Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (159 page)

No wonder the birds were upset. Change like that, the noise of repairs, and workmen streaming in and out of the house could challenge even a lovebird’s affection.

As they reached the front door, a loud screech sounded. Wyatt turned to Jazmine. “See?”

Jazmine rang the doorbell, not wanting to egg Wyatt on. How she had ended up in this job still baffled her. To act as an assistant to a man pretending to be a pet psychic? But that one hundred thousand dollars in student loans needed to get paid.

“
It’s open!” a voice called out. “Come in!”

From all the screeching, maybe Wyatt was right. It did sound a little like a combat zone. Her “boss” puffed out three quick breaths, then opened the door.

“
Hurry,” the voice called out. “Close the door before…”

Jazmine slammed the door closed just as a green and red bird streaked up, screaming all the way, its bright plumage a blur. It banked over their heads, then dove.

Straight for Wyatt. He ducked, covering his head, but somehow the bird landed right in the middle where Wyatt couldn’t reach. He stood up abruptly as Jazmine tried contained her laughter.

“
What?” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “What’s so funny?”

She pointed to the bird on his head, but Wyatt just couldn’t find the little thing as it settled down on the top of his head. Jazmine’s eyes teared up from suppressing the laughter.

“
You’ve…you’ve got…”

“
Got what?” Wyatt exclaimed, turning in a tight circle. “I’ve got a what?”

By now the lovebird was preening its feathers, right on top of Wyatt’s head.

“
You’ve got a…”

“
A what?” Wyatt demanded.

“
I am so sorry,” their client, Mrs. Haufman said, running up. “I don’t know what’s gotten into…”

Another huge screech and suddenly a second lovebird banked around the corner, zeroing in on Wyatt.

“
Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Wyatt yelled. trying to duck, but the second lovebird came at him, talons out. “Um, hey! A little help here? Ow! What the…”

“
Shoo!” Jazmine said, waving at the two birds until they finally flew off, fighting all the way.

“
I can’t possibly apologize enough,” Mrs. Haufman said, as she extended her hand.

“
No. No, you couldn’t,” her boss said, shaking his head, sending green feathers everywhere.

“
I’m Ragan.” The client explained, “They have been going at it for weeks. I can’t understand why.”

Jazmine was about to reply when a male voice called out, “Ragan! Have you seen the Goltz brief? I put it down on the mantel and now I can’t find it.”

Ragan’s lips fell into a hard frown as she yelled back. “I put it in your desk, Dan. You know. Desk? The place where paperwork’s supposed to be kept?” She grimaced at Jazmine, apparently looking for some feminine solidarity. “But how about you come and meet the pet psychic and his assistant?”

“
Yeah, yeah… I’ll be there in a minute,” the husband responded. “I need to make a quick call.”

“
Quick call,” Ragan muttered then raised her voice. “It’s never a quick call.” Their client turned her attention back to them. “I’m sorry. I really thought that doing this on Valentine’s Day would make it so that we could do this all together.”

“
Hey, yeah, no problem,” Wyatt said, still trying to get his hair back in place while eyeing the arguing birds. “They always so friendly?”

The woman sighed. “They used to be so in love. Grooming each other. They could barely be apart, but now?”

She indicated to the curtain rod. Each bird had settled on either end, glaring at one another.

Mr. Haufman came out of the office, setting both birds squawking at one another. “Satisfied?” he asked his wife. “A
short
call.”

Ragan did not seem satisfied at all, especially with the two lovebirds high pitched cries. “And it’s only taken
how
many weeks to schedule a simple appointment?”

Jazmine stepped forward before the humans started fighting as badly as the birds. “Well, I think we will need to do a thorough history and then discuss…”

“
No need,” Wyatt announced. “I’ve got this covered.”

She turned on her heel. Wyatt seldom had anything “covered” and this? They had barely walked into the house. Jazmine knew they had to keep up the appearance that Wyatt had “psychic” abilities, but she comforted herself in doing their jobs properly. Figuring out all the environmental factors, making sure the pets had been to a veterinarian to be certain there were no underlying medical conditions, reviewing the pet’s diet, basically making sure that the clients got their money’s worth.

“
Wyatt, perhaps we should take a moment…”

“
Nope,” Wyatt stated. “I am hearing those lovebirds loud and clear.”

* * *

Wyatt, of course, had no real idea what he was going to say. When did he? But those lovebirds were looking a little twitchy, flapping their green wings and snapping open and closed their hooked beaks. Sure they might be weighed in grams, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t take a chunk out of you.

Besides he’d seen a couple like this before. Not the birds, but the humans. They looked just like his sister and brother-in-law. The way the husband was turned away from the wife, and the wife’s arms were wrapped around her waist. Add in this big rambling house, recently purchased as evidenced by the smell of fresh paint, plus the station wagon out front.

A couple didn’t buy all that without an expectation of the pitter-patter of little feet.

“
You see,” Wyatt started. “I think the lovebirds want to start a family.” Jazmine backed away, shaking her head, but he ignored her peculiarities and marched on. “They want to build a nest.”

Mr. and Mrs. Haufman frowned, but not the scowl like Jazmine—more like a frown you get when somebody is talking turkey or in this case, lovebird.

“
And sometimes the guy…”

“
Bird,” Jazmine interjected.

“
Yeah, the guy
bird
feels like he’s got to build this amazing nest. Since he can’t lay the eggs, building a tricked out nest, that’s his job, ya know?”

Mr. Haufman nodded as one of the birds flittered down from the curtain rod and landed on his shoulder.

