Grandma
I was bawling by the time I read the last line. She’d given me the answers I never thought I’d have, but it hurt so much to think of her being all on her own without me knowing.
The lights flickered again, and the room plunged into momentary darkness before they buzzed back on. I jolted and mumbled, “Okay. Enough of this for tonight.”
I slid the letters back into the box and gently closed the lid. I’d read the rest later, when my brain wasn’t fried, and I wasn’t a sobbing mess. Right now, I needed a hot shower, a soft bed, and a good night’s sleep.
4
BEXLEY
We were in the middle of closing down the kitchen for the night, and I couldn’t focus on a damn thing. My bear paced so hard inside me that it felt like claws dragged along the inside of my ribs. Every time I tried to steady my breathing, agitation slammed through me.
The storm raging outside didn’t help. Thunder cracked against the restaurant windows, and the lights flickered overhead several times. It had blown in fast enough to make everyone in Timber Ridge take notice.
Another rumble vibrated the floor, and my bear shoved against my skin, roaring about Rowan being alone in unfamiliar territory.
I gripped the edge of the prep table, trying to ground myself. It didn’t help. I could barely stand being this far from Rowan.
Peppa’s gaze snapped to me from the expo line, her lioness flashing in her eyes. “If you don’t go check on her, your bear is going to take the whole kitchen down with him.”
I froze. “I’m not done?—”
“Bexley.” She pointed toward the door, as if she were directing her son Cyrus to a time-out. “Go. Before you tear the stove in half.”
Aero snorted behind me. “And your station will be safe with me if you can’t make it in tomorrow.”
I grabbed my jacket, muttering a curse as another lightning flash lit up the sky when I pushed out the back door. Cold rain slapped my face the second I stepped outside. The parking lot was already a slick sheet of water, and the sky had turned an ugly kind of gray that promised trouble.
I climbed into my truck, slammed the door, and gunned the engine. My polar was close to the surface, urging me forward as I headed toward the cottage Rowan’s grandmother had called home when she was alive.
The wipers barely kept up, and tree branches bowed dangerously over the road. Visibility was down to thirty feet at best, but I still drove ten over the speed limit.
Every minute I wasn’t with Rowan felt wrong.
By the time I turned onto the gravel road leading to her grandmother’s cottage, the rain hammered the roof of the truck as the storm howled around me.
As I parked behind her rental car, the porch light flickered, then went completely dark. “Shit.”
I killed the engine and was out of the truck before the headlights even faded. Rain pelted my shoulders, soaking through my jacket in seconds. My boots pounded against the steps as I took them two at a time. I lifted my fist and knocked, my pulse thundering louder in my ears than the storm.
The door jerked open, and every coherent thought I had disintegrated. Rowan stood there, wrapped in nothing but a towel, her eyes wide as she stared up at me.
Heat slammed through me so violently I had to brace a hand on the doorframe just to stay upright. My bear nearly took my skin with him in an attempt to lunge forward.
“Bexley?” she whispered, breathless and confused.
The storm howled behind me, rain slashing sideways across the porch, but all I could see was her bare legs, her damp hair curling over her shoulders, and the droplets clinging to her collarbone.
I forced my voice into something human. “Storm’s bad. We check on new folks in weather like this.”
It barely sounded convincing, even to me, but her expression eased, as though she was too overwhelmed to question what I said.
“Do you know if my grandmother had a generator?” she asked, hugging the towel tighter around herself.
The motion drew my eyes down instinctively, and my cock got painfully hard.
Before I could answer, thunder cracked so loudly that it rattled the porch boards. Rowan gasped and stumbled back.
