Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (9 page)

“Jack, my man! How are you? It’s been a minute since I last saw you!”

“I’m great. I’ve just been really busy. But I’d like to buy this lovely lady a drink. Do you think I could get a table?”

“Your wish is my command,” the bouncer said. Then he opened the door, holding it wide so Jack and Silver could step inside. “Sandra! Get these two a VIP table.”

Jack and Silver followed the hostess to a booth in the back corner of the small, dimly lit bar. Luxurious, velvet purple curtains hung from the ceiling at the corners of each booth, and candles lit every table. The bar area was sleek and clean, with the glass from hundreds of liquor bottles glittering on the wall. Silver’s eyes grew wider and wider as Sandra directed them to have a seat and placed two drink menus in front of them.

“Your server will be with you in a moment,” Sandra said. “Enjoy.”

“Okay, seriously, Jack. What is this place, and why does the guy out front think you’re a celebrity? Do you have some side career in acting you haven’t told me about?”

Jack laughed. “Nope, no side career. The guy out front knows me from the hospital. His wife had to have surgery a few months ago, and he was really freaked out about having her go under anesthesia. I took some extra time to talk to him and make him feel better about the whole thing. The surgery went great, and he’s treated me and the other doctors like heroes ever since. He told us if we ever want to come get a drink here when he’s working, we’ll never have to wait.”

“How did you know he’d be here tonight?”

“I didn’t. Just came here hoping we’d be lucky and we were. So, Miss VIP, what drink are you going to get to celebrate?”

Silver looked down at the menu, her eyes scanning the decorative design of the letters. “Oh, wow. There are a lot of great options to choose from.”

“We can stay for a few rounds,” Jack said. “You don’t have to choose just one.”

And he hoped they would stay for a while. Silver looked lovelier than ever in the soft, romantic lighting. Jack forgot for a minute about all the troubles that awaited them beyond the doors of this bar, and he let himself just enjoy being in the moment.

When he was younger, he had always assumed that once he found his lifemate, the relationship would be easy and effortless. The way he felt about Silver was complicated, and a relationship with her would be full of potential difficulties. They would always have crazy schedules for work. They would always disagree on certain things about being a shifter. Silver was quick to fall back on the same old clan rules that Jack’s very soul often rebelled against. This surprised him somewhat. As a child, she’d often broken the rules. He remembered stories about her shifting into a bear cub and then running around scaring tourists on purpose. She seemed to have settled down some since those days, and she strictly followed protocol about not shifting near humans. Not that Jack was interested in shifting near humans, either. But his reasons were that he didn’t want to deal with the hassle of explaining things, not that he gave a damn about any old school clan rules or protocol.

“I’ll have the Drifting Tumbleweeds,” Silver announced, setting down her menu and bringing Jack’s thoughts back to the present moment. He glanced down at his menu and smiled. Silver had chosen a whiskey based drink. Although he knew she did love rosé wine, she’d never been the type to settle for a typical girly liquor, like rum or vodka.

“Good choice. I think I’m going to have the Big Leap. It’s a gin cocktail, one of my favorites.”

Silver laughed. “Gin is the one liquor I hate.”

Jack shrugged and set his menu down as their server approached to take their order. Several minutes later, they both had a carefully crafted cocktail in their hands.

“Cheers,” Jack said, lifting his glass up.

“Cheers,” Silver replied, her smile lighting up her face.

Jack felt his insides melting as he looked over at her and watched her take a long sip of her cocktail with those perfect lips. He quickly took a long drag of his own cocktail, willing the gin to hit his system quickly and relax his nerves. All he wanted to do right now was lean across that table and kiss Silver Rowe.

He was in so much trouble.

Silver woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. With a groan, she rolled over in bed and covered her face with a pillow. How many cocktails had she had last night? Four? Five? She had lost count. Whatever the number was, it was too many. The drinks had been strong, and she had downed them like juice. The whole night had been fantastic. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much. Jack wasn’t even that funny, with his awkward, corny attempts at jokes. But she had been buzzed on alcohol and primed to laugh, and he had started telling story after story from their childhood.

Remembering all the summer weekends she had spent running around with Jack and her other friends had been just the distraction Silver needed from the current troubles of her adult life. She had laughed until tears filled her eyes, and she had been filled with the warmth of memories from simpler days.

Things had gotten fuzzy toward the end of the evening, but Silver remembered one thing very clearly: the way Jack had looked at her when he dropped her back off at her condo before heading home himself. His eyes had been full of intense emotion, and if Silver didn’t know better, she would have thought it was love. Especially since he paused for a long moment right in front of her face like he was about to kiss her. Silver had been sure he was going to bring his lips to hers, but then he had just smiled and turned away, thanking her for a lovely evening.

Had she read too much into his actions? Was it possible that Jack Tanner, who had known her since she was a snot-nosed five-year-old, was actually looking at her in a romantic sort of way?

