Seven Years (21 page)

“You’ll have to tell her what she is when she’s older, Lexi. It wouldn’t be fair to her not knowing what she could become, but it has to remain a secret.” Austin placed his hands firmly on my shoulders and backed me against the wall. “
No one
can know. Not even your mother. There are Breeds that can’t have or make one of their own. She would even be appealing among Shifters or Chitahs because she doesn’t know the rules or how women of that Breed behave, so a deviant man would find her… trainable,” he almost growled.

“I won’t say anything,” I promised. “But can you do me a favor and stop springing all this
life-altering shit on me, Austin
!” I shrieked.

That was it. I’d finally had more than I could take and flew out of the room to take a shower and curse as I gave myself an angry shampoo.

***

Naya was a gem and agreed to watch Maizy for the day. I actually felt more safe with her over there than in my apartment; McNeal didn’t seem to know about Maizy, so it kept her out of danger. Naya had a day planned of movies, pizza, and shopping.

I drove to Sweet Treats to check on April and see how she was holding out on her own. It was over a hundred degrees outside and I dressed for it in my jean shorts, long T-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops. When I opened the door, a cool breeze didn’t smack me in the face like it usually did. It was sweltering, and April was on her knees with her hands in a canister, lifting a gooey mess and chucking it into a trash can.

As her eyes floated up, she wiped her brow with her forearm and her lip quivered.

“What happened?” I scanned the room and couldn’t believe the disaster before me. Half the canisters were empty with smears of melted candy on the plastic as well as the floor.

And April, for that matter.

“Charlie didn’t pay the electric bill and they shut it off.”

“What?” I gasped. “Can they even do that?”

“Apparently, they can.” She glanced around and wiped her hand on the apron. “I managed to move some of the candy, but I didn’t have any place to take it. The pizza shop next door didn’t have any cooler space and I couldn’t put them in the car,” she said, throwing her hands up in surrender. April’s stylish hair was streaked with pink and chocolate. It was sticking out on one side and her face was red with sweat dripping down her temple. “Now it’s just a race to get them out of the canisters before they make an even bigger mess for me to clean up.”

“Did you call Charlie?”

“He’s not answering.”

“When did this start?”

April shrugged. “I don’t know. Bridget called in sick, so I came in around noon to open up shop. The store felt like the freaking jungle, so maybe it went out last night?”

I reached around to my back pocket and pulled out a band, tying my hair up in a ponytail. I was going into crisis mode. We had a candy war on our hands and time was of the essence.

“The candy can’t be salvaged,” I said. “He’ll have to take the loss. What you need to do is start ordering more inventory. Tally up how much we need, because we’re going to want to make sure we can quickly restock our supply when the power comes back on. I can’t afford to cover the bill for Charlie, so I’m going to drive to his house and see what’s going on. Leave the candy. Once the air comes back on, we’ll drop the temperature so the candy re-hardens. It’ll be easier to pull it out instead of you contending with ten gallons of taffy.”

April had a bright laugh—like wind chimes—but she was a control-freak and didn’t handle chaos very well. One of the canisters tipped over as she stood up.

“I’ll put a sign on the door and cancel our orders,” she said. “Maybe some of them will reschedule, but I seriously doubt it.”

“I wonder how much those canisters cost,” I murmured, deciding they were probably ruined. “Do me a favor and open up the doors. Put the sign up that we’re closed. Call the girls and tell them we need them on standby. I really don’t want everyone in here dying of a heatstroke, but if it cools down later tonight, we can start cleaning up.”

April got out her phone and a list of contacts she kept under the counter.

“Uh-uh,” I said, taking her wrist. “Change of plans. Lock up the store and go cool down at the pizza place while you make your calls. Order a few glasses of water and
do not
overwork yourself. Your health is more important than all this.”

After she washed her hands in the bathroom, April closed Sweet Treats and I stood out front and called Austin to inform him of what was going on. He wanted me to keep in touch and let him know where I was because he expected to hear news from Ivan today.

April staggered up the hot sidewalk like a zombie, and I hopped in my car and headed over to Charlie’s house. I’d been there a couple of times for barbecues and had once picked up his mail when he traveled out of town. He lived fifteen minutes away from the shop and when I pulled up to his small, two-bedroom house, something immediately caught my attention.

Several newspapers were scattered across the brown grass.

