Hero Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (10 page)

Chapter Twelve

Caleb couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous. He could hear everyone talking and laughing in the other room, waiting for him. He could picture the scene: Brenda and Miss Harvelle were sitting at Michaela’s dining room table, laughing at something Dalton had said. Dalt was working extra hard to be charming today. Caleb planned to give him hell for the obvious crush he had on Brenda.

The table was piled high with food Caleb had cooked. Pot roast, green beans, mashed potatoes, salads . . . it had been so long since he’d cooked for anybody but just him and Dalton, he was pretty sure he’d overdone it, but that was what leftovers were for. Everything was on the table for Sunday dinner except for one thing.

Michaela had followed him into the kitchen to give him an extra bit of encouragement. “Go on, take a look,” she said. Caleb cracked open the oven door and couldn’t help but beam with pride. Nestled inside his momma’s cast-iron skillet was a disc of deep brown delicious-looking cornbread. He pulled it out and tipped the bread onto a plate. He said a little prayer and cut into the crust. It was perfect, crisp and crackling from the shortening. Steam billowed out with the smell of good hot bread.

“You did it.” Michaela leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

He still fretted. Was it too crumbly? Tough? Did he add enough salt? When Miss Harvelle had offered to show him her recipe for cornbread and teach him how to make it, he’d almost said no, but she’d insisted. For her part, she’d been tickled to teach a man how to cook anything. Like all Kentucky cooks, her recipes involved a spoonful of this and a little bit of that “until it looks right,” and he wasn’t sure he’d gotten it right, and wouldn’t be until Miss Harvelle got to taste it.

“If you keep standing there frowning at it, it’s going to get cold,” Michaela teased. “Come on.” She grabbed the butter from the refrigerator and pulled him into the dining room.

He put the bread on the table and everybody started helping themselves. He tried not to pay too close attention as Miss Harvelle broke her piece open and spread it with butter, instead acting like he was more interested in filling his plate. Everybody settled in to eat.

“Michaela, it’s just not fair you managed to find a guy who can cook like this,” Brenda said. “I swear I’d never let him leave the kitchen.”

“He’s got other uses too.” Michaela squeezed Caleb’s knee under the table. Dalton looked like he was about to choke before she added, “I can use the top shelves in my closet now, since he can reach them.”

“You ready for school to start, Caleb?” Dalton seemed eager to steer the subject away from whatever uses Michaela had for him.

“Ready as I’m gonna be.” He was a little intimidated, starting at Pikeville Community College’s culinary program, but Michaela and Dalton had put together a unified front and convinced him that the GI Bill was a benefit he deserved. He might get his little diner after all.

“When do you start back to work, Michaela?” Miss Harvelle said.

“Tomorrow. Dottie felt so bad about firing me she offered to pay me for the time I was off.”

“I hope you’re going to take her up on that,” Brenda said. With Reuben awaiting trial, she and everybody else at the Louisville clinic were out of work. Michaela was trying to get her to move out to Salem Creek.

Michaela took a bite of cornbread and closed her eyes for a second. “Mm. Bren, you might be right. I might have to keep him in the kitchen.”

“As long as you keep me,” Caleb said.

Miss Harvelle finally tasted her own piece, and Caleb felt a swell of pride when she gave him a little nod and smile.

Dalton didn’t miss the exchange and kicked Caleb under the table. “No more cornbread from a mix?”

“No, sir, not for me. I think this means I’m finally grown enough to settle down.” He glanced over at Michaela and smiled, squeezing her hand.

Recipes

Mattie Bentley’s Chess Pie

Note: Mattie Bentley wouldn’t have bothered with a pre-made pie crust, but Caleb cheats on that one a little bit. Shh!

1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated piecrusts

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons cornmeal

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation

Fit piecrust into a 9-inch pieplate according to package directions; fold edges under, and crimp.

Line pastry with aluminum foil, and fill with pie weights or dried beans.

Bake at 425° for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove weights and foil; bake 2 more minutes or until golden. Cool.

Stir together sugar and next 7 ingredients until blended. Add eggs, stirring well. Pour into piecrust.

Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes, shielding edges with aluminum foil after 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Coconut Chess Pie: Prepare filling as directed above; stir in 1 cup toasted flaked coconut before pouring into piecrust. Bake as directed above.

