by Tasha Black
“Oh, nothing,” he replied. “It’s wonderful that you’re doing so well. But the reason I came to see you, the real reason, may complicate your plans a little. If you decide to take me up on my offer.”
Interesting.
“Go on,” she said coolly.
“Rachel,” he said. “I was wondering if you might be willing to open the new shop in Chelsea.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean, I’d like for you to come to New York and run the Love Charms flagship store,” he said.
His smile told her that he expected her to start jumping up and down.
Truth be told, there was a lot to jump up and down about in what he had said.
If you didn’t care about moving to New York.
But Rachel was in love with Tarker’s Hollow.
On the other hand, she was also falling in love with Jack Harkness and she needed to put a stop to it. New York might be just the thing.
“I’d need time to think about that,” she said. “And details, of course.”
“Of course,” Anderson said immediately. “Why don’t we meet for dinner tonight? I’ll bring the plans for the shop, and a rundown of what I had in mind. Can I pick you up at eight o’clock?”
“Fine,” Rachel agreed.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing you this evening,” Anderson said.
His voice sounded too deep and suave for a business conversation.
But when she tried to give him a sharp look, he only smiled. His crinkled blue eyes and the dimple over his right cheekbone made her smile back in spite of herself.
“See you at eight,” he said.
“See you then,” she agreed.
12
Jack
Jack was steaming.
Easy, big guy, he tried to tell himself. He’s just some suit from New York.
Trouble was, that man was everything Jack was not: rich, already successful in business, and dressed to kill without any sawdust or plaster on him.
And here the guy was, in the time it took Jack to grab two sandwiches at the Co-op, effortlessly plucking Rachel out of Tarker’s Hollow, both in her business and maybe her heart, too.
Jack was beside himself.
Worst of it was, he didn’t even seem like a bad guy. Jack could hardly blame him for being attracted to Rachel. He certainly was.
But dammit, Jack had been worshipping her since high school. And it seemed like things were going so well.
“Hey,” Rachel said, poking her head in the curtain, eyes flashing with excitement.
“Hi,” he said, grinning back at her, secretly wishing he had been the one to make her eyes dance that way.
“You heard that, right?”
There was no point pretending he hadn’t.
“Yeah, it sounded like that guy must be pretty high up at Love Charms,” he said.
“He is Love Charms,” Rachel said, her eyes wide.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s the founder, the artist who created them,” Rachel said.
“Wow.” It was worse than he thought.
“I know, right?”
“So are you going to do what he wants?”
She got a funny look on her face. If he hadn’t known better he would have thought she looked sad. Except that she shouldn’t look sad right now.
He wondered if she was reading his thoughts.
His brother Adrian’s new mate had gained a magical ability when they bonded during Adrian’s three-hundredth moon.
Jack had always thought Rachel might have a touch of magic - the way she instinctively knew about people - enough that everyone said her rings were enchanted.
If he bonded with her during his three-hundredth moon, would his cast-off magical spell be enough to release hidden magic in Rachel?
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” Rachel said, pulling him back to the real world. “I guess I’ll find out more tonight.”
“Are you really going to dinner with him?” Jack heard himself ask. “Isn’t that kind of an odd way to transact business?”
Rachel drew back as if he had slapped her.
“He’s from New York,” she said icily. “They do things differently there.”
“I’ve got to get back to work,” Jack managed to say through a clenched jaw.
“Fine,” Rachel said, turning on her heel and marching back to the store.
He meant to go after her, he really did.
But the bells on the door jingled, and she was back with a customer before he had a chance.
13
Rachel
Rachel tried to throw herself into work, she really did.
But somehow the whole evening was thrown. And oddly, it was not thrown because Anderson Hughes wanted her to uproot her life.
No, Rachel was reeling from the hurt she’d seen in Jack’s eyes.
He was a good man and he was being so sweet to her. The guilt washed over her like ice water in her heart.
But all of this was for Jack. It was better for him if she went away, far away, so he could meet a woman who could give him the family he longed for. The one he deserved.
The best thing she could do in the short term was to push him away.
She made it through the trickle of afternoon customers, the after work crowd, and then the sudden crush of women leaving the Tarker’s Hollow Library Bake Sale Planning Committee meeting. They always had lemonade and a big tray of cookies at those meetings, and the ladies came into the store bubbling over from their sugar highs and ready to shop and gossip.
At last it was seven thirty and Rachel closed up. She was reconciling her register when Jack pushed aside the curtain.
“Rachel,” he said. His voice was so deep it was almost a growl.
The work lights coming from behind him haloed his big body and for a moment Rachel was reminded of something savage and she stood, transfixed, unable to reply.
“Don’t go with him,” Jack said.
