Page 25 of Shifters Reckoning

I glanced at my nervous driver and caught the glitter of sweat on his clean-shaven upper lip. “You like coffee?”

“Of course.”

No way to tell if he was simply being agreeable or if he actually liked the stuff.

“Have you ever been to Peaches & Melons?”

Even with a profile view, I caught the way his mouth slanted upward and his eyes squinted. He had a real smile this time. “Heard about it. Never been.”

“You’re in for a treat. My treat. It’s one of Jasper’s favorite drive-thru coffee places.”

The work truck jumped forward as Joey mashed a little harder on the accelerator, barreling us toward Willow Creek and what would probably be my last chance to “masquerade as normal” for months to come.

Joey dropped me off at the mailbox in front of my modest one-bedroom Willow Creek home with profuse thanks for the trip to Peaches & Melons. Then his tires squealed as he got out of my vicinity as quickly as he could, taking my empty iced latte cup with him.

Hell, I didn’t blame him. Crazy shit tended to happen around the multimorph, and crazier shit was bound to happen since he’d been hanging out with the fated mate of his alpha.

The lawn wasn’t overgrown, and the front flower bed looked freshly weeded. Way back when, Shannon, the office manager of my vet practice, kept the lawn service company paid for both of my properties. At least that hadn’t changed.

The short trek up the front walk brought a familiar rush of nostalgia. I’d been so proud of the place when I’d bought it one year after I’d opened my vet practice. Mom and Dad had been my first guests to dinner. He’d gotten sick for the first time the following month. We hadn’t known then it was the beginning of a long, drawn-out end.

Digging my keys out of the small bag I’d brought from Six-Mile didn’t take long, and I unlocked the door, turned the knob, and shoved the front door. It swung open slowly, and the hinges gave a long, horror-movie-ish squeak.

“Just to freaking add to the creep factor of being alone,” I muttered, rattling my keys as I tossed them back into my bag.

Since I hadn’t been home for weeks, I braced for anything. No inexplicable sounds greeted me, and I stepped over the threshold, then closed the door behind me before walking once around the place, taking in my surroundings.

Stale, chilly air. Dust everywhere. A pile of Amazon boxes rested inside the front door. Probably also thanks to Shannon. A dirty coffee cup in the kitchen sink.

Damn. I thought I’d taken care of that before I’d left last time. How long had it been since I’d made my own coffee in my own home? Come to think of it, besides that morning, I hadn’t really made much coffee in Six-Mile either. People sometimes made coffee and brought it to me. Food, drinks, anything I wanted. Housekeeping wasn’t even expected of me.

Yeah, saving the whole shifter world had been deposited on my plate, but outside of the daily threat of death by Acheron, I kinda had it made.

My life was waiting for me back with Logan. I switched the central air thermostat from air conditioning to heater and dropped the set temperature low enough to keep the pipes inside the house from freezing without keeping the place warm and wasting energy.

I glanced around and shivered with the weight of the sudden, overwhelming feeling that this used to be my home. Didn’t know how I felt about keeping this place now. I could put it on the market after New Year’s, sell it, pocket the money, and move everything I owned to the manor.

I could—should?—do the same with my practice.

Shit. That cracked my heart more than the house did.

I grabbed my phone. It still hadn’t buzzed or beeped with Logan’s freak-out. Nor had Olivia texted, so I pulled up Shannon’s number and typed out a message.

Me: I’m in town today. Wanna get together for lunch? My treat.

Shannon: My kids are in school today, and my boss put me on paid administrative leave so… yeah!

Me: Sounds like a heck of a boss. Lol.

Shannon: Where we going?

Me: Vixen’s.

Shannon: 11 too early?

Me: Nope. Sounds great. I’ll invite Riley too.

Me: Hey, Riley. Shannon and I are meeting for lunch at Vixen’s at 11:00. Wanna come?