Strange Neighbors (26 page)

   "I guess so. But why would he think I'd say no if I knew first?"

   "Does he know how you feel about him?"

   "I thought so."

   "Okay, well, I guess you'll have to ask him why."

   "Yeah." She sighed. "It all boils down to my having to talk to him, doesn't it?"

   "I'm afraid so."

   "Damn. Well, at least I have the questions, even if I don't have the answers. Thanks for helping me put it in perspective—I think."

   "Glad to be of help. Now, for God's sake, tell me what happens! This is like a TV show, and I don't want to miss an episode."

Jason rushed to his cell phone and snapped open the cover on the second ring. Please be Merry. Please be Merry.

   "Jason? It's Aunt Dottie. Is everything all right between you and Merry? I looked out the back window this morning and saw you two leaving together, and just now I saw her walk in the front door with a young man."

   A young man? Jealousy stabbed Jason in the heart so hard he could barely speak. "Uh… Thanks."

   "For what? I was asking you if you two had a fight or something?"

   Jeez, she really is the nosiest Aunt Busy-Body this side of the Rockies.

   "Do you want me to go downstairs and ask her to come up when she's free? Maybe if she's still mad at you, I can invite her to my place and you can casually drop in?"

   And give you a front row seat? I don't think so. "Thanks, but I'll go down to her apartment myself."

   "Are you sure? I wouldn't want the—"

   Jason snapped the phone shut, not even caring if he was rude. He had to get down there and see about this young man from her hometown. There was more he hadn't told her and he prayed she was past the initial shock.

   Soon he had to tell her that other men had no place in her life. Peregrine falcons formed monogamous pairs, and now that their mating process had begun… Damn, I've got to get down there, now!

   He hurried to the elevator and pushed the button for the first floor multiple times. Then he took some deep breaths. He had to calm his panic. Shifting in front of her and whomever she was with wouldn't help matters at all. On the other hand, no matter how hard he tried to stay in control, he could fly into a jealous rage, literally, and peck out the "young man's" eyeballs.

   Quickly rethinking his plan, he almost stepped off the elevator, but the doors closed. He felt trapped and spun into full-blown panic. The next thing he knew he shifted. His wings tried to flap but he was caught in his own crewneck sweater snare and fell to the floor. The elevator slowed as they approached the second floor. Oh no!

   The doors slid open and Dottie stood there. Upon spying him in his alternate form, she jumped about a foot in the air. Shock drained the color from her face. He tried to struggle past her but he couldn't move more than an inch.

   "What the hell…? Ralph!" She reached in and hit the emergency stop button. "Ralph! Come here right now!"

   When her husband didn't appear immediately, she dashed to her front door, opened it, and yelled, "Ralph, goddamnit, come here!"

   Having a moment of privacy, Jason concentrated as hard as he could. He visualized himself in human form—and shifted back. Whew. Fortunately, he made it into his clothes before Ralph and Dottie appeared at the elevator doors.

   "Where's the bird?" Dottie demanded.

   "What bird?" Jason asked.

   "Oh, don't give me that innocent routine. There was a bird in this elevator not one minute ago, and he was wearing your sweater."

   Jason glanced down at his sweater.

   Ralph stared at Jason for an uncomfortable moment, and then began to laugh. Jason joined in, knowing what his uncle was going to do. He was going to make Dottie think she was hallucinating. He was sorry he had to play it that way, but it was his uncle's choice.

   "Aunt Dottie, I think you've been working too hard. Maybe you and Uncle Ralph should take a vacation."

   She stomped her foot. "I haven't been working too hard. I barely work at all. And I'm not crazy. I know what I saw."

   By that time the other neighbors had heard the ruckus and appeared in the hallway. Jason stepped out of the elevator but left the emergency stop on.

   "Sounds like somebody's got their feathers ruffled," Gwyneth drawled as she and Morgaine descended the stairs.

   Ralph held up one hand as if to stop them from coming any further. "Everything's fine. It's just a family matter."

