Chapter 10
“What does it feel like?” Carol squatted on the kitchen floor, eye level with Barney.
She studied his muzzle and the teeth that descended from it.
His ears, covered in scruffy fur, were aimed forward to listen, and his eyes were intent.
She’d never thought all that much about what it would actually feel like to be in the body of a dog. Or a wolf.
“Oh, it’s not like you can tell me, anyway. I don’t think even Rick or Pierce could really explain it to me any more than I could tell you what it feels like to be human.” She ruffled Barney between the ears and straightened up. When he gave her an expectant look, she handed him a treat.
Since it was early and the bakery wasn’t busy, she started making another batch of the breath-freshening treats.
Barney watched her with interest until he saw—or smelled—the ingredients she pulled out.
“I know they’re not your favorite, but everyone else seems to be enjoying them.
I’ll be putting them in the regular rotation, so you’ll just have to deal with them. ”
The dog sat down and let out an annoyed huff, but he continued to watch her.
Carol thought about calling Stacey. She wanted to let her know how things had gone with Rick the previous night.
The chance to ask him about Lorelei had cropped up quickly, and Carol had taken advantage of it.
She was relieved to know that he wasn’t interested in her that way.
“Who’d have thought I could get that jealous? ” she asked Barney.
He didn’t answer, but she still felt like he was listening anyway.
“Of course, he gave me a lot more to think about, even if I don’t have to worry about that,” Carol continued as she cracked an egg. “A wolf. Me. Do you think that’s believable?”
It was impossible to imagine. She’d known about shifters for such a long time, and it hadn’t really bothered her that she and Rick were technically different species.
They were close enough, and they had all the right parts, so what did it matter?
But to actually become a wolf? That was the stuff of movies, the sort of thing people could only fantasize about.
Rick had shown her just what kind of man he was by telling her ahead of time, but the information had only complicated her feelings about him.
“Vivian and Elijah would get a kick out of it,” she concluded as she continued to ponder the possibility. “Stacey…well, I’m not sure. She’d probably be happy as long as I’m happy.”
Thinking about her daughter brought her back to their most recent conversation.
Stacey had been concerned that Lorelei was taking advantage of her.
Rick hadn’t put it in the same terms, but he’d definitely expressed some uncertainty about the newcomer.
Was it possible that everyone around her was seeing something she wasn’t?
The girl wasn’t outside busking at the moment, so maybe this was a good time to talk to her.
She hadn’t turned the oven on yet, so it was easy enough to set her recipe aside for the moment. “What do you say, Barney? Do you want to come upstairs and see Lorelei with me?”
The dog got to his feet, but only to go lay in his bed in the corner.
“All right, then. I guess I have to respect that.” Carol went out the back door and up the stairs that led to the little apartment.
She rehearsed what she might say to her, thinking about paying a bit of rent or finding a steady job.
Lots of people moonlighted while they held regular jobs.
‘Side hustles’ they called them these days.
Whatever. It was the money that came in that counted.
She knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
“Lorelei?” Carol knocked again, and as she did, the door slid open an inch. Alarmed, Carol pushed it further back until she could stick her head inside. “Lorelei, are you here?”
When no response came, she dared to step inside.
She couldn’t remember all the rules about landlords coming over, but then again, she wasn’t really a landlord.
Checking the inside of the door, she saw it’d been locked.
The latch simply hadn’t been pushed firmly shut, so the lock hadn’t made any difference.
She also noticed that the place was a mess.
The small bed on the back wall was rumpled, the sheets tossed aside and draped over the edge.
A few bits of clothing dotted the floor.
No dishes overflowed from the sink, and the trash can held only a few small bits and wrappers, so at least the place wasn’t filthy.
Still, Carol wondered how someone who had so few possessions to her name could manage to scatter them about like this.
Nearly tripping over an article of clothing, Carol scooped it off the floor to toss it into the hamper.
The shirt was far too big for Lorelei’s slim frame, and she recognized the dark blue fabric.
Flipping it around, she saw the name patch with ‘Nick’ in red cursive.
This belonged to that man from the gas station, the one who’d been so enamored with Lorelei that he’d purchased treats for a dog he didn’t even own.
