CupidRocks (4 page)

Chapter Four

Mandy swallowed hard and stared at her plate as the silence
lengthened. This was
not
good. Carly was usually a drama queen when she
was angry—yelling, stomping and slamming doors. A quiet Carly was a bad, bad
thing. Sharon and Tom shifted uneasily. Tom stretched, a bit theatrically Mandy
thought, and stood up.

“I’m beat. Sharon honey, let’s go get some shut eye.”

“Yeah…” Sharon looked back and forth between Mandy and her
parents. “Yeah. I think that’s a good idea.”

Sharon rose as Tom grabbed their bags. He dropped a kiss on
Mandy’s forehead in passing. Sharon did the same.

“Good luck, sweetie. Just hang tough and ride it out,”
Sharon whispered and Mandy nodded.

Mandy winced when Joe shoved his chair back too. “Don’t go.”
Mandy set her hand on his arm, unable to keep the plea out of her voice.

“I think you need some private time with your folks.” He
picked up his own dishes and set them in the sink then patted her on the
shoulder in passing. He paused and Mandy whipped around praying for a reprieve.

“Um…where am I sleeping?”

“I’ll show you.” Mandy bounded to her feet.

“No, honey. I’ll show him. Once he knows where to bunk down,
I’ll come back so we can finish our discussion,” Eddie told her.

Mandy bit her lip as she was left alone with her mother. She
felt as if she was on a sinking ship and all the rats were abandoning her. Damn
it. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Carly, but…

“Am I so terrible?”

Mandy closed her eyes at the heartbroken tone in her
mother’s voice. Carly was on the verge of tears and Mandy knew it was real.
Carly hated to cry so she never faked crocodile tears or a voice torn up with
emotion. She just didn’t have it in her. Mandy swallowed.

“You aren’t terrible, Mom. Just…well…
relentless
.”

Carly finally lifted her head and her eyes were swimming in
tears. Oh shit. This was
so
bad. She raced to her mother’s side to
embrace her.

“I love you, Mom. I do. I just need you to give me some
space. I’ll find a mate in my own time. I want the kind of relationship you and
Eddie have.”

“Not everyone finds their True Mate.” Carly cleared her
throat when her words cracked. “I don’t want you to be alone, sweetie.”

Mandy leaned back and brushed her mother’s blonde bangs off
her forehead. “I don’t think I will be. I’m only thirty-five. Shifters live to
be a hundred or more. I’ve got a lot of time to find the right wolf.”

She didn’t tell her mother that she thought she’d found him.
Tonight. That would create additional complications that Mandy just couldn’t
handle right now. She still had fences to mend with Joe first.

“And when you’re fifty and you still haven’t found him?”

“I won’t wait that long. If I get to forty without a mate, I
can still have pups on my own. Zach might be willing to act as stud.”

Carly laughed, wiping her tears away. “Sweetie, you’ll be
lucky to get Zach to come back over here again after this.”

“Yeah, I know. I really screwed up. I just thought we could
pretend and then after you all left town, I could tell you Zach and I broke up.
It seemed so simple.”

“Simple isn’t always the best way, honey. Honesty usually
works best.”

“It would be if you didn’t ask me about mate prospects every
single time you call.”

“I don’t ask
every
time.”

“Yes, Carly, you do. Every call in the last six months has
included the dreaded M question. Please, Mom. Let it go.”

Carly gathered her close and hugged her tight. “All right.
For now, I’ll let it go. But you know, this is all Sharon’s fault.”

Mandy leaned back, frowning. “How is this Sharon’s fault?
Sharon wasn’t asking me when I was going to find a mate.”

“No, she was telling me her two oldest, Sam and Dee, had
found their mates. Then she told me both were going to have pups with their
mates. It just wasn’t fair.”

“Carly, quit trying to keep up with the Whitewolfs. You’ll
be happier.”

“I suppose I will. I just want you to be happy too.”

“I’ll be happy if I don’t have to dread your calls and
visits. That’ll make me ecstatic.” They grinned at one another and hugged each
other tight.

“So, are you two okay?”

Mandy bit her lip. Her father sounded…pissed. She turned to
look up at him. Eddie looked stern. He never looked stern. Disappointed a time
or two, but never stern.

