SIX
The following morning, I awoke to find Reed already gone. This didn’t really surprise me, since I’d expected him to have to head out early to lead his men in some kind of morning patrol around Somerset or something. This did, however, disappoint me a bit. I’d kind of been hoping for a repeat of the “business transaction” that Reed and I had completed the night before.
After showering, dressing, and having breakfast, I soon left to head into the town part of the village to do some exploring on foot, and maybe a little shopping if anything caught my eye. When I began walking down the long, paved driveway in front of the house, I breathed in deeply, reveling in the scent of early spring. It was a blend of fresh earth, budding leaves, and something green and indefinable, maybe pine trees somewhere nearby. The air, mild and a bit damp, also signaled early spring, and I glanced up at the bright blue sky, realizing that I was in a terrifically good mood for some reason, probably some reason having to do with how satisfied I’d been the night before.
Although it was April Fool’s Day, my good mood turned out to be no joke. I hadn’t even made it to the end of the short paved lane that led from the house to the main paved road through town when a young woman riding a bike on the shoulder of the road, heading toward town, smiled and waved at me. I smiled and waved back with my heart light as air. Not long after, an older couple planting some kind of shrubbery in front of their house looked up and waved at me, smiling. Happily, I returned the wave. Just after I’d started down the main road, a woman pushing a baby in a stroller on the sidewalk also smiled and waved at me. Once again, I returned the salutation, thinking that I could possibly become truly happy in Somerset, and also thinking that it seemed like a wonderful place to raise a child.
Over the next quarter-mile or so until I reached town, where at least a half-dozen little shops, boutiques, and restaurants lined each side of the street, I was probably smiled at by no fewer than two dozen people, some in cars and trucks and some on foot and bikes. A few people also called out hello and welcomed me to town, and no wonder, I thought. After all, I was the supergene woman who was going to bear a child that could return all the men in Somerset to full shifter strength. However, I had the feeling that everyone in town still would have been friendly to me even if this hadn’t been the case. Everyone just simply seemed genuine, and my mood became further buoyant.
It became even further buoyant still when I ducked into a clothing boutique and was soon warmly greeted by a saleslady who reminded me of Marie more than a bit, plump and smiling. Despite seeing a few things I liked, I didn't buy anything at this boutique, instead telling the saleslady that I’d definitely be back sometime when I brought my car to cart shopping bags home.
Visits to a few other boutiques went similarly. After the last of them, I spotted Polly’s Java Café just a short way up the street and began speed-walking toward the sign, really striding hard. I was striding so hard, in fact, that when someone came striding out from one of the restaurants nearly just as hard, I crashed right into them. I crashed right into what felt like a brick wall of hardened chest and six-pack abs. It was Reed.
I’d been striding so hard that I really nearly clothes-lined myself on his muscular body. I probably would have, too, would have flipped myself right back on my butt, had he not grabbed me with one strong arm and held me up.
Frowning, though, with his pale blue eyes registering surprise at the same time, he continued holding me up even once I was very steadily standing on my own two feet.
“You could have just been hurt. You should really watch where you’re going, Samantha.”
Scoffing, I thrashed my way out of his arm. “Oh, how dare you say that? How freaking dare you, when you came striding on out of the restaurant almost just as fast as I was going. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“Well-”
“And by the way, shouldn’t you, as a shifter, have faster reflexes than an average man or something?”
“I do.”
“Then, when I nearly crashed into you, why didn’t you display those faster reflexes?”
“I did. I saw you out of the corner of my eye, and I caught you before you could knock yourself right onto your rear.”
This made sense, although still angry at the tone he’d taken with me, I didn’t want to admit it.
“Well, it seems like if you truly had faster shifter reflexes, you would’ve avoided me crashing into you at all, thereby making sure that there wasn’t even the slightest chance of me knocking myself right onto my rear.”
Looking into my eyes with his expression unreadable, Reed didn’t answer right away. “Well, maybe I wanted to catch you. Maybe I liked the feel of you in my arms last night, and I wanted to feel it again.”
