Prologue
Sharon didn’t know what to do about her hand and getting out of work.She’d been able to get out of the blind date, thankfully, and now she had to figure out how she was going to go to her job while being bandaged up like she was.
“You can run the register.”She supposed that she could expect to bag things up.“You’ll be fine.I can do the rest, and we just won’t have any sammiches for the day.I’ll have one of the others come in and slice the meat up, and I’ll make them in between customers if it comes to that.You got yourself some pain pills, don’t you?”
“I do, but they make me woozy a little bit.”Daff, an apt name if she’d ever heard one, said that she’d make sure that she was up on her feet.“I just don’t want to cause you any more trouble than I already have.”
“This is my shop, and I do what I want.You don’t have to do anything with the people getting gas, so that’s gonna be all right.You just ring them out, and we’ll have a productive day today.”She said she’d try not to do too much that would cause her to do double work.“You just be you, honey.You’ll see that people can be kind when they wanna.I know a few people around here who sets stock in you.”
She had no idea what that meant, but let it go.Sometimes, having Daff explain something was worse than having her just say it and move on.So here she was, running the register in the busiest part of the day, hoping to goodness that she could get a break soon so she could pee.Another hard job when you only had one hand to adjust and pull up your pants.
“Should you be working?”She’d heard that at least a dozen times today and always just nodded and said she was fine.Daff was doing a good job of keeping her from using her hand a great deal.When someone came into the shop, and they had pops and more stuff than they could carry, she’d have them bagged up and out the door sometimes before they got their change.
By lunch, she’d had enough and only wanted to sit down and have a break with a pain pill.Taking half of one was almost as bad as taking a whole one, but it did take the pain away for a little while.Coming out of the back room, she saw the doctor who had helped her last night.
“I wanted to check on you and see how you were doing.Should you be here?”She explained to him how she wasn’t doing anything but running the register for the place and that Daff had the rest under control.“I did notice last night that she seems to know what she’s doing.Today, I’m headed home.I was at the hospital until all hours last night, and all I want to do is check on you and make sure you’re all right, then head home.”
“I’m sure that the hospital was happy for your help.I know that I was when you came in.”She thought the man was about as handsome as she’d ever met.Even as tired as he looked, he looked good enough to snack on.Embarrassed, she changed the subject.“My hand doesn’t hurt too badly right now.I know that they had to put in a lot of stitches in it, and I’m grateful for what you did for me.”
“It wasn’t anything.Just getting the wound closed so that you’d stop bleeding was first and foremost.Then, once you were at the hospital, they got it cleaned up and sealed for you.You’re lucky you didn’t lose a finger.I hope you’re more careful next time.”She thought that he looked embarrassed and smiled a little.“Anyway, I just wanted to check on you and see how you’re doing.”
He looked hesitant to leave.She didn’t mind him hanging around, so when the next customer came in, she dealt with him and the next two afterwards.She was ringing out the next customer when he suddenly asked her if she’d like to have dinner with him.
“I mean, I know that we can’t go to a steak house.You’d be hard-pressed to cut up yours, but I could do it.It won’t be like a blind date for us since we know one another.Sort of.I’m Kendrick Valley.I’m a medical doctor at Dresden and the local hospital.And you’re Sharon.”She told him her last name.“Sharon Taylor.It’s lovely to meet you.”
“Same from me.”She felt silly again and rang out a couple more people.“I’d love to have any kind of dinner with you.And you’re right.It wouldn’t be like a blind date.Besides, I don’t have any bad books I can read at the moment.”They both laughed.
“Would tonight be all right with you?I’d understand if you just wanted to go home and rest your hand with some pain medication.We can do it some other night this week.”She said that she really was all right and wanted to have dinner with him.“I have a better idea.How about I pick up some pizza tonight, and then we can have dinner together on Friday night.That should be better for your hand and me getting a good day’s sleep in.I’ll call you too.If that’s all right?”
“It would be perfect.I love pizza.”She really did, too, and was glad that he suggested it so that she could rest her hand, too.It really wasn’t feeling as great as she said it was, and she was sure that he knew it.“I’ll write down my address for you, and since you don’t know the pizza places around here, I’ll order one for us so that we can get to know one another.What do you think of that?”
