Chapter Two #2
But he couldn’t deny that there was something special about Caleb. Austin would’ve helped anyone having a panic attack, but it had been important because of who Caleb was—to West, to Jonathan, and maybe, to Austin himself.
* * * *
CALEB’S MIND RACED. Austin had asked Margaret all the right questions. He’d been gentle and had seemed genuinely concerned for her.
But he’d also been looking for specific information while being careful not to reveal what he suspected to her.
Caleb was sure of that. But could Caleb trust him?
He didn’t think that Austin was involved in the fires—that would be ridiculous—but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.
Caleb didn’t want him to be, and part of him believed that West and Jonathan were right to trust Austin, but another part was screaming at him to be careful.
“Well, thank you anyway,” Caleb said.
They looked at each other for a moment, and Caleb felt that same pull he’d felt when Austin had helped him breathe earlier. There was something about this man that made Caleb want to trust him, which was exactly why Caleb was wary. It would be too easy.
“I should get going,” he said, fighting the urge to ask Austin what he really thought about the fires and what he was planning to do with the information he’d gathered.
“Before you go, I was thinking that maybe we could work together?”
Austin sounded hopeful, and Caleb wanted to say yes. It would make sense. Austin was a firefighter and knew more about fires than Caleb could ever research. He might get inside information Caleb would never get access to. If he was serious about helping, he might be the key to finding the arsonist.
But Caleb didn’t trust him, not yet, and maybe not ever. He’d need to get to know him better first, and this didn’t feel like the right setting to do that.
“We could get coffee,” Austin continued. “And maybe you could give me your number.”
Caleb wanted to say yes, but instead, he shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Austin frowned. “Why not? We can swap info and maybe find the person behind this together.”
“I think it’s better if we work on this alone.”
Austin was silent for a moment. Caleb had to resist the urge to run to his car.
“You don’t trust me,” Austin finally said.
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“Sure it does.”
“It’s just...you’re a dragon shifter, and I’ve only ever had bad experiences with dragon shifters.”
“Even West?”
“Well, not him, but he’s different.”
“Have you thought that maybe I’m different, too?”
Shit. Caleb didn’t want to offend Austin. They were in each other’s lives to stay as long as Jonathan and West were together, and Caleb suspected they’d be together a long time. He didn’t want things to be awkward or weird. “Austin—” he started.
Austin shook his head. “It’s fine. I guess you’ll learn to trust me eventually. In the meantime, be careful. We don’t know how the person behind this will react if he finds out you’re investigating this, but I can’t imagine it’ll be good.”
Austin turned, not giving Caleb the opportunity to answer. It wasn’t like Caleb had much to say, anyway.
As he walked to his car, Caleb’s mind churned with questions and possibilities. He couldn’t focus on Austin and his feelings. His community and Margaret needed him to focus on the fires and find out who the culprit was.
But for some reason, his thoughts never strayed far from Austin and the sad expression on his face when he’d realized that Caleb didn’t trust him.
* * * *
AUSTIN WALKED AWAY from Caleb feeling disappointed. He understood that Caleb’s mistrust didn’t have anything to do with him, but it still hurt. He hadn’t done anything to cause Caleb not to trust him. In fact, he felt that considering everything Caleb knew of him, he should trust him.
He didn’t.
Austin didn’t hold that against him. He hadn’t lied when he’d told Caleb that eventually, he’d learn to trust him.
In the meantime, Austin would have to deal with feeling disappointed and maybe keeping his distance from Caleb.
He didn’t want to make things awkward for anyone, least of all West and Jonathan.
He wasn’t sure they would understand if Austin stayed away from Caleb, and he doubted that Caleb wanted to explain to them what was going on.
Austin wasn’t going to force him to. In fact, he wasn’t going to do anything but give Caleb space.
If that was what Caleb needed, it was what he’d get from Austin.
Austin didn’t look back as he got to his car and climbed in. It wasn’t easy because his instinct was to check in on Caleb, but instead, he turned on the engine and drove out of the parking lot.
He wasn’t sure he’d gotten anything out of his evening.
Margaret had told him about the man she’d seen around the bookstore, but considering her description, Austin doubted he’d be able to do much with it.
