by Thorne, Elle
All he could think about was that she knew what he was. She had no problem with shifters. She wanted him; he could see it in her eyes. His bear could see it in her eyes.
But…?
He needed to talk to someone who knew a whole hell of a lot more than he did about life, and women. And shit in general. He’d get drunk if he could, except alcohol didn’t do a damned thing to him or for him. He couldn’t get drunk. He bit back a self-deprecating laugh. The curse of being a shifter—mix that in with the blessings. He would live forever, but he would never be able to drown his sorrows in alcohol. What kind of bullshit arrangement was that?
A hand on his shoulder brought him out of his pity party. Hell, yeah, he knew he was at a pity party. Tanner turned around. Teague. His brother.
“You doing okay?”
Teague had that glow. That ‘I found love’ or some kind of shit glow.
Okay, Tanner admitted to himself, I’m jealous. Fuck, yeah, I’m jealous. I should have the same fucking thing with Marti, but…
“I’m cool.” He clenched his jaw and forced a smile to his face that hurt.
“You don’t look like you’re cool,” Teague said.
Tanner growled. His bear growled along with him.
Teague held his hands up in surrender. “I give. For now. But you gotta talk about whatever demons are in you.”
Tanner nodded and turned away. He made for the front door. He and the bear could use a run through the forest, something to clear his head. Anything to keep his mind from that curvy, delicious, full-hipped, full-lipped, full-breasted woman with an attitude and a heart that matched his.
“I’m going out for a few. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Marti made it through dinner. Somehow.
Now they were assembled in a large room with a hardwood floor. Chairs and tables were scattered around, and the lighting was dim. It was set up like a dance floor.
Chelsea and Grant were dancing to a slow song in the middle of the floor, the special effects pin lights making multi-colored trails all around the room.
Mae turned to Marti. “What’s going on?”
My life sucks. I’m falling for a man who is the last man I should fall for. No, any man would be the last man I should fall for… but a shifter…
Marti let a long breath out, put that fake smile on. “What do you mean?”
“Tanner vanished before dinner, and came back looking like he was still being pursued by demons. You’re working hard to earn an award for best actress. Neither one of you is willing to look at the other one. You both barely touched your dinner. Mae rubbed her stomach as if to emphasize what Marti had missed. “And it was good.”
“I’ve got a lot on my mind. I can’t speak for Tanner.” She kept her voice firm, dissuading more conversation on the topic.
The DJ changed the song to another slow one. She clenched her fists. She could do without the love songs.
Joe walked up. “May I?” He held a hand out to Marti.
She grabbed his hand like it was a lifeline. Anything to get away from that conversation. “Sure.” She followed him to the dance floor.
Joe kept her at arm’s length, the distance between them proper. She appreciated his sensitivity.
“Did I save you from Mae?” he asked, his voice low.
“Was it obvious?” She fought to concentrate on her dancing so that her feet didn’t crush his toes by accident. Slow dancing wasn’t something she had much experience in.
“Let’s just say I know Mae. And I know when she gets that look in her eyes, she can be relentless.”
“Yeah.” Marti breathed a sigh of relief. She and Joe had something in common: they were the only ones who were fully human. Marti didn’t know what Mae was, didn’t know if she was part shifter or mated to one, but she knew that Mae wasn’t like her and Joe.
“It’s just you and me,” he said, mirroring her thoughts.
Marti glanced up from the floor where she’d been looking to make sure she didn’t step on his toes. He knew that they were all involved in the shifter world, and more importantly, he knew that Marti wasn’t. And he was telling her about it, but in a subtle way. Was he testing her? Was this a trick question to see if she knew, or was he being more upfront about it?
“What do you mean?” That seemed like the safest response, at least until she knew what he was thinking.
“We’re the only ones who aren’t like them.”
Marti still didn’t want to give anything away, but she had to ask, “Does it bother you, being different?”
Joe gave her a quizzical look. “I’ve never known any other world. I’ve been with Grant’s family for a hell of a long time. Before that, my grandfather knew his grandfather.” Then he asked, “So why’d you leave the horse world?”
Marti gasped. “How’d you know?” Her heart bounced around in her chest, it was beating so hard.
“I thought I’d seen you before. You were a hell of a trainer.”
“I needed to change my life.” Suddenly she found herself thinking she’d been better off talking to Mae.
“Don’t worry, Marti. It’s your business, your secret to tell. If you don’t want to be Martina Faulkner Lee here, then you can just be Marti Lee.”
“Thank you.” Something about his eyes said she could trust him to hold true to that. “I’m Marti Lee, now. That’s it.”
“Understood.”
The song was ending, and Marti was ready to go home. How long would she have to stay? Was there an obligation to stay until everyone else had left? Should she think of it this way as a service provider?
“Thanks for the dance, Joe.”
The lights were turned on. A waiter walked around with champagne glasses.
“One more toast,” Grant announced. “Then we’d better call it a night. My bride tells me she needs her beauty rest.”
Chelsea harrumphed and her cheeks turned bright pink.
