She turned toward her favorite diner before she could talk herself out of it. She didn’t think she had a fever, but maybe Scott’s fever had transferred to her for a moment, making her a little delirious. That had to be it. The momentary lapse in sanity wasn’t enough of an excuse to let the kids go without breakfast.
With delusion firmly in place, she parked the truck and headed into the diner. It was early, so the breakfast hotspot wasn’t too busy yet. She hoped it wouldn’t take long. Then again, for the amount of food she’d need to feed the kids, maybe it didn’t matter.
* * * *
A full hour had passed when Lucy pulled the truck back into Scott’s driveway. In the passenger seat were half a dozen large containers filled with food. The waitress had laughed, asking if she was in charge of breakfast at work. It wouldn’t have made sense to say it was for three little kids, so she’d just smiled and nodded. Telling herself Scott couldn’t possibly be a werewolf wasn’t working for her any longer, not when the facts had come together in her mind while she waited for the food with a cup of tea at the diner.
What had happened was scary, but she hadn’t been threatened and hadn’t felt threatened. That had to mean something. If Scott could turn into a wolf, the kids might too and they weren’t scary. Her grandmother had always told her to follow her feelings, not necessarily her first reaction. Her gut was good in fight-or-flight situations, but when there was time to think, she needed to consider all of her feelings. With a clearer head, she had to admit she’d overreacted. To be fair, she’d never mentally prepared for her first meeting with a werewolf.
She grabbed her purse and all the food. If she was going to make amends, she hoped food worked the same for werewolves as it did for people. She walked around the truck and nearly stumbled when she saw Jessie sitting alone on the front porch. Scott’s house wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at, but she knew they hadn’t been in it long and were working on the inside more than the outside. The porch was in good shape, though, and Jessie was writing on it with sidewalk chalk. She looked up and her eyes lit with excitment.
“You’re back! I told Daddy you’d come back.” She jumped to her feet.
Lucy smiled. The little girl was a delight, but a second later Lucy remembered what she was. Werewolf. Jessie’s steps faltered and her joyful expression turned sad.
“You’re not scared of me, are you, Lucy?” Jessie asked with wide eyes.
“Oh, honey.” She sat on the porch stairs, setting the food down. “I did get scared this morning when I saw your daddy. I’m trying really hard not to be nervous around you because I do think you’re wonderful.”
“It’s okay to be scared,” Jessie said, not looking at her, but it sounded like the child genuinely did understand even if she was still sad about the whole situation. “I remember the first time I saw Daddy shift. In our pack we weren’t allowed to change more than once a month and I didn’t even realize we weren’t human like everyone else. Then one day I looked outside and he changed right into a wolf. It was scary and I cried and ran to my grandma. It made Daddy feel really bad.”
Lucy wondered if she’d made Scott feel the same with her reaction to his change.
“When he came to get me, I was still afraid and we had a long talk and I realized I’d be a werewolf and change one day. And I learned that even when he was a wolf, he was still my daddy and he never stopped loving me. Then he let me pet him.”
“You got to pet him?” Lucy asked, the thought intriguing. “Really?”
“Yep, he’s soft and when you look in his eyes, you can see it’s the same Daddy there. Before we moved here, he took me and the boys out squirrel chasing and all sorts of stuff only wolves can do. He’s really not scary, Lucy, and I bet he didn’t mean to scare you, just like he never meant to scare me.”
Jessie’s words humbled Lucy. Someone so young seemed to understand exactly what had happened and, with Jessie’s words, Lucy knew more than ever that she needed to make amends. She didn’t know if she could pursue a relationship with Scott, that might be too much, but there was no reason why she couldn’t be civil and friendly.
“Well, let’s go have breakfast, okay? I’ll talk to your dad and we’ll get all of this figured out.”
“Really? Breakfast? Mmm, I smell bacon.”
“You smell three pounds of bacon. After the way you guys ate last night, I wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone.”
Chapter 8
He was scum. He was the bottom feeder that ate scum and rolled in the droppings. Scaring Lucy—there could be nothing worse. Scott shuffled around the kitchen, wincing when he bent to take the carton of eggs out of the fridge. He needed another day of downtime, but since he wasn’t going to get it, food would help. The kids would eat, he would eat, and hopefully they could take it easy. He’d have to go find his truck sometime, but for today he’d give Lucy space and stay home to lick his wounds.
He set aside the eggs, needing coffee to even face the actual making of the meal. Maybe it was time to let Greg and Ross start handling a little cooking.
“Daddy! Lucy brought breakfast!”
He jerked, cursing his distraction. He should have been paying more attention. Lucy could have been anyone and they could have done anything to Jessie while he’d been in his stupid pity party. He couldn’t believe Lucy was there, but she stood beside Jessie with her hands full of amazing-smelling boxes.
“Hi, Scott. I thought you guys might be hungry.”
The boys’ stomachs growled from their bedroom, where he’d sent them to get dressed, and his own stomach rumbled as well. She must have heard because she smiled and walked closer, setting the containers on the counter. “Go ahead and get a plate, there’s plenty for everyone. I ordered enough for ten people.”
Which meant it would feed a few werewolves, so Scott would wait until the kids ate. Lucy smiled as she fussed around the kitchen. Fear dwelled in the air, a wariness previously not present, but she was there. He wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth.
“I’m glad you’re here. And thanks for bringing breakfast.”
