“Hey, Abram. Would you like some breakfast?” Scarlett asked as she pushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear.
“I’m kinda tired.” He palmed the back of his neck.
“Then coffee should wake you right up.” Looking as regal as ever in her violet-colored, light spring cardigan paired with jeans and equestrian boots, Gram stood and pulled out the chair beside her. Her silver bob reached just below her chin as she looked at him with eyes the same color as his. Unable to refuse her, he sat down in the seat she offered. As she looked at Davis and motioned toward the kitchen, Abram’s cousin jumped up. After disappearing inside for a bit, he returned with another coffee mug.
Abram sighed, accepting a cup of black java. “Thanks.”
Davis regarded him with interest as if he expected him to say something. Please don’t ask. He sipped from his cup, wishing his stomach wasn’t so sickly and his head wasn’t such a mess. Maddie hadn’t said two words to him on the ride back to the ranch, and she’d squealed tires out of there so fast he’d thought her vehicle might take flight. He’d never seen someone so mad look so beautiful. The moment she was out of his sight, his stomach turned sour and his chest started to ache.
“You’re back early. I thought you and Maddie might sleep in and take some time to explore before coming home.”
Abram grunted, looking down at his cup. Feeling like shit was bad enough, but talking about it would be worse.
Gram tapped her fingers on the table. “What happened? Did you do something to upset that girl?”
He looked up and frowned. “Me? Why is everything automatically my fault?” He glanced at Davis for help, but after witnessing the look exchanged between his cousin and Scarlett, he knew he was on his own.
“Well? What went wrong?” Gram looked down her thin-bridged nose at him.
His nostrils flaring, he lifted his chin and answered with defiance, “She nearly got us attacked by wild animals in a cave and then she embarrassed the crap out of me and had the nerve to get mad at me about it.”
Davis palmed his face and frowned. “I kind of thought the two of you would hit it off.”
“We did at first but she had to go and do some unnecessary stuff. It freaked me out.”
“What kind of—“
Before Gram could get the words out, Abram stood up and cut her off. “I never should have come back here.”
The way his gram’s face morphed from shock to disappointment hurt Abram’s heart, but he was too worked up to back down. He averted his eyes as he pushed his chair under the table before bolting toward the house. As he closed the screen door between the kitchen and the porch, he could hear Gram sobbing, and then he heard Davis. “Don’t worry. Give him some space.”
Abram felt about as low as a flea as he pushed open the door and stepped into his spacious bedroom. The large two-story home where he had resided since moving to the mountain belonged to Davis’s dad, but since the silver fox moved to an assisted living community to chase widows, Davis was considered the man of the house. Melly and a couple of their younger cousins lived there too. Gram had her own place a short distance down the road.
He sat on the patchwork quilt covering his double bed before he bent over to remove his boots. The bed’s pinewood frame creaked as he reclined backward and stared at the visible wood beam ceiling. Why did I come back here? He considered his query. Gram had asked him to, but it had to be more than that. He wanted to know the rest of his kin. His shifter relatives were the only family he had left. Even still, he and his mom had gotten along fine without them for most of his life. He rubbed his face as he sighed.
He pushed back his covers and crawled into bed, hoping to sleep through his day off. No matter how hard he tried to push thoughts of Maddie out of his mind, he couldn’t. He remembered everything, especially her scent but also her soft skin and the way she tasted when they kissed. The idea of not seeing her again weighed heavily on his heart, creating a deep aching sensation in his chest.
Maddie picked up her phone and looked at the display. She recognized Davis’s number and answered, “Yeah?”
“Hey, Mittens, so…”
“Just shut the hell up, Davis.” She flopped down in her seat, tapping her foot on the floor as she seethed. “Your cousin is a total asshole. Un-fucking-believable.”
“Can I talk now?”
“I guess.” Button, her tabby cat, crawled on her lap and meowed loudly. She stroked the animal’s back. Somehow, touching the soft fur calmed her.
“You want to tell me what happened?” Davis’s voice was its usual low timbre and ultra-reasonable tone.
“You mean before or after he pulled a gun on me?”
“What?”
“Why don’t you ask your self-hating cousin? Apparently, I’m disgusting and should be ashamed of being a shifter.”
“He said all that?”
“He didn’t have to say it. The look on his face made his feelings obvious.”
“I’m sorry. I guess you don’t want to see him again.”
Maddie bit down on her bottom lip and rolled her swollen eyes. She’d cried herself to sleep last night only to be tortured by dreams of Abram. Somehow her head felt heavier than ever before even as she rested it against her chair. She couldn’t find the words to say to her friend. She didn’t know how to explain the pull she’d experienced when her body had pressed against Abram’s and their pheromone-filled sweat and mixed and mingled. She struggled not to cry again. “We’ll
