Secret Daddy
Page 22
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m just going to stay back here and knock some stuff out if you’re good out front?”
“No problem. It shouldn’t be that busy this morning anyway.” She disappeared through the archway again, and I got right to work.
Today I was making the mock bouquet for the bride’s approval. That was one of the things that set Petal Pushers apart. While some florists may just draw a mock-up for the clients, we’d always gone the extra mile. My grandmother had done it since the day she opened the shop, and when it had been passed on to me, I carried on her work ethic.
Putting the customer first was part of why the shop was the best in town. The other was the onsite greenhouse. I headed there to cut some fresh flowers for the bouquet. The entire wedding would be beautiful, the style the happy couple picked being something I could see myself wanting. It made the job of designing the flowers really fun, but it also made my chest ache.
A ceremony—or even a mate—was something I’d resigned myself to never having after my disastrous relationship had ended, but it didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt.
I pinched my fingers on the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on. I didn’t want to think about the dream wedding I once thought I’d have. I had too much else going on to dwell on that. But it was nearly impossible not to think about Gary as I gathered the flowers I’d need. I’d thought he was the one. That we’d become chosen mates and live happily ever after and all that bullshit people less cynical than me thought was real. I’d been proven wrong the night I’d walked in on him with another shifter in our bed.
I clenched my jaw and strode out of the greenhouse, trying to push the hurt back down. It surfaced from time to time, usually when I was working on a wedding. It never got easier thinking about what happened. Even though I made my living creating fairy tale events like this wedding, I’d lost my belief in true love. At least for myself. I’d seen my friends find it, but I’d given up hope I would ever find a mate, much less my fated mate like they had.
It didn’t matter, though. Because even if I did find a mate, fated or otherwise, I didn’t think I’d be able to trust him to stay faithful. Yep, there was that cynicism again. But it was okay. I had a good thing going with Keifer and Stacia, and it would be enough.
I got to work on the arrangement, trying to forget all the shit going through my head. I didn’t know how long I’d been working when I heard the chime above the front door. I kept working, figuring Sarah had it handled, but I looked up when I noticed the two men who had entered were still just standing by the door.
Frowning, I perked my ears up, using my enhanced shifter senses to try to hear what they were saying. They whispered to one another as they glanced around.
“Good morning!” Sarah’s warm voice filled the near-silence. “Is there something I can help you with?”
One of the men, tall and dark, shook his head. “Just looking.”
The two of them moved further into the shop, out of my line of sight. I could still hear their faint whispers but couldn’t make out what they were saying. However, I didn’t have time to worry about it, though I did find it odd when they left the shop a few minutes later without another word. They didn’t place an order or buy anything. Not that every customer who came in had to buy, but their aloofness was strange.
I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon on the bouquet, trying several different iterations before finally settling on one.
“Looks good,” a voice said from the doorway. I looked up and found Keifer standing there watching.
“How long have you been there?” I asked, glancing at the clock. It was just after two.
“I just got here. And I can’t really stay. I need to get to the school to pick up Stacia. But I wanted to talk to you first.”
I sighed and set the bouquet in a bucket full of water, suspending it on a plastic frame that kept just the tips of the stems wet. I had a feeling I knew what he wanted to talk about.
“I really want to get Stacia the dog she’s been asking for,” he said, coming further into the work room.
“Keifer, you know how I feel about dogs.”
“I do.” He nodded. “But I don’t think it’s fair to Stacia that she can’t have one just because of your hang-ups.”
Pressing my lips together, I crossed my arms, feeling my alpha coming to the surface. On almost everything, the two of us parented beautifully. But this was one thing I didn’t want to budge on.
“That’s not a fair statement, and you know it.”
Keifer was my best friend. He was one of the few people in my life who knew pretty much everything about me. Including the source of my fear of dogs. Because that’s what it was. I didn’t just dislike them. I actually feared them. It was something I didn’t like to admit. Yes, I was a florist who didn’t have some badass job but that didn’t diminish the core of who I was; I was an alpha. So I didn’t mince words when I spoke again. “I can’t be around dogs, and that’s all there is to it.”
Keifer sighed and ran a hand over his face. “You’d really refuse Stacia a dog?”
“You know why,” I said, my voice firm.
“Yes, you were attacked by a dog when you were a boy.”
“And the dog had been rabid, forcing me to stay in hospital. That’s pretty traumatizing for a child to go through.” All of it had been too much for my young brain to handle. But the fear of dogs was very real. Rational or not, it was there.
“You know, that’s unbelievably ironic, considering you’re a wolf—in the dog family yourself.”
“That’s different,” I said. We’d had this conversation before. “Wolf shifters are not dangerous dogs.”
As if to emphasize my point, a bunch of dogs started barking out back. The doggie daycare. The guy must have let his dogs out. Tension rolled through my body. Those barks echoed in my head, a reminder of the barks and snarls of the dog who had bitten me.
Keifer huffed out a breath and checked his watch. “I need to go. But this conversation isn’t finished.”
“Isn’t it?” I asked, my voice hard.
“I’m going to get Stacia. I’d really like you to think about this, Jason. I want to get her this dog. If I have to, I’ll keep it at my house. But I’d like to get you on board with it.”
I wouldn’t. I didn’t want Stacia around dogs, either. But there was nothing more I could say about it right now.
“Let me know how her day was,” I finally said, an unspoken resignation that we’d revisit this conversation later.
Keifer left through the front of the shop, leaving me alone with the sounds of the dogs still barking out back. Frustrated and on edge now, I strode toward the back door and flung it open, ready to give Trevor a piece of my mind. He stood on the back porch of the building, laughing and talking to the dogs.
I glared at him. As if he could sense my anger, he looked up, his gaze landing on me. Immediately, his eyes went wide, his body stiffening. He gave me tentative half smile and lifted his hand in a wave, but I could tell it was forced.
He didn’t like me. Not that I could blame him. I hadn’t exactly been a friendly business neighbor. Right now I wanted to stalk over and demand he take his dogs inside so I could have some peace and quiet to get back to work.
But something stopped me. Maybe it was the way he kept jerking his gaze away from me, only for it to come back to my face seconds later. He swallowed hard, his nerves evident.
And then I just felt like an ass. I knew I was projecting. But fuck, this day had been hard. First Stacia asking for the dog, then thinking about Gary, and finally Keifer dredging up the bad memories from my past.
I gave Trevor a terse smile, barely a slant of my lips and a quick nod, then turned back to the shop.
I had more work ahead of me this afternoon and didn’t have time to worry about what Trevor thought of me.
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Secret Daddy
Timberwood Cove: Book 3
Liam Kingsley
© 2019
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.
This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18).