Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  Once she was at the bakery, Naomi wasn’t entirely certain what she should get. There were so many great pastries and treats that it was impossible to choose just one. Finally, she gave up and splurged, buying a dozen different treats with the justification that with two people in her dorm, they would not last through the weekend.

  As she left the bakery, Naomi’s attention was drawn to a purple head bouncing down the street in front of her.

  “Come on, you know him so well. Just tell me what Emery would like, and I will leave you alone to go do whatever important thing you have going on this weekend.”

  “Oh my God, Cora, I swear if you don’t chill out, I am going to tell Emery just what you are like when you get anxious.”

  The woman called Cora stuck her tongue out at Naomi’s classmate. “He already knows. I mean, seriously, what happened in that cave was a lot more nerve-racking than this, so he really knows more about me being anxious than you.”

  “Oh, I certainly could teach him a thing or two.” Naomi’s classmate seemed to be avoiding looking at his companion. “Come on, I think there is a store over this way that has something he will enjoy. Just chill out a bit because I really don’t have the patience to be dealing with you like this right now.”

  The purple-haired woman stepped in front of Naomi’s classmate. “Oh, what? Are you jealous of him? Don’t see me like a sister anymore?” She wiggled her hips in a way that was more cartoonish than sexy, and Naomi would have laughed if not for the look on her classmate’s face.

  “Please, Cora, I’ve been helping you for years. I just thought it would be easier to deal with you once you had someone. If I would have known that you were going to be worse with a boyfriend, I would have told you that you are on your own. I promised to help, so I am helping. In return, I ask only that you tone it down and find some other topic for a couple of days because I have learned far too much about Emery. Stuff I never wanted to know.”

  The woman looked up at her friend with a smirk, “Yep, Silas, you are jealous.”

  Naomi realized that she had been watching the pair for a while, and suddenly felt guilty. It was obvious that there was something wrong with her classmate, whose name appeared to be Silas. Now that she saw him not smiling, Naomi realized that it looked unnatural. Hmm, Silas, that’s a very different name. Kind of suits him, though. The thoughts were unbidden as she started walking back to her dorm.

  Come on, focus. You still have to get a few things ready, so there’s no time to think about that sort of thing. Naomi put her mind back on the rest of her preparations. Once back at her d0rm, she put the pastries away and started to do some last-minute cleaning—not that there was much for her to do. Every couple of minutes she checked her phone to see what time it was, and she found herself perpetually frustrated by how slow the time was going. At 4:30, she headed to a small kitchen in the building to make Jamie’s favorite food—spaghetti with meat balls and garlic toast. Naomi didn't eat most types of meat, and usually she would have hounded Jamie for eating it, but she wanted the night to be perfect. While the spaghetti simmered, she made a small salad, probably the only healthy thing they would be eating that night.

  Once the food was done, she took it all back to her room and set it down on a small table she had set up for the evening. Naomi covered the food to keep it warm, but according to the clock Jamie should be arriving any minute.

  Naomi frowned at the clock, then she pulled out her phone and checked for messages. She had been keeping an eye on his flight, and Jamie’s flight had landed on schedule. It was unlikely that he would have trouble getting a ride to the dorms because there were more drivers than were needed, and it was too early for the college students to be drunk enough to need lifts.

  So he’s a few minutes late. I’m sure he’s just as annoyed as I am. Naomi looked around trying to find something to keep her active while she waited. Her instinct was to call him, but she didn’t want to annoy Jamie by making him feel like she was pestering him. If he had a serious delay he would have let her know. She just needed to be patient.

  She checked her phone several more times over the next 10 minutes. Frustrated, Naomi finally decided that she needed to occupy her time because she was starting to get a little too anxious.

  “I wasn't supposed to need you again,” she muttered at her computer as she pulled it out of her backpack. Pushing her plate away, she set up her computer and began working on a research project that wasn’t due for a month. It was the only homework she had for the weekend, and since she wasn’t in any clubs or activities, there was little else for her to work on. “I’m just going to write a little bit, and hopefully Jamie will understand.”

