You Had Me at Cougar (Heart of the Cougar #9) - Terry Spear Page 0,3

she got a call and looked at the caller ID. It was her sister's mate, Stryker, calling. Now what? She answered her phone. “Yeah?”

“Hey, I hate to ask, but—”

Ava sighed. “Nina already asked me to be the fortune teller for an hour.”

“I thought we had that covered.”

Uh-oh, if Stryker wasn't calling about that, then what did he want her to do?

“Apparently, someone fell through on the fortune-telling booth assignment,” Ava said.

“Oh, okay. Well, no, that wasn’t what I was calling about. But thanks for helping out with it. Nina was going to tell you that Chet Kensington needs a place to stay for the night, or two. She said she had forgotten to ask you and was headed out to the lake. Chet thought he would still be working on the case he was dealing with, but he managed to get free and wanted to join us, but everyone has got house guests and the Pinyon Pines Resort at Lake Buchanan and local hotels are booked.”

Ava wanted to snarl as a cougar. She didn’t want anyone to stay with her. She would have to pick up her place and be ready for a guest. And if she had a guest, she wanted to be the one who invited him or her. She’d met Chet before, naturally, as he came to see his old buddy, Leyton, who was her brother-in-law’s brother, Travis, and his mate, Bridget, all of whom had worked with him in the Cougar Special Forces in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But he had always stayed at the safe house before.

“He can't stay at the safe house?” Ava knew the answer to her question before Stryker answered her, because if Chet could have stayed there, Stryker wouldn't be asking her if Chet could stay with her.

“It's currently under renovations."

She let out her breath in a huff. “All right.” That didn’t mean she wanted to take him in as an overnight guest or anything else, so when did she become such a pushover? What if she became interested in someone who lived in Yuma Town, and he learned she’d had a bachelor cougar stay with her? Ugh.

“I’ve got to go,” she said.

“I’ll tell him to talk to you at the fortune telling booth then.” Stryker sounded vastly relieved that she would take Chet in.

“Great.” And she didn’t mean it in a good way. Of course then she felt guilty about being kind of a curmudgeon about it.

She quickly ended the call. If she didn’t hurry, she wasn’t going to have one minute to swim. She rushed to Lake Buchanan in her neon green Honda and arrived there with forty minutes to spare. Yes. She pumped her fist and hurried to get out of the car. Cougars were everywhere, in human form, naturally, at the by-invitation-only event. Which meant anyone there had to be a cougar to attend.

Everyone was hurrying to get ready for all the activities. Moms and dads were trying to keep track of all the little ones, most wearing floaties so they wouldn’t get themselves in trouble in the shallower water at the lake’s edge.

As soon as Ava headed for the water, she saw the dreaded fortune teller booth, all decorated in purples and golds and little castle flags, near the concession stands where people were already grabbing lunches to go. It looked like it belonged at a medieval fair, and she thought it appeared magical and entertaining. And that made her feel better about working there. Especially since she was going to get a dip in the lake first.

She set her mermaid bag down on the beach, kicked off her flipflops, tugged off her T-shirt and shorts, grabbed her mermaid float, and raced into the water.

“Hey, Ava.” a male voice shouted at her.

No, no, no. She was going to get some swimming time in before she did anything else. She could just imagine someone telling her she needed to start even earlier at the fortune telling booth. She hadn’t paid attention to see if there was a line at it, or anyone working it yet, just that the concession stands were crowded, and the booth was pretty. She just wanted to get away from the beach and into the water.

She continued to ignore the man belonging to the deep voice. When she was far enough away, she turned to see who it was. Chet Kensington, pulling off his shirt, kicking off his shoes, and pulling down his shorts. Her jaw dropped in surprise. Oh, he had board shorts on