Well, that wasn’t any of Carol’s business. She tossed the shirt aside, figuring it didn’t make much difference where it landed, and peeked into the bathroom.
A man’s wedding ring sat on the edge of the sink, the tiny diamonds embedded in the band winking at her in the light from the small window. Who would be careless enough to leave that behind? Someone must’ve been a total idiot.
As she went to leave, Carol spotted a set of keys hanging on a nail near the door.
She didn’t pay them any attention at first, but then she jerked her head back to look again.
Lorelei couldn’t have that massive glob of keys on that ring.
The only thing she had a key to, as far as Carol knew, was the apartment itself.
Carol tipped her head to read the fob. Sumner Heating and Air Conditioning.
These definitely weren’t Lorelei’s keys, so whose were they?
Did they belong to the same man who left his ring on the sink?
Either way, it looked like Lorelei was having fun with several men.
Carol headed down the stairs and back into the bakery.
She could certainly understand, especially for someone so young.
Granted, messing around with married men was a line that Carol had never wanted to cross herself, but she couldn’t help what anyone else did.
Fun or not, it was probably time for Lorelei to start getting her life in order.
She couldn’t even afford a roof over her own head, so why bother bringing anyone else into it?
“What’s the matter with me?” she asked Barney as she stepped into the kitchen. “I’ve always been such a free spirit. What anyone else did never bothered me, and I was usually one to push the envelope a bit myself when I felt like I could. Do you think I’m uptight?”
Barney had lifted his head to listen to her, but now he plopped his chin back down on the upholstery.
“Very helpful.” Carol tried to resume the recipe she’d started before she went upstairs, but what she’d found in that apartment simply refused to leave her mind.
Maybe it was because if Lorelei had the time to track down and dally with all these men, she also had the time to get a real job.
It didn’t have to be anything fancy or even full-time, but spending a few hours a week behind a cash register might do the girl some good.
She paused as she turned on the mixer. Carol had wanted to help Lorelei.
She wanted to give her a boost in the world.
She’d seen what a difference it could make for people.
Was she mistaken in letting Lorelei have a place to stay for free, or was she mistaken in thinking she needed a job?
There were so many sides to this problem.
Just then, as though Carol had summoned her, the girl appeared at the open back door. “Good morning!”
“Well, good morning. I was just thinking about you. Why don’t you come on in and have some coffee?” Carol gestured toward the pot.
“That sounds wonderful. Can I pour you a mug?” Lorelei took two mugs down from the rack before she’d even had an answer.
Now, Carol knew she’d been a bit hasty in her judgments of Lorelei. She was a good person overall, and maybe she just needed a bit of a nudge in the right direction. “Thank you. I think I need it. I can’t seem to get going this morning.”
“Oh, I know how that is!” Lorelei laughed as she set the full mugs on the counter and perched on a stool. “Of course, I’ve had some late nights while I’ve been trying to find better spots to play. Getting out among the nightlife has been working a bit, but some areas are tough.”
“Mm, yes. It’s not easy to get by when you’re never sure how much money will come in a given week.
” Carol whisked her fingers through the air to encompass the entirety of The Biscuit Box.
“It’s the same with this place, really. If I only sell one dog treat, that’s all the money I get.
I don’t think I ever would’ve been able to do this if I hadn’t been set up well to begin with. ”
“What do you mean?” Lorelei absently stirred creamer into her coffee.
“I’ve worked steady jobs in one form or another for pretty much my adult life. It’s only because of how things worked out with this move to Truro that I’d been able to open the bakery. I would’ve gone under in no time if I had a mortgage or kids.” Was Lorelei quick enough to get the hint?
“And even with never knowing how much you’ll make here, you’ve been so kind to me,” Lorelei gushed. She pushed her blonde hair back, making her big blue eyes stand out even more than usual. “I just can’t even begin to thank you. Things have been so hard, and most folks just turn their heads.”
Hm. It was time to try a different tactic. “What is it that’s made things so hard? If you don’t mind my asking.”
