Chapter Three

Two days later, Wyatt stood in the grocery store near his sister’s house, staring at the assortment of flowers in the floral section. He grabbed a bouquet of purple and yellow somethings and let the water drip off the stems. He didn’t know a thing about flowers, nor did he care, but he did want to bring them and a bottle of wine to his sister’s house. After all, she was making him dinner.

Wyatt had thrown himself into his work, doing everything in his power to avoid thinking about Paige. He’d managed to be fairly successful during the daytime. Night was a different story. As soon as he got back to his hotel room the past two nights, he fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about her.

Insanely, he already knew a lot of her little mannerisms. He could visualize the way she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, the way she smiled brightly at each new customer, the way she threaded her fingers in front of her and twisted them around. Did she do that all the time? Or had she been reacting to his presence with the nervous gesture?

In three long days, Wyatt had met with a bottle vendor, the usual can company his brewery used, and visited a local plant that owned a labeler he was looking into. He’d done his best to wear himself out every day. So much so that his week-long trip could easily be cut short. There was no reason for him to stay in Calgary another day.

Except Paige was in Calgary.

As if he’d conjured her telepathically, he suddenly realized she was nearby. Holding the bouquet of flowers in his hand, he spun around to find her entering the store.

She hesitated a moment in the entrance, the length of time it would take her to scent him and know he was close. And then her gaze locked on his.

He smiled or attempted to at least. He had no clue what his expression might actually be revealing. Whatever it was, it fell to a frown when he realized she wasn’t alone.

He hadn’t gotten a good look at her boyfriend the other day. His interest had been in Paige, not a human guy. But this was definitely him.

The man ran into the back of her when she stopped walking. And then she quickly grabbed his hand and held it tightly, still looking at Wyatt. The boyfriend was a few inches taller than her, maybe five nine, and gangly. His brown hair was wavy and longer on top so that it drooped over his forehead. The short-cropped beard made him look older than he probably was.

Wyatt turned his attention back to Paige. It wasn’t as if he could ignore her and walk away. So he stepped toward the entrance as they moved in his direction.

Paige whispered something into the guy’s ear, and he nodded subtly and wrapped an arm around her in a possessive gesture. Awkwardly. Unnaturally.

Interesting. Was it for show? Or was he making a statement? How much did he know about Wyatt?

“Hey, Wyatt,” Paige murmured when only a few feet separated them. “You have a date?” She pointed at the flowers hanging from his hand.

He glanced at the bouquet and back at her. “With my sister. Thought I should bring something.”

She nodded. “That’s a nice thing to do.” After a moment’s hesitation, she wrapped her arm around the guy next to her and hugged him closer.

Wyatt held his emotions in check. For one thing, it wouldn’t do any good to be pissed that she had a man in her life. But more importantly, something about this arrangement seemed off. He didn’t think there was any reason to be jealous of this guy.

“Wyatt, this is my boyfriend, Gavin. Gavin, Wyatt.”

Gavin reached out with his free hand. “Nice to meet you.” He smiled, not seeming the slightest bit concerned that his girlfriend had a male acquaintance he hadn’t met.

Wyatt shook his hand, noticing the guy had a firm handshake for someone so small. Although he was lanky, he was fit. And it wasn’t fair to say he was small, either. He was not considered short by human standards. He indeed also wasn’t very old. Probably the same age as Paige, early twenties. If she knew him from university, it would stand to reason they were in the same class.

“How are your meetings going?” Paige asked.

“Good. I wrapped things up today, actually. I’ll probably head home tomorrow.” He wanted to stay in Calgary. He wanted to take this woman out to dinner and woo the hell out of her. The need to do so crawled up his spine and made his mouth dry and his cock stiff. But that didn’t seem to be in the cards, so hanging around Calgary any longer would simply prolong his torture.

“Oh. Well, I guess that’s good.” She licked her lips while squeezing Gavin tighter. A glance at her fingers around his waist proved she was stressed as all get out. Her knuckles were white from gripping his jeans too tight, and she was stiff. Uncomfortable. She shuffled from one foot to the other several times.

