Cougar Christmas Calamity (Heart of the Cougar Book 8) Read online

  “No, he’s deceased. You’re Jessie Whittington, I take it.” He glanced at the cake box and took a deep breath, smelling the heavenly, sweet, chocolate aroma.

  She felt her whole world crash into oblivion in that one little statement. Mr. Merriweather was dead.

  The guy grabbed her arm and took the boxed cake from her hands and she was glad for his strength when she thought she would collapse from the news.

  “Jessie Whittington?” the man asked, frowning at her. He set the cake on the desk, but he didn’t release her as if he realized she was still shaken from the news.

  She swallowed hard, fighting tears that threatened to spill. She felt horrible about it and she realized now why this guy, or whoever had sent her the email, had wanted to refund her money. “Uh, yes. I have a reservation for cabin five for fourteen days. I’m so sorry to hear about Mr. Merriweather. How did he die, if you don’t mind me asking?” She so had wanted to see him. It was part of why she came here.

  “He had a massive heart attack, but he died here, which was just the way he wanted to go. He loved the resort.”

  “He was always so nice.” Like a father to her. “So you’re the new owner?”

  “Yes. Emerson is the name. You need to sign this contract.” He handed her the paper to sign. He was strictly business. Not anything like Mr. Merriweather. He never made her sign a contract. Emerson started telling her some of his rules for the resort as she looked over the contract. “You can’t have guests at your cabin. There’s not enough parking space for everyone as it is.”

  She glanced out of the window of the office in his home to look at the parking lot and the five cabins in the woods overlooking Lake Superior. “Nobody’s here. In the email the resort sent me, it said management would refund my money, that you—I guess—were renovating all the cabins and no one else was here. But I didn’t want my money refunded and management, I guess you, said I could stay then.”

  “Right. But it’s still the rule. I told the two men who came looking for you that I couldn’t give out information about guests. You might tell them the cabins are exclusively for paying guests only, if they return while you’re staying here.”

  She frowned. “Who were they? I don’t know anyone up here and I didn’t tell anyone but my parents and sister where I was going to be.” She couldn’t imagine anyone would be looking for her up here. Everyone who knew she was coming would have mentioned it to her if someone had queried them as to where she would be.

  “Someone told someone. I didn’t ask for names. Furthermore, there’s not to be any wild partying…”

  Really? “Like I really plan to do that. I’m here by myself. And I don’t break the rules. Though I’ve had my fair share of trouble dating guys who were rogue cougars—to my surprise.” And why she mentioned that to him, she had no idea. “My sister is a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and her mate is a deputy sheriff of Yuma Town. My father is a retired special agent with the Cougar Shifter Force, CSF. I’m used to being around law enforcement types. So I don’t have any issues with obeying rules.”

  “Just the guys you date do.”

  “Uh, yeah.” Again, she wondered why she’d mentioned it to Tall, Dark, and Imposing. “Well, that’s why I’m up here alone while I’m writing my book. So you bought Whispering Pines when Mr. Merriweather’s estate was sold off?” She still couldn’t believe he was gone.

  “He was my uncle and I inherited it.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry about that.” That was worse since he had lost his uncle and it wasn’t just a case of Emerson buying the estate. “I guess since you inherited everything and I wanted to give this cake to him, you’re welcome to it, if you like German chocolate.”

  He gave her a hint of a smile. She took that as a controlling-his-enthusiasm yes.

  “Are you keeping the resort?”

  He hesitated to respond. Cougar shifters noticed things, scents, body movements that would indicate feelings—anger, frustration, interest, friendliness—in his case, mixed feelings. “Yeah. I like the solitude and quiet.”

