“Why’d you become a deputy?” asked Barlow.
Susie swallowed a bit of her sub and replied, “Because of my grandpa. He’s retired now, but he was sheriff when he was younger – he was always my hero. No matter how people treated him, he was always respectful, always honest, and he never let anyone bully him – and plenty of shifters tried to. But he wouldn’t back down – he always did what he thought was right. I wanted to make him proud.”
Barlow nodded thoughtfully. “Is he?”
“Proud? Yeah, but I think if I had ended up a professional can collector he’d still be super proud.”
They were enjoying a nice lunch. Unlike the lunches with Allen, Barlow didn’t chastise her for laughing too loudly, or roll his eyes when she dropped sauce on her shirt – no, Barlow howled with laughter and then spent ten minutes staring at her breast deciding what shape the sauce stain resembled. He decided on a goat riding a unicycle. She got the feeling Barlow was un-embarrassable. After spending so much time with Allen who was always uptight and worried about what strangers would think, it was nice being with someone who was so laidback. He was also really easy to talk to.
Barlow grunted and finished his second sub – he ordered three. She was impressed by the way he put food away.
“My ah, my grandparents raised me.”
He nodded – listening but still eating.
“My dad died when I was young, and my mom left, so they took care of me.”
His eyes crinkled in sympathy. “What happened?”
“He drowned. We were living in New York. My parents liked to party, and he got so drunk he thought it would be a good idea to swim to the Statue of Liberty at midnight in January.”
He placed his hand on her leg. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
Susie smiled slightly. Something else she liked about Barlow was that he didn’t swear all that much. At least not the f-word – this was the first time she heard him say it. Usually, he was more of a PG-13 swear kind of guy. Even when he was chasing unruly cattle and falling in cow dung – he didn’t swear. The situation had to be serious for him to swear like that.
“My mom died when I was a kid,” he said in a gravelly voice, thick with emotion.
Susie placed her hand over his. Vaguely, she already knew from what Terri had told her. “I’m sorry.”
“She went out one night, hunting, and a hunter thought she was a real wolf. She couldn’t change back in time.”
Susie mewled in sympathy. “I had no idea.”
How awful. She always thought of shifters as invincible, powerful creatures, but it wasn’t true. Barlow lost his mother over such a stupid mistake.
“It’s fine,” he grunted. “I’m over it.”
He tried to remove his hand from hers and Susie clung onto it, rubbing her fingers over his knuckles. She could tell he wasn’t telling the truth about that. She could tell he was holding onto the pain, and keeping something back.
Barlow looked up, and for a second, she thought she saw fear in his eyes. But that was quickly doused. His eyes pinned hers, and she had an urge to lean forward and kiss him, to ease his pain and take what she had been dreaming about ever since Vegas.
“We’re getting a little morbid,” she said with a forced laugh.
He chuckled and patted her other thigh with his free hand. “Yeah. So what’s your favorite flavor of chip?”
Susie giggled. “Plain.”
Barlow made a face, and she giggled even harder. “Plain?”
“Yeah, plain.”
“Jeez. Next, you’ll say your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla.”
“Well…”
Barlow threw back his head and howled in amusement. It was loud and wonderful to hear; she almost missed the growl coming from Allen. But the male growled a couple of times to make sure he got his point across.
Allen approached them, a distasteful look on his face.
“Susie.”
“Oh hey,” she said weakly.
Barlow’s mirth disappeared, and he smiled coldly at the other wolf.
Allen sniffed and pursed his lips - he looked like someone had just passed him a bowl full of rotting garbage. “Susie, I need to speak to you.”
“Susie’s talking to me,” rumbled Barlow.
Allen’s eyes flickered down to the hand on her leg.
“It’s okay, Barlow,” said Susie. If she didn’t speak to Allen, he’d march off and force Jules or maybe Candace to get her, and he knew she wouldn’t say no to her friends. Allen refused to be avoided.
Allen smiled smugly, and Susie squeezed Barlow’s hand.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry back, little darling,” crooned Barlow, only the slightest edge to his voice.
*
“Are you okay?” asked Allen when they were out of Barlow’s earshot. He looked a little agitated.
“I’m fine.”
Allen huffed and puffed, and Susie wondered if he had dragged her away from Barlow just to ask her that.
“I was worried when you were so late in arriving - I thought something happened to you.”
Susie pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing. Something did happen, and it was freaking hilarious. Thankfully, she had managed to snap a few pictures with her phone – she looked forward to sharing them with Terri when she got back to Rose.
“We just got a little lost; it was nothing.”
“I don’t like you being in danger,” hissed Allen.
Susie glared at him. Where was this coming from? “Who said I was in danger? I was with Barlow, and I can take care of myself.”
“I’ve said it, again and again, I don’t like you working as a deputy!”
“What?!”
This was an argument they had numerous times when they were together. He demanded she quit, and she refused. He wanted her at home, cooking and cleaning and she said nuts to that. Why he was dragging that out now, she had no idea.
“First of all, I have no idea why on earth you’re bringing this up now. Secondly, that’s really none of your business anymore.”
Allen gave her a thunderous look. “And where did you find that… that person?” The word person was said with the most scorn he could muster.
“You mean, Barlow? Vegas, actually.”
Allen snorted. “Have you brought him here to make me jealous?”
“I don’t do things to get a reaction from you,” she replied peevishly.
He grasped her hand, giving her a harrowed look. “I still love you, Susie.”
“Funny way of showing it,” she muttered trying to tug her hand away.
“I’m a wolf – I have urges. I was only with Helen on the full moon as my beast – you’re human, you can’t possibly understand. My beast needed the release – but my heart has always been yours.”
Yeah, he was probably thinking of her while cavorting with Helen. Boy, that sure made her feel all warm and fuzzy – not!
“I have to take Helen as my mate because she gave birth to my cub, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be together.”
“Yeah, it does,” she scoffed. “I’m not going to be your mistress.”
“No, I mean you could be my second mate.”
“Second mate?”
Allen beamed at her. “Helen has to be my first mate because she’s a wolf and gave birth to my son, but you could be my second mate.”
Susie squirmed at the thought of the three of them sharing a bed. “So you’d have two mates?”
He nodded almost feverishly. “Yes, I would essentially be mated to you, but I would have to spend the full moons with Helen and mate with her then.”
“Oh boy, that does sound tempting,” she muttered, putting as much sarcasm in her voice as she could muster.
Allen’s delight quickly turned to fury. “I’m trying to find a way for us to be together.”
“Well stop trying!” she snapped, and with a huge effort, she managed to free her hand so she could stomp away.
Moments later she felt a hand grip her arm, and she swung, hoping to smack Allen right in his bleached white smile. But she gasped as Barlow caught her.
“Take it easy, slugger,” he purred.
“Sorry, thought you were someone else.”
“Yeah, I figured. What happened with keyboard teeth?”
“It’s a long story.”
Barlow shrugged as if he didn’t mind listening, but Susie wasn’t in the mood. She liked Barlow, but she was a little uncertain where she stood with him. Friends, she guessed, but she worried that Barlow wanted something more. She didn’t want to encourage him, not when she had no interest in being with a wolf… right? She wasn’t hoping for more with Barlow, was she?
“And not one I want to talk about,” she added.
“Fair enough,” he replied without hesitation. “According to our schedule, we’re due for some wedding snowboarding.”
“Of course we are,” she sighed.
“You up for it, little darling?”
“Sure, why not?”
She’d already been completely embarrassed in front of this pack when Allen cheated on her – what could falling on her butt in the snow hurt?