Jules put his socks and shoes back on. They were dry enough that they didn’t squelch, and they didn’t make his feet feel funny anymore. Kaylee was busy packing up. She’d hardly said two words since the phone call from her friend. Now she said, “So, any plans tonight?”
There was something in her voice that nagged at him, but he was too preoccupied to stop and pay closer attention. “Going to see a friend,” he said.
“I see. Well, have fun.”
He looked up in time to see her forced smile and her little wave. “Okay,” he said as she was disappearing. “Goodnight.”
She went up to the front to find it was still pouring rain. Freddie came out of his office and smiled at her. “Heading home for the day.”
“Yeah. Looks like I’ll be waiting for the bus in the rain.”
“Want my umbrella?”
“What about you? You still have to get to your car.”
“Well, why don’t I walk you to the bus? We can share the umbrella.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jules come out of the office they shared. She smiled. “Sure, okay. That would be really nice of you. Thanks.”
“All right. Let me just grab my stuff.”
Jules paused in the hallway watching the exchange. Kaylee was avoiding looking at him. Freddie reappeared with his briefcase and his umbrella, and the two of them went out together. Jules shook his head and went out to his car.
The rain made the traffic crazy, and it took Jules a little longer than usual to get to the warehouse. Traffic must have been bad for Jane too, because she was just pulling up as he was. They both made the dash inside, huddling under the meager overhang while Jane punched her access code in.
“Go—shift,” she said, shoving him inside.
It took too long to strip the wet clothes off, and by the time he was naked he was shaking. Partly it was the chill—the warehouse was not heated—and partly it was the exertion of resisting the change. He took a deep breath and let go of the bear.
His change swept over him fast and painful. Bones shifted, fur sprouted, muscles expanded, nails turned to claws, his whole face changed shape. He screamed in pain, and halfway through the sound changed to the bellowing of an angry bear.
Jane was waiting near the edge of the room, Jules could just see her before his vision blurred. He didn’t think the bear would hurt her. She smelled of the clan and safety and familiarity, but he would be grumpy when the shift was done.
Fully a bear now, he lay still on the cool cement floor sucking in great heaving breaths. Finally, he stood and stretched. Jane had found a chair and was seated in the corner looking at her phone. He made a questioning noise and she looked up. He nodded, huffing, and turned away.
A smell caught his attention and he went to investigate. One of the large barrels across the room appeared to be the source of the smell, and he knocked it over. He rolled it and banged it until he finally got the top off. Inside was some raw meat. In human form, he’d have been repulsed by the idea of eating raw meat, but the bear didn’t have the same compunctions. And the bear was hungry from the shift.
It was getting late by the time the bear began to settle. The shift back was slower, but that made it easier on him. Fully human, he stood naked for a few minutes, his back to Jane who was still looking down at her phone. He shuddered. The pins and needles feeling would take a while to fade yet. He pulled this clothes on anyway.
“Want to tell me what that was about?” Jane said. “Because I missed a workout at the gym for this.”
“Girl troubles,” Jules said. It wasn’t completely a lie. Kaylee’s attitude today, bubbly and bright in the morning and then cold all afternoon, had made the bear even more restless. “And I couldn’t reach Remy. And my boss is a womanizing jerk. And I got soaked this morning. I was so wet my shoes were squeaking.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I am sorry, and I do appreciate you doing this. I owe you for this, big time.”
“Look, Jules, it doesn’t happen so much anymore, but with The Human Order breathing down our neck you need to know. Generations ago, if a werebear or werewolf couldn’t control the beast they were killed by their alpha or their clan chief. I know you had a rough start, but you need to get the bear under control before it causes too much trouble for the rest of us. Remy’s been covering for you, but he can’t do that for forever.”
“Don’t worry, Jane. It’s getting fewer and farther between again. I’ll get it under control and I’ll keep it under control this time. No more pills from quack doctors. No more shortcuts. I won’t put the rest of you at risk.”
Her smile was thin. “That’s good to hear. Come on, I’m tired. I want to go home and sleep for a week.”
The program on her home computer was out of date and the computer was slow, but that didn’t stop Kaylee from fooling around with design ideas for her future business card. There was a gentle knock at the door even though it was open, and her mom said, “Am I interrupting?”
