The Baby Shift: North Carolina
Shifter Babies Of America 34
Becca Fanning
Copyright © 2019 by Becca Fanning
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Also by Becca Fanning
Chapter 1
The sound of milk being frothed and foamed filled the cafe. The tinny, grating sound filled Naomi’s ears, making it almost impossible for her to hear her girlfriends talking at the table in front of her. All she could concentrate on was the sound of the steam bursting into the air, heating it and causing condensation to break out on the windows.
Naomi nodded along, pretending she was able to hear everything they were saying. She didn’t get to hang out with her girlfriends much anymore, so she just wanted to have a good time and enjoy herself.
Bridget, with her blonde hair messily tied back in a knot on the back of her head, was sipping her cup of coffee while nodding. Zoe was leaning back in her chair, her arms folded, as she listened intently to Penny.
Naomi strained to hear Penny, whose voice was always silky soft and quiet. Trying to hear her in the cafe was almost impossible, with all the chattering people and baristas clanging around behind the counter.
Still, Naomi tried her best. These outings with her girlfriends were the highlight of her week. They never saw each other anymore, especially compared to how much they hung out in high school. Work took up a huge portion of their lives now, not to mention dating and hobbies and family.
“What about you?” Penny asked, her light blue eyes moving to Naomi’s face. “How’s things at home?”
Naomi shrugged. “You know,” she smiled. “The usual.”
“That’s good, right?” Zoe asked, leaning forward a little. “Things are good?”
“So good,” Naomi couldn’t hold the grin back. “Mom is happy, I’m working and finally starting to feel like a person again, you know?”
“That’s so great,” Bridget sighed. “Really, we’re so happy for you.”
Naomi glanced between their relieved expressions and felt the smile on her face falter. “You weren’t that worried about me, were you?”
“A little,” Penny said, the unease clear in her voice. “It seemed like things were really getting to be too much for you for a while there.”
Naomi couldn’t argue with them. They were right. Things had been tough for her over the last few years. Struggling to make ends meet, having to move back in with her mom, getting fired from her job in the city due to always being late… It was just one bad thing after another.
Losing her job was the biggest hit to her ego, and it had taken her months to recover. Working a menial retail job felt like a huge waste of time, but Naomi knew she had bills to pay. It felt like a step in the wrong direction, but it was the only way she was going to be able to get back on the right track.
“Anyway,” Naomi sighed, looking down to her empty cup of coffee and the bare plate next to it, covered in crumbs. “I should probably get back.”
“Right,” Penny grinned. “How is little Sampson?”
“Fantastic,” Naomi said as she got up from her seat. “Really, he’s doing so well. Mom is taking grandma duties very seriously, too.”
Zoe put her elbows on her knees and cupped her chin in her palms, staring up to Naomi as she spoke: “Is she spoiling him?”
Naomi laughed. “Absolutely,” she said. “I’m kinda worried Sampson is gonna grow up and prefer her instead of me.”
The group of girls tittered at Naomi’s little joke. She knew it wasn’t that funny but having her friends’ support meant a lot to her. The life that she’d wanted had gone up in flames, and it was traumatic enough. She didn’t need her friends piling onto her about it, either.
“Anyway,” Naomi sighed as she zipped up her jacket, “gotta run.”
She dived her hands into her pockets and pulled out a ten-dollar bill before tossing it onto the table, paying for her share of the bill. The girls waved goodbye to her, their smiles not a little bit false, as she walked out of the cafe.
As soon as she got outside, she felt the cold air bite against her skin. Naomi clutched the jacket around her body tighter as she made her way to her car. The wind was strong, blowing through her strawberry blonde hair and knotting it up.
The only thing she could do was keep her head down and keep on walking down the mostly empty street. Even though things were going so well for her, Naomi couldn’t help but ruminate on everything that had happened in the last two years.
It had been incredibly hard. How she’d survived, she didn’t really know. All she knew was that she really needed a break soon. Something had to give.
Working in a dead-end job in retail was slowly sucking the life out of her. The only things that kept her going were the weekly meetings with her friends and Sampson. Those were good enough reasons to live, but she needed more.
Naomi thought it sounded so selfish. It was like she didn’t appreciate what she had, but it wasn’t like that. She needed to enjoy life, and at the moment, she wasn’t having the best of times. Sure, it was better. She wasn’t as depressed and hopeless as she had been, but it just wasn’t good enough yet.
Up ahead, Naomi saw her car in the empty parking lot. When she’d arrived at the cafe, the lot had been almost full. As she got out her car keys, she also brought out her cell phone to check the time. It was almost five in the afternoon—she’d been in there for two hours, laughing and joking with the girls.
Naomi unlocked her car and piled inside, immediately turning on the heat. Soon there would be ice on the roads, then the snows would come. Naomi wished she could just pause the weather and let the fall stay for a little while longer.