  “When you’re not renting out the cabins,” she reminded him. When he didn’t say anything, she said, “You’re not renting out the cabins in the future? I thought you said you were renovating them. It’s such a beautiful place. It’s so nice that I’ve been here every year for the past five years at wintertime.” And she wanted to come back again next year, even if someone new was running the place. But maybe he was distraught about his uncle’s passing and the resort reminded Emerson too much of his uncle. Though come to think of it, she didn’t remember Paul Merriweather ever talking about having a nephew. Maybe they’d been estranged, and Emerson felt bad that his uncle was now gone when they should have reconciled before this. She had to stop thinking too much into this. She could make up a hundred stories about what had gone on between the two men.

  “With rogue cougars you’ve been dating?” Emerson asked.

  She let out her breath, slightly exasperated, and was now thinking she should have kept the cake for herself. Though she knew she would eat too much of it if she had. “No, I’ve always come alone. I shouldn’t have mentioned them. I always seemed to be dumping the current rogue cougar right before I come here. Though I guess in truth the term dumping them isn’t exactly the correct word.” Why in the world was she telling this guy anything?

  He raised a brow, appearing to be waiting for clarification.

  “They died. They couldn’t be incarcerated—cougars, you know. Anyway”—she reached her hand out for the keys to her cabin—“I’m going to get settled in. I hear we’re going to have a bad snowstorm and I want to get back to working on my book.” She wasn’t about to go into details about the rogues she’d hooked up with. She shouldn’t have said as much as she had.

  He handed her the key. “You’re right. A snowstorm is headed our way. I hope you brought enough warm things to wear.”

  “Right.” If she hadn’t, would he loan her some of his warm things to wear? She preferred light and colorful to all black, but she doubted he would give her the time of day once she left here. “I did. If all else fails, I’ll wear my cougar coat. Oh, and I’ll take a couple of movies with me.” She loved how Mr. Merriweather had movies on hand to borrow. He was always getting new ones too, but this time, since she was writing a Christmas story, she only wanted to watch Christmas stories.

  Emerson looked like he was eager to send her on her way as if she were wasting his precious time. Or maybe he wanted to dig into the cake once she was gone. But she carefully perused the movie titles, longer than she needed to—and she wasn’t sure why she wanted to needle him, except that she felt he’d been giving her grief for having come here and not taken him up on his offer to accept a refund. Then she chose two of her favorite movies. She didn’t want to have to trek back through the snowstorm for other titles if she picked something out that she wasn’t interested in watching.

  “I love A Christmas Story and Jingle All the Way, don’t you?” She figured he didn’t. He didn’t even have his home or the cabins decorated for Christmas. Then again, if he thought she wouldn’t come and since the other cabins weren’t rented, she could understand why he wouldn’t decorate then. But his own place? Why not?

  Well, he was a bachelor, and his uncle had just died, so she guessed that was the reason why. Because she was writing a Christmas story, she wanted to get into the Christmas spirit.

  “I’ve never watched the movies.”

  Why wasn’t she surprised? He didn’t appear to be the type of man who liked more family fare. She was about to leave when she figured she might as well ask him about some holiday lights. “Do you or your uncle have any Christmas decorations that I could borrow?”

  Emerson frowned at her. She wasn’t going to ask him to put them up!

  “I’m working on a Christmas story and it helps me when I’m writing to set the mood.”

  “No.”

  Of course Mr. Merriweather had them. He always decorated for Christmas. So did Emerson get rid of them? Or he just didn’t want to accommodate her? She figured the later was true. “Okay, thanks. The movies should help.” And she had brought fixings to make wassail and spiked eggnog that would get her in the right frame of mind too.

  She said goodbye and got into her car parked outside his place, then drove the several hundred feet to her cabin in the woods with a view of the lake. It was beautiful. As a photographer and author, she couldn’t think of a better place to spend the time before Christmas working on a book than here. When she returned home to Loveland, she and her parents went to stay with Tracey and Hal in Yuma Town at their horse ranch for Christmas because they had lots of room and four-year-old quadruplets they loved to play with. Having multiple births was the hazard of being a cougar shifter!

