The Twin Moon (The Moon Series) (8 page)

Rich’s beat up Camaro roared to life and his tires screeched as he sped down the street.

Andy stood at the door and watched him leave, the phone clutched so tight in her grip her fingers were white.
Then the cop car zoomed past her house.
Opps.
Must have been a different
officer that would respond for her call.
Well at least she was lucky enough to have a cop with a siren drive by and scare off Rich.
Andy shut her door and locked it then hung up her phone back on the charger.

Ian seemed so nice last night
…
and sexy.
What if he’s
just like Rich?
That thought
stayed
in her head
as
Andy made a pot of coffee and cleaned up around her kitchen.
It hadn’t been that long since she had gotten rid of Rich, but it wasn’t like he had really gone away.
Would it even be possible to have a normal relationship with someone with Rich always there to harass her?
God, what she wouldn’t give to have a normal relationship.
Did she even know what normal was?
She felt so dysfunctional.
Andy had grown up with just her mom and all she had ever wanted was to marry a nice guy and have a couple of kids.
Was that really too
much to wish for?

The phone rang.

“Hello?” Andy answered on the first ring.

“Andy Garrett?” The strong male voice boomed over the line.

“This is she.”
Andy answered the hair on her neck bristling.

“This is Officer Ochoa.
We had a call that your ex is breaking your restraining order.”

They didn’t even come out.
Andy tugged at her hair for a second in frustration.
What if he had gotten in?
Would they even have showed up?
“Yes, Officer.”

“Is he there now?” The officer’s voice was a calm tone of serenity, like all was
right in his world.
Andy stifled
a snort.
Must be nice
.

“No, he left when a siren sounded down the street.”
Andy poured herself a cup of coffee and stirred in some chocolate creamer.

“Well, we can take a report Ms. Garrett, but there’s not much we can do.”
A pe
n click in the background.

Andy recited the incident to the officer and hung up.
Two reports in two days.
She sighed and sipped h
er coffee as she stared out her
kitchen window.
Will I
ever have a normal life again?
Oh!
Her window.
Rosie’s brothers had fixed her kitchen window.
Those boys may be shady
,
but they sure did look out for her.

Andy grabbed the phone off the hook on her way to her living room.
She had Rosie’s number ringing before she sat down.

“
Hola
?”
A very groggy sounding
Rosie answered.

“
Beunos dias, mi amiga
.”
Andy took a sip of her coffee.

“Andy? What the hell are you doing up so early?
We partied half the night.”
Rosie mumbled and Andy could hear her turn over in bed.

“No, you partied ha
lf the night.
I drank diet Pepsi
.”
A soft snore came over the line.

“Wakey, Wakey!” Andy all but yelled into the phone.

“
Pinche
, Andy.
I have a headache!”
Rosie groaned.

“T
o
o much tequila my friend.”
Andy laughed at the pained sound in Rosie’s voice.

“Tequila…that’s some bad shit.
Hold on.”
Andy could tell Rosie moved the phone away from her mouth.
There was a smacking sound of skin on ski
n before she said, “Hey.
Hey!
Get up
hombre
, you need to go.”
Rosie had picked someone up last night after all.
Andy heard a grumbled reply before Rosie spoke again.
“I don’t care if you tired
pendejo
, get your fine ass out of my bed.”
Rosie grunted and Andy heard a thud of someone probably hitting the floor.
The guy was lucky she hadn’t sent him packing sooner.
Rosie was a love
‘
em and leave
‘
em kind of girl.
“No you can’t take a shower.
Get out.”

“Rosie?
Do you
want me to let you go?”
S
ometimes it took her awhile to get the men out of her apartment.

“No, mommy, he’s gone.”
Rosie sighed as a door slammed.
“Men.
So what’s up W
hy are you calling me so early?”

“I wanted t
o talk to you before Ian called and to tell you to thank your brother for the window and the door.
”
Andy took another drink of the sweet chocolate flavored coffee.

“Ian?
You mean that guy from the bar?”
Rosie sounded like she was in the bathroom from the echo.

“Yes, that one.
I want to talk to him if he calls.
You will give him my number won’t you?”
Andy sipped again.

“Why do you want to talk to him?
You don’t know anything about him.”
The toilet whooshed in the back ground.
They had been friends for so long Andy
didn’t even
mind.

“I don’t know why I want to talk to him.
There’s just something about him, I can’t get him out of my head.
I had the most delicious dreams about him last night.”
Andy set her mug down on the coffee table.

“What kind of dreams?”
Rosie sounded like a gossip seeking cheerleader all the sudden.

“Those kind.
God
,
he’s gorgeous.
I never thought I’d like a guy that was so…so….”

“Blonde?”
Rosie laughed.

