Justin (Fairplay Shifters Series Book 1)

by Serena Meadows

  “You’re probably the only one who would say that. I’ve been wearing this same costume for years, so everyone’s a bit tired of it,” Justin said, taking her hand and leading her towards the bar. “Would you like a drink?”

  “I’ll just have a soda,” Annabelle said, knowing that the last thing she needed was alcohol in her system; being this close to Justin was intoxicating enough.

  When he came back with their drinks, they found a table and sat down. Annabelle took a couple sips of her drink then set it down. They sat in silence, suddenly unsure what to say to one another. Finally Justin stood up and held out his hand.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked, then pulled her to her feet even though she was shaking her head.

  “I don’t know how to dance like that,” she said, looking out at the couples swirling around the dance floor.

  “It’s easy; just follow my lead,” Justin said, opening his arms to her.

  It was an invitation that Annabelle couldn’t refuse, and before she could stop herself, she’d stepped into his waiting arms. For a second, she felt swallowed up; he was so tall that her head barely reached the middle of his chest, but then the feeling passed, replaced by a feeling of total contentment. She relaxed in his arms, and he twirled them out onto the dance floor to join the other couples. His moves were smooth and well-practiced, and before long, she’d forgotten everything but the feeling of floating along in his arms.

  When the dance was over, Annabelle followed him back to the table thinking that something had changed between them, that some barrier had been removed, opening the door to so many possibilities. Once he’d helped her get seated, he pulled his chair over closer, sat down next to her, his body close to hers but not touching, and she felt a shiver travel down her spine. She searched for something to say to fill the silence but came up empty; it was too overwhelming to be sitting so close to Justin.

  When he took her hand in his, her heart began to race at his touch, and she looked up at him to see if he felt the same way. The smile on his face told her everything she needed to know, and a rush of excitement flowed through her; the desire was clear in his eyes, but this time there was something more.

  “I feel like I know you, but I don’t,” he said, voicing her exact thoughts. “Tell me about Annabelle; I want to know all about her.”

  Chapter Six

  ***Justin***

  He was sorry that he’d said it as soon as it was out of his mouth, especially when he saw the look on her face: a mixture of fear and resignation. “Do you want to get out of here? Take a walk instead? I’m not really that much into these dances,” he said, hoping to repair the damage he was sure that he’d done.

  “That sounds nice; it’s just so noisy in here,” Annabelle said, then looked around at all the people crowded into the room.

  “We’ll find someplace a little quieter where we can talk,” Justin said, understanding her reluctance to talk about herself in a crowd of people who loved to gossip.

  When they got outside, he led her to a bench under the trees, let her get settled then sat down next to her. The night was a bit chilly, so Justin took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “I’m sorry if I seemed too forward back there, but I am curious about you,” he said, after they’d sat in silence for a few minutes.

  Annabelle had been telling everyone who asked a very abridged version of her past, but there was something about this man that made her want to tell him the entire truth. An urge she couldn’t explain. She wanted to bare her soul to him, but she reigned in the urge and sorted out a version that was as close to the truth as possible.

  “I know everyone in town thinks that I’m just a spoiled little rich girl, and in some ways that’s true,” she began, her voice shaking a bit.

  Justin nodded his head to encourage her to continue. “My family is quite well off, and I grew up with just about anything a kid could want, but when I turned eighteen, I decided that I wanted to live on my own, so I stopped taking my parents’ money. There’s no trust fund or big bank account in my name; I just graduated from college, and this is my first job,” Annabelle said, thinking she’d got it just right.

  Justin looked at her skeptically thinking about the church and the renovations. Annabelle knew what he was thinking, but she wasn’t sure how to explain the money she’d spent since she’d gotten to town without making both herself and her father look bad, but she knew that she had to try.

  “The money I used to buy the church was guilt money from my father. We had a bit of a falling out, and I guess he thought it would make things better. I was only going to use it to pay for my sister and I to go to Las Vegas, but then I decided to move here, so I used the rest to buy the church and do the renovations.”

  Justin searched his mind, trying to figure out what her father had done that would lead to him giving her the kind of money it had taken for her to get settled here in town and came up empty, most of his ideas so reprehensible he discarded them immediately. He knew that there was far more to the story than she was telling him, but for now, he’d have to be happy with what she’d been willing to share.

  “I’m sorry to hear that; it must have been hard,” Justin said, tipping her head up to look into her eyes.

  Annabelle’s heart skipped a few beats when their eyes met, but she pushed on wanting him to understand why she’d thrown away her life. “I just got tired of other people dictating how I was going to live my life,” she said, the fierce tone of her voice catching Justin off guard. “I’m a grown woman who can make her own decisions. I don’t need my father, the council, or my fiancé to make them.”

  “Your fiancé?” Justin asked, a mixture of disappointment and jealousy coming to life inside him.

  Annabelle sighed. “I was engaged to a man my father chose for me, but I finally opened my eyes and saw what I was committing myself to and called the whole thing off. It wasn’t easy, but it was the right decision. My family’s still not very happy with me, but I guess they’ll come around eventually. I’m not the least bit sorry I did it though. I would have been miserable for the rest of my life. I had to stand up for myself for a change,” she said, her voice holding a strength he’d never heard before.

