Chapter Ten
Over the next few weeks, Eliza went out to dinner with Carter at least once a week, sometimes more when their schedules lined up just right. Each time, Carter came home with her and spent the night. Every time they were together was better than the last. On the days they didn’t see each other, they texted back and forth, talking about everything and nothing at all. She looked forward to their dates, counting down the days until she could be with him again. The more time they spent together, the stronger her longing for him grew.
Carter was so laid back and easy to talk to; being with him was almost effortless—which surprised her, considering their short acquaintance. It usually took her a long time to trust new people and yet Carter, and even his mom to a lesser degree, had wormed their way under her skin in short order. They were just so genuinely nice; she couldn’t help but be fond of them.
Her affection for the Slades just made her situation at work that much more stressful. She didn’t know if the tension building at work was all in her head, or if the animosity she felt coming from some of her coworkers was the real deal. The only thing for certain was the number of times a day she overheard scathing comments about shifters. Nothing was directed to her personally, but she couldn’t help but feel the sting of each barb hitting home. Her daughter was a shifter. Her new friends were shifters. Carter was a shifter. She couldn’t stomach listening to people make them the butt of cruel jokes. Keeping her mouth shut and her head down had never been so difficult or so necessary in order to hold onto her job.
To make a bad situation worse, she’d received two more notes, each one more violent and threatening. After the last, she’d dropped Audrey off at daycare and taken the notes to her local police station. Despite the menacing tone of the missives, they’d claimed there was nothing they could do since the sender was unknown and no one had actually been harmed. She’d left their office disgusted with humanity, late to work, and minus four hours worth of wages for absolutely nothing.
Harlon rode her ass about being late and put a written warning in her file—which was a first after years of service. She swallowed the lecture with a grimace of distaste and then took her place behind the register. As the day wore on, she went from pissed to nauseous. Her head throbbed from what she assumed was a tension headache. At first, she blamed the queasiness on stress and anxiety. It wouldn’t be the first time her emotions twisted her stomach into knots. However, as the nausea grew stronger and her throat began to ache, she realized exactly what was happening. She’d caught some kind of virus.
As if she had time to be sick.
She cursed her crappy luck and sent a prayer up to whatever deity looked after single mothers that she could pump herself full of vitamin D and Echinacea once she got home and somehow wake up feeling better in the morning. After that morning’s warning, she couldn’t miss any more work.
Determined to make it through her shift, she struggled to do her job efficiently and tried her best to ignore her symptoms. More than one patron commented on her pallor and asked if she was okay. While she appreciated their concern, having her horrid appearance pointed out over and over again didn’t improve her mood.
Shortly before the end of her shift, a rush of customers swarmed the front end of the store. With the lines growing and no end in sight, she put her head down and focused on ringing up items and getting customers out the door as fast as possible. Quitting time came and went, while she struggled to keep it together long enough to get through the rush and reach the conclusion to her hellish work day.
Just when the end was in sight, with less than three people standing in her checkout lane, her stomach contracted so violently she moaned and froze in horror. Gore rose up the back of her throat and shot out of her mouth and nose with volcanic force, spraying the conveyor belt and the food piled on top of it. Fire lit up her throat and nose, making her eyes water. She whimpered in distress, beyond mortified, and slapped a hand over her mouth, smearing the vomit around her mouth and up her nose.
“Oh my God,” she cried. “I’m sorry. So sorry.” Sick and humiliated, she did the only thing that came to mind.
She ran.
Before she could reach the exit, she overheard Wilbur laugh and say, “She probably caught some disease from those animals she screws.”
In a flash, her embarrassment turned to rage. For weeks now, she’d swallowed their crap and kept her mouth shut out of fear of losing her job. At that moment, she no longer cared. She wasn’t going to take any more of their shit.
She spun around and glared at the other two cashiers’ on duty. “You can all take your shifterphobic bullshit and ram it where the sun doesn’t shine. I quit.”
With that said, she continued out the door and into the late afternoon sunshine. A wave of heat blasted her from above and below, rising up from the scorching asphalt surface of the parking lot, and hit her like a Mack truck. Her stomach burbled in warning. She stumbled to her car, leaned against the trunk, and emptied what little remained in her stomach onto the ground. Once the urge to vomit passed, she wiped her mouth on the hem of her shirt, got into her car, and rolled the windows down to air out the sweltering interior. She fired up the engine and turned the car toward Haven Hollow to pick up Audrey.
While she worried about transmitting whatever virus she had to the baby, she had no choice but to risk it. She’d just have to take whatever precautions she could and hope for the best.
