by Terry Spear
“I—”
Toby frowned at her.
“I’m here now, and I’m not leaving you again like that.”
He snuggled his head against her chest, but then he lifted his chin and studied Rafe, who was looking down at him. “Daddy?”
“I’m Rafe,” he said, smiling a little. “A friend of your mom’s.” Rafe glanced at Jade, but she was too busy cuddling her son to notice. Had the boy’s father looked like him? No, the boy had never met his dad.
“Lizzie said Daddy was coming to take me home.” Toby folded his arms across his stomach and gave Rafe a mutinous look.
Rafe noticed Edward glancing at the rearview mirror and his brother peering over the front seat at him, smiling. Toby reminded Rafe of himself at that age. Only he’d been a cantankerous wolf.
“Rafe is a friend. You can call him Rafe,” Jade said, finally helping him out, though she’d watched him squirm a bit before she said anything.
He wasn’t used to kids. Sure, he’d been one once, but what did he remember about it?
Then Toby began to talk nonstop again. “We played hide-and-seek and chase, and I got to color. I got hot dogs whenever I wanted. With cheese on top. And ice-cream cones. And pizza. But Lizzie made me take naps. I don’t take naps. I told Lizzie I’m too old for naps.”
Jade smiled at him. “Even adults take naps when we’re tired.”
“I wasn’t tired.”
Rafe had no plans to let Jade go anywhere until Kenneth had been dealt with. She would be perfectly safe at his place, but he wondered just how childproof he needed to make the house. What he would need to make the boy comfortable. Did he sleep in a bed? Need diapers? A special potty? Hell.
“Okay, I need you to make me a list of everything you need for Toby while the two of you live with me,” Rafe said.
“Shoot, all I’d thought about was getting Toby back. I didn’t think about clothes or anything else.” She said to Edward, “Can you take us to a children’s clothing store and a grocery store?”
Aidan checked his phone for the location of a children’s clothing store, then set the GPS to take them there.
“Nothing fancy,” she said.
“Whatever’s convenient,” Rafe said. “None of us like to shop. I’d say it’s our least favorite duty in life.”
When they pulled into a parking lot, she stared at the fancy summer dresses and little boys’ suits displayed in the windows of the shop Aidan had directed them to.
“Can we go to another store? Just something cheap?”
“No, let’s go in. I’d rather just shop here, and then we can go to the grocery store after that and get you both back to my house,” Rafe said.
“Okay.” Jade started to leave the car, but so did all the guys. She realized it was hot out and they probably couldn’t have stayed in the car for too long without overheating. Or maybe they were worried that her brother might suddenly show up and grab her and Toby. But she didn’t imagine he’d try it in a children’s clothing store. With Toby in hand, she headed for the shop while Rafe held the door for her. Everyone waited until Rafe followed her inside.
She didn’t want to take too long, but she needed to make sure she got enough clothes to last about a week and ensure they weren’t too expensive. Which is why she’d wanted to go to a discount children’s shop. She didn’t need fancy; she just needed wearable.
Jade walked straight to the sales racks, not expecting Rafe to follow her. But he did, closely, and said, “Get what you need. I’ll put it on my card. Don’t worry about the cost.”
She wondered if he was afraid of how it would look to anyone who saw him with her son wearing normal, everyday clothes, but she quickly discounted that notion as she considered Rafe’s jeans, T-shirt, and boots, which made him look like an undercover police officer, not a real estate mogul.
She thanked him, but she continued to look through the sales clothes.
Toby began to run his hands through soft sweaters and picked one up to hold against his chest like she did when she was measuring him for size. “This one, Mommy.”
It was a purple sweater for a little girl.
“How about you look at these sweaters.” Jade motioned to another table and folded the purple sweater back onto its stack. “They’re for boys.”
Toby eyed the purple sweater, then nodded and headed for the other table. He picked out a bright-orange one, and she thought he’d look like a pumpkin. “This one, Mommy.”
She hated to look at the price tag. The fall clothes didn’t have any sales.
