“I’ve got a hot tub at my place,” Walker suggests.
“Sold,” Lia croaks out.
Knox chuckles as he shifts his weight. “Well, let’s get you out of here and dried off, then.”
I stand and back away as Knox helps her out of the bath before I move and unplug it. I look at the clock as the water drains down. Nine-thirty on the nose. I’ve got plenty of time before Amber is due back at the house, but there still aren’t enough answers for me to know where any of this is going.
“I’m worried too much heat will make her pass out, considering that almost happened at the bakery,” I say as I turn to Walker.
He grabs a towel and helps Knox wrap her up. “The heat from the tea plus the heat from a shower or hot tub will help all of this get into her system a little quicker.”
“It itches,” Lia whines.
“Let’s get you back into your clothes, then,” Knox says.
“Noooo,” she whimpers. “They’re stinky. Please. Don’t.”
Knox looks over at me, a helpless expression on his face. All of this is so familiar, bringing back so many memories of a time gone by that part of me still yearns for. Grief is a funny, fickle thing that way.
Some days, I wonder if Lia wasn’t given to me, but if I was given to her.
“Then let’s get you wrapped in a blanket,” I say as I slip past everyone. “I’ve got more than a few in the closet. We’ll test the fabrics against your skin, see which one messes with you the least.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
And when I throw open the closet door, looking at all of Gloria’s nesting items that I had washed and sealed during my grieving process, I draw in a deep breath.
Then I reach for a silk blanket and tear it from its plastic confines.
Walker
Privacy is a luxury I don’t usually have to think about.
Between the tinted windows of my villa home and the tinted windows of my back deck, I stay concealed from the vineyard world, even though my villa is maybe four city blocks away from the main building where I work.
But as Eli carries Lia up the stone pathway toward my front door, making sure we have privacy is the only thing I can focus on.
No one will see her in this state. Not if I have anything to say about it.
I unlock the front door to my home just as Knox barrels past me.
“The back deck covered?” he asks, making his way toward the sliding glass doors.
“And tinted,” I say as I hold the door open for Eli. “You won’t need to close the privacy panels unless you want to.”
Knox is through the sliding glass door before I finish the sentence.
My place is far enough removed from the main building that no one should come wandering by, but with precious cargo in tow, I give a quick sweep of my eyes around the place, anyway.
Thankfully, days when school isn’t in session aren’t the busiest days here at work, since the gaggles of mothers that frequent my business for wine tastings and finger foods rely on school hours to keep their kids occupied.
Which means no one will accidentally catch a whiff of an Omega in distress and come sniffing around out of instinct alone.
“She’s shivering,” Eli says from behind me.
I turn and see Lia wrapped in that silk blanket he gave her, listening to her teeth chatter together.
“Let’s get her in a shower,” I say, pointing in the direction where he needs to go. “Knox is setting up the back deck. I’m sure he’ll be with us shortly.”
