by Leela Ash
He snuck a glance at Ella as she busied herself with adjusting her small son on her hip. She was certainly beautiful. To him, and the wolf, if nobody else. Her hair was cut at her shoulders and she had a simple elegance about her style. She was feminine but not so much so that she would cry about breaking a nail. There was something very down to earth about her, and yet something sexy and mysterious at the same time. It was a combination that was already driving him crazy. How was he supposed to keep working with a woman like this?
When she finally glanced up from her son and caught Luke’s eye, she flushed deeply, and he could tell that she was probably thinking the same thing. Did that mean he should leave? Bow out? Maybe surrender the house to some other agency and try not to worry about it anymore?
But when Ella’s face broke out into a sweet, gentle smile, Luke felt like his heart was being squeezed tightly by this woman and for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to break away from it. He wanted to be near her. And he would be damned if he surrendered this house to someone else’s contracting agency.
She had specifically asked for someone who knew the area well and who would be able to help her with things that he knew were his specialty. He wasn’t going to back out now and abandon her like this. Besides, he could use the work. Business wasn’t exactly booming with how unpopular he was to his former pack. He managed and did pretty well for himself, but it was a modest company and he was surprised to make ends meet despite having his name dragged through the dirt again and again.
“Why don’t we get back upstairs,” Ella said, patting Mikey’s back soothingly. “I’m afraid if I don’t put him down soon, he’ll start getting fussy.”
Luke nodded and followed the woman up the stairs, taking great pains not to gaze up at her body as she walked just ahead of him, climbing the stairs. The wolf was scolding him for his modesty but what would it know? It was an animal. A beast that took what it wanted, when it wanted. It had no concept of decency or respect. He wasn’t about to let it have its way. Especially not here with a woman like this, whose child was nestled close to her breast and eyeing him curiously from the top of the staircase….
“There we are,” Ella said, smiling down at Mikey as she sat him in his playpen. “Luke, can you come into the kitchen with me and check the windows out? I can get you something to drink if you’d like.”
Luke followed quietly behind Ella, trying not to let her scent drive him any crazier than he was already beginning to feel. She was gentle smelling. Almost floral. And every once in a while, the spice of her interest in him would spike the wolf’s attention and make them both freeze in place.
“What do you think?” Ella asked, stopping in front of the windows and bringing a hand to her chin thoughtfully. “They’re big, right? It will cost a lot to replace them, don’t you think?”
“Well, that depends on your definition of ‘a lot’,” Luke replied, his eyes scanning the windows. Yeah, it would be a little bit pricey. But he would be able to cut her a deal if he needed to. “What’s your budget?”
Ella laughed tiredly. “I’m putting everything I have into this house,” she admitted. “I want to make sure that if we end up staying, it will be a great place for Michael to grow up. And if we sell it, I want to make sure we can turn as big a profit as possible, because I know real estate can be quite a lucrative market.”
“That’s for sure,” Luke agreed.
“So, the price isn’t really an issue as long as I have the money for it. It is an investment into my future.” Ella glanced out of the doorway toward where Mikey was playing in the playpen. “Our future.”
She rested her hand on her abdomen lightly for a moment, a wistful look in her eye, and Luke had a sudden and powerful image of what she must look like pregnant. And it was beautiful. Angelic.
He blinked hard and shook his head, trying to erase the image from his mind. It wouldn’t do him any good to think this way. He would have to steel himself from this ridiculous attraction. Even if she did think he was handsome, or whatever it was that made her smell this way, it wasn’t for him to concern himself with. He would only drag her down in this town. He would help her the best he could. Give her a good investment into her future. But beyond that, they couldn’t have anything more. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
“Let me get you something to drink,” Ella said suddenly, moving swiftly to the refrigerator. “I have water, juice, and beer.”
“I’ll have a beer, thanks,” Luke said before he could stop himself. So much for keeping things professional between them.
“Are you hungry?” she asked casually, handing him the bottle. She glanced at the stove, where the remnants of a fresh meal were still sitting. “I can’t eat all of this myself, and Mikey won’t have it.”
She gasped, realizing there was still dry cereal all over the floor. “Please help yourself, it will all just end up in the trash if you don’t.”
“Well, I can’t let a good meal go to waste,” Luke said with a grin. It was against shifter etiquette. One didn’t simply waste food. Even if it was bland human cooking. They didn’t have the same senses the shifters were blessed with, and he knew that he would have to work hard to make sure that it wasn’t apparent on his face that he thought her food was lacking in something. But humans these days had been told that shifters didn’t even exist. So, his sensitive palate would not be something he could easily explain. He would have to smile through the meal.
“Good,” Ella said, grabbing a broom. “It would be doing me a favor. I feel so guilty wasting food like this. I will eat one or two meals of leftovers maybe, but the rest will just end up being thrown away. It feels so wrong.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Luke said, carefully sidestepping dried cereal scattered on the floor to make his way to the food. He looked around haplessly for silverware and plates, and Ella let out an embarrassed laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry. You can find silverware in the drawer to the left. Plates are still in that box over there, but they’re clean. If you’re concerned, you can always rinse it off in the sink, I have dish soap and a sponge ready.”
