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We’re feet from the front door when it swings open, and a man and woman fill the doorway. They’re both older, maybe in their sixties, maybe even older than that. Her hair is thick, blonde, and threaded with gray, and she has large brown eyes.
The man has darkish red hair, is wearing a smart navy shirt and black pants, and he has hazel eyes. I’ve never met them before, which is surprising because they look familiar.
Painfullyfamiliar.
I grind to a halt when it hits me where I’ve seen the brown eyes and reddish hair before.
“I can’t…” Choking back the tears clogging my throat, I retreat up the white stone path.
Harley refuses to let me turn and run; instead, he tugs me forward with him. He’s a shifter and I’m human, so only one person is going to win this battle, and it isn’t me.
The woman steps forward smiling, the scent of vanilla and sweet sugar drifting from her pink ankle-length cotton dress. She must have been baking, and recently.
“Hello, Saige, would you like to come in for tea?”
I stare in disbelief that Simon Trevor’s mom isn’t running for a steak knife, because I deserve nothing less for killing her son.
His dad smiles warmly at me as he steps forward to join his wife. “Simon said there was a woman in trouble in the hospital.” His eyes take in the scars on my neck. “It was you. Wasn’t it?”
After a beat, I nod.
“We saw the reports on the news, about you being arrested for his murder,” he continues.
I part my lips, ready with an apology I know they won’t accept. How could they?
“We knew it wasn’t true. We knew you hadn’t killed him.” Simon’s mom studies me for several seconds. “My son was always someone who liked to help people. He was kind and sweet, even as a boy. It broke our hearts when he died, but to know he was trying to help you makes his loss easier to bear.”
Tears are sliding down my face, and I couldn’t stop them if I tried.
She stretches a hand toward me, though I can barely see with all the tears filling my eyes. “Please, come in. Simon was our world, Harley is too, and we’d love for you to be a part of our world as well.”
Finally, I think I can speak. “He saved my life. If he hadn’t helped me, he wouldn’t have died,” I whisper.
As they study me in silence, I chew on my bottom lip as I wait for them to withdraw their offer of tea and order me away.
They glance at each other and smile before Simon’s dad turns to me. “Simon died as he lived, helping others, which is exactly the way he would have wanted to go.”
I sniff. “He was a really good man.”
When I was with Dad, and then later with Rylan, weeks or months would go by when not even one good thing would happen. Because Simon helped me get away from Nathan at the hospital, my life has become a series of good things. Happy things.
“We know.” Simon’s mom glances over at Harley. “Harley told us you’d moved in together.”
Not surprising she’d ask if she saw Harley kiss me moments before. “It’s… complicated.”
How do you tell someone you’re with four men and you love each equally? And that it isn’t just me Harley moved in with. We’ve formed ourselves into something strong, and I think something permanent.
A pack.
“Most things are simpler than they seem to be when you get to our age, wouldn’t you agree, Oscar?” Smiling, she turns to open the front door. “Come inside for tea and cake.”
“Maude has the album out.” Oscar’s voice is wry as he adds, “She always has the album out.”
He releases a heavy sigh, yet there’s a twinkle in his eyes, one that makes me think of Simon, because he had the same smile.
My smile is watery and comes with a sniff. “Of Simon?”
Oscar nods, following Maude in and holding the door open for us. “Harley as well, when he came into our lives. I’ll leave you to figure out which one was the troublemaker who ruined most of the photos with their shenanigans.”
