On his first night renting a cottage on the Cornish coast, widower John Tennant comes face to face with, of all things, a grizzly bear. Fearing for his life, John tries to convince the animal he isn't worth eating, and is relieved when the bear ambles away. Maintenance man Mitch Benjamin is two hundred years old but doesn’t look a day over forty. As a werebear, he needs to stay under the radar. The new renter is making that difficult. Not only is John attractive, but his vulnerability triggers all of Mitch’s protective instincts. If that wasn’t trouble enough, Mitch is struggling with his inner bear’s desire to befriend John. He knows what his bear is up to, but Mitch doesn’t want another mate. His last one was murdered ninety years ago, and he’s still grieving. John is confused by Mitch’s mixed signals. Physically, Mitch -- with his bulging muscles and hulking frame -- is a gay man’s wet dream come true. But emotionally, he keeps closing down. John discovers more comfort with the magnificent grizzly bear he occasionally meets on his evening walks along the beach. In an effort to help, Morwenna, the owner of the cottages, uses her psychic gifts to give John a message from his dead lover, George. Far from helping, it adds another layer of strangeness to what’s already turning out to be the strangest summer John can remember. Can a well-meaning medium and a determined grizzly bring John and Mitch together? Will Mitch come clean about his werebear nature? If he does, can John accept that a man and bear exist in the same body?

Summer's Lease

They talked mostly about John and George and how they’d gotten together, and the tragedy that had separated them.


John could feel himself getting emotional, and, so it seemed, could Mitch, who reached across the table and took John’s hand.


“I know, I lost someone, too. A long time ago.”


Mitch shook his head. “Not much. I still miss him every day.”


John had wondered if Mitch was gay. He’d suspected, but his gaydar wasn’t ever the most reliable.


Obviously sensing a change of subject was needed, Mitch told John a little about his earlier life high in the Cascade Mountains in the American state of Washington.


John tried to picture the rustic log cabin Mitch described. It sounded peaceful and fine for a holiday, but John doubted he could live long term without things like electricity and mains water. “I suppose I’m spoiled in that respect, always living in a big city.”


Chapter 21