Dean watched Janie’s car pull away, his mind seeming to follow her along with it. As soon as she was out of sight, he pulled his phone out again.
“Dean?”
“Hey, Douglas. I hear you have a new tenant.”
“Yeah. What about it? Can I help you with something?”
“As a matter of fact, you can. I know this woman. She is an employee of mine. I want your word that you will look out for her. If something in the house goes wrong, you do what you have to do to fix it as soon as you can. I don’t want to hear any horror stories from her. Because trust me, I will be asking.”
“Sure man, whatever. I do that for all of my renters.”
“Sure you do,” Dean said with a scoff. “Just make sure that you at least do it for this one.”
“You got it man.”
“Good. Take care of yourself,” Dean said.
“Right.”
He hung up, feeling a little bit better about Janie’s situation. Douglas had always been the reliable sort of guy, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
About twenty minutes later, most of the furniture and boxes were loaded up in the moving van, and Dean waited in the heat with the other men who had come with the truck. They were hot, hungry, and miserable.
“How much to just use the truck for the rest of the day?” Dean asked. “You guys can just head home. I can drive it to the house and unload when Janie gets back.”
“Oh! You don’t have to pay us to borrow the truck, Mr. Resner. Just call when you’re done so we can pick it up.”
“I could just drop it off at the lot,” Dean offered.
He could see the relief on their faces knowing they were dismissed, and Dean wondered since when Johnston’s moving company had hired wolf-human hybrids for their moving jobs. It seemed like a bad business move. Shifter men were noticeably stronger. Hiring boys like that would only cost more in the long run.
After the other men left, Dean waited in the truck for Janie.
“Lead the way!” he called out his window at her when she pulled in about ten minutes later.
She smiled at him, a look that lit up her face and completely astonished Dean for a moment. He had never seen a woman look that beautiful before. It was sorcery.
“All right,” she said. The excitement on her face was unmistakable, and Dean felt pleased with himself for having a hand in putting it there. There was no harm in helping out an intern, right? She was simply the new girl in town. The new people to Stonybrooke needed as much help as they could get. It wasn’t wrong to lend a hand as long as the wolf knew its place…right?
***
They finished unloading the truck at about 6pm, and Dean’s stomach growled comically.
“You’re hungry!” Janie exclaimed, as if she had done something wrong. “Please, let me treat you to something. You’ve done so much to help me.”
“No,” Dean said, thinking she wanted to spend the money she’d earned from him on him. It seemed kind of icky. “Please, don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll cook you something!”
Dean looked up at her with a slight frown. Nobody had offered to cook for him for free before. He had grown quite fond of the diner because Maurice had let him work there when he was a boy so he could earn a living and fill his belly, even when his mother had been on the prowl for weeks. But Maurice had always expected him to work for and earn his meals. Someone making him food voluntarily almost seemed dangerous in a way.
“You really don’t have to do that…”
“I insist,” Janie said, beaming at him. He was swept away, once again, by the light in her eyes, the ease of her smile. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Except that she was barely a woman at all. She was half his age.
“But-”
“Please, sit down and have some wine. I stopped by the grocery store on the way back from picking up my keys, so I have enough to cook for us both. I promise, I’m good at it.”
Dean studied her and sighed, then sat down and pulled the cork off the wine with his bare hands. Janie’s eyes widened but she said nothing about it.
“Make yourself at home. You have certainly done the same for me.”
Dean smiled uneasily at Janie and she disappeared into the kitchen.
He hated waiting for a meal. It reminded him of all the days he had spent as a child with a rumble in his belly. Now that he was an adult, and rich to boot, he always tried to make sure that he had food when and where he needed it, no exceptions. He wasn’t sure how long it would take for Janie to finish, so he took a long swig of the wine and followed her into the kitchen.
“Let me help,” he said. “It will get done faster that way. Besides, you’ve been working hard enough today.”
“Really, I hardly had to lift a finger with you around,” Janie said, laughing at him and shaking her head. “You were pretty on top of things.”
Dean looked away, embarrassed. It was true. He had treated Janie like she was precious or fragile, almost the way he had seen other shifters treat pregnant women. But Janie wasn’t pregnant, at least not that he knew of. For some reason, the thought made him feel bitterly jealous. He really didn’t know a thing about her, did he?
“Well, you know. I’m a shifter. We’re good at those kinds of things. Stronger than humans, anyway. Usually.”
“Right,” Janie said with a small laugh. “Well, I appreciate it, but I’m not porcelain.”
Dean looked up at her, surprised. No other woman he had ever been with would even think to tell him that. Not just because he was usually with other shifter women, but because they seemed to want to be helpless for some reason. Maybe it made them feel more feminine, or maybe it was just another way to keep a sucker of an alpha on the hook, like what had happened with Kiera.
The thought of his ex-wife made Dean prickle. He wouldn’t let himself get caught in another tangled web like that again. It just wouldn’t be good for him, or whatever unfortunate woman he ended up with. He was cold and difficult to be with, and only high-maintenance people could tolerate him because they made him feel like he had a job that he could do to earn their attention. Lord knew he hadn’t been able to earn his own mother’s.
“What are you thinking about?” Janie asked softly, chopping an onion. “You’ve been staring at me like that for almost a minute.”
“I…personal things, I guess. My ex to be exact.”
“Ah…did the two of you like cooking together?”
Dean snorted.
“No, nothing like that. If we ever ate together, it was at a five-star restaurant. I can’t imagine Kiera in the kitchen.”
The thought made him laugh out loud, and Janie smiled, focusing on her task. Was that jealousy he was smelling on her? For some reason, that made him feel heartened. But Janie wasn’t the type to flaunt her feelings like some of the other shifter women he’d been with did. For whatever reason, she was playing it cool. And he liked that. A lot.
“Actually, you’re the first person who has ever offered to make me something to eat.”
“Really? What about your parents?” Janie asked, her face horrified.
“Father is out of the picture for good, and my mom…well…I don’t really know where she ended up.”
That was partly a lie. Dean had hired a private detective to keep tabs on his mother, and every few months, he would get an update on where she was and what she was doing. The last he’d heard, she was spending a lot of time on the coast with a group of strippers. She wasn’t stripping, per se, but she was hanging around for the drugs and attention.
But that update had been a while ago. Every time the detective got back to him, Dean found himself feeling surprised that his mother was even still alive.
“I’m so sorry,” Janie said, putting her hand gently on Dean’s arm. He scoffed. He was twice her age. There was no way he would allow her to comfort him like he was some sad little baby.
“It was a long time ago,” Dean said, shrinking from her touch and walking to the other end of the kitchen. He had to admit, the house she had chosen for herself was really a nice one. The kitchen was vast, and it almost felt like he could get away from Janie and her inquiries if he walked long enough.
“Still, sometimes the worst pains are the oldest,” Janie said quietly.
“You’re talking like you know that from experience,” Dean said, somewhat bitterly. Why was it he almost hoped to tear the bad feelings right out of her the same way she had to him? He wanted to hear that she hurt too. To see the same pain on her face. But that would be impossible. He had too many scars to count.
But he was surprised when her pained smile sent daggers through him.
“I’ve had my share of ups and downs,” Janie said. “But what matters most is that we’re here now. Right?”
Dean stared at Janie, his heart beating hard in his chest.
“Right,” Dean said. There was nothing left to say.