I picked one up and noticed the date. I began tossing them onto his porch and rang the bell. After a third ring, I walked around the house and peered into the windows, but the drapes were all closed and it was hard to see anything. The garage door was down, so I couldn’t tell if he had gone out of town.

“You lookin’ for Charles?”

A woman in her sixties stood on the edge of the driveway, watering her grass with a green water hose in an attempt to save her dried-up lawn. She had a southern drawl and a scratchy voice that sounded like a cat squalling.

“Yes, ma’am. He’s my boss. Have you seen him?”

A ring of sweat circled beneath the armpits of her blue shirt. She was clearly a woman who didn’t give a damn about water restrictions as she sprayed water on the dirty driveway. She scratched her curly hair, dyed a pale blond, and sprayed another patch of dead grass.

“He’s been sick with cancer. I saw the ambulance here the other night and Lord knows what happened to that man. I don’t think he’s got any family that I know of, except an older woman who came by a few times. I think she’s his sister because her license plate said Ohio. I don’t know who else would drive all the way from Ohio to Hell, unless it was for family.”

Cancer?
I knew Charlie hadn’t been feeling well lately, but I had no idea how serious his condition was. “Do you know what kind of cancer? How long has this been going on?”

She pursed her lips. “I reckon a year or two, maybe more. He mentioned it to Daryl once but didn’t say what kind, just that he was getting those treatments. Charles told us his hair was thinning and he bought himself one of those rugs.” She chuckled and sprayed a leaf into the grass. “Ugliest damned thing I ever saw.”

“What hospital?”

“What do I look like, the news channel? I just saw the ambulance come in and drive off. Haven’t seen him since.”

When I got back to my car, I turned down an old Foreigner song and dropped my head against the steering wheel. “
Cancer
,” I whispered. Had I known, I would have visited him, brought over dinner, and helped Charlie out with any errands he needed done. We were probably stressing him out with work-related calls when he needed someone to take care of him. Charlie didn’t have a family to look after him, and was only in his late fifties.

The rest of the afternoon, I ran errands that were long overdue, including a visit to my mom’s house to check her mail and make sure her bills were taken care of.

I shivered and slid the thermostat up to eighty. No sense in having cold air blowing in an empty house. I grabbed a small bag for Maizy and then stuffed a few of Mom’s clothes into a separate bag. I wasn’t about to prepare for the worst, even though I sat quietly in her bedroom, staring at a picture of us on her dresser.

I packed her root touch-up because she dyed her hair blond and the last time I talked with her, she had mentioned her roots were showing her age again. I didn’t know what she was talking about. She could let her hair go grey and she’d still be the prettiest woman I knew.

The only thing that had changed was I could no longer look forward to looking like her when I grew up.

“Journey? They’re really breaking out the oldies,” I said with a nostalgic smile.
Classic rock still dominated the playlist, and not much had been upgraded at The Pit since my last visit. Best barbecue joint in town and it hadn’t changed in all these years. The walls were the color of the sauce and still decorated with wooden wagon wheels, knotted ropes, and antlers from a dead animal. I never liked staring at animal parts nailed on a wall because the last thing I wanted was to be reminded of what I was actually eating.

Austin lifted the yellow plates off the tray and set them on the wooden table. I had sent him on a mission to order my dinner because I was curious if he would remember what I liked.

“I don’t know how you can eat that,” he remarked, wrinkling his nose at my plate.

I popped the fried okra in my mouth and grinned. “Because okra is good for you.”

“Deep fried?”

It was bustling in here. The families had already vacated and the atmosphere changed, becoming more rowdy. Several groups of single teenage girls sat in clusters while the guys spun around in their seats, whistling and flirting with them.

Some things never change.

I took a bite of my rib and wiped my hands on the paper towels they put on the table. I tapped my finger against the edge of my plate, looking around the room.

“Something wrong with your food?” he asked, eyeing my hand.

Austin had rolled his short sleeves over his shoulders because the ceiling fans did nothing to cool things down. A few of the women were gawking at him, and the tats were working in his favor.

“I hope you know all the women in here are sizing you up for dessert,” I pointed out while sipping my draft.

Austin laced his fingers together with a lazy grin spreading across his face. “I hadn’t noticed.”

On cue, a woman’s black heels clicked on the floor and stopped at our table, just to my left.

“Well, well, Austin Cole. Been a long time since I last saw you, honey. I hardly recognized you with all the tattoos.”

