“I’m getting audited by the IRS, my girlfriend left me, and now I’m finding out she cheated on me,” Zane breathed out. “And you want me to calm down?”
“It’s not going to help things if you let your dragon out,” Drake said, keeping his voice neutral.
Zane sighed, and took several deep breaths to try to calm down. “This day is shit. Absolute shit,” he said.
“I know,” Drake said. “I’m sorry. Do you want to go to the Hometown Bar later and grab some beers?”
Zane shook his head no. “Thanks for the offer. But I don’t feel like being around people right now. I think I’m going to go for a long run on the treadmill and then head home. Thanks for lifting weights with me.”
“Anytime,” Drake said with a nod, taking his cue to leave. Zane was thankful that Drake didn’t try to push the issue, or to point out that he hadn’t actually lifted that many weights with Zane. Drake had a good sense of when people needed space, and Zane definitely needed some space right now.
As soon as Drake had disappeared out the front door of the gym with a small wave, Zane climbed onto one of the treadmills. He turned the speed up as high as it would go, and sprinted to keep up with the speeding belt. He saw a few people giving him funny looks out of the corners of their eyes, but he ignored it and kept on going. Sweat poured from his face, dripping down and splashing onto the treadmill. But Zane ignored it. He kept running, faster and faster, trying to outrun the angry dragon within him.
He was thankful, now, that he had never told Sasha that he was a dragon shifter. He had planned to reveal that side of himself to her soon. He figured he should let her know who he was before he proposed to her. And he’d thought he could trust her. He’d thought they were on the same team. She had seemed to genuinely care for him. So what had happened? Was he really that bad of a character judge?
Zane tried to push away thoughts of her. She tried to push away the image of her face that haunted his mind’s eye. But he couldn’t manage to completely shut it out. When he finally ran out of steam and breathlessly stepped off the treadmill, he was feeling even more despondent than before. He made his way out to his car feeling like his world was falling apart. What was the point of trying to be honorable, and loyal, when people just stabbed you in the back, anyway? Were there really any honest people left in the world? Would he ever be able to trust a woman again?
Zane let out a sigh as he walked toward his truck, then frowned when he saw something tucked under his windshield wiper.
“I swear to god, I am not in the mood for stupid advertising bullshit today,” he muttered under his breath as he reached for the paper. That’s when he realized that there was something else pinned underneath the paper. It was a small Ziploc bag filled with sugar cookies. Zane frowned in confusion and opened the bag. The sweet, sugary smell of freshly baked cookies greeted his nostrils, and his mouth instantly started watering. Zane turned the paper to see what was written on it. In neat script, the note said: A little something to brighten up your day. Enjoy this random act of kindness. The author of the note had drawn a few smiley faces along the bottom of the note, but that was it. No indication of who had written the note or made the cookies.
Zane looked warily around. Was this some kind of trick? What kind of person would just leave homemade cookies on someone’s windshield? Zane opened the cookie bag again and breathed in deeply, using his dragon nose to smell whether the cookies contained any suspicious ingredients. He didn’t smell any poison, or anything else that might be worrisome. It appeared that these cookies really were just left here out of the goodness of someone’s heart. Zane looked around again, and breathed in deeply, trying to smell whether anyone unusual was around. But everything smelled the same as normal.
Zane hopped into the driver’s seat of his truck with the note and the bag of cookies. He looked around once more, but still saw no one. Tentatively, he took a bite. The cookie was perfection. He chewed slowly, savoring the taste in his mouth. He hadn’t had freshly baked cookies in a long time, and this cookie was one of the best he’d ever had. He took another bite, and couldn’t hold back a small smile.
He was angry. He was hurting. But he was also thankful for this small reminder that there was some good in the world.
“Thank you, kindness angel, whoever you are,” he whispered into the lonely cab of his truck. “I needed this cookie today.”
Zane fired up his truck, and started heading for home. He wasn’t sure yet how he was going to handle the days ahead, but, for now, he was just going to eat this cookie one bite at a time.