Grant raised his glass. “To the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Marti took a glass from the waiter and raised it. That was the moment she felt it. She looked at Tanner, feeling his heated gaze on her.
Unreadable. Sexy. Deep.
Marti was sure she blushed as deep a pink as Chelsea as she looked down. The heat from the flush kissed her cheeks, traveling up from her neck and chest.
“Hear, hear,” someone yelled.
A throat clearing made her look up.
Teague lifted his champagne flute. “To dreams coming true.” He indicated Kelsey. “To family. To what we’ve always waited for.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Doc Evans said, clinking glasses with Mae.
Kane was raising his glass. “To Astra.” He tipped the glass in Astra’s direction.
Astra’s crystalline green eyes filled with tears. “To Kane, who gives me everything, and then some.” She coughed, then swallowed. “We have news.”
“What?” Mae squealed.
“No. No. Not that,” Astra giggled, her joy bubbling out. “Kane and I are taking a trip. To Europe. He’s going to help me find Anya. That’s an unsettled chapter in my life.”
“Awww,” Chelsea was saying.
“There’s more,” Astra said. “I’m done denying my gift. It’s time I explored it, learned more about it, who I am, what it is. It’s something I have in common with my mom. And I miss my mom.”
“We all miss your mom,” Doc Evans said, his voice choked with emotion. “She was a fine woman and you’re exactly like her.”
“You’re the best father ever.” Astra hugged Doc. “You’ve never been just a stepfather.”
Marti didn’t have a clue who the hell Anya was, or what Astra’s gift was, but she was happy for her friends. Happy for their happiness, even though she didn’t have any.
Marti looked at them all. This was… strange. It was more of a reunion than a rehearsal dinner, and she felt out of place. She wanted to run out right now, but that would be selfi
sh and take away from their special moments.
And what gift was Astra talking about? Was that something to do with being a shifter? She didn’t think that Astra was a shifter.
Marti shook her head to clear it. She put the glass down on the waiter’s tray. The last thing she needed was to be drinking and then attempting to maneuver the curves and turns through the mountains on the way home.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Let her go,” Teague told Tanner.
Teague was his ride to the B & B.
“I’m worried about her driving home.”
“She did this many times before you got to town. She’s fine. And she doesn’t want to be crowded right now. Why don’t you talk to her at the wedding? Well, after the wedding would be better. That way there’s no drama, just in case.”
“She’s not one for drama. She’d run away before she’d do drama. I can tell that about her.”
“Running away during a wedding would be drama.” Teague opened the door to the B & B. “She’ll make it home just fine, and you’ll see her tomorrow.”
But whose arms would she be in tonight? Tanner wondered, and the pain chipped at his heart with the ferocity of an ice pick wielded by a psychopath.
* * *
Tanner got no sleep. And here it was, the day of the wedding. He was happy for Grant and Chelsea, but deep down, there was an anchor of desolation that pulled at him. He knew it came from his bear, but it wasn’t all in his bear; it was in him too.
Chelsea looked stunning in her white dress. The Bed & Breakfast that Kelsey was running was the perfect setting. The open-air pavilion was decorated with lilies and orchids, all white.
Chelsea, Grant, and the preacher were in the gazebo between the pavilion and the brook at the far end.
Marti and Joe were each other’s plus-ones, just like she wanted. Joe was the best man, though, so he had to be up near Grant and Chelsea, which left Marti alone.
She stood across from Tanner at the other end of the pavilion. Her dress was a deep red color that emphasized the heightened red in her cheeks and the deep red lipstick she’d put on the pouty lips he couldn’t get out of his mind.
The dress hugged her curves in ways that were sinfully delicious and pushed the limits of his control. His hands curled into fists that he stuffed into his pockets to keep anyone from noticing. He knew he loved her the way he had never loved anyone else and would never love anyone else. But it wasn’t enough, was it? Or maybe it was too late, because she already had someone. He had noticed his dark glances in the mirror early that morning, so he fought to keep the emotions at bay. His and his bear’s emotions. He reined it all in and let a numbing dullness seep throughout him.
He wouldn’t remember much of this day, that much he knew. He stood at the edge of the pavilion, near the brook that would normally be able to provide a lullaby for him.
The period antiques that he and Marti had brought in and arranged were splendidly displayed in the foyer, and some in the covered pavilion. There were a lot of people from town in attendance, he noticed: a couple of Mae’s hairdressers, the sheriff, a deputy, a volunteer firefighter, the staff from the local diner.
Everyone cheered.
They must have been pronounced, he guess. The deed must be done. He clapped, let out a whistle, made a smile appear on his face, and wondered if it looked more like a snarling grimace.
Just like the night before, more music, more dancing. Would this ever end? He wasn’t going to stay. He’d changed his mind, he was leaving for New Mexico tonight. He could sulk at home just as well as he could here. And at least there, he could work and get his mind off of Marti.
Everyone was dancing except for him, Marti, Joe, Mae, and Doc.
Just a great big happy family. Tanner swallowed his bad attitude down. He was really being an A-hole. He’d better make sure he kept it hidden.
“Time for the bouquet,” someone yelled.
