Page 16 of Knot What I Expected

Single mom.

Nobody special.

That’s exactly how I like it. Because special gets you noticed. Different gets you hunted. And I have Matteo to protect.

My son comes before everything. Even the part of me that sometimes feels like it’s suffocating beneath the life I’ve built.

Especially that part.

I grab a pitcher of iced tea and head toward table six.

At least Matteo isn’t here today. Mrs. Donnelly, my landlady, has him for the afternoon. She’s seventy-two, opinionated as hell, and considers Matteo the grandson the universe forgot to give her.

Which works out pretty damn well for me.

I rent the little apartment above her garage, and she occasionally watches my kid when shifts change unexpectedly.

Like today.

“Mommy has to work” has become the unofficial motto of Matteo’s childhood. That thought hurts more than the itching.

I shove it away.

He’s loved.

He’s safe.

That counts for something. And lately, things have gotten better. We’ve actually made some friends.

Real ones.

Gia Anatoly somehow bulldozed her way into my life with the subtlety of a Jersey Turnpike pileup, and I fucking adore her for it.

She’s funny.

Loud.

Warm.

She never makes me feel like the struggling waitress she took pity on. She simply decided one day that we were friends.

Apparently, that’s how Jersey women operate. And I don’t hate it.

We spent yesterday afternoon working on one of the rental cabins for her sister, Valerie, who’s supposed to arrive soon.

Gia is pregnant, newly engaged, and apparently incapable of doing anything slowly, so I’ve appointed myself the person responsible for stopping her from lifting furniture.

Her man sure seems to appreciate that.

Grayson O’Connell.

Wreck.

Six-foot-a-million of muscle, mismatched eyes, scars, and perpetual growling.

That last part probably has something to do with the fact that he’s a Bear Shifter.

Of course, none of them knows I know that.