For a long moment, Harry stared across the table at Race, while Mark’s eyes darted back and forth as though watching a tennis match. “Holy shit, they do!” he said, turning to look at Saphrona. “Babe, look at them—if I didn’t know better, I’d swear they were brothers!”
Saphrona turned off the stove and set the pans she’d been using aside. She turned slowly and looked first at Mark, and then at me. “I know,” she said quietly. “I noticed it the very first time I looked at Race. And I mentioned it to Juliette the other day.”
“Man, I don’t need this!” Race exclaimed, bursting from his chair and running both hands through his short hair. “I’ve got way too much shit on my plate right now.”
“Race, our looking alike probably means only that,” Harry said as he wrapped both of his hands around his coffee cup. “I mean, what are the chances of there being a relation? And even if one does exist, we couldn’t possibly be more than cousins.”
Race turned to him. “Are you sure about that? My best friend since childhood thinks we could be brothers—who was your father? What was his name? Did he marry your mother?”
I watched as Harry sighed heavily and looked down at the cup in his hands, which he now turned in a circle slowly. “The man I’ve always called ‘Dad’ married my mother when I was three. I never actually knew my biological father.”
“I’ve never known my sperm donor either,” Race said slowly. “He left my mother before she even knew she was pregnant. Fuck! I don’t need this shit—not today!”
Race suddenly rounded the table and stormed out. I rose quickly and followed. “Race, I’m sorry!” I said as I flew down the back stoop to catch him. “I never should have said anything to you. I was just so startled by the similarities. Look, Harry’s right—if there’s any relation at all, it has to be distant, right? Or maybe we’re all just seeing things that aren’t really there. That happens sometimes.”
“Juliette, would you listen to yourself?” Race said as he whirled on me. “Think about what you’re saying—think about what you’ve seen! There’s too many similarities between us, now that I’ve noticed them. Hell, both of us were abandoned by our birth fathers, even.”
I took a breath and released it. Seeing how stressed he was now, I really did wish I’d kept my mental mouth shut. Race was right—he really didn’t need this right now. He had the pack meeting later today and his mother was coming up from Cincinnati. My mate had enough to deal with and I had made things worse.
“I’m sorry, Race,” I said again, fighting a sudden rise of tears.
Race growled low in his throat, then came over and wrapped his arms around me. “Jules, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I’m sure even I would have noticed the guy looks a lot like me eventually. You just pointed it out sooner.”
Standing back, he kissed my brow and gave my shoulders a gentle squeeze. “C’mon. Let’s go eat.”
I sighed and nodded, then followed him inside. Saphrona had put breakfast on the table, but the three of them seemed to be waiting for us. Race looked at Harry and said, “Speculation. That’s all this is. It could be nothing.”
Harry, who had turned and looked over his shoulder as we came in, nodded slowly. “You’re right. We don’t know each other from Adam, and having a few similarities pointed out to us could well be causing our ‘What the fuck?’ centers to go into overdrive.”
He stood then and took a step closer. I tried hard not to think about how much more their similarities were standing out to me as I looked on them facing one another.
“I love my dad with all my heart, but when I found out he wasn’t the man who created me, I began to wonder about the one who did. I stuffed that curiosity away years ago for my mother’s sake, but every now and again I think about it.” Harry said. “I knew when my ex-wife and I divorced and she decided she wanted to go off and see the world that my boys would be staying home with me—that I would never give them reason to wonder about me the way I wondered about my birth father.
“You and me, Race? We’re grown men. We can accept that we apparently look alike and shrug it off, or we can ask our mothers about the men who sired us, to see if they can give us any more clues about who they were. Maybe even find out if they’re the same man. But we don’t have to do that today or anytime soon. If we’re curious enough to ask, we do it when we’re ready to have those questions answered.”
Race remained silent for a moment, then he nodded. “Sounds like a plan. By no means am I belittling the possibility that I may have just met a man who could be my brother, but there quite frankly is a lot of shit going on in my life right now that makes said possibility something I just can’t spare the energy to worry about. I can’t deal with it on top of everything else that’s going on, so yeah, if it’s all the same to you I think I’d much rather put this aside for another day.”
Harry nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” he echoed, then turned and returned to his seat.
Race and I took our places at the table, and after Saphrona said Grace, bowls of food were passed around and we all talked of other things as we ate.
All through breakfast, there was a thought I worked to keep to myself. Despite knowing we needed to, Race and I hadn’t made any attempts to truly learn how to tune each other out—to close our minds, in other words. Concentrating on other things helped the few times I’d made myself stay out of his head, but in some small way I think I’d been enjoying being able to peek into his mind. I’d been enjoying the background noise in my own mind that I knew were his thoughts.
But there was something about his possible connection to Harry that I knew I needed to keep to myself, at least for now. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Saphrona’s neighbor because, well, I didn’t want to freak the guy out. Plus, I didn’t know Harry as well as Saphrona did. If there really was a possibility that Race and Harry had the same father—as remote as I suddenly wanted that possibility to be—then there was every chance in the word that he was a shapeshifter. His sons could be shapeshifters.
After all, I’d told Race that it was rare not to pass on the shifting gene.