And though she wasn’t sure if he was talking about dinner or to New York, the meaning was clear by his tone and his stance. Jack was staking his claim on her. He wasn’t giving up on her without a fight.
Oh, how it hurt to see everything she had ever wanted right here in front of her, and have to turn away. It was almost more than she could bear.
But Salvador DelGato had not raised his granddaughter to be self-indulgent.
“It’s just dinner,” she said lightly, turning away, though it broke her heart.
“Rachel,” Jack said again, his voice breaking on her name.
Rachel grabbed her coat and headed to the front door. She’d wait for Anderson outside. It was cold out but it would be better than this. Anything would be better than this.
“I need you,” he said clearly. “Please don’t leave.”
That stopped her in her tracks.
Rachel drew in a careful breath.
“You’ll be fine,” she said over her shoulder. “You don’t need me.”
She moved quickly to the door, and let herself out.
It wasn’t until she turned to close the glass door behind her that she saw the look on his face.
Jack looked horrified. And broken.
The temptation to go back to him would have been too great, except that at just that moment, a big black town car pulled up.
“Miss DelGato,” Anderson said, hopping out of the back to take her hand.
She let herself be led to the car.
It’s for the best. It’s for the best. It’s for the best…
14
Jack
Jack was paralyzed.
You’ll be fine. You don’t need me.
Though he knew it had to be a coincidence, those words, the very same ones his mother had uttered all those years ago, rocked him to his core.
By the time he felt the ground under his feet again, Rachel was gone.
The shop always seemed so warm, the Christmas lights in the window illuminating
the cotton snow and the train set.
But without Rachel, the place felt as cavernous as the hull next door.
Jack couldn’t stand it anymore.
He ran without thinking out into the frigid night, moonlight bathing his skin until he felt his blood run hot and the wolf slavering to be freed.
The town was nearly empty. He made it all the way across Yale Avenue to the campus without bumping into another soul.
By then he was in a cold sweat, his heart thundering in his chest, though he was in great shape and used to running miles a day.
The path to the woods beckoned, and he followed the lampposts deeper and deeper into the trees.
His breath fogged in the wintry air, making him feel as if he were some kind of fire-breathing beast.
His lungs were burning. His whole body was burning.
Still he ran.
At last he reached the stone monuments at the top of the hill that led down into the amphitheater and slowed to a jog.
Carved stone benches were built into the hillside, approaching the grassy stage below.
Instinctively, he peeled his t-shirt off over his head, dropping it heedlessly in the snow. His jeans followed.
By the time he reached the stage he was naked.
The fear he had felt about surrendering to the wolf was fading. There was a magic in this place, something ancient and wonderful.
The breeze picked up, but he wasn’t cold.
Then the clouds overhead parted to unveil the moon.
Jack observed the full milky orb, the three hundredth of its kind since that night when Gloria sang her song over him.
Suddenly, the ground was surging up toward him, and his vision was narrowing.
But Jack didn’t need his vision anymore.
The whole world was lifting out of a mist of obscurity, bright as day through his sense of smell.
Jack was at once aware of the rabbits in the forest, the night birds in the trees, the metallic note of the train tracks heading out of Tarker’s Hollow and into the city.
Even things that weren’t present in time stood before him to be examined. The students who had been here when school was in session had left their mark on this place, as had every leashed dog, every professor on a stroll, every chipmunk.
And of course there were the scents of the others of his kind.
His clever ears could hear their paws denting the leaves deep, deep in the woods.
But he wasn’t ready to join them, not yet.
Instead, he trotted into the trees behind the stage, curious about what he would discover with his newfound senses.
The rich soil cooled his paw pads and sent up a symphony of smells with every step. Jack found himself loping and then leaping, the spring of his powerful rear legs making him feel as if he were on a trampoline.
He found the source of a delicious scent - a large flat rock projected over the dark water of a creek.
The smell of another wolf and maybe a fox lingered there, but they were long gone. There was nothing to stop him from leaping into the crystal water.
Jack hit the creek with a terrific splash.
The icy water was deep enough to reach his broad chest.
He laughed, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.
Then he thrust his muzzle into the water and drank long and deep.
At last he felt peace.
He was whole again, no longer trapped.
He walked through the water, slowly, lapping up a mouthful here and there. Mostly he was thinking.
Thinking was a pleasure in wolf form.
He thought of the night his mother had left him. But somehow he found himself thinking instead of Kate Harkness covered in gingerbread dough.
The scent of happiness filled the trees and he realized it was his own.
Mother.
Yes, she was his mother. Simple. That other woman had fulfilled her destiny by bringing him to his mother. Case closed.
Then he made the mistake of thinking of Rachel, the one person his human did not wish him to think of.
He heard himself whine aloud, afraid he would never be allowed freedom again.
But again the scent of happiness rose, tomato red and bursting.
Mate.
