by Marilu Mann
Chapter Six
Harmony stood in the kitchen absently drying her hands. Her mind was in a car having mindless sex with Gareth, so she jumped as though she’d been shot when someone touched her.
“Wow, Mom. Where were you? You smell funny.” Rain reached past her to snag an apple off the counter. Her nostrils flared as she looked at her mother. “And are you blushing?”
“Manners, young lady. I smell funny? Rude!” She shot her daughter a look but it didn’t hit the mark. So she went for the redirect instead of acknowledging that her daughter apparently smelled Gareth on her. “How does meatloaf sound for dinner?”
Hunger won over curiosity. “As long as it’s plain. I hate when you try to make me eat vegetables by tossing tomatoes and corn in it.”
The grinning teen danced out of reach. “You brat! I’ll make it the way you want it. Plain and boring.”
Since she added her own eye roll to the comment, Rain giggled. The sound made Harmony almost hurt. It had been so long since she’d heard that from her daughter.
“Hey. You like it here right? So far? I mean—”
Rain cut her off. “Yeah, Mom. So far so good. I mean it’s weird and out in the sticks but Keme introduced me to his Pack. They all seem really nice.”
“His what?” She bit back her temper. Light. Go for light. Don’t drive her back into that sullen pit she’s been hiding in.
Rain’s aggrieved sigh told Harmony she’d hit the right note. “Pack, Mom. That’s what he calls his group. You know, his friends? What? Would you rather they called themselves a gang? It’s just a bunch of res kids and it’s not like they’re into violence or anything. They just hang out. You don’t like him, do you?”
Talk about redirect! Harmony rolled her shoulders then put down the dishtowel she’d been holding on to. She pulled Rain in for a hug as she ruffled her daughter’s hair. “It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s just that…he’s a boy.”
Rain staggered back with her hand to her mouth—eyes wide with pretend shock. “What? No way! A boy? I had no clue.”
Harmony grabbed the dishtowel to take a snap at her laughing kid. What a brat. Had she been that way as a girl? Smiling, she realized she had. Now her child got to be in a safe place where she could like a boy and hang out with his friends. Rain must have sensed the change.
“Um, Mom? So Keme and his, uh, Pack are going to the movies this weekend. It’s that action flick I’ve been talking about. Can I go? Please? I’ll clean my room.”
At her mother’s wry look Rain amended that to cleaning the whole house. When her offer, bribe, was accepted the teen gave a commendable war whoop. “Gotta jet. I’ve got homework. And someone just pulled in. Guess that’s Gareth since the furnace still isn’t working right.”
She danced away from her mother’s second towel snap. “What? You think I didn’t know that was Gareth I smelled on you? Come on, Mom. I’m not an idiot. I know he fixes stuff. Besides, I heard his truck like three minutes ago. It’s loud, I guess.”
With that offhand remark Rain darted out of the kitchen, leaving her to stand in stunned silence. Did her daughter already know or sense her difference? Before she could process, she heard Gareth on the porch.
He gave her a piercing look as she let him in. “You okay? You don’t look good.”
Again with the redirection. She frowned at him. “Well that’s nice to hear right off the bat.”
His sputtering regroup tugged a laugh out of her. She let him wallow as she led him to the kitchen.
“Oh Gareth, stop. I know what you meant.” She patted his shoulder lightly, ignoring the slight zing of arousal that gentle touch sent through her. “Listen, in addition to taking a look at the furnace, would you mind checking out the stove? It doesn’t seem to be heating up very fast. If you can get it working right I’m making meatloaf for dinner. I’d love it if you stayed.”
Her belly tightened as the words seemed to just tumble out. What was she thinking? Her daughter had already smelled him on her. Just because she didn’t know what the scent meant didn’t mean she couldn’t figure it out. She turned away. Maybe he’d say no.
“I’d love to. And if I can’t fix it I’ll take you two out. The café in town is pretty good. I eat there a lot.”
