Not that fresh clothes are going to help much when I can smell my bitter perfume over a box of pepperoni and cheese.
“You’re fine,” she says, pulling me into a hug. “I’ll just sit downwind while you tell me what’s got you so wound up.”
“Leo…”
“Ah!” She holds up a hand, still balancing the pizza box on the other. “Get the glasses while I set up our pity picnic.”
I roll my eyes at her, but she pulls a blanket onto the floor in front of the couch, placing the pizza box in the middle and grabbing a bunch of napkins from her pocket. I supply the glasses and a couple of cushions, sinking down onto the floor with a weary sigh. “It’s not just him being away from home,” I tell her as she fills our glasses with a generous glug of wine. “Something’s happened. It could change everything.”
Kaysie points to the pizza box. “Eat first, then unburden. I’m really worried that you’re going to keel over, babe.”
“I’m kind of glad we’re so close to the ground,” I admit, forcing myself to eat a slice while Kaysie gives me a quick update on her day. When she’s done recounting how many lattes she made, and the fact thatanothermonster erotica book seems to have mysteriously disappeared from her shelves, I take a long sip of wine, then set my glass aside. “I never told you everything about that trip to LA for the June Bloom contest.”
“I gathered, since you came home nursing a broken heart.” I blink at her, and she reaches over to squeeze my hand. “I think for most people it kind of got lost in the news of your pregnancy, but I could smell it on you. Something happened, and your scent was always a little bit crushed after that.”
“Really?” Kaysie was there to scoop me up at the airport, so she knows I had my first heat and a couple of college guys had helped me out. But I never told her the rest – about finding my scent matches, only to have them throw me to a wolf named Crest. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“You were dealing with so much. The trip, the pregnancy, and then Logan heading off to Afghanistan… I figured you’d share the rest when you were ready.”
I stare down at her hand. Her nails are painted goblin green, as she calls it, with chunky silver rings on every finger. A lot of folks in town only see Kaysie’s bold outer shell, but this is a good reminder that my best friend is golden all the way through. “I’m sorry it’s taken me nearly a decade to get here.”
Kaysie tilts her glass at me. “Babe, happiness is all about choosing the truths you want to face and sweeping the rest under the nearest rug.”
I smile at her sage advice, which she says is from the self-help books on her shelves, but which really comes from that deep reservoir of caring in her soul.
“Well, you were right about me coming back a little bruised.” I take a deep breath. “Those alphas who I spent my first heat with? They were my scent matches.”
Kaysie is a beta, but she knows a lot about omega dynamics, and her eyes go wide. “Seriously? So, not only your first ever heat but you were with the dudes Mother Nature hand-picked for you?” She squirms closer, shaking her head. “That’s a big deal, Lily.”
“Mmm.” The obvious question is why we aren’t bonded, like all the lucky heroines in her romance novels, but she doesn’t ask. And I put that yearning to bed a long time ago, anyway. “Well, it turns out they’re the new owners of Willow Manor.”
Kaysie startles so hard she nearly drops her pizza. “Your scent matches have moved to Idaho? I take it that’s not a coincidence.”
I shake my head, picking at my own slice. “I delivered flowers to their place last night.Fiftyyellow roses.” I’m still uneasy about the extravagance. Was it just to show me how little they care about money – or how easy it is for them to manipulate me into doing their bidding? “I think it was just so Otley could get me out there to deliver a message.”
“Which was…?”
I shrug, and taking out my phone, pull up a Google search I did earlier. “Otley James,” she reads when I hand it over to her. “Entrepreneur and investor. Owner of Magnus Group, James & Cartwright Investments, and The Zenith Agency.” Her eyes have grown big as moons. “Shizzlesticks, that’s one superior looking dude.”
She turns the screen around to display a picture of Otley in a tuxedo. He looks both coolly aloof and wildly alluring, and I feel a tremble of helpless attraction in my belly. Shoving it down with an irritated sigh, I lean forward and scroll through the images until I find one with Ellis at his side. “This is the other thing I didn’t tell you about.”
“What the freakinghell, Lily?” Kaysie shrieks loud enough to prod Bloomer off Leo’s bed upstairs. He’s been sulking ever since they left on their camping trip, and now he starts woofing forlornly over the banister. The smell of pizza draws him down to join us, and I hold his collar while he salivates in Kaysie’s lap. She gives him more than his share of kisses, but since he seems determined to eat his feelings right out of her hand, Kaysie puts the rest of the pizza on the table, while I try to nudge him over to his kibble bowl.
“I can't believe I didn’t see it,” Kaysie murmurs as she carries my phone over to the picture wall by the staircase. “Leo looksexactlylike a baby Ellis Castle.”
She’s right. They share the same dark curls, vivid green eyes, and wide forehead, and I’ve studied Ellis on the big screenenough to know they also have an identical dimple at the corner of their mouths. I even did a search a few years back, unearthing one of Ellis’ childhood pictures on a fan site. Leo’s resemblance to his father’s younger self is uncanny, which means that if Ellis Castle is also lurking around town, it won’t be long before all of Knotty Falls makes the same connection.
I take another gulp of wine as Kaysie returns to the table, her eyes dancing. “Soooo, shouldn’t we be celebrating? I mean, Ellis Castle is top tier! You’ve just won the baby daddy lottery, am I right?”
I grimace at the excitement in her voice. “And what if he decides that his top tier baby should be shipped off to a fancy boarding school in Switzerland?” She deflates a little, but that’s only one of many nightmares that has been haunting me lately. “Even if he just wants him to go live in LA, where does that leave me? Seeing Leo every second month, and twice a year for vacations? I can’t leave the farm, and now Logan has bought the gym, we’re even more tightly tied to Knotty Falls.”
“Shit.” Kaysie slumps at the table, forlornly picking at a slice of pizza. “You’re right. Reality is such a baby daddy downer.”
I give a bitter laugh, but it soon fades to a whimper. “They can't take him from me, Kaysie. I won’t survive it.”
She grabs my hand, her eyes suddenly narrowed to slits. “WasthatMr. Fancypants’ message? You have to choose between boarding school or sending him to LA whenever he feels like it?”
“No.” I admit, fiddling with the skull ring on her thumb. “Otley said he wants to spend time with us, but I didn’t stick around to hear the details.”
