40. Oz
Oz
“Stay as long as you need to,” Bluebell says after she hangs up with Wilder. “But are you sure you don’t want to go talk to him now?”
I shrug, taking a sip of the hot chocolate she made for me after I showed up at her place freaking the absolute fuck out.
“I lost it, Bluebell. Saint laid all our dirty laundry out there, and the Sandovals had this awful look on their faces. Wilder was so furious he leaped over the table to probably throttle Saint, and I just couldn’t deal.
And now I’m embarrassed I left like that and probably fucked up his land deal.
I just…shit, girl, I need a second to figure out how to apologize. ”
“You don’t need to apologize.” She plops down next to me on the couch.
“A well-timed blow job might be in order,” Hadrian says as he enters the room with a tray full of snacks. “That’s a quote from Bridget Jones’ gay best friend, in case you haven’t seen that human movie?”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll do that,” I muse. “Just find Wilder, and instead of talking, drop to my knees and just give him a BJ instead. Sounds like a plan.”
“It works on me,” Hadrian says with a wink before he disappears toward their bedroom.
Bluebell turns, her cheeks slightly pink. “I mean, TMI, but yeah, it works when we disagree.”
I force a laugh. “You ever disagree with him?”
“Oh yeah.” She chuckles, adding more whipped cream to the top of my hot chocolate. “Mostly about my insane to-do list. But sometimes about other things, t—”
A gigantic creaking sound interrupts her, and the entire building shakes. Pictures fall off her walls, and Hadrian comes running back in. He flares his huge wings around us, shoving Bluebell between our bodies.
“Protect her!” he shouts as he looks around his wing for the threat.
That deep-seated need to protect and serve hits me like a gut punch, and I throw my wings around my friend.
Above us, the building creaks more, and kitchen gadgets fall off their island, clanging to the floor. Shouts ring from outside the window. Flaring my right wing tighter around Hadrian’s, I keep Bluebell smashed between us until the sounds stop.
Bluebell’s crushed to my chest. She glances up after a minute or two of silence. “Umm, Oz, I…can you let go? I literally can’t feel my boobs.”
Hadrian shifts backward, looking quickly around the room. I set Bluebell carefully on the sofa as he reshuffles his wings to secure them around her. “Oz, check the window,” he barks.
Walking to the back of Bluebell’s apartment, I glance out into the pumpkin and gourd maze.
The flea market’s all set up for the weekend, and the Auction House back porch is full of monsters who must have been having dinner.
Now, though, they’re all standing and looking over the railing into the garden just like I am.
Turning back to Hadrian and Bluebell, I shrug. “I don’t see anything; it all looks normal.”
“Let’s go see.” Bluebell darts off the couch and shoves Hadrian’s wing out of the way.
“Hold it right there!” he shouts as she runs for the door.
I trail them, knowing Bluebell’s an unstoppable force once she’s got her mind set on something. Which apparently, right now, is figuring out what that rumble was.
She rushes down into the alleyway and runs for the street. At Main, she slams to a halt, clapping a hand over her mouth. Hadrian’s by her side in a moment, looking around protectively, but by the time I reach them, they’re both staring upward.
I follow their gaze to find wildflowers the size of airplanes rising up above downtown, their blossoms dipping over the buildings like enormous guardians. They’re stunning in every shade of pink, purple, green, and blue.
“Holy shitballs,” Bluebell says. “Did the Jays do this somehow? I’m gonna call them.”
Hadrian shakes his head. “Your brothers wouldn’t take it upon themselves to do this, baby. Well, maybe Jace. Definitely not Jack or Jasper.”
“Too lazy,” I murmur, thinking of Bluebell’s older brothers.
Main Street is full of confused-looking monsters milling around, although most are headed toward the end of Main where the sheriff’s office is.
“Let’s go.” Bluebell waves at us to follow her.
Hadrian sighs, clapping both hands to his hips as he glances at me. “Never fails to amaze me how this girl will literally run toward a burning building.”
