Disobedient Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (23 page)

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes again, and she pulled away from his grip. “I can’t,” she whispered. “Please understand. It’s all too much. It’s just too much.”

He stared down at her with a muscle pulsing in his jaw. Then he turned and stalked away like Caleb had. She stood alone in the corner, hugging herself against the chill that began to sharpen in the evening air. Or perhaps the cold had swept in because of the absence of two men who heated her very blood.

Ted’s kind voice drifted to her from across the deck. “Rose?”

She blinked back rising tears and offered him a brave smile, though she didn’t trust herself to answer.

“Mind lending a fellow cook a hand?”

Her legs felt attached to someone else’s body as she walked over to where Ted stood with the freshly-scrubbed grill grate in his hand. Those legs wanted to change course and go after Stephen and Caleb, even though they’d likely had enough head start on leaving that she wouldn’t be able to run down their car. Even if she could, she’d made a decision based on hard, cold facts. She needed to stick to it, not give in to her traitorous, irrational emotions.

“Could you hand me the oil over there?” he said, nodding to a cruet on his prep table that he could easily have gotten himself. “And one of those paper towels.”

She grabbed both while deciding how to word her good-byes and make a break for her car before he commented on what he’d just seen.

“I hope you’ll stay and keep an old man company,” he said, as if he’d heard her thoughts. “As you’ve seen, most folks tend to abandon ship once the barbecue fire is out. It’s not near as fun out here with no one to talk to.”

So much for escape. “After the fine meal you whipped up, that’s the least I can do.” She glanced around. “Don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to actually help?”

“Sticking around through the finer points of grill maintenance is sacrifice enough,” he said. “Though if you wouldn’t mind folding up that paper towel and pouring a fair shake of oil on it, I would be doubly grateful.”

While she did as instructed, he chattered on. “Delores is forever telling me to just leave the grill for later and enjoy our guests while I can.”

“Sounds reasonable. Why don’t you?”

“It does seem like the smart thing to do, I’ll admit. Trouble is, once I walk away from a thing, I can’t seem to find my way back to it later. Then I’m sorry I didn’t see it through when I had the chance.”

Her eyes snapped sharply to his as she handed over the oiled pad of toweling, but if he was trying to draw some comparison between barbecues and her life, she couldn’t tell from his gaze.

“I noticed your wife likes to get a head start on her cleanup, too,” Rose said. “She was setting all the dishes to soak the last time I left the kitchen.”

“Think I might be rubbing off on her,” he said, stroking the paper towel along the grill lines until the surface gleamed. “That sort of thing is bound to happen after twenty years of marriage.”

The fondness in his tone and sparkle in his eye when he talked about Delores struck a funny chord in her heart. She tried to picture loving someone over the long term, still being devoted to the same person after two decades.

“At the risk of sounding like a nosy old codger,” he said as he tossed away the toweling and lifted the grill back into place, “is everything okay? Stephen seemed less himself than usual when he left.”

She shrugged, wondering what to say that wouldn’t reflect too badly on Stephen—or the situation.

“I don’t mean to pry,” he went on. “But even though I’m something of an absent host after dinner, that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned with my guests having a good time.”

“Oh, but we had a wonderful time,” she said. “I suppose he just wasn’t all that happy about my new travel assignment.”

“I don’t blame him. He hasn’t been the same man lately, you know. And I mean that as a compliment.”

She cocked her head. “How so?”

“Don’t get me wrong. Stephen was a fine man before. But in all the time I’ve known him, he always seemed a little distant. Like he was staring off into the future, waiting for something. Whatever that something was, he seemed to have found it right when you came along.”

Saliva dried in her throat. “I’m just not sure he found what he thought he did.”

He closed the grill top and placed his palm on it, as through checking the temperature. “If you don’t mind me saying, Caleb seemed just as upset as Stephen. He doesn’t want you to go either, I take it.”

A stab of guilt passed through her. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I know you don’t know me, my dear, but I don’t feel like we’re strangers. I’ve considered Stephen something of a surrogate offspring for many years. That said, I know my son. He’s very happy with you. But there’s more to it than just the two of you, isn’t there?”

Her cheeks burned while she wished she hadn’t been taken in by Ted’s seeming innocent plea for company. Apparently, he wasn’t the lonely old man he’d portrayed. He just wanted to pump her for dirt about his recently disgraced physician.

“I really don’t know how to answer that,” she stammered. “And I probably should get going.”

“Please don’t,” he said quickly. “I have no right to dig into your personal affairs. I’m not out to judge Stephen, either. I just don’t want to see either of you hurt. He’s like family to me. That makes you family, too.”

Her tense shoulders relaxed a little. “It’s not his fault,” she said, wondering why she was defending Stephen rather than running out the door. “It’s me. I almost got caught up in a whirlwind romance. By the time I realized my mistake, I’d already hurt him. I just wish I’d have done something sooner.”

Ted picked up a large, black cover and pulled it over the grill. “What’s wrong with whirlwind romance?”

“Plenty. For one, I don’t plan on making my mother’s mistakes.” Her eyes widened a little. God, had that comment just flown out at a stranger?

“Ah.” He cinched the cover’s tie around the grill. “The sins of our parents can be tough to outrun.”

“I love my mother,” she said quickly. “But she is a notoriously poor judge of character when it comes to men. She’d been married four times by the time I was sixteen, not counting my father. The last was to a man she’d only known two weeks.”

She paused and shook her head.

“After they eloped to Vegas,” she went on, “John pointed out that his idea of raising teenagers could be summed up in two words. Boarding school. Mom asked my grandmother to look after me until she could ‘smooth things over.’ She left him six months later, but not because they hadn’t come to terms about me. She’d caught him cheating.”

