couldn’t.
 

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he promised and left.
 

“Right,” Jamie said taking a deep breath and letting it out. Her hands were shaking. “Now tell me what’s going on here.”
 

Joe was a very conscientious man. He laid out the facts in front of Jamie in a methodical manner. He walked her through each transaction, through everything step by step. He showed her where the figures almost added up, but didn’t. It was amazing. Jamie could see that. Someone, had gone to great pains to make mistakes, deliberate mistakes, adding things up incorrectly. They had placed orders for all sorts of supplies, adding in things here and there that then never got delivered. Jamie knew she’d been working hard lately, but she would never have gotten things this wrong. Could it all be just some misunderstanding? But as Joe kept on and on, showing her were things were disappearing and coming up short, where a dollar here and a dollar there were missing, Jamie couldn’t think it was a mistake. There were misfiled items, things in the wrong column and Joe had followed the track all the way. As it dawned on Jamie she went cold.
 

“I didn’t do this,” she said, hardly able to say the words. “You can’t be serious?”

Her father had joined them halfway through Joe’s explanation and he sat silent and sullen across from her.
 

“Dad I would never steal from you! You raised me better than that!” Jamie said hotly. “You have to believe me. I love you and the farm. I want to see it back like it was, when mom and Andrew were alive, and things were great. Dad please you have to believe me. There is no way I could do anything like this.”
 

“All the evidence points to you, dear,” Joe said sadly. “Deposits made to online accounts opened in your name.”
 

Jamie sat sadly, feeling the tears run down her cheeks.
 

“Just be honest,” her father said. “I can handle the theft, but the lying? That I won’t tolerate.”

“I
am
being honest!” Jamie said suddenly angry. “I have always been honest with you, dad!”
 

She stood up. “We’re done here!”
 

The boom shook the windows.

Jamie was shocked. They all looked from one to the other, none knowing what to say or where the deafening sound had come from.
 

Oliver came running into the room. “Uncle Ander!” He stopped short when he saw Jamie, his mouth open. He stammered looking like a fish on land gasping for breath.
 

“What is it Oliver?” Ander asked on his feet too.
 

“I think, umm…” he trailed off.

“Oh no!” Jamie said and ran for the back door, throwing it open. She ran out into the rain. It couldn’t be. Not again, not someone she cared about.
 

The rain was pouring down and Jamie ran around the side of the house. She pelted up the rise towards the field where the cattle were standing in the downpour. She ran and ran, the mud sticking to her boots. She slipped and slid along, drenched and dirty, but she had to get to him. She had to make sure that Jesse was okay. She got up to the field but she couldn’t see him. Her father’s truck wasn’t there. She checked the feed trough. It was full, the cattle happily munching.