Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
Without turning from the eggs I was cooking, I said, “Which friends?”
“The Davidson girls. Remember? They’re the sisters who are the same age as Jordyn and me. Our birthdays are almost the same, too.”
I was still wary of letting the girls out of my sight, especially after the kidnapping. I stared hard at the scrambled eggs, trying to think of some way to talk the girls out of wanting to go. It would be safer if they stayed home, but I didn’t want them to know something was wrong.
Tate, putting bread into the toaster, said, “It should be fine. Let them go.”
My head turned toward him so fast my neck cracked. Let them go? A sleepover? Was he out of his mind? I nearly had a panic attack if one of the girls went out to check the mailbox.
He must have seen the look on my face. He started the toaster, then stepped close so the girls wouldn’t hear.
He pressed his lips to my ear and said, “It’ll be fine. I still have guys watching them. And they know their ass is grass if anything happens to my girls.”
His girls. I didn’t correct him, because honestly, he was right. They were his. He cared for them and loved them. Not for the first time, I thought about how serious he was about us. He’d jumped in with both feet, and now it was hard to even remember life without him. The girls deserved someone like this. Someone who loved them as much as he did, who would protect them with everything he had. He wouldn’t do anything, or allow them to do anything, that would put them in harm’s way.
“Okay, that’s fine. Find out what time this little get-together is supposed to happen so I know.”
The girls were both ecstatic. It had been nearly a week since they’d really been able to do anything other than go to school and come straight home. The two of them barely ate any breakfast, they were too busy talking about what they were going
to do that night. It was all I could do to get them out the door before the bus came.
Tate spent the better part of the day walking around inside and outside the house with his phone to his ear. He kept barking orders to everyone on his staff. His voice was always gruff and angry. The only time he was cordial was with his three friends and us. I stayed out of his way, but it sounded like whoever he was dealing with wasn’t doing things the way he wanted.
It was awful seeing him so stressed out. I’m sure his team didn’t enjoy that their usually relaxed and calm friend was being such a dick to them. I wanted to do something nice for him. Something that might pull him out of the foul mood he was in.
He’d just hung up one of his calls, and I said, “I’m going to run to the store real quick.”
He smiled. “Okay.” He nodded at the door, “He’ll go with you.”
Confused, I walked over and opened the front door. Steff was sitting on our porch, reading a magazine. Blinking in surprise, I looked back at Tate.
“Really? How long has he been out here?” I asked.
“Since right after the girls went to school. Why?” He didn’t look mad or irritated. It was the
new normal until all the dangers were dealt with.
“Even though I’m wearing this?” I pulled my shirt down to reveal the opal necklace Emily had left me.
“I’m sure that will protect you in some way, but a shifter will protect you better. Besides, it’s Steff, you know him. I could have gotten one of the guys you haven’t even met yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Come on, Steff.”
Steff drove. I decided to use Steff’s friendship with Tate to gain some much-needed info. I wanted to make him a nice dinner to get him out of his funk.
“So, Steff. Here’s the deal. I really want to make Tate his favorite meal.”
He nodded as he drove. “Okay, sounds nice.”
“Anyway, during one of our late-night chats, I remember him saying that the only thing he really misses about home was his mom’s cooking. He almost never talks about his past or his family, so when he said that, I knew it was something important. In all the years you guys have been friends, can you remember him ever mentioning something his mom might have cooked that he loved?”
Steff tilted his head, obviously digging through his memories. After several seconds, he finally said, “I do remember something once, way back when we first started out. We were sort of hard up. It was before we got the security firm up and running. We shared this shitty little apartment. The heat didn’t work, so we had to just walk around in layers and plug in space heaters to not freeze to death at night. Never could get the damned landlord to fix the freaking thing. Anyway, for about three days, he grumbled about missing his mom’s vegetable stew, he joked that it was more meat than vegetables. He said it was the one thing that could… what did he say?” He squinted, trying to remember, then his eyes widened. “That’s it. He said it was the one thing that could warm a cold heart.”
That was perfect. It was at least a place to start. It was moving further into fall, and the evenings were getting cooler. It still wasn’t really stew weather, but it was close enough. It might be the thing that would bring a smile to his face and help ease some of his stress.
I tried to talk Steff into waiting in the car while I shopped, but he wouldn’t hear of it. So, I did the shopping with a massive muscled bodyguard shadowing me. I had no idea what kind of ingredients Tate’s mom might have used, but I knew he didn’t
like mushrooms, so I grabbed everything else I could imagine going into a vegetable-and-beef stew.
Steff stood off to the side while I paid and got the three bags. I was checking the receipt as we walked out the door when Steff pushed an arm into my chest and steered me behind him, like he was protecting me. I looked up from the receipt and saw Luis leering at me around Steff’s shoulder.
“Back up, motherfucker,” Steff growled.
“Well now, if it isn’t my long-lost lady love,” Luis said, ignoring Steff.
I’d been through enough shit, and the last thing I needed was this. I leaned around Steff. “Luis, you’re a piece of shit. You need to get a life and get the hell out of here. I don’t know why it won’t sink into that thick skull of yours, but we are over. Have been for the better part of a year. So please, do us all a favor and fuck right off.”
Luis’s eyes slid down my body as I spoke, and locked onto my growing belly. The look of hunger on his face jarred me. It was like he didn’t hear a damned thing I’d said.