Silver pushed her pillow away and sat up slowly. There was no way that was possible, was there? Jack had never acted like anything other than a brother to her. And that’s all he was doing now, right? Just trying to comfort her after a breakup and a near death experience. No big deal.

But the more Silver tried to explain away Jack’s behavior, the more everything started to fall into place. The way Jack had always seemed strangely jealous of Joe. The way Jack had always been the first to jump at an invitation for the Fur Coats to come over to her condo for dinner. The way Jack had gone to breakfast with her even though he was no doubt exhausted from a long night at work. The way he had held her gaze across the table a little too long. The way he had spent hundreds of dollars on tickets to the ballet, just so she would have friends in the audience. The way he hadn’t wanted to leave her last night, long after everyone else had gone home. The way he had spent hours talking and drinking with her at the cocktail lounge. The way he had leaned in to bring his face right next to hers, stopping just short of the kiss.

“Oh my god,” Silver said out loud to the empty room. “Jack is in love with me.”

Maybe she had known this deep down for quite some time, but the force of actually admitting it to herself washed over like a tsunami. Jack, the boy who had tried to scare her as a child by stuffing worms in her face (she’d stuffed them right back down his throat), was now head over heels for her.

What was she going to do? She couldn’t just ignore the situation. But she obviously couldn’t date him. There was too much going on right now. She’d just broken up with someone. She needed to take time to heal from that, right? And she needed to recover from the long ballet show she had just finished.

Silver frowned, realizing as she thought through everything that all of her excuses were falling flat. There wasn’t really a lot going on. Yes, she’d just finished a long show. That meant that, for the first time in a long time, she actually had some free time. Sure, she needed to keep up with working out and dancing, but her dance practices would be a lot less intense than usual until things started heating up for the next show. And yeah, she’d just broken up with someone. But, honestly, she felt more relieved than heartbroken. She had cared a great deal about Joe, and it hadn’t been easy to end things with him. But, now that it was done, Silver had to admit that she wasn’t exactly crying into her pillow all day and overindulging in chocolate ice-cream. She was happy to be free of his family, with all of their expectations about what it meant to be “proper” and high-class.

Silver got out of bed and grabbed some headache medicine from her bathroom’s medicine cabinet, then went to the kitchen to grab some coffee.

“Black coffee,” she ordered her coffee machine. It started whirring, and a few moments later the hot liquid poured into the waiting carafe. Silver poured out a generous mug of coffee for herself, and then sat down at her kitchen table to think. As the caffeine and medicine started to take effect, her headache gradually subsided, and she felt like she could process everything a little better. The computer screen on the table flashed a welcome message to her, and asked whether she would like to hear the local news or current weather forecast.

“Screen off,” Silver said. She didn’t want to be bombarded with news right now. She had her own problems to think about. The screen on the table faded away as quickly as it had roared to life. As it dimmed, the kitchen table looked like plain wood. Silver had spent extra money on this table just for that feature. She hated all the new electronic tables that always looked like a computer screen. Sometimes, you wanted to feel like you were just sitting at a good, old-fashioned wooden table.

Silver took a long sip from her coffee and drummed her fingers thoughtfully against the mug. It had been a long time since she’d had to worry about whether to tell someone she had a crush on them. The very first time she’d met Joe had been when he asked her out for dinner. And before that, Silver hadn’t dated much in Chicago. She’d been too busy with trying to get her dancing career established.

Silver frowned as she took another sip. Then she shrugged and stood up to go get some waffles started. She wasn’t going to worry about it. If Jack really liked her, he could step up and say something. She had never been the type to sit around and fret over a guy, and she sure as hell didn’t want to start doing that now. She would just keep hanging out with Jack and see where things went. Spending time with him was fun, even if it was just “as friends.” No need to rush things.

As Silver lifted the first bite of waffle to her mouth, the British voice from her front door computer came on over the intercom. “Silver, your mail has arrived. You have a package.”

Silver paused with her fork in mid-air, surprised. Physical mail was almost nonexistent these days. Everything these days was done electronically, so there was no need to bother with the postal service. Unless of course, you shopped online a lot. But Silver wasn’t much of a shopper. Not like Storm, who seemed to have a new outfit every time Silver saw her. Silver smiled. She teased Storm about that now and then, but Storm never apologized for her shopping addiction. She merely told Silver that a varied wardrobe was necessary to look the part for her job as an intern for the mayor’s office. Silver had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Storm added one of those new pairs of Intelli-heels that automatically adjusted to flats to her shoe collection. Storm always wanted the latest and greatest, no matter the cost.

Silver stood up and walked toward her front door. “Accept mail,” she commanded the computer as she walked. A whirring sound came from the front entryway, and a panel in the front wall opened, revealing a large metal box. Each condo in this building was connected to one of these boxes. The box automatically rose to its assigned condo whenever it had mail, sort of like a mini-elevator. This would trigger the security system in the condo to announce that mail had arrived. Once the condo owner accepted the mail, the panel in the wall would open. After the mail was retrieved, the panel would close and the box would automatically descend back down to the mailroom to wait for the next time mail arrived. Silver thought the automatic mailboxes were brilliant, but hers hardly ever got used. For a moment, when she saw a small package in the box wrapped in plain brown paper, she felt a pang of fear.