   Dottie glared at her husband. "Everything's not fine. There was a bird in this elevator. It's bad luck when a wild bird enters a building. Haven't you ever heard that?"

   The other residents stared at each other in surprise. Eventually, Konrad asked, "Where's Nathan?"

   "What's he got to do with anything?" Dottie asked.

   "I'm right here," Nathan said from the bottom of the stairs.

   "You didn't let your pet bird out of its cage, did you?" Konrad shot him a pointed look.

   Nathan cocked his head. "No. He's been right here in my apartment all evening."

   Jason strolled to the top of the stairs. "Everything's okay, folks. Thanks for your concern, but you can go back to your apartments now." That's when he saw Merry peeking up the stairs, trying to stay hidden.

   "Merry," he called and rushed down the stairs two at a time. Buns hopped into the hallway. She grabbed her pet, retreated into her apartment, and shut the door.

   I'm not going to just walk away, Merry. You're mine, damn it!

   He knocked. She didn't answer.

   "I'll wait here all night if I have to, Merry," he yelled. "You're my girl and I deserve a chance to explain, damn it. We need to talk!"

   A moment later, Matt wandered into the hallway. "Don't pay any attention to my sister," he said, speaking a little louder than necessary.

   "Why not?"

   "She gets psychotic sometimes. Besides, you're Jason friggin' Falco! You could have any girl you wanted. Maybe you should teach her a lesson and go out with someone else."

   Merry's door almost flew off the hinges as she opened it hard enough to bounce off the opposite wall. "Time for you to go home, Matt."

   "Damn! I finally get to see Jason again and now I have to leave? I'm never going to get his autograph," her brother wailed.

   "I have something better than an autograph," Jason said. "Why don't you both come up to my place and I'll get it for you before you leave, Matt, then Merry and I can talk."

   Matt looked like he was about to bust a gut with excitement. "Better than an autograph? And I get to see your penthouse? Heck, yeah! I can't wait."

   Merry closed and locked her door behind her. The neighbors had cleared out. Thank goodness. She didn't trust Matt not to tell her father if he saw some of the black-clad wild characters she lived with. Then he'd have yet another reason to try to yank her back home.

   Matt followed Jason to the elevator like a puppy. The elevator hummed with electricity: its own, Matt's, and the jolt that raced through Merry when Jason took her hand and kissed her knuckles.

   When the doors whooshed open, Matt stepped out as if in a dream and said, "Whoa!"

   "Like it?" Jason asked.

   "Are you kidding me? This place rocks!"

   "Well, go ahead and look around. I'll be right back."

   "Don't touch anything!" Merry added.

   Matt clasped his hands behind his back and wandered across the open expanse to the balcony. Merry couldn't wait to get rid of him so she and Jason could talk.

   She had stewed all the way back from Rhode Island. Why hadn't he told her the truth earlier? Why was he rushing her into marriage? How on earth could she know what marrying a whatever he was would be like?

   Not to be selfish, but this would impact her life in a big way. If she married him, she'd be faithful. She knew that about herself. That meant giving up her brand new freedom for the rest of her life. He had to be "the one," or she was screwed. They certainly had a lot to talk about.

   Jason returned a few moments later with a baseball glove and a magic marker. Matt rushed over to him.

   "Is that yours?"

   "It's a prototype of a lefty mitt I'm supposed to endorse. See? It has my name on it already, but if you want, I'll sign it to you."

   Matt looked as if he might keel over. "Jeez, yeah! That would be totally cool."

   Jason wrote, To my buddy Matt and scrawled his signature. "There. You have the very first one. They aren't even for sale yet."

   "Wow." Matt handled the glove like it was made of glass. "Thanks, man!"

   "You're welcome, and thanks for understanding if I keep your sister here when you decide to go home."

   Merry steered Matt toward the elevator. "He's already decided. He was just leaving."

   "I was?"

   "Yes," she said firmly. "You were."

   "Okay. Okay. I'll see you later, Jason."

