I confirmed the coast was clear and ushered the women out ahead of me before locking the door behind us. When I made it to my Jeep, Mom and Callie were standing outside arguing.
“Nora, I’m not taking your seat up front.”
“You’d be doing me a favor.”
“I’m not making you sit in the back!”
“That’s where I want to sit!”
“Ladies! Can y’all just get in? I don’t care who sits where.”
Callie tried to wedge herself closer to the back door, but Mom wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed her elbow and spun her around before giving her a little nudge toward the passenger seat.
“I’ll get car sick if I don’t sit in the back,” Mom said.
Callie shook her head, but her shoulders slumped with defeat as she climbed in the front.
“Since when do you get car sick?” I asked as soon as everyone was in the Jeep.
“Since always. Keep up.”
Shocked at her tone, I glanced at her in the rearview mirror, but all she did was wink at me.
“Women,” I muttered as I shook my head and brought the engine to life. “Ma,” I said louder this time, “Can you please slouch down until we’re off pack lands?”
I heard overprotective and hardheaded grumbled from the backseat, but I ignored it. Compromising on her safety was out of the question.
When I turned to Callie, I found her slumped down too and frowned her way. “What are you doing?”
She shrugged. “It’s called solidarity.”
“My mom doesn’t need you to hide too.”
A nervous giggle slipped from her lips. “It’s okay. It’s just until we’re off pack lands.”
I was still frowning as I drove away from the pack houses and toward the lodge. What was going on here? It wasn’t the first time she’d done this. Who was she hiding from? What was she hiding? Did she not want to be seen with me?
Those questions and more spun through my brain as I traveled down the steep gravel drive and onto the road. When we were out of eyeshot, Callie sat up with a small glance my way. I did my best to ignore her gaze and act unaffected, but underneath the façade, I was anything but.
“You can sit up now, Ma.”
The leather seats creaked as she rearranged herself before speaking up. “So, Callie, I did some research on local nurseries, but I thought I’d see if you had somewhere you liked.”
“Actually, there’s this one place my mom used to go all the time. It’s a bit of a drive from here, though.”
“Wyatt doesn’t mind,” Mom said for me.
“Are you sure?” Callie directed her question at me.
“Whatever you guys want,” I said, my voice gruff. I caught Callie frowning at me out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored it. I was too busy dissecting her odd behavior back on pack lands.
“Okay, then you’ll want to get on the highway going south.”
I followed her directions as Mom took over the conversation in the car. She fired question after question at Callie as I drove and stewed. By the time we made it to the nursery, I’d come to the conclusion that the only reason Callie would hide like that was because she was embarrassed to be seen with me.
That shit was like a salty knife right to my chest.
“Ooh, I see hibiscus from here! This place looks great, Callie,” Mom gushed as I pulled into a parking spot.
Mom and Callie jumped out of the Jeep, but I took my time, not really in the mood to be social. The two women linked their arms together as they walked through the gates into the nursery.
When they were out of sight, I folded my hands on top of my head and let out a deep breath.
I needed to let this shit with Callie go. So what if she was embarrassed by me? That was nothing new in my life. I’d been someone’s dirty little secret more times than I could count. What was one more?
I grit my teeth and turned my back on the nursery.
The problem was, Callie was nothing like any other woman I’d ever been with. Or that was what I’d thought. Maybe I was wrong though. Maybe she was just like all the others. That would make getting over this… thing with her a lot easier.
I blew out a breath and let my arms drop to my sides.
There was really nothing I could do about it either way. She was just my friend and that didn’t give me the right to pry into her actions. I’d just have to accept the way things were and move on.
Or at least try to.
Done with my pity party, I strolled into the nursery to look for Mom and Callie and was immediately assaulted by all the different scents. It took me a minute to push that aside before I could focus on looking around the place.
It didn’t take me long to spot Callie’s wild curly brown hair with my mom beside her in the far corner of the place. Problem was, they weren’t alone.
I started off slowly in their direction, but the closer I got, the faster my feet moved.
The guy they were talking to was tall, but not as tall as me. He had dark hair and dark eyes and a wide smile directed right at Callie. I grit my teeth as I got close enough to smell that he was a wolf too, which didn’t make me feel better at all.
I was about halfway to them when the unknown wolf reached out and put his arm around Callie’s shoulders. My vision went red for a moment as I watched his hand dangle way too close to her chest. She looked up at him and smiled and I picked up the pace, almost running by then.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I approached them. My voice was deep and rough with an edge to it, but there was nothing I could do about that. I was having trouble just keeping my shaking hands at my sides and not wrapping them around this guy’s neck instead.
My eyes zeroed in on the arm still resting on Callie’s shoulders as my insides rioted.
“Hey, Wyatt. This is Ricky. We just ran into him,” Callie said. Her wide smile slowly faded as she looked into my eyes. I didn’t know what she saw there, but I knew what was going on behind the scenes and it wasn’t pretty.
I clenched my hand into a fist for a moment before unfurling my fingers and extending them toward Ricky. “Wyatt Carter,” I said, purposely leaving off any pleasantries because they would be a fat lie.
“Ricky Rouse. Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah,” was all I could muster up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught my mother’s disapproving look, but I was past caring about my manners. This guy had his hands on Callie, and that was unacceptable.
I folded my arms across my chest and stood as straight as I could. Make sure this clown knew I had the size advantage here. “How do you know Ricky?”
Callie frowned at me before giving Ricky a little smile which only made my blood boil. “We used to be in the same pack back in Charlotte. We were friends growing up.”
“Well, you might have been trying to be friends, but I was always trying to be your boyfriend. Wasn’t I your first kiss?”
My blood pressure spiked as I blacked out for a second. My hands were so tightly fisted I was losing feeling in them, and I was seconds away from removing the arm he still had wrapped around Callie. Worse, my whole body was vibrating with the need to shift.
“Well, I’m in her new pack and I was her last kiss, so…”
“Wyatt!” my mother whisper-yelled.