How It Started

by T. S. Joyce

  She was a bright side kind of girl, so she mentally ticked off the benefits. If there was an apocalypse, she could run from the zombies. If a bear was chasing her through the woods? She would probably get like, three extra breaths of life in before it caught up to her. If she—

  “Cardio will improve your sex life,” Carrie said, as if she could read her mind.

  Beep, beep, beep. Leanna poked the button to up the speed of the treadmill and began to jog.

  Carrie snickered. “I knew that would get you moving.”

  “Better not be a lie,” she grumbled.

  “Do you want me to be your plus-one to Tyler’s wedding?”

  Leanna groaned. “Why do you want me to go to it so badly?”

  “To show the town you’re fine. I’m tired of everyone talking about how sad it is for you that he moved on and you’re still a spinster.”

  Leanna scrunched up her face. “No one says spinster but you. Maybe don’t read so many of your historical romances. I’m thirty-three, not eighty.”

  “Same difference in a small town, Leanna. Nothing would make me happier than you showing up to that wedding with your chin held high, classier than all those assholes who ditched you.”

  “No one ditched me,” she punched out through her labored breaths. She hadn’t jogged in weeks.

  “Tyler did. And so did his family. All his friends? They all ditched you. I remember how hurt you were when everyone cut you off. I was there when you had to mail all the wedding presents back, and when you were alone letting everyone know the wedding was called off. And as I recall? Tyler went on your honeymoon anyway while you dealt with the aftermath of that cancelled wedding all on your own. He ditched you. They all did. Assholes.”

  Carrie was getting angry all over again, and honestly? Leanna didn’t want to keep reliving this.

  “I met a boy. He’s offered to be my plus-one, so you can tell the whole town the spinster is doing just fine.”

  Carrie nearly fell off her treadmill. Beep! She poked the off button and came to a stop, gasping for breath. There. Now she was sweating. “You met a boy?”

  “A friend,” Leanna explained as she turned her treadmill off, too.

  “What’s he look like? Do I know him? What does he do for work? Is he nice? Can he fight? Can he fight Tyler?”

  “Uuuuuh, he’s tall and has muscles, I don’t think anyone really knows him, he builds decks, he seems nice, and I have no idea if he can fight. His life is…complicated. I think.” Carrie definitely didn’t need to hear about Trev right now, and the maybe-he-is, probably-he-isn’t saga of Amos’s son. She loved her sister dearly, but she was in just about every social circle in town, and the thing about circles in small towns is that they gossiped. Leanna had been the brunt of that gossip chain far too much for her taste and wasn’t interested in swan-diving back into it with a mystery love-child. Trev was special, and people wouldn’t understand. She didn’t want him in those gossip circles either. He deserved protection, not exposure.

  Her phone dinged and she fumbled to pick it up from the storage area of the treadmill.

  She’d texted Amos this morning, telling him she hoped he and Trev had a good day, and he’d just responded.

  Mayday. I took the kid to work with me, and now everything’s on fire.

  She snorted and texted back. I’m sure you are doing just fine. Send.

  No seriously, everything’s on fire. A picture came through and it looked like a stack of lumber up in flames.

  Oh my gosh! What happened? Send.

  Did you know you aren’t supposed to let six-year-olds play with matches?

  Where are you? Send.

  101069 S Turtle Creek Road.

  Okay, on my way. Send.

  “Did you hear anything I just said?” Carrie asked. “Is that him?”

  “Uuuuh, I have to go. Nothing’s wrong. Everything is great,” she rambled, collecting her gym bag from beside her treadmill.

  “You barely did any cardio. Wait! Are you leaving for a booty call?” Carrie called after her, loud enough for everyone in the entire cardio section of the gym to hear, even over their dang headphones.

  “Carrie!” she admonished, speed-walking toward the exit.

  “Because that would count as cardio!”

  Leanna hit the parking lot asphalt at a dead run, hopped into her SUV, and zoomed away. She knew where Turtle Creek Road was, just not that specific address, but the cloud of smoke would get her the rest of the way.

