Tiger Lily

by May Dawson

  I pulled a face. I loved Blake, but I didn’t enjoy being compared to him.

  “I just love hearing you sing, Lily,” I said. So much so that I would do whatever it took.

  She froze, and I didn’t know how to read the look on her face.

  Then she nudged me back under the table, the light coming into her face as she smiled. Now she was pink-tinged Lily again. “Dare you. If you sing, I will too.”

  I’d do anything for her.

  “You’re on.”

  Surprise widened her eyes. She hadn’t expected me to call her bluff.

  I ruffled her hair as I got up to put my name on the karaoke list. “I’ve changed over the past few years while you’ve been away.”

  “Can you sing now?”

  “Nope,” I said. “Still tone deaf. But I’m a lot less easily embarrassed than I was as a nerdy kid. I’ve embraced my geekiness.”

  And most of all, I was far more determined now when I wanted something, far more willing to go after it…

  And I wanted to see Lily happy again, if only for a few minutes.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” she whispered when my name was called as I headed up toward the stage. I’d always been shy as a kid and she knew that.

  I wasn’t sure if she’d meant for me to hear that or not, so I pretended I hadn’t heard.

  Instead, I jumped on stage to claps and shouts from the audience. Silver Springs was a nice crowd—they treated everyone like a rock star.

  The music for Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” began to play. As I started to sing—badly—Lily covered her face with her hands, but I could see she was grinning behind her hands.

  And even though I could hear my voice was off-tune, I didn’t care. I found myself grinning back at her as I belted out the words about a small town girl who left town. She peeked out from between her hands, then dropped her hands to the knees of her jeans. I couldn’t stop staring at her, even as I caught glimpses through the lights of the other patrons of Vee, who began to sing along and clap, hoping to save me from myself.

  When I finally came off stage, it was her turn. She high-fived me on the way past.

  She walked across stage awkwardly, as if she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. She gripped the microphone tightly, and for a second, as she looked out at the crowd, her eyes went wide. I leaned forward, my heart racing just as much as it did when I was the one on the stage. Maybe even more.

  As the music started, the look on her face made me worry that she wasn’t going to sing at all. She looked scared for a second, as if she might drop the microphone and run.

  Then, just like I’d hoped, she came alive on that stage. She smiled out at the crowd before she sang Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” with the voice of an angel.

  No one tried to drown her out. Everyone cheered and clapped and whistled as she stepped off the stage. It was more than I’d even hoped for.

  She was grinning when she came off the stage. To my surprise, she didn’t take her seat, but stepped between my legs.

  She leaned down and kissed me, a soft tentative tease of her lips against mine.

  She started to pull away, as if she’d realized she’d startled me.

  I caught her hips, reeled her body against mine, and kissed her back. The soft, tender kiss turned heated as my tongue teased against her lips, nudging them apart, and her mouth opened for me. One of my hands slid through her silky curls, holding her head still as we traded heated kisses.

  The crowd around us clapped and roared, and it could’ve been for us or the next singer, but it didn’t matter. I’d always been shy, I hated the spotlight, but tonight…

  Tonight I was lost in Lily.

  15

  Lily

  “I don’t know what I was thinking,” I prattled on to Archer as he walked me home. “I get caught up in the music.”

  “Then I’m going to play music everywhere we go,” he said.

  I stopped dead on the sidewalk.

  He turned to me, thrusting his hands in his pockets as he gave me a rueful look. “I’m not good at talking to girls, Lily.”

  “You’re no Dylan,” I said, but that was a good thing, I liked Dylan, but he was intimidating. Archer was more approachable—when he wasn’t ignoring me. Archer pulled a face and I knew I’d just hurt him, even though I hadn’t meant to. “I don’t mean that—”

  He shook his head. “It’s fine.”

  It wasn’t fine, and I didn’t know how to make it better.

  “I’m not good at talking to anyone,” I said as the two of us started down the sidewalk again. “I don’t know why I’m like this.”

  He glanced at me sideways, as if he was debating what to say next. Finally he asked, “What happened in Scarborough?”

  I didn’t know how to sum up my four years of college and my year-and-a-half in Scarborough, from Brad to the job. So instead, I told him why I left. “You know, I never felt like I could grow up here in Silver Springs? I’d always be the same old Lily to everyone.”

  “What was wrong with that?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t want to talk about what was wrong with the same old Lily. “So I went away to college. Got a boyfriend. A crappy boyfriend. Got a job. That turned out to be crappy too.”

  “You can’t even trust him to leave your stuff alone.” Archer looked worried. “That’s not normal, Lily.”

  “It was a messy breakup,” I admitted, thinking of the wreckage I’d left behind. My cat self had one hell of an epic temper tantrum. Maybe I couldn’t even blame Brad for wrecking my stuff after what I had done.

  “What a dick,” Archer said, and he never swore, so it made me laugh out loud.

  “What have you been doing the last few years?” I asked. I had a feeling Lupine had told the guys what I was up to, just as I’d gotten updates on them from Lupine. They might make me crazy but I’d still been curious.

  “I went to college too,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Got a dual degree in Computer Programming and Business. I started a little side business along the way—you know how I used to mess around making apps.”