  Naomi’s muttered thoughts were mostly to convince herself that she would be able to stop when the time came. It was always so difficult to stop working once she got into something, but what else was she supposed to do?

  “I’m only going to do a little bit. It’ll be fine.” Her eyes drifted to the clock. With a heavy sigh, she told herself that 15 minutes was not that much time so there was no reason to get too anxious. Exhaling, she opened Google and found a couple of new sites to review for her project.

  She was completely engrossed in the research when her phone buzzed. Placing her hand over her heart, Naomi beamed as she picked up her phone. The smile quickly faded as she saw the message from her mother.

  “I hope you are having a great weekend. Make sure to stay focused on your classes so that you can stay at the top. :) I know, I know, I should be telling you to go out and meet people—no one is worried about your grades. Remember we love you, and we look forward to you visiting when you have time.”

  Naomi began responding to her mother. She hadn’t told them about Jamie visiting; they didn’t know exactly how close the two had become, and she really didn’t want to hear their lectures. As much as she hated lying to them, Naomi wasn’t about to tell them that she was having sex with Jamie. Trying to come up with something that was as true as possible, Naomi pursed her lips. Then her eyes drifted to the time.

  Jamie was now over two hours late.

  As much as Naomi didn’t want to seem clingy, she was concerned. Terrible scenarios started to go through her head. What if he was mugged? What if there was an accident on the way to her place? So many horrible images began to play through her mind. Naomi immediately began dialing his number.

  It rang three times, then a giggly female voice answered, “Jamie’s phone, but he’s a bit busy at the moment. Try again tomorrow morning.”

  Naomi didn’t get a chance to say anything before the person on the other end hung up. Staring at the phone in her hand, the only explanation Naomi could come up with was that she had called the wrong number.

  This time she went to her contacts and called Jamie, so there was no chance that she misdialed. Again it rang three times.

  This time the female voice sounded a bit annoyed. “Look, girl, it’s my turn tonight and I don’t appreciate you cutting in on our boning time. So just—”

  “Look, I don’t know who you are, but this is Jamie’s girlfriend. If this is some kind of joke, or if you stole his phone, you need to return it to him. I won’t press charges if you do.”

  Suddenly the phone went dead. Naomi wasn’t sure how to react. It sounded like the person felt threatened, choosing to hang up instead of resolving the problem.

  Naomi was beginning to feel angry as she called her boyfriend’s number again. No wonder he hadn’t called—someone had stolen his phone.

  This time the phone rang only once. Before the female voice could say anything, Naomi started talking. “I'm not kidding. You give Jamie back his phone and I won’t call the police. If you—”

  “Naomi, Naomi, calm down. My phone hasn’t been stolen.” Jamie’s voice sounded a little winded on the other line, but Naomi couldn’t help but smile. “Look, I completely forgot about this week, and it looks like I missed my flight. How about we plan to meet up for the next long break? I’ll take you somewhere
—”

  A woman’s voice was obvious in the background, “Now you know we aren’t going to let you spend an entire weekend away from us.”

  Jamie tried to talk more loudly to drown out the person with him. “I mean, you know I need to go home and say hi to everyone. They will be so disappointed—”

  The female voice was whiny far too close to the phone. “What about me, Jamie? Look at me all horny and you are pushing me away to talk to some other girl on my night.”

  “Shut up, Stephanie!” Jamie’s voice was stern and far too loud.

  That was when it finally dawned on Naomi just what was going on. A couple of people from their graduating class had told Naomi they had heard some really messed-up stories about Jamie from some of their friends who were going to the same school in California, but Naomi had dismissed those stories. She had believed that Jamie would never act like that. He was sometimes thoughtless, careless, and selfish, but he always told her how much he cared about her. It had been enough for her because no one had told her that before. But there had always been a part of her that questioned him, a part that thought he was not being entirely honest.

