Jack was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to pee himself. He swung me up into his arms, sat me on the porch rail, and turned to face the marauding horde.
"All right, geese. You're in for it now," he told them, but they looked decidedly unimpressed.
Until he shifted.
The lead goose, suddenly confronted with an enormous tiger, skidded to a halt. Behind him, his gang members—er, flock—ran into each other, trying to stop and stay away from the scary predator.
But I had to give it to him. The lead goose was no chicken. I could tell by the look in his beady eyes that he was still considering whether to go after Jack or go through him to get to me.
And then Jack roared.
The geese all immediately decided they had other places to be and wheeled around in a bunch, then raced off the porch and down into the yard, feathers flying and a cacophony of honking filling the air.
Before I could breathe a sigh of relief, Jack growled, soared off the porch in one giant leap, and then chased the geese around the yard. Not seriously, of course. One tiger-sized hop and he could have been on top of the entire flock. I doubted he wanted to hurt the silly birds, after all.
But I didn't mind him scaring them a little.
The enormous tiger herded them back into their goose pen, gently nudged in a few goslings that had gotten confused, and pushed the door shut with one giant paw. I wasn't sure how they'd gotten out in the first place, but the alpha goose looked like he might've been smart enough to figure out a simple door latch.
Then Jack sauntered back over to me, flashing a big, toothy grin.
I hopped down off the rail and met him in the yard. Then I put my arms around his furry neck and kissed the top of his head. "Thanks for protecting me from the scary geese."
I took a step back so he could shift back into his human form.
"I'd do anything to put a smile on your face, Sweet Pea. Even brave a flock of killer geese." His human grin was every bit as toothy as his tiger grin had been.
"My big, strong hero." I kissed his cheek. "But a hard no to Sweet Pea."
We decided on the way back to town that there was nothing we could do about Darryl or to help Andy right then. But I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I'd already called off the shopping trip I'd had planned for today by texting everybody while I waited for Jack earlier. I wasn't in the mood for shopping now, anyway.
I sighed. Again. And then just stared morosely out the window. Even the temporary lift I had gotten from Jack's adventure with the geese had worn off. Why did stuff like this keep happening?
"I've got an idea," Jack announced.
I glanced over at him. "What?"
"Let's get out of town. We can pick up Shelley and Zane and take them to the beach. The weather is great, and it's not even too cold, especially considering that it's December. They're out of school, the shop is closed, and we need to do something fun for a change."
"Cocoa Beach?" I would never have thought of it, considering the circumstances, but I liked the idea. A lot. "We could take a picnic."
"Nope. Let's have a giant seafood lunch at one of those little restaurants on the beach. I bet I can eat my weight in fried fish."
I started laughing. "That's a fool's bet. Those poor people have never seen anything like you. You would drive a restaurant into bankruptcy if you ever went to one of those all-you-can-eat deals."
Jack shook his head. "Wouldn't be fair. The couple of times I ate at a place like that, I paid them for four dinners and only ate that much or less."
Because of course he did. He was Jack. And there was no doubt in my mind that he also tipped the servers four times as much.
"You're kind of wonderful. Do you know that?" I put my hand over his on the steering wheel.
He flushed, which always amused me coming from a big tough soldier like him. "You're the one who's wonderful, and I'm just lucky to know you."
"Okay. Let's just agree that we're both awesome and take our amazing selves to the beach."
I called Dave and got enthusiastic and somewhat frazzled permission to take Zane, and then I called Aunt Ruby. She and Uncle Mike were only too happy to have Shelley off their hands. They had wrapping and other things to do, and she was so hyped up on excitement over her birthday and Christmas, she was bouncing around the house like she'd eaten a pound of candy. So, we picked up the kids and headed out.
It was the best idea ever.