  Seven minutes later, when she turned onto the driveway of the property, she saw a trio of men standing near the burning pile of wood. Amos stood in the middle of them wearing a charcoal gray T-shirt and mud splattered jeans with scuffed work boots. His muscular back pressed against the thin fabric of his shirt as he stood splay-legged with his arms crossed. The man next to him was a giant and built like a tank, just like Amos. The other man was shorter but had even more muscles than the other two.

  Okay, how was this work crew not the talk of the town? They must live under a rock or something.

  Her car door squeaked as she opened it, and Amos twisted slightly. He was chewing on his thumbnail with a troubled look in his eyes. The other two men turned and looked very confused.

  “Is Trev okay?” she asked, because some questions needed to come first.

  “Hi, Leanna!” the little boy called from where he was motoring toward the men from a giant blue cooler in the side yard. He had a huge tool belt on, the belt barely hanging onto his slim hips, and in his hand was a…was that?...

  “Are you drinking a beer?” Leanna demanded.

  “What’s a beer?” he asked as he made it to Amos.

  “Uuuuh, that’s not for him. That’s for…” Amos looked at one of his friends. “Divar.” He shoved the beer at his chest, and the barrel-framed man took it with a frown.

  “Boy, you were supposed to bring three,” the man said in a deep, gritty voice as he popped the top.

  “It’s eight in the morning,” Amos admonished the man.

  “You were the one who suggested cracking open the cooler.”

  “I’m bringing them one at a time,” Trev said proudly, his chest puffed out.

  “Busted,” she said with a laugh. She stuck out her hand to the tall quiet man who had been studying her. “I’m Leanna.”

  “I’m Nuke,” the man said, slipping a strong grip around her hand for a shake. He slid a quick side-glance to Amos, and then back to Leanna and asked, “Is Trev yours?”

  Amos’s face was completely unreadable. Pursed lips, wide eyes, frozen in place, and what was happening? His crew didn’t know about Trev?

  “No.” But when she gave her attention to Trev, he was looking at his sneakers. “But he’s special to me.”

  “I’m gonna go get more drinks. Amos said it’s important to always finish my jobs.” Trev turned and sauntered off, head still down.

  Trying her best to recover, she pointed to the burning pile and said, “There’s a fire.”

  “Yeah,” Divar said. “This dumbshit gave the kid matches and told him to go figure out how to light them.” He took a drink of his eight-a.m. beer.

  “I told him to figure out how to light them over there, in that mud puddle. Not on a new load of dry lumber. I played with matches when I was a kid, and I turned out fine. Are you wearing yoga pants?”

  “I came from the gym.”

  Amos dragged his eyes down her curves and back up. “I like yoga pants a lot.”

  Leanna tried not to smile. She really did, because this wasn’t funny at all—what with the burning lumber and a beer-fetching six-year-old—but she couldn’t help herself. Amos was a mess. A hilarious mess.

  Amos grabbed her hand and pulled her off to the side, lowered his voice. “Look, I’m really bad at this, clearly, and you said you had the day off, and I was wondering if you could help. I will reward you.”

  “I don’t need payment, Amos. I already told you—”

  “No, I mean I could take yo
u out.”

  She got trapped in the earnestness of his gold eyes.

  He cleared his throat and lowered his voice even more. “It’s just I like talking to you. And I’m not supposed to, but I do, and that’s just the way it is. So there. There it is.”

  “Why aren’t you supposed to like talking to me?”

  He ran his hand down his whiskers and looked over at the two men in his crew, who were over by the two-story home using strings to plot out where the deck edges would be. He inhaled deeply, and told her, “I’m different than you. And I’m not supposed to like you.”

  “Why not?”

  Amos shook his head, denying her an answer. Instead, he asked, “What kind of food is your favorite?”

  Aaah, another half-story. He liked her but he wasn’t supposed to. “If you have a girlfriend, please just tell me now,” she whispered, unable to meet his eyes.