Miss Harvelle’s Cornbread

Note: Good Kentucky cornbread has three major requirements: a cast-iron skillet, white cornmeal, not yellow, and ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR! Caleb and Miss Harvelle will both come after you if you add sugar.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

3 tablespoons Crisco

Preparation

Heat oven to 400°F.

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl. Stir in buttermilk, 1/3 cup melted butter and eggs just until mixture is moistened.

Put the Crisco in a heavy cast iron and put into the oven to heat the pan and melt the Crisco. Pour batter immediately into hot pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm, preferably with butter.

A note from Zoe Chant

Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed it. I plan on writing more about the Shifters of Salem Creek soon, starting with Caleb’s brother, Dalton.

If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please
click here
to be added to my mailing list. If you have any trouble getting on the mailing list or would just like to tell me something, please
email me.

Please review
Hero Bear
,
even if you only write a line or two. I love hearing what my readers think.

Page down to read an excerpt of
The Right Bear’s Arms
by Nora Eli, who designed the cover of
Hero Bear.

More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

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BBW hawk shifter + lonely bear shifter lumberjack + ice storm = one red-hot weekend!

And many more!

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Special Sneak Preview

The Right Bear’s Arms

By Nora Eli

Every Friday morning, like clockwork, the same rough old teamster would sit in Katie’s section and comment on her ass.

“Hey, sweetcheeks! Why don’t you walk that big ass over here and get me some coffee?” His big, hoarse, three-pack-a-day voice boomed across the diner, followed by a raucous laugh at his own cleverness.

Katie rolled her eyes and raised her index finger to him (instead of the finger she really wanted to raise), and tried to focus on the two customers sitting in front of her. The big one especially. When he’d walked in, he’d nearly filled the diner’s door frame, and he was gorgeous, like, “haven’t I seen you on a magazine somewhere before?” gorgeous: longish wavy chestnut hair, chiseled jaw marked with stubble. It was hard to keep from staring. She smiled at him, desperately wishing she had her camera with her. What a portrait he’d make. “Sorry about that, what can I get you?”

Tall-and-Beautiful gave her a once-over that traced her full curves like fingertips. Men looked at her chest and hips all the time—they were hard to miss in the pink rayon of her uniform, but no one had ever made her feel weak in the knees before. “Do you need somebody to talk to him?” He meant the teamster. God, even his voice was sexy.

“Nah, it’s okay. I can handle him.” She flashed him a grin despite the pulse racing in her throat. “Besides, he usually tips like a dream.”

“He better,” Tall-and-Beautiful rumbled.

“Jake, quit flirting and order, I’m starving.” The other man at the table
looked
starving, scrawny and pinched-looking, like a kicked dog. That’d be another great picture. Black and white, slouched in front of a grimy brick wall and—wait.

Was
he flirting? Oh god, he
was
. Katie’s pulse hit triple-time.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jake said. Not only was he flirting, but he blushed when he got caught. Oh, he was going to be trouble. “I’ll take the special,” he said. “Rafe’s gonna order that awful garbage omelet you make, just watch.”

“I like it, it’s got everything,” Rafe whined. He was kind of cute, in a puppyish way. “And coffee,” he said to Katie. “Lots of coffee.”

“Got it. I’ll be right back with the coffee.” She glanced at Jake and their eyes met. Her breath caught in her throat, trapped by the warm brown depths of his eyes. There
was
something familiar about him, as if she’d met him somewhere before. No chance of that though, she’d remember those broad shoulders and big, capable-looking hands. Hands like that made a girl have dirty thoughts, thinking about what those fingers might be able to do. No, she hadn’t met him before, but she was glad she had now.

“Can’t wait,” Jake said. The way he looked at her made her mouth go dry and her palms go damp.

Instead of trying to say something witty, she turned to put in their order, conscious of Jake watching her walk away.

“Katie, order up!” That’d be for the teamster, ugh.

Mack, the owner and short order cook, pushed the plate across the pass. He’d had tried to speak up for her the first couple times the teamster had given her grief, but Katie didn’t need her boss to stand up for her. She could deal with a few fat jokes. Yeah, she was a big girl, always had been. It was in her DNA. She was built like a mama bear at the end of summer: tall and broad-hipped and plump.

“Come on, I want to see you move it, honey. Don’t send your scrawny little friend over here.”

Katie gritted her teeth. As far as she was concerned, anyone talking about the size of her ass was just stating the obvious. But talking smack about Anna? That was over the line. Anna was about the sweetest person Katie knew.