“I’m not here to pick up mother’s tin. I was hoping I could pick up something much more beautiful; say Friday night, around seven?” She hadn’t dated much in high school and she’d never dated through college. It felt odd to have someone who was practically a stranger, even one she had slept with, ask her on a date right outside of her mother’s house.
The thought of their encounter the other night still made her blush.
“Why don’t we take a walk?” she asked as she waved at her mother to reassure the crazy woman she was okay.
“Well, alright. I’ve got to be back at the fire department in about forty-five minutes, but I think I’ve got time for a walk with an angel.” Elaine rolled her eyes, but the butterflies in her abdomen started up again. She ignored Jacob’s piercing stare as they walked past his porch and tried to think of what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it.
“Ethan,” she started quietly, and then pressed her lips together.
“Elaine,” he said with a smile as he reached down and touched his fingertips to the back of her hand. When she looked at him imploringly, he chuckled. “I thought we were just saying each other’s names. I recall we did that a lot,” he whispered conspiratorially.
The fluttering increased into a quick tempo and she feared she might do something silly like allow him to take her hand in public. Jody had seemed so upset about learning that she had gone home the night before with Ethan Mack, and she still didn’t know why. So maybe she should start there before she answered his invitation.
“Do you know Jody Gallant?” When she asked, she studied his face to see if there was any reaction to tell her he was about to say a lie. She’d been getting good at that now that Thomas was old enough to lie about taking an extra cookie.
“I do,” Ethan told her as a crease developed between his brows. The gesture was so like her son it was shocking. “But I don’t know what she has to do with us.” He was telling the truth as far as Elaine could discern.
“When I told her you drove me home last night, she started acting in a way I’d never seen her act before. She almost seemed…jealous and upset at the same time. She told me to stay away from you.”
They were quiet a moment as Ethan reached up the hand furthest from her and pinched his bottom lip. He seemed to be considering what he was going to tell her, and she felt her guards starting to go up. “Jody and I met a few months ago at a party. I didn’t know who she was, and she introduced herself. She wasn’t wearing a wedding band, so I figured she was single. We danced, but I wasn’t too interested because there’s just something off about her.”
“She seems like she’s hiding behind a façade.” Elaine filled in.
“Yeah, like that. So anyway, she asked me to go outside with her and I did to be polite. I thought she wanted to talk in private and I figured I’d give her a chance, but she grabbed my face and tried to kiss me. I was shocked, so I let her, but when I refused to continue the one-sided make-out session, she retaliated.” Elaine waited for him to explain what he meant by that.
“What did she do?” she finally asked when he didn’t elaborate.
“She told everyone that I had come onto her without her consent and that she was going to have her husband come after me. I told everyone who asked that I didn’t know she was married or that she had a son, and she’s been spouting that lie ever since. Elaine,” he stopped and finally took her hand in his. “I didn’t do that, I swear! I would never push a woman beyond where she wanted to go. I-you don’t think that I would-that I had-”
It was horrifying to watch him stutter any longer and she gave his hand a squeeze. “I know you didn’t do anything she didn’t ask for, and you didn’t do anything with me I didn’t ask for. We’re two, consenting adults, and I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I didn’t enjoy every last second of it.” Her cheeks flushed a bright crimson as she looked away from him.
“Good, I’m glad,” Ethan told her as he put his fingers under her chin to lift her gaze back to his. “So about that date?” he asked hesitantly.
“I guess I usually eat on Friday nights,” she told him with a small smile. They would talk about the even heavier stuff another time. First, she wanted to figure out if she could get along with the man when she wasn’t tipsy, but if their walk was any indication, she knew she’d like him.
6
“Wow, look at you,” Haley said as she stopped swiping at the conveyer belt that carried the groceries down to the bagging area. She spritzed the shiny stainless steel with the vinegary smelling cleaner and Elaine made a face. “Sorry, did I get ya?” she asked innocently.
“You know you did. What are you doing here so early? I thought it was just going to be me this morning,” Elaine perched on the indent that held the bags directly behind her register. She rarely made conversation with Haley, but she would roll with it.
“I think Steve messed up the schedule so we’re both here this morning.” Haley shrugged as she started in on her register. She mercilessly sprayed it with cleaner and Elaine wondered if the poor thing would short out.
“Wow, two registers open on a Friday morning seems a little crazy,” Elaine responded as she leaned down to get her own bottle of cleaner. The blue-tinted liquid sloshed around and foamed as she began to wipe down the belt and then the screen. It looked like her station hadn’t seen a cleaning in months, but then again, either she or Haley worked the register closest to the door. There was never a second person.
Throughout her shift, Haley and Elaine chatted idly about the new renovations happening at a downtown restaurant Elaine hadn’t been to as of yet. About two hours in, Haley dropped a hint about her and her boyfriend. “They’re getting in these really awesome booths and I heard they’re hiring a new head chef. Ben, my boyfriend, he’s one of the bus boys there and he got me in last night. He showed me all the new appliances they’re getting and the new booths,” Haley trailed off with a quiet, small smile as she looked at her register screen.