Chapter Three
After quickly running through the parking lot of the gym and putting cookies and a note on every car there, Molly had hidden behind a tall hedge of bushes. Every now and then, she peered out, trying to see whether anyone had come out of the gym yet. In retrospect, she probably should have chosen a parking lot somewhere other than a gym. She hadn’t thought about the fact that people who were working out might be trying to lose weight, and they might not want cookies. She had only been looking for a parking lot with a small enough number of cars so that she had enough cookies for each car.
It was too late to change her mind now. There was no way she was going to go back and remove all of the cookies. As it was, she’d almost run into Drake Wilson when she first started putting cookies on the cars. He’d come jogging out of the building, and Molly had hidden behind a large black sedan until he left. The Wilson boys scared her a little bit. They were all so tall and strong. Molly figured they must spend quite a bit of time at the gym, so it wasn’t surprising to see them here.
Molly waited more than thirty minutes before the gym’s front door opened again. She had wanted to see people’s reactions to her random acts of kindness, but she was beginning to think maybe she should just go and try again another day. She was worried that if someone noticed her hiding there in the bushes, they would get suspicious and ask her what she was doing. But her curiosity was getting the better of her, and, besides, she had nothing better to do right now. If she went home, she would probably end up moping in front of the television again.
The person who had just left the gym was also one of the Wilson brothers—Zane. Molly watched as he walked toward his truck, and she cowered down a little further at the expression on his face. He was angry. His scowl was etched deeply into his features right now, and when he saw the paper on his windshield he looked even angrier. Molly bit her lower lip nervously. This wasn’t exactly how she had envisioned her little project going. But Zane’s face softened from anger to confusion as saw the bag of cookies that had been tucked away below the paper. He looked at the cookies, sniffed them, then looked around the parking lot, clearly trying to see who had left the treats on his car. Molly scrunched down as low as she possibly could. He was pretty far away, and she was pretty well hidden. He shouldn’t be able to see her behind the bushes, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
After a few moments of looking around, Zane climbed into his truck. Molly felt a little pang of disappointment. That was it? She had hoped for a little bit more of an enthusiastic reaction. Zane hadn’t seemed too excited about the cookies. Maybe this whole project was a little silly. But then, just when Molly had convinced herself that the idea of giving cookies out at random was pointless, she saw Zane lifting one of the cookies to his mouth. He took a bite, then nibbled slowly. Moments later, he smiled.
When he did, his whole face lit up, and Molly felt her heart warming in her chest. Zane Wilson was a handsome man, but he was even more handsome when he smiled. His whole face seemed to light up, and he stood even taller. His hair was dark and his eyes were piercing. Even from here he took her breath away, with his broad shoulders and muscular build. Molly had always thought he was the best looking of the Wilson boys.
She watched him continue to eat the cookie slowly and thoughtfully. His face had a weary expression on it now, as though he was resigned to some sort of unpleasant fate. But at least it looked better than the an
ger that had been on his face previously. After he finished the cookie, he drove away. Molly sat there for a long time, smiling as she remembered the smile that had crossed Zane’s face. Eventually, more people from the gym came out to their cars. They all reacted with smiles and chuckles as they saw the note and cookies, and Molly’s own smile deepened as she watched them. She felt better already. Giving to others really did make you feel better yourself.
Eventually, Molly started to make her way home. She had a three mile walk, but the March air was pleasant, and her feet felt light with happiness as she walked. Her financial worries still hung heavy over her mind, but today had been a nice distraction from them. She replayed in her mind all the faces she had seen smiling today when they discovered her cookies. By far, Zane’s face had shown the biggest transformation. Molly frowned. Something had been bothering him. Her cookies had helped, but he had still been troubled when he left. Molly’s tender heart wanted to reach out to him and see how she could help, but she pushed the urge away.