  “What? No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I haven’t dated anyone in three years. There’s no other girl, I just…” He linked his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky. “I just need something to be simple right now.”

  Leanna nodded once. Why did she feel so stung? At least he was being honest. He needed simple. It was fine.

  “What kind of food?” he asked again.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she murmured. “I really don’t need payment. I would’ve been alone running errands today anyway. Trev is fun to be around.” She turned and made her way to where the little boy had disappeared around the corner.

  ****

  Shhhhit.

  Leanna looked hot walking away in those skin-tight yoga pants, but he didn’t like how she’d shut down on him. He wasn’t good at this. His life was supposed to be wake up, work all day, pray Nuke didn’t eat anyone, come home, sleep, repeat. And what was he doing instead? Denying the CPS meeting so he could keep the kid a little longer and find a better home for him, like he had time for that, and chasing a woman he had no right to chase.

  “Who are they?” Nuke asked from right behind him.

  Amos hunched and skittered away. “Goshdangit, Nuke! Make a freaking noise or something when you approach.” Amos swatted at the back of his neck to tame the fine hairs that had electrified at finding a dragon shifter behind him.

  “I broke three twigs walking over here, and said your name twice.”

  “Oh.”

  “Is that human your lady?”

  “No. Nope. No, no, nopity, nopers. I’m minding the rules.”

  Nuke looked at him like Amos was a fire ant on his picnic lunch. “What rules?”

  “The kind where I can’t date a human.”

  “Why can’t you date a human?”

  “I’m not having this discussion right now, Nuke. I have to go pick up another load of lumber.” Amos trudged through the mud toward his truck, but Nuke climbed into the passenger’s seat. Stupid dragon was annoyingly fast.

  “Where are you going?” Amos demanded.

  “With you. To talk about why you have been acting like a psycho for two straight days, avoiding me, skipping out on the Crew dinner last night, and why you have a random kid and lady hanging around. Let’s go.” Nuke flickered his fingers at the steering wheel. “Drive.”

  “You’re not the boss of me, and I’m not talking to you about this.”

  “Technically I am the boss of you, and also, you’re the one who is always preaching about how we are best friends—”

  “As a joke! And mostly to piss you off. You always sigh after I call you a friend and every time you roll your eyes, it makes me happy.”

  Nuke dropped his chin to his chest and stared out the front window. “Speak.”

  “I’m not a dog.”

  “Amos!” he bellowed. “Trina said I need to try harder to be a better friend and I’m trying so if you don’t tell me about your feelings, I will fucking eat you right here and right now.”

  The terrifying snarl that rattled the truck said Nuke was serious, and since Amos felt like surviving today, he gritted his teeth and then spilled it. “I’m not supposed to date humans because they don’t understand our ways. And I don’t know, it’ll probably dilute the bloodlines or something. Even if I did stay with her, what am I going to tell her? Hey, I turn into a bald eagle, wanna bang? She’s going to call the cops or the news or something, because humans are scared of the things they don’t understand. Even if she was okay with all of the C Team shit that goes on in our Crew, no human needs to be around the shitshow that is our trailer park anyway, and I don’t even know how to make a woman happy. And she…” He gestured to Leanna, who was sitting on a big tree stump talking to Trev while he showed her all the nails in his tool belt. “…deserves to be happy.”

  “And the kid?”

  “His mom assumed he’s my kid after he spouted feathers, but he’s not mine. He’s a crow. And now I need to find a home for him, and I don’t know how to do any of this.”

  Nuke was quiet and still. The dragon shifter didn’t even blink. Was he breathing? Amos didn’t see his chest rising and falling. He went to poke him in the shoulder, and Nuke turned his head toward Amos so fast, his face blurred.

  “Aaah!” Amos yelped, flinching back.

  “Trinity Bane is a human. So is Gwen Bane. So is Krome’s mate, Cora.”

  “What does that have to do with anything I just told you?”

  “They’re all human and seem just fine in our Crew. Gwen is pregnant with Bane cubs. I haven’t heard them whining about the bloodlines being diluted. A human will have a shifter for you, and he will be full eagle. It’s not like he’ll shift with wings and two human legs hanging down while he flies.”

