“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No, no. Sebastian and I were just doing a little fencing. Are you still in the hospital? Home? What’s going on? Do you need me to pick you up?”
“Slow down. I’m not at the hospital anymore, so I don’t need you to pick me up.”
“You’re home? That’s good.”
“No, not home.” Jenna took a breath. “I’m at Titus Merrow’s. And will be until this spell is removed.”
“Say what now?”
“The spell is multilayered and has a binding aspect. If Titus and I get more than thirty yards away from each other, we end up in tremendous pain. Like the pain I was in when you pulled out of the parking lot.”
“A spell caused that? That’s not good. It was nice of him to offer up his house. Yours would have been kind of small for all that man.” Tessa snickered.
Jenna rolled her eyes. “Comments like that don’t help.”
“How’s the love spell part going?”
“It’s…going.”
“That’s not really an answer. Are you attracted to him? Outside of the spell, I mean. I know he gets on your nerves, but he’s also your kind of guy.”
“Back up. Why would you think he’s my kind of guy?”
“First of all, Real American Firemen is your favorite reality TV show.”
“It’s Real American Firefighters, and I don’t see what that has to do with any of this.” So what if she’d downloaded every episode and watched each one multiple times?
“Did you get knocked on the head too?” Tessa laughed. “Come on! He’s handsome, outdoorsy, good with his hands. He’s a first responder, like you, so you have all that in common. He comes from a strong family. He’s a supernatural like us. What’s not to like?”
“You said it yourself. He gets on my nerves.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he argues with everything I say.”
“So you said you wanted to stay at your house, and he refused?”
“I don’t mean that. I mean, like, whenever we’ve had to work together. The race, for example.” Except that he hadn’t argued with her on how to handle the gas leak.
“I think you’re being obstinate. You are pretty stubborn.”
Jenna sat up. “Whose side are you on?”
Tessa laughed. “The side of love.”
“Oh, shut up. It’s not happening.”
Tessa let out a frustrated sigh. “I know you had your heart broken, but—”
Jenna stiffened. “This conversation is over. You know where I am and why I’m not home or at work. That’s all I really called to tell you.”
“Jenna, you have to know that Titus is not Eric.”
Just the mention of that name made Jenna’s vision go red around the edges. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Well, you should. You’re obviously not over what he did to you.”
Jenna’s jaw went so tight she swore she heard something pop. “You know what he did to me. How he betrayed me. And with…her. That’s not something that just goes away.”
“I know, but—oh, I think I know now why you don’t like Titus.”
Jenna shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about—”
“Yep, it all makes sense. It’s because he has a broken engagement in his past, too, isn’t it?”
A shudder went through Jenna, and painful memories washed over her, leaving her as numb and hurt as if they’d just happened yesterday. “Please,” she whispered. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay,” Tessa said, her voice softened by sympathy. “I’m sorry. But just know that there are good men out there. Sebastian is proof of that. And a good man can erase the damage of a bad one.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” But Jenna’s head was elsewhere. Lost in the past and the pain that had been dealt to her. “I need to go.”
“Call if you need anything.”
“I will.” Jenna hung up and tossed the phone on the bed, then stood and walked to the window. The forest beyond was deep and inviting. A run sounded pretty good right now. Maybe it would clear Eric from her head.
At least temporarily. Because she wasn’t sure anything could remove him forever. Not after his lies and the way he’d humiliated her. Any man who could betray the woman he supposedly loved was not the kind of man she could ever be interested in.
And that included Titus. She didn’t know the details of his past, just that he’d had a fiancée and that the relationship had dissolved. It was possible the woman had left him, she knew that, but it was a rare story that didn’t have two sides.
So much as she might truly be attracted to him, she refused to allow herself to fall for another man who would break her heart.
She’d be celibate the rest of her life before that happened.
She sighed and tipped her head back. She hadn’t let Eric into her head in a long time. Not like this. She’d really thought she was over him, but Tessa was right. Jenna was lumping Titus into the same category as her ex because of his past. She was allowing the results of her broken engagement to Eric to influence her perception of Titus.
It wasn’t a fair thing to do. But protecting her heart was more important. Maybe she was protecting her pride a little too. She never again wanted to be as vulnerable as she had been with Eric. That’s what love did. Made you vulnerable. And when love went wrong, it left you humiliated. She didn’t need it.
She had her job. Her family. Her friends.
She didn’t need love to be happy. Was she happy? What did that mean, anyway?
She was…content. And that was fine. That was safe.
But just thinking that way made her die a little inside. She was a valkyrie. Safe shouldn’t be what she settled for.
And yet the pain of Eric’s betrayal still lingered, making her accept safe as good enough.
Eric hadn’t just broken her heart. He’d broken her spirit.
There was nothing okay about that.
After a quick call to Alice, Titus took a long, hot shower, then put on jeans and a Howler’s T-shirt and went barefoot onto the back deck to fire up the grill. He stretched, enjoying the sunshine and breezes of the early summer evening. The fresh, earthy scent of the forest behind his house filled the air, along with the subtle buzz of insects.
