Page 3

Remi cast a worried glance over toward Bailey as he drove her home. She hadn’t said a single word since he’d helped her get in the car.

“You sure you’re alright?” he asked.

Bailey didn’t turn to look at him, instead continuing to gaze out through the closed window into the darkness. “Mmhmm.”

Remi drove for another mile or so then turned down the radio.

Bailey briefly turned to look at the radio, then back out of the window.

“No, something’s not right. This isn’t normal for you. Talk to me.”

“I’ve been trying to talk to you — all afternoon and evening.”

“And we’ve been talking. I don’t understand.”

He detected a slight shake of her head. He had no doubt it was meant to imply disbelief instead of disagreement.

“Bailey, please tell me what I did. Obviously I’ve upset you somehow.”

“It’s fine, Remi. I just thought this was something that it’s not.”

He thought about that for a moment. “What, this? Us? Is that what you mean?”

“Yeah. But it’s fine. I understand.”

Remi guided the car to a stop on the side of the road, put it in park and turned toward Bailey, who was now looking back and forth between the darkened night, the trees and shadows, and Remi.

“I’m genuinely sorry, Bailey. I don’t know what I did, but it obviously affected you so much so that you’ve pulled away from me. That’s nothing I ever wanted.”

Bailey seemed to sink lower into her seat as she stared ahead. “I’m not angry with you, Remi. I have no right to be. Just disappointed, and a little confused.”

“Over what, Bailey?! I’m still sitting over here running over the evening in my head, trying to figure out what I did.”

She turned her head to look at him, focusing in on his eyes, looking into his as intently as he looked into hers. “You really have no clue, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” he said, shaking his head.

She laughed softly, shaking her own head as she looked forward through the windshield again. “That makes it even worse. You’re not even aware.”

“Bailey…”

She looked his way again, her patience now about to be stretched to its limit. “I’ve tried to speak to you since the reception started. Nothing special, just chit chat like we usually do. But you haven’t heard anything I’ve said for the last three hours or so.”

He kind of jerked his head back as he reacted to her statement, thinking it was ridiculous. “I’ve heard you. We’ve been talking.”

“Not unless I spoke your name repeatedly, or asked Tempest to get your attention. And she had to call your name sharply to get you to look our way.”

“I don’t remember that. I’m not saying you’re exaggerating, but I don’t remember a single instance of that. I’d never treat you that way, you mean too much to me to not be my focus when we’re together.”

“I thought so, too. That’s where the disappointment comes in.”

Clearly flustered, he looked around a few times as though he was searching for anything else that could contribute to his defense.

Finally he reached for the shifter to put the car in drive so they could continue on their way, but at the last second, he pulled his hand back.

“Okay, so if you’re so sure that I wasn’t paying attention to you — ALL EVENING — then what was I doing instead? ”

Bailey smiled sadly at him. “Staring at Cristie.”

“That’s crazy! I was just surprised to see her, I had no idea she’d be coming in with her parents for the wedding. That’s all.”

“And I get that. I do. But when it went on for three hours, no matter what she was doing, who she was speaking to, where she was standing, and no one could get your attention without an unreasonable amount of effort to break the concentration you watched her with, I decided that it was best for me to just go and give you the freedom to do whatever it was you felt drawn to do.”

He opened his mouth a few times, but closed it again before any words at all came out.

He knew he’d been a little distracted with Cristie, but still doubted that it had been as obvious, or intrusive even, as Bailey said.

“I think maybe you’re being a little sensitive.

Yeah, I was surprised and glad to see her, but I don’t think it’s as over the top as you’re saying.

But I get it. I should have been more attentive.

I’m sorry I made you feel like I wasn’t paying attention to you.

I was wrong for anything I did to make you feel that way. ”

“Thank you for saying so. But I’m not just being sensitive.”

“It’s okay if you were. I care about you, and if I felt like you were focused on another guy instead of me, I’d be more than a little put out myself. It’s okay.”

“I’m not put out, Remi. I’m just making some realizations.”

“Then add this to your realizations… I’ve never felt about anybody the way I do you.

I’ve had a thing for you for a long time.

Do you really think I’m incapable of making my own coffee and breakfast?

I come in to the shop every single day, and have for more than a year, because I want to see you.

I wake up thinking about you, and it makes me smile. I really honestly care about you.”

“You weren’t behaving like it today. If you’d told me this yesterday, I’d have been over the moon. Today, I think maybe you’re not in touch with what’s shifted inside you. Something has, and honestly I’d rather it happen now than before this goes any further.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Remi asked, growing more upset.

She hesitated before answering. “I’m not sure what I’m doing. I just know that something’s different than it was. Maybe you honestly don’t see it.”

“I think you don’t see what’s right in front of you. I…” he’d meant to declare his love for her, but found that he couldn’t make the words come out. “I…”

Bailey watched his face as he struggled to express himself, almost certain he was trying to say ‘I love you’, but just couldn’t make himself do it.

“I care about you, so very much. I don’t want to lose you. Can we just accept that I made you feel unseen tonight, though I didn’t mean to. And that I’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen again?”

“Please just take me home, Remi. I’m not up for this right now.”

He sat there, not wanting to end the conversation and knowing that if he got back on the road, she’d shut down again, using him driving as an excuse to stop talking.

“I know you’re a good man. I know you’d never intentionally hurt anybody. I’m just tired and overwhelmed. I want to go home.”

“We’ll finish it tomorrow, okay?” he asked.