  He was suddenly aware that there was more than one side to Annabelle, that the nurturing and kind woman all the kids had come to love had more to her, that she was much stronger than she appeared to be. Her inner strength appealed to him, but he was sure that there was more to the story than she was telling him; he could sense that she’d left some important fact out. He wanted to probe, to dig until she told him what she was leaving out, but he could sense that she’d already told him more than she intended.

  “It’s obvious to me that you’re a grown woman, and a very attractive one,” he said, making her stomach flutter and a tingle begin in her middle.

  Feeling incredibly brave, she looked into his eyes and said, “Good.”

  The word barely made it out of her mouth before his mouth cut off any further possibility of talk for several wonderful minutes. When he finally released her, Annabelle’s head was spinning, her insides were on fire, and her brain was frozen. She stared up at him, unable to put two words together, the feeling of his lips still imprinted on hers making her brain fuzzy. He would have kissed her again, but a loud shout from the party reminded them that they weren’t alone.

  “I guess I better get home,” Annabelle said, jumping to her feet, the kiss leaving her more unsettled than she liked. “It’s getting late.”

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” Justin said, the disappointment apparent in his voice.

  “Oh, I walked; it’s only a few blocks,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “Then I’ll walk you home,” Justin said, holding out his arm.

  Annabelle only hesitated a second before tucking her hand into his elbow; she couldn’t stop the little sigh that escaped her mouth when a wave of electricity spread up her arm and swept through her entire body, leaving her wi
th goose bumps that had nothing to do with the chill in the night air. They walked in silence down the street, then turned the corner and her house came into view; it wasn’t hard to spot thanks to the spire reaching high into the night sky. They slowed their steps, not wanting what was happening between them to end.

  When they got to her gate, Justin opened it for her, then followed her to the porch. She stopped at the bottom of the steps, taking a second to decide if what she was about to suggest was a good idea then plunged ahead anyway. “Would you like to see the patio I built?”

  “Sure, I’d like that,” Justin said, glad that she wasn’t ready to go inside yet. “Everyone’s been talking about what you’ve done with this old church.”

  When they stepped around the side of the house, Justin was impressed. What had once been a huge expanse of dead grass was now a red rock patio, with a little seating area and lots of plants. Many were already gone for the year, there having been several hard frosts, but she’d managed to keep a few hardy plants alive, and he could imagine what it would look like in the summer.

  “This is fantastic; I can’t wait to see what you did inside,” he said, looking around him.

  Annabelle felt a little flustered just thinking about him coming inside her house. “If you don’t have to go right away, we could sit and talk. You haven’t told me anything about yourself,” Annabelle suggested a little shocked at herself for asking.

  “I’d like that,” Justin said, waiting for Annabelle to sit down.

  When she chose the little wicker loveseat next to the heater, he joined her, inhaling her scent as he sat down. “I can’t believe you haven’t already heard my life story,” he said, thinking about putting his arm around her.

  She turned a little to face him, “I’ve heard plenty, but I’d rather hear it from you. I don’t have much faith in gossip.”

  Justin nodded his head, understanding exactly what she meant. “Fair enough,” he said, then draped his arm on the back of the seat and leaned back. “My family owns several ranches in the valley; we have two in the high mountains, one in Fairplay, and then a couple on the other side of the valley. We mostly raise cattle, but we also have an outfitting business that we run to pay for our horse rescue.”

  “You were taking a group out that day I saw you at the barn,” Annabelle said, understanding now why he’d been there.

  “We all have to do our part,” he said, shrugging, “I don’t mind it too much, except…” Justin trailed off.

  “Except what?” Annabelle asked.

  “Well, a lot of women see me and decide that… well, they come on to me, and I hate it,” Justin finally managed to spit out, then braced himself for her reaction, sure that like everyone else she was going to laugh and tell him that he was lucky.

  Annabelle thought about her reaction to Justin and knew exactly how those women felt; before she could stop herself, she said, “I understand exactly how they feel; you’re a good-looking man, and you have a magnetism that’s hard to explain.” Then she blushed and looked down, embarrassed that she’d said so much.

  Justin tipped her head up and looking right into her eyes. “I’m glad you feel that way.”

  ***Annabelle***

  Annabelle was sure that he was going to kiss her, but he didn’t. Instead, he sat back and looked up at the stars for a few minutes. “I married Chloe’s mother right out of university; I fell in love with her when I was just a kid, always knew that we’d be together. She died when Chloe was born, and I thought my life was over, that I’d never survive the pain of losing her. But I had Chloe to take care of, and that kept me going; it’s been twelve years, and I think I’m finally beginning to heal,” he said in a rush.

  She’d heard all of this before from the gossips around town but hearing it from Justin made it seem so much more real, and she couldn’t help but reach out and touch his arm. When she touched him, her magic flared to life; all the emotion he was feeling suddenly flooded her, the pain of loss, the love he still felt, but mostly guilt. A deep and searing guilt that she knew was keeping him from healing completely from the loss of someone he loved very deeply.

