As he stood there smiling at me, I could see over his shoulder that Ivy had slapped a twenty in Lexie’s hand. She tapped the woman he’d been dancing with on the shoulder, and as soon as she stepped back, Ivy swooped in and began to lead Duncan around the dance floor. A moment later, Ivy managed to dip the groom, and the guests roared with laughter.
Julian joined us with three glasses of champagne. “To the bride and groom,” he said.
Since the wedding was all but over I went ahead and shared a celebratory drink with—I caught myself. I’d mentally been thinking of them as my family for the past few months, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Family didn’t keep secrets. Not secrets like this.
As I tapped my glass to Julian’s I could see a bit of resemblance between him and Leilah. Truth be told, both of Thomas’ children favored him, and I had to wonder if the problems with the dis-owned Leilah had influenced how the older man had swooped into the rescue for Willow and me last year.
Discovering they’d all kept things from me had made me start to question their motives.
Which in turn, made me feel ungrateful.
“To family.” Thomas made the toast and my smile felt strained as I did my best to act as if nothing was amiss. Thomas Drake had been nothing but kind and generous to us, but now he seemed more like a stranger than ever before.
So, Thomas had a daughter. In the almost five months I’d been in William’s Ford not one person had ever mentioned her existence to me. Julian caught my eye and gave me slight nod. Almost as if he knew where my thoughts lay. I looked at his unusual eyes, glanced down at Willow and reminded myself the proof of our family bond was right there. Stamped in Willow’s blue and brown eyes as surely as they were in Julian’s.
And if Julian was a magickal practitioner, I realized suddenly, or had any sort of intuition like I had, maybe he did know my thoughts.
Telling myself to remain calm, I inclined my head in acknowledgement to whatever he was trying to tell me. Perhaps he was simply silently thanking me for suggesting that he dance with Holly. It could be that simple. I tried to uncoil the muscles that were tight in my shoulders, sipped my champagne, and made a real effort to enjoy this moment with my…family.
And I considered as we all stood there smiling so calmly at each other…what other secrets had I yet to learn about the Drakes?
What else weren’t they telling me?
CHAPTER NINE
By the time I’d arrived home from breaking down the wedding reception, I was wiped out. I started to pull in the driveway, but found it blocked by an alarmingly large dog standing at the bottom of the drive. I gave the horn a quick toot, hoping it would scare the animal away. He didn’t budge. Annoyed, I shoved open the car door, stood, and faced down the stray.
“Shoo!” I waved my arms at the hound.
The dog resembled a Rottweiler, and yet he didn’t leave. Instead he sat down in the center of my driveway and watched me.
I walked around my car door to try again. “Get,” I said. “Go on home!”
That got me no reaction either. “Well, shit.” I muttered, and started to walk closer. “Are you lost, boy?”
The dog growled. I scrambled away from it as fast as I could and hopped back in my car.
My heart pounding, I shut the door and checked to see if the dog had chased me, but I couldn’t see him anymore. I put the car back in gear and eased forward in the driveway, pulling up until I was even with the front porch.
I sat waiting for a few minutes, but there was no sign of the stray. With a shrug, I got out and scooped up Willow who’d fallen asleep in the car. I let myself inside, laid her down on her own bed, and covered her with a light blanket.
I went back to my car, watching for the animal, but the dog was gone. Guess he ran off, I decided, scanning the surrounding area. “I hope the poor dog finds his way home,” I said, retrieving my work tote bag and purse.
I brought those inside and locked the front door behind me, making sure to re-engage the alarm system.
The cottage was calm and blessedly quiet. It was like a soothing balm after several hours of music, laughter and high energy. I rolled my shoulders and headed straight for the shower. Stripping out of my suit, I let it drop to the bathroom floor. Turning up the spray to full blast, I stepped in, tipped my face up, and let the water rinse away the stress I’d been carrying all damn day.
After I toweled off and dried my hair, I slipped into a pair of soft floral yoga pants, and a thin pink t-shirt. I wiggled my bare toes, comfortable and content, and caught sight of myself in the bedroom mirror. “Aw, hell,” I said. The fabric of the shirt was far too sheer to wear without a bra—especially as Wyatt was coming over in a couple of hours.
I fished a pretty lace bra out of the drawer and tidied up the bathroom. My stomach rumbled, and I padded off to the kitchen to make a light snack to hold me over until dinner. Sitting at the drop leaf table in the kitchen with my apple and cheese, I considered everything that had happened at the wedding reception.
Why had Leilah told me to leave town? What was her issue?
On a hunch, I picked up my laptop and booted it up, doing an internet search on Leilah Martin Drake. I found an article on her being involved with a theatre group at the university, saw a few pictures of her from the society page