“Perfect.”She gave him her address and a time.She’d order the pizza and make sure that it was delivered on time.When he reached for the piece of paper, their hands brushed one another, and she felt a tingling that she’d never experienced before.It was like a connection or something.After he left her.She did wonder what he was going to do for the rest of the day while he waited around for her to get off work.
~*~
Kendrick knew that she was his mate, but wasn’t at all sure how to go about telling her that he was a wolf and that she was his other half.He didn’t even know if she knew what a shifter was.She hadn’t smelled like anyone that could shift had been around her, but then she had been covered in a good amount of blood, and that could have been it.It had taken him at least two hours to figure out why he kept getting drawn back to the area that she’d been in, and then it hit him.She was his mate.Kendrick thought about what his brother would say if he were to tell him.
They’d make fun of him is what would happen.They were relentless in their teasing of Conri, and he was their alpha.They’d be terrible with him if they found out, and he just didn’t want to hear it.Not until he got to know her better, anyway.Besides, he might well be mistaken.
“Nah, she’s the one.You knew it last night and then today, moron.”He put gas in his car and paid at the pump so as not to get in her hair again.But damn, but he wanted to.He felt the need to heal her, too.To make her pain, which was pushing at him, to make go away, too.“I’ll tell her tonight when I see her.I’ll just set her down and tell her that I’m a wolf shifter and that I’m mated to her.That should be good.”
It wasn’t good that he was talking to himself again.He only did that when he was nervous, and he was very nervous right now.Going back to the hotel that he’d rented this morning, he decided to go and find a place where he could get himself some jeans and some other things to change into.He didn’t want to smell like blood, which he could smell on himself when having a date with his other half.He kept telling himself that.That he’d seen and met his other half and would spend the rest of his life with her.
He found a Walmart not far from where he was staying.Getting himself some jeans and other things that he was going to need, he put them all in a cart and made his way to the front of the store.He thought about getting a case of water; he did need one at home, but he thought about dragging it all the way back with him and decided that he’d get it later.Right now, it was up in the air about when he was going to go back home.He had a practice, sure, but he’d cleaned the next two days for himself so that he could get to know Sharon.
While in line, he found himself a book.It was one that he’d not read yet, and he tossed it into his cart.He had lots of time to waste between now and five-thirty and didn’t want to seem like a stocker by hanging around at the gas station.He didn’t want to scare her off before he’d even gotten to meet her.
Going back to the hotel, he took a long, hot shower and changed into his new clothing.Shaving,too, he felt at least a little better about going out now and sat down on his bed to start on his book.It was hard for him to get into it because he kept thinking that he was going to forget the time, and he finally set an alarm.Fat lot of good it had done him.
He kept making sure that he’d set the alarm right.When that was correct, he had to make sure that his phone was charged up and wouldn’t die when he needed it to remind him when to go.Christ, this was worse than when he was studying for his exams.He’d been checking on things so much that he nearly overslept when he finally fell asleep in his dorm room.
At some point, he fell asleep and was awakened by the alarm that he had set correctly.Getting up and brushing his teeth, and combing his hair, he was ready to leave when his cell phone rang.It was Sharon.Sitting down, just knowing that she was going to cancel, he answered the phone with his name.
“It’s Sharon.Sharon Taylor.I wanted to let you know that the pizza isn’t going to be delivered because they’re short-staffed at the moment, and I wondered if you could pick it up on your way to my house.”He said that he could do that and wrote down the address.“They said it would be all right if you picked it up and that I ordered it.The people there know that I order all the time and were worried that I was getting myself into something bad.So if they give you the fifth degree, that’s why.They’re slightly overly protective of me.”
“Good.You need to have someone watch over you sometimes.Right?”She said she supposed so and told him she’d see him in a little while.Just before she hung up, she asked him if he liked beer or tea with his pizza.“Both, but I’ll stick to tea with you.You don’t want to be drinking with those pain pills they gave you.”
“It’s funny, but after seeing you today, I’ve not had a bit of pain today.It’s like it’s all healed up.”He had not thought that his touching her might do that.“All right, I’ll see you soon.I’m really looking forward to this tonight.”
