Filed To Story: Chasing the Rejected Luna's Heart (Clara & Liam) Book PDF Free
I really needed to find out if there was an island somewhere with no male shifters allowed and book a one-way ticket.
The customers started trickling in, but Sam and Cole were still off somewhere, so I nodded to the couple who had just walked in, telling them to have a seat wherever they liked and that I would be with them in a second.
It wasn’t long before we had a full house. I was starting to feel like that episode of
I Love Lucywhere she and Ethel were struggling to keep up with a conveyor belt full of chocolates, except I didn’t have an Ethel, but I managed to keep things going somehow. Fortunately, no one had wanted anything more complicated than a craft beer yet, but if it came to mixed drinks, I was going to have to call on my bullshitting abilities.”Hey, Lavinia,” called one of the regulars, a gruff older human man who could have been an honorary grizzly shifter.”Hey, Jon,” I said, nodding to him as he took his usual spot in front of the bar. “How’s the brewery?””The same old,” he said, leaning on the counter and setting his battered trucker hat aside. There was an army patch sewn onto the top of the hat, and he usually came in with a few of his military buddies.”Just you tonight?” I asked, reaching under the bar for a tall beerstein. I didn’t even need to ask to know what he was having. Ice-cold Guinness, straight from the tap. Keep them coming.”High school graduation ceremony’s tonight, so everyone else is with their wives and families. Bunch of suckers,” he said in a bone-dry tone, even though the glimmer of humor in his eyes gave him away.
I smiled, setting the foamy pint in front of him. “Big waste of time if you ask me.””Come on, I’m sure a pretty thing like you probably has the guys in rotation.””Sure,” I said dryly, leaning on the counter. “Me and the mailman have a regular love affair going on, and then there’s the creepy dude at the laundromat who always stares at my ass when I’m putting in fabric softener. Between them, my dance card’s all full.”
He chuckled, taking a sip of his beer. A bit of foam stuck to his graying mustache that he wiped off the back of his hand. “Well, if you want an old man’s unsolicited advice, keep it that way. Men are a waste of time.””All the ones who aren’t married or gay, anyway,” I said, winking at him as I dried off another glass.
Someone across the room raised his glass at the same time and bellowed, “‘Nother beer!”
I rolled my eyes. “Case in point.”
I loaded a fresh tray of beer and went to take care of the rowdy bachelors who seemed to be having an eye-fucking contest with the table of bachelorettes across the room. To my relief, Sam came back out just as the rush was starting to feel like a tidal wave. Judging from her uncharacteristically somber demeanor, I had to wonder if her sarcastic question about someone dying turned out to be more on the money than she planned.”Hey, you okay?” I asked, shifting a tray of dirty dishes onto my hip.”Yeah, fine,” she said, raking a hand through the fallen strands of hair in her face. “Thanks for holding down the fort. I didn’t think I’d be that long.””No problem. Glad to see you, though,” I admitted, looking around. “You’d think every other bar in town shut down.”
She snorted, taking her usual post behind the bar. “Sorry about Cole,” she said, already pouring a beer for one of the regulars who had just walked in. “Did he say anything to you?”
The fact that she was preemptively apologizing for her brother made it clear that behavior was far from an anomaly for him, which kind of came as a relief. At least he wasn’t only a dick to me.”Not really,” I said with a noncommittal shrug. She seemed like she didn’t believe me, but before she could press me on it, a group swarmed the bar and I ducked back into the kitchen to take care of the dishes, which meant dumping them into the sink until I had a spare moment to actually wash them.
The rest of the night went by pretty fast, and even though I never got a chance to breathe, the cash tips bulging in my apron pocket more than made up for it. Part of me had feared Cole would end up talking Sam out of keeping me around, and while I was pretty sure I wasn’t the topic of conversation that had put that haunted look on her face, I knew better than to let my guard down. I needed this job, and the best way to ensure I kept it was to make myself invaluable.
Turned out, I was actually pretty good at it. I’d worried my smartass tendencies would get me in trouble, but the customers who brought out that side of me were willing to get as good as they gave. If anything, they seem to find it charming. The biggest assholes were often among the biggest tippers, and by the end of my busiest night yet, I was actually starting to think I could handle this.
Weirdly enough, even though I knew everyone in my old life would have looked down on what I was doing now, it was the first time I had ever actually felt proud of something I had accomplished. Soon enough, I would have a place I could actually call my own as well.
Little by little, having new goals to grasp onto-however insignificant they would have seemed to me before- made it easier to let go of my old life. Eventually, maybe I wouldn’t even miss it.
* * *
With a warning from Sam to be careful and text her once I made it back to my building safe, I headed home for the evening, eager to pour my aching limbs into a hot bath and get some sleep before tomorrow.
I had alerted my landlord-or at least, the property manager-to the fact that I would be vacating the apartment, and while he had been rather rough about warning me I wouldn’t be getting back the remainder of “my” deposit until he rented the place out, I was surprised I’d be getting anything at all. I wasn’t too eager about sending that money back to Dad, since it was less than he owed me for all the bullshit he had put me through. With Liam, it was a matter pride, and I told myself I was going to go open a bank account first thing in the morning-or afternoon, in my case-so I could send it back and wash my hands of him for good.
The calls hadn’t stopped, but they had diminished in frequency. I ignored voicemails and deleted them soon as they went through, but I had hung up on him enough times that hopefully he was getting the hint by now.
Still no word from Jax or Damon, but that was to be expected. I think what hurt the most was the fact that Clara and my other family members, distant though they were, hadn’t even bothered to reach out. I wondered if they had even given a second thought to why I was gone. Probably not, and I was sure they had noticed by now. There was no way they wouldn’t have.
In the end, I guess it really was that easy to erase my existence from the pack. Even easier than it had been to pretend like Mom didn’t exist. She still lived on in my memory and always would, no matter how angry I was at her deception, but would any of them so much as think of me?