Chapter Eighteen

 

 

Why the hell did she ask herself what could go wrong? They were in the grocery store together. She could be wrong, but it didn’t look like they had ever been in one.

“Tell me you’ve been food shopping before?”

“I went once,” Jabari told her. He was holding a tomato in his hand. She took it away from him saving both his shirt and the life of the tomato.

“What happened when you went?”

“The manager suggested that next time I call and place an order. They would deliver it.”

“That’s how you get food?”

“Mostly, we order or go to a restaurant.”

“We are having family dinners twice a week, and I’m teaching you simple cooking for the mornings.”

They looked at her with blank eyes.

“Believe me, I have it on good authority that teen boys can do this. So, I know you can. The store, lesson one. I want you to fan out and find food you’ve never tried and bring it back to the cart. We will incorporate them into our family dinners this week.

She watched them all wander off except for Mekhi. “You too, go.”

“Hey, what kind of steak do you think Tee wants?”

“Thick, rare. She’ll eat whatever you buy.”

She nodded and headed in a different direction. At the end of one aisle was a stand with an older gentleman manning it.

“You, miss.”

She looked around she was the only one near him.

“Hi, what are you selling?”

“I’ve got some of the best exotic products available on this planet and in the galaxy.”

“Umm yeah.” Common sense told her to walk away, but she was making love to an alien.

“What do you have?”

“No miss the question is what do you need?”

A picture of Mekhi standing in his beast form flashed before her eyes. She shook her head trying to clear the picture, but it wouldn’t leave. His once proud beast looked defeated.

“Do you have anything that would restore the coat of a…”

“Of a dog or a cat?”

“No. It would have to be safe for animals and males. Not really animal’s sentient beings and males who are… Never mind this is crazy.”

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

“I want a medicine that will help a male who can turn into a beast. His coat has been destroyed.”

“Why didn’t you just say so? Humans, you develop a language that no one except you can understand. This will do the trick.” He placed a small bottle with several pills on the table.

She looked at him allowing her skepticism to show on her face. Was this a trick? She looked down the aisle but didn’t see anyone watching.

“Why are you willing to help me and why do you believe me?”

“I thought I mentioned that my cures came from around the galaxy.”

“How much?”

“Everything you have.”

She took a step back looking for a way out.

“Don’t be so dramatic. I don’t want your first-born child or a kidney.”

That was what she had been thinking.

“I know. I mean it will cost you all the personal money you have. There are times you have to show someone you love them and not tell them.”

She eyed the medicine again ignoring the love bit of the man's speech.

“Will it work?”

“Yes child, it will.”

“Do you take debit?” Her eyebrows went up when she asked him.

“I do.”

She paid him every cent in her checking account. He handed her the medicine that sparked the minute she touched the bottle.

She looked down and pressed it to her chest. When she looked back up to thank the man, he was gone and so was his table. The medicine was still in her hand, she slipped it into her purse and decided it was all a weird dream. It was the kind of day she was having.

“A watermelon?”

Mekhi sat it in the cart. “I’ve seen them on television. Humans seem happy when they eat it, but I’ve never tasted one.”

“Then we’ll have it for dessert after dinner.”

Phoenix carried over a roast and set it in the cart. “Oh, that’s a good cut of meat. It will be delicious.”

“This says it will make drinks, but I’m not sure how,” Slade told her.

“It’s lemonade; you'll love it. I’ll show you when we make it.”

Akron brought several packages of chicken breasts.

“You’ve never had chicken before?”

“It didn’t look like that.”

“Now we need vegetables.”

Jabari brought ears of corn and placed them in the cart. Thrice brought snap peas.

“We are going to have great meals together. Let’s get the rest of the ingredients I need and our first trip to the store will be complete.”

Quinn turned the corner, she never saw the robed black form that stood next to her. She took a step, and her ankle twisted. Mekhi caught her before she hit the floor.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“Tell us what to get. You need to stay off the ankle until I can examine it.”

She rattled off a shopping list and smiled at the looks on several women's faces that were wishing they could change places with her.

“We need steaks. You guys eat enough of them; I’m sure you know what kind to get.”

Mekhi took her out to the truck and made her comfortable as they waited for his brothers to come out the groceries.

“The young of your species tried to grab our steaks,” Thrice told her.

She scrunched her eyebrows. “What?”

“He said he would put it in a bag.”

“Did you hurt him?”

“He was young.” The coolness in his voice told her how much he didn’t appreciate that question.

“He’s a bagger. Sometimes stores have them sometimes they don’t.”

“I will remember next time tiny sister.”

“Is calling me tiny going to become a thing?” They laughed and put the food in the truck before they got in.

“It’s your fault,” she told Mekhi. He might have felt contrite if she could have stopped smiling.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“It’s not broken, but it is sprained.” She was sitting on the couch in the shared living room while the other brothers were putting up the food.

“I will wrap it and give you a med for pain. It would help if you stayed off it. I know better. When it aches sit down.”

“I can do that.”

“I’ll be right back.”

She laid back on the couch. Her phone rang. That's when she realized she didn’t have her earpiece in.

“Hello?”

“Quinn, it’s mom.”

“Hi mom, is everything okay?”

“I’m fine I haven’t heard from you.”

“Sorry mom, it feels like a lot is happening. I gave up my apartment and have been staying with my friend. I start the outdoor kitchen project on Monday.”

“You like this friend?”

“I do mom. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

“It would be nice if you could come over Sunday for lunch. I could cook.”

“That would be nice; Tee misses you. What time?”

“I miss her too, noon?”

“Perfect, we’ll see you then. I love you, mom.”

“I know baby; I love you.”

“Was that your mom?” Mekhi asked walking in with the bandage in his hand.

“Yeah, she invited us to lunch on Sunday.”

“I can’t wait to meet her.” He wrapped her ankle making sure it wasn’t too tight before he handed her a glass of water and a pill. “Take that it will help with the pain.”

“Speaking of pills.” She said after she swallowed hers. “I got this for you.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out the small bottle.

“Where did you get this?” His finger stroked the top of the bottle.

“There was a man in the store. The bottle looked like a regular medicine bottle when I got it. Now it looks like a work of art.” It was gold with a language written in a script she couldn’t read.

“It’s rare. How much did it cost?”

“Not that much.”

His eyes pinned her making her squirm.

“How much did it cost?”

“All the money I had.”

He opened the bottle and poured out eight pills. They were dark blue, and they pulsed with light.

“When the bottle is plain, it means the pills are inert. They have to be activated to work.”

“Money activates them?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“It takes an unselfish act done in love.”

“I don’t understand. All I gave him was all the money I have. Oh…”

“Do you love me, Quinn?”

She nodded her head afraid to say it out loud for fear he may reject her.

“I knew you were my mate when I saw you on television. When I heard your voice over the phone any doubt I had disappeared. Will you be my mate?”

“Is it like being your wife?”

“Yes, but it means forever in my world.”

You’re going too fast she screamed at herself. Remember the others she told herself. It didn’t matter she was beyond hearing.

He took a pill while he waited for her and put the others in his back pocket.

That sealed the deal. He trusted her enough to believe in her.

“Yes Mekhi, I want to be your mate.”