Chapter 17
Seventeen
Claire’s phone buzzed with a text as she was locking up the bar, just a few minutes after midnight on Friday, not quite two weeks after the wedding.
Her regulars knew she’d stay open until two in the morning if she was busy, but tonight had been unusually quiet for a Friday.
She waved good night to her last two servers and checked her phone as she walked to her car.
Ember: If you’re not free at this very moment, can we please schedule a phone chat? I miss you.
Yes, yes, yes. Claire didn’t bother to text a reply.
She called Ember, put her phone on Speaker mode and turned the volume down to the lowest bar.
As it began ringing, she winced; Speaker mode was too loud even at minimum volume.
But without it, Ember couldn’t hear her.
Claire got into her car and set the phone in her cup holder.
“Okay, listen, we can’t let so much time go by ever again, Claire. This month-or-more between catching up is stupid.”
Claire felt the smile take over her face. “One hundred percent agree.”
“And I know it’s my fault, and I’m sorry.”
Her eyes burned; she blinked a few times. No need to get emotional about this. “You have a sixteen-year-old and a sixteen-month-old.”
Ember gave a little huff. “Don’t excuse me, woman.”
“Fine, then. I’ve missed you too. And losing touch sucks. And I’m glad you texted, but do you really have time now?” Sure, Ember’s time zone was an hour earlier, but she was human and dealing with a baby’s sleep schedule. She’d be better off going to bed than chatting with Claire.
“I just got Kolson down for the night, and Aaron and Quinn won’t be home until morning.”
Wouldn’t be home…? Claire glanced up at the night sky through her windshield as she began the ten-minute drive home.
Of course. The moon was full tonight. For their scheduled phone dates, which could last a few hours, Ember usually handed baby Kolson off to Aaron and hopped in her car to drive a mile down the road, privacy from being overheard by wolves.
At the full moon, she didn’t need to—not while the entire pack roamed their paddock enclosure, four-legged and furry.
“So guess what,” Ember said, “I’m up to five different quiches now.
In this new one I put sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan, and I added a little pesto.
It’s so delicious. I told Aaron, next time we host Saturday cookout, my entire menu’s going to be quiche.
Oh, and a salad. Wouldn’t the wolves love that?
‘Sorry, guys, no carnivorous options today.’”
“Do it. April Fool’s Day is coming up, and it’s a Saturday this year.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Ember’s laughter filled the car. “Now I have to do this.”
“Fill me in after.”
“Definitely.”
“So how many different quiches are you going to try? Do you have a list?” A few years ago, determined to improve her cookie game, Ember had made at least ten varieties of cookies before she moved on to something new.
“No official list, but I’m not bored yet. I still have to try asparagus; it’s a classic. But don’t let me monopolize the whole call rambling about recipes. What’s new with you? Anything I should already know?”
Claire made the first turn into her neighborhood.
Her condo was set all the way at the back, which she loved.
Rather than facing another row of condos, her windows farthest from the street faced a line of trees and a fence with a park on the other side.
She neared home and tried to figure out how to explain everything Ember should already know. There was…kind of a lot.
“Claire?”
“I’m dating someone.”
“Wha-at? Since when?”
“Since three weeks ago. Well, three weeks ago yesterday.”
“And you let me go on about pesto quiche?!”
“Just trying to be polite.” Claire laughed as Ember sputtered. She missed this woman so much when they both got too busy. “It’s a pretty long story for only three weeks. And some of it’s kind of…heavy. Too much for text.”
Ember was silent for only a moment, now on a mission for every last detail. “Okay, start at the very beginning. Name? Who is the man who thinks he’s worthy of you, so I can get off the phone in an hour and conduct my own background check?”
This would be good practice for talking to the rest of her friends. Or maybe not, since Ember was the only one she could tell the whole truth. “It’s Tai, Ember.”
Her friend went as silent as humans ever did, faint breathing still audible over the line. Claire pulled into her carport, parked, and sat in the monochrome of night when her headlights turned off.
At last Ember said, “You’re dating Tai Kristiansen.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s about freaking time.”
…What?
“Wow. Finally. Finally, finally, you and Tai—”
“Ember, what are you talking about? You know what happened. You let me vent the whole thing, every last detail.”
“It always felt off to me.”
“That’s not what you said three years ago. And if you thought I was misreading something, you would’ve challenged me on it back then.” Ember took assertiveness to boss levels, had since they were in grade school.