  “Oh yeah. Made any apps I might’ve heard of?”

  I was teasing, but his tone was mild and he didn’t meet my gaze when he said, “Maybe. You know Heart Portal?”

  “Get out,” I said, slapping his shoulder.

  He smiled, just a half-smile, but somehow when he looked up into my eyes, that smile beamed directly into my heart. “I’m serious.”

  “Every lonely-hearted paranormal on the planet is using Heart Portal,” I said, thinking of how many times I’d almost downloaded the app, but hadn’t, because I had Brad.

  But I’d still been lonely.

  He pulled a face. “Maybe not every one. I don’t use it—except to check for bugs.”

  “You’re lonely-hearted?” I asked, and then felt silly because that was my grandfather’s old-fashioned phrase. Before he could answer, I rushed on, “Well, Mr. Big Tech Guy, what are you doing back here in Silver Springs?”

  He shrugged. “Blake and Dylan always had a dream. Hot Wheels. So here I am.”

  The stereotypical image of a rich playboy reclining on a yacht, draped in beautiful, bikini-clad women, rose to my mind. “But you could be anywhere.”

  He turned to face me. “Yes, Lily. I could.”

  This was a suddenly confident version of Archer. The man who had acted so silly up on the stage. The man who faced me could be in the French Riviera or the Caribbean right now, but instead, he was walking me home while I inadvertently insulted him.

  I’d wondered how the three of them had paid for that big new state-of-the art garage. And the reason was a blue-eyed, broad shouldered man standing right in front of me, with a smile on his lips and a big heart.

  I licked my lips as I faced him. “I’m sorry I’m so awkward.”

  “I’d say I’m sorry I am.” He stepped in toward me, and his newfound confidence washed over me like the clean scent of
his cologne. “But if we’re both weird, then this should be a no-judgment zone. Maybe we can be awkward together.”

  “I don’t understand why you would put up with me,” I said.

  He laughed. “Is that what you think this is? Me putting up with you? I don’t know what happened to you when you left Silver Springs, Lily, but I’m not ‘putting up with you’. I want you.”

  The words hung between us.

  This time when I bobbed onto my toes and kissed him, the two of us traded much slower, longer kisses.

  I finally pulled away from him, my cheeks flushing. My heart was pounding. The most important thing to this man in front of me was his ‘brothers’ as they’d called themselves since they met at the orphanage. He could be on a yacht somewhere, but he’d come here for them. And things between me and each one of those guys was…complicated. I couldn’t ruin things for Archer with them.

  I always made a mess of things, in tiger or human form.

  His face was so handsome that it pulled me toward him, and I bobbed onto my toes to press a quick kiss to his rounded cheekbone. I couldn’t resist him.

  “Goodnight, Archer,” I said, before I rushed into the house.

  He stood on the sidewalk, watching me go. I could feel his confusion, but he didn’t chase me.

  I didn’t know why they were chasing me anyway, but I was going to die when they realized they didn’t want me after all.

  I closed the door behind me, my heart still pounding. Thankfully my grandfather was in bed. My lips still stung from the heat of those kisses, and my throat felt hoarse from singing. I was out of practice.

  I remembered the feel of being up on the stage, and how Archer had given that rush to me when I was scared to go up again.

  And I didn’t know whether I wanted to cry or smile as I headed up the stairs.

  16

  I dreaded how the next day at work might be weird, but it didn’t feel strange at all. Archer smiled at me when I walked in, but he was quiet as usual. Blake gave him a suspicious look, but wisely didn’t press.

  Dylan leaned on the reception desk. “You went out on a date with my brother.”

  Oh no. This was exactly what I’d feared. I didn’t want to come between the three of them.

  “So,” Dylan flashed me a grin. “Does that mean you’d consider going to dinner with me?”

  “I just had lunch with you,” I reminded him. “Yesterday.”

  “Are you limited to one meal per day?” he asked. “Are you secretly a snake shifter?”

  “I just…” I glanced at Blake, who crossed his arms. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Dylan promised me.

  But later that day, I went to carry the trash from the lobby and restroom out of the lobby to the dumpster, and I heard the guys talking through the open bay door.

  “Just so you know, I don’t approve.” Blake told Dylan.

  Dylan clapped him on the shoulder. “Good thing I don’t care. I’d like to remind you, you started this.”

  “I wanted her gainfully employed—”

  “You’ve had a crush on her for the past twenty years!” Dylan exploded. “Don’t even start with me. We know each other too well.”

  My heart jumped into my throat.

  Blake had a crush on me for twenty years?

  I accidentally dropped the trash bag. Something heavy in it clinked against the cement. I grabbed the top of the bag again, trying to look casual.

  Blake turned, then went wide-eyed as he realized I was standing there. I shrugged at him and headed for the dumpster.

  I went into the bathroom and washed my hands, and when I stepped out again, Blake waited in the lobby for me. The sight of his brown eyes and big, muscular body still made me catch my breath.

  He looked at me as if he were searching for words. His confused look was still pretty damn cute. But I had something to say too, before he kept talking himself out of dating me.

  “You could stop being weird and go out with me,” I said. “Boss man.”

