She was already thinking of bedtime and joining him in bed again. He was totally addictive.

  Once they were done, she said, “Okay, I’m off to write and you guys do whatever you need to in solving the mystery.”

  Leyton saluted her and he and Chet and Jack returned to their cabin. Emerson went with Jessie to the house. “What are you going to do while I’m working?” she asked.

  “I’m going out to the cabins and check them over to make a list of what repairs and updates I might need to do.”

  “Okay, if you need my help, let me know.”

  He smiled. “You have work to do. You need to write. I don’t want anyone to accuse me of not letting you have the time to get your work done.”

  She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You are so good for me. I might just stick around. You know, go home for Christmas and then return. It just depends on how we both feel after Christmas. What if you feel like you can’t handle all the family members being there? What if you and my dad don’t get along? Or my sister thinks you might not be as good as you appear to be?”

  He kissed her. “I’m going to fit in just fine and if you have a mind to do it, you’re coming back with me. You can help keep me from getting lonely, but I’ll be sure that you have plenty of time to work on your stories without interruption and we can do a lot of fun stuff too when you need a break.”

  “Hmm, that sounds inviting.” She hadn’t moved out of her parents’ home because there wasn’t any reason to do so before now, not with all the traveling she’d been doing for photo books, but she was thinking this would be perfect. And if things didn’t work out between them, no problem. She would just return home and continue on as before. Though she might get an apartment so she could write in peace. Particularly if she was starting to write romance novels and sell them and needed to keep up with deadlines. Though staying in her own place wouldn’t be half as much fun as staying with Emerson.

  “You staying with me would be a Christmas present I would never forget,” he said.

  Then Jessie’s phone rang and she checked the caller ID. It was Flo. “Hi. Did you learn anything about Robbie Randall?”

  “Yep, I’ve got a phone number for you.”

  “Oh, fantastic.” Jessie knew someone would come through for them.

  “Is there anything else you need?” Flo gave her the phone number.

  “Pumpkin and pecan pies for the family for Christmas.”

  “I’ll make them for you. Good luck with finding Emerson’s uncle.”

  “Thanks!”

  When they ended the call, Jessie smiled at Emerson. “We got Robbie’s phone number, courtesy of Flo. Do you want me to call or do you want to?”

  Chapter 15

  Robbie Randall fixed Paul Merriweather a glass of apple cider at her home of Naples. “You should tell your nephew you’re here, safe and sound and that he hasn’t lost you for good.” She hadn’t even decorated at all for Christmas and said it was a waste of time.

  Paul loved to decorate. It made him feel the joy of Christmas. “No. I have to wait until I know if he and Jessie are mated. Otherwise, my nephew could just up and leave, returning to his dangerous missions, angry with me for this whole ruse and figure I could take care of the resort again.” Paul was vehement about that. He’d already lost his brother and sister-in-law in the boating accident during a sudden squall on Lake Superior. He’d lost his own mate to breast cancer. He didn’t want to lose his nephew too. Paul wanted to bounce grand-nephews and grand-nieces on his lap, though he wanted to be called their grandfather.

  He’d thought Robbie and he might really hit it off when she said he could live with her in the meantime in Naples, Florida. They had agreed it to when he’d corresponded with her through emails and texts and phone calls. He’d had fun showing her around the North Shore while she stayed at his resort. But she’d been staying with her two girlfriends at one of the cabins. His living with Robbie at her home in Naples wasn’t the same.

  He thought he would never miss the snow for Christmas, but here he was already missing that too! He wanted desperately to call Emerson—to tell him he was okay, that he was sorry he had concocted this whole situation. But Paul was so afraid his nephew would leave and get himself killed in some foreign country where he was doing his missions, that Paul just couldn’t tell him what was going on. The last mission Emerson was on had given Paul such a scare, he’d finally become desperate to come up with this scheme to bring him home and keep him there.

  “What if Jessie—and or Emerson—aren’t suited to each other at all? You said they had never met. Which means they don’t even know each other,” Robbie said.

  “That’s how I met my wife. In a blizzard when I was running the old resort. I know Jessie and I know my nephew. He’s like the son my wife and I never had. He’s good-hearted, fights for what’s right, and so does Jessie. She was always bringing to light situations that need public assistance. And I believe Emerson is doing what he believes in his heart is correct in righting wrongs. But he needs a mate and to settle down before he gets himself killed.”

  “Have you ever thought he might want that kind of lifestyle? That settling down wouldn’t be a good choice for him? Some people need a constant adrenaline rush. Managing a resort like you did might not be for him. And what about Jessie? Maybe she wouldn’t like to be stuck in the boonies with him all the time. You said she has family in Loveland and Yuma Town, Colorado. She would be far from home.”

  She did love her family. Paul knew that would be a transition for her. But he also knew she loved to get away from them so she could get some work done on her books. Then again, if she were married to Emerson, would he keep her from writing too? She had told Paul she was currently working on a new book and was super excited to see him at the resort. She was the bright spot in his life whenever she visited him. Paul had felt bad about not being there for her this time. He never knew when his nephew would return home, but he rarely made it home for the holidays. And Paul had so wanted that this year, but doing what he’d done would mean he still wouldn’t get to see him. Still, the notion his nephew would be safe from harm was tantamount.