Everyone moved out of the way, and all the single ladies made a crowd that looked like a beehive of activity. Marti stood at the end of the gathered single women, at the very back. Next to her, Mae pulled Marti in closer, making a tight huddle.
Chelsea turned her back, raised the bouquet in front of her like a sacrificial small animal at an ancient festival, then catapulted the bouquet over her head, backward into the crowd.
Petals flew, scattering among the women, drifting like large white raindrops. The damned thing flew high and hit the pavilion’s ceiling. Tanner bit back laughter as a beam stopped its progress with a thunk. He wasn’t laughing quite so hard when it looked like it was going to land in Marti’s arms.
Marti looked up, a horrified look on her face. She mouthed the word no and sidestepped.
What the fuck? Tanner stared at the white concoction of flowers.
Mae sidestepped too, snatching the bouquet that was going to fall into no one’s arms. All the guests roared with laughter.
All but Marti.
And Tanner.
Marti looked at him, caught him watching her. A red kiss of a blush rose to her cheeks, coloring them in a delectable way. She looked away, fumbling with her purse as if she were looking for keys, or maybe a tissue to wipe away tears?
Tanner tried to keep an eye on her, but she was shuffled off with the crowd of women who were oohing and ahhing over Mae’s catch.
“Our turn!” one of the townspeople yelled. “Garter time!”
Hell to the no.
Tanner wasn’t sticking around for that shit. He turned, getting ready to pretend that he was looking for the restroom, but a steely grip wrapped around his forearm. He looked at the offending hand, then at the man attached to it.
“Where’re you going?” Teague smiled a knowing look at him. “If I gotta do this, then you gotta do this. You’re not going to leave your brother hanging, are you?”
“You’re the one who has a—” Tanner was going to say woman. He was going to say a lot of things that he knew he’d regret.
“What?” Teague’s eyes were turning amber. His bear was ready to take issue with Tanner’s bear, which was nothing unusual. Their bears scuffled on occasion; they always had. It made for an interesting brotherly relationship peppered with rivalry.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Tanner told Teague, though in reality, it was Tanner’s bear putting Teague’s bear on notice.
Tanner strode toward the cluster of single men, making sure he didn’t get in the middle of the throng.
A beaming Chelsea stood at the end of the pavilion, a chair next to her. Grant held her hand for balance as she propped one leg on the chair and he removed her garter.
Tanner thought it was amusing and cute that Grant pretended to guard her from leering eyes by standing in front of her. He made no great show of pulling the garter off, then promptly dropped her dress into place.
Grant twirled the garter around his finger, holding it above his head while the men hooted and hollered.
Just get it over with.
He was ready to get on the road. Of course, he hadn’t told Teague and Mae yet, so he’d have to deal with their resistance, he was sure. He might get away with sneaking out and not saying anything to Teague, but Mae would never let him get away with that. So he’d wait until he could have a moment alone with them. Maybe after Grant and Chelsea had driven off…
He was so absorbed in his thoughts he barely noticed that Grant was treating Chelsea’s garter like a rubber band. It was perched on one index finger and his other hand was pulling it back, just like they’d done when they were kids.
He looked away from Grant for a second to see if Mae was nearby so he could catch a moment with her.
Thwack!
He raised his hand to rub at his cheekbone and found Chelsea’s garter tangled in his fingers.
“Fat chance,” he muttered under his breath. “That ain’t happening.”
He looked up from the garter and found Marti staring at him, then looking at Mae and the bouquet in Mae’s hand.
Hell, no. This wasn’t prophetic. Marti had it all wrong.
Tanner’s little teenage crush on Mae was so far in the past that she could be his sister now. The fact was, he regarded her as a sister. He opened his mouth, thinking he should go set things straight with Marti, but brought himself up short.
She has someone, moron. She has someone at home waiting for her. He blew out a breath. She couldn’t care less that he had caught the garter and Mae had caught the bouquet.
He was going to talk to Mae right now. He had to excuse himself and get the hell out of Dodge. Sure, he felt like an overreacting baby, but he hoped someone would understand, one day, when he bothered to explain it. Right now, he planned to tell Mae he had a pressing project at work.
He caught Mae’s eye and made quick, long strides in her direction.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Marti couldn’t believe it. Tanner had caught the garter, and Mae got the bouquet. Marti wasn’t superstitious, but if that wasn’t a sign of things to come, she didn’t know what was.
She bit her lip as hard as she could stand it to keep from giving in to the tears.
She needed to get home anyway. She’d missed Dominic a lot the last few days. She’d been working way too much on this job. Maybe she should rethink the idea of taking any more projects on in Bear Canyon Valley. When she added the drive time in, she lost almost an extra two hours with him. She could have sworn he was growing up and she was missing it all, even though she’d only been on this job for three weeks.
She turned toward the back of the pavilion. She could sneak out and no one would be the wiser. She could lie later on if they asked, and say she was sick. She was at her car in less than thirty seconds, fishing the keys out of her purse as she walked.
Once in her car, she started it and headed out without a backward glance, not even in her rearview mirror.
