“Wouldn’t it make sense that fated mates would only fall for someone of the same species, though?”
“Not necessarily. Shifters of different species can still have offspring, so why not? I don’t see how it’s any different than humans of different races. I have a leopard-shifter friend in New York who ended up with a wolf shifter. They have a kitten and a pup. Ask me how their kids get along. Go ahead, ask me.”
Lainey snorted. Like she didn’t know where this was going. “I already know the answer, but if it makes you happy, I’ll ask. How do they get along?”
“They fight like cats and dogs!” Marigold laughed hysterically at her own joke, slapping her knee with glee.
“Very, very funny. Really, you’ve missed your true calling. But seriously…my mother swears up and down that the whole fated mate thing is just an old wives tale. A lot of city shifters think that.”
“All these shifters who want to assimilate, to be more like humans…you can’t suppress your true nature. Your parents aren’t fated mates, I take it?”
Lainey laughed at the thought. “Good heavens, no. One night when my mother had had a few too many gin and tonics, she told me about how she met a guy when she was in college, and she had that instant thunderbolt feeling, and she said that proved that the whole fated mate thing was a myth. She said the guy obviously wasn’t her fated mate, because he was poor. He was a maintenance worker. Her parents freaked out when they heard about it, yanked her out of school and made her go to a different college. They immediately fixed her up with my father, who came from the right sort of family.”
“So…what’s their marriage like?”
“Miserable. They have separate bedrooms. My parents think I don’t know, but my father’s never had a secretary that he didn’t bang, and my mother has a battery-operated boyfriend.”
Eeek. Being tired apparently made her babble even more than being tipsy. Lainey was mortified. “Oh, God, she’d die if she knew I knew, and she’d die even more if she knew I told anyone.”
Marigold only gave her one of her trademarked shrugs.
Suddenly, Lainey found herself wondering if her mother really had met her fated mate, and if the reason that her mother was such a miserable, angry person was because she’d refused to acknowledge it. The way Lainey was constantly thinking about Tate ever since she’d laid eyes on him…it would be miserable to go through life feeling that way. It would be even worse if it happened to someone like her mother, who was in complete denial about her feelings and who would never admit the true source of her frustration and misery.
What if Tate really was her fated mate? Damn. Lainey needed to avoid Tate at all costs, before she became any more infatuated with him. Should she still go to the wedding? But how could she avoid it, after she’d promised Ginger and Marigold?
A little voice in her head told her maybe she should just pack up and leave town. She barely knew these people. She didn’t owe them anything. Ginger didn’t really need her to do sketches; that had just been an afterthought suggested by Marigold.
She realized, though, that she didn’t want to leave. Everyone here made her feel so welcome. Everyone was so friendly, so accepting, that she found herself wishing she could stay longer than the two weeks she’d booked. The fact that Tate was here didn’t make it any easier…even though that situation was impossible.
“I’m so confused,” she sighed, and took another huge swig of coffee.
“It’ll all work itself out. Your fated mate is waiting for you, you’ll see,” Marigold said, with a cheerfulness and confidence that Lainey wished she could share.
Lainey pushed back her chair and stood up. “If I drink any more coffee, I’ll float away. Maybe a cold shower will wake me up.” And take my mind off Tate.
“Don’t take too long. I need to approve your wedding day outfit, and then I have to go meet Ginger and the fam so her mother can continue driving us all crazy.”
Semi-awake after a cold shower, Lainey drove into town in her rental car, following Marigold in her VW bug, which had big fake eyelashes on it and a license plate that said lovebug.
At Blair’s, the only clothing store in town, Lainey let Marigold talk her into buying a peach-colored dress made of stretch lace, with shirring at the waistline and a surplice-style v-neckline, and matching shoes. Then, remembering what Tate had said about how she dressed as if she wanted to hide her body, she impulsively snapped up several more outfits, all of which clung to her body and emphasized her curves. Everything else she had in her suitcase was big and blousy and flowed like a caftan in an attempt to hide her girth.
It was a foolish and impulsive choice, one she wouldn’t have made even a few days ago. She really should be watching her money, but heck, she was on vacation, wasn’t she? She was on vacation from everything, including her old self, the self who tried to hide under tent-dresses.