The thing was, if Harry was a shapeshifter, how could we not know it? Saphrona would have smelled him long ago, and I’d have known by his smell the moment I met him. Neither of us had ever detected anything but human from him. The only explanation I could conceive for this was that he was either a dragon shifter or he was human, falling into that rare instance when a shifter spawned a non-shifter. Didn’t mean Harry’s kids weren’t shifters though, something I’d have to talk to Saphrona about.
I knew I could have been worried for nothing, but the ramifications a relationship between Race and Harry would have on Harry and his boys—once it had popped into my head—just wouldn’t go away. It took all my effort to push those thoughts aside and not think about them. I knew Race could tell throughout the meal that something was on my mind, but thankfully he didn’t know what it was and he didn’t pry. I could also tell that my newest concern had not occurred to him, and if it had occurred to Mark or Saphrona, they were already adept at not letting it show.
Harry had come over that morning to deliver some freshly laid eggs from his chickens and to offer an apology for missing the cookout. After sharing breakfast with us, he bid us all goodbye, and with a last long look at Race he climbed up on his horse and rode down the drive.
I was helping Mark lead the horses out to pasture when my cell phone rang in my pocket. I hurried to get the yearlings into the pasture with their parents, catching the call on the fourth ring just before it would have gone to voicemail. I’d grabbed it so quick I didn’t even look at the ID screen to see who was calling.
“Hello?” I said, absently watching Saphrona walk toward us from the pasture where she’d led Angus.
“Juliette? It’s Karen. We worked together at Cool Beans,” said the voice on the other end.
“Oh, hi!” I said, having expected it to be Race’s mother. As I only remembered having taken Karen’s
number, she must have gotten my cell phone number from my employee record at the shop.
“So sorry I haven’t called,” I said as I turned and headed away from the pastures. “It’s been kinda crazy here the last couple of days.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I understand how it can be going home again,” Karen said with a laugh. “It’s actually quite all right—I just got into town this morning anyway. Was wondering if you might still be interested in giving me the lowdown on the local scene?”
For a moment I couldn’t answer her. I’d just looked up to see Race leaning against the open door of the barn and felt a rush of heat flood my veins as it occurred to me how incredibly sexy he looked standing there like that.
“Juliette? You still there?”
I blinked and shook my head, laughing at myself for being so easily distracted. “Yeah, I’m here. And I would love to get together, but it would depend on when. I’ve got to be in Columbus at 2:30 to pick up Race’s mother from the airport.”
“Plenty of time, I’m sure!” Karen replied cheerfully. “You can show me around a bit, then we’ll grab lunch and you can fill me in on everything that goes on in this town—as well as giving the dish on that hunky man of yours. Does he have a brother?”
I nearly choked at that, given that there was certainly a possibility, but I covered it up with a cough. “Um, not that I’m aware of,” I told her. “But, uh, I’d be more than happy to get together. You’ll just have to do all the driving—my Jeep is in the shop.”
Actually, I wasn’t entirely certain where my car was. I only knew that Diarmid had told Race and I that both my car and the Magnum Alex had been driving would be taken care of. This then raised the question of how I was going to go after Race’s mother that afternoon. Race would more than likely borrow Mark’s truck to go to the pack meeting, leaving only one other vehicle—Saphrona’s Explorer. I could hardly take her truck to Columbus because that would leave them with nothing to drive in case they needed to go anywhere.
As Karen was assuring me that was fine and I was giving her directions to the farm, I came abreast of Race and was able to see through the open doors of the barn. My ears suddenly picked up the sound of vehicles coming up the drive and I quickly said goodbye to Karen, hurrying with my mate to the other end of the structure, where we could now see the very vehicle I had been thinking about coming toward us, with a limo behind it.
Race and I looked at one another, our eyebrows raised, as Mark and Saphrona joined us. The driver behind the wheel of my Liberty parked and then got out and retreated to the passenger side of the limo that had stopped behind it, the opening and shutting of the doors the only sound he made. At the same time, the limo’s driver—George, whom Race and I had been chauffeured by yesterday—had gotten out and was at the back of the long car, opening the passenger door for Saphrona’s father. Diarmid, of course, was impeccably dressed in one of his expensive tailored suits, and I wondered for the briefest of moments if the man even owned a t-shirt.
“My darling Mida,” the centuries-old vampire said as he approached his daughter, taking her hands and kissing both her cheeks. “I do hope you’ll forgive this unannounced visit, but I wanted to return the lovely Juliette’s vehicle to her straight away.”
“It’s fine,” Saphrona said, glancing at me.
I nodded, glancing at the passenger side where the bumper and mirror had been damaged and seeing only perfection. “Thank you, Mr. Mackenna,” I said. “I did not expect to see it again so soon.”
Race had by this time left my side and walked to the rear of the Jeep, presumably to inspect it. As I spoke he was walking back toward us, and he followed my statement with, “How the hell did you get it done so fast? A repair job like this thing needed would have taken days at a body shop.”
Diarmid chuckled as he watched Race move to stand next to me again. “A benefit of being a creature of the night is having other creatures of the night in my employ. I gave explicit orders that Juliette’s car was to be worked on until repairs were complete. And so it was.”