  She thought again about how she hadn’t known Mr. Merriweather had had a nephew. What was Emerson’s deal anyway? Why couldn’t he give her his first name? Unless that was his first name. He might be Emerson Merriweather, only she’d call him Stormy-weather instead. He appeared to be about the same age as her. She had felt more comfortable calling Mr. Merriweather by a more formal form of address since he had been her father’s age and he’d never told her to call him by Paul, so that’s the way it had been for them.

  Was Emerson afraid she would come on to him? That would be the day. She went for rogue cougars, not on purpose, but it just seemed to be her destiny. And they were always super friendly. She couldn’t abide by a man who was dark and foreboding. She wasn’t interested in the least in Mr. Macho Cougar who didn’t like wild parties or decorating for Christmas.

  She carried her bags into the cabin. It had a screened-in porch that looked out onto the lake through the trees and a large wooden swing in the area ne
xt to it that would be great to use when it wasn’t so cold. She’d always managed to come here in winter, but she vowed to come here either in the fall or summer one year. It seemed like she was always breaking up with a rogue cougar at this time of year and needed to get away from everything before she and her parents landed in on Tracy and Hal and the kids for Christmas. Maybe not now though. One of the reasons she came was because of Mr. Merriweather. Maybe it was time to move on and find someplace else to explore. Though one reason she loved seeing him was he was a cougar too. Had been.

  A foot of snow covered the ground already. At least Emerson had cleared a path through the snow to her cabin and the stairs down to the rocky shore.

  The wind was whipping up waves on the lake. Man, that would be cold out on the water about now. Still, she planned to walk down to the rocky shoreline before it was dark so she could take pictures of the sunset on the water and stack some rocks. Then she would make some dinner and watch one of the movies while she wrote the next chapter in her book. Just from the skeptical look on Emerson’s face, she knew he didn’t believe she would finish it. But she had ten books to her name, so she wouldn’t have any trouble with this one. Sure, she’d never written a book like this, but still, she was having a ball with it. And she was determined to finish it.

  She got a call from her mom and smiled. “Hey, Mom, I just got in and unloaded my groceries from the car and was putting them away.”

  “Okay, good. We were worried about you.”

  “We“—as in her mom and dad. “Yeah, I was going to give you a call as soon as I put things away in the fridge.”

  “Of course, dear. We’re watching the news about the snowstorm headed your way and were anxious that you reached the resort before that hit your area. Was Mr. Merriweather glad to see you again?”

  Jessie unpacked a couple of her photography books that she was leaving at the cabin in their little library for guests. “No. He died. His nephew has taken the cabins over.” She unpacked her laptop to work on her story later, and her sketchpad that she drew on sometimes—she had thought to draw a picture of her stacked rocks from a photo once she made them down on the shore and photographed them.

  “Nephew?” Her mom acted hopeful that someone new might be just the right one for her. Like that would ever happen. “Is he your age?” her mom asked.

  “He appears to be, but he’s moody and barely aware of me. And I’m not interested in him. For heaven’s sake, Tracey had to shoot my last boyfriend. I have no desire to date right now.”

  “Is he nice?”

  “No, I just said he’s moody.”

  “Maybe because his uncle just died.”

  Maybe. Jessie was usually more intuitive about people’s feelings than that, but she was having a hard time coping with the fact Paul had died also.

  “What did you do about the cake?”

  “I gave it to him.”

  “Good. Maybe that will make him feel better. When you’re down, chocolate always helps you. I’m so sorry about Mr. Merriweather. I know how much you enjoyed visiting with him and you were a bright spot in his life to be sure. Well, you tell us if you have any trouble with this storm. And we’ll keep in touch.”

  Her mom was right about the chocolate! She shouldn’t have given it to Emerson, or just left him half of it so she could drown her sorrows with the other half. “Thanks, Mom, sure.” Jessie said goodbye to her mom after that. She was so looking forward to relaxing and writing, if she could quit thinking about Mr. Merriweather—and the brooding nephew. No interruptions. Just peace and quiet, like Emerson had said about this resort. Which made her wonder again just what his full name was.