There was a soft vibrato in her voice—the kind a woman uses for dirty talk, which must have been on her mind by the way she slowly twirled her necklace between her fingers. I didn’t have a clue who she was, but I wondered if the two of them had been intimate, because his eyes slid up her body and met with hers as if he were remembering something.

“Life’s treating you good, Bonnie. You still live around here?”

She jutted her hip in the painted-on jeans that threatened to rip apart if she bent over.

“Mmmhmm. Just up the road a ways. Where you been hiding all these years?”

I began to feel invisible, because Bonnie was hitting on Austin like I was nothing more than restaurant décor. It shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but I stopped eating and looked out the window.

“Had to get away and live a little,” he answered.

“I’d love to hear all about it,” she said with a lift in her voice. “I remember when you used to come in here with those troublemakers back in high school. Shoot, I can’t even remember their names anymore.”

And then, all of a sudden, Austin’s hand slid across the table and rested on mine. He still kept his eyes on hers, engaged in conversation, but he held my hand and stroked my fingers with his thumb. A flush of heat touched my cheeks and I turned to look at Bonnie and caught her smoky eyes staring at our hands.

“Did you ever settle down?” he asked. “Kids?”

Which threw a wet towel on her parade of whoredom. “I married a few times, but I just got the one kid. He’s with his grandma now. You got kids?”

“Seven,” Austin replied with a straight face.

“Lord have mercy, you’re kidding me!” She looked horrified.

“Always wanted a football team,” he said with a wink. “Just divorced the wife, so I’m looking for someone to fill that spot and help me achieve my dream. Are you a team player, Bonnie?”

I spit out my beer and quickly set my glass down before I spilled it.

“Good running into you, Austin. I’ve heard of sacking the quarterback, but I think that’s a little bit much for me. Good luck at the playoffs,” she said, clearly not amused.

Bonnie sauntered off and the heat from Austin’s hand was the only thing that registered in my brain. I don’t even think I heard the music playing until Austin sat back in his seat, shaking his head at Bonnie as she strutted her stuff right out the door.

I chewed off a few bites of my rib and wiped my fingers with the paper towel again, deciding it was better not to ask him why he’d held my hand. Obviously, he wanted Bonnie to think he was taken so she’d clear out. Austin resumed devouring his rack of ribs. Except men didn’t hold theirs daintily like women did, using their fingertips. He held them caveman style.

Maybe it was strategic so he could sexily turn up his hand and slowly suck off the sauce from his thumb.

Or maybe I had an overactive imagination and shouldn’t have been noticing such a thing.

“Seven?” I asked.

His black lashes winked over his wolfish blue eyes. “Wishful thinking.”

I was seconds away from bringing up the topic about my boss when I remembered April sitting in a pile of taffy. A laugh began to bubble. Then there was my mother and sister being kidnapped, staying in a house full of strange men, realizing I was a Shifter (and going into heat, no less), discovering my brother was a murder victim, and then my father being a criminal on the run for diamond theft.

My unbelievable life finally erupted into a burst of maniacal laughter. It graduated only briefly to the infamous Beaker laugh before tapering off into tears. Austin watched me with apprehension, because nothing was funny. He must have sensed it was one of those moments when a person has a very public display of a nervous breakdown. A few people turned to look, but he ignored them.

“You okay? Shit, I’m really sorry, Lexi. I haven’t been the most sensitive person with everything going on.” He set down his rib and wiped off his hands. “Ivan should be calling me tonight. He said if I didn’t hear from him by midnight, then either he was dead, or Hell had finally frozen over.”

“I hope so,” I said.

“He’ll find her,” Austin reassured me. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll find her myself.”

“I think my boss is sick,” I finally said, taking a long sip of my glass of beer. “A neighbor said he has cancer and went to the hospital. That’s why the bills haven’t been paid on the store. I didn’t know it was that bad.”

He sighed, rubbing his clean-shaven jaw. The talisman around his neck was tucked inside his white shirt and he had styled his hair handsomely. He still looked like he could drag anyone in the parking lot and kick their ass, but I didn’t see that side of him when I looked into his eyes. I just saw Austin.

I still wanted to mess up his hair with my fingers.

“Don’t worry about the store. I sent the twins over to clean up.”

“You what?”

“You shouldn’t be doing all that work yourself.” Austin glanced at his watch. “They’ll be there until one o’clock and then head back to the house. I keep a tight watch on my pack.” He turned his fork between his fingers and set it down. “Don’t look at me that way, Lexi. Just accept my help.”