“Looks good,” Rafe said, smiling, his hands folded across his chest. “Just the one I would have picked.”
Toby grabbed another and offered it to him. “Here’s ’nother.”
“Little too small. But next time I’m in a men’s shop, I’ll see if I can find one.”
“Okay. We can match.”
Edward and Aidan were standing near the door in the little girls’ section, looking highly amused. Jade imagined that all three men were totally out of their element here. Toby handed the sweater to Jade and then glanced at Rafe’s stance and copied it, arms folded over his small chest, watching Jade.
When she pulled out a brown gingham shorts set with a train appliquéd on the T-shirt, Toby frowned at it, then looked to see if Rafe liked it. He raised his brows. Toby shook his head. Rafe shook his head.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you two.” Jade kept pulling out different shorts sets that met with negative responses until she found a blue T-shirt set with a brontosaurus appliquéd on it that she knew Toby would love. He loved all things dinosaur. Wolves too, but finding them in toddler’s clothes was nearly impossible. She had to order those online.
Toby immediately smiled.
But then he looked at Rafe to see his take on it, and Jade gave Rafe a warning look that he’d better like it. Although he wasn’t paying any attention to her, Rafe gave Toby a smile and a thumbs-up.
“I like it, Mommy.”
She sighed and found one with baseball bats, another with a puppy dog, and a few others she got both to agree on. After trying a jacket on him, making sure it was a little bigger so Toby could wear it longer, she picked up everything else she needed, including jeans, sandals, another pair of sneakers, and underwear.
Rafe carried her merchandise to the counter. Rafe pulled out his credit card and handed it to the clerk. “Maybe the owner or manager would be interested in your children’s specialty designs,” Rafe said.
“Janine Pragley is in her office. I’ll call back there, if you’d like to talk to her,” the store clerk said.
“But…” Jade looked down at Toby, worried about having him with her while she tried to talk to the manager.
“Toby and I will just wait for you with the others. Right, Toby?”
“Right,” he said, nodding vigorously.
“She said she’d see you,” the clerk said when she returned. “Just go into the office through that door.” She continued to ring up the items and fold them neatly on the counter.
“Thanks.” Jade looked up at Rafe. “Are you sure you’re all right with this?”
“Absolutely.” Rafe smiled back at her, but she wasn’t sure if he could handle Toby.
“All right. Behave yourself with Rafe, Toby.”
Chapter 11
What could go wrong with watching a three-year-old? Rafe didn’t believe he’d run into any trouble.
“So what do you like to do?” Rafe asked Toby as Jade rushed off to speak with the manager.
“Play ball. Do you?”
“Volleyball. In the pool.” Rafe and his brother had been into long-distance running—in competition against each other either as wolves or humans. They’d also done the usual outdoor sports for wolves—climbing, hiking, running, bicycling, swimming. Playing group sports like baseball, basketball, or football meant mixing it up with humans, and they didn’t care much for that, except when it came to business and they had to. Even the human social gatherings
that Rafe still had were all to do with business.
He and Aidan hadn’t gone to human schools, so they hadn’t done a lot of things that Toby would probably do when he was a little older.
“You got a pool? I need a bathing suit. Mommy didn’t get me one.”
“Got to remedy that. One swimsuit coming right up.”
The clerk smiled.
“Be right back.” Rafe walked back to a table with swimsuits and began digging through them, looking for the same size as Jade had picked out. Toby was like a little puppy dog, brushing up against his side as if he didn’t want to lose him.
Toby began pulling out the swimsuits and discarding them quickly, just like Rafe, but Rafe was doing it because the swimsuits weren’t the right size. He pulled out a pair of board shorts covered in blue fish. “What about this one?”
They ended up getting that one, plus Mickey Mouse shorts, a sun-protective rash-guard swimsuit featuring palm trees, and a bright-neon rash-guard swim set with sharks.
“No wolves.” Toby’s dark-brown eyes widened. “Oh, oh, oh, gotta have pj’s. Mommy forgot.”