“Yes, Eddie. I think we’re okay. Did you take our bags up
when you showed Joe his room?” Carly asked as she stood up.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll go unpack and let you two talk.” Carly kissed her
forehead.

Carly went to Eddie and gave him a warm hug then climbed the
stairs to their room. Eddie leaned against the kitchen island with his arms
crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. Mandy started to clear the
table during the awkward silence. Eddie didn’t say a word. He just watched her
clean…waiting for her to crack.

She rinsed dishes and put them in the dishwasher and still
he waited. Finally she whipped around to face him.

“
What?
”

“You hurt your mother.”

“I didn’t mean to, you know.” She ducked her head. Why did
she have to feel like an errant ten-year-old? Because she’d acted like one.
That’s why.

“That does not fix things.”

“Mom is okay now.”

“But you hurt her and it was unnecessary, Mandy. You didn’t
have to lie. That’s not how we raised you.”

“I know that. But the pressure was getting to me.” She
groaned when his face didn’t soften—at all. “Every call it was, ‘Mandy, have
you found a mate yet? Mandy, when are you going to have pups?’ Zach told me she
walked up to him tonight and asked about becoming a granny.”

“I admit the baby fever was a bit much…”

“A bit?”

“But…you didn’t have to lie to her. To hurt her.”

Mandy raised her gaze to his. “Or hurt you?” He clenched his
jaw and cleared his throat.

“How I feel isn’t important.”

“It is to me. I’m sorry, Daddy. Really.” His frown remained.
He was unmoved by her apology.

Oh damn. Not him too. Mandy blinked her eyes as her tears
threatened again. She’d never screwed up this bad in her entire life. Even
worse, unlike Carly, Eddie wasn’t unbending with her. Even the tiniest bit.

“Did you apologize to your mother?”

Mandy opened her mouth to say yes but then paused. Had she
said
I’m sorry
? Not in so many words.

“Um…I thought so.”

“But you didn’t.”

“She knows.”

“Maybe, but you owe her an apology.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not me.
Her
.” He jerked his thumb toward the
ceiling.

“I’ll go up…”

“No, she’s already asleep.”

Mandy frowned. “She is?”

Eddie cocked his head, as if he was listening. “Yes, she is.
She isn’t blocking, she’s fuzzy. That means she’s asleep. She usually crashes
after a concert.”

“I know. I’ll tell her in the morning.”

“You’d better, Amanda Jayne. Until you and your mother are
okay, you and I won’t be okay. Are we clear?”

Mandy nodded, fighting tears again. Eddie grunted and turned
to head upstairs.

“Daddy, will you give me a kiss good night?”

He paused, but didn’t turn around. She ran over and threw
herself in his arms. He gave her a brief hug and a kiss. “Get straight with
Carly,” he growled then mounted the stairs to their room.

Mandy bit her lip until the door closed upstairs then she
sat down at the table and started to cry.

* * * * *

Joe slipped back down the stairs, unable to stay in his room
when he felt Mandy’s heart breaking. He was relieved she wasn’t mated, but he
was still pissed at her. If she hadn’t lied to her parents, this might have
been a very happy night for everyone.
If
he’d had the guts to tell Eddie
and Carly their daughter was his True Mate.

He peered around the door frame into the kitchen, his gut
clenched as he saw Mandy sitting at the table with her face in her hands, her
shoulders shaking in silent sobs. Occasionally, she whimpered softly. He’d
never dealt with a quiet crier before, but he couldn’t walk away without trying
to comfort her. He padded barefoot across the warm wood of the kitchen floor,
settled in the chair beside her, and pulled her close. She lifted her damp face
and his chest tightened with pain. She hurt, so he hurt.

“C’mere, angel. It’ll be better in the morning.” She threw
herself into his arms and pressed her face into his shoulder.

Joe pressed kisses to her forehead while he stroked her
heaving back. Mentally, he knew Eddie was perfectly justified in being angry with
Mandy and leaving her hanging like this. As Mandy’s mate though, he wanted to
go upstairs and beat the shit out of her father for making her cry.

“I’m sorry. I really am,” she choked.

“I know.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Not Carly or Eddie…or you.”

“I know that, angel. I know.”

“I thought it would be easy. It would make Carly happy and
then Zach and I could just pretend to split. It wouldn’t upset anyone, but then
it did.”