We follow Bluebell as she confidently strides up Main after the gathering crowd. Nobody’s running the other way screaming, so hopefully that’s a good sign.
The end of Main Street is unrecognizable. What used to be an empty space between the Dance Hall and High Moon Tattoo Parlor now hosts an entirely new building. Three empty spots sit ready for new businesses.
Perhaps a spa? Oh my gods, is this really happening?
I spin to my right to find the pixie twins standing there. Merit and Bryony smile at me. “Isn’t this just wonderful, Oz? The fence around the Keeper’s mansion is gone too.”
They can’t possibly know what havoc their gossiping wreaked on my evening, so I just smile back at the news.
Inside, I’m a turmoil of emotion, and my heart hurts. I should be doing this with Wilder, and I fucked up. I ran at the first sign of chaos, when I should have run toward him instead. I’ve got to fix that.
Looking at Hadrian, I smile. “I…gotta go. Catch you later, okay?”
He grins back at me. “Go get your man, Oz.”
But an hour later, Wilder is nowhere to be found.
I’ve checked my apartment and his cottage.
Ginger’s been trailing me like a shadow, and even she can’t seem to find him.
I went to the Keeper’s mansion, but it was vacant, as if we never opened the portal to Sipan’s lair.
Without my comm watch, I don’t have a way to call him, either.
I check everywhere I can think of, even going back to Bluebell’s and out to Lemon and Furyon’s place. Wilder’s nowhere to be found.
He’s just…gone.
* * *
After a night of fitful sleep in my empty nest, I dragged myself out of bed for coffee at BrewHaha. I considered bringing my notebook, but my heart isn’t into planning right now. I fucked up Wilder’s deal and thus my twenty grand, and most importantly, my love life.
Maybe Saint was right about me.
Or maybe I’m being too hard on myself.
Maybe I’m just overthinking everything because I’m running on very few hours of sleep.
Yawning, I stand by the pickup counter, waiting for my latte, filled with misery and wondering where Wild went.
Back home to Louisiana? What about Willa?
Surely she wouldn’t leave now when all this crazy stuff is happening.
Shock courses through me. It must be the key to the city. They must have found it, and that’s what prompted everything last night! I didn’t put two and two together, freaked out as I was about Wilder. I lift my wrist to call him, then remember I can’t because I lost my fucking watch.
Growling, I lash my tail side to side, frustrated at not being able to talk to him. When the pixie barista hands me my latte, I frown at seeing it in a to-go cup. I never order it that way because the cardboard makes it taste funny.
Handing it back, I flash her as much of a smile as I can muster. “Can I get this in a coffee mug, please?”
“Nope!” she pops brightly. “You’re gonna want to take it with you, Oz.”
“What?” I shake my head. “I really don’t; I just—”
She waggles her brows toward my usual table in the back. “You’re really gonna want to take it with you, Oz.”
Confused, I spin.
My table is covered in a rainbow whimsy of roses. They spill out of vases with single petals dripping in strings onto the floor. It’s like a veritable tablecloth of petals. On the edge of the table sits a folded sheet of paper.
“Go on,” the barista says. “Read it, honey.”
Hands shaking, I walk to the table and stare. He did this. It must be Wilder. I grab the note and set my coffee down. Heart in my throat, I flip it open to find his messy, scrawled writing.
Let me make last night up to you, sweetheart. I’ll be waiting for you at the end of Main Street. I love you, Oz, so much.
Yours, Wild
Tears stream down my face as I read and reread the letter.
“Go on now,” the barista shouts from the pickup station. “Go get ‘im, Ozifer!”
A chorus of cheers rises up just as a loud clanging noise rings out through the space. I look up, trying to figure out where it’s coming from. What is that?
But everyone in the coffee shop rises like they’re unsurprised, grabbing their drinks and heading for the door. The barista hops over the counter and pushes me forward. “Git, Oz. You’re gonna be late.”
“What’s going on?”
She shakes her head and pushes me again. “Not for me to say, big guy. Go on.”