“It’s finished. I can’t imagine anything else that needs to be said. We both know how the other feels.”

“I am genuinely sorry I made you feel like you were being ignored.”

“I know. It’s clear you didn’t even know you were doing it.”

“So, I’m forgiven?” he asked, smiling that little boy smile that flashed his dimples.

“Sure.”

He reached for her hand, but she threaded her fingers together, letting her hands rest in her lap as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

Remi’s smile slowly faded as he watched her pull even further away from him emotionally. But he put the car in drive and carefully pulled back onto the dark, two lane highway. Giving her the only thing she seemed to be open to accepting from him right now — a ride home.

“We’re going to be fine, Bailey. And you know? It’s probably a good thing we had this misunderstanding.”

“How’s that?” she asked.

“It reminds me that there are some things we should talk about before too much longer.”

“Like what?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

“Just family things. Everybody has skeletons in their family closets,” he said, laughing lightheartedly.

She didn’t open her eyes or respond, she was fairly certain that whatever family secrets he had to share, they wouldn’t have made a single difference in how she felt about him.

Now, though, she was rethinking everything.

Especially after the way he’d laser focused on Cristie.

To her it was clear, it wasn’t even intentional on his part, he just couldn’t help it.

“And don’t think we’re not having breakfast tomorrow. I’ll be there, just like always. Gotta see my girl to start my day!” he said brightly.

Bailey tried to smile if for his benefit only, but he didn’t see it.

They drove quietly on to her apartment.

Remi pulled up in front of the coffee shop, closed up tight for the night and turned off the engine.

“I can get myself inside. No reason for you to get out of the car,” she said, trying to be as nice as she could, but her tone came across as exhausted.

“You have to go around the back of the building, and it’s nighttime. I’ll walk you.”

“It’s fine, Remi. It’s safe here. Thanks for getting me home. I’m sorry I took you away from your evening with your family.”

“Don’t be. You know it’s more important to see about you.”

“You should hurry back. I know y’all do your parties big at the bonfires.”

Remi grinned. “It’s going to be wild! Havoc and Analise are due a huge celebration. You sure you don’t want to come back with me?”

Bailey, now standing outside the car, shook her head. “Drive safe, Remi. Have fun.”

“Let me see you inside,” he said, opening his door.

“I’m already practically there! See you later!” she called, slamming his door and half-jogging toward the side alley that would take her to the back stairs and her upstairs apartment over the coffee shop.

She hurried up the metal stairs to her door, pausing only briefly as she unlocked it and let herself inside.

She flipped on the lights and closed the door simultaneously.

She turned to face the glass door and just barely glimpsed Remi at the bottom of her stairs, looking up toward her apartment as she jerked her shade down.

Ignoring him, and hoping he’d go away instead of coming up, she thought to herself that maybe a glass exterior door wasn’t the smartest choice, she considered for the first time replacing it with a solid wood door as a way of giving herself more privacy.

“Maybe later,” she muttered as she tossed her purse toward her love seat, then pulled down the shades on the large window to the right of the door, and in the window of the small kitchen that shared the living room space, too.

She stood there, leaning against the kitchen sink for a minute or two before she shook herself out of her self-imposed funk and headed to her bedroom.

She walked through her small apartment, looking at all the cute little touches she’d added since she’d moved into her new place.

It had been Tempest’s before she’d moved in with Brandt, and spending time in it with Tempest made her want to live there once it was available.

Bailey flipped on the light in her bedroom and bathroom, turning on the shower to allow the water to heat up as she stripped out of her clothes and grabbed a favorite old, worn out teeshirt to sleep in.

She turned on the television for background noise, then circled back to the shower, stepping thankfully under the hot water spray.

Sighing with relief, she did her best to block out the disaster of a date.

Outside Remi stood on the small metal landing outside her door, listening to her movements as she went about sealing herself inside her apartment.

He heard her footsteps through the place, the shower start, a drawer slide open and closed, and the television come on.

Apparently, she was doing exactly what she’d told him she wanted — take a shower and go to bed.

He laid his hand on the glass door, and imagined her inside. “It’s gonna be alright,” he promised.

He had the thought as he went back down her stairs — careful not to make a single sound on the metal steps — that he wasn’t sure if he was assuring himself, or her.

~~~

Searing pain ripped through his body as he forced himself to shift from his beast to his human form.

Lying on his back in the shallow water lapping at the river bank, his chest heaved as his long, black hair spread out around his head and shoulders.

Teeth clenched he pushed himself up and onto the drier ground just above the river’s edge.

He cursed the female for compelling him to follow.

And she had done just that, compelled him, even if she didn’t know she had.

He despised the power she had over him, and that was his entire reason for being here — to face that power and shut it down so he could effortlessly move on with his life.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled over onto his belly and struggled to his knees.

“Aggravating female,” he grumbled, before gathering his fortitude and surging to his feet.

A while later he pushed off the large water oak he’d been leaning against and focused on a set of stairs that led up to somebody’s house.

Hanging on that stairwell hung a long rain jacket.

Taking it off the banister, he slipped it on.

He looked down at his body. The rain jacket was almost too small across his shoulders, and it fell just at his knees, rather than down to his calves like it was meant to do, but it kept him from walking around naked, and that was the whole purpose.

It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. He took the first of many steps he’d take that night, moving steadily, albeit slowly in the direction she’d gone with the male that he’d have to kill before he left the female on her own — eventually.

It might take some time to get her out of his blood. “Damned female,” he hissed.