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His brow furrowed and he grabbed at his pocket, pulling out his phone. After a quick glance, he abruptly turned with a quick nod before answering it.
In an instant, his whole demeanor changed from stressed to relief.What the hell?She knew it was dumb, but she felt a pain in her heart.What am I, chopped liver?Her mom’s, her real mom’s favorite saying.And why does his phone work and not mine? Am I really free? He rattled off a few responses as he walked down the hall already immersed in a conversation.
“Hey. So happy to hear from you.” The last she picked up was, “Really? That would be fantastic…”
* * *
Playingtag with the boys for a half hour went a long way to getting her out of her funk. Finally, she heard Rollo call from the entryway.
“Hey guys, I am out of here. Oh, Winona. I left your phone for you, my cell number is on the fridge, by the way.”
“Okay, but wait, my phone doesn’t work here! And wait, we’re coming down, we’ll see you off,” she called, but the front door was already closing.
No, he didn’t.“What in the fuck?” she said out loud.
“Daddy says don’t say that word,” came Marcus’s voice from behind her.
Great.“Um, yeah, sorry. You’re right,” she said putting on a smile. “Can you give me a minute?”
Fuck this.This guy didn’t have the right to treat her like this. The guy was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Maniac on the loose or not, a kiss would have been nice…or a hug…or something…today. And was he gaslighting her? He must have heard her call down the stairs, no? She had to talk to Julie. She knew she was in danger of going off the rails here.
“Jasper! Marcus!” she called. They came running pretty fast. “Hey, I’m just going to step outside for a second, okay? Just keep an eye on your brothers for a minute, please. Maybe come down into the front room, where I can see you?”
Grabbing her coat, she went out the front as the kids piled into the front room, grabbing up some coloring books almost instantly.Good.
She looked down at her phone.Shit, still no service. She raised it over her head as she walked further out from the door, staring at the little bars. Still nothing. Just as she was about to round the corner to within sight of the drive, she heard Rollo’s animated voice. Animatedhushedvoice. She couldn’t quite make out the words, but the tone of unmistakable.Intimate?She crept closer to the corner and hazarded a peek. There he was, with a woman. A very attractive woman.Hugging? Or is that an embrace?She dared not linger in full view, and retreated back behind the corner. Her face went red. She tried to rationalize, but she was failing miserably.
Winona, this could be anything.Yeah, right. Though she knew it could be, but she couldn’t help it. She pressed her ear closer, straining to hear.
“…desperately need a new nanny…” There it was. She almost couldn’t believe it.
Except, she could, because all the signs had been there this morning.
I knew it. Now what am I going to do?
CHAPTER18
“Ididn’t know you were going to stop by!” Rollo said, surprised to see Bloom stepping out of her pickup. “Does Dax know?”
“We’ll he’s the one who told me you needed some help, but believe it or not, it was sort of on my way.”
“On your way?” he said, a little incredulously.
“Well, okay, so maybe I wanted to get the dirt on the nanny,” she laughed. “I mean, I know how you shifters are. The way Dax was putting it, there were some matey vibes going. Plus, you know, I only recently opened this place up. After everything with my dad, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with anything. So, I sort of wanted to be sure it is working out for you guys.”
“Oh I know all about that, Bloom. And yeah, your little Casa de Campo makes on hell of a safe house. Thank you so much. As for me… Between all we have going on, and…” He stopped mid-sentence. “Truthfully, I am all over the place. As far as ‘matey vibes’,” he made air quotes to emphasis the words, “I would have said ‘yes, tons«, even six hours ago, but now, I just don’t know. I just feel crazy to be honest…” He trailed off as his wolf protested. “Part of me just knows, or maybe thinks it knows she’s the one, but at the same time, Dax is right, I have no business even thinking in that direction until we handle Frederick. I owe that to the boys. Not to mention to you. Even now he is probably trying to find us. I don’t want to think about it,” he trailed off.
“I’m sorry things are so daunting, right now.” She spontaneously gave him a hug. “But, Rollo, you don’t owe me anything. Yes, I want my father avenged. You know all about that, but right now you just focus on taking care of the boys. I just try to have faith that everything will work itself out. And I believe that. In all ways. you’ll see.” She smiled at him. “So, the place is good? I haven’t been here in years.”
“Yeah, it’s great.” He was about to say more when she interrupted him.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Dax said you wanted to know if I knew any artists?”
“Yeah. I want to repair the damage I did by holding her against her will when everything went down,” He was aware he was almost rambling, but he hadn’t realized how much the pressure of the last few days had weighed on him, and since Dax had taken Bloom as his mate, she had become a source of support to the whole pack in a way. Maybe not in the way Duke and Bessie were, but sort of like a sister. “First, I was thinking I would ask you if you or maybe the witches could do some sort of forgetting spell on her, but then… And last night…”
She raised her hands as if to say she got the picture. “Listen, that kind of spell is no joke and nothing to play with.”
“No, I don’t want to do that now, that was the old plan, before, um, you know, the matey-ness set in. Now, I think the best course of action is to get a new nanny. I have to let her know she is more than that to me…I know I’m getting ahead of myself. Dax would probably be pissed that we’re talking about it. We need to get Frederick.”
