I wasn’t prepared for this conversation. From the way Bale froze, neither was he.
“Right.” I paused, doing my best to toe the line between what she needed to hear and the truth. “Long story short, we don’t have much of an explanation. Neither of us really got a handbook on our shifting abilities. There’s no way either of us could have guessed that we’d outlive everybody in town.”
The bang of a cabinet closing as Bale took out three plates may as well have been a boom of thunder.
Harlow glanced over at his back, then looked at me with those damn captivating green eyes that maybe as well have been my personal brand of absinthe to drown in.
“I want to understand, Corbin. I’ve been struggling with who I am for years, having no one else who trulyunderstands. You two are the closest thing I have to people who get it.”
Dammit. When she sounded so lost like this, it ate away at the guilt barricading the secrets Bale and I shared.
“Go on and tell her, Corb. She’ll figure it out in a few days anyway.” Bale surprised me with his willingness to open up, or at least expose our past and reveal the secrets we’ve been harboring for all these years.
He turned and placed two plates down on the counter, each one bestowed with one of his signature grilled cheeses. Two crispy and golden triangles of bread with a blend of melted cheese slowly oozing out like sunlight breaking over the horizon.
“Thanks,” she said as she pulled the plate towards her with a look in her eyes that said she was impressed before she even tasted it.
If she had expected just some bread slapped together with cheese that tasted like melted plastic, she was in for a whole other experience.
While she admired the masterpiece on her plate, I took the opportunity to dive into Bale and I’s past.
“You’re right, we’ve been alive a long time?—”
“Mmm, oh my god,” she interrupted with a drawn-out moan that seemed to emanate straight from her soul.
Making sounds like that, you would have thought she was taking my dick again. Damn, even my dick thought it was getting action right now, the way it stirred in my pants.
Bale leaned over the counter, staring at her with the intensity of a predator about to pounce. His voice dropped to a dangerous rumble with the faintest hint of a tease. “Don’t forget who put that in your mouth.” He flashed her a devastating smirk.
He straightened, before casually adding, “And if I ever catch you eyeing up a grilled cheese from the diner, I swear to the gods I will burn the whole fucking establishment down.”
I swore that sometimes Bale was a freak over the weirdest of things.
After adjusting myself, I snagged my sandwich and ate half a triangle in one bite.
“As I was saying,” I managed to get out before swallowing, “We’ve been around a while. Neither of us was born a shifter.”
Sharing a look with Bale as he leaned back against the counter, eating his own serving of grilled cheese, I met Harlow’s eyes again. She continued to indulge in the sandwich while giving me her full attention.
“Tell me everything,” she said.
So, we told her together.
The next houror so was spent explaining everything toHarlow, at least all the parts that wouldn’t scare her away, before we could make her fully understand.
Tapping into memories I had tried to forget, I started with the day of Falston’s inaugural fall festival. Relaying my recollection as it all came back to me.
While I had been otherwise preoccupied rolling around in the loft of the Millers’ horse stable with Maribelle, voices interrupted me. Familiar voices. The members of the Town Council.
I hadn’t heard the notoriously squeaky doors open, but then again, I had been overly focused on drawing pleasant squeaks out of Maribelle with my tongue while her thighs hugged my ears.
Lifting my head out from underneath her skirt, a few pieces of hay stuck out of my hair. Looking at Maribelle, I placed a finger to my lips to direct her to be quiet.
The last thing I needed was the Town Council getting word back to Grammy that I was carelessly sowing my seed. She’d crack me one good on the seat of my pants with her cane, which was more frightening than anyone would ever realize.
Through a crack in the wooden slats of the elevated perch we were on, I could barely make out all five Councilmen.
“Tonight, my brothers, we shall begin a new era for Falston. Only the elite will prevail for years to come,” the hoarse voice of Mayor Polk registered.