“I trust you,” Luke said, smiling privately to himself. He could tell that she kept things immaculate, though it almost felt like cheating because of how sensitive the wolf within him made him to such things. The poor woman would have no idea. She probably would panic if she realized that he was a wolf shifter. Most humans didn’t believe they were real. Only the ones who had seen a shapeshift firsthand would believe it at this point. Now, Stonybrooke had been labeled as a town that was shapeshifter for pay, just a gimmick. And that was probably for the best. There was too much dangerous magic here for humans to be coming and going as they pleased, poking about, fully believing in the power of the place. It had to be protected.
Luke scowled to himself as he piled food onto his plate, stomach rumbling. He hadn’t gotten a chance to eat at Maurice’s as he had intended. The assholes from his former pack had been there and things had gotten heated before he had even gotten to order anything. It was a welcome surprise that she had food prepared. And it smelled good. Really good.
Maybe human cooking wasn’t quite as bad as all the others had led him to believe. Ella finished sweeping the dry cereal in record time and set to work in dishing out her own food. Apparently, she hadn’t gotten a chance to eat with Mikey wreaking havoc on the meal.
She let out a small sigh of relief upon sitting and leaned back in her chair, completely oblivious of everything but her own comfort for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, she fixed them on Luke and almost seemed surprised he was there, but the little smile playing on her lips was intoxicating. “I don’t get much down time,” she admitted. She grabbed a fork and dug into her food. “I hope you like it. It’s an old family recipe that was passed to me from Mikey’s grandmother.”
Luke nodded. He hadn’t tried it yet and hoped he would be able to pull off “impressed.”
When he lifted his own fork to his mouth and
sampled its contents, his eyes lit up suddenly. “It’s a very good recipe,” he said. “I’ve had something similar.”
Ella smiled in relief. “Good. I’m glad you like it.”
Like was an understatement. Luke hadn’t been expecting to have a meal catering to a shifter palate. Either Mikey was part shifter himself and the family had never bothered to inform his mother, or they had bought one of the limited edition shifter cookbooks that had been mass marketed for a brief time out west. A novelty collector’s item now, but at the time, it had been an effort to bring humans and shifters closer together.
That had been before the trouble had started. Humans invading the area and desecrating sacred relics that were best left untampered with. Humans using the knowledge they had of shifters against them all and causing the elders to conclude that the integration experiment had been unsuccessful. They’d pulled the plug on the whole idea and now, the few humans who knew of shifter existence had good motive to keep it to themselves. Who wanted a pack of angry wolves after them?
They ate quietly for a few minutes, and the wolf within Luke once again tempted him to claim this human and make her his own. Not only was she beautiful and serene, but she could cook well enough to please a shifter palate. There was something to be said there, and he was feeling really good about it. But he knew that it was something he would have to forget about. He couldn’t put her through the pain of ostracism before she had even been able to establish herself. He wouldn’t allow it.
When he finished his meal, he stood abruptly, scarcely able to look her in the eye.
“Thank you for the meal,” Luke said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be back around tomorrow sometime, if you’re available. We can talk pricing and I can get you a few quotes run by then to look over.”
“Okay. No prob−”
But before she had even fully gotten the words out, Luke had disappeared out the door.
5.
“Are you sure you don’t mind keeping him just a little while longer? I just realized that I have to go into town to look for a few supplies. I have a pretty big project I’m working on.”
“No, dear, it’s fine. Michael seems to be doing very well with the other children. The extra socialization might help him to begin feeling acclimated to this new environment.”
“Good,” Ella breathed. “Good. Okay. I’ll pick him up as soon as I can. I promise.”
“Of course. We close at 8pm. And of course, you will be billed for any extra time he is with us.”
“Of course,” Ella said, nodding even though nobody could see her through the phone. “That’s not an issue. I will see you tonight.”
“All right dear, take care.”
Ella hung up quickly and skimmed over her grocery list one last time as she headed toward the door. She grabbed her purse and keys and put the list inside, then headed out to her little car. It was durable, that much was certain. It had gotten them all the way from California to Stonybrooke. It was reliable, and she was proud of it.
The errands seemed so easy to tackle when they were put into list form like that, but when it came down to actually navigating the hardware store, what could have taken just half an hour ended up amounting to two hours of running back and forth, comparing this with that and talking the ears off of whatever store clerk was convenient.
By the time she was finished shopping, she was exhausted and had spent far more money than she had anticipated. But she was sure that it was going to be worth it. The retail value of the house would most certainly go up. And she was going to talk to Luke about installing a fire escape and a few other exits. She had read that would also increase the value of the home if she decided to flip it. And whether she did or not, she wanted her son to be safe. That was her only priority in life now. Providing for him and seeing to it that he was happy and well loved.
