Jason McPherson loves his job and his life. There’s no drama, he has the love of his parents, and an assistant that gives him all the friendship he needs. Yeah, life is good…calm.
That is until Landry Astor storms into his tailor and design shop making demands and unknowingly steals Jason’s heart.
Landry isn’t all he seems to be and soon enough, Jason’s once quiet life turns upside down. It’s going to take some Jurassic measures to make sense out of everything…but that’s okay, because together, they’ll have forever to figure it out.
Jurassic Measures was part of the Cretaceous Crushes Charity Anthology which is now unpublished. This was my contribution to that anthology. Nothing has been added or changed from it’s original version.
This was originally released as part of the Cretaceous Crushes Charity Anthology(which is no longer available) but I never got an opportunity to read it at the time so when the author released it as a short story, it was completely new to me. You don't often see, or at least I haven't come across it before, dinosaur shifters in any genre. I imagine in a way that left a pretty shallow pool for the author to dive into and she certainly dived head first filling it with all kinds of unusual awesomeness.
Could Jurassic Measures have been better as a full length novel? Perhaps, but it plays very well as a short novella. World building can be difficult in a short story but Davidson King really paints the picture here letting us know how dino shifters survived all this time. We get to see how the whole fated mates works when Landry introduces Jason to his parents, in doing this she is able to blend brevity with details.
I'm going to stop here so as not to spoil anything. I will say this isn't the dark, action-packed suspense stories we tend to associate the author with, is it outside her comfort zone? No, because she has given us lighter stories around the holidays before but just not what she typically creates. You'll laugh, you'll smile, you will definitely want to know more but you don't need to know more to pull you in and want to see the HEA for Jason and Landry. On a personal note, October has been a difficult month for me as it was my first birthday without my mother and she loved Halloween and all the gore and scare that goes with the holiday. I love the dark stuff, especially this time of year but King's Jurassic Measures was exactly the right amount of lightness I needed. For that alone I want to send a huge thank you to the author, for that moment of light.
PROLOGUE
Deep breaths.
I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.
Okay, I do love it, but honestly, my father is like a rabid dictator. He doesn’t let me be my own creator or have my own ideas.
Ever since I was a little boy, all I ever wanted was to be like my father. He wasn’t just an amazing tailor, he designed suits, gowns, and anything the human body could wear. When I was fifteen, I had the nerve to ask him why his shop was called McPherson Tailors and not Tailor and Designs? He smacked me on the back of the head and explained he wasn’t some namby-pamby designer. Which also told me he had no idea what namby-pamby meant or that designers were artists.
When I graduated high school I still very much wanted to work beside my father. I truly believed I could convince him to expand on the title and maybe even travel.
At twenty-one, I took the risk and asked, “Maybe we should travel and promote the shop and your…our work?”
Another slap upside the head and a stern, “People come to me not the other way around.” At least he didn’t say namby-pamby.
Now, I’m thirty-three, my father’s arthritis has slowly been getting the better of him and he’s coming up on his seventieth birthday. Many nights as we closed, he’d announce he’d be retiring and leaving all this to me one day. A part of me longed for the day I could turn McPherson’s into something more, but on the other hand, I would miss working with the old man.
As we locked up one clear and still brisk March evening, my father gripped my arm and turned me to face him.
“Jason.”
His eyes were full of worry and suddenly I was no longer chilly, but instead sweating. “What’s wrong?”
He snorted and shook his head. “Nothing is wrong. I wanted to tell you all day, but I kept stalling.” His sigh was heavy, weary. “I’m officially retiring. My hands…” The way he held them up, visibly stiff and slightly swollen at the joints, it was easy to see he was in pain. “You’ve had a vision for this shop and I’ve held you back.” I had my own set of keys to the store but he handed me his. Symbolism maybe?
“Your time has come.”
“Dad, I…”
“You’re so talented, Jason. You’ll bring McPherson Tailors into the future, and I…” He wiggled his fingers. “I’ll rest.”
My heart ached realizing this was the last time I’d be closing the shop with my dad, and at the same time excitement bubbled in the pit of my belly.
“I love you, Dad.”
His smile was wide and bright and when he laughed, it was as contagious as ever. Yeah, he was a dictator of his craft, but one hell of a father.
“I love you too, Son. Now let’s go home. Your mom told me I wouldn’t get any pot roast if I didn’t finally tell you tonight.”
“When were you supposed to tell me?” I quirked a brow.
He shrugged. “Maybe two months ago.”
“Jesus,” I mumbled under my breath. “Let’s get you home then. I’ll have some pot roast with you before I go to my place.”
Davidson King, always had a hope that someday her daydreams would become real-life stories. As a child, you would often find her in her own world, thinking up the most insane situations. It may have taken her awhile, but she made her dream come true with her first published work, Snow Falling.
She managed to wrangle herself a husband who matched her crazy and they hatched three wonderful children.
If you were to ask her what gave her the courage to finally publish, she’d tell you it was her amazing family and friends. Support is vital in all things and when you’re afraid of your dreams, it will be your cheering section that will lift you up.
EMAIL: davidsonkingauthor@yahoo.com
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