“Not really, just playing. What’s up?”
“Your sister came home looking down today, but she won’t talk about it.” She didn’t have to mention which sister. Even Kaylee had noticed Cora’s less than cheerful attitude at the dinner table.
“I’ll go talk to her.”
“Thanks.” She walked off down the hall and a moment later Kaylee heard, “Tony! You’d better empty your lunch kit before bed!”
“Okay!”
Kaylee shook her head. She went one door over and knocked.
“Changing!” came the muffled reply.
“I’ll wait,” Kaylee said.
When the door opened, it was fourteen-year-old June who smiled up at her. “Yes?”
Kaylee smiled back. “I’m not looking for you.”
“I love you too,” June said and looked over her shoulder. “Cora, don’t worry, it’s Kaylee, not Mom.”
Cora appeared over June’s shoulder, her face sullen. “I don’t want to talk.”
“Come to my room anyway. June, go to bed.”
June stuck her tongue out and disappeared back into the bedroom.
In Kaylee’s room the two sisters sat on the twin bed. They looked a lot alike since they both took mostly after their mom. Their hair was naturally curly but manageable and they wore it about shoulder length, though Cora’s was a few inches longer. Cora preferred brighter shades of eyeshadow than Kaylee and dressed in teen-angst punk clothes, while Kaylee had already shifted toward a more casually professional wardrobe. They were about the same size now, in clothes and shoes, and for a moment Kaylee mulled over the idea of stealing Cora’s killer black heels the next time she had a date.
“What is it?” Cora said.
“Mom set me on your case,” Kaylee answered honestly. “You know she won’t stop hounding until you cheer up or tell someone what’s wrong. At least if you tell me and I tell her ‘she’s fine,’ she’ll believe me and let you be angst-ridden in peace.”
“I’m not angsty,” Cora muttered.
“No, you’re seventeen.” Kaylee sighed. “God, seventeen sucked balls. I had acne like you wouldn’t believe, and this guy, Kyle, he followed me everywhere, it was so creepy. I had a crush on Matt—I think everyone did—and he probably didn’t even know I existed. So I didn’t even try for him, I dated Jeff instead. That was a total mistake.”
“Enough!” Cora said, laughing. “I get it.” She took a deep breath. “There’s a party on the weekend and a bunch of my friends are going, but I know there’s going to be beer and other booze and probably pot too. I just— I think about Dad and the way he gets when he’s hooked and I get scared. What if I get hooked? What if I get mean? But I can’t tell my friends that. They won’t understand. They’ll just keep pressuring me into trying something or sleeping with someone.”
“When is this party?”
“Saturday night,” she grumbled.
“Well then, you can’t go because you already have plans with your totally awesome big sister, and
you can’t reschedule because how often does your older sister offer to foot the bill for a night out? So tell them to have fun at their dumb party because you have better plans.”
Cora studied her sister for a moment. “Are you really going to pay for the evening? Don’t you have a student loan and shit?”
“Sure, but I have a job too, and what good is having a job if you can’t go out once in a while? I’ll just pack a sandwich for the next week like a loser instead of grabbing lunch out.” She wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Cora, you’re worth it.”
“Thanks, Kaylee. Look, just don’t tell Mom okay? She already doesn’t like my friends.”
“I’ll tell her you just need some Kaylee time and leave it at that. Now make sure June actually went to bed.”
“She didn’t,” Cora said. She hopped off the bed and hugged her older sister. “Thanks for understanding, Kaylee.”
It was about an hour later, when the sounds of tossing and turning had finally died down, that Kaylee made her way to the kitchen to deliver her empty glass to the counter. Her mom was at the kitchen table working on the daily crossword puzzle in the paper.
“I need a five-letter word for a type of curvy letter. I thought it was ‘cursive’ but that’s too long and it needs to start with an ‘e.’”
Kaylee sat down and took a glance at the squares her mom was pointing to. “Esses,” she said. “More than one ‘s’—it’s a trick.”
“Huh, and I thought it was some sort of font style or something.”
“Nope, but glad I could help anyway.”
“You were home pretty late last night considering what time I went to bed.”
“Did I wake you when I came in?”
“No. How was dinner?”
