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Her mind raced. Was it worth staying and putting herself in danger of being found by him, or should she just take off again, run, and never stop? All of this, when she was finally started to think she could settle somewhere with shifters she liked and respected.
When she walked through the door of the cafe, she almost broke into sobs. Just the thought of having to leave was too much. “Keep it together, Del,” she whispered under her breath.
“What’s that?” Miranda said absently as she busied herself at the counter.
“Oh, just cursing myself for forgetting something,” she said, swallowing down the fear and sadness that threatened to take her over. “Morning, by the way.”
“Good morning,” said Miranda, stopping what she was doing to look at her. “You sure you’re okay?”
Delilah painted on her best smile. “‘Course, just didn’t get much sleep, that’s all.” She was starting to feel guilty—that was two lies within the space of a few moments. Still, she wouldn’t let that prick get to her anymore.
“Well, grab yourself a coffee before you start. Weather’s good, which means we’ll probably be busy today.”
“Sure will,” she replied. “Coffee it is. You want one?”
“No, I’m good. You go ahead, though.”
Delilah did as Miranda said. In truth, she could have done with something a little stronger than a coffee, even though it was early. Just something about the way Clark had spoken to her made her nervous and on edge.
Despite that, she was determined not to let him pollute any more of her time, he’d done enough of that. She threw herself into her work, glad of the distraction and hoping she’d never hear from him again, however unlikely that was.
Just as Miranda had predicted, the good weather had brought in the customers, and she didn’t have much chance to think of anything apart from tending to them. But that didn’t mean it all went away. A few dropped glasses and some mixed-up orders as well as her edginess all must have communicated that something was wrong.
Delilah rested one foot against the wall out back as she sipped on some iced tea on her break a few hours into her shift. She heard the door open, and Miranda appeared in the small yard. “So, you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
“Sorry about the glasses,” Delilah replied.
“Oh, please, I’m not talking about the glasses. I mean with you! Something’s not right, you seem really on edge.”
“Like I said, no sleep,” Delilah lied again. “There’s nothing else, really. I’ll get an early night tonight and be right as rain tomorrow.”
“I’ve just never seen you like this.” Miranda obviously wasn’t buying her pathetic excuse, but she couldn’t bring herself to discuss what had happened that morning, for many reasons—one of them being that just speaking it out loud would make it more real. For now, Clark and his threats were just some words down the end of a cell phone, and that’s how she liked to think of them.
She drank up her iced tea and got back to work, noticing how Miranda watched her as she went about her tasks. She could tell something was wrong, but clearly didn’t know what to do about it. Delilah felt bad for lying and for not telling her what was really going on, but for now, she just wanted to leave it be.
She was coming to the end of a busy shift when she smelled something familiar that was like a tonic for her soul. Inwardly she took a huge sigh of relief when Graham and Jude both walked in.
“Hey,” she said, approaching them as they took a seat in a small booth.
“Hey, yourself,” said Graham. “We haven’t heard from you, and your phone was switched off.”
“Oh, yeah, dead battery,” she lied. Again. How many times was that today?
“See, told you she was okay.” Jude chuckled. “You are okay, aren’t you? It’s just we called Miranda because we were worried, and she said you’ve been out of sorts all day today.”
Delilah looked over to Miranda who simply shrugged. It was useless thinking she could keep anything from these guys now. They’d smell it a mile off. Plus, she knew Miranda was only acting out of concern, and this was the alpha and beta after all.
“It’s just… I mean…” Delilah was all over the place, but she didn’t want to lose it, not here at her place of work.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Jude spoke softly and patted a nearby chair. “Look, sit down for a minute.”
She did as he said, taking a seat next to Graham, already feeling the comfort and protection of having him close. She finally felt like she could breathe and let down some of her guard, which she’d tried to keep up all day.
The relief was palpable, her body starting to relax for the first time since hearing Clark’s voice that morning.
Opposite her, Jude was the picture of comfort and concern. “So, what’s bothering you?”
“There is something, but I just don’t want to get into it here. Can we talk privately somewhere maybe?” They both looked at each other, as if registering her need.
