Page 4 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

That's not what 'if you've got an itch, I'll scratch it' means in human terms,Ashley whispered.

Her bear stared at her.

Ashley lowered her head into her hands a moment before bracing herself to go into the bar. The bear's silent confusion was more than she could imagine trying to clear up right then.Just trust me, okay? I'll explain later. There's work to do right now.She pushed the staff door open, going back into the loud, crowded bar where she could be distracted by people, work, and music instead of thinking about either her bear, or Penny Partridge.

Of the two of those things, the bear was easier to ignore. Penny came back into the bar several minutes later, wearingwhat must have been a fairly dry bra by then, and the t-shirt Ashley had given her. She managed to catch Ash's eye, gave a shimmy to show off her shirt, and beamed at her before going back to Gwen and Stacy. Ashley was still distracted by the effects of that shimmy when another of her cousins, Laurie, who looked almost exactly like his brother Jon, stepped into her line of sight. "Did you just dump a beer all over one of the Sixty Pix?"

Ashley sighed. "Yes. On Penny. Accidentally."

"Too bad I didn't get it on video. We'd have gone viral. Could you do it again? Oh! And she's wearing one of the pub's shirts now. That would be perfect."

"I am not deliberately pouring a beer on someone, Laurie!"

"Well, what if I did, then? You can film it. I bet she'd reshare it and we'd definitely go viral."

"Laurie!"

Her cousin sighed and went back to work, muttering, "Fine, but I'm telling you we're missing an opportunity here," over his shoulder at her.

"I can live with that!" Ashley snapped after him. "I have a lot of other things to do anyway!" Things that could conceivably keep Ashley busy for the rest of her life, thus removing the opportunity to ever really talk to Penny.

We can't never talk to our mate.Her bear, usually so calm, sounded actively distressed at the thought.

Ashley exhaled noisily.I know. I'll nerve myself up soon, but she does keep coming over here in the evenings, when I'm crazy busy. Just let me get through the weekend, and Monday, when it's calmer, I'll reallytalkto her, all right?

All right. The bear settled back down, placated, and Ashley promised herself she wouldn't disappoint the animal. Monday, after all, wasn't all that far away.

Penny was gone on Monday.

Bill, Ashley's oldest cousin, mooped into the pub early Monday afternoon and slumped in one of the booths, looking out the window with the most forlorn, pathetic expression Ashley had ever seen on his face. She slid into the booth across from him, worried. "What's wrong?"

"Gwen had to go back to Denver," Bill said despondently. "She and the others got everything worked out with Mike Piccolo's production company over the weekend, and once that was done none of them could put off going back to their day jobs any more."

A cold fist of horror seized Ashley's heart. "Wait, what? Penny's gone too? And Sandy?" she added, trying to cover her tracks. As if it was important to hide the fact that she was crushing on the drummer, never mind that Penny was actually her fated mate. But it was important to keep it quiet, in its way. She wanted to spend time getting to know Penny before dragging her into the whole mess of her massive, bear-shifting family.

"And Gemma and Myles left last week. I'm supposed to go into Denver this weekend to see Gwen, but…" Bill sighed heavily and sank farther into the booth seat. "Two weeks ago I never really thought I'd find my mate, Ash, and now that I've spent ten days with her all I want to do is lie on my face and be sad because she's not here. It's very manly of me."

Despite the frantic hammering of her own heart, Ashley couldn't help a little laugh as she reached out to her cousin, who grabbed her hand for a moment. "I think it's pretty manlyto admit you're sad without her. Even your pompadour is drooping."

Bill released her hand to check his hair, which wasn't really drooping, but the fact he checked made Ashley smile. He was one of four brothers, and he claimed the pompadour was how he distinguished himself from his look-alike brothers. The truth was that Jon and Laurie were both a bit smaller and long-haired, and Steve, the brother who had left a few years ago, had always been less theatrical in appearance than the other three. Ashley was pretty sure Bill just liked having fancy hair. Having reassured himself the pompadour was still in full form, he slumped again. "I knew she was going to have to leave, obviously. It just sucks that she actually had to leave."

"So you guys are going to work this out long-distance?" Ashley asked tentatively.

"Well, that's why you're taking over management of the pub. Part of it, at least. The brewery needs less day to day supervision, so I can travel with her some. But yeah." Bill shook his head. "I guess I always thought finding a mate would mean settling down into a traditional lifestyle. It never occurred to me that it might mean uprooting my whole life, instead."

Ashley swallowed. "Is that what you want?"

Her cousin took a deep breath and let it out slowly, obviously giving her question some real consideration. "Honestly, Ash, it's hard to say right now. I've been so snowed under by managing the pub and the brewery that I don't think I've known whatIwanted for a really long time now. You and Gwen really kind of kicked me in the butt about that and made me realize it, so…" Bill's eyebrows drew down, although he smiled. "So if I didn't say so, thank you."

"Oh. You're welcome. I don't think I meant to do anything helpful like that."

Bill's smile turned to a quick laugh. "You succeeded despite yourself, then. But to answer your question, I don'tnotwant to uproot things. I'm still figuring myself out right now, I think. I want to travel with Gwen, for sure. I could never ask her to stop being a bonafiderock star, so if one of us is going to change our lives, it has to be me."

Ashley laughed, too. "She was a rock musician until last week, Bill. The whole rockstarthing is new, I think. You're both going through a lot of lifestyle changes right now."

"Yeah, okay, you're not wrong, but you know what I mean, right? If we're going to be together, it'll be between her gigs, or with me going to where she is. And no, it's not what I expected, but yeah, it's what I want, because it's what'll make it work forus."

"What if…" Ashley shivered, thinking about Penny's sparkling brown eyes and her quick, loud laugh. "I mean, what if you really didn't want to go on tour with her? What if what you really wanted was just to be right here, doing the thing you loved doing?"

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