  Naomi listened to the two squabble for a couple of seconds, the girl being whiny and Jamie being the jerk that Naomi knew he could be. And all this time she thought he was only like that to her.

  Unable to take another second, Naomi hung up without saying another word. There was a part of her that wanted to say she was misunderstanding, that she was making baseless assumptions without evidence, but Naomi was far too rational to hide from the truth. She knew exactly what had happened.

  She shifted so that she was looking at the cold spaghetti on the table. Mechanically, she stood up and poured both plates of food into containers. She ignored her phone as it rang in her pocket, and she carried the dishes and food back to the small kitchen. Picking up a pen, Naomi scribbled a quick message on a sticky note and stuck it on the containers.

  Cheating boyfriend decided not to show. Free spaghetti to anyone who wants a nice meal.

  Quickly, she cleaned the plates, then turned to go back to her room. As soon as she was back, Naomi looked around, her mind still processing the last 15 minutes.

  The room was ready for Jamie to visit, and now the idea of staying there made her feel slightly nauseous. Grabbing her coat, Naomi decided that she was going to be irresponsible that night, come hell or high water. She had never been out drinking before and with a four-day weekend of misery coming up, it seemed like the perfect time to find out just what the appeal was.

  Chapter 2

  An Unplanned Night Out

  One thing that had always annoyed Naomi about Deep Water was the number of students who went out drinking on the weekend. It was like a nice little town being taken over by drunken zombies her age a couple of nights a week.

  For the first time since she had arrived there, Naomi wanted to be one of those zombies. All of the thoughts piling up in her mind were far too much for her to handle at the moment. Part of her knew that she had been intentionally, willfully blind because she hadn’t wanted to believe the rumors. She had known Jamie for more than a decade, although most of that time their relationship had been more antagonistic than pleasant.

  “You should have known, you stupid bitch. He used you, and you let him get away with it. You let him—” Naomi clenched her fists, unable to finish saying what she was thinking. Instead of letting her mind wander further, she focused on scanning the town to see where she should start. She recognized a couple of people heading into one club not too far down the street, and she immediately started heading toward the same place. All she had to do was follow their lead and things would work out, right?

  As soon as Naomi was within a few feet of the club, the music reached her, and she knew that there was not a chance that she was going to go into that club. It was far too loud, and that was not going to help her.

  Looking around, she tried to come up with another possible place to go to forget about everything. Before she knew it, Naomi was walking around the town aimlessly. She was only vaguely aware of her surroundings as her mind started to go through all of the signs that she had intentionally ignored. Her anger began to bubble to the surface. Naomi had to remind herself that she was walking around downtown to keep herself from cursing her own stupidity aloud. The last thing she wanted was to be seen wandering around talking to herself.

  I just need to stop my brain from working. Just make the thoughts stop. Her eyes searched the surrounding places, finally stopping on an inviting-looking place. Heading toward it, she sighed, thankful for the first time in her life that she was legally able to drink.

  Naomi didn’t even bother to look around as she entered the establishment. Sitting down at the bar, she waited for the bartender to finish up serving a familiar couple at the end of the bar. Automatically, her head turned to watch the interaction between Cora and Silas.

  Cora threw her arms around his neck and gave her friend a kiss on the cheek. “You are the best, Silas. I totally owe you one.”

  Silas pushed her away, and from her barstool, Naomi could now fully appreciate the fake smile plastered on his face. It was the same kind of smile she had forced on her face when people had told her terrible stories about Jamie. Perhaps she didn’t know what was going on between Cora and Silas, but Naomi could tell that he was really unhappy with whatever it was. His voice sounded normal as he responded, “Yeah, yeah, you always say that, but I’ve yet to see any kind of payment for all of the years of you saying you owe me.”

  “How about I set you up with someone? Then we could double date!” Cora bounced a little at her own suggestion.

