Placing his bag of groceries on the table, the bear said, “I didn’t say I was mad at you. Just don’t want you in my house.”

“Well ...” Cella stopped talking. What had she just seen? She spun on her heel and walked back through, meeting up with Jai in the middle of the bear’s living room.

Together the friends studied the area, gazes moving around until Jai observed, “I’ve never in my life seen so much hockey stuff in one place that wasn’t a museum or your father’s closet.”

Jai wasn’t kidding, either. There were framed and signed jerseys from what Cella assumed were the bear’s favorite players, including her dad; someone’s signed skates; a glass case with signed pucks; and framed signed sticks, crossed, on his wall.

“It seems,” Jai went on, “that he favors the Islanders, Philly Flyers, and the Carnivores.”

“I knew he was a fan, but ... wow.”

“At least he didn’t ask you to punch him in the face.”

“It seems he’s a fan of my team, not of me. According to him, I fight too much.”

“You do fight too much,” he called from the kitchen.

Cella’s right eye twitched, but Jai caught her arm, held her in place. “Cella ... remember. Calm. Rational. You need him.”

Cella went back to the kitchen, Jai behind her. The bear was unpacking his grocery bag. Cella folded her arms across her chest, and asked, “So why don’t you want me in your house?”

“Because I can just look at you and tell that you’re trouble.”

“I’m trouble? It wasn’t my brothers softly threatening me with some unknown ‘she.’ And you gonna tell me about that?”

“What would make you think I’d tell you anything at all?”

Cella opened her mouth to say something rude, but Jai cut her off.

“Calm down. Let’s discuss this.”

Cella rolled her eyes. “Discuss this? Really?”

“I have two words for you, Malone,” Jai reminded her, “matchmaker and cousin.”

Realizing she was right, Cella pulled out a chair and dropped into it.

The bear eyed them both. “Matchmaker?”

Jai shrugged. “Like I said, we need a favor.”

“What kind of favor? Does it involve money? Gambling debts?”

Annoyed—again!—Cella slammed her hands on the table and went to stand, but Jai shoved her back down by pushing on her head. “Sit!”

“I’m not a dog!”

“Do as I say.” Jai faced the bear again. “I know you two have a history but we, I, have a big favor to ask.”

“Let me guess. This involves her father and him thinking I’m her boyfriend?”

“Well—”

“I told you that was going to be a problem,” he told Cella. “You don’t listen, do you?”

“Look—”

“She doesn’t,” Jai quickly cut in. “She’s a determined, unreasonable female, and she desperately needs your help.”

“Jai!”

“Quiet, difficult female!”

Cella and Jai scowled at each other until, at the same moment, they both burst out laughing. Cella was not surprised when she heard the bear sigh.

While the two females found reasons to laugh, Crush finished putting away his groceries and put down food for Lola. That was around the time the laughter stopped.

“You have a dog?”

“I’m fostering for a friend.” He whistled and Lola came out of the hiding place she always went to whenever his idiot brothers broke into his home. It used to be his apartment, now it was his house.

Lola trotted into the kitchen, but commenced to barking as soon as she saw Malone and her friend.

The two women looked at him and he shrugged. “She’s not a cat-friendly dog.”

“You foster this dog?”

He didn’t know why Malone sounded so disbelieving. Bears had pet dogs all the time.

“Yeah. You have a problem with that?”

Lola continued to bark, so Crush said, “Cut it.” She did and trotted over to him, turning and sitting down on his foot while facing the two felines.

Malone and the other woman exchanged another glance and Malone said, “This is your dog.”

“She’s a foster. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh. How long have you fostered her?”

“Three years.”

The felines began laughing again and Lola snarled at them. That was his girl.

“What?” he asked.

“She’s your dog. Your dog. No one fosters a dog for three years.”

“It’s hard to place her.”

“A purebred English bulldog?” the woman with Malone kindly asked. Unlike the She-tiger, this woman had basic manners.

“I don’t have papers or anything and she’s been fixed.”

“No one has shown interest in it?”

“ ‘It’ is a her,” he snapped at Malone. “And there have been a few interested people but they weren’t the right family for her.”

“For three years?”

“Why are you here?” he barked, fed up with this line of questioning.

“I need a boyfriend or my aunts are bringing in a matchmaker so they can possibly hook me up with a distant relative.”

With a snort, Crush picked up Lola and put her in front of her food bowl.

“What’s that mean?” Malone asked.