  Annabelle gasped and shut down her magic, sorry that she’d let it flare to life, but the connection she’d felt with Justin at that moment had been so strong she’d been unable to control it. Empathy and the ability to heal emotional pain was one of her gifts, but she used it sparingly, knew that it was important that people heal on their own. She would have loved to ask him why he felt guilty about his wife’s death, could have probably helped him heal, but that would mean exposing her gift, and she wasn’t going to do that.

  “I’m sorry to hear that; it must have been very hard,” she said, pulling her hand away from his arm, surprised to see that it was shaking just a little bit. “You’ve done a great job with Chloe though; she’s a great kid”.

  Justin had been all too aware of the warmth of her hand on his arm, and the feeling of peace that seemed to flow from her fingers directly into him. But it faded all too quickly, making him wish that she would touch him again, made him think about kissing her: a strange reaction considering what they were talking about. But he couldn’t help it; he wanted Annabelle, wanted to bury himself in her intoxicating scent and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

  Again, Annabelle was sure that he was going to kiss her, and suddenly that didn’t seem like such a good idea. As much as she was attracted to Justin, it was clear that his wife was still alive in his heart, that he had more healing to do. And she couldn’t forget the fact that she was a witch, and not just any witch: that someday she’d have to return to her old life and take on the role that had been hers since birth.

  Chapter Seven

  ***Justin***

  The mention of Chloe’s name brought him out of the fog of desire he’d been immersed in, and he realized what he was doing. Not only did he have a daughter who was soon going to be facing one of the most difficult times of her life, but he was a shifter: something he couldn’t imagine telling Annabelle. Rarely did he mind his shapeshifting ability, but this was one of those times; if he was just a normal man, then things would be so different.

  But he wasn’t normal, and neither was his daughter; even if Annabelle understood who and what he was, he couldn’t risk having another child with a normal woman. He had promised himself that he’d never do that again; he was sure that a woman like Annabelle would want a normal life with a husband and kids of her own and he wasn’t going to deprive her of that life.

  “I’ve been lucky,” he said, then reluctantly got to his feet. “I guess I better get home.”

  He could see that she was a little disappointed, but she covered it quickly. “Oh, okay. I guess it is getting kind of late,” she said, then led him back around to the gate.

  They stood looking at each other in the moonlight, both wishing that things could be different but knowing that a relationship between them was impossible. Justin was just about to turn away and leave her, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her until her knees went weak and she was breathless.

  When he released her, he said, “I know I shouldn’t have done that, but I just couldn’t walk away. There’s something about you, Annabelle, that drives me crazy, but it’s just not the right time for me. I hope you understand.”

  Then he did turn and walk away, leaving Annabelle standing at her gate, her lips still buzzing with his kiss and his words echoing in her mind. She was torn; part of her wanted to follow him, to heal him so that he’d be free to love her, but she knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. If Justin was meant to love her, she’d have to wait for him to heal himself; only then would it be real. And she couldn’t help but think that if he loved her, really loved her, maybe he’d understand if she told him who she really was.

  He knew that Annabelle was watching him, could sense her gaze on his back, and it was a struggle not to turn around and to go her. But he kept putting one foot in fro
nt of the other until he turned the corner and felt the coldness of the loss of her eyes on him. Feeling more alone than he had in a long time, he headed home knowing that he might have just thrown away his chance at happiness.

  ***Annabelle***

  Days turned to weeks, and those weeks turned into months, but there was no sign of Justin in town. It would have been much easier to forget what might have been if she didn’t have to see Chloe every day at school, but it was also a reminder why it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with a parent. The urge to ask Chloe about her father was so strong sometimes that she’d called the girl over to her several times but then chickened out at the last minute, too embarrassed to ask.

  Winter had come to Fairplay weeks ago, bringing with it snow that everyone promised that it would last the entire winter. It was always difficult to tell how much snow had fallen because of the wind in the valley, wind that could wail at the windows and make the night seem colder and much longer than it really was. On those nights, Annabelle would throw an extra blanket on the bed and crawl under the covers, wishing she wasn’t alone, thoughts of Justin crowding her brain.

  The approach of the holidays didn’t help her mood either; she’d spent an enjoyable Thanksgiving with some of her new friends from school, but she missed her family, especially Joslin. Her sister had tried to convince her to come home for Christmas, but she just wasn’t ready to face everyone after her abrupt decision to move. Didn’t want to spend her holiday trying to defend her decision to the people who should have supported her the most. It was frustrating that the very people who were supposed to want what was best for her thought only of what was good for the family and the coven.

  Someday she’d have to go back home, but that wasn’t going to happen until she was good and ready. Instead, she’d opted to spend the holidays alone in Fairplay. Of course, she’d never be completely alone, not in a town this size; the invitations would come, of that she was sure. Not the invitation she really wanted, but there would be kind people who’d be happy to share their celebrations with her.