  “Thanks, Cora, but I know enough about your friends to turn that offer down.” She frowned at him. Silas forced another smile on his lips and waved off the words. “Don’t worry about owing me. Consider having a good time enough of a payment. Emery is taking you off of my hands, so I should start having more time to myself now.”

  “Oh, please, you hate being alone. I know that some of the others are meeting up in about 30 minutes at Bennette’s. Why don’t we walk there together? I can let Emery know to meet me there.”

  “Yeah, Emery would love that.” He gave Cora a look.

  “What would you like?” Naomi was surprised by the bartender materializing beside her.

  “Oh, um, I don’t know. What’s good?” Naomi looked the man in the eyes, not quite sure where to start drinking. The only thing she knew about alcohol from personal experience was that she hated beer.

  “Well, that depends on your personal preference. Most people are good with beer.”

  “Oh no, not beer.” She could see the face she pulled in the mirror behind the bar. Trying to smooth over the reaction, Naomi tried to smile. “That’s the only drink I really know, and I really don’t like it.”

  “So, not a big drinker?”

  “Not any kind of a drinker. Thought it was time that I gave it a shot. Can’t say you don’t like something if you haven’t tried it. Within reason.”

  The bartender nodded and asked, “Do you like sweet? We have several drinks with fruit in them.”

  “Oh, no, thank you. I want something a little stronger.”

  The bartender raised an eyebrow. “If you want something stronger, there is wine. Or port. Port tends to have a bit of a sweet taste.”

  “How about a Bailey’s Irish Cream?” a low voice suggested. The bartender and Naomi turned to see Silas sitting down next to her.

  Naomi shrugged, “Sure. It sounds interesting.”

  The bartender turned around and started to get her order ready.

  Silas swirled the ice around in his glass.

  “What are you having?” Naomi asked.

  He looked up at her, his expression blank. “Scotch.”

  “Is it any good?” Naomi’s interest was piqued.

  Silas shrugged in response, “I think so, but it isn’t for everyone. So, do you want to talk about it?”

  The b
artender set the drink down in front of Naomi then headed off to a small group who had just sat down at the bar. She picked it up. “Not really.” She then tipped the glass up and let the drink flow into her mouth. Immediately she began to cough, the alcohol burning her throat.

  Silas patted her back. “Yeah, that isn’t the way to drink that one. I take it you aren’t much of a drinker.” He slid a glass over to her. “It’s water, and I haven’t had any yet.”

  “Thanks,” she coughed before taking a large gulp.

  “Just slow down and enjoy it. That’s a dessert drink, so it isn’t meant to be downed in one go.”

  Naomi looked at the glass and scowled. Without saying a word, she knocked the rest of it back, then immediately began coughing again.

  Silas laughed, “Well, don’t let me stop you if you want to burn your throat.”

  Naomi looked over at him and couldn’t help but smile; something about the way Silas smiled was contagious. “There you go.” She poked his arm. “That's a real smile.”

  “Oh,” his face fell. “Smiling is easier to do than constantly answering the question, ‘What’s wrong?’ People don’t usually take the time to notice if the smile is authentic.” He pushed his glass forward, catching the bartender’s attention.

  Naomi did the same, and the bartender picked up the empty glasses and began preparing the next round.

  Turning to look at Silas, Naomi said, “You could just not smile. Eventually people will stop asking. I mean, shouldn’t you only smile when you are happy?”

  Silas shrugged, his hand wrapping around the glass set in front of him. “It’s easier when you are a top performing student who knows where you are going. There is nothing about me that stands out. Not with my friends, and certainly not with my family.” He threw back the drink and pushed the glass forward.

  Naomi looked at the glass in front of her and picked it up. Taking a sip, she said, “You are incredibly handsome, which does tend to make you stand out.”

  Silas let out a derisive laugh beside her. “I am the ugly duckling in my family.”