   "Any time, pal."

   Merry groaned.

MERRY SWIVELED BACK TO TALK TO THE MAN WHO wanted to marry her. He was striding toward her as if she might escape.

   "That was very nice of you to mmmuphmm…"

   Jason had grabbed and kissed her before she could finish her sentence. Oh well, he probably knew what I was going to say. She draped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. He tilted his head and deepened it.

   Sometimes Merry felt as if she lost her balance with his kisses. It was as if time stopped and the whole world fell away. At that moment, she felt as if she had found herself and come home. Whatever little oddities she had to adapt to, it couldn't be worse than learning to live with a hole in her heart where Jason should be.

   When they finally pulled apart, he cupped her cheek and stared directly into her eyes. "Does this mean you still love me?"

   "You scared me. We need to talk, but I'm willing to hear what you have to say."

   "Good. I'll get you a glass of wine."

   "No thanks. I want to be sure I hear every word and won't wonder tomorrow morning if I made up the whole thing in a drunken stupor."

   He chuckled, then led her over to his "comfy chair," as she called it. He sat down and patted his lap. Merry sat atop a nice-sized bulge and did a little wiggle.

   He groaned. "If you want to talk, you'd better not start that. I'll get completely sidetracked and you deserve a good, thorough explanation."

   "You're right. I'll try to behave myself so you can tell me everything."

   He smiled and shook his head. "You're almost too good to be true. I mean it."

   "Has this ever happened to you before? I mean, turning into a…?"

   "Peregrine falcon," he supplied.

   "Uh, yeah… Has it happened in front of anyone who wasn't ready for it?"

   "No. I've been pretty lucky. And I'm working hard on controlling my shifts. My dad was big on teaching us self-control."

   "So your dad is a…"

   "A shapeshifter. Yes. We're human, but peregrine falcons in our other form. My father, brother, and myself."

   "But your mother isn't?"

   "No. If both parents had been shifters, I would have had pure shifter genes and better control, but I'm only half shifter. My mother loved my father enough to take a chance on him, and we love her even more for handling the weirdness."

   Merry looked at him sideways. "How much weirdness are we talkin'?"

   "Well, we liked to shift in the backyard to fly. That meant getting naked before we left the house."

   "What did the neighbors say?"

   "Thanks to a private yard with loads of trees, they never found out. Mom was still worried about small planes and helicopters passing over at the wrong time. And we had to promise to stay away from jet engines."

   Merry chuckled. "That's a good idea in any form. So what else was weird for her?"

   "Besides the fact that she could never join in? Well, we'd bring the occasional pigeon home for dinner."

   "Pigeon? Yuck, that's disgusting!"

   "No, it's really good. My favorite is mourning dove, but there's plenty of both in any city. We lived in the suburbs, but had a few special places my father would take us to hunt. And don't freak out, but we used to love rabbit, too."

   Merry's hand flew to her chest as she gasped. "You wouldn't hurt Buns!"

   "No. He's your pet. Even in falcon form I'll be aware of the difference between Buns and a wild rabbit. I promise I won't do anything to hurt him."

   "But… other cute animals? Chipmunks? Kittens?"

   "We really didn't bring anything cute and furry home to Mom. She would have been furious. So we stuck to mostly pigeons, but she didn't even want them. Once she put her foot down and said she wasn't going to pluck our pigeons and cook them for us, so we had to settle for store-bought chicken. If you ask me, she's the weird one. Who wouldn't prefer fresh game?"

   Merry wrinkled her nose. "Okay, so you like fresh game. How about quail or pheasant?"

   "Sure. I like just about anything except owls and eagles."

   "I should hope not. Aren't they endangered?"

   "Not as endangered as we are around them, because they eat us!"

   "Oh! That must be frightening if you run into them on your… flights? But don't you have the upper hand since you can turn back into a person when you want to?"

   "Yeah, usually. You should see their eyes when they suddenly have a mouthful of heavy human." He laughed.