  “I think once they were thrown together like they’ve been with an element of peril, that will give them a chance to get to know each other. That’s all my wife and I had before I’d completely won her over. If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. But I want my nephew to take the chance at turning his life around, to settle down, to have a family and a more normal life. He deserves it after losing his parents like he did. I truly believe some part of him felt he should have been lost at ‘sea’ with his parents, no matter how much he loved us and treated us like we were his parents, though we never asked him to call us mom and dad. We didn’t want to pretend to be replacing them.”

  “Okay, then there’s you and me.”

  Paul knew this was coming.

  “We had fun at the resort and all our crazy chats about what was going on in our lives—how annoyed we were with life in general, or the funny things that had happened, but living with you is a totally different thing.” Robbie wasn’t angry or frustrated, just tired of him. She wanted to have her house to herself again. He wasn’t the right one for her.

  He smiled. He felt the same way about her. Robbie was a retired teacher and she spent hours on the phone visiting with retired teacher friends. She didn’t want to run at night with him as a cougar in the wildlife preserve. She just wasn’t interested in running on the wild side like he loved to do in the woods back home.

  Robbie read books at night and turned up her nose at playing board games. He knew he could beat her and that’s why she didn’t want to play. Here it was getting closer to Christmas and she was watching her weight, and that meant no baking Christmas cookies, which he loved to do at the resort to share with his guests. He didn’t want to bake all that stuff just to eat it himself.

  He didn’t have any more guest-related stories to tell and she didn’t have anything further to share with him that was funny or fun. She was totally against what he had done, telling him daily, two or three times a day that it was wrong. Though he thought keeping his nephew safe wasn’t something to consider lightly. He’d thought of every angle he could come up with and the only thing he kept coming back to was that the one thing Emerson would quit his job and return home for was if he knew he had to run the resort because his uncle was gone.

  So that was a bone of contention with Robbie. Paul was trying to mind his p’s and q’s while he was living with her at her home. He was staying in a spare bedroom and the longer he was here, the longer he wished he wasn’t. Not that he was unhappy about no longer managing the resort. That had become a burden and he had been lonely for a very long time. Sure, he always had guests to say hi to, but they were there on vacation, not there to visit with him.

  Jessie was the exception. She had made him treats and had run over to his place to share lunches with him when she wasn’t working on her book. They even watched the sunsets together and shared s’mores. She would make the perfect daughter-in-law.

  Robbie put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. “I think putting your friends—your bear friends—in charge of this charade is a mistake.”

  Everything Paul had done had been a mistake, according to Robbie. She’d tried to talk him out of it, but he was determined to save his nephew.

  Paul’s friends, two bear shifter twin brothers, Luke—his fur a lighter brown, though it had a lot of black guard hairs also, and Nathan, his fur nearly black, were the Bier brothers. Black bears, both of whom lived in the area and had had a chance meeting with Paul in the woods one time, when they were all running in their fur coats last winter. That’s when he had the idea of soliciting them to help him with this scheme of his.

  The twins had been worried something could go wrong. Paul didn’t know what his nephew actually did in his job, except that he came home practically dead at least three times over the years and the last time was the worst. Though his bear friends had told him they thought Emerson might be Black Ops. Emerson had to convalesce at the resort for a month, he’d been shot so many times—yet, thank God, had survived—until he was fit to return to duty. That’s why Paul knew how dangerous Emerson’s work was. Paul had to share that with his bear friends, who were worried Emerson was some kind of assassin and if he thought they had anything to do with Paul’s disappearance, they could have a fight on their hands.

  “They could have really badly injured Emerson. They’re bears. He was human when they hit him,” Robbie reminded Paul.

  “I warned them to be careful when they tried to spook Emerson and Jessie. So far, the brothers say that everything has worked according to plan. When the electricity went off, they broke into the shed and left the door banging in the wind, making it seem like a break-in during the blizzard. But I hadn’t planned on them knocking Emerson out. Still, it meant Jessie stayed with him overnight, and the bears learned he was okay. They’d been careful not to hit him too hard, they told me.”

  Robbie scoffed. “How often have they simulated hitting a man when they’re in their bear coats? I imagine never. They wouldn’t know how hard they could really hit.”

  Paul had to agree with her there, even if he hadn’t wanted to. “He’s all right and Jessie is staying with him.”

  “Because they scared the tar out of her by showing up at her place!” Robbie sat down at the dining table with him.

  True, and he hadn’t wanted Jessie scared like that, but he knew it had to happen or she was going to be Miss Independent and stay at her own cabin otherwise. Now with, Paul, she would come over and have meals, but he suspected since she didn’t know Emerson, she wouldn’t have. Paul needed her and his nephew to be together, if they were really going to get to know each other. If she could still work on her book and keep Emerson company, and he enjoyed her being there, wasn’t that half the battle?