Joe couldn’t fight the smile, as he tried to find a
comfortable way to hold her closer. “Lying may seem easier, but it usually
causes far more problems than it solves.”

She sat up, but he kept his hands on her, stroking her arm
and leg as she wiped her tears away. “No kidding? It was like a nuclear
explosion tonight and I’ll be dealing with fallout for months or longer.”

“Lies are like that.”

Mandy met his gaze. “You don’t seem pissed anymore.”

“I’m still pissed at you, but I don’t want to see you cry
like this. Like your heart is broken.”

“It was until you held me just now.” She gave him a watery
smile and Joe laughed.

“This has been a hell of a fortieth birthday,” he sighed.

“Today is your birthday?”

“Was. It’s after midnight.”

“I’m sorry I made your birthday such a miserable
experience.”

Joe grinned. “It wasn’t
all
bad.”

Mandy chuckled weakly. “No, parts of it were quite good.”

“Excellent even.”

He could see by her wide-eyed gaze that she wanted to kiss
him, but didn’t want to press him after the revelations this evening. He gently
cupped her face in his hands and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Joe looked
down at her. Her eyes widened, she wanted to be held, needed it even.
Unfortunately, the straight wood chairs at the kitchen table didn’t offer an
easy way to embrace her.

Joe stood and her face crumpled. “You’re leaving.”

“No, I’m not, angel. But the kitchen isn’t a good place to
hug you. Where’s your living room?”

She blinked tears away again. “We could go to my bedroom,”
she offered in a small voice. Tentative. Unsure. He hated how frightened she
sounded. As though she wasn’t sure of her acceptance from him. God, any offer
from her would be welcome.

“I wasn’t trying to get you into bed, angel.”

“I know, but the bedroom is private.”

“Not if we’re upstairs it isn’t.”

“I’m here on the main floor. I always put Carly and Eddie on
the second floor at the opposite end of the house and Sharon and Tom on the top
floor.”

“Good God, why?”

“Well, they’re loud.”

“Loud?”

Mandy chuckled. “You know…
loud
. It’s hard not to hear
them. You haven’t heard them on the bus?”

Joe laughed. “Oh.
Loud
. Yeah, both your parents and
the Whitewolfs get a bit…enthusiastic.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“Shit, I hope I can go like that when I’m sixty.”

Mandy laughed, “When I was in my teens it was highly
embarrassing. It still bugs me. Hell, I know they do it. I just don’t want to
hear
them while they do.”

He held out his hand. “Show me where your room is.”

Mandy took his hand, turning off the light as they left the
kitchen. He got a brief glimpse of a large living room before they went down a
hallway. She opened a door and turned on the light. Joe took a deep breath. The
master suite was huge and as gorgeous as his True Mate. It reflected her
personality. Warm. Welcoming. Cozy.

A fireplace graced a long wall adjacent to the king-size
bed. A low, banked fire glowed in the grates. She crossed and built it up so a
cheery blaze soon lit the room. There was a loveseat angled off the fireplace
so Joe settled there. He patted the space beside him and after Mandy turned off
the overhead light, she joined him. He pulled her into his arms, feeling as if
he’d finally found a home when she curled into him with her head on his
shoulder.

“Happy Birthday, Joe.”

“Thanks, angel. You know, I wished for this when I blew out
the candles on the cake tonight.”

“Drama and misunderstanding?”

“No.” Should he say it? Was it too soon? Maybe she didn’t
feel what he felt. Nothing would be worse than Mandy laughing in his face.

“Then what?” She tilted her head to look at him, stroking
his jawline.

Joe met her wide, wondering gaze. How do you tell a female
you think she’s your True Mate? Blurt it out? Whisper it? Or should he wait
until he was sure? Maybe he shouldn’t tell her at all.

“You think we’re True Mates?”

Mandy’s whisper was filled with disbelief, but no horror. On
the contrary. Her voice was filled with hope and joy. Reluctantly, he nodded.
Please God, don’t let her laugh. Wait, how had she known what he was thinking?

Heard it.

Joe blinked, he turned to stare at her. Had she talked to
him?

Yes, Joe. I hear you.

Her brow furrowed as if she was straining to focus.

“You hear me?” he whispered.

She nodded and threw herself into his embrace. “Tonight, I
was sure you were the one. Then you believed I’d cheat on my mate. I didn’t
think you could be my mate if you’d think so badly of me.”