She didn’t know Zane very well, and he would probably be completely creeped out by her if she randomly asked him what was wrong. There wasn’t likely to be much she could do to help, anyway. Except…she could keep up her random acts of kindness project. She could brighten his day, and the days of others in Persimmon Springs. It was a good way to escape from the despair she felt over her own current situation. She might live on the fringes of society here in Persimmon Springs, with others viewing her as weird and a bit eccentric. But she had seen today that people at least reacted well to her efforts when they didn’t know it was her.
Molly smiled. She would keep spreading kindness while she figured out what the heck she wanted to do with her life.
* * *
Zane sighed as he pulled into the parking lot of the Hometown Bar. He’d been avoiding going out as much as possible since Sasha broke up with him. He’d heard from numerous sources now that she’d been seen around town with her new guy. Apparently the man was some sort of investment banker who worked in Dallas. Zane had heard Sasha was planning to move to Dallas, and that was just fine with him. If he never had to see her again, this break up would be that much easier. His heart was shattered into thousands of pieces. The thought of seeing her smiling and happy with someone else shook him to his core. He didn’t think he could bear it.
This was part of the reason he had tried to hide out at home. He’d finished up his work as quickly as possible each day, then driven home and stayed there until he had to get up and go work on another electrical job the next day. He’d begged off every invitation to go out, claiming that he had to get things organized for the IRS audit. This was only partially true. He did have a lot of organizing to do, but once he got started on it, the job wasn’t as bad as he’d feared it might be. He could have gone out a lot more, but it was easier to hide out at home, away from the possibility of seeing Sasha.
His brothers, Theo and Drake, had finally called him out on his reclusive ways. They knew him well, and they knew he was just avoiding being in public because of Sasha. They promised him that Sasha wouldn’t show up at Hometown Bar—apparently the owner of the bar, Cassie, who was the wife of Theo’s best friend, had personally told Sasha that she wasn’t welcome there anymore. Sasha had thrown a fit about it, telling Cassie that it was illegal to prohibit her from being in a place that was otherwise open to the public. Zane wasn’t sure whether or not Sasha’s legal threat was true, but, in any event, Sasha had not been back. Theo said he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be, either.
So, reluctantly, Zane finally agreed to go out. He’d thought at first that maybe his brothers were right. Maybe getting out and about would make him feel better. But sitting in the parking lot of the bar, he just wasn’t sure if he was ready for this. He wasn’t sure that he was ready to go into a bar and drink beers and act like life went on. Because, right now, life felt awful. Zane was teetering on the edge of depression, but he didn’t know how to pull himself back from the edge.
Strangely enough, he found himself encouraged by the random notes of kindness that kept showing up on his truck. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who was noticing them. The notes, often accompanied by homemade cookies, had become a daily occurrence in Persimmon Springs. The local newspaper, the Persimmon Springs Flame, had even run a special on the notes. People debated who was leaving the notes, and why. Many had hidden out in parking lots, trying to catch the secretive giver. But whoever the person was, he or she was good at hiding. Some had joked that the giver could become invisible at will.
Zane wasn’t a believer in magic, but he was curious who was running around town leaving cookies and notes for everyone. The notes he received were always so thoughtful. They were funny but uplifting. Often, the notes included an inspirational quote. Zane found himself filling with anticipation anytime he had to park his truck somewhere in town. He had begun looking forward to the notes, and hoping that the next one would be waiting for him when he returned.
He’d begun to wonder who had left the notes, too. But he didn’t have time to watch parking lots. Besides, that method hadn’t proved successful for anyone else. As Zane pulled into a parking spot at the bar, though, he had another idea. It was, perhaps, a long shot, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
With a faint smile, he opened the glove box in his truck and pulled out a small pad of paper he kept in there. He fished around until he found a pen, and then, he wrote a simple Who are you? onto a sheet of paper. He tore the sheet of paper off, then stuck it under one of his windshield wipers.
