Page 58 of A Dead End Christmas
"Fraternizing?"
"Kissing. Making out. Playing the—"
"Stop! I get it. We, ah, we may have shared a respectful kiss. Or two."
I handed him a sandwich. "How old is she?"
"Forty-three," he mumbled before stuffing the sandwich in his mouth.
I laughed. "Hanging out with younger women now, are you?"
He swallowed the mouthful of sandwich. "When you're three hundred and sixty years old, give or take, every woman is a younger woman."
I couldn't argue with that, so I opened another bottle of whiskey and we toasted younger women.
And redheads.
And brunettes.
And that tigers are freakingawesome.
And then we went for a run.
* * *
Ihad to give Tess all the credit in the world. When two tigers showed up on her porch at three in the morning, she barely batted an eye.
At least until we shifted to human and started singing sea shanties.
On the third "Way, hey, blow the man down," Tess pointed to the door.
"You can stop singing now, or you can go sleep on the porch."
Jed protested. "Now, Tess—"
She narrowed those beautiful blue eyes. "Don't you 'now, Tess,' me, Grandpa Jed. Shut it or get out. It's the middle of the night andsomeof us need to get to work in the morning."
I started down the hall after her, but she turned and wagged a finger at me. Or maybe two fingers. Things were a little fuzzy by that point.
"Not a chance, buster. You can go sleep with the other drunkard in the living room or out in the backyard for all I care. And if anybody sings again, I'm going to toss your furry butts in the pool." Then she looked over my shoulder at Jed, who'd shifted back to tiger and was staring fixedly at Lou, who was crouched on the back of the couch.
"And don't eat my cat!"
Lou took that opportunity to leap off the couch, use Jed's back as a springboard, and race down the hall into Tess's room.
I tried to say something, but what came out instead was a tremendous belch.
Tess did a very respectable imitation of a tiger's growl. "That's it. Good night. You're lucky I love you."
When I shifted back to tiger and claimed the couch, leaving Jed the floor, I was still grinning, because she was right.
Iwaslucky she loved me.
It was my last thought until morning, when I woke up to somebody pounding on my head with a giant boulder.
22
Tess
