“Isn’t that the same dress I helped you pick out last year?” Jasmine asked.
Penny nodded. “I had to have it let out a little, but yeah, it’s the same dress. I went back to that store again, but the staff wasn’t nearly as friendly without you there.”
Jasmine laughed. “Well, I was only working temporarily.”
“What job do you want to have?” I asked, curious. I’d assumed that she wouldn’t want to work, but now that I thought about it, I wouldn’t want to have nothing to do all day. Why would Jasmine be different?
“Actually, I have a bunch of town garden projects that I’m thinking of,” she admitted. “There’s the community garden, and then there’s an old herb garden that my grandmother used to work on that’s been sadly neglected…I need to get back to it…but there are so many empty places in town that could use flowers. I haven’t made any sort of plans yet, but I’m hoping that once things calm down, I can really start to get things together.”
Penny’s eyes lit up at this. “A community garden? Other than the crop fields, you mean?”
Jasmine nodded.
I smiled to myself, only to be distracted when a familiar woman approached. Julie, one of my old flings. Things had been briefly quite serious with her, and I had even considered not becoming an alpha so I could be with her. That had been years and years ago, though, and we’d had what I thought was a friendly breakup. She was from Hammond, and I frowned at her as she came closer. What was she doing here?
“Killian, it’s been a while,” she said, angling herself ever so slightly behind me. It effectively put my back to Jasmine and hid Julie from her.
“Yes. It has been,” I answered guardedly. I couldn’t forget the ‘Alpha Fuckers’ on the night of the wedding. Renz had told usabout how he’d found them picking on Jasmine. I’d been on my guard against them ever since, though they had fortunately not tried anything.
“I was wondering if you’d want to get coffee sometime. For old time’s sake,” she said, reaching to smooth her fingers over my lapel.
I pushed away her hand before she could touch me. “No, I don’t think so.”
Julie blinked once, surprised. “No?”
“I’m a married man,” I answered stiffly. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten what ‘getting coffee’ always meant. I thought I heard you had a baby. What happened to the father?”
Julie stepped back. “He died.”
I flinched. As disrespectful as it was for her to come on to me so close to my wife, a dead lover was still a hard thing. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yes. Well. I should go.” Julie’s tone was cold as she turned.
I rolled my shoulders and turned back to Jasmine. While I was talking with Julie, Penny had taken to the dance floor with one of the alphas. Jasmine had headed toward the nearest exit, the pinch of her shoulders speaking to the same sort of ‘run away when overwhelmed’ behavior she’d had at the start of this marriage.
What was making her run off now? I followed after her, glancing around the party once more. I soon found what was making her so unhappy. Each of the Tyrell alphas had been cornered by one of their previous lovers. Clearly, she saw us all talking with the women and started to feel overwhelmed or perhaps insecure.
The others had caught sight of what was happening, too, and broke away from their women to come after us. Frustration put a burr in my throat, even as I tried to understand what she was going through. Our marriage was still pretty new, and our intimacy so far was limited to her heat, so looking at these other women with whom we used to be must be difficult.
But on the other hand, I just couldn’t understand it. We were married to her. Did she really have so little trust in us that seeing us talk with other women would have this effect?
The four of us left the party together and followed her into the lobby. She stopped near the hotel pool, the scent of chlorine strong in the air. She wrapped her arms around herself as she stared through the glass door into the pool area. It was empty.
“Jasmine,” I called, coming up close to her.
She turned and dodged from my arms as I tried to pull her into my embrace. “Sorry. Sorry, I need a moment here.”
I fell back a step, feeling hurt. “I understand.” Even though I didn’t, really. I pulled a hand through my hair and shook my head, the chains of my earrings tinkling lightly. “Actually, I don’t. I don’t understand. Everything was going fine, and then you suddenly ran away.”
“I didn’t run away, I just left for some air,” Jasmine answered defensively.
“Yes. And it was less than five minutes after you and Penny were having a grand time,” I argued. If this was jealousy, I needed her to say it out loud.
“What’s going on?” Renz asked.
Jasmine shook her head.
Owen stepped between us and pushed both Renz and me back a little. “Give her space.”