That meant a trip to a table stacked with pj’s, where they ended up with Ninja Turtles, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, and a couple of different kinds of dinosaurs.
“Anything else?” Rafe asked.
Toby looked thoughtfully around the room. “Floaties?”
“We’ll go to the toy store for those.”
“Yes!”
Rafe took the clothes to the counter, and the clerk began ringing up the rest of the items just as Jade came out of the manager’s office, smiling.
Then she frowned at the new pile of clothes.
“He reminded me he needed pj’s and swimsuits for the pool.”
Toby grinned. “And we’re going to get toys.”
She groaned. “Don’t you talk him into buying the whole store out. Just a couple of things.”
When the cashier had finished ringing up their purchases, Rafe took the sacks of clothing but gave the smallest bag to Toby. “Gotta help your mom carry the bags.”
Toby seized the bag with his arms and crushed it against his body. “Mommy’s not carrying any.”
“That’s because we’re being extra nice and carrying them all for her.”
Jade slipped her hand around Toby’s arm. “Can you manage okay?”
“I can carry it.”
“Good. That will give you big muscles like me,” Rafe said, showing off his bicep.
Toby looked like he was getting ready to drop the sack, but when Jade offered to carry it for him, he shook his head. “I got it.”
When they left the store, Rafe asked, “Good news?”
“Yes, I have until the end of the year to get an order ready for the store for spring.”
“Good deal.”
“Thanks for buying everything, Rafe.”
“No problem.”
“You didn’t have to buy that many swim trunks.”
“Yes he did. I wanted them,” Toby explained.
She just shook her head. “You are such a pushover, Rafe. Who would have ever thought?”
Aidan laughed and Edward was grinning as they approached the door.
When they arrived at the toy store, Rafe couldn’t believe all the fun things kids had to play with. Jade was right. He wanted to buy a little of everything.
Aidan said Toby had to have a bike, and he helped him pick out the right size and the color—a bright-red one. “I’ve wanted this my whole life,” Toby said.
Edward tracked down floaties and enough swimming toys to practically fill the swimming pool. Rafe hadn’t expected Edward to get into this, but he wasn’t surprised that Aidan would head for the bicycles first.
Rafe helped Toby pick out a fleet of toy trucks and cars to play with. Jade picked up a bunch of books, a couple of coloring books, crayons, and a big, snuggly green-and-blue dinosaur.
“Need a toy chest, Boss?” Edward asked, his arms full of packages of inflatable pool toys, including a smiling, colorful gecko float, an octopus ring toss, and a basketball hoop for kids.
“Yeah, let’s get one.” Rafe figured even when Jade left, he could help her get settled into a place of her own close by, and she could take all this stuff with her. He hoped she would agree to stay here in California. He’d already decided he didn’t want her returning to Texas. Too far away and too close to her pack.
He eyed the bicycle in the box resting at Aidan’s feet. “Sure you can put it together by yourself?”
“Edward said he can do it. I’ll help,” Aidan said.
Rafe had never been to a toy store. Neither had his brother or bodyguard. He and the others had been children way before toy stores were around.
As they loaded the trunk with the booty, Rafe said, “I was thinking we could take Toby to Disneyland. And the San Diego Zoo.”
“Pleeease, Mommy?” Toby asked, holding her hand and giving her a wide-eyed look that was sure to convince her to go along with the plan.
“What about Kenneth and his pack?” she asked Rafe.
“We’ll take Edward and Aidan with us. No one will hassle us,” Rafe said.
Looking for his consensus, Jade glanced at Aidan.
He shrugged. “Never been to either. First time for everything. I have nothing better to do until the charity ball.”
Edward said, “I do whatever you tell me to, Boss.”
“See? It’s all settled.” Rafe opened the back door.
“See, Mommy? It’s okay.”
Rafe chuckled. He liked the kid, though he thought the tyke would mess up his organized way of living. He had to admit it remained to be seen how this would all play out while they stayed with him. For instance, would the toys stay in their appropriate places, or would they be scattered all over the house? Granted, it was a large house, but Rafe liked it neat and orderly.
