food, healthy snacks, juice, and paper items. Then he’d grabbed a whole bunch of toys and books from the kid’s section of the store, hoping he was taking things the kids might like. He’d bought new blankets, sheets, pillows, and even some decorative items for the cabin.
He’d probably gone overboard but then the Strauss brothers had always been good at that.
The annoying part was that he figured what the children needed most was new clothes and things like shoes. But he didn’t know any of their sizes.
“Cody,” Jessie whispered. She stepped forward and he enfolded her in his arms. She melted against him and he could practically feel her relief. He held her, the kids ignoring them in favor of the grocery bags and Cody smiled into her shoulder.
She felt so right in his arms.
Now, this is coming home, he thought.
He would have to be careful not to use the word “mate” too soon though. She had enough on her plate without worrying that the hot-blooded chef with a crush on her wanted to fall to his knees and propose already, six cubs or no.
Jessie smiled shyly when she finally pulled away and said, “Okay fine. Let me help you with the other bags then.”
It took a long time to bring everything in and pour over all the goodies that Cody had brought them. Some things made Jessie raise an amused eyebrow or tease him. He’d picked up a giant stuffed alligator that he thought the kids might like and some random pictures to hang on the grimly brown walls of the cabin next to the crayon drawings already taped up here and there haphazardly.
He had been a little nervous about getting to know the cubs. It was an unfamiliar feeling. He was never usually nervous. But he didn’t have much experience with kids outside of recently hanging out with his new niece, Emily. But she was an infant. They didn’t really require much of you socially.
Apparently, buying kids a bunch of toys, books, and snacks greased the wheels. Jason and Chris tugged on his hand and made him sit on the couch while they showed him exactly how a toy robot he’d bought for them worked and then all the kids seemed to be everywhere and Sophie was in his lap, Molly having handed her to him.
Cody chuckled and held Sophie, who blinked up at him and punched him in the chest. Molly pushed Jessie to sit down next to him with the twins in her lap and suddenly, it felt just like he’d been handed a real family. The thought was both frightening and exciting.
But suddenly there he was acting like a dad and Jason was begging him to read them a story, convinced that he would be an excellent reader. He cleared his throat and took the book from Jason’s eager little hands and even the older kids were staring at him, waiting for some new entertainment with bated breath.
He caught Jessie’s eye and he wondered if she was reading his mind. She looked like she knew exactly how nervous he was about something as simple as reading a story. Cody blushed, ducking his head and opened the book. It was about a duck who wanted to go camping with his friends.
“Okay,” Cody said, clearing his throat, and Jason leaned up against him as if they did this every day, and Jessie’s arm came up around his shoulders and her finger twirled a lock of his hair. Home, he thought. “I’ll do the best I can.”
47
Tobin
Tobin’s contact at the sleuth was a woman named Sheila who sounded like the kind of bear you didn’t want to mess around with and there were few people, either bears or humans, who Tobin wasn’t willing to mess around with if he thought he could get something out of it.
Tobin had been feeling pretty cocky when he called up Sheila and told her that he’d found the girl. Her name had been printed on her employee locker. Jessie Marquez. She was working at the Black Bear Lake Lodge and she wasn’t going anywhere. The cubs’ collective scents had been all mixed up with hers, he said, and even if he didn’t smell them anywhere in the lodge, he had to think they were nearby. He had tracked them for miles and miles. This Jessie person wouldn’t just leave them suddenly after so long.
“So have you found the cubs or not?” Sheila didn’t sound quite as excited as Tobin had been hoping.