Maybe she shouldn’t be accepting random packages. She had at least one enemy in this town who wanted to kill her. Who knew what they might send up into her condo? She had the security sensors on her mail scanner set to automatic, so the box should be scanned for the usual suspects like bomb materials or biological warfare type threats. But she had a feeling Mr. Astor would know how to send something that would override those settings.

“Computer, update mailbox security settings,” Silver said.

“Ready to update,” the British computer voice replied cheerily. “What setting would you like.”

“Highest level setting, please,” Silver replied.

“Warning,” the computer replied, “Highest level settings may be oversensitive and result in the rejection of items not actually harmful to human life. This setting is recommended as an emergency measure only, during times of war or unrest. Do you wish to continue?”

“Yes, continue,” Silver said. She might not be in a war yet, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it might not be too long before she was.

“Highest level security setting applied,” the computer responded. “Would you like to re-scan current mailbox contents now?”

“Yes, re-scan,” Silver said, eyeing the small, plain box suspiciously. The computer whirred to life, and a blue beam of light passed back and forth across the package in the mailbox.

“This package appears safe. Contents include one book and one card,” the computer announced.

Silver raised an eyebrow in surprise, then stepped forward toward the package. The computer must be scanning incorrectly. She hadn’t ordered a book, and no one would randomly send her one. Physical books were too rare and expensive these days. Unless Mr. Astor was sending her one as some sort of warning. Gingerly, Silver picked up the package, and was relieved to see that the return address listed her childhood home in Alaska. The package was from her mother.

Intrigued, Silver started tearing at the paper as she walked back toward the kitchen, not even patient enough to wait until she sat down to see what was in the package. Behind her, the mailbox whirred shut and zoomed away, but Silver didn’t even notice. As she sat back down at the kitchen table, she pulled a simple book out of the package and held it reverently in her hands. It looked like a romance novel of some sort. The cover was faded and the pages were a little yellowed, but other than that, the book looked like it was in great condition.

Silver reached for the card, another rarity these days. No one took time to send paper cards anymore. And it wasn’t even Silver’s birthday or anything. What had possessed Silver’s mother to send her this? And where had she even gotten this book? Silver didn’t remember seeing any books at her parents’ house for the last twenty years or so.

Silver opened the card, which was filled with her mother’s long, flowing handwriting.

Silver, my dear, you’ve been on my mind a lot lately. You always are, but especially when I know you are going through a difficult time. I wish I could be there to give you a big hug and take care of you. But, since I can’t, I wanted to send you something to let you know I’m thinking of you. I know you’ve been through a lot in the last week, with a knee injury, a breakup, and then being sick on top of it all. (Bash told me that you hadn’t been feeling well).

Silver stopped reading for a moment and chuckled. Good old Bash. Her brother had completely downplayed her near-death experience and told their mother that she’d been “not feeling well.” If her parents knew the true extent of Silver’s “illness,” they would be livid that no one had told them how serious it was. But Bash and Silver didn’t like to worry their parents, since there usually wasn’t much that could be done to help from all the way over in Alaska. Silver turned her attention back to the note.

I know how much you admire physical books. They aren’t easy to get a hold of these days, but I had one saved from decades ago. It’s just a simple romance novel, but I thought you might enjoy having it. One book doesn’t make much of a library, I know. But it’s a start. I know you think of this as more of a collector’s item than a story to read, but I encourage you to read the book, anyway. It’s an inspiring story of taking a chance on your dreams and finding love along the way. I’ve always been proud of you for chasing your dreams to Chicago, even though I miss you terribly. And even though your last relationship didn’t work out for you, I know there’s a great love story out there waiting for you. And you deserve something truly great. Don’t settle for anything less! Love always, Mom.

Silver felt her throat catching a bit at the sweet words, and she felt suddenly homesick. Even though she often rolled her eyes at her mom’s old-fashioned way of doing things, her mom was one of the wisest people she knew. Her words struck home for Silver, especially after a morning of mulling over whether she should try to pursue a relationship with Jack. Was he her “truly great” love story?

Silver sighed as she set the card down grabbed the book. She flipped it open, smiling as the smell of real paper hit her nose. She couldn’t remember the last time she had actually owned a real book. She almost couldn’t believe that her mom had sent her this—her mom loved books, too. This must have been one of her most treasured possessions.

Silver set the book down and quickly wolfed down her waffles, then made her way to the living room. She sat on her old couch with the old book, and settled in to read. The story in the book was inspiring. Set in the wild west of Montana, it followed a spunky cowgirl who had followed her dreams of leaving the big city to work on a ranch. On that ranch, she had met and fallen in love with one of the ranch hands. Not content to sit around and hope that the man would notice her, the heroine had marched right up to him one day, declaring that they were perfect together and he was an idiot if he didn’t see it.