Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
“You don’t sound like yourself. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come pick you up.”
I told him I was at my apartment, and true to his word, he was there in less than ten minutes. I met him outside and climbed into his truck. He pulled away and started driving without asking questions or pressing me for information on why I was so upset. It was a kindness that made me like him even more.
After driving around for nearly half an hour, I took a breath and finally spoke. “I had a fight with Felicity.”
His hand tightened on the wheel, the knuckles white and taught for an instant before relaxing. Still, he didn’t press me. No questions. Instead, he nodded and shot me an encouraging glance.
“She said you and your friends were loners. Unwanted. That you were somehow terrible for that. It made me feel awful because if that’s true, then I’m terrible. I was unwanted, too. I don’t know your story, or your friends’ stories, but the way she was talking, she thought you were all bad guys.”
Miles sighed and looked, for want of a better word, conflicted. “Listen, there’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to me and my past. The same goes for Tate, Blayne, and Steff. I don’t think you’re ready to hear all that. It’s a long story. I can promise you this, though, once you meet the guys and their families and make your own conclusions about them, I’ll tell you everything. Deal?”
He made it sound like something top secret. What could a few guys have in their past that was so hush-hush? I knew they weren’t bad people, but sometimes good people got caught up in bad things. Was that what the truth was? Had they done something terrible in the past by accident? Or had they been forced to do something? My writer’s mind skittered across dozens of possible scenarios, but none really made any sense. Instead of diving too deep into the black hole of possibility, I did what had now become second nature. I trusted Miles.
I nodded. “Okay, deal.”
We drove around for several more hours, talking, as he showed me more of the area I’d been living in for the last few weeks. As the sun started to set, he turned to me. “How about dinner?”
My stomach rumbled at the mention of food. I hadn’t eaten any breakfast and only had two or three bites of food at lunch before I stormed out. I nodded. “I’m starving.”
“Okay. There’s a little place down the road here. They sell—and this is gonna sound weird—the best meatloaf sandwich you’ve ever had.”
“Meatloaf sandwich?”
He laughed and held up his hand. “You just gotta trust me. That and their homemade fries are gonna change your life. Let’s go.”
Twenty minutes later, we were seated in a place that looked like a cross between a dinner and a grandmother’s living room, but the food smelled amazing. We drank our drinks as we waited for the food to come out.
“What are you going to do about Felicity?” Miles asked.
“I have no idea. I’m not used to having friends, but even I can tell she’s acting weird. It’s like she did a full one-eighty. I don’t get it.”
“Maybe you need to give each other some space. You guys really did only meet a few days ago. You haven’t done anything wrong, so I don’t want you thinking like that. Sometimes people have friends who get jealous when they start to split their time with someone else. Kind of like a territorial thing.”
I chuckled. “Territorial. Like a wolf or something.”
“Uh, yeah, sort of.” Miles gave me a funny look, then sipped his water.
“Why are you so interested in me?”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed and shrugged. “You could have anyone. Why me? I’m…I don’t know. I’m me.”
He surprised me by reaching across the table and cupping my cheek. “I don’t want anyone else. There is no one on this planet more suited for me than you. You may not be able to see it right now, but soon you will.”
The warmth from his fingers on my cheek seeped into my skin. Almost like it was radiating across my face and down my
body. I lifted my hand and brushed the back of his knuckles. “You know, you say that a lot.”
“I promise it will all make sense soon.”
I called Miles the next night to ask if I needed to bring anything for Thanksgiving. He’d said no and that he’d be over to pick me up around eleven. There was no way I would show up empty-handed at a stranger’s house for Thanksgiving, so I looked online and found a recipe for red velvet cheesecake cookies. The picture looked delicious, so I went to the store to grab the ingredients. Baking gave me something to do to keep my mind off everything I’d been dealing with. It was a good way to destress.
I let myself sleep in the next morning, so I’d have enough energy stored up to get through the day. As much as I trusted Miles, the thought of going to someone else’s house was daunting. New people, small talk, and introductions? Running a marathon sounded less exhausting.
Miles knocked on my door at eleven, and he looked sexy as usual. He stepped in and saw the platter of cookies on the counter. “I told you that you didn’t have to make anything.”
I grinned. “You can never have too much dessert, right?”
He laughed and pulled the plastic wrap back to grab a cookie. He popped it into his mouth and chewed. His eyes went wide as a groan of pleasure rumbled in his throat. “I’m afraid everyone else is out of luck. I’m going to eat all these before we get there.”
I nodded at a separate container on the kitchen counter. “I made a double batch. If you really think they’re that good, we can come back tonight and have second dessert.”
He finished chewing and raised an eyebrow. “And what about the third dessert?”
I tried to hide a sheepish smile but failed. The tips of my ears burned. “Let’s just deal with dinner first.”
He laughed in a good-natured way and let it drop, for which I was grateful. I enjoyed the sexual tension, but I had to keep my head on straight so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself at Tate’s house. Miles seemed to notice my stress level.