During the long drive, she broke out into a cold sweat at the thought of what she’d just done. Not only had she spewed vomit all over her work station and some poor woman’s groceries, but she’d quit her job. No matter how much she disliked her coworkers, there were better ways to go about quitting than the way it had happened. Now she had no job, no prospects, and a very high likelihood of receiving a bad reference from the only position she’d held since high school. She wasn’t sure how things had spiraled out of control so fast, but she could worry about that in a day or two, when she didn’t feel like crawling under a rock and dying. In the meantime, she had a little girl to fetch and a bed back at home calling her name. Hopefully Audrey would be in a good mood, because the thought of caring for a cranky baby made her want to cry.
She pulled up in front of the community center, parked, and dragged her tired, sick, body into the building. At the last minute, she made a detour into the ladies room to clean herself up a little. There wasn’t much she could do about the smell, but she could at least wash her hands and splash a little water on her face. The cool liquid was a relief against her feverish skin. It also made her realize exactly how hot she’d grown during the drive over. It was no wonder she was woozy.
She turned off the water and patted her face dry with a paper towel. Her head swam and her vision wavered. She grasped the edge of the sink and gawked. The reflection in the mirror looked like something out of a horror movie, complete with pale, waxy skin and dark half moons under her eyes. She looked almost as bad as she felt. Thankfully it was early in the day, so the chances of running into Carter were slim—a good thing since the sight of her at present would probably scare the hell out of him.
She balled up the paper and pitched it into the bin on her way out. No sooner than she stepped through the door, she spotted Carter standing at the service desk, talking to Joanna. A groan of dismay slipped from her throat. She didn’t want him to see her.
Carter looked over his shoulder, the start of a smile on his lips as if he already knew who he’d find behind him. Their gazes clashed. Carter’s eyes widened and his mouth went slack. He rushed over to her, concern stamped across his face. “Eliza. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she answered automatically. “I’m just coming down with a cold or something.” She swayed on her feet, lightheaded.
“Whoa there.” Carter put his arm around her, steadying her. “You don’t look okay. You look like a stiff breeze would blow you over.”
“I really don’t feel well.” She leaned into him and sighed. “I need to get Audrey and go home.”
“I’m not sure you should be driving.”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can. Your one of the strongest women I’ve ever met. One of the stubbornest too. There’s no shame in letting someone help you.”
“Never said there was,” she muttered.
“Good. Then you won’t mind letting me take care of you until you’re back on your feet. You’re going to need someone to run errands and help take care of Audrey…”
She shook her head. “That isn’t necessary.”
“Eliza…” He blew out a frustrated breath. “I love you, but I swear you test my patience some times with your absolute refusal to let me to do anything for you.”
She opened her mouth to contradict him, only to slam it back shut as the magnitude of what he’d said hit home. “You… You love me?”
He stared at her as if she’d grown a second head. “Of course I love you.”
She searched his eyes for the truth and found unwavering conviction in his steady gaze. She smiled through her discomfort. “I love you, too.”
He leaned down for a kiss.
She lifted her face to him, ready to feel his lips on hers, until she remembered the state of her mouth. She grimaced and turned her face away. “I can’t,” she said, full of regret. “I threw up.”
“Oh. Well, that’s all right. We have a lifetime of kisses in our future.”
They did, didn’t they? She nodded. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me too.” He kissed her temple. “The only thing I like the sound of more, is you agreeing to come with me so I can take care of you and Audrey for the new few days. You’ll have to call in to work. There’s no way you can work in your condition.”
“I quit,” she blurted out.
“Quit your job?”
She nodded.
“Why? Did something happen?”
“I lost my cool. I threw up all over my workstation and then one of my coworkers made another snide comment about shifters and I just snapped. I couldn’t help it.”
Carter’s expression turned grim. “I’m sorry you were put in that position because of me.”
“It wasn’t because of you,” she was quick to reassure him. “No one at work knows about us. I’m not friends with anyone there. Apparently word got back to them about Audrey though. Probably from the busybody I had watching her.”
Carter’s brow wrinkled. “They were giving you shit because of the baby?”
She shrugged.
“That’s bullshit. I’m glad you quit.”
“Yeah.” She couldn’t regret quitting—the negativity in that hellhole was killing her—but she was worried about the consequences. Her bills wouldn’t pay themselves.
“So… Let’s go get Audrey and you can both come home with me.”
“Oh. I don’t know.” She was so tempted to take him up on his offer. “I don’t want to get you sick.”
“I’m a shifter. Our immune systems are much stronger than humans.”
Well, that was a relief. Maybe she didn’t have to worry about Audrey getting sick either. “Still though…” Pride demanded she not let him see her at her worst.
“Just say yes, Eliza. I can’t stand the thought of you sick and alone in the city, when I have a big empty house and more than enough energy to give you all the TLC you could ever need.”
How could she say no to that? He was so sweet. Would it really be so bad to let someone take care of her for a change? “All right. But you have to tell me the second we become an imposition.”
“That’ll never happen.”
“Promise me,” she insisted.
“I promise.” He kept his arm around her and led her down the hall. “Now that’s settled, let’s go get Audrey and go home.”