Accidental Lover (Wolven Moon Book 3)

by Dany Rae Miller

  Reed and I say hello to each other. Reed, Gabs’ older brother by three years, is gorgeous, just like all the Santana’s I’ve met – dark hair, perennial golden tan, high Latino cheek bones. It’s the golden hazel eyes that sets Reed apart. He’s tall, same height as Victor, and in shape. Reed handles the construction side of the family business which keeps him fit. He’s also the alpha of the Colorado Springs Santana pack.

  “Cherie, say hello to Phil.” Mom shoves me toward him.

  I put on a guest services smile and hold out my hand to shake. “Hello, Phil.”

  “Happy birthday, Cherie,” he says.

  The man ignores my hand and hugs me. I lock eyes with Gabs over Phil’s shoulder. She shoots me a toothy grin, mouths ‘smile’. I roll my eyes.

  When Phil pulls away and looks at me, I can tell he’s nervous. I make him uncomfortable. Good! I want him to stay away from my mom.

  “And there’s the bride.” Mom smiles, hugs Gabs. “I’m over the moon for you, dear.”

  Gabs smiles back. “Thank you, Rose.”

  While Gabs and Mom hug, Victor presents me with another calla lily.

  “Happy birthday, sweetness.” He kisses me lightly.

  “Victor,” I whisper. Stepping away from him, I don’t take the lily. I cannot believe he’s doing this, here in the lobby.

  Too late. Mom noticed. Her eyes flit between me and Victor. She smiles at Victor. He smiles back.

  “So, who is this nice young man giving my daughter a flower?”

  Gabs makes the introduction. “Rose, my cousin Victor Santana. Vic, Rose Valentine, Cherie’s mom.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you.” Victor flashes his chocolate eyes. He clasps one of Mom’s hands and kisses her on the cheek. “It’s easy to see where Cherie gets her beauty. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were sisters.”

  Mom laughs. “Any man who compliments like this is a keeper.” She winks at me.

  Victor holds out the lily to me again.

  “Cherie. I didn’t raise you to be rude,” Mom says.

  I sigh in frustration and take the damn lily.

  Mom introduces Phil to Victor. The two men shake hands.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I upgraded you to a suite.” Victor lifts the counter, goes behind the desk. He pecks on a computer. “My compliments.”

  Mom practically swoons. “Well, isn’t that nice. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” Victor swipes a keycard through the computer. “You’re on the sixth floor.

  “We appreciate that, Victor. Not to push our luck, but is it a mountain view?” Mom asks.

  “Of course.” Victor hands Mom the keycard.

  “That is quite a treat.” Phil smiles.

  Victor checks in Reed, too. Hands him a keycard.

  “You’re all set.” Victor steps back around the desk.

  Phil takes Mom’s elbow, motions to the bell hop to follow him to the elevator.

  “Wait. Phil needs his own keycard.” I grab Mom’s arm to keep her from walking away with him.

  Mom blushes, but smiles. “Phil and I are sharing.”

  “What!?” I glare at Phil.

  Mom’s smile turns sappy. “I’ve got some news.” She glances at Phil and back to me. “Big news. We’ll talk more later. Love you, sweetheart.” She kisses me on the cheek and takes Phil’s hand.

  He kisses her as they get in the elevator. I give him the evil eye. I swear, he hurts her, I’ll kill him.

  Gabs touches my arm. “Cherie?”

  I shrug her off. She grabs on harder.

  “Calm down, girlfriend.” She makes me look at her. “She’s a grown woman. Your mom has every right to be happy with a guy.”

  Victor rubs my back. “You okay?”

  “Fine.” I hiss out between clenched teeth and shrug them both off me.

  “Whoa. You really don’t like your mom’s boyfriend do you?” Victor says.

  Mom’s boyfriend. Two words that I never thought I’d hear put together in a sentence.

  “He seems like an okay dude,” Reed says.

  I grunt. “Whatever.”

  “Have you eaten lunch?” Gabs asks.

  “Yeah. Ells and I stopped at the Crepe Stand and ate while we walked.”

  “Good. Then you have time to get your shit out of my car.” Reed smiles.

  “What shit?” I ask.

