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

After a few minutes of contemplative silence, John asked, “Can you get in contact with George again?”


Morwenna stayed quiet. John didn’t think she was going to answer.


Then she asked, “Why? What is it you need?”


“Does George approve…understand about my feelings for Mitch?”


Morwenna smiled. “You already know the answer to that.”


Did he? “I know you thought he was watching over me, but that’s a lot different to him giving his blessing for Mitch and me.” Was there a Mitch and him?


“Don’t you think that if George hadn’t approved of Mitch he wouldn’t have made it possible for you two to meet?”


“Huh?” Had George had a hand in John meeting Mitch?


John remembered the strange incident in the park with the brochure for the cottages. He’d passed it off at the time as the result of a freak gust of wind. But…the leaflet had kept showing up. Could that have been George’s doing? John shook his head, unable to process any more weird goings on that day.


Chapter 77