“Really good. Jules can actually cook. I was surprised. I guess I shouldn’t have been though, it was just him and his mom, and he lives alone now.” She shrugged.
“Sounds like you two have a lot in common.”
“Yeah.”
“Now you sound mopey. I thought things at work were going well. And I thought you and Jules were getting along very well.”
The tone behind ‘very’ made Kaylee blush. “Mom!”
“Drinks, dinner, a few late nights. What’s a mother supposed to think?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to think. Honestly, Jules is a nice guy and he respects me. I thought, after last night, that maybe we were headed towards something romantic. Then stuff happened today, and I don’t know anymore.”
“Start at the beginning and let me see if I can help you make sense of it.”
Kaylee told her about work, about Freddie’s hanging around and his awkward compliments that made her feel creepy-crawly. She talked about her work, how she felt respected and valued. She talked about chicken wings at the pub and kissing him in the parking lot. She mentioned the kissing on the couch at his apartment but glossed over the steamier details. As it was, her cheeks were burning by the end.
“All that in just two weeks, huh?”
“Well, I haven’t been seeing anyone in close to a year,” she said with a weak shrug of her shoulders.
“I’m not judging. Chemistry is chemistry, and it sounds like the two of you have it. So, what’s the problem?”
“I overheard him on his phone today. He was talking to someone named Jane. He told her he really needed her tonight and something about the ‘usual time’ and that she was the best.”
“And?”
“And!? That sure sounds like a girlfriend to me!”
“Really? Because it sounded more like a chiropractor. Or a therapist. Okay, maybe not a therapist, but physio maybe. Someone he sees regularly for something important.”
“Girlfriend. Sex,” Kaylee said stubbornly.
“So, you’re going to give up without knowing more? Kaylee, if he’s playing with you then he’s an asshole and you’re right to stop any non-work related contact with him. But he’s given you rides, made you dinner, respected you personally and professionally for two straight weeks. And it sounds like you’ve taken the lead physically, so maybe you at least owe it to him to find out who this Jane is and why he needed to see her so badly before you kick him to the curb.”
Kaylee just sighed.
“And Kaylee, I don’t ever want to hear that you’re alone with this Freddie with a door closed.”
“Freddie is my boss.”
Her mom just shook her head. “I know that type all too well. Don’t do anything to give him any ideas. Please. Bad enough you’re on that bus twice a day. Bad enough I got two more sweet girls in high school. I don’t need anything more to worry about!”
“Fine, I’ll do my best. Okay?”
“How’s Cora?”
“Fine. She’s fine. We’re going out Saturday night, just us two. I think she just needs some time away from school and school friends. The pressure to be a certain way just builds sometimes until you want to crack. She needs a break.”
“She’s lucky she has you. I don’t know how you survived without an older sister.”
“I had you.”
“Don’t you try buttering me up,” she laughed. “It won’t work. Not unless you plan to do the dishes for me.”
“What’ll that get me?”
“A ten to help pay for your girl’s night on Saturday.”
“Deal.”
Jules dropped everything just inside the door, kicked off his shoes, and flopped on his bed with a groan. It was late. He was tired. He had work in the morning. He still had no idea why Kaylee was upset, what to do about it, or if he was even supposed to do something about it. He pushed himself up and turned on his computer.
There were no new emails, which was a good sign. Maybe the guy is gone. Maybe I’ll never hear from him again. That would be nice. He didn’t really believe it though.
His cellphone rang and he went to dig it out of the pile at his door. Remy’s name and number were on the screen. “Hello, Remy.”
“Jules, I’m sorry, I forgot my cellphone at home this morning and was out all day. Did you get to the warehouse?”
“Yeah. Jane came and supervised. She needs a promotion.”
“I wish it worked that way. You were doing so well this month—what happened?”
He looked at the computer, took a deep breath, and said, “I sort of have the start of something going on with this girl at work, and I might have botched it and I don’t know how. Girls are a mystery to me.”
“Is that all?”
Still looking at the computer Jules said, “Yes, Remy.”
“All right. Oh, I’m to extend an invitation to you for dinner this weekend.”
“Dinner?” He turned and started pacing the apartment.
“At Brock and Gia’s.”
Jules paused. “Let me guess, Gia requested you invite me.”
Remy chuckled. “Something like that. When are you free?”
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 43