There was a smudge of pink icing on her nose. Tyr started to reach across the table to wipe it off, remembered in the nick of time, and stopped with his thumb inches from her nose. He could almost feel the warmth of her skin. For a moment they looked at each other. Then she quietly reached for a napkin. “There’s something on my face, right?”
“Yeah, frosting, there.” He demonstrated, moving his thumb, his hand still near her face. She licked the napkin—as a parent himself, Tyr recognized a parent’s casual familiarity with cleaning protocols for faces—and dabbed at her nose.
Tyr pulled back his hand when it was evident that she’d got it. She glanced at his hand with a look of wistful longing.
“I wonder if thick gloves would do it,” she said with audible yearning in her voice.
“We can try, but I doubt it, since clothing doesn’t seem to help.” Tyr clenched his jaw until his teeth ground together. “Wouldn’t be much of a punishment if it was easy to circumvent.”
“I don’t think Kav could possibly have known I’d find my mate here.”
“Perhaps not, but it’s cruel just the same. There’s no need to defend him. He treated you horribly.”
Cela dropped her gaze to the donuts, and Tyr felt abruptly awful for potentially ruining her first proper outing in Autumn Grove.
“What do you think of the cocoa?” he asked, trying for a lighter tone.
“I haven’t tried it yet.” Cela took a dutiful sip; then her face lit up. “Oh, you’re right! Itislike a liquid donut.”
Tyr smiled at her and placed his hand as near to hers on the table as he dared. She grinned back. They were still smiling at each other like a couple of loons when Gaby came over to the table, untying the strings of her pink apron with a bear paw design on it.
“How are you doing, honey?” she asked, giving Cela’s arm a squeeze.
Tyr fiercely suppressed a stir of inappropriate jealousy. It wasn’t sexual; it was just the overwhelming unfairness that everyone could touch his mate casually except him.
“I’m doing well, thank you.” Cela squeezed Gaby’s hand, then let go quickly as if she’d had a similar feeling. “I really appreciate all the things you brought over. Are you sure I don’t owe you anything?”
“No, of course not. It’s all stuff that we needed to donate anyway. You’ve helped declutter our garage, so there’s actually room to park in there again. We should be thanking you.” She glanced at the stroller. “I don’t know too much about what you’re getting away from, and I’m not going to ask, but can I see the babies?”
Cela hesitated. Tyr guessed what the problem was—there was no telling if they’d shifted back in the meantime. “Her mate’s a shifter,” he murmured, low.
“Oh!” Cela brightened and pulled off the sun-shade fabric they had been using to cover any potential shifting shenanigans.
As it turned out, the precautions were wise; Aven was a sleeping baby boy, but he was curled up holding an owlet like a stuffed toy. Ayra had her beak snuggled into his shoulder.
Gaby’s face visibly melted into a visual depiction ofAwwwwww. “Oh, they’re beautiful. My Mina just had her first shift recently. Isn’t this awfully young for it?”
“It’s usual for—my people,” Cela said. “What does your Mina shift into?”
“She’s a bear. We figured she would be, her dad’s a bear, but her big sister hasn’t shifted yet, so it was hard to say how much of it the kids would inherit.”
“But you’re a human?” Cela asked.
“That’s right.”
Tyr guessed that Cela was as fascinated by the concept of human-shifter relationships as he had been when he first left the island, but before she could ask more questions, the customer bell on the door tinkled. Gaby looked up, and her face lit with pure joy. Tyr didn’t even have to look to know that her mate had come in.
Derek, Gaby’s mate, was a big guy whose T-shirt strained over his heavily muscled torso. He was accompanied by his friend and business partner, Ben, slighter with dark hair lightly salted with gray. The two of them, along with a third friend, ran a bodyguard agency in town.
Gaby ran over and flung her arms around Derek. He scooped her up and planted a steamy kiss on her lips.
Ben gave Tyr a nod, and Tyr rose from his chair to shake hands with both of the men. Considering how they’d all met—which had been Paula hiring them to protect her from Tyr, more or less—he hadn’t been sure how they would react to Tyr asking them for help, but there was a cautious truce between all of them these days.
“This is Cela,” Tyr said, and Cela stood up as well. “She’s the person I’m trying to help. Have you learned anything?”
“Don’t want to talk about it here,” Derek said. “We can go back in the alley.”
“They’re the people I’ve been asking about our problem,”Tyr told Cela. “Do you want to come? You’re welcome to, of course.”