That single man’s admission made her want to start cooking for him and never stop. He probably had no idea of the loneliness in the statement but she heard it. And, she realized, she felt it. Eating out with her daughter was great but it wasn’t the same as eating with a mate.
Mate?
“Excuse me. I’ll get out of your way. I, um, I have laundry to fold.”
Without waiting for an answer she shot down the hallway, praying she really did have laundry. At the moment she wasn’t even sure she had a washer or a dryer. What the hell? Mate? She blessed the fact that not only did she have a laundry room but she’d apparently thrown a load in the dryer. Right this minute she couldn’t remember anything past looking at him and thinking, Mate.
“No, no, no and oh hell no, Harmony. You need to get your mind off that path right now. That is so not happening.” She fiercely shook out a towel to begin her triple fold. Working her way through the load, she might have been just a bit more forceful than usual as she created neat piles of things for Rain to put away.
“Uh, Mom?”
She yanked her head up from the last dishcloth to see her daughter lounging against the doorjamb. “What?”
At Rain’s head jerk and instinctive straightening, she sighed. “Sorry. You startled me. My head was somewhere else. What’s up, honey?”
“Gareth’s finished with the furnace and the stove. He asked me to come find you.”
She followed her daughter back into the kitchen, which now felt like her own hormonal battleground. There stood the enemy. Sexy as hell in weathered jeans, wearing a gray t-shirt that had probably been bought a good ten years ago. She scanned him, knowing he did the same.
His cautious nod came with a “ma’am” that made her want to scream. She wasn’t that much older. Was she? Maybe that was his way of distancing himself from the kisses. Yeah. That was it. He’d finally figured out that she was very much not his type. Anger surged up in her.
“Thanks for fixing it. What was wrong with it and how much do I owe you?” Her words sounded clipped even to her own ears. She drew in a breath. “Sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Thank you, Gareth.”
His posture relaxed when she softened her words. “It was just the regulator. I suspected it. These models go out, so I’d already picked one up at the parts store. I’ll take meatloaf as payment. Uh, if that’s still on the table?”
Before she could answer Rain chimed in with, “Well geez, G-man. She has to cook it first.”
The tension in the kitchen eased as they all laughed at Rain’s very true answer.
“I’ll get it started. Rain, why don’t you see if Gareth can fix that leaky faucet in the bathroom while he’s here? Do you mind?” She flicked her gaze toward him. Grateful when he agreed, she didn’t breathe fully until they left the room.
As she got the meat, eggs, breadcrumbs and other ingredients out she wondered if she was losing her mind. Swinging from “do me now” kisses in her car to searing anger that fast. Her hormones were in overdrive around that man. Even now she felt a twinge of irritation that he was with her daughter and not her. Tamping that down, she started mixing the meatloaf.
Down the hall, Gareth tried to figure out how to answer the inquisitive young pup. It was surreal to be here talking like this with Rain after the weird scene in the kitchen with Harmony and the even weirder confrontation with his brother. He shook his head slowly as if to clear his ears. “What did you just say?”
He pinned the young woman with his gaze, trying to tamp down the almost instant anger her question had raised. He couldn’t really get mad at her, she had no clue how sore a subject it was, especially after the run-in with his brother’s unscarred face. A perfect reminder of just how he use
d to look. Rain jutted out her jaw.
“I said, and I know you heard me, why do you try to hide your scars? Are you ashamed of them or something? They’re not that bad.”
Her voice moved from sarcastic teen into a gentleness he hadn’t expected. Self-consciously he reached up to make sure his hair was pulled forward and his eye patch secured.
“See. You’re doing it again, G-man. Like it reminds you of something bad.” Curiosity sparkled in her brown eyes. “Was it? Bad I mean? Most of the other kids say it was from a motorcycle accident but a few said you were in some kind of fight. I think they said a prize fight. But you can’t get hurt that way from boxing can you?” Her voice trailed off. He figured it was in response to the heat in his gaze.
“I really don’t want to talk about it, Rain.” He turned to look at the faucet that slowly continued to drip. But she wasn’t going to be redirected.
