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But the next morning, he’d looked so soft and peaceful, his baby face entirely at rest, slack in sleep, she’d not had the heart to do so. A gentle kiss to the tip of his nose and at the corner of his wide mouth, slipping out of bed silently, finding her clothes on the floor.
She heard a man’s deep voice coming from the kitchen when she was still in the hallway, and she paused, wondering if she ought to attempt to find her way to the front door instead.There’s probably an alarm set, and you’ll wake up the whole neighborhood when the police arrive. Don’t be a baby. Besides, your shoes are at the side door kitchen.
“Yeah, I got in last night; it was a late flight. I know. I’m meeting Jackson this morning, and then we’re having breakfast with my dad and the boys, but I can pick you up after, if you want. Do you want to drive up to the lake this afternoon? Well, make up your mind. We should be done by nine or ten . . . okay, faster conversations. It’s a yes or no. I don’t need to hear the schedule of every person in the building.” He laughed as she edged into the room, a rough scrape of a sound. “Mhm, whatever. Love you too.”
He was like a mountain. Tall, much taller than Lowell, with wide-set shoulders and a broad back that rippled with muscle. It was the man from the coffee shop, as she had suspected, his vacation tan still holding strong, glowing against the bright white of his open dress shirt.The lawyer. Spending money is his love language. He was dropping a scoop of protein powder into a handheld blender as she entered the room, and if he was surprised to see her, he didn’t let on.
Maybe he heard you last night. Or maybe he got in after you were both asleep. Or perhaps he simply has an excellent poker face.
“Good morning.”
His voice was mild, and he never looked up from what he was doing once his phone call had ended, allowing her to look him over quickly. Very handsome, but very hard, just as she had thought that day at the Black Sheep Beanery.But he’s the one Lowell likes best. Him and the one with the weird name.
“Good morning. I-I’m so sorry; I hope my car wasn’t in your way. You have a stunning home. Is there a code I need, or . . .”
He glanced up then, meeting her eye with a cool smile. He had a dimple in his cheek, the only softness in the chiseled planes of his face.Veryhandsome, but she much preferred the sparkling smile and baby face of the wolf asleep down the hall.
“Not at all, plenty of room. I’ve already been out, so there’s no code necessary. If you’re coming back tonight, park on the left behind my truck. The birds love sitting in the tree on the right side. Your windshield probably paid the price.”
Her cheeks flushed as she moved past him, slipping her feet into her flats at the door.
“Um, nice meeting you? Have a good day,” she called out before opening the door, letting herself out of the house.He’s the one who will buy your daughter one of those over-the-top Victorian doll houses.
The teifling and her wife were thrilled with everything Moriah had chosen for their beach house, the meeting being a green light on everything she proposed. She felt clear-headed for the first time in she couldn’t remember how long, with a bounce in her step and an unconscious smile on her face. Her mind was made up, and she would tell him that day. They would not be going to the clinic that week, but she would like to see him again that night, the next night, and the next. It was going to take at least a month for the drugs to completely work out of her system, and she would still need him for the heat that was only just beginning to prickle beneath her skin, and once they were . . . she still wanted him in her bed, in her breakfast nook, in her life.
Happiness begets happiness. Joy brings more joy.She only had to let joy find her, she remembered, her stomach flip-flopping in remembrance of those cards. She had picked joy out of a catalog, as easy as buying a pair of shoes. She was finally thinking clearly, seeing clearly, and nothing, she thought with a smile, could ruin this day.
When her doorbell rang a few hours later, she was surprised to find Lowell on the other side. Surprised and happy, for there was no time like the present to set the record straight.
* * *
Lowell
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HIS RESOLVE LASTEDall the way to her house. It was comical now, how close she had been all this time. She lived just a few blocks away from Owen and his girlfriend, Creek Rock Estates, one of the newer developments.We could have been together all this time.It was too late for regrets, Lowell reminded himself. Too late to think about what may have been, only what lay ahead.
The sparkle in her eye and the wideness of her smile nearly killed him when she answered the door, squealing in excitement to see him.
“Oh my goodness, a gentleman caller in the middle of the afternoon, how thrilling! To what do I owe this very welcome visit?”
He was a child. He was three five-year-olds in a trench coat, immature and still prone to tantrums, and the tears he had been biting back in his father’s office now rose to the surface in a mortifying rush of heat.
“I’m leaving.” Her smile slid sideways off her face, the dawning realization of what his words meant coming a beat later, and the tears that flooded her eyes pushed his to the surface at last. “They're opening borders up again for nonhumans. I need to process the paperwork and get my new visa, but I can be back to work by next month. I’m probably going to leave in the next two weeks.”