“It’s not funny Rose Elena, don’t laugh.
You know I’ve always gone for the tall dark sexy types.”
Andy giggled herself.

“I know, I know.
He is kinda
’
cute in that white boy way.
All
golden
and tanned.
He could be a surfer.”
Rosie slammed a cabinet.

“Oh, god, he could.
I wonder if he is.
That would be so weird
,
me dating a surfer.”
Andy chewed her nail as the
y
talked.

“Dating?
You have to talk to him first before you’re dating.
Don’t make me be the voice of reason, Andy.
You still don’t know him.”
Rosie was always practical with Andy’s love life.
Her own was another matter, but she watched Andy’s like a hawk.

“So you’ll give him my number?”
Andy twisted her sleep shirt in the fingers of her free hand.

“If he calls, I’ll give him your number.”
Rosie sighed as if defeated.

“Good.
I’ll talk to you later then.”
Andy grinned now like a child on Christmas day.
She couldn’t wait to talk to Ian.

Ian paced the living room of his apartment, deep in thought.
He hadn’t slept much, thoughts of Andy keeping him up most of the night.
Again
.
God
,
she smelled so good and tasted even better.
He had a hard time letting her go when they had finally parted ways at two in the morning.
Two days ago.
Ian had her number though, well Rosie’s anyway.
It was all so strange the urges he had towards Andy.
He’d just met her yet it felt like he’d known her forever.
Something about her was just right.
Andy belonged to him.
He shook his head and started toward the shower.
Ian needed to calm down, a cold shower would help.

As he turned on the taps he tried to focus his head, to keep his thoughts from bouncing back to Andy.
Her luscious thighs and soft skin.

“Agh.”
Ian stepped into the shower stall and dunked his head under the water.
He had a meeting with the pack today.
Ian had finally made
the
decision after a year
, he would join Edge’s pack
.

After Ivy, his twin sister, had mated Edge, the alpha of the San Francisco Were-tiger pack, it was obvious she didn’t need him any more.
She was an alpha female now.
Ian had toyed with the idea of moving back to the ranch his parents kept up north, but he just couldn’t see himself going back to that pack.
They had turned their back on Ivy when she’d needed them most.
Kicked her out.
Ian had left with her.
That’s when he and Ivy had moved to San
Francisco
.

Ian ran his hands through his hair as he allowed the water to wash over him.
He had decided to stay in San Francisco for several reasons.
The main one was Ivy.
She was his twin and the only one who understood him when no one else did.
The other reason was The Haven, the were-cat community center owned and run by Edge.
Ian had worked whatever job came along to keep him and Ivy afloat long enough to help her get on her feet.
Personally he really didn’t need much.
His apartment was small, but he was a bachelor so it worked for him.
His car was his pride and joy and he’d had it since he was a teenager.
A 1972 cherry red Gran Toreno.
It had taken him all summer when he’d turned
sixteen
,
but
,
with his dad’s help
,
he had rebuilt the engine and had it running by the time school started in the fall.
Other than a little spending money he was good to go.

When Edge had asked him to work at The Haven and given him a permanent position with training the teen males he had jumped at the chance and quit his job as a mechanic.
He had envied Edge’s job at The Haven, making a difference in those cubs
’
lives.
It was like a dream come true
for Ian
.
Ever since Ivy had been attacked in high school and she accidentally killed the guy when he tried to rape her, Ian had looked for some way to help the young cubs around him.
If
someone
taught
Ivy
better control she would ru
n instead of tearing the boy to shreds.

Today, Ian was finally going to meet with Edge’s pack.
Oh
,
he knew them well enough, but this was the first test to see if they would accept him.
It
plagued
his mind day in and day out since Edge had approached him about joining
the
pack.
He wanted to.
Ian hated not being with a pack.
He missed the close connections and the support that came with pack.

Ian poured a dollop of shampoo in his hand and rubbed it over his head.
He had a mate now, even if she didn’t know she was his mate.
Ian needed stability for her.
He had The Haven and a decent salary, if he had a pack he would always have others to help look out for her and their cubs.

Cubs?
Ian stilled as the shampoo ran down his face.
He could have cubs now.
T
he mating moon would align their
chemistry and they could get pregnant.
Ian shot back into motion washing his hair and picking up the soap.
He could have a family, but first he needed a pack.

Ian washed his body and rinsed.
He turned off the shower and dried himself briskly with the fluffy towel he’d retrieved from the towel rack.

Ian was ready for this.
More than ready.
It
would be
the chance he needed to prove him
self to his new pack mates, if they’d just give him a chance.
He dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark t-shirt.
He ran a brush through his hair then brushed his teeth.
In fifteen minutes
,
he would meet the pack.