She had bought far more than she’d anticipated, and knew she had to unload it before she picked Mikey up from the daycare. It would just be easier that way. She would get it done faster and nothing would interfere with getting things put away safely. No spilled cereal. No diapers. Just in and out, then back to the car to pick him up.
Ella pulled into the property, smiling to herself as she drove past the trees that lined the driveway. It was a beautiful place. She couldn’t believe her fortune. She had always hoped that something good would come of her relationship with Michael’s father. And it had. It had driven her out of her comfort zone to find this beautiful property and it had given her an opportunity more wonderful than she had ever imagined. A beautiful house. A beautiful property. A chance to give her son the life he deserved.
She sighed happily once she got out of the car and prepared herself to unload. It would be quite a trek to the attic where she had anticipated on storing everything. There was a lot. But it was worth it, so Mikey wouldn’t get into anything.
She lifted a 2x4 and headed inside.
“Need a hand?”
Ella yelped in surprise as Luke’s deep voice reached her from her porch. “God, you scared me!” she exclaimed. A sheepish laugh escaped her lips and she sighed, glancing down at her watch. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it had gotten this late. I just had to pick a few things up before we met today.”
“So, that means I can help you, right?” Luke asked, taking a cautious step toward her. Ella smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, thanks.”
Luke passed by her and the air between them crackled with electricity. What was it about this man that made her feel this way? It was ridiculous. Bizarre. Stupid, even. She couldn’t even think about getting into another relationship right now. She had barely begun to heal after leaving Mikey’s dad. That guy was a piece of work. No, she was going to stay independent for a while. Show her son that she was capable of doing things on her own. She didn’t need a man in her life to make her feel complete. She could take care of everything herself and still manage to be an incredible mom.
At least, she hoped she was. Her son was still sitting at a daycare being taken care of by strangers and socializing with kids she had barely met. Yeah, there was a possibility that she was failing today. But tomorrow would be better. She could always improve. There was always room for improvement.
“Looks like you bought out the store,” Luke joked, following her inside with his arms loaded with bags. Ella pursed her lips, attempting not to look at him. He was muscular. Good arms. Very good arms.
She let out a frustrated exhale and headed up the steps, already winded by the time they reached the attic. She couldn’t imagine how many trips it would have taken her to get all of her things unloaded without Luke there. It was nice to have some help, even if she did want to set an example of being independent to her son. He wasn’t even there right now, what did it matter?
“I want everything to be just right,” Ella said with a slight shrug. “This is a really important project to me. It’s my life.”
Luke gave a grave nod and began to unload the bags strung up his arm. She watched him, the careful way he moved and treated her things despite having a body that looked like it could easily break the plank she had carried in half. He had a good build. That was for sure. Today, he was wearing a black shirt and a pair of jeans, but they were form-fitting and hugged his body in a way that left her mind wandering.
What was going on with her lately? She almost never allowed herself to think this way about a man. Especially with Mikey being so young. She couldn’t date. She had a child. She couldn’t possibly let herself get involved with someone right now. Especially without knowing everything possible about him and the way he was with kids. She couldn’t just let herself trust like that. It was stupid. Reckless. Irresponsible. And it would completely disrupt her life.
Having a child meant doing everything possible to stick to a routine. To make sure that no matter how out of control things got, there was always some level of stability to fall back on. Structure. It was the most important thing. The only thing she could cling
to. Sure, sometimes it seemed impossible and there were days where it completely went out the window. Kind of like today. But knowing that there was a plan, a guideline to follow, made it that much easier to consider waking up the next day and doing it all over again.
Not that it was difficult to be a mom. Not entirely. She loved every second of it. She just needed to know she was doing the best she could do. She had to keep things together. Throwing an unpredictable romantic relationship into the mix was the worst possible thing she could ever think of doing. It just wasn’t possible. She couldn’t do that to herself, and she wouldn’t do that to her son. The changes that they were already making were bound to be confusing enough.
She had to fight whatever ridiculous attraction this was and hope that they would make it through this remodeling without anything questionable happening. Because there was something about the way he looked at her that made her feel distinctly unsafe. Not as if he might hurt her, but that maybe there was something in him that knew exactly what she felt and could act upon it at any moment. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him doing so, either. She was afraid of herself.
“You know, I think I can take it from here, Luke. Thanks,” Ella said, standing abruptly and heading back down the ladder of the attic. “I appreciate all your help.”
“Are you sure? It’s really no problem.”
“I’m sure,” Ella said firmly, ushering him to the door. “Actually, I really have to get going. I have to pick up my son from the daycare. I didn’t anticipate being so long at the store. I’m sorry we couldn’t talk more about the quotes and figures and all that. Maybe we can pick this up later in the week. Is that all right?”
Luke seemed surprised, but a look of resignation darkened his features and he nodded somberly. “Of course. Whatever you need to do. I hope you’re careful moving the rest of that stuff upstairs. It’s all kind of heavy−”
