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Chapter Twenty
Over the course of the week, Espie had been flip-flopping back and forth about the whole situation with Luther. He had a right to be loyal to his miner friends and try to make sure they did minimal damage while they worked, but at the same time, he ought to be devoted to his fated mate and her people. And Espie would always belong to the bear clan and her family. She couldn’t see how things could work between them if the clan refused to accept him.
Thankfully, it was now the day that her new shifter friends, Paulina and Rufus, who had been by her place a couple times before, were coming by with the pups to visit the resort. It couldn’t be a more welcome distraction for Espie. While Rufus and the pups remained inside the main lodge with Espie’s father, Bina had invited her daughter and Paulina out to help work in the gardens. Ilya had already been neglecting them recently, and with his untimely death, there hadn’t been anyone who was able to do the job.
In light of the recent situation, the Ruiz family had decided to limit the number of rooms rented and they assigned a buddy-system for all the staff. No one went anywhere after dark unless they had someone else with them.
It was a kind gesture, especially since tourist season was officially underway, but Espie knew her parents cared more about their employees than they did the strangers renting out rooms and using the gorgeous resort facilities. She had always appreciated and admired that about them.
Her dad showed up carrying a work sack and wearing a decided frown. “Say, Paulina? Looks like your boys are giving my staff members a hell of a time. You might want to go in there and lay down the law.”
Her face turned sullen. “I’m so sorry, sir! I’ll take care of it!”
As they watched her hurry off, her dad shook his head and sighed. He stood over a kneeling Espie and her mom as they continued to work on one of the stretches of gardens along the main path that led from the cabins up to the main building.
Neither of her parents was impressed to have the police sniffing around the resort as much as they were, but since Ilya had worked for them, it was natural that they’d want to visit there to learn more about the gardener.
“Things will settle,” her dad insisted. “At least having a clan member on the force makes all of this mess much easier to endure.”
“Miguel is trying to keep the clan calm, but you never know when tempers will snap,” Espie muttered, half to herself, half to her parents. Her brother didn’t want to worry them about all that he had to do as alpha, but Espie suspected their parents always knew just a little more than they let on.
“Cooler heads will prevail,” her dad remarked. He then dug two bottles of water out of the cooler bag and handed them over. While Espie accepted hers, her mom waved him off and kept working, yanking out the baby weeds sprouting up in the cactus garden by the root before they had a chance to spread. Her dad sighed, scanning the horizon with Angel Fire’s downtown in the distance. “They always do.”
Espie sat back on her heels with a frown. “Doesn’t make things any less scary.”
“I know, mija.” Espie nodded as she sipped her water. All the tension, especially between she and Luther had been the main reason she’d thrown herself into her work at the resort since they’d last spoken.
“Espie, you still haven’t told us about your gentleman caller,” her mom piped up, as if reading her mind. Espie’s eyes widened, and she didn’t miss the smirk on her mom’s lips as the woman continued to work. Her dad stopped massaging the back of her head, and she glanced up, concerned about how he might respond. His usually carefree expression had hardened somewhat.
“Gentleman caller?”
“I met a guy,” she admitted, pushing up to her feet and dusting her knees off. “He’s another shifter. I think…he’s the one.”
Her dad’s thick eyebrows shot up. “The one? Those are serious words, mija.”
“I’m still trying to figure it all out,” she admitted, her heart pounding hard as her eyes started to water.
During all this time apart, Espie had tried to look at her relationship with Luther from a logical perspective. It had been easier to leave the emotion out of it. But thinking of Luther as her fated had brought all the feelings back full-force.
She sniffed before swiping her hand under her nose, and then summoned the courage to meet her dad’s eye. “Don’t tell Miguel just yet. I have to decide on some things first. It’s complicated.”
“I won’t say a word,” he cooed, and Espie closed her eyes at the feeling of him massaging the back of her head. She had always been her daddy’s little girl—and she suspected she always would be. “But I trust you to know when to react and when to allow yourself time to breathe. Tensions are high, but we will stay out of the conflict.”
Her dad pulled her close and pressed a warm, familiar kiss to her temple. “We just want you to be happy,” he told her. “Always.”
She offered a watery smile. “Me, too, Papa, me, too.”
“Maybe you should take a break for a while, visit with your friends,” her dad suggested without directly telling her to go collect herself because she was on the verge of tears. “Have some lunch before they go, then come back to finish your afternoon duties later.”
“Sure, Papa, that sounds like a great idea,” she agreed. She tugged off her gardening gloves and left them behind, not wanting anyone else at the resort to see her so worked up.
But instead of heading for the main building, Espie veered off toward her cabin, hoping for a little break before she dealt with anyone. There were already a few families booked into the guest cottages, but she knew all the routes to get back to her personal space without running into any of the visitors.
When she reached the cabin, however, she found that Paulina, Rufus, and the pups were waiting for her there.
“Did they throw you out?” Espie asked, laughing.
“No, no, but we figured we ought to head out while we haven’t outstayed our welcome,” Rufus told her with a snicker. “Best to get the pups home and come back again some other time.”
“Okay, sure,” Espie agreed. “Why don’t you call me and we’ll figure that all out? Right now, I could really use a nap.”
Before she could lie down, however, her cell phone pinged, alerting her that she had a text. Rolling her eyes, Espie retrieved it from her purse and saw that it had come from Luther.
You won’t believe this, but Maria just invited me to go to your monthly arcade night with you and your friends. I know she’s hoping to fix things between us, but I don’t want to go unless we can agree to both wave the white flags of a truce for at least one evening and maybe find some neutral topics to talk about.
Espie sighed with frustration. She had half a mind to tell Luther to just stay home, but she hated it when they didn’t get along. It seemed like he was at least trying to extend an olive branch. The least she could do was meet him somewhere in the middle.