It took Elaine a few seconds to understand why and she chuckled before she could hide it. “Really? In a restaurant that’s being remodeled, on the new booths?” she whispered as she leaned over the scale and scanner.
“Shh, quiet!” Haley mock whispered as she looked around. They hadn’t seen a customer yet, and it had been a few hours.
“Are you afraid the can of peas over here are going to start talking?” Elaine asked as she held them up. “Did you hear what Haley did with her boyfriend last night?” she asked them as she giggled. It was lame and it was pretty girly, but it felt good. “Seriously, though. Let me know which booth so I know not to sit at that table.”
“I don’t know. They’re not installed yet. They’re just sitting in the middle of the dining area.”
“Oh, jeez!” Elaine made a face that was between mock horror and disgust.
“Still, it’s not as bad as what I heard you and Ethan Mack did last week,” Haley said as she studied her nails. Elaine didn’t say a word as she mulled over those words. Had someone seen them, or was Haley fishing for information? “Jody has a big mouth,” Haley finished with a shrug.
They talked about the weather after that because Elaine wasn’t going to tell anyone what she had done with Ethan the previous week. She hadn’t told anyone but her mother about the date that night, but she was sure talk would reverberate through the town the next morning. Someone was sure to see them, and she wasn’t afraid of a tiny rumor started by a petty woman.
When Elaine walked through the front door, she was assaulted with the smell of sugar cookies and ultra-sweet icing. She had trusted her mother to look after Thomas that morning and afternoon, and she knew exactly how they had spent it. After all, her mother had been her mother before she had been Thomas’ grandmother.
“I hope you didn’t let him eat too many cookies!” Elaine called out as she hung up her purse on the hall hook. Her mother peeked around the kitchen opening with a hand full of purple icing and smiled sweetly.
“W
hy don’t you go upstairs and change? I’m going to do a reading for you real quick,” her mother told her before she disappeared. The sound of childish giggles erupted from the kitchen and Elaine smiled at the sound. Things had changed since her mother had talked candidly with her in the park.
Elaine didn’t know what to wear and it showed as she threw shirt after shirt on her bed. When she finally settled on a deep, crimson top that showed a generous bit of cleavage and a pair of tailored jeans that fit her well, she headed down the stairs to tell her mother she wasn’t interested in a reading. But she was already sitting on the couch with her cards in front of her and Thomas playing idly with some oversized Legos.
When her mother patted the spot beside her, Elaine found that she was sitting down. She usually scoffed at her mother’s readings, but this time her mother seemed serious as she held out the cards to Elaine.
“Hold them a few minutes,” she said quietly. Neither woman looked at each other as Elaine held the cards.
Then she proceeded to lay them out in the simple spread her mother had taught her when she was a child. Three cards in a row.
“Now flip them,” her mother whispered, but Elaine knew what to do. She flipped over the first card, the second, and the third.
The first card, the past, was the lovers. Elaine narrowed her eyes as she stared at it. She knew the card for lovers could mean a relationship between two actual lovers or a relationship between relatives, but she understood it most likely represented her relationship with her husband. Without the flame of love, it was failing, and she knew that.
The second card, the present, was the hanged man. He symbolized a sacrifice for the greater good or the ability to let something go in order to move forward. Sometimes a person had to let go of what they thought was right in order to find what was right. Did it symbolize that she should move forward with Ethan or was she forcing it and should let go?
The third card, death, didn’t frighten her as it did when she was a child. The death card was not about someone actually dying, but about new beginnings. Out of death came life, and that was her future. Elaine felt her chest constrict as she tried to figure out what they meant, but maybe that’s what the middle card was trying to tell her? She had to stop trying to figure everything out?
“This is just too frustrating,” she told her mother as she stood. “It’s why I never got into this.”
“The cards only tell you what you already know,” her mother stated quietly as she scooped them back up. Elaine was about to argue, but she heard the doorbell ring and took a deep breath. “Have fun on your date, honey. What will come will come.”
“You’re so cryptic,” Elaine mumbled as she leaned down and kissed her son on the forehead. “You be good for grandma and make sure she doesn’t eat too many cookies, okay?”
“Okay,” Thomas told her as he returned her kiss with a sloppy one on her cheek.
7
“You look really nice tonight,” Ethan told her as he escorted her down the front steps. Elaine allowed the tension from the reading leave her as she let him wrap his arm around her waist. He was as familiar with her as he’d been a week ago, and she found she sort of missed his voice.
She had dreamed about it often enough.
“Thank you,” she told him as he helped her into his car. “So where are we going?”
Ethan slid in behind the wheel and pressed the button to turn on the car. “It’s a surprise.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?” she said as she allowed him to take her hand while he drove with one. “We’re going to eat, right?”