He had no idea why he felt the need to antagonize Gavin, but he couldn’t help it. “Paige tells me you two have been together for a few years.”

Gavin lifted a brow. “Uh, yes. That’s right.” He glanced at Paige, his gaze wide as if to ask Who is this guy?

Interesting. “You’re a student at U of C also?”

“Yes.” Gavin glanced down at Paige again and then back at Wyatt. “How do you know Paige?”

Ah ha. So Paige hadn’t mentioned a single word about Wyatt to Gavin. “My sister’s renting her parents’ home. We met the other night.” He didn’t bother to mention the coffee shop.

“Ah, right.”

Another awkward pause, and then Paige spoke again. “Well, we better get our shopping done. We’re cooking in tonight. Enjoy dinner with your sister.”

“I will. See you later.” Wyatt forced himself to nod at Paige and then Gavin and head for the checkout. There was no way he could he go in search of wine at the moment. Joselyn was going to have to settle for flowers.

»»•««

“We’re cooking in tonight?” Gavin asked thirty minutes later as he perched on one of Paige’s barstools at the island that attached her boring off-white kitchen to her dull off-white living room. He lifted his soda to his lips, took a long drink, and then smiled. “I can’t wait to hear the details of this story.”

Paige cringed. She had hoped he might drop the subject since he hadn’t said a single word while they were shopping. No such luck apparently.

“Paige.” He hesitated. “Is this Wyatt guy the reason you were so flustered the other day?”

She lifted several items out of the grocery sack and piled them on the counter. “What? No. Of course not.”

Silence. Deafening long silence at her back, and then, “Paige. Look at me.”

She opened the fridge and stuffed several things inside before turning around, not meeting his gaze. He knew her too well. Far too well. Better than anyone else alive.

“How long have we been friends?” he asked.

She cocked her head to one side and shot him a glare. The rhetorical question was not necessary.

“Whoever Wyatt is, he already knew me. So, I’m going to bet you met him the other day, he got you flustered, and you told him you had a boyfriend.”

“Yep. And that’s all there is to it. So, can this line of questioning be over?”

Gavin shook his head. “Not a chance. Where did you meet him?”

“My parents’ house.”

“Is he…”

She flinched. “Yes. He’s a shifter,” she muttered.

“So, you’re attracted to him.”

She shook her head but spoke the truth. “Who wouldn’t be?”

Gavin chuckled. “Okay. I’m going to give you that one. Even I’m attracted to him.”

She finally met his gaze. “I don’t think he’s your type.”

“Is he your type, though?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll never know.”

Gavin sighed loudly. “Honey, you’re twenty-four years old. It might be time for you to let go of the past and come out of your shell a bit. If you like him, why not give him a chance? He seemed nice. Huge. But nice. I mean really huge but nice.”

She narrowed her gaze. “I get the picture. But I’m still not interested.”

“Paige—”

She stopped him. “Gavin, don’t go there. You want me to come out of my shell? Fine, you go first.”

He flinched, as she knew he would.

“You come out, and then I’ll come out. How does Thursday work for you?”

He pursed his lips.

“I thought so. We have a deal. I’m not interested in breaking it. Are you?”

He slowly shook his head. His shoulders fell. “I just don’t think it’s equal anymore. It hurts me to see you lonely and in pain. You don’t go out. You don’t date. You don’t even have friends.”

“I have you.” She forced a grin. “I go out with you. We date…sort of.”

He rolled his eyes and leaned closer. “Trust me, hon. This arrangement works fantastically for me. If I could go my entire life without my parents learning I’m gay, I totally would. If I could marry you and keep a boyfriend on the side for the next eighty years without anyone suspecting, my life would be perfect. But none of that is fair to you.”

She crossed her arms, holding herself together by a thread that seemed to be unraveling. “You don’t get to decide what’s right for me. I do. And my opinion on this subject hasn’t changed. I have no interest whatsoever in dating anyone, human or otherwise. Men are pigs, present company excepted. I like things the way they are. It makes your parents happy that we’re together. No one questions us.”

“It doesn’t make your parents happy,” he pointed out.

“My parents love you.”