Ted pulled off his apron and laid it aside. “I am sorry. I can see where a childhood like that would make you reluctant to fall in love.”

She snorted and folded her arms. “It made me the complete opposite of what she was. At least, I thought it had. People used to say I was the spitting image of her. She’s quite beautiful, so I’m sure it was meant as a compliment. But all I could think was they were waiting for me to fail at love, too. That I’d have a new man every other week that they could joke about in social circles.”

The words had shot from her in a babbling rush, and once they were out, embarrassment fired her cheeks. She’d just neatly outlined her family legacy, explaining how she wound up shaming herself in a hospital store room with a man she barely knew. Like mother, like daughter.

Ted, however, seem unperturbed as he picked up a long-handled fork and rubbed it with a dish towel. Twilight passed into evening, and the coach lamps sitting on the corner posts of the deck flickered to life.

“It sounds like your mother was searching for something she never found,” he said. “That’s unfortunate. But just because she hasn’t doesn’t mean no one can. Take me, for instance.”

She lifted a brow. “You?”

“Sure. I proposed to Delores after only two months. We were wed within the year. And here I am, still happy. She’s tolerated my quirks for twenty years.”

She had to smile at his carefree grin. “Sounds like you were incredibly lucky in beating the odds.”

“Maybe you will be, too.”

“But how did you know it was right?”

“You just know. Or hope you know, I suppose. You listen to your heart.”

Hers was thumping erratically. “My mother listened to her heart, and it was a nightmare. I just don’t know if I can trust mine. We have the same genetics.”

Ted’s answer was cut off by the sound of twigs snapping down below the deck. They both stopped, listening. What happened next shot her eyes open wide.

There were two of them, vaulting impossibly over the railing of the well-elevated deck. They landed with ominous thuds on the wood flooring quite near the corner where she had argued with her mates. Their large heads were raised high, and their ears were directed forward at Rose and Ted while their nostrils flared to scent the air.

They were wolves.

“What the devil!” Ted exclaimed. “That’s impossible. Wolves can’t jump fifteen feet in the air.”

Rose stared at the animals who were staring right back. The fur around their necks stood rigid, and their eyes shone with a familiar intelligence that blazed brighter than their fierce, gold irises.

“I don’t think they’re ordinary wolves,” she said.

One stepped forward, issuing a warning growl when Ted tried to back away. Both wolves were a dirty brown-gray color, not the sleek gray or gray-tipped brown she would have recognized. That eliminated the possibility of Stephen or Caleb having a sudden insane urge to shift and pounce on the deck. It wasn’t Seth come to visit, either. Whoever these wolves were, they were strangers. And they didn’t appear friendly.

The lead wolf snarled louder, and with a brief crouch, it sprang at Ted. Rose reacted without thinking.

“Stop!” she shouted, raising her arms to the sides while she jumped soundly between the animal and Ted. The wolf dropped onto all fours not a foot away, its lip peeled back over sharp teeth.

She tugged the strap of her tank top aside. “You know what this means. Get away from here.”

“Rose!” Ted said from behind her. “What are you doing? Run inside.”

“It’s all right,” she said over her shoulder. “They can’t hurt me.”

The wolves, however, seemed to have other thoughts on that. The second one pressed around from the side, cutting off the path to the door. The pair of them stalked forward, herding her and Ted back until they were cornered.

“Don’t be crazy,” Ted said, trying to tug on her when she stayed in front of him. “Get behind me.”

The wolf in front of her gave what appeared to be a bizarre grin.

Her mind raced as she tried to think her way clear of disaster. “You know I’m aware of what you are,” she said to it. “What’s the matter? Afraid to face a defenseless woman while upright?”

“Why are you provoking it?” Ted whispered.

“None of the wolves I’ve met have been cowards,” she went on, ignoring Ted. “Maybe there’s a first time for everything.”

The wolf growled and snapped at her, and she jerked back until she was pressed tight to Ted’s front. He grabbed her arms and tried to slide her out of the way, but she grabbed hold of the railing beside her, holding her ground. She was the one wearing the protective mark. She had to stay in front of him.

The animal shook itself like a wet dog, and the shudder that followed pulsed through its fur in a way she knew quite well. The wolf rose up as Ted’s fingers dug into her arms tight, and its bones crackled and lengthened while the fur dissolved into the form of a man.

“Mother of God,” Ted murmured.

“Maybe you weren’t worth the bother of a shift,” the werewolf said to her. “It ain’t all that pleasant a sensation.”

The square-faced male standing before her had yellow eyes that hadn’t dimmed during his transformation. He was just as intimidating in this form, too. Human or not, his body was covered in a lot of hair, starting with an unruly brown mop on his head. A wicked tattoo of a fanged snake head was emblazoned on his thick, sinewy neck, but few other parts of him were smooth. Even fewer were devoid of muscle. And judging from the twitching dick between his legs, the process of transformation couldn’t have been too unpleasant.

“What the hell is this?” Ted was muttering.

“Why shift if I wasn’t worth the bother?” she asked.

“It occurred to me you might have a better use than dinner.” His smile was no less frightening for its movie-star whiteness.

“I’m not afraid of you hurting me.” She lifted her chin, though she couldn’t keep the quiver from her voice. “I showed you my mark. You can’t lay a finger on me.”

He cocked his head. “Sounds like someone has been sadly misinformin’ you.” He reached out and purposefully, almost painfully pressed a finger on top of her scar. “See there? I laid a finger on you.” He leaned closer. “And I assure you, I can most definitely hurt you if you don’t play nice.”

“Leave her alone,” Ted said.

The other werewolf, who had yet to shift, drew closer and snarled.

“I have to agree with Jess,” the upright one said. “Any man who tries to give orders from behind a lady’s skirts ain’t no manner of man at all. He’s an entree.”