  “Your mom wanted to save you a trip home before you start work. She insisted we bring some of your things.”

  “Oh, thanks, Reed,” I say. That’ll save me $30 in gas, at least. “We can put it in my trunk for now.”

  “I think I hauled your entire bedroom down here. Not gonna fit in your tiny Corolla trunk.”

  Victor takes a key off his keychain. “Put it in my storage unit at the condo.”

  “No shit, huh?” Reed takes the key. He grins and points a finger between Victor and me. “What’s going on here anyway?”

  Sliding a possessive arm around my waist, Victor grins like he beat a hundred guys at the hundred yard dash. “Exactly what it looks like.” He smirks.

  I move away.

  “Victor. We talked about PDAs at work.”

  I glance around to see if any staff saw. A guy at the front desk did, the same guy who always seems to be staring at me. He locks eyes with me for a split second. Then, he blushes, turns his attention to the computer screen in front of him.

  Victor looks contrite. “I forgot.”

  “Besides, you’re not working right now,” Gabs says. “Today you’re the birthday girl.”

  “Yeah.” Victor winks at me. “What do you girls have planned for this afternoon?” He looks at me, raises eyebrows at Gabs. “You should get out of the hotel, do something fun.”

  “We have my birthday dinner in a few hours,” I say. “I’d ask you to come, but it’s an all girl thing,” I say to Victor.

  “Not a problem. I have plenty of work to keep me busy.” He smiles and winks. “We’ll celebrate again later.”

  “Ew, TMI,” Gabs says.

  Reed puts one arm around Gabs and one around me. “In the meantime, they’re coming with me to help unload Cherie’s shit.” He starts walking us to the door. “Let’s go, ladies.” Reed shakes his head. “Jesus. I can’t believe you’re ladies now.” Reed leans down to kiss me on the lips. “Happy birthday, kiddo.”

  “Thank you,” I say.

  “Watch it, cuz.” Victor growls.

  “Hey, I saw her first.” Reed laughs.

  I look back to make sure Victor is teasing and not jealous. He smiles. I wink at him this time.

  Reed wasn’t joking. Mom did bring almost everything I own. All that’s missing is my furniture.

  “Really? Mom thought I needed my teddy bear collection and gymnastics ribbons? Why didn’t you stop her?” I say to Reed, hefting another box into Victor’s storage locker.

  The locker was completely empty. Now it’s stuffed full.

  “Trust me, I tried. She said you’d be in Telluride for a few years and it should be here with you not collecting dust in the Springs.”

  “Why couldn’t it collect dust in her old room?” Gabs says.

  “Because my mom’s crazy. What the hell am I going to do with all this? I’m taking it back. She won’t notice if I do it box by box when I go home to visit.”

  Closing the lift gate of his SUV, Reed turns to us with a serious look, mouth open like he wants to say something. Instead of speaking, he clamps his mouth shut.

  “What?” I encourage him to speak.

  He shakes his head, sighs. “You need to talk to your mom.”

  “Okay. That’s cryptic,” I say.

  “Just talk to her.” He smiles.

  Unloading took long enough. Then, Reed decides to take his time driving through Telluride.

  “I missed this place,” he says.

  “You guys lived here during your early childhood, right?” I say.

  “Yep. It was a great place to grow up. But then the Native Pr
ime ordered us to move to the Springs when I was thirteen.”

  “Enrique’s dad, right?” I ask.

  “Yup,” Gabs says. “Mom was so mad. She didn’t want to leave Telluride.”

  “Duty called us there,” Reed shrugs.

  “Well, I’m glad you had to move otherwise I never would have met my best friend and her hunky brother.” I smile.

  “You think I’m hunky?” Reed puts a hand to his chest as a teenage girl would. “Oh, I’m so flattered.”

  “And full of yourself.” Gabs laughs.

  By the time we get back to The Av, I have just enough time to change and get back down to the lobby. I do my hair in one braid down my back, pull on a simple pink sheath dress and comfy nude wedge espadrilles.

  It’s another girls night out, this time it’s multigenerational with the older women — my Mom, Maria and Gabs’ mom, Rebecca, too. Laughing and chatting, we stroll to the ritzy Chop House, just a block away from the hotel.