Life was good, other than the current crazy spells he was under. And even then, there were worse people to be stuck in those spells with. For all her bluster and attitude, Jenna was beautiful and smart and never dull.
There were definitely worse choices.
He leaned on the railing and inhaled, filling his lungs with the clean air. Nocturne Falls was a great place to live. Especially up here in the hills. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, really.
Tonight’s run would be new and different with Jenna along. He hoped she would be able to enjoy herself. He needed this run. Needed to let his wolf burn off some energy.
He cranked up the grill, then went back inside to season the steaks. Bridget might wonder where he was when he didn’t show up at Howler’s, but then again, she knew what had happened today. She might just figure he went home to rest.
He sent her a quick text anyway. Eating at home tonight. Then he put his phone away and got to work on the steaks, sprinkling them with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Jenna walked in wearing dragon-scale-print leggings and an NFSD T-shirt. Her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head, nothing like the perfect bun she wore for work. This was casual Jenna. Not a side of her he’d seen before.
He approved very much. “Hey.”
“Hey. You have the grill going?”
“I do.” He studied her. She looked…defeated somehow. Was the spell getting to her? “I put salt and pepper on the steaks. You good with that?”
“Yep. That’s how I do them at home. Simple.” She took a seat at the island, her lips pursed like she was struggling to find words. After a moment, she said, “Can we move past what happened e
arlier? Maybe start over and just be civil? And agree to keep it that way?”
He got out plates and utensils. They weren’t going to need them for a while, but the activity kept him busy so he wouldn’t have to look at her. “Sure. That’s fine with me.”
“Thank you. I need to say, too, that I mean it about keeping it civil. No matter what this spell does, I don’t plan on giving in. It’s not you. It’s me.”
He laughed without much humor as he put the plates and utensils on the counter. “That line usually comes at the end of a relationship, not the beginning.”
“Well, I’d like our relationship to stay the same.”
He finally turned to face her. “I wouldn’t. Our relationship is…antagonistic. You said ‘civil.’ That’d be better than what we have now, so if that’s what you really mean, then let’s do that. I’d prefer it. We need to be able to work together.”
“I know. The race.”
“Also to figure out who set that bomb.” He hadn’t said a word about the creepy, shadow figure he’d seen, mostly because he was pretty certain it had been a hallucination. Also because he hadn’t wanted to look like an idiot for telling her about something that had just been a figment of his imagination.
“No disrespect, but that’s really more my job.”
“I realize that, and I’m not looking to step on your toes. But I’m the only other eyewitness. And I’m trained to be observant. I can help, you know.”
She nodded. “I know. I suppose that would be all right.”
“I won’t get in the way of your investigation.”
She shrugged. “Not sure how much investigation I’ll be doing from your office at the fire station. Not saying I won’t work on it as much as I can, just that not being able to go into the field makes it harder.”
“I’m not always at my desk, you know. I’m the chief. I can go where I need to. And you need to investigate, so we’ll make that happen.”
“Except you said you have the inspector coming this week.”
“I do, and I’ll need to be there for his visit, but I’ll be able to find a few hours here and there whenever you need to get out. There may be one day I can’t leave, but it won’t be the entire week.”
“Okay. I really would like to move forward on this investigation.”
“I’d like you to as well.” He leaned on the counter. “Any idea who might have done this?”
“Not a clue. I talked to Birdie. She said they didn’t find any useful evidence at the scene. And Pandora doesn’t have anyone in her past she thinks would do something like this. Even the homeowners seem clean. I guess I need to see if Alice has turned up anything new.”
“She hasn’t. I called before I took my shower.”
Jenna huffed out a breath. “That’s disappointing.”
“It is.” He chose his next words carefully. She needed to know about what he’d seen, even if it was just a hallucination. “Did you see anything weird up in the attic? Besides the box with the bomb in it. Maybe right before you passed out.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Like what?”
He shook his head. “Probably just a hallucination brought on by the stuff in the bomb, but I thought I saw movement in the shadows.”
Her head came up a little. “You mean you think whoever set the bomb was still there?”
“Not exactly. Well, maybe. I don’t know. It literally seemed like the shadows moving.”
She didn’t answer for a second. Maybe she was trying to remember. “I didn’t see anything like that.”
He wanted to tell her that it had reached for her. That his snarl had stopped it. But he didn’t know if the memory was real or the wild imaginings of his bespelled brain, so he let it go. “Like I said, probably just a hallucination.”
“Probably. Pentothal can cause them, you know.”
He glanced toward the deck. Twilight’s purple cast was a little way off yet. “Grill has got to be hot enough by now. You should come outside with me. The air is really nice this time of night.”
“Sure.” She got to her feet.
He picked up the platter of steaks and led the way, opening the slider wide. He went straight for the grill, lifted the lid, and laid the steaks on the rack. They sizzled and gave off the most tantalizing aroma as he turned the heat back.