That silenced me. It silenced me because I realized that I’d wanted to feel him holding me again, too. Standing close enough to him to catch just a hint of his clean, woodsy, masculine scent, I didn’t say anything for a moment or two, and neither did he. With his expression still unreadable, he just looked into my eyes, as if trying to gauge my reaction to what he’d said.
But then he abruptly looked away, scowling and raking a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Please, Samantha… Let’s just steer clear of each other in town. Okay?”
With my anger flaring once again, I could only sputter briefly, “Oh, well, I’m sorry, but even though I’m a supergene woman, I’m not a psychic, which makes it difficult for me to know when you’re about to exit a restaurant, which, in turn, makes it difficult for me to ‘just steer clear’ of you.”
“Look. Just-”
“‘Let’s just steer clear of each other,’ says the man who invited me to have a ‘fancy’ dinner with him tonight. Makes a ton of sense. Invite a woman to dinner, and then ask her to ‘steer clear.’ Makes so much sense I can hardly even wrap my brain around it.”
Reed suddenly looked confused and asked what I was talking about in regards to a fancy dinner.
For probably the second or third time during our conversation, I scoffed. “The ‘fancy’ dinner that you asked Marie to invite me to. I ran into her in one of the boutiques a little bit ago, and we chatted for a minute. Obviously, you’ve changed your mind, though, about wanting to have a nice dinner with me tonight, and that’s fine. I’ll eat by myself. I guess I just thought that maybe after last night, you’d changed your mind about us being ‘all business’ and were more open to the idea of us having a friendship or something.”
As he was prone to doing around me, Reed raked a hand through his hair. “Look. Last night didn’t change anything. I still want our relationship to be purely business. And if you want something else-”
“No. No, I don’t. I never did, and I still don’t. I just thought we could be more friendly, is all, but I guess you’re the type of man who saves all his ‘friendliness’ for the bedroom.”
Reed started to respond, but I cut him off.
“No need for any explanations. I understand you perfectly clear. We’re business partners of sorts. Nothing more. I’ll call up Marie and tell her that we don’t need any sort of a ‘fancy’ dinner tonight.”
Reed heaved a sigh. “Please don’t. Also, and I meant to tell you this earlier, but please don’t try to dissuade Marie from doing any of her normal household duties. When Sean died, I told her that I wanted to give her a monthly salary just for living here in Somerset, just so that she could remain comfortable and not have to move, but she wouldn’t hear of it, and instead insisted that she ‘earn her keep’ by cooking and cleaning for me. Now, all these years later, she seems to really take pride in it, so like I said, please don’t try to turn her away from it, even if you feel like you want to do the housecleaning and cooking yourself. Making a dinner yourself every so often, I’m sure she would understand, but… just let her cook most dinners for now, please. Okay? Even ‘fancy’ ones, or whatever it is that she has planned for tonight.”
I was starting to get the feeling that the dinner had been all Marie’s idea, and that Reed hadn’t asked her to invite me at all, not that I could really blame Marie. I was starting to get another feeling that she might be trying to play romantic matchmaker with me and Reed.
For her sake, I told Reed that I wouldn’t tell her to call off the dinner. “In fact, if you see her, tell her we’ll still definitely be eating together tonight. After all, business associates eat together, don’t they?”
Reed’s only response was to rake a hand through his hair, and I told him I’d see him for dinner at eight. Apparently having nothing to say in return, he strode away to a shiny black truck parked in front of the restaurant, got in, and drove off. It was only then that I looked around, realizing that there indeed had been a good number of people watching us have our conversation. At least two dozen faces were just about pressed against the plate glass windows in front of the restaurant, and many more faces peered through shop windows to the left and the right. Across the street, at least a dozen people out on the sidewalk had stopped to watch the show. All of these people, or at least the vast majority of them, were wearing vacant sort of expressions that people might wear while watching TV, which I actually might have found comical if my good mood of earlier hadn’t given way to one much darker.