Gifted To The Bear: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Gifted Series Book 1) (6 page)

Seeming to notice my gaze on her top, the girl pulled it out to inspect it herself. “I guess I could just about take my top off and swirl it around in the pan to make eggs! See, I was carrying the carton under my arm when I was climbing through the window, but I also had a ton of other junk I was carrying, and it messed up my coordination skills. When I came through the window, I kind of came through headfirst, and my body landed on the eggs. There’s still two left, though, that didn’t get smashed, and there’s still some egg mixture left that didn’t ooze out of the carton. I figure we can still make a little pan full of eggs. We’ve still got some blueberry muffins that I brought, too. Even though those got a little bit smashed, too, but they’re still fine.”

Not sure how to respond to my chatty little visitor, I just looked at her for a long moment. “Why did you say you broke in here, again?”

“Oh, remember? I’m the breakfast patrol!” She paused to tighten the crooked ponytail near the top of her head. “I heard a new neighbor moved in here last night, so I came in here to make you breakfast, for a surprise.”

“And you didn’t want to knock?”

“Nope. More fun this way. More of a surprise.”

Again, I just briefly looked at the petite redhead standing at the island, deciding that I really liked her. “So, you say there’s still two eggs left?”

With bright sunlight bathing her right cheek in a golden glow, she broke into a grin. “Yup. We still got two eggs. I brought a little bag of ham cubes and a little bag of cheese so we can make ‘loaded’ scrambled eggs, too.” Still grinning, she began taking various plastic bags out of a paper bag next to the carton of eggs. “Here we’ve got our muffins, and here we’ve got our cheese—oh, and here’s some little baby tangerines I brought for us, too. I forgot about those.” After setting the bag of tangerines in the island, she rummaged around in the paper bag some more, frowning. “I’m not sure where our little bag of ham went. Maybe it fell out when it was climbing through the window, and if it did, I bet Marbles got it.”

“Who’s Marbles?”

“Oh, that’s my dog. But, actually, he’s not really a dog at all. He’s actually a real, live angel from heaven wrapped up in a golden retriever’s body. I was gonna bring him in here, too, but your windows are kind of high, and once I got in, I shut the window and the screen again so he wouldn’t be tempted to try to jump in after me, because I was afraid he’d hurt himself. He’s ten or something, so he’s not exactly the same leaper he used to be when he was a super young guy. He still has a big appetite, though. He still has a big, slobbering appetite for ham in particular. And I bet he’s having himself a really nice breakfast of ham right now.” The girl left the island and went over to the window behind the dining area table, sidestepping a large puddle of raw scrambled eggs on the floor to look outside. “Yup. He is. Got the bag open and figured out how to just stick his little snout right inside to gobble up the ham. He’s a smart guy, that’s for sure.”

Returning to the island, the girl said we should just go ahead and start making our breakfast, and I said okay, but to just let me make a trip to use the restroom and brush my teeth.

When I returned to the kitchen, the girl was busy cracking eggs into a pan on the stove. She’d already set the table, and I walked over to it to examine a little clear glass bud vase she’d set in the center. It was filled with water and what appeared to be grass clippings. Though maybe all of the grass hadn’t been exactly
clipped
; some of it still had dirt clinging to the roots, as if it had been pulled right out of the ground.

Now wearing a red-and-white checked apron over the egg mess on her pajama top, the girl turned from the stove and saw me looking at the grass-stuffed bud vase. “Do you like it?”

I nodded. “I do. It’s really interesting.”

I really did like it, and it really was really interesting.

The girl beamed. “Thanks. See, I was gonna put a flower in the little vase, but then when I left my cabin, I realized that it’s still way too early in the spring for the wildflowers yet. But then, I thought that I didn’t want to set a vase on the table with just water in it, so...”

Somehow tickled by her logic, I smiled. “So, you picked some grass.”

She smiled in return. “Yup. I mean... grass is still a growing, living thing, right? It’s still beautiful to look at, right?”

Smiling, I agreed that it was, and I really meant it.

Just then, there was a knock at the front door.

Frowning, the girl looked from the living room to me. “If that’s someone else here to make you breakfast, tell them that it’s already being done, and to just go away.
I’m
gonna be your first friend in town. Okay?”

“Well, don’t worry about that. No matter who’s at the door, and no matter what they want, you’re already my first friend in town.”

Knitting her gingery brows, the girl fixed me with a skeptical sort of look. “Do you really mean that?”

I did, and I nodded, giving her what I hoped was a comforting little smile. “Yes. I really mean that. You’re my first friend in town.”

Considering the way we’d left things hours earlier, I didn’t exactly see Jim as my
friend
.

In response to what I’d said, the girl grinned. “This is awesome. See, no one else in town really likes to be friends with me. Well, Jim is my friend, but he’s busy a lot. But I really mean that none of the other
girls
like to be friends with me. And I don’t mean that they’re
mean
to me because most of them aren’t, but some of them are friend
ly
to me, but in a way that people are friendly and nice to little kids, but without really being their
friend
, if you get what I mean.”

“I think I do.”

“They basically just let me hang around sometimes, but they never really want to do anything
with
me, like hang out, or go get ice cream in Ridgewood just like real friends or anything. No one else even likes me to come on in through their windows to surprise them by making breakfast or anything. No one else really even likes the breakfast patrol even a little bit.”

With my liking of the girl growing, I smiled. “Well,
I’ll
go get ice cream with you sometime. And as far as the ‘breakfast patrol’ well, it’s already made my morning very interesting and fun.”

The girl grinned. “And surprising, right? You were way surprised.”

I smiled. “I definitely was.” I was really glad I hadn’t dialed 911 or escaped the cabin in search of Jim.