“Right. That’s what my mom says when I bring up my dad. I’m not a baby. I mean I know I’m not supposed to pry and stuff but we all agree,” she waved a hand as if encompassing the entire universe-worth of all curious teens. “That it isn’t something you should hide.”
He watched her skin pink up. She blushed just like her mother. That memory had him clenching a fist around a wrench to distract himself. The teen took a breath then blurted the rest out.
“We all think it’s kinda sexy. Well, all the girls anyway. Not the guys…well, Patrick too but you know about him.”
All he could manage was a nod. Sexy? They thought the hideous scar, the white, sightless eye sexy? He didn’t know whether to be flattered or appalled. He decided to go for amused, so he chuckled.
“Yeah, I know about P. He’s a good kid.” Trying for a change of topic, he questioned her. “So the other kids don’t pick on P, right? I told him to come tell me if they did.”
“Oh not at all. I mean some of the boys tease him but it’s not mean or anything. He teases them right back. We don’t hang out with the few who are jerks about it.” Rain seemed willing to let the matter of his scar drop as she swung into a discourse on who was dating whom. He noticed how quickly she had become part of the younger group of shifters and that she stumbled a bit when she mentioned Keme’s name. He covered his smile by scooping up a wrench.
“If you’re gonna sit in here and talk my ears off, you’re going to help me, okay, pup?” The endearment slipped out. He wished he could swallow it back.
“Okay, but what’s with all the dog references around here? Keme has a ‘Pack’ and that not the first time someone’s called me a pup.” She narrowed her eyes, looking so much like her mother that he smiled. “You aren’t going to call my mom a b-word, are you? ‘Cause that’s not okay if you do.”
His immediate “hell no” made Rain laugh. He didn’t answer her other question but stuck his head under the sink even though he knew it was a washer in the faucet. It would take at least an hour before dinner was ready, so he had to make this last. Or find something else to fix. Or break something so he could fix it. What the hell was going on with him? He forced the self-examination down, choosing instead to focus on the sink. Might as well remove the U-joint and clean it while he was here, right?
“Hand me that wrench.” He was surprised when Rain actually handed him the right item. “So you know your way around a toolbox, eh, p—princess.”
Her snort told him what she thought of that. He grimaced at the hair and debris in the U-joint. As he pushed it out onto an old cloth from his toolbox with a screwdriver, Rain parked herself on the floor. Propping her chin on her hands, she looked at him.
“So really. How did you get the scars?”
“Rain Softly Johnson!” The exasperation in her mother’s voice made him wince. Instinctively Rain hunched her shoulders.
“I know but…” With soft brown eyes downcast, she murmured, “Sorry, G-man.”
As the teen shouldered her way past her mother with a mutinous glare, he watched Harmony’s own brown eyes. He wasn’t sure what he saw there but he hoped it wasn’t pity. He couldn’t take that. Not from her. He didn’t want her to see him as weak. Before she could speak he levered himself off the floor. She gasped as he moved to her.
“I have to do this. I’m sorry.” He pressed his mouth down on hers. Fire lit in his belly as her soft lips moved under his, parting just enough to allow his tongue. He claimed her mouth as his cock hardened between them. No way in hell she didn’t feel that. He didn’t care. “I need you, Harmony. I want you. I…”
He changed paths before he went further. “I have to have you. Please don’t tell me no. I ache for you.”
He gently guided her hand from his chest to his fly. Her hips bucked once as her hand gripped him. His own pressed back into her. He seemed to get hard around her no matter the circumstances. Not even seeing his brother or avoiding her daughter’s questions deterred his body from reacting to her. God, he felt like a teenager ready to dry hump in the bathroom.
Teenager. That had him moving back from her as if someone had electrocuted him. What was he thinking? Her daughter was right down the hall. Hell, she could have walked in on them at any minute. Dragging a hand through his hair, he looked at the stunned woman leaning back against the bathroom wall. Her eyes had that glazed, need-to-fuck look. His cock urged him to just take her but his head won that battle.