  Amos nearly gagged imagining it.

  “Women are easy to keep happy. You fuck them well, give them compliments, make sure they are fed, and when they say they need to talk about their feelings, you don’t go to sleep while they are talking. When they get in a bad mood, ask what’s wrong and if you fuck up, apologize and mean it. And buy them tacos. Get extra green sauce.”

  Huh. The overgrown lizard was apparently doing just fine with his mate, Trina.

  “Trinity has a crow boy. Her son is about Trev’s age. Krome is a crow, and Bron and Ren are a crow pair. I don’t know much about Logan and Tory, but they are a crow couple.”

  “And?”

  Nuke canted his head. “And that would be a good place to start looking for a home for Trev.”

  Amos cracked his knuckles and chewed on the side of his lip as he watched Trev and Leanna. “Everyone in our crew is in danger.” There. There it was. There was the big fear that had reared its ugly head the second he started liking Leanna and the kid.

  “The crows?” Nuke asked. “They won’t attack. At least not now. Not with me around.” He gave a feral smile. “For the next couple generations, the Murders will remember all their friends I ate.”

  “Gross. Okay, and what if you lose control when you have to change? The cold slows the dragon down, but even on a freezing day, the dragon can torch the trailer park, and everyone in it. Everyone in our crew is in danger from you, Nuke.”

  “And you’re scared to put a human and a crow boy in my path?” Nuke asked softly.

  “Yes,” Amos admitted.

  “I think that means you care for them.” Nuke arched his eyebrow up. “We are friends, Amos. If you care for them, then so does the dragon.” And with that, he slid from the truck and shut the door behind him.

  Amos had never been so shocked in all his life.

  When he recovered enough to move again, he rolled down his window and called out to Leanna. “Hop in the truck.”

  She stood and lead Trev to him. “Why?” she asked as she approached.

  “Because I need to get more lumber, and I could use you and Trev’s help.”

  But that was another half-story.

  He was going to stop at a food truck he knew and get Leanna tacos with extra green sauce, because a dragon once said it would make a woman happy.

  Chapter
Eight

  “It’s your day off work,” Amos told her. “And I’ve made you work most of it.”

  She pulled the board he’d just marked a measurement onto and dragged it over to Nuke, who was making the cuts on a big saw. Trev was doing the same with Divar on the other side. They had a rhythm now, but sometimes she got jammed up because she couldn’t quite believe Trev was as strong as he was. The boy didn’t struggle under the weight of the long boards at all. Maybe she was just weak. He didn’t even drag the back end in the dirt like she had to do sometimes. He just picked it up, and took it to Nuke at the saw, like it wasn’t a problem for him. It was the strangest thing.

  “I don’t mind at all. This has actually been the most fun day off I’ve had in a long time.” She waited for Nuke to cut her piece and then dragged it back to Amos, who had already marked off a measurement on the next one. She was getting an arm workout today, but it was better than measuring precise cuts. She was intimidated at the thought of ruining more lumber.

  “I mean, I got food truck tacos for lunch, and I’ve learned so much,” she said, dragging the next one to Nuke. “I saw the behind the scenes at the lumber yard, and you know? I’ve lived here my whole life and drove past that place a million times, and never went past the front gates. It’s incredible what they have going on there.”

  “You like wood?” Amos asked innocently. She was catching onto him though. The wicked glint in his eyes always appeared around a naughty joke.

  “Only big wood,” she said softly to herself as the deafening saw sounded. An echoing laugh belted from Amos, and she frowned at his back. “Did you just hear me?”

  He twisted around, still smiling. “Sure did. I have good hearing.”

  “Except when I tell him to be on time to his estimate appointments,” Nuke pointed out.

  “Or on Sundays,” Divar offered, handing another plank to Trev. “I banged on his door for ten minutes the other day because my damn truck broke down, and guess who decided not to come out of his trailer?”

  “You live in the same trailer park?” Leanna asked.