“Of course. You need to sit down. You look dead on your feet.”
Her concern warmed him to his toes and he did as she said, grabbing plates and bringing them to the table with him. The nurturing part of her made him want to be stronger and protect her from every little thing. The intensity of those urges surprised him, but he thought he could get used to them. Lucy and Jessie followed with the food and milk.
“Did you want coffee, Scott?”
“Ah, yeah. That would be great.”
She’d come back, but everything that had felt so natural between them before now felt horribly awkward. Her discomfort beat at him to the point he knew he’d do anything, promise anything to make things right. The boys hurried in, nearly buzzing with tension as they sat. They knew about Lucy running away and they, like him, didn’t know why she was back. They weren’t about to get their hopes up.
“Lucy, how about we take our food out to the porch?” he asked after all three kids had their plates full. She must have ordered more than she’d said because there was enough to fill even his plate.
“Sure. Let me grab some coffee and I’ll join you.”
She had guts, he thought, and hobbled to the front of the house, giving the kids a last warning look to behave. There was plenty of food, though, so they’d be fine for a while. If he and Lucy were outside, then hopefully the kids would respect their privacy.
He sat on one of the chairs and pulled the other one from behind the toy box. Sitting on the hard deck wasn’t where he wanted to be and he certainly didn’t want her on the floor either. With only coffee in hand, she sat beside him, not even pushing the chair away. That had to be a good sign. He waited for her to say something, but when she simply sipped at her coffee, he figured he’d have to make the first step.
“So. What made you come back?”
There was no use dancing around the subject. She couldn’t ignore the facts any more than he could ignore her discomfort.
“I was worried the kids would be hungry.” She took another sip of her coffee. “And I don’t know. I had a chance to actually think and I realized you’d never threatened or tried to hurt me. Those things counted for me more than me being afraid of what…well, what you are.”
“Which is a werewolf,” he said, and sighed. “I’m not sorry for what I am, Lucy. This is the way I was born and, honestly, I really like it. And you’re right, I didn’t threaten you and would never threaten or try to hurt you. Most werewolves would say the same thing. We’re like humans in many ways. We take family a little more seriously, have better senses and a few other little perks.”
“Like turning into wolves,” she said.
“Shifting is probably the best perk.”
She drank more coffee and he took a few bites of eggs in the meantime. There was no use rushing the conversation. She was back to smelling patient, so being near her calmed him. More than content, he had the huge urge to make her happy any way he could, which meant not pushing her.
“My grandma took in all kinds of kids. She was my mother’s mother, so I was actually her granddaughter, but the others, she loved them the same. It didn’t matter what their history was or what color they were, she saw them as another child to love, another soul to be nurtured. She tried really hard to teach me, but I don’t always do a good job.”
“You do fine,” he protested. “You looked at a big jerk like me and found a reason to be kind after I’d been an ass.”
“Well, your daughter is adorable, Scott, so that’s not all you.” She finally had a little humor in her voice and it was music to his ears.
“Anyway, I hope you’ll forgive me for running away from you and I hope we can still be friends. I don’t know the werewolf rules or whatever, but I have come to really enjoy our friendship.”
Friends. Twice. He figured that meant it was going to take some work to get her back to thinking romantically about him. The meetings of the last few weeks had built on each other, giving him more confidence. What grew inside his heart was something he needed to pursue. He wanted to be with Lucy and make her smile. He would do a whole lot more than make her smile if she let him. But, hell, she was sitting beside him and that was more than half the battle as far as he was concerned.
“Of course you’re forgiven for running away. Hell, if you’d turned into a gerbil or something, I’d have probably run. There are certain rules of thumb about werewolf and human relations, but I’m a relative lone wolf with my kids at this point, so I certainly don’t have a problem being…friends with you.”
She must have heard the inflection on
friends
because she turned to him with narrow eyes. He grinned, almost hoping she’d call him on it. Instead, her freckled cheeks turned slightly pink and she took another drink of coffee.
“If we’re going to be friends, I’d appreciate you getting some tea or something other than coffee and whole milk to drink,” she said so primly he had to laugh again.
“Okay, that’s fair enough.” He held out his hand. “We’ll keep up this friend thing we’ve got going and I’ll do my part to make sure you have something you like here when you visit.”
She took his hand, shaking it professionally. “And I’ll do my best not to get squeamish when I think about you changing into a wolf.”
“That’s all I’m asking. If we can do those two little things, I have no doubt we’ll make this friendship a good thing.”
Chapter 9
Friends. With a werewolf.
Lucy took a sip of the flat, flavorless tea Scott had brought her when she stopped by. It was truly awful, but he’d been so darn proud, which meant she’d drink the whole cup and pray he didn’t offer seconds.
The boys and Jessie played on the swingset in the evening sun. The bars were far more reinforced than any play equipment she’d played on as a child, but then again, she hadn’t been a werewolf. Again with the wolf thing. She wasn’t going to let the new detail get to her. She’d made a point not to stay away for very long. There was no reason for them to think she didn’t want to spend time with them, especially the kids. She’d already promised Jessie the truth didn’t scare her and Lucy had every intention of believing that until it finally stuck as gospel.
“You aren’t getting ready to run again, are you?”
She started at the sudden appearance of Ross. He was such a cute little boy, but freaky fast, which was now explained by him being a werewolf. He also had a very sensitive heart and, once again, Lucy resolved herself not to be afraid of the family.