Watching all of the leaves turn red was wonderful.; the way they all fell and floated down to the ground was heavenly. It was her favorite time of year, and she felt like she had barely had time to enjoy it this time around.
Being a mother was something that she’d always assumed would be in the future, far off in the distance. The fact that she was still living at home at twenty-seven as a single mother was disturbing to her.
In reality, she knew she was a cautionary tale for all the young women in her town. Be careful what you do with your life, or you might end up like Naomi Hatchet. She could even see it in her own mother’s eyes: the disappointment, the longing in the future that had been snuffed out as soon as she announced her pregnancy.
Naomi wanted to blame the father or set the blame on her mother. Or anyone else but herself. But it was her fault. She loved little Sampson, he was the light of her life, but it was still all her fault. Now, instead of living a carefree life in her twenties, she was worrying about that tiny human who relied on her for everything.
Somehow, she managed to get out of her own head and stop overthinking. Her dazed eyes came into focus, revealing the world around her. The world was gleaming under a light layer of frost. The car was idling, rumbling beneath her butt and making her seat shake. Condensation was pouring out of the back of her car and billowing up on her rear window.
Naomi knew she had to get a move on. She put her hands on the freezing wheel and put her feet on the pedals, ready to move… but something stopped her. A weird, tingling feeling at the back of her neck. It caused all of the hairs on the back of her
neck to stand up on end.
Frowning, Naomi looked through the frost on her windscreen, trying to see what was giving her a weird feeling. Something was about to happen, she could feel it as her guts clenched inside of her, but she didn’t know what.
Another rumbling sound echoed in the distance, slowly growing louder and clearer. Naomi could hear it from her left, trundling down the roads nearby. She leaned forward in her seat, resting her chin on the wheel in front of her, and waited.
It only took a couple of seconds. The rumbling turned into a thunderous roar as a slew of motorbikes rolled through the intersection in front of her. All of the men were clad in leather jackets, jeans, and black helmets that covered only the tops of their heads.
Naomi felt the acid bite at the back of her throat as her eyes scanned the group, looking for a familiar face. Saliva swarmed into her mouth as her body got ready to vomit, but she wasn’t going to allow it. She swallowed it back down forcefully, feeling her throat painfully tighten.
Years ago, New Bern had been overrun with a biker gang. The people had protested their presence, egged their clubhouse, refused them service from all retail stores. It was a coordinated effort that everyone took part in to remove them from the town.
But now it seemed they had returned. A couple of the faces were familiar to her. She was looking for one particular face, though. One that she hoped she’d never have to look at again.
When the gang was shunned from the town, Naomi thought that it was the end of her problems. She’d never considered the possibility that they would return.
Why would they come back? Naomi wondered.
They had nothing here anymore. The town had made sure of that. Every part of their organization had been dutifully removed, painstakingly rooted out.
Her eyes settled on a face as it cruised by. Her heart went cold and still in her chest, suddenly refusing to beat. Naomi’s mouth popped open as her eyes followed him across the intersection.
Jeremiah’s brown hair was hidden under the helmet, but his golden eyes were visible, searching every inch of the street around him as he barely concentrated on the road. It was definitely him.
What was worse: Naomi knew, without a doubt, that he was searching for her. The thought sent a chill through her body, coursing all the way down her spine. When he had been run out of town, he had paid her one last visit…
No, Naomi thought, snapping her mind away from that memory. Not going down that road.
She put her hand on the door and pulled the handle, sending the door flying open. Her body climbed out of the car as her eyes continued to stare at the mob driving by.
Jeremiah was out of sight, but he was still in the town somewhere. She knew he could come looking for her, and when he did…
Sampson, Naomi thought, horrified.
Her mind descended into madness then. Her thoughts tumbled over one another without giving her a break to stop and think for a moment. It was just a jumbled mess of chaos behind her eyes, a barrage of crazy inner monologue paralyzing her.
“Naomi,” a sweet, lilted voice spoke gently, “are you okay?”
Somehow she was able to rip her eyes from the sight of the dwindling bikes. Beside her were her friends, standing out in the cold as they gawked at the same sight.
Naomi’s eyes drifted over their faces, seeing their shocked expressions mirroring the turmoil going on inside her own mind.
“Naomi,” Penny whispered, her blue eyes worried and large. “Was that Jeremiah?”
A lump was stuck in Naomi’s throat, refusing to move no matter how much she tried to dislodge it. She looked between her girlfriends’ worried faces and managed to nod to them.
“Christ,” Zoe snapped. “What the hell are they doing back here?”
“The cops are going to love this,” Bridget sighed. “Their jobs just got infinitely harder.”
Naomi gulped again, her eyes drifting back to the now-empty street. There was nothing she could do. They were here, and she was going to have to deal with it. Talking about it wasn’t going to help—it was only going to make her feel worse, make her zone in on it and obsess.