  Here, Paul felt like a stranger in Robbie’s home. Maybe Jessie would feel that way in Emerson’s home. He sighed. He just hoped it all would work out between them.

  Then Robbie got a call and he was going to leave and take a walk, figuring it would be another one of her longwinded conversations with her friends when her eyes widened and she glanced at Paul. He immediately suspected something had gone terribly wrong with all his plans!

  When Jessie got the phone number for Robbie Randall from Flo, she was ecstatic. So was Emerson. She wanted to call Mr. Merriweather, or at least the woman she thought he might be staying with, but she figured Emerson might want to talk to him first. He motioned to her to go ahead, and he stood by to hear what was said. “Hi, I’m Jessie Whittington. I need to speak with Paul Merriweather. I’m his good friend.”

  “What makes you think I know him?” the woman asked, trying to be evasive.

  Jessie was certain Mr. Merriweather was staying with her. “You stayed at his resort on Lake Superior. I need to talk to him. And tell him his nephew is home for good. He quit his job already. He wants his uncle to come home and spend Christmas with him. Tell him we know he’s not dead and very much alive.”

  “Here, I’m out of this,” Robbie said to someone else.

  Then a man cleared his throat and said, “Hello?”

  Jessie smiled. It was him! “Mr. Merriweather! Emerson quit his job before he even learned you were dead. Emerson’s staying with my family for Christmas and we want you to come too.” She’d been so ready to scold him, but she wanted him to come home first and didn’t want to scare him off.

  Mr. Merriweather was silent.

  Jessie put it on speakerphone. “Talk to your nephew. He’s been beside himself with grief, but when he believed you were alive—no body in the coffin—he was so thrilled. He just had to find you.”

  “Uncle Paul.” Emerson was all choked up and that made her feel the same way. “Hell. We had to open up your casket and discover your body wasn’t even there. It’s like Jessie said. I’m done with the job. I’m not going back to it. I was done before I even learned you had a heart attack. Return home. You can retire. I’m running the resort now. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

  “You’ve got to come home,” Jessie said.

  “What about the two of you?” Paul asked.

  “I knew it!” Jessie said. “I told Emerson you might have hoped for that.”

  “Well?”

  She laughed.

  “You’ll have to return home to find out for yourself,” Emerson said. “You know you could have just told me you really wanted me to come home and take over.”

  “No, I couldn’t.”

  “Well, it’s a done deal. And what’s the business with those two bear shifters? Are they friends of yours?” Emerson asked.

  “Yeah, I needed to have someone help to make sure you had come home and then stayed there to protect Jessie.”

  “Are you with someone you want to be with?” Emerson asked his uncle.

  Jessie had forgotten to even talk about that. For all they knew, he was happy to be in Naples and had no intention of returning without a mate.

  “Uh, no.”

  “Good,” Jessie said, “because if you want to meet a whole bunch of fun-loving cougars—Yuma Town, Colorado is the place for you. I don’t want to scare you off, but we have a few single she-cats that you might really be interested in.”

  His uncle laughed. “I’m on my way home.”

  “Good,” Emerson said. “When?”

  “I need to talk to Robbie about when I should leave.”

  “Now,” Robbie said.

  Paul chuckled.

  “I can’t wait to give you a hug. You gave us such a scare,” Jessie said.

  “I’m so sorry. I just thought the two of you might hit it off, well, and then Emerson would want to settle down and leave that dangerous job of his. Robbie already has found the earliest flight I can return on. I’m booking the next flight out on her computer as we speak. I’ll see you tomorrow evening at six.”

  “Okay, we’ll see you then,” Emerson said. “Oh, and call off your bears, just in case they think they have to continue to harass us.”

  “Have they been?” Paul asked, sounding concerned.

  “No, but we think they’re hanging around, messing with our stacked rocks,” Jessie said.

  Paul chuckled. “I’ll certainly let them know.” Then he gave them his new phone number so they could call him anytime they needed to.

  Jessie was thrilled that Paul was coming home. She just hoped she could convince him to actually go to Yuma Town to visit with the single she-cats there and might even find one he couldn’t live without.

  She hugged Emerson and he swung her around. “You are a treasure. We can tell the guys everything is cool. The bears are being called off and Uncle Paul is coming home. Then the others can go home to their families. They’ll be eager to make those snowmen and snow angels back home.”

  Jessie laughed. “Right.”

  “I’ll run over and tell Leyton what’s going on.”

  “Sure. I’ll get back to writing. Oh, but I wanted to tell you, if, uhm, things work out between us, I would be happy to run the resort if your uncle ends up in Yuma Town and the CSF agents need you to help them out up here.”

  “You know what you’re saying without saying it.”

  “Hmm, we’ll see.”

  “That gives me hope.”

  “Well?”

  “I wouldn’t want to leave you in charge of the resort by yourself.”

  “I would be fine with it, if this is something you would really want to do.”