Callon snapped his mouth closed and stilled.How had she heard him?
“What?”Maddie asked.
“It sounded like laughter.”
“It's the universe,” Katy said, her tone full of humor.“Laughing at your lion boob.”
“You’re just pissed that my lion could eat your wolf,” Lola shot back.
“Don’t go hating on my wolf, he’s sexy.”
“What made you get a wolf tattoo?”Lola asked.“You make fun of my shifter books every second of the day.”
“Zephyr showed me a book of drawings and this one just, I don’t know,” she answered, her voice changing from the playful tone to more introspective.“It just felt right.”
“That’s how I felt about the lion,” Lola said.And then softly added.“He’s guarding my heart.”
Callon leaned his head back and closed his eyes as his lips turned up in a smile.He was pretty sure all of his warriors would think something was seriously wrong with him.He wasn’t exactly the smiling type.But then he wasn’t sure that up until that moment he’d ever really had a reason to smile.“He’s guarding my heart.”Her words seeped into his skin, past his tissue, muscle and down into the marrow of his bones as the man and beast accepted her role for them.She had no idea she’d just claimed Callon as hers.
Chapter 8
I’m Not Freaked Out.You’re Freaked Out.
“Have you ever felt like there was something big happening in your life but someone forgot to give you the memo?You think you’ve sort of got it half way figured out, or at least, you’re doing a good job of faking it ’til you make it, and then boom, the bottom drops out from under your feet.No?So just me then.Fantastic.Good talk.”~Lola
“It’s been two weeks,” Lola said as she filled the parmesan cheese shakers for the tables while she, Katy and Maddie waited for the lunch rush hour to start.“Have you told your dad about your tattoo, Katy?”
Both of her friends looked at her like she was crazy.
“What?”she asked, trying to keep from grinning.She’d known Katy’s dad wouldn’t be okay with her getting a tattoo.He was a bit overprotective at times, though to be fair, Katy had always been a bit of a free-spirit and keeping her reigned in was not a task for the faint of heart.
“I figure I’ll just hold off on that for the rest of my life,” Katy said.She rolled silverware in napkins while Maddie dried cups and stacked them next to the trays she’d just finished with.“No need to give my dad a stroke.Mom would think it’s cool as hell, but she’d have to pretend to be upset about it, so I’m not telling her to keep her from doing a horrible acting job.”
“What about you?”Lola looked at Maddie.“If you’d have gotten one, would she have cared?”
“No, not about the tattoo so much as she would the money,” Maddie answered.She turned the cup in her hand in a circle, using the towel in the other hand to twist inside and get all the water droplets.“Her hours have been getting cut at work, so things have been a little tighter than usual.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”Katy asked.“You know Lo and I would help.”
Lola nodded.“You know Mom likes to feed you guys anytime you’ll let her, that would at least help a little with groceries.”
Maddie rolled her eyes.“As if you guys are in better situations.”
“We have two parents, Mads,” Katy said.“And I’m not trying to be an ass that your mom is a single parent.She’s a super hero in my book.But sometimes you just have to ask for help.Goodness knows that we will have times, andhavehad times in the past, when we did.And by the way,” Katy tossed down the fork she held.“What’s with all the damn secrets?We discovered during the bizarre tattoo experience that Lola’s having self-esteem issues and general crisis of identity and–”
Lola frowned and cut her friend off, “I don’t thinkthat’sexactly what I said.”
“And now you’re telling us that you’ve been living on an even tighter budget than the pennies we all already live on,” Katy continued, not paying Lola any mind.“I thought we were a tribe, ride or die.What’s up with that?”
“Sometimes we just don’t want to burden each other,” Maddie argued.“It’s not that I was trying to keep a secret, Katy.It’s just the cost of living here is so damn high, we’ve been born into loving families, but poor ones.It feels like we’re on a damn hamster wheel running and running and not getting anywhere.Complaining about it doesn’t really get us anywhere.”
Lola couldn’t argue.Sometimes it felt hopeless.“We’re going to go to the community college,” she said, forcefully setting down the shaker as if it was a gavel and declaration of a judge.“Get an education that affords us more opportunities so we can make more money, and help our parents, and even ourselves, out.Then we’re going to haul our butts from this melting pot to someplace with cleaner air and cheaper everything.”Moving out of New York had been something they’d all dreamed of.It was all they knew, but all three of them felt like there had to be a better way to live than hand to mouth.
“Until then, we hang on.”Katy curled her hand in a fist and dropped it firmly onto the counter.“No matter what that looks like.Our best bet would be to find sugar daddies.But we’d need to waitress somewhere other than NNP.It’s not like we get executive types in here.”
Lola glanced around at the current customers filing in as lunch time approached.Construction workers, low-level job-types that looked as tired as she felt.Students from the local community college, nurses from the free clinic up the street.No, there weren’t any prospects of men who could provide a much better financial situation than they currently had.Just as she was about to return to her task, the door open and the guy with green hair walked in, followed by Spiky.Two of the guys from a couple of weeks ago were back.
“Look who’s returned,” Katy nudged Lola, as if she hadn’t already noticed.“Maybe they’re rock stars and we just don’t know it.They look like they could be in some sort of band.”