It was a long shot, true. And he didn’t expect the note writer to actually reveal who they were outright. But maybe, just maybe, they would give him some sort of clue. Zane’s smile widened a bit. He wasn’t looking forward to being at the bar tonight, but now he was really looking forward to coming out to his truck later. Odds were good the note writer would strike tonight. The parking lot at the bar would be full of cars, and the note writer had been favoring full parking lots lately.
Zane locked his truck and headed into the bar. He waved to Theo and Drake, who were already seated at their usual table in the back corner of the bar. No doubt, Theo’s best friend Max would be stopping by soon, too. Max just had to drop little Nora off at her babysitter’s house before coming by. Zane took a deep breath and tried to relax. Tonight was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be a way to blow off steam. He had to get himself together enough to at least not be a total buzz kill.
“Hey guys,” Zane said, sliding into the seat next to Drake. “How’s it going?”
“Good, good,” Theo said. “We already ordered the first round of beers. Yours is coming. How are you holding up?”
The question was purposefully open-ended. Theo was giving Zane an invitation to go as deep or as shallow as he wanted to with his response. Zane chose shallow. He wasn’t ready to open up just yet. Maybe after a few beers.
“I’m fine,” Zane said. “Who wants to order some wings?”
Not long after, Max showed up. It had been a while since they’d all been together for a guys' night, and Zane had to admit it was nice to see everyone. As the night went on, no one pushed him to talk about Sasha, and he gradually relaxed. It did feel good to get out of the house for a bit. The group quickly ate through their appetizers, then ordered some dinner. Just after their food had arrived, Zane noticed Max frowning in the direction of the door. Zane turned around, curious why Max looked troubled. But he didn’t see anything terribly unusual. Molly Graham had just walked in. The girl was eccentric, but harmless as far as Zane could tell. Most people in town tolerated her and were friendly to her, at least to her face.
“Are you frowning at Molly?” Zane asked.
Max nodded. “She’s been coming in here, begging Cassie to let her do magic shows for tips on weekend nights. Cassie isn’t sure whether to let her or not.”
“What’s the harm in it?” Zane asked. “Drunk people would probably love a magic show. And it’s not like it would cost Cassie any
thing. Hell, it might even keep people in the bar longer, which would mean more beer sales.”
“Yeah,” Max said. “I tend to agree with you. But Cassie’s been a little worried because some of the townspeople think Molly is too different, and too eccentric. Cassie has a big heart, you know. She’s worried that drunk people will make fun of Molly, and she doesn’t want to put Molly in that position. But Molly is awfully determined—she’s been up here every night to ask. I think she is low on money. I heard she hasn’t been able to book many gigs up in Dallas lately.”
“Cassie should just let her,” Drake said. “Molly’s a grown woman. If people want to make fun of her, she can figure out on her own how to handle it.”
Zane looked over at Molly again. She was talking to Cassie, gesturing excitedly with her arms while Cassie nodded thoughtfully. Zane squinted, a bit amused by Molly’s colorful outfit. A lot of people rolled their eyes at Molly’s fashion choices, but Zane had always admired her spunk. She knew what she liked, and she went with it. Zane could appreciate that. Right now, he was also appreciating how pretty Molly was. He had never noticed it before, but here, in the soft light of the bar, Molly’s face looked lovely. Her high cheekbones were pink with excitement, and her skin seemed to glow. Her long red curls bounced wildly as she turned her head this way and that. Zane smiled at the way her green eyes widened every few moments. She had a lot of energy, that was certain. And her beauty was unconventional, but it was undeniable.
Zane sighed and turned back around in the booth, returning his attention to his beer. Not that he was interested in dating her. Or in dating anyone, really. He needed time to recover from the whole ordeal with Sasha before he could even think about opening his heart again. He absentmindedly listened to his brothers and Max chatting, but he couldn’t get into their conversation about the latest stats in major league baseball. He didn’t have the energy right now to be excited about sports. After a while, though, Theo noticed his silence and kicked him.
Lone Star Magic (Shifters in the Heart of Texas Book 3) Page 2