“Why do you think they’re back here?” Zoe asked, seemingly to no one in particular as she gazed out at the empty road.
“Who knows,” Penny replied quietly. “It’s not going to be good, though.”
“Of course not,” Naomi managed to say. “They’re bad news. They’re bad people.”
All three girls looked over to her then, frowning.
Naomi looked back to her friends, confused. “What?”
“They’re not bad people,” Bridget sighed. “I mean, come on. You dated Jeremiah for years.”
“Bridget,” Penny moaned. “Don’t be like that.”
Even with Penny’s scolding, Naomi knew it was time for her to leave. She gritted her teeth together and made her way back to her car.
“That’s besides the point,” she snapped. “That was in high school before he joined the bullshit gang.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Zoe said. “Come on, Naomi. Don’t be like that.”
Naomi looked between her girlfriends, feeling the anger rising up inside of her. As much as she wanted to scream and shout at them, she knew that Bridget was right. Sure, she was rude for saying it, but she was still right.
Naomi had dated Jeremiah for years. She’d been by his side, even when he slipped into the gang. She would never admit it to them, but she had even stayed by his side after he joined the gang. It was wrong, and she knew that, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave him.
She looked at the road longingly, wondering what his presence was going to stir up. Whatever it was, it was going to be bad.
“I’m going home,” Naomi said. “I’ll see you guys later.”
Penny sighed and slapped her hands against her thighs in defeat. The others didn’t seem too worried about Naomi’s hurt feelings, though. They seemed more concerned with the impending threat that had just rolled into their previously peaceful town.
Naomi wasn’t about to sit around and worry about it with them. She had more pressing matters waiting for her at home. She climbed into her car and wrapped the seat belt around her body before speeding off, making sure to keep clear from the rumbling bikes as they meandered through the streets.
Chapter 2
The whole journey home was a blur. Naomi could barely think straight. The more she tried to distract herself from the sight of Jeremiah’s face, the more she thought about it. The way his eyes drifted over everything, listlessly searching through the buildings and reflections, it haunted her.
The last time she’d set eyes on him, he’d been so close to tears. The gang knew that the cops were closing in, gathering evidence, working out a way to arrest every single member and taking them into custody. They weren’t going to allow that to happen, so they had to get outta dodge, as Jeremiah had said.
In a way, Naomi had been glad. She’d never been able to cut the cord between them. Somehow, she always found her way back into his bed. When he said that he was leaving, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to crawl back to him in the dead of night. It was a clean break—just what she needed.
The memories flooded her brain, consuming her almost completely. Luckily her muscle memory took over, bringing her all the way home with ease. Now that the car was parked outside the front of her mother’s home, Naomi leaned back into the seat and stared into the windows.
She couldn’t see anything thanks to her Mom’s ugly ass lace curtains on every damn window. It made the house look like it was lived in by an eighty-year-old great-grandmother.
No amount of telling her mother would help rid them. She liked her style, and she refused to change it, no matter how much everyone else in the house hated it.
Naomi didn’t want to waste any more time. She climbed out of her car, slammed the door shut, and pressed her key fob to lock the doors as she climbed the porch steps. She didn’t even have to pull out her house keys—the front do
or was unlocked, most likely left like that for Naomi’s return.
She opened the door and stepped inside. Her world instantly darkened. Right in front of her was the living space, filled with a fireplace, a couple of flowery couches, and a small, flat screen TV shoved into the corner. A huge coffee table was perched in the middle, covered in magazines, letters, and other assorted crap.
Behind the living space was the breakfast bar and kitchen, with the pantry tucked beneath the stairs on the left-side wall. Somewhere upstairs, she could hear her mother’s heavy feet stomping around.
Then the most glorious sound filled her ears—the sound of Sampson giggling. Naomi kicked off her shoes, dropped her purse, and sprinted upstairs as fast as her feet would carry her. Following the sound of his giggles, she found herself in the bathroom.
It was all green—a garish color from the eighties that her mother had never gotten replaced. Naomi looked past the color to see her son in the bath, surrounded by bubbles. Naomi’s mother was leaning over the edge of the tub, scrubbing the baby’s chest.
He was sitting upright, his chubby arms held out at his sides, with a huge smile on his lips. A couple of little white teeth were poking out of his gums as he continued to giggle. The mop of brown hair on his head was soaked, clinging to his skull unflatteringly.
“Oh, honey,” Maxine cooed. “You’re home early. How are the girls?”
“Fine,” Naomi sighed, dropping to her knees beside her mother.
She reached her arms over the edge of the bathtub and stroked her son’s stomach gently, wrinkling her nose as she smiled.
“Why are we in the bath?” Naomi asked, not ripping her eyes from her son’s smiling face.
“Someone spilled sauce all down himself,” Maxine sighed.
When she finally managed to rip her eyes from her grandson’s face, her expression soured.
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