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I stared at the woman across from me in disbelief. I knew she had a tendency to be cold with me, but her complete lack of compassion made something deep inside of me twist painfully. God, I really just needed to get her and my father back on their feet and get the hell out.
“I need to go,” I said as I climbed to my feet. My mother said something to me, but I didn’t even hear it as I grabbed Dallas’s jacket and my father’s car keys and left the house.
Chapter Four
Dallas
I was in the middle of repairing the outer fence for the bear habitat when Loki nudged my arm and then stepped back, his golden eyes watching me expectantly. I’d long ago learned what it was the wolf hybrid was saying to me, though he rarely made a sound, which I attributed to his wolf side rather than his dog side. Only on the rarest occasions did Loki growl or bark. The growling was always a bad sign, but the barking was actually a good thing because it meant he was feeling playful.
I climbed to my feet and Loki immediately trotted toward the driveway. I heard the sound of car tires crunching over gravel a minute later. I immediately tensed up because it wasn’t often that I got visitors and Doc Cleary hadn’t called to say he was bringing me a new charge. It was probably just someone who’d found an animal in need, though they likely wouldn’t be from Pelican Bay, since most everyone in town had learned to go through Doc Cleary.
Except Nolan.
I cursed the fact that my subconscious had managed to work the man’s name into my tired brain yet again. I hadn’t managed to go more than a few minutes without thinking about him and wondering what he was doing back in Pelican Bay. I hadn’t ever really talked to Nolan in school, but there’d been a big announcement right before the spring concert that the small high school orchestra had put on that Nolan had been accepted into Juilliard right out of high school. The announcement had been met with a smattering of applause and a couple of guys yelling out the various cruel nicknames they’d bestowed on Nolan. Nolan had steadfastly ignored everyone and just focused on the music stand in front of him as he’d gotten ready to play.
The principal had hushed everyone and the orchestra had started playing some kind of classical piece right after that, but it wasn’t until Nolan had played part of the song by himself that I’d straightened in my seat and let my eyes drink their fill of him. The lights had been low enough in the small amphitheater that I’d been able to get away with staring at him as he’d played his violin like it was an extension of his body. When he’d finished, I’d expected the room to erupt in applause because surely, they’d heard what I’d heard. But there’d been little response and I’d wanted to rail at everyone and ask them how they couldn’t hear what I’d heard. How they couldn’t see what I’d seen.
Nolan fucking came alive when he played.
A week after the concert, my own scholarship to Vanderbilt had been announced and the entire class had gone crazy. School officials had actually cut an entire period short by half an hour just so they could gather the entire school together to share the news. They may as well have announced that I’d won a spot on the next Space Shuttle expedition. And through it all, Nolan Grainger had sat quietly on one of the first-row bleachers – by himself – and politely clapped.
And I’d felt like the biggest fucking fraud on the planet.
I forced away thoughts of Nolan and headed the direction Loki had gone in. As soon as I rounded the corner toward the driveway, I ran right into the object of my unwelcome obsession.
And by run into, I actually did just that because Nolan had been looking over his shoulder, presumably at Loki who was just feet behind him. Nolan let out an oomph as his chest slammed into mine, and I instinctively grabbed his upper arms to keep him from falling as he stumbled backward.
“Shit, sorry!” Nolan said as he righted himself. I noticed he had a bundle of fabric pressed up against his chest that he was hugging tightly. I wondered if he’d managed to find another critter of some kind.
“Are you all right?” he asked. I wanted to laugh at that since I was a good four inches taller than Nolan and I probably outweighed him by at least thirty pounds.
I nodded and then realized I was still holding onto him. I instantly let go of him and stepped back. I pointed to him in the hopes that he would get what I meant by the gesture.