The light left Lorelei’s eyes as she looked down into her mug. “The love of my life left me, Carol. He was the only man I ever thought could really be the one for me. He was a sailor, and I suppose that should’ve told me something. They’re never very stable or committed.”
“A Navy man, huh?” Carol leaned an elbow on the counter. “There’s something about a man in uniform, that’s for sure. But a bit of starch and a few medals can make anyone look good. If he left you, maybe he wasn’t so great after all.”
“He passed me over for someone else,” she replied bitterly. “Everything else fell apart after that, and I’ve just never really recovered. Plus, it’s not always easy being single, you know?”
“I do,” Carol agreed. She’d been single for quite some time now.
Of course, she had Stacey and her grandkids.
During that time, men were more of a hobby than a need.
“You don’t always need a man around to keep you afloat, you know.
You’ve got to rely on yourself, and then you can never be let down. ”
“That’s a nice thought, but I’m not sure it’s how I really feel.” Lorelei’s soft pink lips were a hard line. “I don’t see why everyone else in the world should have such perfect relationships.”
“Not all of them are that way,” Carol remarked.
“Which makes it all the worse.” Those blue eyes snapped up to hold Carol’s. “If all these people have a chance of being happy, then why do they spend their lives with someone who makes them miserable?”
Carol thought about the wedding band, which sat right above their heads on Lorelei’s bathroom sink.
Obviously, the man who owned it was unhappy enough in his marriage to stray elsewhere.
Had he told sweet, young Lorelei some narrative about how his wife didn’t love him or treat him with respect, painting himself as an innocent victim so she’d feel sorry for him?
Even if that was the truth, it didn’t make it right for him to stray.
What about Nick? And what about whoever owned those keys with the Sumner Heating and Air fob on them? Who had seduced who?
But she couldn’t ask Lorelei about any of that without revealing she’d invaded her tenant’s privacy. “You can’t control what anyone else does. You can only worry about yourself. It seems that a woman as young and beautiful as you wouldn’t have any trouble finding someone.”
Lorelei had an elbow resting on the counter, and she looked off into the distance at nothing, deep in her thoughts. She rolled her shoulder noncommittally. “That’s just lust, not love.”
“Sometimes one can turn into the other,” Carol pointed out. “In fact, I think that happens a lot.”
Lorelei straightened. “Maybe, but is that something you’d settle for? Hope that it might be more? Or would you want the love that you deserve?”
The girl was shrewd. Carol had to give her credit for that. “I’m of an age where I’m very careful about who I bring in close.”
“Exactly,” Lorelei said with a nod. She polished off her coffee and stood. “I’d better get upstairs and get some rest, and then I’ve got some new songs to work on.”
“All right.” Carol watched her go, and once she was alone, she made no move to get up and resume her work.
She hadn’t succeeded in swaying Lorelei toward getting a job with a steady income, so apparently, hinting at it wasn’t going to work.
Carol also had to wonder what might’ve happened in that girl’s past to make love, lust, and everything in between so mixed up.
Lorelei obviously wanted a partner, yet she was constantly flirting with customers and even bringing a few of them upstairs with her.
She had some sort of hole she was trying to fill, but Carol knew that a few flings would never do the job.
“Isn’t that right, Barney?” She stood to rinse out the mugs, but Barney wasn’t in his bed. “Barney? Barnacle? Where did you go?”
He was nowhere to be found in the kitchen, and Carol’s heart rate immediately skyrocketed. Had he slipped out at some point? She’d never forgive herself if something happened to him!
But when she stepped into the front of the shop, she found him snoring on one of the new dog beds she’d set up in the corner. He must’ve snuck out of the kitchen while Carol and Lorelei were talking. Instead of bothering him for his opinion, she let him sleep.
“What would I settle for?” she repeated softly as she again started working on these dog biscuits. She wasn’t settling when it came to Rick, and there was more than lust between them. That much she knew for certain.
But was it worth the price? Becoming a wolf and giving up ordinary human life as she knew it was a hard pill to swallow.
Would that be authentic to who she felt she was as a person?
It wasn’t like she was just moving to a different city to be with a man.
This would literally change her life, and there would be no changing it back. That was one hell of a commitment.