"I hope you're right. Now let's eat. It smells good and I'm hungry."
"What my woman wants, my woman gets," Yaeger said with a laugh. He escorted her to the table, then dished up their dinner; steaks cooked rare, alfredo pasta, and steamed seasoned asparagus.
"It all looks so good," Frankie said before she took her first bite and moaned. "Oh Gods it tastes good too," she added.
"Glad you approve, darlin'. The alfredo is from scratch. One of my mama's recipes."
"It's delicious. You don't talk about where your from much."
"There's not much to talk about."
"I find that hard to believe. When did you leave home?"
"When I was eighteen."
"Wow. Why so young?"
"It wasn't by choice," he sighed. "You really going to make me talk about this?"
"We're mates, Yaeger. We should know each other's pasts. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
"Fine. I was forced to leave home because I killed another member of the pride. The punishment for that is banishment."
A soft gasp left her. "What happened? You wouldn't have killed indiscriminately."
"No. I'd been bullied by Toby for years. I was a scrawny shit back then. Anyway, I got fed up and challenged him to a fight. Turned out, while I was scrawny, my lion wasn't. I was bigger than Toby. While fighting with him, something in me snapped and I killed him. It didn't matter that I'd just turned eighteen and had no way to support myself, the Alpha had to banish me. That was twelve years ago. I haven't seen or spoken to my mama since. I hope she's all right."
"Why haven't you spoken to her?" she asked, her heart breaking for him.
"Those are the rules. No contact allowed."
"What if I called her for you, just to let her know you're okay?
"You'd do that?"
"Of course I would."
"Like I said, beautiful soul. What about you? What's your story?" he asked as they finished eating.
"I only recently returned to Thorne Bay after living in Seattle for the last eight years."
"What brought you back?"
"I'm getting there. I was married. Note the keyword there—was. I met Randy when he was here eight and a half years ago, when he spent the summer here. We had a whirlwind romance, and when he left, he convinced me to go with him. We were happy for a while, then things soured. By then we were married, and I took my vows seriously. I tried everything to fix our marriage, but no matter what I did, it was wrong. The final straw that broke the camel's back was when I caught him cheating on me."
"He did what?" Yaeger growled. "The sorry bastard. You deserve better, darlin'. Now I understand why you were so reluctant to let me in."
"Yeah, when you get burned, it's hard to let others in. So anyway, after the divorce, I came home to Thorne Bay."
"I, for one, am glad you did because it put you in my path."
"I have to admit I'm glad I did, too," she said, touching his hand across the table. "Now, how about that phone call?" she added, changing the subject. "I'll even put it on speakerphone so you can hear her voice."
They moved to the sofa to get comfortable. "I hope her number hasn't changed. Her name is Virginia Delacroix," he said, then gave her the number he had in his phone.
Frankie dialed and waited for it to be picked up.
"Hello?"