  Before we’re even seated, Maria orders several bottles of her favorite wine, one gets opened and poured right away.

  “A toast to the birthday girl — new job, new maturity and a new beau.” Maria holds up her glass of wine.

  We all clink our glasses and drink.

  “I just cannot believe my little girl finally has a boyfriend.” Mom smiles. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It’s only been a few days, Mom. It’s nothing serious,” I say.

  “Yet.” Maria winks at me.

  “You and Jesse then?” Mom pats my hand. “He seemed to follow you home every break.”

  Not me, I want to say. He was following Gabs, the girl sitting across from me and whose entire body just tensed at the mention of his name.

  “Jesse and I are friends,” I say. “By the way, thanks for bringing my stuff. However, I really don’t need all of it. I’d rather not pay for a storage unit. Will you take some of it back with you?”

  She looks away. “I’ll pay for the storage unit.”

  “Why do that? Just put it back in my room — it’s free storage.”

  Mom’s eyes search mine. She looks as nervous as she did the night she told me Dad left — left for good and wasn’t coming back. This is big.

  “Mom? Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I’m selling the B&B,” she blurts out all at once and then slurps a big gulp of wine.

  “What? Why?” My voice rises a full octave. Everyone at the table quits talking amongst themselves to listen to Mom and me.

  “I no longer want to spend half my day making beds and the other half cooking. It’s not as fun as it was when my daughter helped me.”

  “We could hire someone to come in to help you. We can stash all my stuff in the attic and my old room can be part of their compensation.”

  She sighs, looks at me. “I don’t want to be in the B&B business anymore. Neither does Phil.” Mom holds both my hands.

  What the hell does Phil have to do with this?

  “Phil proposed, sweetheart. I said yes.”

  Everyone jumps in with congratulations.

  The sounds and the hugs are all in slow motion to me.

  “This is why you stepped down from High Priestess isn’t it?” Shavone’s comment and Mom’s smiling head nod reach me through a tunnel of fog. A steel band wraps around my lungs and I can’t breathe.

  I vaguely feel Maria’s hand on my arm. “Are you okay?” She asks.

  Still feeling like the world is moving in slow motion, I turn to my mom. “What the hell are thinking?”

  The happy smiles on the girls vanish.

  “Are you insane putting yourself through all that again?”

  “Sweetie — ” she starts.

  “Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

  Last time Mom was married it ended with a suicide attempt followed by being tightly curled into a ball for months and months.

  The Voisins tried everything — every spell, every herb — to bring her back. Even Naomi, Shavone’s adoptive mom and the most powerful witch in our coven, couldn't unpack the depression from Mom’s psyche.

  “C,” Gabs murmurs, sadly.

  “Stay out of this, G.”

  Mom drops her fork on her plate, sits up straighter and squares her shoulders. “Phil isn’t like your father. He’s nothing like him,” Mom says. “I love Phil and he loves me. If you’d make half an effort to get to know him —”

  “This isn’t about him.” I cut her off again. “It’s about you.” My voice is too loud. I bring it down an octave. “You have no business getting serious about any guy, certainly not falling in love.” I sneer at the word.

  “Young lady,” Maria says. Her hand grips my arm, her lips pressed in a thin tight line. “Is that anyway to talk to your mother?”

  I stand, prepping to leave. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”

  “No. You can’t.” Gabs grabs my hand. “This is your birthday dinner.”

  “I’ll go,” Mom whispers. “I should have waited to talk to Cherie in private. I’m sorry to spoil such a lovely dinner.”

  “Sit down, Rose. You, too, Cherie.” Maria orders. “No one is going anywhere.”

  The gorgeous older Latina turns her eyes to me. They’re Victor’s eyes — rich chocolate laced with gold. One hand on my arm, she cups my chin with her other. She studies my eyes. Shock and pity is what I get from her.

  “I understand that you’re coming from a place of concern for your mother, but you have no business disparaging love the way you are. You are far too young to know anything about it.” She hitches an eyebrow.

  “All I need to know is that it hurts.” I look at my mom. “It’s not worth it.”

  Maria laughs, moves her hand to lightly pat my cheek.

