Page 23 of More Than Meets the Eye

“Oh, hi, Grandpa Jed. I thought you were leaving for Orlando this morning.”

One eye opened, and he made a chuffing noise. Then he rolled over—no easy feat for a quarter-ton tiger on my couch—and went back to sleep.

Okay. I’d ask the other shapeshifter in the house.

“Hey, Jack. What’s going on?”

Jack opened his gorgeous amber-gold eyes, yawned, and stretched. Then the almost-invisible sparkles of his magic surrounded him, and the tiger turned into the man, who was fully dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt.

Jack’s magic was rare in that he was one of the few shifters who pulled clothes into the shift with him. Most had to undress first or face awkwardly struggling out of their human clothes while in their animal form, and then, when they shifted back, they were naked. This could cause uncomfortable situations, as I’d discovered when an eagle shifter came to town.

Jack without clothes was even more spectacular than Jack with clothes, so maybe … I felt my cheeks heat and hid my face behind my mug.

Jack noticed, though. He always noticed. His grin was as sexy as the rest of him, which was so unfair, considering I woke up looking like I’d been racing through sticker bushes, head first.

“Good morning, beautiful,” I said. “Why is Grandpa Jed in the living room? Oh, no! Did he and Millie break up?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What? How did you get that? No. He came over to patrol with me. I felt better having the two of us here after what happened. And ‘good morning, beautiful’ is my line.”

Then he took my mug out of my hands, set it down on the dresser, and kissed the stuffing out of me until I pushed him away, laughing.

“Back, fiend! I have to get ready for church.”

“Bet if Jed weren’t here, I could convince you to be late,” he said smugly.

I bet he could, too, but I wasn’t going to tell him that, so I just shook my head. “Coffee’s made. Do you want to start breakfast and feed Lou? And are you still going with me?”

Jack had recently started attending church with me. He still wasn’t sure about his relationship with God, after things he saw in the war, but he loved me, and church was part of my life, so he came with me most of the time. Sometimes on Sunday, though, one of the swamp commandos—my name for his ex-Special Forces buddies who lived out by the swamp and owned and ran Swamp Commandos Airboat Rides—had a rough day, because of the PTSD many of them suffered. Jack was always available to lend an ear on days like that. He’d take coffee and donuts and spend the day on the water, talking things out or sharing the silence.

Jack never told me much about those days, but I respected their privacy. Some things you had to experience to fully understand. I contributed whatever pies or other baked goods I had on hand, which he said were always appreciated.

Breakfast with two shapeshifters mainly consisted of trying to snatch a piece of bacon from the literal jaws of defeat.

“Hey!” I smacked Jed’s hand. “I only had one piece, and you had half a pound. Back off, Grandpa, and nobody gets hurt.”

He laughed at me, but let me have the last piece. “Never let it be said I caused my … dear Tess to starve.”

I looked a question at him over the weird pause before “dear,” but he didn’t meet my gaze, just went on shoveling eggs, ham, and toast into his mouth.

“What’s sad is how the two of you can eat like that and stay in such good shape.” I sighed. My nice sky-blue church dress felt snug around the waist. I needed to lay off the donuts, or I’d have to go shopping for new clothes.

And I hated shopping.

Jack patted his flat stomach. “Gotta love that shapeshifter metabolism.”

“Yes, except for the grocery bills,” Jed said. “We spent eight hundred dollars last week and only bought forty pounds of steak!”

“Only? Was there anything else in your cart?”

He waved a hand. “Vegetables, fruit, stuff like that. Laundry soap. Who knows? Millie gave me a list. I bought what was on the list.”

“Huh. And, besides the steak, was there other meat?”

“Maybe a little.”

“Define little.”

“A dozen chickens, maybe? A few pounds of ham. Pork roasts. Hamburger. Sausage was on sale, so?—”

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