I’d just opened my mouth to ask the girl exactly how old she was, and how old the other “girls” that didn’t really want to be her friends were, when a knock sounded on the front door again. I’d really forgotten all about the first one. Moving from the kitchen to the living room, I told the girl I’d be right back.

“Okay, but just remember that you’re not accepting anyone else to make you breakfast right now.”

“Okay.”

When I opened the door, I found a tallish, slim brunette with dark brown eyes standing on the front porch. With her arms folded across her chest, she unclenched her jaw just long enough to speak.

“Hello. By any chance, is there a little redhead causing some sort of mess or destruction in your cabin right now?”

Wondering why exactly this young woman seemed to be so angry, I glanced over my shoulder to the kitchen. “Well there’s a member of the ‘breakfast patrol’ fitting the description of ‘little redhead’ in my kitchen right now.”

The brunette closed her eyes briefly, jaw tightly clenched. “I apologize. She is very difficult to contain, and I made the mistake of turning my back on her for about five seconds. If you’ll let me come in, I’ll have her out of your hair right away.”

Without waiting for a response from me, the brunette breezed right by me and into the cabin, making a beeline for the kitchen, where my little breakfast-maker was turned away from the stove, frowning and holding a fork dripping with egg yolk. It almost looked like she was brandishing it like some sort of a weapon, like she thought she might need one. After shutting the door, I followed the brunette into the kitchen, beginning to say something about how I was glad to be having breakfast made for me, but she cut me off, addressing the little redhead, hands on hips.

“I saw Marbles outside this woman’s window with a bag of ham and a few other items that looked like they may have been dropped. And if I find out that once again, you’ve broken into someone’s cabin by climbing through a—”

“You just can’t leave me alone for three seconds, can you?” Scowling, the little redhead pointed her yolky fork at the brunette. “Not even for three—”

“No, apparently I
can’t.
Because when I do,
this
is what happens. I find you—”

“You find me making breakfast for my new best friend? That’s right. You heard me. Me and the blonde girl next to you are already best friends. We already decided that. We’re about to have breakfast together, and we’re also gonna go to get ice cream sometime together. We’re also gonna do each other’s makeup sometime together. We’re even gonna have a party sometime together, with dancing, and fun games, and we already decided that you’re not invited. Just me, and my new best friend, and a bunch of other cool people are. Even Jim already said he’s coming. He said he’s bringing pizza for everyone. Me and my new best friend are bringing pop.”

I fought a strong, sudden urge to giggle, but not
at
my new little fib-telling friend, just with delight. It had been a long time since I’d been so amused by a friend, if I had ever been.

The brunette standing in the kitchen with us, however, wasn’t quite as amused. Hands still on her hips, she snorted, looking at the little redhead. “Do you even know the name of your ‘new best friend?’ Have you even been polite enough to properly introduce yourself? Or were you too busy rudely climbing through—”

“Of course I politely introduced myself. Of course I did. Duh. And of course I know my new best friend’s name. Duh on that, too. Her name is... well, it’s...”

The little redhead quickly glanced around my kitchen, as if my name might be written on one of the objects in it. I wanted to help her, wanted to just say my name, but at the same time, I didn’t want to make it clear to the brunette that my “new best friend” really
didn’t
know my name.

After a glance at me, though, seeming to be thinking, the little redhead quickly recovered, fixing the brunette with a confident sort of look. “My new best friend’s name is Bright Blue Pajamas. That’s her official nickname, anyway, because she wears those pajamas she has on now all the time. But for short, most people just call her Bright Blue PJs. And honestly, for
really
short, most people just call her BB PJs.
That’s
my new best friend’s name, BB PJs. Yup.”

After a slight eye roll and a sigh, the brunette turned her gaze to me. “I’ll just go ahead and assume that that’s actually
not
something you’re called, and I’ll also go ahead and make formal introductions. I’m Annalise Kendall, though you can call me Annie, or just Ann, and I’m twenty-eight years old. The girl at your stove is my sister Jen, and she’s eighteen, going on seven.”

“‘A very sharp seven,’ though, right, Annie? Remember when you even admitted that?”

Ignoring Jen, Annie extended a hand to me. “It’s nice to meet you.”

I took her hand and shook it. “Thank you. You, too. I’m Avery Clark.”

Still clutching her yolky fork, Jen hustled over from the stove. “I think it’s nice to meet you, too, Avery, and just keep on remembering that
I’m
your new best friend,
not
Annie, okay?”

I smiled. “Okay.”

Just then, there was another knock at the door, and Jen immediately began heading over to it.

“I’ve got this, because if it’s anyone else wanting to make you breakfast, Avery, or anyone else wanting to yell at me, I’m just going to shoo them away. So, you two girls can just go ahead and start cooking the eggs now, even though there’s not enough for you to have any, Annie.”

Annie didn’t look extremely disappointed. Moving out of view of the front door, the two of us headed over to the stove, hearing Jen open the door and then close it, as if she’d went out on the porch to talk to whoever had been knocking.

I picked up a spatula and moved to turn on the stove, but then decided not to. “I guess I’ll wait until she gets back in here, to make sure the eggs won’t get cold. Oh, and by the way, there will be plenty for us all if you want to stay to eat. Jen lost a few of her eggs on floor on her way in, but I’ve got another carton in the fridge.”

I gave Annie a little smile, but she just winced.

“I’m really so sorry about all this. Sorry and deeply embarrassed.”

“Please don’t be. I have to admit that when I first heard someone in the cabin, I was a bit alarmed about a possible intruder, but honestly, I think it was very sweet that Jen just wanted to surprise me with breakfast. It’s actually been kind of fun to have my own ‘welcoming committee.’ Or, ‘breakfast patrol,’ as the case has been.”