“It wasn’t that I doubted you, Claire. I was super mad at him. He went back on his word, and then not explaining why? It was rude. It wasn’t fair.”
Claire tilted her head back to gaze at the full moon through her windshield. “Okay, then…I don’t get it.”
“Well, it just seemed weird the way he shut down. If he was really a liar, he would’ve lied to you.
Given you a story, something to get himself off the hook, you know?
And instead he was just like, ‘I’m out.’ So I figured he had a legit reason he was too stubborn to tell you about, but eventually he’d come to his senses, and y’all would figure yourselves out.
Of course, I didn’t expect you to take three years. ”
Unbelievable. Claire got out of the car, shoving her phone into the pocket of her black jeans and throwing her purse strap over her shoulder. She might have shut the door with more force than necessary.
“I hope that doesn’t make you mad,” Ember said. “If I was wrong to back off, I’m sorry.”
“It’s just…out of character for you.”
“It’s not like I didn’t try, but by that point all you’d say was that he wasn’t worth talking about. I figured it was something you and Tai had to work out.”
Claire let herself into her condo and dropped her purse at the door.
She wasn’t angry with Ember. She didn’t remember specific conversations, but she could imagine herself shutting Ember down.
Maybe Ember had been right three years ago.
Maybe pushing harder would have only made Claire shut down harder.
Or maybe she could have had the last three years with Tai.
Either way, Ember wasn’t responsible for the lost time.
Tai was responsible for his part, withholding the truth and walking away, but Claire could forgive him for that.
He’d been terrified, ashamed. She had to accept that most of the responsibility was on her.
She had believed the worst of Tai. She had disbelieved Ryker when he tried, without breaking a confidence, to help mend the rift.
“Claire? Are you really mad?”
“No.” Claire set her phone on the coffee table, sprawled on her couch, and gazed up at the ceiling. “Ultimately it’s on me, Em. We’re okay, I promise.”
Ember gave a little sigh. She could be anxious if strain entered their friendship even temporarily, but her anxiety came from an insecure childhood. These days she was so much better, more settled and sure of herself.
“I’m curious though,” Claire said. “You’ve met him one time. What made you think we’d be good together in the first place?”
From the far distance on Ember’s side of the call, a chorus of howling began. A crackle of energy snapped down Claire’s spine, readiness to fight, but Ember gave a satisfied sigh.
“There go the wolves,” she said with a smile.
Claire would never understand her friend’s comfort with the other apex class, but if she were human, maybe she wouldn’t bristle so much at the sound of them, the smell of them, the sight of them.
Or maybe if she lived in Harmony Ridge, Tennessee with a wolf pack down the road, she’d get used to the eerie howling on full moon nights, used to meeting a random wolf in the grocery store.
Leslie didn’t mind them, and she’d verbally slay anyone who spoke anti-wolf bigotry in her presence.
“Anyway,” Ember said, “I just know when I saw y’all together, it was clear to me. Like…yes. Here’s Claire’s match. I mean, plus you were into him. That was obvious too.”
“Obvious?” Gosh, how transparent was she to people who knew her?
“To me, yeah, but I don’t think Tai could tell. But let’s be real, the man is unnaturally gorgeous. I can say that, and I’m the happy mate of a very hot wolf.”
Claire laughed even as Ember’s words set a pleasant chill across her shoulders. A soft hum escaped her as she pictured… “His eyes.”
“Uh-huh,” Ember said, a warm tease in her voice. “Go on.”
“Tai is…just beautiful. His grace and his speed, the way he moves. The way his mouth quirks up on one side before a full smile. His hands, his fingers, there’s strength and precision in everything about him, everything he does.
Gosh, I love to watch his hands on a piano.
And he plays violin too, I found out. And guitar. ”
“Nice.”
“His eyes are like…I never want to stop looking into them. That blank thing he does is just a defense mechanism; when his guard is down, his whole heart shows up in his eyes. He has so much heart, Em. I had no idea back then. His heart is so deep and full of so much…” Claire’s voice caught.
“Is this where it gets weighty?” Ember said quietly.
“Do you know what a bloodfiend is?”
“Um…no? Doesn’t sound familiar.”
Ember would have no reason to know. Vampires didn’t spread the knowledge to humans, not even best friends, not without reason; and other than Claire, Ember’s life was planted firmly in the world of the wolf pack.