Race cocked his head to the side. “I suppose that makes sense. Especially given I couldn’t even tell it had been in an accident.”
“My people are highly skilled. And not foolish enough to make mistakes,” Diarmid replied. “You may be assured that all safety standards were followed and that the vehicle will operate at peak efficiency. I’m told they even changed the oil and other general maintenance on the engine, as well as detailed the interior.”
I was a bit stunned to hear such care had been taken with my car, given the man’s unapologetic dislike of my kind. “Thank you,” I said again. “I appreciate your people taking the time. And it’s a good thing you brought it back when you did; I’m going to need the car later.”
Diarmid smiled at me and nodded. “You are quite welcome, my canine friend,” he said, then looked once more at Saphrona. “I do so hate to drop off a car and run, my darling, but it is daytime and I’ve some work to do before I retire for the day. I bid you all a fond farewell.”
He leaned forward and kissed his daughter’s cheeks again, then offered the rest of us a polite nod before returning to his waiting limousine. George shut the door behind him and returned to the driver’s seat as wordlessly as his companion waiting in the seat next to his. He then turned the engine on again and backed down the drive.
“Was anyone else as weirded out by that as I was?” Mark asked suddenly, causing Race to laugh.
I walked toward my car, running my hand along its side as I walked to inspect the back for myself. It was as Race had said—you couldn’t even tell we’d been in an accident. The rear end was no longer pushed in, the spare tire undamaged. Even the navy blue metallic paint was perfectly matched.
“My father,” I heard Saphrona say, “has that effect on people. It’s one of the reasons I’ve had such a hard time with him—his mood changes so quickly, it’s hard to know from one moment to the next what his mental state is.”
Race scoffed. “’Mental’ is right. You sure that creepy fucker isn’t bi-polar, or schizo or something?”
I’d started back toward the others by then, and paused as I looked from Race to Saphrona. She might have a difficult relationship with Diarmid, but he was her father. I wondered if she was like Lochlan in that regard, being of mind to insult him as she pleased but taking exception when others did so.
She surprised me by simply shaking her head and saying, “I’ve often wondered that myself.”
Eighteen
Karen drove up the drive about twenty minutes after Diarmid had departed. I greeted her as she got out and she gave me a smile and a light hug in return. When she stepped back she grinned at me, her eyes flicking toward Race, who was standing next to me. I reintroduced them as Mark and Saphrona came up to my side.
“This big lug is my brother, Mark, and this is his girlfriend Saphrona Caldwell,” I added. “She owns the farm.”
Karen smiled at them. “Saphrona is such a lovely name,” she said.
Saphrona returned her smile. “Thank you. I know it’s not very common—I actually researched it and found it on an 1826 census listing. Wish I’d kept a copy of the page where I found it, because every time I go looking for it now, I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mark looking at his feet, his bottom lip in his mouth as he fought to keep from laughing. I had to admit being amused myself, as Karen had no idea that Saphrona was telling the absolute truth, and probably thought that she was referring to a web page, not an actual page of a census book.
“Well, it was really very nice to meet you, but Juliette said she was pressed for time,” Karen said then, glancing back at me.
“Right, we’d better get going,” I agreed, and after kissing Race’s cheek, I waved goodbye to Mark and Saphrona and then Karen and I got into her car.
As we were backing down the driveway, she said casually, “Damn, girl. Too bad I didn’t meet your brother before Saphrona did.
He’s kinda hot!
I chuckled as I shook my head. “This may sound strange to you, but those two seem to be made for each other,” I said casually, referencing the fact that they actually had been. “She’s a really wonderful person, and I’ve never seen my brother happier than he is when he’s with her.”
Karen sighed. “Well then… Who am I to mess with destiny? And hey, speaking of happy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this animated. Is it that ‘new love’ glow?”
I waited until we were out on the road and headed toward downtown to reply. “Race and I have technically known each other since we were kids—he used to live down the street from our house and he and Mark were best friends. But he and his mom moved away when he was fourteen and I hadn’t seen him since, until a few days ago.”
“At risk of being judgmental and all, you guys got together kinda sudden, didn’t you?” my companion asked.
I shrugged. “Some might see it that way, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve carried a torch for that man since I was a little girl. I’ve dated other guys, sure, but I don’t think it ever really died, because when I ran into him back in Cleveland we just…clicked. It was almost as though we’d never been apart, the attraction was so instant. And thank God it was mutual.”
Karen chuckled. “I’ll say. Wish I could meet a guy that would look at me the way he looks at you. Hell, it’s the same way Mark looked at Saphrona. You can see how strongly they feel in their eyes. I think every girl should have a guy—or another girl, if that’s your thing—that looks at her that way.”
I agreed with her and we fell into an easy conversation. I told Karen that other than the two weeks I’d spent in Cleveland, I’d live in this town all my life, and that if I ever left again, it would probably always be home to me because my brother and my parents and most of the people I’d grown up with lived here.
“Speaking of families,” she said then. “What about that family matter you left Cleveland for? Is everything all right now?”
From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) Page 27
