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“Stop,” I hissed, glancing around to see if anyone heard. “My pants are most definitely staying on. Nothing is happening with Cole. I promise.” My shoulders sagged, and I grinned reluctantly. “Though, I will say he is still pretty gorgeous.”

Stormy shook her head and took another sip of her drink. “Shifters, man. They age like fine wine. I guess that was God’s gift to make up for making them so dangerous. From what you’ve told me, it sounds like being a shifter is no walk in the park.”

The mention of danger reminded me of the scuzzy guy in the hardware store. I’d yet to find a good time to mention him to Cole. As I’d told Stormy, our conversations were solely focused on Ashton.

“Hey, do you know someone named Kyle Alexander?” I asked. “He’s a shifter I met at the store the other day, and he sort of rubbed me the wrong way.”

“Kyle Alexander?” She frowned, then shook her head. “Doesn’t ring a bell. What’s he look like?”

I described him, emphasizing his ugliness—in appearance and attitude—and what he’d said to me.

Stormy looked concerned. “That sounds sketchy as hell. I’ve never heard of or seen the guy before. You really should bring that up with Cole. It sounds like something he should be aware of.”

“You’re probably right.” I’d tell him the next chance I got.

After our brunch date, Stormy and I headed home. I had a lot of work to do, and I wanted to get most of it done before Cole and Ashton returned.

The day dragged on, with work taking up most of my attention, but Kyle Alexander kept popping up in my head every now and then. By the time Cole’s truck pulled up outside, I was ready to ask him about the strange man.

Ashton bounded out of the truck, a huge smile on his face as I stepped outside.

“You look excited,” I said as he rushed toward me. “I’m guessing you had a good time?”

“It was super cool,” he said. “He showed me around the alpha house, and we walked in the forest where the pack likes to do their runs sometimes. Cole even shifted, and I got to see his wolf. It was so awesome.”

“I don’t think it’s that great,” Cole said.

“It was,” Ashton said, then turned to me. “Oh! Did you bring any leftovers? I’m starving.”

“I ate all of mine, but I got you a bagel sandwich. It’s in the fridge, you just need to heat it up.”

“Yes!” Ashton pumped his fists in the air. “Food.” He ran for the door, but stopped at the last second to wave at Cole. “Bye. See you tomorrow?”

Cole grinned. “Sure thing, bud. We’ll work out a time.”

“Sweet,” Ashton said, and vanished inside.

I smiled. “Looks like you made an impression today.”

Cole gave me a self-deprecating shrug. “It really wasn’t that great. It’s because he’s getting close to his shift. Every emotion is cranked to ten. Just be aware that he may come crashing down later. It’s to be expected.”

“Cole, can I ask you something?”

He eyed me, obviously worried I was going to say something he didn’t want to hear or make some judgment on him.

“I guess so. What’s up?”

“Do you know a man named Kyle Alexander?”

From his confused frown and the way he looked up at the sky to rack his brain, I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

“Not that I can remember. Who is he?”

A chill crept up my spine. The man had made a point of saying he was a business associate of Cole’s. That meant he was lying, and it made me worry about why he’d have lied about something like that.

“He introduced himself to me a few days ago at the hardware store. Kind of a bulky, ugly guy. Bald head, big nose, kinda looked like an ogre.”

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “What did this guy have to say?”

“He told me he knew you, that he was a business partner of yours. Said he and your family went way back or something.”

“I have never met or heard of this guy in my life.” Cole looked more anxious than I’d ever seen him. “Did he say anything else? Like why he was approaching you?”

I shook my head, at a loss for what this all meant. “No. He said he’d heard through the grapevine that an old friend of yours was back in town, and he wanted to say hi. Cole, I have to be honest, he was creepy as shit. He made some lewd comments. It was gross.”

Cole’s eyes changed then, going from confused to fiery. “What did he say to you?” he growled, a deep, rumbling sound, his voice taut with barely contained anger.

“Just stupid shit. The kind of stuff a drunk asshole would say at a bar. Don’t worry about that. Is this a guy you should worry about?”

The wrinkles on his forehead soothed as he relaxed a fraction. “It doesn’t sound good,” he admitted. “It’s a little disconcerting that this guy knows me and found out you were in town so fast.” He glanced at the house. “Does this place have a security system by chance? Cameras? Alarms? Anything?”