“
He’s worried he won’t be a good enough dad,” Wyatt hurried over Jazmine, “
Bird
dad. That his kids, I mean, chicks, I mean hatchlings, I mean…oh, you know what I mean, will need more than he can provide.”

While Mr. Haufman’s head was bobbing up and down in agreement, Mrs. Haufman had adopted Jazmine’s scowl. Wyatt turned to the wife.

“
And while the dad, bird dad, of course,
bird
dad, is off getting the nest ready the
mom
bird feels left out and lonely.” The second little green and red monster swooped down landing on Mrs. Haufman’s shoulder as Wyatt continued, “Then she starts to wonder if the dad bird even wants little lovebirds anymore.”

Tears sprang to Mrs. Haufman’s eyes. “I can see why the birds have been so upset.”

“
Yeah,” Mr. Haufman took his wife’s hand. “So the birds really should be building the nest
together
.”

“
Pretty much, yeah.” Wyatt said giving Jazmine a knowing look, like “I know what I’m doing” look. Even if he did luck out a little on this one. “They are lovebirds after all.”

Ragan leaned her head onto her husband’s shoulder as the two birds took wing, flying together, swooping in and around one another.

“
They just had to remember it,” Wyatt finished, looking to his watch. Like he said, under five minutes. “All right, then, I think we are done here. Nice to meet you both.”

He put his hand out to shake, but the lovebirds, the human ones, had eyes only for each other. Just as well. It was Valentine’s Day.

“
We will let ourselves out,” he said.

They didn’t really reply so much as start making out. Time to exit stage left.

Once out the door, Jazmine elbowed him in the ribs.

“
What?” Wyatt protested, rubbing his bruised side. “They’re happy.”

“
Um, did you
not
notice?” she asked.

“
Notice?”

“
Those two lovebirds?” Jazmine said, that eyebrow on the move, again. “They are both
girls
.”

Wyatt just smiled. Sometimes he even impressed himself. “So they are very progressive lovebirds, what can I say? I’ve got the magic touch.”

His assistant rolled her eyes as they walked to their cars. So what if he didn’t know a weevil from a weasel? He knew dysfunction when he saw it. He lived it. Heck, he made it a viable lifestyle choice.

Which unfortunately meant he picked up on the droop in Jazmine’s step. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Your older man not wanting to build a nest?”

She stopped, eyes downcast. “Yeah, about that—I kind of fibbed.”

Fibbed? That was Wyatt’s thing, not Jazmine’s. “About what?”

“
I don’t have a date, per se.”

Ugh. Wyatt hated it when people used weird words. Was “per se” Spanish? French? Seriously, speak English for goodness sake.

“
You don’t?” he asked, hoping that was vague, yet prompting enough to get Jazmine to say what she really meant.

“
I…” she looked up and caught his gaze. “I was going to visit your uncle in the hospital. I didn’t think he should be alone today.”

Wyatt could feel even his well-gelled hair wilt. His Uncle Bodhi. After that stupid stroke, he’d been in a coma. Wyatt had visited him every single day. Mainly because Diablo, the demon Chihuahua insisted, but today, today Wyatt had sworn off the hospital. He had three, count ‘em, three dates.

And who could sit through another round of Where the Red Fern Grows? Which by the way, someone might put a warning label on that sucker because the ending? Dear goodness, they had kids reading that book? Then he thought they’d be safe with Bambi and what do you know? The momma deer gets shot. Again, this is kid’s fare? And don’t get him started on Marley & Me.

What was wrong with an animal story that was fun and heartwarming all the way through? Seriously? He didn’t want his uncle waking up to a blubber-fest.

“
But you go have fun,” Jazmine said fighting with the rusted lock of her beater-mobile.

“
Nah,” Wyatt said jiggling the door’s handle, opening it. “I’ll follow you there.”

Jazmine cocked her head. “But you’ve got three, count ‘em, three dates.”

“
Um, hello?” Wyatt stated, making sure he sounded plenty exasperated. “Don’t you know what day this is?”

“
Valentine’s Day?” Jazmine answered slowly.

“
No. It is meatloaf day down in the cafeteria and who, I ask, who is going to miss out on that?”

“
Not you, I take it,” his assistant said chuckling.

“
And not you, either,” Wyatt reassured her. “But since it is Valentine’s Day, we are putting extra ketchup on that sucker to honor the occasion.”

“
Sounds like a plan,” Jazmine said, as she hunched over to get in her tiny speck of a car.

“
You know it,” Wyatt responded, walking back to his car, then turned back to Jazmine. “So do you know how
Old Yeller
ends?”

“
I think we might want to go with
Free Willy
.”

Wyatt stopped short. “That’s an animal movie?”

Jazmine’s dimples showed as she laughed. “Yes, Wyatt. Yes, it is.”

Huh. You learned something new every day.

~~

Black Jade

By Taylor Lee

San Francisco, Chinatown

February 1885

“
Guipo biao
! Come here!” Ting’s nasal screech echoed through the hallway. Struggling to quash her anger at the ugly curse, Daiyu hurried up the stairs, balancing the heavy loads of laundry in her strong arms. She was accustomed to Ting slurring her mixed heritage, but this was the first time that Ting called her a whore—at least, she thought with a dismissive shrug—to her face.

Lowering her eyes to avoid looking at the group of tittering girls lounging on the satin- covered pillows, she stole a quick glance at Ting Lyn.

Long ago, her father taught her the power of the anger-cleansing breath. Daiyu hid her grin. She was sure that her father would be amused if he knew that when it came to Ting, instead of a river of peace, Daiyu envisioned her anger breaths as a flurry of flying ants. She reveled in the image of Ting’s twisted face and squinty eyes as she furiously fought off the biting insects.