And I did. I accepted it because at this point, my only support system was a bra. “Thanks. I hope April knows what’s going on; she might have a problem with two strange men showing up to clean.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he said, eying my plate. “They took Ivy with them. Women are more trusting when another woman is around.”

“Lovely. You sent Ivy into a sweatshop environment to scrub a dirty floor? She’s really going to want to stay with you now,” I said sarcastically.

The coleslaw was just as good as I remembered and I must have cleaned it off my plate in five scoops.

“Never did know where you put it all,” he murmured, setting down his fork.

“Well, you can probably tell now. I’ve put on a few since you last saw me.”

He snorted and stuffed a roll in his mouth. “In all the right places.”

There was that tingle again.

I wrapped my lips around the prongs of my fork and looked up. Austin wasn’t just watching me, his eyes were glued to my mouth, and I became self-conscious when a piece of cabbage stuck to my bottom lip. My hand flew up to cover my mouth and the awkward moment passed. The music changed over to a song by Pink (“Try,” I think it was), and a paper wrapper from a straw sailed by us and landed on the floor.

Austin smiled nostalgically and rapped his knuckles on the table to the beat of the song, lost in his thoughts. “This is nice,” he finally said.

“Yeah.”

I think I knew what he meant. We were always linked by Wes, and it was getting easier to be together without his ghost hovering between us.

We talked about old times and I asked stupid things like if he still had his old leather jacket and why didn’t he join a rock band with Jericho. Austin could carry a tune, but he said it wasn’t his thing. Now that he was a Packmaster, his responsibility was maintaining stability within his family and the Shifter community. They would get jobs and help bring in money as well as assisting other packs as needed, but Austin had acquired a lot of money from his jobs over the years. Evidently, his work paid well. Money wouldn’t last forever, so he encouraged them to find something they enjoyed doing. Jericho sang, Denver worked as a bartender four nights a week, and Reno… well, Austin didn’t mention what exactly Reno did. Ben and Wheeler were out of work and looking.

After another tall glass of beer and a few sips of Austin’s root-beer float, I decided it was time for us to head home.

“Big girl’s room,” I declared with an impish grin.

Austin chuckled and stretched his arm across the seat, watching me get up. He might have been sly about stealing glances, but I noticed his eyes sliding down to my ass. As I walked by him, I bent over and squinted. My face was numb, one of the telltale signs I’d had too much to drink.

“You have something… right
here
,” I said, tapping my chin with a lazy smile on my face.

A sexy smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Then lick it off,” he teased.

Never one to turn down a dare, I bent forward and sucked on his chin. In my defense, I was drunk. I would never have done anything like that in a sober state of mind, but the tingly feeling of beer slid through my body and made me lose those inhibitions. It also shocked the hell out of Austin because I felt his entire body tense up, which I noticed because my hands were resting on his hard biceps.

I moved my mouth slowly, swirling my tongue over the dab of sauce, and suddenly there was a moment, even if only a brief second, where something fired up between us. His bristly chin had the first hint of stubble, the tang of barbecue sauce awakened my taste buds, and his shallow breath heated my cheek.

Had a sharp wolf whistle across the room not snapped me out of it, I might have even slid my lips over to his… just to see what would happen.

Austin was real smooth about it, too. When I pulled back, he lifted his left arm and touched my nose, dabbing a dollop of sauce on it. Maybe he was being funny, or maybe it was a dare on his part, but I wiped it off and left the table before discovering what base I could get to with Austin and a bottle of barbecue sauce. He laughed and stretched back in his seat.

Damn. He still had a great laugh.

I went to the restroom for a very long pee and decided okra and beer got along. In fact, they were so in love they were doing the tango and making me queasy. The bathroom also served as a temporary hiding place since my slutty behavior planted serious doubts I could ever look him in the eye again. I never behaved that way with other men, but something about Austin drew out a sexually aggressive side that made me want to slap myself.

I’d never felt so conflicted with a man as I did with Austin. Part of that had to do with the fact our relationship was wrapped up in years of history, combined with years of separation.

Still, it
was
a fantastic dinner and had almost felt like a date. He took my mind away from all the worry and stress about my mother, and somehow I just knew he would make sure everything turned out okay. The strange part was how quickly my perception of Austin was beginning to change. He continued stepping up to help through every situation and never asked for anything in return.