“Your parents want you to find a nice shifter and settle down.”

She waved a hand through the air. “They’ll get over themselves. Eventually.”

“Would you actually go so far as to marry me to cover up your distaste for men and help keep me in the closet?” His question was serious. It had been a long time since they last addressed their mutually beneficial arrangement. It worked for them. Most of the time. They enjoyed each other’s company. Gavin was her best friend. Her only close friend.

“Yes,” she responded without hesitation. “I absolutely would, if I thought it was the right thing for you. But I don’t. You’re going to want to come out one day. And I’m not going to hold you back. What about Reese? Surely he can only take so much more of this.”

“We broke up.”

She jumped in her spot, dropping her arms from around her and setting her palms on the island. “What?” The word came out on a squeak. “When? Why? I thought you two were getting serious.”

Gavin blew out a slow breath. “He couldn’t take the secrecy anymore.”

Paige slowly closed her eyes and forced deep breaths. Finally, she managed to speak again in a relatively calm voice. “This is what I’m talking about. You let a perfectly good relationship go in the shitter in order to remain hidden from the world.”

“Yep. And may I point out that you just let a really nice man walk away from you in order to remain hidden from yourself.”

She shook her head vehemently. “Not the same thing. And this isn’t about me. It’s about you. I’m worried about you.”

He leaned closer until they were eye to eye, only inches separating them. “It’s exactly the same thing. And it’s about both of us. I’m far more worried about you than I am about me. At least I know who I am inside. I may not be prepared to let the world know, but I can admit it to myself. I have relationships, albeit usually short ones, but I have them.

“What do you have? You’ve never dated a single man even once in your life. You keep yourself so closed off from the rest of the world it’s a wonder you don’t implode. You need counseling. You’ve needed it for ten years. I never should have agreed to this farce in the first place. I was young. Naïve. A kid. But in hindsight, I should have run and told your mother what happened to you that day.”

Her face heated with frustration. Anger closer to the surface. “Don’t even go there, Gavin. You’ve needed counseling longer than me. Should I have run to your mother and told her you were gay?”

His voice rose. “You think those two things are equal? You think if you had gone to a counselor to learn to cope with the effects of rape so that you could later have a normal relationship with a man is the same thing as me being sent away to some religious camp for the summer to pray the gay away? Huh?” His voice got even higher. “You know what they do at those camps? You know what conversion therapy is, Paige? Do you?”

She jerked back a few inches. “Yes,” she whispered. “I do. You know I do.”

He calmed marginally in front of her, sitting back. “Then don’t try to compare our experiences. I’m gay, Paige. I’ll never not be gay. I know it. I accept it. I work hard to live in a society that doesn’t readily accept me for who I am. And I’ll never be able to thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me in my life to help me cover it up. You’ve lied for me. You’ve spent two years pretending to be my girlfriend. You’re the best friend I’ll ever have.

“But, honey, you were raped. Violently. I was there. I’m not a psychiatrist. I can’t fix that for you. I can’t take away the pain you live with every day. There are people who could help you, Paige.”

She swallowed to keep from crying. “See, it’s essentially the same thing. You can’t be someone who isn’t gay no matter what therapy you get. And I can’t be someone who wasn’t raped. It will always be with me no matter what I do. And I handle it fine. I have a great life. I have wonderful parents, a great friend, and an awesome career ahead of me. So much to look forward to. Not everyone has to fit into a perfect mold. My mold will always look a little different from others. I’m okay with that.”

Gavin bit his lower lip, probably to keep from arguing further.

“You want to change our arrangement? We can do it anytime you want. I’ll be fine on my own. Promise. If you care about Reese, don’t let him go. Not for me. If you’re doing it for you, fine. But not for me.”

“Reese is gone.”

She nodded. “Okay.” No sense arguing with Gavin any longer about Reese. It wasn’t the first time Gavin had broken up with a great guy because he wasn’t willing to come out, and it wouldn’t be the last. “I love you.”

“I love you too, honey.”

She pasted on a smile. “Then let’s make some dinner so at least I won’t be a total liar today.”

Gavin chuckled. “Sounds like a plan.”