Confused, I take my cup and follow the crowd toward the door. Outside on Main Street, monsters exit every business, heading toward the Dance Hall.
Clutching Wild’s letter tightly, I join the throng. I scan the crowd for his familiar face, for that shocking pale hair and those arched brows, but seemingly the entirety of Pine Gulch is walking up the street right now. I don’t see him anywhere.
Off in the near distance, catty-corner to High Moon Tattoo parlor, a giant gazebo rises above the parlor building. It’s enormous, maybe a hundred feet across and tall enough for winged monsters to fly in.
And it’s covered in streamers made of strung-together hearts.
A crowd is already gathered inside, and the rest of us pile in.
I can’t see anything for the throng of monsters milling about in the brand-new structure.
It’s all-natural wood with white ceiling beams, shiny and new-looking.
Oh my gods, is this really happening? The heart streamers cover nearly every inch of the ceiling, dripping like stalactites down over the crowd.
“Take your seats, everyone!” a voice rings out over the group, slightly breaking through the noise.
I find the nearest seat, still looking around for Wild. Surely he must be here. It seems all of Pine Gulch is here.
As monsters begin to take their seats, I finally see him. He’s up at the front of the gazebo on a small stage, standing with Artur and Emmer Sandoval, and, oh thank gods, Willa’s there too.
I’m about to stand and shout for him when he looks out over the crowd.
When his beautiful green eyes meet mine, he smiles, dimples popping.
Around us, the crowd takes their seats, but I’m lost. Lost in that green gaze.
Lost in that secretive smile. It might as well just be the two of us beneath this gazebo.
Someone hands Wild a microphone, and he clears his throat into it, quieting the townsfolk. Willa scans and smiles when she sees me.
Wild steps forward, slipping his left hand into his pocket.
“Friends, neighbors, I called you here today because I’m a new Gulcher, and I have an admission I want to make right here, right now, in front of the entire haven I’ve come to love.
” His eyes find mine. “I came to Pine Gulch to buy the Sandoval ranch, but I got so much more than that, because I fell in love here too.”
He walks off the stage and past the first few rows, down the long aisleway that runs up the middle, his eyes never leaving mine.
“Oz, we mighta had an unconventional start. Nothing’s been typical for us, but that just makes it all the more special that I found you here in this beautiful, wild place.
I’m sorry for last night, and I wanted you to know—in front of the collective haven—that I’m deeply in love with you, and I will do whatever it takes to have you by my side. ”
He halts at the end of my row, lifting a hand toward me. “If you’ll have me?”
Wild couldn’t look more vulnerable than he does right now with that hopeful expression and outstretched hand. He told me once that he wasn’t good at expressing his feelings. But this? This is over the top.
“I’d be glad to have you,” I say with a big smile. “For now and always, Wild, and I’m sorry too.”
Might as well go big or go home, now that we’re doing this in front of the entire haven.
He breaks into a huge smile as I scoot down the row, bypassing friends and neighbors until I get to him.
When Wild pulls me into his arms, dropping the microphone and bending me back to take my mouth with practiced, ferocious intensity, the gazebo breaks into a ruckus of screeches, roars, and victorious shrieking.
The structure herself creaks and claps and groans until it's so loud, I have to resist the urge to cover my ears. But my mouth is on Wild’s, and he’s as warm and commanding and soothing as ever.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper when we part enough for me to speak.
“Don’t be.” He brushes a thumb over my lips.
“Alright, everyone,” Emmer Sandoval calls out from the stage. “Settle down because that show ain’t all we called you here for, although we do adore a good love story, ain’t that right?” He turns to look at his father, who walks slowly forward and takes a microphone from Emmer’s beefy hand.
“The Sandoval family has a long legacy in Pine Gulch; most of y’all know that.
And while I’m thrilled to be passing on the ranch legacy to Wilder Lane and his mate, Oz, I’m also thrilled to announce that Pine Gulch has a new Keeper!
” He turns to Willa with a grin. “Miss Willa Lane, welcome to the haven that’s been waiting for you for a very, very long time. ”