When he looked for Jenna, she was standing a few feet away at the railing, eyes closed, looking very much like she was enjoying the evening air.
She was so pretty, it was impossible not to stare. “Nice, isn’t it?”
She looked at him, her expression much more serene than it had been in the house. “It’s amazing. You’re lucky to live here.”
“I think that every day.” He stayed where he was, despite the urge to join her. “Do you spend much time at your sister’s?”
“No.” Jenna stared out at the forest. “I work a lot. And I don’t want to intrude on her and Sebastian. I’d be a third wheel, you know?”
He nodded. “I do know. I feel that way with Hank and Ivy sometimes, although it’s a little different because of the kids. If Bridget and Birdie are there, then it’s not a big deal at all. But yeah, I get it.”
“I suppose you do.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “So, uh, you dating anyone?”
She looked at him as if a second nose had sprouted from his forehead. “No. And why are you asking me?”
“Just trying to make conversation. But also trying to figure out if there’s going to be an angry boyfriend pounding on my door, wanting to know what’s up.” And maybe to find out if he had competition.
“You don’t have to worry about that. What about you?”
He grinned. “Why? Want to know who you have to beat out?”
She rolled her eyes, but there was amusement there. “No. Just figure turnabout is fair play.”
“Nope. No girlfriend. No dates, really. Although Birdie is constantly trying to fix me up. Bridget gets in on it, too, sometimes.”
Jenna snorted softly. “I feel for you. Birdie is relentless.”
“That she is.” He came to stand at the railing but kept a few feet between them. “You know she’s probably already plotting on how to get us together.”
“I’m sure.” Jenna’s smile faded by half. “There’s no way Birdie’s behind this whole love spell, right? I mean, that would just be crazy.”
“No, she’d never do something that could potentially harm anyone.”
Jenna laughed. “Right. Even your aunt wouldn’t go that far.” She tipped her head. “Hey, you want me to call her and tell her it’s not going to happen between us? Get her off your back?”
“It won’t help.”
“It might.”
He raised a brow. “You’ve met Birdie, right?”
Jenna laughed, an incredibly sweet sound. “Yeah, okay, point taken.”
He went back to the grill to flip the steaks. “How do you like yours?”
“Medium is good. You probably like rare, huh?”
He gave her some side-eye. “I order medium rare.”
“I forgot your sister cooks all your meals.”
“Yes, so funny.” Steaks turned, he closed the lid. “Bridget doesn’t do the cooking at Howler’s, you know.”
“I know.” Jenna’s expression was all kinds of sly. “But I amuse myself.”
“Clearly.” He nodded at her. She was in bare feet like he was. Her toenails were the same electric blue as the underwear he couldn’t stop thinking about. “Is that what you’re wearing to run?”
“Yes. With sneakers. No good?”
“It’s fine. Just curious.”
“How often do you wolf out and race around the woods?”
“I do not wolf out. And I try for once a week. At least.”
“And on the full moon?”
“We run as a pack.” That was only a few days from now. They’d be able to be separated by then, wouldn’t they? Because the pack might not appreciate having a guest. Something he realize
d he might have to consider.
She ran her hand along the railing. “That must be nice. To have a pack.”
“Do valkyries have anything like that?”
“Not really. We tend to be a little more solitary. Not always, of course, but we’re generally all right with being alone. Doesn’t mean we don’t have friends or like people. In fact, an old friend of mine is supposed to be coming into town. Another valkyrie.” She jerked her thumb toward the house. “You want me to set the table?”
He pointed behind her to the little table for two on the deck. “I thought we could eat out here.”
“That would be nice. I’ll go get the plates.” She started into the house, then paused. “You want a Warhammer Stout?”
“I do, but maybe not before I run. After, definitely.”
“Okay. I’ll wait, too, then.” She went inside.
He smiled. If this was civil, it wasn’t bad. And it could only get better from here.
Being around Titus was getting harder. Being nice to him wasn’t helping with the love spell either. It kept lulling her into a state of thinking that they were friends, and that was going to get her into trouble. Friends could quickly turn into more, and more would be dangerous.
A lot of fun, for sure, but ultimately, heartbreaking. And she’d already told herself she wouldn’t get involved with another man who couldn’t keep a promise.
Oath breakers were not for her.
She took the plates and silverware back outside to the small table. It was wood and beautifully finished. She set everything down, looking at it more closely. “Did you make this?”
“Yes. And the chairs.”
“It’s really nice.” Such a useful little set. Why did he have to be so handy? And why did she have to find that so…sexy?
“Thanks. You want to bring me the plates? Steaks are ready.”
She picked the plates up, then stood there, looking at him. “Are we only having steak?”
He blinked as if her question took a moment to register. “I don’t like vegetables. If God meant us to eat vegetables, they’d grow out of the ground.”
“They do.”
He grinned. “It’s a joke, Blythe.”
She shook her head. “Did you bring the veggies from my crisper?”
The Werewolf Dates The Deputy (Nocturne Falls Book 12) Page 7