Free The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance by Rosie Lynne Page A

hard to get into that without working for free for a while.  I had to move back home after my last internship didn’t get me a job offer.”  She sighed.  “Kind of hard to find museum jobs way out here in the boonies.” 
     
    Willis ran his fingers through her hair.  “You thinking about leaving?”  He asked after a long moment.
     
    Charlie sighed again.  “Sometimes,” she admitted.  “I’m trying out with a friend right now, see if I can afford to live on my own with roommate.  But maybe, some day.”  She shook her head.  “It’s silly, though.  I’m happy right now.”  She leaned up and kissed Willis, peppering his lips with quick little kisses until he laughed to break the serious atmosphere. 
     
    They rolled apart slightly, and Willis leaned over the edge of the edge of the bed to check his phone.
     
    “7:00am, and the weather thinks it's stopped snowing for the most part.”  He rubbed at his face.  “I should go try and get the generator to work.  Get the barn and the cabin heated up.”  He paused.  “Shit.  And call Bill Poole.  He can tow your car at least back to the farm so it isn’t on the road, and plow at least part of the way up here.”
     
    “Do you even have a signal?”  Charlie asked.  “Before my phone died, I could barely get anything.”
     
    With great reluctance, Willis got out of bed.  Charlie watched the muscles in his back and ass flex as he walked naked into the kitchen space and started going through drawers.
     
    “Aha!” he cried.  He held up a big brick of a phone.  “Satellite phone,” he explained and started dialing.
     
    She dug around in the blankets and off the side of the bed for her borrowed shirt and pants.  And socks, she quickly decided, once she put her feet on the floor.  While Willis filled in Bill on the events of the night before, Charlie stroked the fire back up to a roaring blaze.  
     
    She tipped her head back at him when Willis sat down next to her by the fire.  “Well?  What’s the verdict?” she asked.
     
    He offered a tight-lipped smile.  “No idea.  Bill’s going to try and head out here as soon as he can, but since he has one of only four snow plows for several counties, it might be tomorrow at the earliest.”  Charlie must have made an unimpressed face, because Willis quickly added, “We have food.”
     
    She laughed.  “I wasn’t too worried about that.  And I’m not worried about the company, either,” she told him as she patted his knee.  He leaned into her and kissed her shoulder.  “More just the idea of being stuck, you know?  And my family--” she paused.  “Shit,” Charlie muttered.  “I need to call my parents.  They’re probably worried to death by now.”
     
    Willis smiled at her.  “Here, use the satellite phone.  I’ll go have a fight with the generator.  It’s more a one-man job, anyway.”
     
    Charlie helped him into a few layers of long sleeves and heavy coat before tucking a bright orange beanie hat on his head.  Willis grinned at her, all white teeth, before pulling her in close for a quick kiss...which turned into a longer kiss that made Charlie go so far as to lift one of her feet off the floor.
     
    “Enough!”  She told him as she pulled herself free.  Willis laughed as he was pushed out the door.  “Go save us from the cold while I call my mom!”
     
    Charlie managed to shove the big man out the door and close it behind him.  She watched him wade through the snow toward the side of the cabin where the generator was kept.  
     
    She sighed and punched her parents’ landline number into the big blocky phone.  Hopefully they would pick up an unfamiliar number.  It rang several times, making Charlie worry that their power was out as well, before her mother finally picked up.
     
    “Hello?”  Brenda asked tentatively into the phone.
     
    “Hey, mama.”
     
    “Oh, thank goodness!  Bobby!” her mother called in the background to her