  “Oh, but it is, child. Tell me, have you ever been in love?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t believe in love.”

  Mom grimaces.

  Not shocked, Maria smiles. “You don’t believe in it, or you’re frightened of it?”

  I look down. Maybe it’s the latter. “It almost killed Mom.”

  Speaking quietly, Mom takes my hand. “Almost, but it didn’t. What it did was make me stronger and wiser. Here’s the thing, sweetie. I don’t regret loving your father. I would do it all over again.”

  I cock my head like she’s crazy.

  She laughs. “No, I don’t regret it. Now that I’m on the other side of the tunnel, I have total perspective.”

  “That’s nuts.” I take a drink of my wine.

  With a great big sigh, Mom continues on.

  “Remember Daisy?”

  “Of course.” Daisy was my white and orange tabby, my first pet from first to sixth grade. One day, she chased a squirrel through the yard and out into the street. The squirrel made it to the other side of the street. Daisy didn’t. Hit by a car, she died instantly. I witnessed the whole thing and it broke my eleven year old heart.

  “You loved that cat so much.”

  “Oh come on, that’s ridiculous. You’re comparing Dad to a cat?”

  “No. I’m comparing love to love. For years, you loved that cat to obsession. So tell me, would you change it? Would you leave her at the pound just to avoid the heartache and crying after she was gone?”

  The entire table falls quiet. The waiter brings a pitcher of water with clanging ice. He refills our glasses.

  “Would you give up all her purrs and soft cuddles to avoid the bitterness of loss?” Mom adds after the waiter is gone.

  In the silence, I deliberate on Mom’s questions. The waiter comes back to clear our appetizer plates.

  The girls, eyes on me, wait for my answer — obviously thinking it through themselves. Gabs’ brow is as deeply furrowed as mine.

  Is it really that simple? Gather the good feelings and hope that when it’s all said and done they out weigh the bad? Savor the moments of happiness, but steel yourself for the inevitable blowback?

  No one says a word. With assistance from a few c
oworkers, the waiter returns with our salad course.

  Mom’s gaze hasn’t left my face.

  God, I can’t believe I’m about to say this. I take a huge breath and blow it out. Finally, I turn to her to admit defeat.

  “No,” I whisper. “I wouldn’t change it. I would still adopt her. I would do it, again. And again. And, probably, again.”

  Mom has triumphant tears in her eyes as she tugs on my braid. Gabs, my cynical sister in arms, nods her agreement, her eyes moist as well.

  “But.” I have to caveat my answer. “You have to be ready, Mom. You cannot fall apart when it comes crashing down this time.”

  I won’t there to catch you.

  “You mean ‘if’ it comes crashing down.” Mom winks playfully.

  When is a surer bet than if.

  “I’m stronger now.” Mom smiles. “I would hurt, but I won’t go to that dark place, again.”

  Satisfied, Maria nods at my mom. As pensive as the rest of the girls at the table, she raises her glass for another toast. “To love,” she says, her tone this time is reflective rather than bubbly.

  They all murmur “to love” and clink glasses. The women look to me for my assent.

  I roll my eyes, sigh. Whatever. I lift my glass, clink it to theirs. “To love.” Even if she is a volatile, tortuous bitch.

  chapter twenty-nine

  GABBY DID A fantastic job with the guest list. The ballroom is packed with Cherie’s friends. Some are exclusively Cherie’s. Most, though, were already in Telluride for my cousin’s wedding.

  I’m amazed at how many are Santana’s and family friends. My girl and I moved in the same circles for years. It’s stupefying that Cherie and I hadn’t met until now. I bow to fate and her perfect timing.

  Monbeau directs his staff as they fill two tables with finger foods.

  “The cake?” I question him.

  “It’s coming. Calm down, Victor.” Monbeau grins.

  I nod, take a few deep breaths.

  “I just want this night to be perfect for her.”

  In the next minute the pastry chef rolls in a massive tilted-tier cake. Pac-Man chases ghosts, dots and cherries around the bottom two layers. The next layer is a life-size boom box and the top layer an oversized Rubik’s cube — the sections of the cube twisted like someone’s solving the game.