With my legs aching and my heart heavy, I made it into the kitchen and to the coffeemaker. Every action perfunctory, I managed to start a full pot. I’d need at least three cups this morning to even begin to think clearly.
As I waited for the coffee to brew, I thought about how I needed a drip line for the caffeine to hit my system. That was the only way I’d be able to work through the muck in my head.
I stood at the window, staring out at my front lawn. With the sunlight streaming in, it would seem I was also hallucinating.Laughing, I rubbed my eyes, blinked several times and peered out again.
Flowers.
There appeared to be flowers everywhere.
Whoa. Hold on. That wasn’t possible.
I rushed at least as much as my legs would allow to the front door, finding it locked. He’d ensured I’d been safe before leaving.
He had said he’d protect me.
As soon as I opened the door, my senses were assaulted.
I took cautious steps onto the front porch. Not only had he replanted flowers in the exact spot where he’d run them over with his car, he’d also formed three more incredible and very large beds and they were filled with flowering shrubs and the most colorful flowers I’d ever seen in my life.
That wasn’t all. He’d continued a planting bed along the driveway leading to the house. Two more beds filled a void next to the porch.
And there were three more pots on the porch itself.
In the middle of the night, Steven, a star hockey player and shifter, had planted all the beautiful foliage as a way of apologizing.
How incredible.
But if he thought he could buy me, he was wrong.
Yet as I sat down on the step, I was forced to face the fact I missed him.
The man who’d lied to me.
The only man who’d made me happy.
And he wasn’t even human.
CHAPTER 22
Steven
Parents insulted: Check.
Secret identity revealed: Unfortunately check.
Career possibly ruined: As expected.
Spouting off about a human being a mate: Oh, yeah. That was a double check with a dash of putting my foot into my mouth.
Or my entire leg.
Losing the girl: Not without a fight
Maybe that’s why her entire front yard appeared as if Lowe’s had regurgitated every unpurchased flower on her grass. I’d gone to three of them so I could purchase the number of flowers I’d had in mind. I’d spent all night digging and planting, mulching and watering. All by flashlight while Christine had been knocked out cold.
Whether from shock, sleep deprivation, or the number of shots she’d consumed, she’d managed to fall into a deep slumber fueled by the roar of the Trans Am’s engine.
I’d done the gentlemanly thing instead of waking her by carrying her into her house. Had it been disturbingly difficult not to strip off her clothes and get into bed with her, naked body pressed against naked body?
