Chapter Five
There were easily three hundred people at the barbecue fundraiser that night. There were even wolf shifters from Greenville there. Country music blasted from the speakers – all pre-selected by Laurel, to ensure it was family friendly. The air smelled of sweet, tangy barbecue sauce, and woodsmoke, and French fries dunked in sizzling oil.
Every folding table and picnic table on the front lawn, every table in the restaurant, was full. Shifters slow danced with each other to the twangy country music, and there was a pleasant din of conversation buzzing in the air.
The evening’s take still wouldn’t be enough to pay off their debt to Algernon, but it was wonderful to see the community support. Their mother was in tears of gratitude as she stood at the smoker, serving out ribs.
Savannah stood off to the side near an overflowing garbage can, trying to pretend that she wasn’t scanning the crowd. Jessamine sidled up to her, with a smirk on her face.
“Who’s the hot date?” Jessamine taunted Savannah. “Is it the wolf that you’re in luuuuv with? Does he know how big of a dork you are?”
Thou shalt not murder thy annoying sister. Thou shalt not murder thy annoying sister.
“There is no hot date!” she snapped.
“You changed your dress five times. But you only have two dresses, so you just kept going back and forth between the pink one and the green one. You should have stuck with the green one, by the way, the pink clashes with your hair. You’re wearing perfume, which I’m pretty sure you stole from me. You showered again, even though you showered this morning. And oh my God, is thatlipstick?”
“The entire community is here tonight, and I am simply dressing to represent our family in the appropriate manner,” Savannah said huffily.
Jessamine looked at the assembled crowd. Savannah followed her gaze and winced.
Anthony was wrestling with Niall in a mud puddle, and a crowd was cheering them on.
The mayor of Foxhaven was chugging beer that was being poured into a funnel.
The police chief and the owner of the rest stop gas station were having a belching contest. And people were actually putting money on it.
“Whatever,” Jessamine said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder, and went to help behind the bar they’d set up outside.
“Oh, screw this,” Savannah said furiously, and stomped back towards the house to change into jeans and a T-shirt. She was notthat girl. The giggly-fun-date kind of girl. She was Savannah – short, chubby, freakishly strong, far too good at kicking ass to be sexy, best friend but never girlfriend.
Then the tingling in her pink bits started.
“Savannah.” Austin’s voice was a sexy rumble.
She whirled around to look at him.
He was wearing jeans, motorcycle boots, and a white T-shirt that looked as if it had been painted on over the curve of his biceps.
“Oh, hey, Austin,” she choked out, desperately trying for casual and missing by a mile. She tried to stick her hands in her pockets, but she didn’t have any pockets, so her hands just slid straight down to her hips and stopped.
Austin didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were locked on hers. “You look gorgeous.”
“I definitely did not dress up like this for you.” She was blushing so hard that it actually hurt. She would have given anything for a bucket of water to dump on her head right then, to cool her heated cheeks.
“Of course not.” Amusement twinkled in his whiskey-colored eyes. “Hey. I dropped the money off with your mother. She put it in her safe.”
“Thank you,” she said stiffly.
“So. Did you want me to stay, or go?”
She struggled to find words, and felt as if she were choking. She wanted him so badly it frightened her – and she was someone who chased down crazy shifters for a living. She’d never felt anything like this before.
High-school taunts drifted through her mind again.“She’s so fat, when she steps on the scale, it says ‘To be Continued…’”
Her ex-boyfriend Marvin and the rage on his face after they were confronted by a group of bullies, and she stepped forward and chased them off while he frantically dialed his bodyguard…
This wasn’t real. She wasn’t the kind of girl who got lucky in love.
