The man behind the counter slid my tray forward and I grabbed the ends, looking back at Josh. “Well, take care, and good luck with everything.” What else could I say? It’s not as if he was an old friend, and the conversation was just weird and a little sad.
I walked to the back of the quaint little deli and set my tray on a small wooden table beside the soda fountain machine. When the heavy legs of the chair scraped back, Josh sidled up beside me. “Can I join you? I’ve got the afternoon off and we can catch up on old times.”
Old times of him pawing me in the front seat of his dad’s Pontiac? No, thanks.
“Sorry, Josh. I have a lot on my mind and I’d rather be alone,” I said, sitting in the wooden chair.
“Maybe we can talk about it,” he suggested, leaning forward with his hand on the table, obscuring my view.
I poked my plastic fork in a boiled egg and sat back. “No offense. I really need to be by myself right now.”
“Problem?” a deep, scary voice rumbled from behind him.
Josh stiffened and looked over his shoulder. Austin stood with his arms folded and the most volcanic gaze I’d ever seen. He looked wolfish, like a predator stalking his prey. His dark brows sank over his bright eyes, and the way he looked at Josh gave me the chills.
Apparently, it gave Josh the chills too.
“See ya, Lexi,” Josh mumbled, walking swiftly to the door without waiting for his sandwich.
“You seem to always show up at the most convenient times,” I noted. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were following me.” My statement was a question in disguise.
Austin pulled out the chair across from me and slowly sat down, resting his forearms on the table. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt and my eyes stole a glimpse of his remarkable tattoos.
“How did it go with your mom?”
“Are you following me?” I repeated.
Austin rubbed his jaw and gave himself away. “What did that asshole say to you?”
I tapped my finger on the table and something clicked. “Are you the one who put those bruises on Josh’s face?”
“I heard everything you said at the cemetery and that’s all I needed to know. I didn’t like hearing about the way he treated you.”
“I was fifteen, Austin. He was just doing what boys do.”
That pissed Austin off something fierce as his expression tightened and he scorched me with his eyes. “Time doesn’t erase stupidity. You should have told us back then and we would have taken care of it. Do you think I treated girls like that? Do you think Wes did?”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure you rolled out the red carpet and showered them with rose petals and poetry before popping their cherries. Don’t play knight, because boys are boys and all boys think about is s-e-x.” I stabbed a tomato with my fork.
His voice became smooth like molasses as he leaned forward. “I’m not a boy anymore, Lexi. Are you going to sit there and tell me you never think about sex?”
Damn if that didn’t make my toes curl.
“If I had known all this was going on when we were younger, you might have wound up seeing a darker side of me, Lexi. I didn’t have sex until I was nineteen, and fuck it if that makes me a big * because I waited so long, but having sex with a girl who wasn’t even a woman never seemed right, even then. That’s the difference between Shifters and humans,” he said in a quiet voice. “I got a lot of shit for it back then from Wes and some of my human buddies in school, but none of my brothers said a damn thing. That’s just the way it is in our world.”
“My mom confirmed what you said. I’m adopted.” I bit into the tomato and sighed. Suddenly, it didn’t taste as good as I’d hoped. It had all the bitterness that was already in my mouth from learning the truth.
“You okay?”
I flicked my eyes up and my heart skipped a beat. Austin had that look.
The look.
The swoon-worthy look that made my palms sweat. All the rough edges in his voice were gone, and it was the smooth timbre of concern I’d heard on rare occasions when he was being soft and not treating me like his best friend’s kid sister. Except now, with his broad shoulders and bold tattoos, he was shrouded in mystery.
“I guess.” My shoulders sagged and I set the fork down. “She doesn’t know where I came from because I wasn’t adopted. My father brought me home and my mom doesn’t have a clue who my real parents are.”
“Palmer, your order is ready,” the cashier called out.
Austin rubbed his hand across his mouth. “Shifters, of course. But we don’t give up our own.” Austin ran his index finger along his eyebrow and glanced at my salad. “Eat your lunch.”
“I’ve lost my appetite.”