The man sounded as generic as they came.
Austin couldn’t use that, and he wouldn’t be able to use any information Caleb might have since they weren’t working together.
Caleb had said that he knew the fires weren’t a coincidence and that he’d been looking into them.
What had he found? Did he have any clues or suspects?
Austin didn’t know, and he doubted that he was about to find out.
The bitter taste of disappointment stayed in Austin’s mouth as he drove to his apartment.
He hadn’t made plans for tonight, so he supposed he’d grab dinner and spend a few hours on his couch, watching TV.
Maybe he’d watch the news about the fire.
He was sure they were already talking about it.
He wondered if the human journalists had noticed anything strange going on.
The only reason Caleb had was that all the businesses that had burned down recently belonged to shifters, but he knew that because he was part of the community.
There was no way for any human to figure that out unless they knew about shifters, and not many of them did.
As far as they knew, there wasn’t a connection between the businesses, but someone was bound to notice something was wrong if the fires continued.
Austin hoped this had been the last one. He didn’t want anyone else to lose their livelihood, and the fact that no one had been killed yet was a miracle. That miracle wasn’t going to last forever.
Austin successfully distracted himself by thinking about the fires until he got home, but that was when he lost it. Once he was on the couch with the TV on and food in his lap, his thoughts went straight back to Caleb.
The fact that Caleb didn’t trust Austin wasn’t fair, but that didn’t matter.
What did matter was that Austin wanted Caleb to trust him, and he wasn’t sure how to make that happen.
It probably would if he waited and gave Caleb space, but did he have time to do that?
If they were going to work together to find out who was behind the fires, they needed to start as soon as possible, and Austin had been convinced that Caleb would understand that.
He was a journalist. Surely he had to see that working with Austin was the best way to get to the heart of this.
Austin called West before he could think better of it. The woman on the screen was talking about puppies, which wasn’t what Austin was waiting for.
“Austin?” West asked when he answered.
Austin realized too late that West was probably busy with Jonathan. He always was these days, and Austin didn’t blame him. He’d be busy, too, if he had an adorable boyfriend.
An image of Caleb flashed in his mind. Yes, Caleb would be an adorable boyfriend, but he wasn’t Austin’s, and apparently, he never would be.
“Caleb doesn’t like me,” Austin declared.
There was a moment of silence from the other side of the phone, then West chuckled. “And you don’t like that, do you?”
“I just don’t understand why he doesn’t like me. I didn’t do anything to him or to anyone, really. I’ve never hurt people. Hell, I save people on a regular basis.”
The humor was gone from West’s voice when he answered. “I doubt that whatever reason Caleb has to dislike you actually has anything to do with you.”
Austin sighed. “He doesn’t trust dragon shifters in general. It’s not fair, West. I’m not Sal. I was never like him.”
“Caleb knows that.”
“Then why doesn’t he trust me?”
“Because he doesn’t know you.”
“He won’t ever know me if he doesn’t let me close.”
“Okay, what’s actually happening here? I get that you’re disappointed, but this feels like a lot even for you.”
West wasn’t wrong. Normally, Austin would be a lot more laid-back.
He’d give Caleb space since that was what he wanted, and he’d let things happen organically.
There were a few reasons for his sense of urgency.
For one, he believed they’d be more efficient if they teamed up.
Caleb was way smarter than Austin, so he might look at the information Austin had because he was a firefighter and see something Austin hadn’t.
Austin might also be able to look at some of the information Caleb had gathered and find patterns that Caleb couldn’t because he wasn’t a firefighter, but there was no way to know for sure because Caleb had refused to work with Austin.
Then, there was the little problem of Austin having a crush on Caleb.
He wanted to impress Caleb because Caleb was Jonathan’s best friend and he was important, but also because he was cute. Caleb was intense in the best of ways, and Austin wanted to poke at him and see what happened. He wanted to find out what made Caleb tick and what made him lose his cool.
He wasn’t sure that telling all of this to his best friend was a good idea. Besides, it wasn’t like telling West would change anything. West was right when he’d said that the only thing that Austin could do was wait and give Caleb space.
“You know he wants to investigate the arsons,” Austin said instead of telling West that he had a stupid crush.