The human Jack tried to explain something complicated about jobs and territories. But he soon was silenced, recognizing the trivial nature of his arguments now that his wolf half was resurrected.
Mate, the human conceded.
Delighted, Jack the wolf leapt out of the water and shook himself dry.
Then he dashed through the trees, back in the direction from which he had come.
There would be many nights for exploring the woods.
Right now he needed to find, and claim, his mate.
15
Rachel
The restaurant was cozy, and the food looked incredible, but Rachel couldn’t eat a bite.
Anderson gave her a warm smile from across the table.
She smiled back, but she felt cold inside and out, in spite of the fireplace crackling next to their table.
“Is your salmon okay?” Anderson asked politely.
“It’s very good,” Rachel said, looking down at the untouched piece of fish in a delicate sauce. Salmon was usually her favorite.
Anderson laughed out loud.
She looked up, surprised, then found herself laughing too.
“You know you don’t have to come to New York, right?” he asked. “It was only an offer, not an ultimatum.”
“It’s a very lucky break for me,” Rachel said firmly. And it was true. Anderson’s job would have her working too hard to think about Jack. She hoped.
“You don’t look like you feel lucky,” Anderson said, leaning across the table and placing a hand on hers.
His hand was warm and dry, and his eyes were so blue.
Fall for him, Rachel, she encouraged herself. It would be so easy.
“I’m just kind of going through a break-up,” she heard herself admit.
What the hell, Rachel?
Her inner critic was not pleased.
“I’m sorry,” Anderson said as he discreetly removed his hand from hers. “How long were you together?”
“Oh,” Rachel said. “We weren’t together.”
“I see,” Anderson replied, in a way that told her he did not see.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s complicated.”
“He wasn’t married, was he?”
“Oh god, no,” Rachel said at once. “I’d never do that.”
“Good,” Anderson said. “So what was the problem? He wasn’t respectful to you?”
“Oh, no, he was wonderful to me,” she said.
“You don’t share values?”
Rachel looked out the window at the snow that was beginning to fall. She thought about the way Jack felt about his family and how he threw himself wholeheartedly into his work.
“No,” she said. “Our values are right on track.”
“He’s not attractive?”
Rachel pictured Jack’s strapping body hovering over her, his gorgeous face between her legs and instantly felt the blood rushing to her cheeks before she could answer.
“He’s alright,” she muttered.
“Hmm,” he said, growing amusement coming through in his tone. “No sense of humor?”
“Really funny,” she replied.
“Personal hygiene?” he asked.
“Excellent,” she said.
“And he likes you too?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Alright,” Anderson nodded. “So level with me, Rachel. I have no chance with you, right?”
Rachel gaped at him, unsure how to respond.
“You seriously think I wanted to take you here to talk about blueprints?” He gestured to the romantic scene around them.
“Wow,” Rachel said.
Anderson laughed.
“I can see I have no chance with you, and I won’t say I’m not disa
ppointed. But let me help you, since you’ve already helped me with my Love Charms.”
“Okay,” Rachel said.
“Whatever is holding you back with this guy is trivial,” Anderson said. “It’s not something wrong between the two of you, it’s an outside force, and that means it’s something you can contend with. Go get him, make it work.”
“No, it’s not an outside force,” Rachel said, shaking her head sadly.
“What is it?”
“I- I can’t have children,” she said quietly, amazed that she was sharing this personal fact with someone she had just met. Somehow, it was easier to open up to a stranger.
“That bastard,” Anderson growled. “That’s hardly your fault.”
“Oh, he doesn’t know,” Rachel put in immediately.
“What do you mean, he doesn’t know?” Anderson demanded. “You mean you ran this man off and he doesn’t even know why?”
“He’s a good guy,” Rachel said. “He would say he was okay with it, even if he wasn’t. He deserves better.”
“Let me tell you something,” Anderson said. “You’re looking at it backwards - all of it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“First of all, what he deserves is to be with the woman whose values he shares - someone who laughs at his jokes and finds him attractive to boot. Secondly, he deserves to know the basic information you’ve just shared with a stranger at a dinner table. By withholding something from him that is important to you, you’ve been putting up a wall between you. Tear it down. You owe it to him to be honest and let him make his own decisions.”
Whoa.
“The bigger issue,” Anderson continued, “is that you’re sitting here sad as if he had dumped you for not being able to have children. But he didn’t. You didn’t even give him the chance. You rejected yourself. That’s the saddest part of all. Why would you reject yourself for something you can’t help? Don’t you deserve happiness?”
Rachel was getting out of her chair before he finished the question.
“I have to go,” she murmured.
“Yes, I thought you might,” Anderson said. “Good luck with him. If it doesn’t work out, please consider me as your back-up plan. I don’t care for children, and I adore women of character.”