  I didn’t know where that teasing tone in my voice came from.

  Blake gave me a long, searching look. He closed the distance between us until he was on the opposite side of the counter from me. Then he said, “Fine. I’ll take you out Sunday.”

  Well, that was easy. I stared at him, and he quirked an eyebrow at me, crossing his arms. He leaned slowly onto the counter between us. His forearms were broad and corded. He was wearing a t-shirt, the t-shirt he wore under his coveralls and the basketball shorts he threw on when he wasn’t working on a car.

  There was a line of a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his shirt as it rode up his powerful bicep, and part of me was tempted to pull up the sleeve and see what the rest of his tattoo looked like.

  “Well?” he asked. “You wanted me to ask, didn’t you? Was that just for your own amusement so you could watch me sweat?”

  He didn’t look like he was sweating my answer. He sounded amused. His posture was relaxed and confident, as usual.

  But there was something in his eyes, something dark and dangerous and full of…desire. Something that made my body tighten, my breasts feeling fuller, a sudden ache between my thighs.

  If the way he looked at me could do that to my body, I wondered what his hands could do. What his tongue could do…

  I needed to stop. “Sure,” I said lightly. “Sunday. Sounds like a…plan.”

  I didn’t quite dare to say date.

  “I’ll come up with a plan for us. Is that okay?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  He grinned, and there was triumph in it. “Archer told me you didn’t want help moving stuff. That you were being stubborn. But that’s what we’ll do. We’ll take my truck and move your stuff.”

  For a second, I was taken aback. He obviously felt as if he’d won, and that drove me a little mad. But I also didn’t want to face down Brad on my own. I didn’t entirely want to rally half the women of Silver Springs to move me out of that cursed apartment, even though I knew they would. I wanted… I wanted to not have to ask anyone for a favor.

  But this crazy man acted like I was doing him a favor.

  And it was oddly touching.

  “Good job,” I said. “You really showed me. Forcing me to let you pack books and carry boxes and work your ass off on your lone day off. Definitely a win.”

  “To help you?” He winked at me as he straightened. “Even though you hate needing anyone? Especially me? Oh yeah, that’s a win, pussy cat.”

  “You drive me crazy!” I called after him as he headed toward the bay.

  “I know,” he said, and I caught his boyish grin just before he ducked through the door.

  But something about that infectious smile of his made me grin too, once he couldn’t see me.

  I knew he’d just claim that as a win too.

  17

  When the doorbell rang, my grandfather looked at me curiously. “Again?”

  “I could be going to dinner with Lupine.”

  “Not in that dress, I don’t think you are.”

  “You’re full of nonsense,” I told him, rolling my eyes. “Girls dress up for each other all the time. And women dress up for ourselves.”

  “Okay, I can respect that,” he said, nodding. “But what are you really up to tonight?”

  “Tell me more about Lasagna Lady,” I shot back.

  “How do you know Lasagna is a lady?” he demanded.

  “Fair enough,” I said, my hand on the doorknob, “But now I know Lasagna is real.”

  “Just open the door,” he grumbled. “You’ve left your poor date standing on the front porch. Terrible manners. Whoever raised you should be ashamed.”

  I was laughing when I swung the door open.

  Dylan stood there, tall and handsome, wearing a dark shirt and jacket that clung to his broad shoulders and was tailored at his narrow waist. The dark clothes set off his tanned skin and bright green eyes, and
the smile died on my lips.

  His jaw dropped a little when he saw me, as if I looked incredible to him in the little black dress and black patent leather ballet flats I’d chosen for tonight—my Tieks, a gift from my grandfather, and one of the nicer shoes I owned. I knew from my date with Archer that it was probably best to prepare for walking in Silver Springs.

  Besides, I clearly didn’t have to wear heels to get these guys’ attention. Even if I didn’t understand why they cared so much.

  Honestly, if I could just let myself trust the way they liked me…maybe it would feel nice.

  He suddenly came back to life, as if he’d had to reboot after seeing me. “You look gorgeous tonight.”

  “Gorgeous might be an oversell,” I told him as I stepped out onto the porch.

  “The man is right!” My grandfather yelled just before I closed the door.

  “No one cares if my grandpa thinks I’m pretty!” I shouted back at full volume through the closed door. I didn’t want to lose the game.

  Dylan cringed and raised his hands towards his ears. Right, he had sensitive hearing, even in human form.

  “Sorry,” I said, grabbing his arm and towing him away from the house so I wouldn’t be able to hear my grandfather if he shouted back a retort. I didn’t want to lose the game.

  “What’s that all about?” he asked mildly as we headed into town to a restaurant. “You and he still play Last Words?”

  “You remember?” I didn’t want to say last words, because of the way my grandfather had been talking about his mortality lately. I was afraid I’d really lose him. Some day, that full-volume teasing really might be our last words. “The goal is to be the last person who speaks. Or the last person who’s heard, I think.”

  “I see,” he said. “It’s… aggressively vocal.”

  “That’s me and my grandfather,” I admitted.

  He just smiled. When Dylan smiled it was hard not to smile back. My heart did a flip-flop—apparently, it was even clumsier than I was.