  When she was at home, her mom and dad thought she should do things with them all the time because she didn’t have a “regular” job. She would just get into the zone, writing away at a scene—feeling one with the characters, and then her mom, or dad, would want her to go with them somewhere. Or talk. Or play a board game. Or watch a movie with them—as if she were bored and needed the entertainment! Or needed to keep them company while they entertained themselves.

  She made up a hot grilled cheese and ham sandwich and mixed a little bit of rum in a glass of eggnog. She thought of turning on a Christmas movie while she ate her dinner, but she would get hooked on it and there would go her trip down to the shore.

  She was so glad that Emerson hadn’t just told her that his uncle had died, and he was refunding her money, period. She sat down at the kitchen table. Once she was done eating, she put on her coat, purple scarf, fluorescent pink gloves, and pink hat and grabbed her camera.

  Then she walked to the stairs near cabin number four that would take her down to the rocky shore. Snow clouds helped to share the colors of the setting sun with the surface of the lake. It was just beautiful with its pinks and yellows and oranges. She hurried to take some shots. Afterwards, she found some stones protected by the cliff overhang that were not buried in snow. She stacked five of them, balancing them just so and took a picture of them sitting on the snow. A frozen cascade of water coming down the hill was the last thing she wanted to take a photograph of before the light was gone.

  Now it was time to return to the cabin, get warm, watch A Christmas Story, and then she would run as a cougar through the woods when it was fully dark out, like she always did. Unless it was snowing too hard by then. She most likely would find her way back to the cabin, but if she didn’t, that wouldn’t be good.

  She hoped Emerson wouldn’t be peeved about her running as a cougar if he chanced to see her. Though he couldn’t from the house. The cougar door was situated at the back door and she was surrounded by woods. She could see the house and cabins from the side door, which was the “front” door, but no one could see the back of her cabin unless they were standing in her “backyard.” That was another thing she liked about her cabin. It had a backyard area, whereas the others just strictly looked off the cliff at the water.

  Since Mr. Merriweather had always given her a discount when she stayed there because she was a cougar, she should have told Emerson about their arrangement so he wouldn’t overcharge her. Mr. Merriweather had even put in the cougar door for her because she always stayed in that cabin. He had been such a sweetheart. She was sad he was gone.

  Once the movie was over, she stripped out of her clothes and shifted into the cougar, loving this part of coming up here the best.

  She tore out the cougar door and ran into the woods, racing through the snow. Man, this was the life!

  And then deeper in the woods, she saw a cougar watching her from a distance and she stood stock still. His fur was a little redder than hers, definitely a larger male, beautiful amber cat eyes with a hint of green staring at her as if he was just as much in shock to see her as she was to see him. Then he prowled toward her in a cat’s way that was very much predatory in nature.

  But she stood her ground, hoping it was just Emerson and not a real cougar who was trying to defend his territory, or was interested in her as a potential mate!

  Chapter 2

  Emerson was running as a cougar and had just come through the trees when he saw Jessie. He smelled her scent on the breeze. He growled low. He should have known she would be off running around as a cougar! Damn it! One cougar would probably never be noticed, but two? Then again, with the incoming snowstorm, probably no one would be out hiking in the woods, private property or no.

  On his property though, it was fairly safe. But he had seen on the web where someone had set up a trail camera near a cave by the hills overlooking the North Shore near Castle Danger for bobcat activity and ended up capturing the image of a cougar! And that wasn’t far from where his cabins were located.

  The cougar caught on the trail cam wasn’t anyone he knew, so he wasn’t sure if it was one of their kind or a shifter he didn’t know. Not that he would know many in the area. The only one he had known well was his uncle. Emerson hadn’t even realized the pretty blond he’d tried to dissuade from staying here was a cougar until she walked into his office at the house.

  He had so wanted to have the peace and quiet. He had felt lost. He’d always had a mission and coming home had been his new one. Though he still intended to find Smith and make him pay for what he had done to the team.