“Uh, no. The TV is probably from the ‘60s. Grandma was old-fashioned, and I never had anything installed while I was away.” The thought of my grandmother trying to program a wall-mounted security system keypad was so ridiculous that I nearly laughed.

Cole took a slow, deep breath, filling his lungs until I thought they might burst. I remembered him doing it whenever he was about to ask someone something he thought they might say no to—as if girding himself with oxygen for an argument.

“What do you think about me having one installed here?”

I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

The fact that Cole had no clue who this guy was concerned me even more, but having him take care of securing my house wasn’t in my plans.

“A security system,” Cole said. “Let me call Trent. We had a security business together. He came back home with me, but he’s still got contacts. He can order all the stuff and have it shipped overnight. We can take care of installation, too.”

I opened my mouth to tell him I could handle my own security, but he held up a hand.

“Don’t look at this as some charity thing or me trying to get back in your good graces.

Some creepy guy is sniffing around you and my son.

The least I can do after everything is make your house secure.

Please let me do this for you. I won’t be able to sleep, knowing you guys aren’t one hundred percent safe. ”

He was being protective of us. Whether he realized it or not, that’s what he was doing.

If someone had told me a month ago that Cole Garrett would be trying to take care of me and Ashton, I’d have probably had an aneurysm.

Now, after seeing the way he interacted with Ashton and the worry in his eyes…

it tugged at my heart a bit. A small, almost imperceptible spark of lust tried to burst into flame within me, but I quickly tamped it down before it could go further than the first fleeting images at the back of my mind.

The fact that I’d even entertained that idea for a second annoyed me, and I let my irritation show when I spoke again.

“Sorry, Cole,” I said. “But we’ve survived without your help for fifteen years. No need to start changing things now.”

Cole flinched, almost as if I slapped him, and my anger turned to shame. That was a low blow.

“I’m sorry, Cole,” I said quickly. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s okay. I understand.”

He looked like a dog who’d been kicked right when he thought it was gonna get ear scratches.

“I abandoned you,” he said after a moment.

“You had to raise Ashton on your own, figure out everything alone, and that isn’t fair.

I wish I could go back in time and slap my younger self, but I can’t.

All I can do is work for the future. I want what’s best for Ashton and you.

I want to help, but the only way that can happen is if you work with me.

” He peered at me with sad eyes that again tried to pierce the armor I’d put around my heart.

“All I want is for you guys to be safe and to get Ashton through his first shift. Can you work with me on that?”

I nodded, feeling like a bigger ass by the second. Glancing over my shoulder at the house, I made sure Ashton wasn’t peeking through any windows before looking at Cole again.

“I can do that, Cole. Again, I shouldn’t have tried to make you feel like shit. I apologize.”

“Nothing to apologize for. I fucked up.” He smiled sadly.

“There’s no denying that. I had my reasons for leaving like that, but looking back, it seems a lot less important than it did at the time.

Hopefully, one day, you’ll let me explain, and you’ll finally get some answers.

For now?” He pinned me with his gaze. “I want to fix things.”

From the way he was staring at me, I got the feeling he was talking about more than fixing things with Ashton. That was a big part of it, but there was more he wasn’t saying. A deeper meaning to his words.

The serious look on Cole’s face vanished as he snorted a laugh.

I blinked in surprise. “What?”

“You’ll never change,” he said, and reached forward.

Before I had time to realize what he was doing, his fingers were gliding along my neck, his skin warm on mine as he tugged at my collar.

“You always had your collar crooked,” he said as he finished fixing it. “You’d think a lady would be more aware of that stuff.”

A hesitant smile formed on my lips. How many times had he done that when we were dating?

I was always too worried about getting to school or my college classes on time to worry about my clothes.

He’d adjusted collars, redone missed buttons, and helped rethread belts through missed loops.

After Ashton was born, I’d taken more care to make sure I was properly put together, but I still regressed sometimes.

Him remembering that, along with the echoing memory of his hands on the back of my neck, had that little spark of lust rearing its head and nudging me toward something I wasn’t sure I wanted to face.

It threatened to open doors to memories of the love we’d once shared.