Would the boy sleep in, or would he be up at all hours?
Rafe knew he shouldn’t take on any role other than protector for both Jade and her son, but he couldn’t help wanting to spend quality time with her. Alone. He could just imagine snuggling with her on the couch and Toby wanting to curl up on her lap. Or kissing her and getting caught. Or wanting to watch a movie with her that might be unsuitable for youngsters when Toby wanted to watch an animated feature…with them. At least Toby wasn’t as clingy with her around Rafe as he had been when Aidan took blood from her in Texas. Toby had stayed with Rafe without objecting one bit when Jade talked to the clothing store manager. Maybe Toby had just been uncomfortable around Kenneth and his pack.
As soon as they got home, Toby wanted to play in the pool. He was like a kid at Christmas, and Rafe swore Edward was too as he carried the pool toys outside and began to blow them up.
Aidan, Rafe, and Jade helped carry the rest of the packages in—groceries, toys, and Toby’s clothes. Toby carried the stuffed dinosaur himself, though he stumbled a bit because it was so big.
“Want to trade this package for the dinosaur?” Rafe asked. The package had Toby’s swimsuits in it and was much lighter and more manageable.
“No, thanks. But you can play with Dino later.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that,” Rafe said.
Jade started to carry Toby’s clothes into her room, but Rafe stopped her. “Did you want one of the other spare rooms for Toby?”
“No. I’m sure he’ll want to sleep with me for now. When I leave here, he’ll have his own room again.”
Even though Rafe knew where this was headed, he didn’t like that she planned to leave.
“Hey!” Aidan called out from the kitchen, and Rafe and Jade went to see where Toby had gone.
“He just raced across the patio in his birthday suit,” Aidan said.
Jade laughed. “All little boys do that. You probably did too, even if you don’t remember.”
“Hey!” Edward called out to Toby. “Where are your swim trunks, buddy?”
“My name is Toby,” he said, eyeing the octo
pus Edward had been blowing up. “Are you going swimming?”
“Maybe you ought to ask your mommy. She’ll probably go swimming with you. But you should have some suntan lotion on and a pair of swim trunks.”
“Toby, why don’t you pick out a bathing suit you want to wear? They’re lying on my bed. Come on. And Edward is right. I need to put some suntan lotion on you so you don’t burn.”
Toby followed his mom inside and said to Rafe, “Will you go swimming with us?”
“Maybe later. I need to make a couple of phone calls.”
“Will you?” Toby asked Aidan.
“I’m putting away the groceries, Toby. Maybe later.”
“Aww, everyone says that.” Toby ran for the bedroom that he must have seen Jade entering, but she stopped him.
“Toby, this isn’t our house, so you can’t leave your clothes lying all over the place. Pick them up and take them into the room. Then we can get dressed and go swimming.”
He made a big deal of raising his shoulders and dropping them as he reluctantly picked up his clothes.
Rafe couldn’t help smiling. Somehow that jogged some memories. He might like things neat now, but he wasn’t always that tidy. “Were you like that?” Rafe asked Jade as Toby ran into the bedroom carrying everything but a sock he’d missed.
“Yeah. You?”
“I guess most kids are.”
“Are you sure none of you guys want to swim?”
“Later. I’ve got to make some business calls.” Rafe also had to check what was going on with Lizzie and give his men direction.
“Okay, sounds good.” Jade slipped into the bedroom. “Oh, you want to put on the shark one. I really like that one. I’m going into the bathroom to change. Be out in a second.”
Rafe thought about how Jade had slipped out of her swimsuit under his poolside shower and how that would never happen again. A child changed the dynamics to such a degree. Well, a human child. Wolf children were used to stripping and shifting with siblings, parents, and the pack. It was natural and necessary. But Rafe understood that when Toby started school, he couldn’t mention something like that to his teachers. Everyone in a pack with him would have to act as though they were human.