“You said you ate on Friday nights, so I figured we could do that.” Ethan turned on his turn signal and she sucked in a deep breath. Tonight was the night she would tell him that she didn’t want him around her son just yet. She had thought about it and made up her mind. She didn’t know him well enough to have him making silly promises to a child, and she didn’t want Thomas to grow attached.
“You okay?” Ethan asked as he glanced at her.
“I’m fine, sure.” Elaine gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his hand. They pulled up in front of a restaurant not that far from her home and she grinned genuinely this time. “So do you mean to wine and dine me in style tonight?”
Ethan shrugged one of his broad shoulders and turned off the car. “I figured it would be a lot better than where I found you.”
“You’ve got that right,” she responded as she helped herself out of the car. It was nice that Ethan was going to open the door for her, but she didn’t want him to feel like she was a damsel in distress or helpless.
They walked through the doors of the small bistro and Ethan led her to one of the tables that was further from the other guests. There was a low din as the other diners talked and somehow the atmosphere felt cozy, comfortable even.
“So you have something on your mind,” Ethan prompted. Elaine was about to respond when their waitress showed up out of nowhere and placed two wine glasses in front of them.
“Can I interest you in the Pinot Noir tonight?” she asked innocently with a wide smile. She looked to be around college-aged with short, black hair and olive-toned skin.
“I’ll have a root beer,” Ethan told her kindly. Elaine wondered if he didn’t want to pay for the wine and then realized he was doing the same thing he’d done the week before. He wasn’t going to drink because he was driving.
“I’ll have the same,” Elaine told the girl kindly.
“You can have a glass of wine if you want. I just don’t drink when I’m driving.” The girl disappeared before she could get caught in the middle of a verbal altercation, but her assumption was wrong.
“I know, and I don’t want to be tipsy when we talk about what this is,” she told him plainly. She took a piece of bread that had been left on the table and began to slather butter on it.
“So what is this, exactly?” Ethan asked her as he took a piece of bread and followed her lead.
“I think it’s a date, but I could be wrong. Maybe you’re a government spy sent here to distract me while someone else steals my mother so that she can give the president a tarot reading.” Elaine tried to deflect with a joke, and Ethan smiled at her, but he wasn’t buying it.
“I know you’re uncomfortable with me around your son, and I respect that. As I said, I don’t push women beyond what they’re comfortable with.” He raised his eyebrows as if he was daring her to contradict him, but she wouldn’t.
“So we’re in agreement that this is to be kept between the two of us, then?”
“For as long as you’d like,” he told her before he took a bite of his bread. For the remainder of the meal, Elaine told him about her discussion with Haley that day at work and Ethan told her about the dinner they were having the next weekend at the fire hall. When he invited her, she accepted without thinking about it.
They were smiling as the two of them walked from the bistro and slid into their respective seats in the car. Ethan’s dark eyes raked over her front and she felt a blush creep up her neck, but she enjoyed his attention. “Would you like to come over for a few hours, to my place?” he asked her as he raised his eyebrows suggestively.
Elaine felt the butterflies return with a vengeance and flashes of seeing the top of his head as he nibbled at her nether regions the last time they had been together made her damp. “I’d like to come over,” she whispered.
They didn’t speak as he drove back to his place. It turned out to be a quaint home on the outskirts of the small town she lived in, and she was surprised when he opened the door and there was a dog waiting for him. The black lab had woofed once before it stepped off to the side, only to come back and give Elaine’s jeans a thorough sniffing.
“Benjie, knock it off,” Ethan chastised as he closed the door and pulled the lab away and into the living room. The dog tried again, but one look at his owner had him sitting down and wagging his tail as if he was a child caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar.
>
“He’s very pretty,” Elaine said as she reached down to give the dog a pat on the head. She’d wanted a dog for years, but between having Thomas, and then her husband dying, she hadn’t had the time.
“He’s much better than he was two years ago. At least he’s out of the chewing stage,” Ethan said as he moved from his spacious living room decorated with leather furniture to a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and checkerboard patterned stools at a breakfast bar.
“Your place is nice,” Elaine commented as she sat down at the breakfast bar. Ethan pulled out a wine cooler and handed her one before he popped the top off his. She had a split second to wonder if he planned on her staying the night before she popped off the top of her wine cooler and took a sip. It was refreshing and made her feel a little warm, but she knew it’d take many more before she was sloppy drunk.
“You want to watch something on television?” Ethan asked her as he held out his hand. Elaine knew that they wouldn’t be watching television very long that night, if at all. She was tired of fooling around with conversation. He had made it clear he was okay if they were just friends with benefits for the time being, and she couldn’t forget about how their previous night had ended.
She took his hand and let him lead her out to the couch, but when he picked up the remote to turn on the television, she gently took it from his fingers and laid it on the coffee table. A smoldering began in Ethan’s eyes and he smiled with that crooked grin that made her heart stutter. They looked into each other’s eyes a moment before they kissed.
ENSLAVED BY SHIFTERS Page 38