“Rain.” They said it together in almost a whisper—two guilty adults trying to figure out what to do next.
Harmony took over. “I came to tell you that dinner would be about fifty-five minutes.” She laughed. “Well, I guess that would be closer to forty-five minutes now. Gareth, this thing between us—I’m willing if you are but…”
As her voice trailed off, he nodded, “But we have to be careful with Rain. She doesn’t need any more craziness in her life right now. I know. Just moved. New school, new town, even new family to get used to. She’s got a lot on her plate.”
Her smile melted him. Simply melted him. The gratitude for his understanding made his throat tighten. It made him want to hunt down whomever had made her not expect that understanding and pummel him. It made him want to devour her, so he moved another step back.
Right into the sink. Cursing as he jammed his hip, he twisted away only to trip over his toolbox, causing it to clank against the wall. When he landed on the toilet, she collapsed with whoops of laughter. Rain came running.
“What? Mom! Give G-Man some privacy!” Her shocked voice provoked more laughter from both adults. It took Rain a minute to realize that he had fallen in that position. When she did all three of them began to laugh. It only stopped when Rain protested that she really did have to pee.
Once she was out of the bathroom he went back in to replace the U-joint and fix the faucet. Harmony told them to wash up. He sat down to salad while the meatloaf finished up in the oven. The conversation between the three of them was easy. Rain was full of questions about things to do in the area and about Harmony’s relatives.
Between questions about Willow and Pete, Harmony put the meatloaf on the table. She added a bowl of beans she’d had heating as well. He let the conversation float around him at times even as he enjoyed Harmony’s cooking.
“That was the best meatloaf, Harmony. Seriously good.”
Rain nodded. “Mom is a good cook when she leaves all that other stuff out.” Then she looked at her mother. “Can I go over to Keme’s to study? I forgot to ask earlier. He and some of the other kids have a group-study thing. They told me I could come. I know how to get to his place.”
Harmony agreed. While Rain cleared the table he leaned back. Watching her in the kitchen showing Rain where things went in the still-unfamiliar home, he realized he felt at peace. Realized he could get used to this sort of thing. Realized he wanted to know her a lot better and it wasn’t just about sex. The thought made him want to shift and run until he hit the Arctic Ocean.
She turned to smile at him then responded to a question from Rain. He sat forward. He wasn’t a coward but something
about this woman and her pup terrified him. Maybe he needed to take a step back.
“Hey, I’m happy to drop Rain off at Keme’s if you want. I have to get going anyway.”
The light dimming in her eyes wasn’t lost on him. And it made him feel like a total dick. Her daughter was going to be out of the house, but instead of using that as a reason to stay he was grabbing at it as if it were a life raft to get out of this overwhelming emotional morass. He didn’t just feel like a dick. He was one.
She avoided his eyes as he left with Rain. He had leftovers they’d both insisted he take but he felt as if he were leaving something larger behind. He finally caught her eyes as her daughter slid into his truck. He put everything he had into the smile he sent her. Relief washed over him when she smiled back. Feeling less of the world’s biggest ass, he maneuvered his truck in a three-point turn.
“So, G-Man, if you don’t want to talk to me about you, how about my mom?” The question was so unexpected he nearly drove off the road.
“What? What about your mom? She’s a nice lady. A good cook.” He didn’t add that she had the body of a goddess with breasts that made his mouth ache to suck. God, he shouldn’t even be thinking about her mother’s breasts when she was in the car. He counted to ten, waiting for the next teen strike. He’d rather have a live cobra in his passenger seat.
“Yeah. Right. I’m not a kid, you know. I can see how you look at her. And she smelled like you tonight again. Like she did when she came home. So what’s up with that? And why can I smell that? It’s like the air up here is better or something. I can smell all sorts of things. I even think I smelled my dad.”
He watched his knuckles whiten on the wheel when she mentioned her father. A growl rolled out of his throat before he could stop it.
“Wow. Where did that come from?”
