“See what I mean?” Megan complained. “I’m eighteen, and he talks to me like I’m five. Do you have any idea what it’s like working with your family?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Lainey laughed. “It’s awful, isn’t it?”
“The absolute worst,” Megan agreed fervently, while Tate let out an indignant growl.
Megan looked Lainey up and down. Lainey had been getting a lot of that lately. “It wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Tate started dating. God knows he hasn’t gotten any in ages. Maybe if he did, he wouldn’t be such a crabby jerkwad all the time.”
Tate’s chest swelled with indignation, and it looked as if he were about to tear a strip off Megan’s head. Before he could, , they heard the kids yelling from the direction of the house. “Tate! Tate! Come here!” The kids definitely sounded alarmed about something.
With a sigh of exasperation, he headed back to the main house. Lainey followed, hoping that Felix hadn’t climbed anything else, and Megan followed her, muttering under her breath.
The children stood next to one of the wings of the mansion, clustered around a bed of recently planted flowers.
A bolt of alarm shot through Lainey. The flowers were all withered and shriveled, every last one of them, little dark knots clumped on bright red mulch.
Was this the Cypress Witch’s prophecy coming true? She fervently hoped not. Ginger and Loch seemed like such good people, so clearly in love, and she’d hate to see anything ruin their wedding.
Tate looked baffled. He knelt down and sniffed at the flowers. Even in human form, shifters had superior scenting abilities.
“Weed killer,” he said, scowling. “Somebody put weed killer on all the flowers. I smell scentsbane, too.”
He headed over to the main house, and they all followed. As Lainey walked, Felix grabbed her hand, and Ashley, the girl with the ponytail, grabbed her other hand.
“Can you carry me?” a little boy with a crew cut, who must have been Richard, asked Lainey hopefully.
Wow, this isn’t like being at work at all. I am almost positive none of these children would cut my throat and take my purse, Lainey thought. I could get used to this.
“I’ll carry you,” Tate said, scooping him up in his arms.
“I wanted her to carry me. She looks softer. She’s like a big pillow.”
“Richard!” Tate scolded, but Lainey burst out laughing. She’d never thought of the positive aspects of being larger before.
They walked up the marble steps and into the house, which had heart of pine flooring and ceilings so high Lainey had to tip her head back to look at them. Inside was a massive foyer with a double spiral staircase leading upstairs, and doors leading off in all directions. The staircases were marble, and a broad stripe of red carpet lapped down the middle of them like velvety tongues.
In the foyer, Loch was standing with Ginger, Marigold, and a small cluster of other people, including aman and woman who appeared to be Ginger’s parents. The woman looked to be an older version of Ginger, and she was holding hands with a skinny, balding, wolf shifter with gold-rimmed glasses. The woman was human, Lainey noticed, although there was also a whiff of magic there. Probably a witch There were three chubby girls with them, all of whom bore a strong resemblance to Ginger. They were chatting with each other as Lainey walked up. Marigold had mentioned that Ginger had younger sisters, all living in New York.
“Thanks for lending me the dress,” Lainey said to Ginger. “I had a slight emergency that required that I shift and climb a tree. I’ll wash it and get it back to you tomorrow.”
“You know what, it looks fantastic on you,” Ginger said, looking her up and down. “Keep it.”
“Well, thank you.” People in small towns were amazing, Lainey thought.
“I’ll be right back,” Tate said to Lainey. He set Richard down and turned to Loch. “Can I have a quick word with you?”
Loch followed Tate down one of the hallways.
Lainey looked after him and heaved a sigh. Now was the time to sneak out of here. She’d been hurt before when she’d thought that Tate was only questioning her because he thought of her as a suspect, but now that she realized he might actually like her, she was really worried. Tate was handsome, sexy, and obviously an incredibly great guy—he’d actually taken on the task of raising all of his younger brothers and sisters. She could see herself falling for a guy like that, falling hard. That was the problem. She couldn’t start a relationship based on lies.
A tiny part of her wished she could talk to Tate about it, even though she barely knew him. She just couldn’t, though. She couldn’t bear to relive the humiliation again with anyone.
No, she just needed to avoid the hot wolf shifter as much as she could before her resolve melted and she ripped off all her clothes, rubbed up against him and purred.
*